1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, September 9, 2019 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Commissioners' comments. 5 4 1.1 Public Hearing on the proposed Kerr County 11 and Lateral Roads 2019 tax rate. 5 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 6 action to appoint Tim Huchton to the Emergency Services District #1 (ESD #1) 7 Board, and swear him in. 8 1.4 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 12 action to appoint members to the Capital 9 Improvements Committee. 10 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action to purchase 16 chairs, one rolling 11 metal file case case from Quill.Com. 12 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action to nominate up to five (5)persons 13 to the Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for 2020-2021. 14 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 15 action to approve the Kerr 9-1-1 Fiscal Year 2020 Budget. Mark Del Toro. 16 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 26 17 action to approve the fee schedule for the County Clerk's Office as presented, 18 to be effective September 16, 2019. 19 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 27 action to approve the fee schedule for 20 the Constables' and Sheriff's Office, to be effective immediately. 21 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 28 22 action to accept an Order setting the salaries for the County Auditor and the 23 Assistant County Auditors pursuant to Texas Local Government Code Section 152.031. 24 Salaries effective October 1, 2019. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 30 action to accept the Order setting 4 salaries for the 198th District Court Reporter and the 216th District Court 5 Reporter. 6 1.12 Information and discussion regarding 33 Veterans Day. 7 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 42 8 action to approve the contract with Castle Lake Volunteer Fire Department, 9 and allow County Judge to sign same. 10 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 action to approve General Provisions 11 for FY 2019-2020 budget. 12 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 action to review accrued compensation 13 time. 14 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 81 action to set salaries, expenses and 15 other allowances for the Elected Officials as published on August 29, 2019 in the 16 Kerrville Daily Times. 17 1.17 Public hearing for revision of plat for 82 Elmwood Lots 1-5 and parts of 6-7, Volume 5, 18 Page 330. 19 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 83 action for the Court to approve a revision 20 of plat for Elmwood Lots 1-5 and parts of 6-7, Volume 5, Page 330. 21 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 84 22 action regarding the approval and use of the Kerr County Courthouse parking lot for 23 the South Texas Blood Drive on October 24, 2019. 24 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 action on request from appointed and 4 elected officials to appoint clerks and assistants for their offices pursuant to 5 Local Government Code Chapter 151. 6 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 86 action to accept donations for the month 7 of August 2019 as listed in the Kerr County Animal Services donation log. 8 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 87 9 action regarding policies and procedures related to the Kerr County Volunteer 10 Fire Departments. 11 2.1 Pay Bills. 129 12 2.2 Budget Amendments. 130 13 2.4 Accept Monthly Reports. 130 14 2.6 Court Orders. 131 15 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 131 16 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 136 action on salary and grade alignment for 17 staff in the Victim Services Department. 18 *** Adjournment. 136 19 *** Reporter's Certificate. 137 20 * * * * * * 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Kerr County Commissioners' 2 Court is now in session. It is Monday, September the 3 9th, 2019, 9 o'clock in the morning, and we'll come to 4 order. If you would stand for the prayer and the 5 pledge. 6 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. I know 8 everybody's got one of these. This is a reminder, we 9 have a policy to turn these off. And the policy is if 10 it goes off during the Court's -- while Court's in 11 session, the Sheriff will take it up and you can get it 12 back afterwards. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I won't. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you oughta sell 15 them. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. This is -- and 17 actually, we discussed this topic in Austin last week at 18 the Texas Association of County Convention about the 19 public's right to speak at public meetings. And I 20 didn't realize it, but you know some bodies, whether 21 they're counties or cities, don't allow the people to 22 talk. And this is our visitor's input part of the 23 agenda and this is your opportunity to come talk to us 24 about anything you want to talk about. If it's on the 25 agenda, we ask that you save your comments for when that 6 1 agenda item is called. But if there's anybody here that 2 would like to address the Commissioners' Court, this is 3 your opportunity and we honor your right to address us. 4 So please come forward. 5 Okay. Well, there being no one, now, it's 6 the Commissioners' opportunity to talk to you for a 7 minute. So how are things in Precinct 1? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Things are good in 9 Precinct 1. We have more fun in Precinct 1. For the 10 record. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Precinct 2? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Precinct 2 is dry, as 13 opposed to Precinct 1. They always get rain; we didn't. 14 We haven't gotten any. I want to -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: There's a double meaning, 16 right? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right, yeah, double 18 meaning. Right. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How dry I am. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just one minute to talk 21 about something that Shane has gotten done on playground 22 equipment. They busted their rear end doing that. The 23 way that playground equipment got in -- and I would 24 encourage everybody to go by and take a look at it. 25 Flat Rock Park in Center Point, there was a master plan 7 1 laid out by Tom Collins about five years ago. That was 2 Step 1. Step 2 was we sold a lot for a hundred thousand 3 dollars. That was not direct for this but it helped, 4 okay, to move in that direction. 5 Finally, we've gotten to the point where we 6 bought equipment, the two sets playground equipment, and 7 for like about $50,000.00, but they wanted about $15,000 8 to install it. Shane and his crew, and a couple of 9 volunteers did that. And it was really -- there was -- 10 it was a lot more complicated than any of us, I think, 11 realized. 12 But it was extremely good, so it's a real 13 asset for the community, and I just wanted to say, you 14 know, this whole group of people in the County made that 15 happen. So it's something that will last a long time 16 and benefit a lot of people. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Precinct 3. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're very dry. We're 19 not just dry, we're very dry. Hopefully we get some 20 rain this week but the forecast is improving. 21 Temperature's coming down a little bit and a chance of 22 rain going up. 23 As the Judge mentioned, I was in Austin last 24 week trying to get educated, or getting educated through 25 the conference. I need to follow up on what the Judge 8 1 has mentioned about some bodies don't let the public 2 speak. Some bodies also don't let people speak even on 3 specific agenda items. So it's pretty much only has 4 members of the court are the only ones who can talk, 5 which I really found poor. City Council or whatever the 6 body may be. Pretty interesting that some bodies 7 operate that way. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Pretty effective. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, pretty effective. 10 But, you know, we've always been very, I think, open and 11 wanting to hear from the public, you know, which I think 12 we should. And all bodies that are elected should. And 13 other than that, that's it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 4? 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Please pray for rain. 16 We gotta shot in the next few days it looks like, and 17 maybe we will get lucky. 18 Coming up we got -- I know Ingram Tom Moore 19 High School has their homecoming, bonfire and parade the 20 18th. The 21st, I believe, Saturday, the Ingram street 21 dance, so that's always a fun deal. This will be the 22 third annual, I think. And it really got -- increased 23 the size last year, and it's free, down there on the 24 loop in Ingram, so come on out for that. That's it. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, I guess I would 9 1 be remiss if I didn't want to say something about the 2 rain too. Now we're unanimous. We all -- we all want 3 rain. 4 The two things that I have to share is a lot 5 of y'all don't understand the process of the County 6 Auditor, but the County does not have to hire the County 7 Auditor. We pay for the salary, but the County Auditor 8 is actually hired by the District Judges to provide an 9 independent review of our finances to make sure that we 10 are good stewards of your money. We have been without 11 an Auditor since -- what was it, last January? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And we got -- we're almost 14 through our budget season. But our interim Auditor, 15 James Robles here, has done an outstanding job of 16 getting us through this process. But I'm pleased to 17 announce that starting October 1, we have a new County 18 Auditor that the District Judges have hired. Her name 19 is Tanya Shelton, and she will be starting on October 20 the 1st. So I think that's newsworthy for everybody to 21 know. I'm real excited about that. 22 And the other thing that I would share from 23 last week, the opening of the general session at the TAC 24 Conference that both Commissioner Letz and I went to, 25 had Evan Smith, who is the Editor for the Texas Tribune. 10 1 Now, I don't know much about the Texas 2 Tribune, you may know more about it than I do, but it 3 was a very provocative presentation. I don't know if 4 you were -- I turned to Judge Evans, who's the Bandera 5 County Judge, and after the presentation, and it was a 6 good presentation and they had a panel with Democrats 7 and Republicans there. He said he didn't know whether 8 to be frightened or not. 9 But one of the things that they're alerting 10 us to is that 2018 was a watershed election year in the 11 State of Texas. That Beto O'Rourke, even though he lost 12 by almost four percentage points to Senator Ted Cruz, 13 garnered more votes than any Democrat in the State of 14 Texas in history. And that raising tide floated a lot 15 of votes and, as you know, in several major metropolitan 16 areas, a slate of all Democrats were voted in. They're 17 expecting that 2020 will be a similar type election. 18 Very polarized election with very large turnouts. 19 And so what we're looking at is the down 20 ballot races are gradually turning blue in this state. 21 Regardless of your political persuasion, we're looking 22 at probably a -- another bellwether election year in the 23 face of government, both at the local, state, and 24 federal level may be changing. So keep your eyes open. 25 I was caught kind of flat footed. I didn't realize it 11 1 was that important. But apparently it is. 2 So with that, I think we're ready to go 3 ahead and start our agenda. First item on the agenda is 4 Item 1.1, and this is a public hearing on the proposed 5 Kerr County and lateral roads 2019 tax rate. And this 6 is a public meeting. I'll convene the meeting. It's a 7 public meeting has now come to order. Is there anyone 8 who would like to speak on the tax rate for Kerr County 9 and the lateral roads 2019 tax rate? 10 There being no one, then I will adjourn the 11 meeting. 12 Item 1.2 on the agenda has been dropped. 13 We'll go to Item 1.3 consider, discuss and 14 take appropriate action to appoint Tim Huchton to the 15 Emergency Services District No. 1. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tim, you want to step 17 forward, please? Tim is willing to serve on the ESD 18 Board for ESD No. 1, which is Ingram. And I move that 19 we appoint him to this position, and then we'll have the 20 Judge swear him in. Or swear him in first, and then 21 move to appoint. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Why don't you step 23 around here. 24 (Tim Huchton was sworn in by Judge Kelly.) 25 JUDGE KELLY: Congratulations. Get you to 12 1 sign these right here and here. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And all the lawyers are 3 happy now. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And I'm going to sign 5 these. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Congratulations. 7 MR. HUCHTON: Thank you, gentlemen. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: You gotta vote. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Moved by Commissioner Moser, 10 seconded by Commissioner Letz -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No; Harris. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: That was Harris. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Harris, seconded 14 by Commissioner Letz to approve the appointment of Paul 15 Huchton as the -- Tim Huchton as the Commissioner for 16 the Emergency Services District No. 1. Those in favor 17 raise your hand. Unanimous. Thank you. 18 MR. HUCHTON: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, 1.4 on the agenda is to 21 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 22 appoint the members of the Capital Improvement Planning 23 Committee. 24 We talked about this a couple months ago 25 before we got into the throws of our budget. We do have 13 1 several capital improvement projects that we've cussed 2 and discussed and we need some citizen guidance and 3 input as we go forward and try to come up with the 4 priorities of capital improvements that we need for the 5 County. And at that time we agreed to appoint a 6 committee with each one of the Commissioners appointing 7 someone, and myself, and then Commissioner Letz and I 8 would co-chair the committee and Peter Lewis, the 9 architect, would be an ex officio member of the 10 committee to help us with those discussions. So -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I have one. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, I see where we're 14 going with this. I wasn't sure. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I'd like to 16 appoint for myself Dr. Robert Templeton to the 17 committee. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'd like to -- I had 20 seven people that are interested, which is a pretty good 21 indication of people's wanting to participate and serve 22 in the community. But I'd like to appoint Fred Henneke. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I do have probably at least a 24 half a dozen or more people contact me, and my appointee 25 is going to be Chris Hughes, who's the President of 14 1 ESD 1 out in West Kerr County. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I will go ahead 3 and make the appointment. As I thought about it back 4 and forth, I was thinking about it. I told the Judge I 5 may defer and appoint later, but I think I'll go ahead 6 and I'll appoint Pete Calderon. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And Commissioner Belew? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I've got a toss up. 9 There's somebody that's well qualified, but I haven't 10 been able to sit down and talk with, so I'd like to -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Defer? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- defer. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, we have four 14 appointees, and one deferral at this point. I'll go 15 ahead and move that we approve the four that have been 16 nominated, and we will take up the fifth nominee when 17 you're ready. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So I made a motion and 20 seconded by Commissioner Moser to approve the four 21 nominees that were presented today. Is there any other 22 discussion about that? Any discussion from the 23 audience? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Do you think there 25 might ought to be a county employee on that committee 15 1 that actually works in all the departments or has been 2 around all the departments and knows them? 3 JUDGE KELLY: We thought about that. 4 Really, we're going to be talking and working with the 5 county employees. And we thought it better that we have 6 kind of an arm's-length discussion between the employees 7 and the people that are trying to assess the needs for 8 us. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because my only concern 10 is, you know, you're talking two of y'all, and then 11 citizens. And that's not the ones that really work in 12 all these departments and sees them. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- as the 14 committee chooses, they can invite any other elected 15 officials or department heads to participate as needed. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or employees. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or employees, or 18 whatever. So I think there's a -- and I'm not trying 19 to -- in my mind trying to exclude anybody, but it's a 20 resource in trying to get input from the community; not 21 necessarily employees or elected officials or department 22 heads. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, those in favor raise 24 your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 25 Item 1.5 consider, discuss and take 16 1 appropriate action to purchase 16 chairs, one rolling 2 metal file case case from Quill.Com. Bob Reeves. 3 MR. REEVES: Good morning, gentlemen. If 4 you'll recall in our 2018-2019 budget, capital outlay 5 was appropriated in the total amount of $45,500. This 6 proposed amount was for replacing the countertops and 7 work stations in the County Tax Office. To date, a 8 total of $2,500 has been expended from this line item. 9 This was used to put the emergency exit door between 10 County Court at Law and my office. 11 There's an approximate balance of $43,000 in 12 the capital outlay item 10499570. After I took office 13 and reviewed the condition of the countertops and work 14 station, I feel there is not a need to expend this 15 money; however, my office is in need of new chairs for 16 the staff members. Most of them have seen -- the 17 chairs; not the staff, but most of the chairs have seen 18 their last leg. 19 Also, the Elections Department is in need of 20 a filing cabinet to move between voting. The total cost 21 of this furniture will be $2,649.83. I respectfully 22 request the Court to approve the purchase of the chairs 23 and one filing cabinet. And the items would be paid 24 from the available funds in line item 10499570. 25 Furthermore, I do not anticipate any more expenditures 17 1 from the capital outlay item in this budget year, and 2 that will be returned to the County. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Moved by Commissioner Letz, 8 seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the purchase 9 of the 16 chairs and filing cabinet. 10 MR. ROBLES: May I suggest we do a budget 11 adjustment to move that capital to office supplies? 12 These aren't going to be considered capital outlay 13 purchases. They're not going to be depreciated, they're 14 under the $5,000 value. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought there was 16 some other area we needed that. 17 MR. ROBLES: I'm sorry. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Wasn't there another 19 area where we were a little short recently that -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: I think he's talking about the 21 Tax Assessor's budget, and this is the capital -- 22 MR. REEVES: You're just requesting to move 23 the money from capital to office supplies because of the 24 cost of the -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So a budget adjustment? 18 1 MR. REEVES: A budget adjustment. However 2 y'all feel is best. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Are you good with that? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm good with that. But 5 we can't -- want to do it as a budget amendment? 6 MR. ROBLES: I can set it up next week. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Set it up next week and 8 transfer the money at that time. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Any other 10 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 11 five zero. 12 1.6 consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action to nominate up to five persons to the Kerr 14 Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for 2020 15 to 2021. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I nominate Judy 17 Webb Smith. Judy has extensive experience in property 18 financing. She's been involved with real estate 19 transactions and things in the County. And she is 20 always very active in the community with volunteer work. 21 So she's been nominated before, but I'll nominate her 22 again. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'd like to nominate 24 Bruce Cartwright. He also has extensive background and 25 be good for the -- 19 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll nominate Eric 2 Lantz. I would also just comment, while we're -- the 3 nominations are today. We will vote at a future 4 meeting. And we have enough votes to get one person on 5 that Appraisal Board. We will -- if we do that, we'll 6 have in excess of plus or minus 350 votes, somewhere in 7 that area, that we can then put towards another 8 candidate, and so -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ -- you know, that's just 11 kind of how it would work in the future. And so one of 12 these three would get that amount, and then the balance 13 would go to however else you want to divide it up. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some years we haven't 16 ever casted our own votes or gave them to someone that 17 needs votes. I think this year it's going to be 18 important to try to use all our votes and maybe work 19 with some of the other entities to try to come up 20 with -- you know, to get another person that we're 21 comfortable with. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Are there any other 23 nominations? So we're taking the nominations and we 24 will act on this at the next -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- or a future. We have 20 1 to do it by December 15th, I believe, so that will be 2 our first meeting in November. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we have these three 4 nominees, and I would encourage anybody, if you have any 5 other nominees that you would like to submit we can take 6 that up in a subsequent meeting. So these will be the 7 three nominees that we have before the Court presently. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: All good ones. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then moving on, let's 10 go to -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we need to do a 12 motion on that? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Let's -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we do because -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: To accept the nominees. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- because they have to 17 get -- they get on a ballot then. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I'll make a motion 20 that we appoint the three nominees to the ballot for the 21 Kerr County -- or Kerr Central Appraisal District Board 22 of Directors. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 25 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 21 1 nominate these three individuals to the -- for possible 2 election to the Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of 3 Directors. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 4 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 5 Mark. 1.7 consider, discuss and take 6 appropriate action to approve the Kerr 9-1-1 Fiscal Year 7 2020 Budget. Mark Del Toro. 8 MR. DEL TORO: Good morning, Judge. Good 9 morning, Commissioners. I'm here in accordance with 10 Texas Health and Safety Code 772, Subchapter D, to 11 present and request approval of our fiscal year 2020 12 budget. This budget was approved by my Board of 13 Managers on August 29th, and you should have a copy of 14 that in front of you. 15 Just a quick overview, my projected revenue 16 for 2020 is a 1.75 percent decrease over this year from 17 458,000 to $450,000. We're still seeing a slight 18 decline in water line service fees. Wireless service 19 fees have pretty much flattened out as well as the Voice 20 Over IP. 21 Our shining star in revenue has been our 22 interest income, which just has totally blown me out of 23 the water. We're at an amazing -- to this budget date 24 today we're about 600 percent over what I projected. 25 Security State Bank has done well with the funds that we 22 1 have kept with them. 2 Our payroll expenses and category 200, we're 3 seeing a three percent or 3.9 percent overall increase. 4 Three percent for salary staff, and we have not seen a 5 pay increase since 2017. And a slight increase with our 6 retirement account and with health insurance. We saw a 7 net zero for this year just projecting a modest increase 8 for next year on the health insurance. 9 Section 300 operations. We're about a 10 decrease of $3,000.00. We're able to save some money 11 here and there. I am looking -- we were looking at this 12 year for next generation 9-1-1 capabilities transferring 13 to an IP network instead of what we call a legacy 14 network, but I'm not convinced yet that that technology 15 is where it needs to be. We are, however, starting a 16 trial with an Easy Net service provider. We'll probably 17 get that done by the last quarter of this year. See how 18 things go, and if it's satisfactory we'll proceed. But 19 I'm not going to change this until I know for sure that 20 our calls will get through. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And does that have to 22 do with the same problems as cell phone drop outs and 23 that sort of stuff, Mark? 24 MR. DEL TORO: No, it's -- it isn't. The 25 cell phone drop out, a lot of that has to do with -- 23 1 lately has been fiber optic cable issues again. It's 2 the same old story. But it's not been in our area, it's 3 been farther away but it still affects how the calls are 4 routed. This new system is 100 percent IP. We have 5 call centers -- not call centers, call centers here. 6 Data centers are scattered around the country and around 7 the State so we'll always have backup, but we're always 8 going to have to rely on the local connection to make 9 sure everything works. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mark, I mean like 11 everyone up here who travels around the County a lot, I 12 travel around the County a lot. It seems to me cell 13 phone coverage is getting worse; not better. 14 MR. DEL TORO: No. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a reason for 16 that? I'm talk about 9-1-1 standpoint, it's a big 17 concern. 18 MR. DEL TORO: It is a concern. I mean, 19 when the citizens can't call in and report their 20 emergency it is a problem. I've been in contact with 21 our -- one of our biggest service providers, which is 22 AT&T, and every time I find that we have a deficiency in 23 communication, we're working on it -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's the bandwidth, 25 isn't it? 24 1 MR. DEL TORO: -- and there has bee no 2 answer. No good answer. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: As you get more and 4 more people on it and it crowds the important stuff out, 5 it's bandwidth. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I'm just thinking 7 about areas that used to have -- I used to have cell 8 phone coverage that you don't get it anymore. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. That's part of 10 it, yeah. 11 MR. DEL TORO: Our problem is population, 12 tower density, and the fact that they're not generating 13 revenue. So why would they put that expense out there 14 to build a tower. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, you hear it a 16 lot. They talk about it at the conference a lot, and 17 you've heard it on the federal news that there's a -- 18 supposedly a large push to get better service, internet 19 access, all that in rural areas. 20 MR. DEL TORO: There is. They're spending a 21 lot of money on putting fiber optic cable which will 22 allow that higher speed internet into the rural areas. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that still doesn't 24 address bandwidth. Because it's just higher speed; it's 25 not more of it. 25 1 MR. DEL TORO: True. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it doesn't address 3 cell phones. 4 MR. DEL TORO: Well, in a way it does. 5 Because that -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, but I meant the 7 internet doesn't. 8 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah. That's how the cell 9 phone calls are transmitted. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 MR. DEL TORO: They're transmitted through 12 the fiber optic network. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. Okay. 14 MR. LETZ: It just seems it -- you know, 15 seems like we're going in the wrong direction. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I can tell you this: 17 When you hear promises and ads about that stuff, it's 18 not taking into consideration the Hill Country. Don't 19 believe it. Seriously. If you're in level land, it's 20 great. But if you're in the Hill Country with our 21 topography, it -- it ain't the same thing. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, Mark, in regards 23 to your budget, okay? 24 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me just compliment 26 1 the 9-1-1 organization always comes in with superb 2 service. I've never, since I've been on this Court, 3 have never heard anybody complain about 9-1-1. I'm sure 4 there are complaints, but I've never heard one. So the 5 service has been superb. Your budget keeps going down 6 every year. This year your proposal is almost two 7 percent reduction over previous year and it's balanced. 8 So with that, I make a motion that we 9 approve the budget as submitted by for the 2020 9-1-1 10 budget. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 13 Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the 14 9-1-1 -- Kerr 9-1-1 fiscal year budget 2020. Any other 15 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 16 five zero. Thank you, Mark. 17 MR. DEL TORO: Thank you, gentlemen. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY. 1.8 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action to approve the fee schedule for the 22 County Clerk's Office as presented, to be effective 23 September 16th, 2019. Miss Dowdy. 24 MS. DOWDY: Hello. So the issue has been 25 the archive fee. And so after further consideration and 27 1 having received an opinion from the County Attorney's 2 Office and visited more with the Auditor's Office, I'd 3 like to keep the archive fee at $10. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And that was the last -- the 5 last piece that we needed to approve for your fee 6 schedule, right? 7 MS. DOWDY: Right. Yes. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 10 approve the fee schedule as presented. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 13 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 14 approve the fee schedule as originally presented. Keep 15 the archival fee the same. Any further discussion? 16 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 17 1.9 consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action to approve the fee schedule for the Constables' 19 and Sheriff's Office, to be effective immediately. 20 Ms. Dowdy. 21 MS. DOWDY: This is just standard procedure 22 basically. There was an update in the Statutes and Act 23 that if the Commissioners' Court does not set fees under 24 this section, the fees for the services by the officers 25 of the Sheriff and Constables are those fees provided by 28 1 law and in effect for the proceeding fiscal year because 2 it needs to say on August 31st, 1981. And the Act took 3 effect September 1st, 2019. I have sent out an e-mail 4 to all the Constables and the Sheriff. All have replied 5 that they see no need for any changes so now it's up to 6 y'all. If y'all see any changes to make that 7 consideration. Maybe the Sheriff might have more. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think our fees are 9 all adequate at this time for what we're charging and I 10 think it just needs to be approved as is. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 12 approve the fee schedule for the Constables' and 13 Sheriff's Office as presented. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moved by Commissioner 16 Letz, second by Commissioner Moser to approve the 17 Constables' and Sheriff's Office fee schedule as 18 presented. Any further discussion? Those in favor 19 raise your hand. Unanimous. Five zero. 20 MS. DOWDY: Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Dowdy. 22 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action to accept an Order setting the 24 salaries for the County Auditor and the Assistant County 25 Auditor pursuant to the Texas Local Government Code. 29 1 Ms. Lantz. 2 MRS. LANTZ: Good morning, Judge, 3 Commissioners. This is under Local Government Code 4 152.031, and basically, it's just the District Clerk 5 shall certify on the Order of the Commissioners' Court 6 for the County in observance, and this is for the 7 Auditor's salary that the District Judges sent down what 8 they will be paid. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. And I think I alluded 10 to it in my general comments earlier when we started the 11 meeting today. The Auditor is actually appointed by the 12 District Judges and they set the salary. And the Local 13 Government Code requires that we accept their actions, 14 what they've done. 15 So this is really just a -- I'm going to go 16 ahead and make a motion to accept the Order as presented 17 by the District Judges for -- and this will be for the 18 County Auditors' salary and the Assistant County 19 Auditors' salary, both? 20 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: I moved and seconded by 23 Commissioner Harris to accept the Order of the District 24 Judges in regard to the Auditor and Assistant Auditor's 25 salaries. 30 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Whatever it is. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No, we got it right 3 here. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We just have to accept it. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It wouldn't have 7 mattered. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Auditors. It's plural. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Auditors, all four. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's all of them in that 11 office. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any further discussion? 13 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. Five zero. 14 Okay, let's go to the next one 1.11 15 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to accept 16 the Order setting salaries for the 198th District Court 17 Reporter and the 216th District Court Reporter. 18 MRS. LANTZ: This is the same. These are 19 Orders from the District Judges for their salaries for 20 the upcoming fiscal year. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I wanted to bring to the 22 Court's attention that -- that we -- the District Judges 23 set the salaries for their Court Reporters, and then we 24 have to present it to us to accept those orders. That's 25 the same thing that we did with the Auditor. 31 1 MRS. LANTZ: Yes. 2 JUDGE KELLY: But these Court Reporters do 3 work for the County. I used one here, oh, looking back 4 on it, when was it, about a month ago. I had one of the 5 Court Reporters from one of the District Courts come 6 down and cover probate court for me, and I think it was 7 probate and juvenile that day. And we paid them extra 8 for that, and I didn't know if y'all knew that. I will 9 pass this around, this is the only copy I have, but I 10 can pass it around so you can see. 11 Actually paid $400 for that day for them to 12 cover the County docket, because their salary is just 13 for the District Court Reporter. And that also -- if 14 you want a transcript, we have to pay the Court 15 Reporters separately if we want a copy of it. So we pay 16 them to take it, then we pay them to transcribe it, and 17 if we use them anywhere else in the courthouse, we have 18 to pay them extra for that too. So, I just didn't know 19 if the public realized that, but that's what we have to 20 do. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment 22 about that that these salaries -- the people -- if 23 anyone has kids, I recommend them to look into being a 24 court reporter, for a district court. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, here's my 32 1 question. The District Court decides their salary. Do 2 we decide what we're going to pay them if we ask them to 3 come and help us? 4 JUDGE KELLY: They submit a bill. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Wouldn't that seem 6 reasonable? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How much is it going to 8 cost to repair my car? 9 JUDGE KELLY: I kicked the anthill, okay? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just that -- I mean, the 11 public should know the 216th salary is a $120,636, and 12 the 198th is $133,260. 13 MR. ROBLES: That's with benefits. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's with benefits, 15 but still pretty good numbers. 16 MRS. LANTZ: And it's for two counties. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, it's what it is. 18 We don't have any choice. I'll make a motion that we 19 approve the two Orders -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: In the interest of 21 transparency, so everybody knows the way this works. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Supposed to be. Approve 23 the Orders from both the 216th and 198th District Judges 24 to set the Court Reporters' salaries per those orders. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 33 1 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 2 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to approve the 3 Court Reporters' salaries as presented. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if we don't do it 5 they just tell us we have to do it, right? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, there -- there have been 7 struggles like this before with the District Judges. 8 And we have to give them enough money to do their job. 9 And they take us to the Supreme Court and we get 10 spanked. So that's the way it is. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think Sam will make a 12 good Court Reporter. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a very exacting 14 difficult job. 15 JUDGE KELLY: It is. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That should be noted. 17 It's not an easy job. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 19 in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 20 MRS. LANTZ: Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Lantz. 22 Gary. Call 9:30, we'll call Item 1.12 23 information and discussion regarding Veterans Day. Gary 24 Noller. 25 MR. NOLLER: Thank you. Gary Noller, 140 34 1 Ray Drive, Center Point, Texas. With the Veterans 2 Advisory Committee, I also have Byron Warren and Vicky 3 Marsh here. Bill Cantrell was unable to make the 4 meeting this morning. 5 I would like to just kind of have a very 6 brief update on the success in the Veterans Service 7 Office and I'm going to turn it over to Byron and you 8 can talk to him about Veterans Day. 9 But we just passed the 74th Anniversary of 10 the end of World War II. I thought it was pretty much 11 over in August in '45 and then the Peace Signing in 12 September. So 74 years ago the war ended. Any World 13 War II veterans are quite seasoned at this point, and 14 they still continue to need services. 15 And one World War II veteran woman recently 16 contacted -- or had representatives contact the service 17 office. Her issue was her air conditioner went out in 18 her house and she needed to have some financial 19 assistance in getting the air conditioner repaired 20 because we're hitting a hundred degrees right now. Very 21 uncomfortable for her. 22 So when Veterans have needs as they can't 23 provide for themselves, they're going to look in the 24 community for whatever help they can get from wherever 25 and we have a Veterans Service Office that kind of seems 35 1 like that's a place that you might want to go to. 2 So when the contact was made with the 3 service officers here, they went to work. And although 4 the County doesn't provide that kind of emergency 5 assistance and the Veterans Administration doesn't 6 provide that kind of emergency assistance, there are 7 organizations that can help. So they did find an 8 organization in town that came in this woman's aid and 9 got her air conditioner fixed. 10 So it's kind of a -- what I call a general 11 duty clause. You know, when you say what is a Veterans 12 Service Officer? Well, they have got a primary job to 13 file claims and that's particularly with the Veterans 14 Administration. 15 But the general duty clause is if you can 16 help a veteran, help them. And so we're very happy to 17 know that the service officer that we have here in Kerr 18 County have that attitude and are willing to take a look 19 at well, okay, I can't give you money, we don't have 20 money to give you, but let's go walk down that trail. 21 And so it's very important that they have 22 contact within the community so that they know where to 23 send somebody to get the best results and the quickest 24 results. So I'd like to compliment them on that. 25 The other thing is Marty has recently 36 1 completed her training for accreditation and she has 2 taken the test and she has passed it. You may have 3 heard some hollering going on over in that room I think 4 when she got the test results. I live out in the 5 country so nobody's heard me holler, but I hollered. 6 Jenna's also completed certification 7 training, is on accelerated course to get her 8 accreditation done. Right now, we're standing at 9 accreditation is -- there's some administrative tasks 10 that have to be done, namely the recent computer 11 software that's going to have to be downloaded in the 12 computer over there that will actually allow Marty to 13 connect to the VA computer, the main frame, that's kind 14 of like an intranet system, and she has to get 15 credentials. In other words, they have to give her 16 whatever she needs to log on. So that might take a 17 little bit more time. But it's past out of Marty's 18 hands now back to the Texas Veterans Commission and it's 19 the Department of Veterans Affairs to get that done. So 20 certainly glad that that's done. 21 The next thing we're going to talk about or 22 Byron will do it is the Veterans Day activities, 23 particularly the parade. About five or six years ago 24 when Pat Tinley was a Judge here, there was some 25 interest in trying to revive the parade, and few of us 37 1 got on board and did that. It was not our intent that 2 we do that forever. We really wanted to see if that 3 could be passed on to a civic organization, and it looks 4 like that might -- may be getting to finally get done. 5 So Byron will talk about that. Thank you, gentlemen. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Gary. 7 MR. WARREN: Good morning. Byron Warren. 8 2944 Dry Hollow Drive, Kerrville, Texas. I have been 9 meeting with the assistance of Marty and her office with 10 a rotary group here in Kerrville to look at a Veterans 11 Day celebration. It may not be a parade, but it could 12 be something else. 13 First we had to solve or talk about 2019. 14 There has not been really any planning or any interest 15 in doing a parade. The efforts and the volunteers just 16 happen to be not there. We, as your Veterans Advisory 17 Board, have always thought that veterans putting a 18 parade on for veterans is kind of different. It should 19 be the other way around. And to that end, we started 20 looking for volunteers from the community and business 21 leaders. 22 This year, 2019, on November the 8th, which 23 is a Friday, over at the Vet Center there will be a 24 breakfast taco breakfast supported by the Noon Rotary 25 Group. And we will be there as well to talk and mingle 38 1 with the veterans that do attend. The public and 2 veterans are invited. There are brochures being passed 3 out starting this week from the rotary group. 4 And it is self-funded. There will be no 5 money from the County or from any other veteran 6 organization that I know of. The rotary has got people 7 to donate and to supply any cost or cover any cost for 8 the 2019 celebration. 9 Going a little bit further, we've been 10 meeting a couple of times. The rotary group, Noon 11 Rotary Group, to discuss 2020. We've emphasized to 12 anybody who wants to organize a Veterans Day event, you 13 start about a year early. This takes many parts to put 14 that together. 15 The rotary has agreed to form a committee 16 for 2020 to start discussing and building a 2020 17 Veterans Day, and I'm going to say the word again, 18 celebration. Now, their choice is to have a parade or 19 have another type of event. Presently, they're leaning 20 for a celebration event at one of our parks, whether it 21 be a City park or a County park. They haven't decided 22 yet. Once they figure out which one to target their 23 wish to do this celebration, they'll come before the 24 appropriate officials for commissions and also advise 25 them for their staffs. But right now it could be the 39 1 park across the river or it could be at Flat Rock Park. 2 That's the two in discussion. But that's as far as it's 3 gone. 4 The important thing, I think, that the 5 Commissioner should be aware of, we now have civilians 6 organizing a Veterans Day celebration. We have 7 participated with them, but it's more civilian and 8 businesses in Kerrville, which is a big step forward in 9 my opinion. That's the way it should be. 10 There are many businesses, team leaderships 11 in Kerrville. Chamber is behind it. Chamber of 12 Commerce is behind it. So it's a -- I think a terrific 13 ground swell to where Kerr County needs to be 14 celebrating its large population of veterans. The 15 service officer will be involved with this group in 16 meetings to keep tabs of what things are being 17 developed. It has been emphasized that -- to the rotary 18 club that a particular task may not be assigned to the 19 service officer, but it's for advisory and for 20 recognition of what they're doing, what direction 21 they're going is very key, the key and the know of what 22 is being built, what's in progress. 23 So that being said, Marty hasn't made a 24 comment yet that she's going to attend but the Rotary is 25 looking forward to seeing her at some of the meetings in 40 1 the future. And they may be monthly, they may be 2 quarterly, I don't know. 3 In the beginning, they're forming their 4 committee and figuring out what they want for 2020. By 5 January, they should be getting the assignment tasks out 6 to the members and actually planning accomplished. But 7 we're at the beginning stages for 2020. Again, this is 8 a great step for Kerr County and our veterans, where it 9 should be in my opinion, and we have participation and 10 support from your Veteran Service Officer. 11 By the way, another compliment to Marty, and 12 the County should be proud of her, she's accomplished 13 what you have tasked and ordered her to do, with honor. 14 So she did it quickly and she did it by the direction of 15 the commissioners. So she's applauded. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Great. That's a great step 17 forward in the right direction. Thank y'all. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's November -- the 19 celebration this year is November the 8th -- 20 MR. WARREN: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- at the Veterans 22 Center? 23 MR. WARREN: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And is there a time for 25 that, do you know? 41 1 MR. WARREN: I think it's going to start 2 about 8:00 or nine o'clock and go until Veterans tacos 3 run out or around noon or one o'clock, whichever happens 4 first. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 MR. WARREN: Right now, I -- that's -- the 7 discussion in the meeting I was in last Thursday was how 8 many breakfast tacos and where do you procure them at 9 the cost that they can afford. So -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 11 MR. WARREN: -- a big -- a big line item for 12 them. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. One other 14 question for the 2020. You say the Chamber is involved 15 in that? 16 MR. WARREN: Well, they have indicated they 17 are very interested. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 MR. WARREN: I've asked the committee 20 leaders -- members have they really had a talk with 21 Walt -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 MR. WARREN: -- and Walt seemed to nod his 24 head and he has shown interest -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 42 1 MR. WARREN: -- and that's all I know. I 2 don't know if -- what they have committed or any other 3 comments. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, maybe we can help 5 him shake his head? 6 MR. WARREN: Well, I hope so. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right. Good. 9 Thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you very much. 11 Okay. The next item on the agenda is 1.13 12 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 13 the contract with Castle Lake Volunteer Fire Department, 14 and allow me to sign the contract. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move to approve the 16 contract with Castle Lake Volunteer Fire Department and 17 allow them to continue serving the public. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: I'd like to point out that 20 the financial obligation on there has X's in it instead 21 of a dollar amount, or at least the last version of that 22 contract that I reviewed, so you may want to at least 23 indicate on the record what is -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's 32 or $3500, 25 something like that. They told me the other day. 43 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's 35, I 2 believe. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: 35? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what I thought it 5 was. 6 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Should be on, I think, the 7 first page. This is the one that was sent out October 8 of last year. 9 JUDGE KELLY: 3500 is the amount in it. And 10 this -- who made the motion? I'm trying to remember. 11 Commissioner Harris made the motion and Commissioner 12 Letz seconded it, so we're open for discussion. 13 This is the fiscal year 18-19 with Castle 14 Lake. And when we were -- we had our meeting with 15 volunteer fire departments, we mentioned that there was 16 one who had not signed the contract yet. This is it. 17 And so this will conclude it. 18 We held up on signing it until we could -- 19 because in the contract the County agrees to provide 20 workers' compensation insurance. And we're going to 21 talk about that on item 1.25 later today. But that was 22 why. When they finally got us the contract, we waited 23 to get it on the agenda to know that we could actually 24 provide that insurance coverage for them. 25 So is there any other discussion? Those in 44 1 favor raise your hand. Unanimous. Five zero. 2 1.14 consider, discuss and take appropriate 3 action to approve the General Provisions for FY 4 2019-2020 budget. That's under Tab 14. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, can we call -- 6 the holdup, I believe, on this was comp time. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should we maybe call the 9 agenda related to comp time as well? And it is -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.20. 11 JUDGE KELLY: 1.20. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because it kind of 13 explains why we flagged it. So if we need to make 14 changes in the policy, we need to do it prior to 15 adopting it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we called 1.14. Let me 17 go ahead and also call 1.20 and we'll consider them at 18 the same time. And that's consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action to review the accrued compensation 20 time. Mr. Robles. 21 MR. ROBLES: Good morning. As of 8-29, 22 that's about last week, we had a comp time for the 23 entire County at about 132,589 is our liability. 24 Several of these departments have overtime budgets in 25 the current fiscal year. If we choose to pay out those 45 1 budgets, it would leave us with a liability of 41,541 2 that we do not have any budgeted funds for. So we do 3 have money this year to pay out to reduce our liability, 4 but if we want to pay out the entire comp time balance 5 we'll have to probably put some in next year's budget to 6 cover the remaining portion of it. Several of these 7 departments do not have any overtime budgets at all. 8 You'll see them on the bottom of the list here. That 9 doesn't mean we can't move money in there via budget 10 adjustments. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This assumes that comp 12 time would not be taken, correct? 13 MR. ROBLES: Yes. This is if we just pay it 14 out and no employee chose to take time off. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you know how much of 16 this is contrary to our policy, which is 30 days or two 17 pay periods? 18 MR. ROBLES: I would imagine quite a bit of 19 it. The majority of this is going to be in the 20 Sheriff's and Jail Department. And I'll let Rusty 21 explain why it's very difficult for them to take that 22 time off. 23 JUDGE KELLY: In order to get us all 24 focused, we're dealing with two agenda items. If you 25 look at the attachment under Tab 14 in our notebooks on 46 1 page 3, the overtime paragraph 2 is the compensatory 2 time language that we're looking at that reads, 3 compensatory balances can be carried forward for 30 days 4 or two pay periods. Compensatory time should be paid or 5 taken within 30 days or two pay periods. And that's the 6 operative language. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the existing. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Sheriff? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'll have to throw 10 another little kink into it. The biggest problem that 11 we have and the biggest problem of getting it off is 12 actually what I consider as holiday time. The County 13 gives 13 holidays a year, okay. Most County employees 14 are off on those holidays because even if it's Easter 15 Sunday, you know, you honor it on like Monday. I'm just 16 using an example. But the Sheriff's office employees 17 aren't, you know, 'cuz they're working those holidays. 18 Okay. And that goes into that comp time money. And so, 19 you know, if we paid that straight out, yeah, we could 20 take care of the biggest majority of our holiday, of our 21 comp time. But that's where it really comes from. Just 22 like, you know, November, December. You have got quite 23 a bit coming, right, because you've got two days on 24 each. November for Thanksgiving, two for -- for 25 Christmas. So now you're giving four and those are 47 1 12-hour shifts so you're already, you know, 48 hours of 2 comp right there. 3 Well, and that's where we have the problem. 4 If we can figure a way to solve that. But I guess if we 5 do go paying it, now with what I have left in the budget 6 now as you can see and I think we should extend that to 7 pay as much of this comp down as we can for both the 8 jail and the Sheriff's office. I would recommend you go 9 into -- if you can, into reserves and make the budget 10 adjustment or that you wait until after October 1 and do 11 it in next year's budget, you add two percent to every 12 day that you haven't paid because of the COLA. Okay. 13 So starting October 1, it goes up two percent compared 14 to whatever we do right now. You know, I think -- if 15 you can, pay all this off now and then we'll find a way 16 that we'll just -- in the budget next year, we'll just 17 start paying for that comp or for those holidays. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, was that 19 discussed in the past? And I understand everything 20 you're saying and agree with you. Was that discussed in 21 the past on comp time and whether it's -- some exception 22 should be made to -- for employees who don't have the 23 option or departments do not have the option for taking 24 off during the holidays? Seem to me like there oughta 25 be something in comp time says this is -- this is 48 1 applicable to everybody. You know, most people within 2 the County, but not applicable to law enforcement. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I think the 4 County has always, you know, tried -- as far as taking 5 it off that 30 days. In the old policy you had 30 days 6 to burn. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That was -- law 9 enforcement was excepted from that because we just flat 10 couldn't do it. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it was excepted? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Exempted. Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Exempted. Correct. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because we just could 15 not do that. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So that's why it's 18 built up. Now, I tried to have an interim policy that 19 we couldn't build up more than 80 hours. But I failed 20 at that because we just flat couldn't do it, you know. 21 On some of these it just got to where you couldn't. And 22 so it does add up and it costs us. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So do we need a 24 separate policy for law enforcement to cut that 25 department out that way? 49 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sounds like it. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- you either can have 4 a separate policy or you just -- or we have to do it in 5 the budget and when the -- you know, and pay it. I 6 mean, if you're going to do it. I think it should be 7 paid because I think it costs you more in the long run 8 if you don't. So with the amount I have in the budget 9 this year, you're talking 13 holidays, you multiply all 10 that out, it's a lot of money but, you know. I think if 11 the County can -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So how exactly does it 13 work now? If you build this up, you get paid when? In 14 that pay period or you get paid at the end of the year 15 or you get the time back to take off? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Comp time they don't 17 get paid for at all right now, unless they leave and 18 they want -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They just take the time 20 off? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We try and make them 22 burn that time. Sometimes we're finding it to burn off. 23 Now, you know -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Could I ask you a quick 25 question? 50 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Uh-huh. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If they were paid for 3 that as you go, how much is that going to change your 4 budget? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You know, that's a good 6 question. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Instead of taking it 8 off. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you look right now, 10 totally in the books I've got 58,445 liability in the 11 Sheriff's office, and 48 -- 45,897 liability in the 12 jail. The jail normally starts out with a $50,000.00 13 overtime budget and the Sheriff's Office started out 14 with a -- I forget what it was. 15 MR. ROBLES: About the same. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Somewhere around that. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now are we talking 18 fiscal year? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Each fiscal year. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Each fiscal year? 21 That's about 90 -- what is that, a hundred thousand 22 dollars rounded off, a hundred and five. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So -- and this is burnt 24 -- this -- if we pay it this year, you're paying all 25 that prior debt, too. Some of that could be here. So 51 1 if we were to pay it and not let them build up and we're 2 watching it, you know, it's very likely that we would 3 have enough in the budget. Okay. The holidays are what 4 kills us. 5 What I would recommend doing and what I've 6 told my people is we'll -- from now on we're going to 7 try and payout the holidays, period. And if they work 8 an hour or two hours overtime today, you know, the shift 9 gets a late call or something, let that go in as comp 10 and we'll try and burn that. But these holidays are 11 what's really -- really affect us. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty, have you seen the 13 new proposal language? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I just -- he just now 15 laid it in front of me. To -- to be paid out at the 16 discretion of their department head. Okay. Is what I'm 17 seeing in the comp time. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that incentivizes 19 it two ways. Some people would prefer the time off, I'm 20 sure, and some would prefer the extra in the paycheck at 21 the end of the pay period. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, and the other 23 part that you have to look at is that adds to our 24 problem. The County has a policy of -- how many hours 25 of vacation can you actually carry? A hundred and 60 52 1 hours of vacation, okay, is what you can carry from 2 fiscal year to fiscal year. I've got a lot of people 3 that get that in one year because of their years of 4 employment. They'll get three weeks. So now, they lose 5 anything over that. And a lot of them will start out 6 this coming budget year with the 160 hours because 7 that's what they've already got on the books. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Look at the -- I mean, I 9 think the first thing -- it's the whole part that's in 10 yellow. Read that a second, because I think that 11 takes -- I think that does constitute what you're saying 12 we need to do. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I don't have that. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I like the new 15 policy proposed. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, and I'll read it, 17 but let me tell you what happens with the vacation. You 18 know, people should try and burn off that vacation, 19 okay, because they lose it at the end of the year. 20 Anything over 160 hours. Well, I have a lot of people 21 that October 2nd already have 160 hours. Because they 22 had to carry -- you know, that's all they could carry. 23 Now, they're going to get three more weeks or it may be 24 four more weeks of vacation during the year. Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's seven weeks. 53 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And what happens is, 2 they have to try and burn that vacation or they lose it, 3 so they have to let the comp build up. You see what I'm 4 -- and so that's where -- that's where it really gets -- 5 when you get people with 15 and 20 years of service, it 6 gets hard to give them the time off that they have 7 earned or they have worked for. And then you add 13 8 holidays on top of it, it really gets hard for them to 9 burn that off. And that's why we need to pay as much as 10 we can. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, we can plan for 12 holidays; we can't plan for incidental. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Correct. The 14 incidental is not what hurts, though, it's the holidays. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I think they 16 oughta be paid for them in the pay period where it 17 happens. And -- or and have the option to take the time 18 and have that managed properly and have it cut out for 19 the Sheriff's Department and law enforcement. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But this has it paid 21 within 60 days. I like that because that's -- I mean, 22 within a pay period is too hard. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Pay within 60 24 days. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Well, let's say 54 1 within 60 days. But again, you're -- what Rusty's 2 talking about here is something building up. The longer 3 it goes, the more there is to pay out. 4 Now, if there's somewhere in the accounting 5 office that they can figure out a way that we earn more 6 money while the money sits in the bank, but we're not. 7 We're not gonna. Because it isn't paying anything. 8 MRS. DOWDY: I don't know if this has ever 9 been discussed because I'm new to the whole issue, but 10 is there ever a way that an employee could donate that 11 comp time to another, within the department? Say 12 someone really needs some time because they're just flat 13 out because of, you know, illness or whatever. Is there 14 anything like -- 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The County adopted a 16 policy years ago you couldn't do that and you couldn't 17 donate to sick leave or anything else for other 18 employees. That policy was addressed. Because they had 19 people with serious illnesses and tried to go back and 20 give other people's sick leave to those people. 21 MRS. DOWDY: But could it be readdressed? 22 Is it statutorily you cannot do it, or something, or -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You can -- I don't know 24 about comp. You can do it with sick leave but it's got 25 to be adopted by the County. And it can be a big 55 1 liability on the County -- 2 MRS. DOWDY: Well, I -- 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- and the County chose 4 all these years not to do it, okay, is what it is. 5 There is one other issue that I think has to 6 be brought up -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Before we go to another issue, 8 I -- we got a comment back here. 9 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir, if I may. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Just trying to stay focused on 11 an issue at a time. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, this is related. 13 MR. REEVES: Commissioner Letz, how long did 14 you say they would have to use the comp time now? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 60 days. 16 MR. REEVES: 60 days. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then after that they 18 get paid. 19 MR. REEVES: Okay. Because I was going to 20 say that the problem that I run into with elections 21 every spring, of even numbered years especially, is I 22 have a staff seven days a week and the poles -- early 23 voting is open 12 hours a day. And even with shift work 24 I'm accumulating large amounts. 25 After the primary election, then we jump in 56 1 roughly two and a half months later and start early 2 voting again. But they've got to be preparing for it. 3 I can't afford to have my election staff -- that's where 4 I accumulate the majority of my overtime/comp time is, 5 but I can't have them all taking off to burn that time. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you can't get ready 8 for the next. 9 MR. REEVES: And then after municipal 10 election, we've got the runoff election. So while I -- 11 I agree with what you're saying with a certain time 12 frame, 60 days won't work for what I'm looking at, 13 especially with my tax side. They have very little comp 14 time that they accumulate. Usually only first of 15 October when tax statements go out and then the end of 16 January when they're due. 17 But the election staff -- and you have to 18 remember, it starts accumulating again with the general 19 election coming up, and the -- even with restructuring 20 my staff and all of that, it still accumulates a large 21 amount of comp time. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Which is again, I think, 23 illustrates the point that the Sheriff's Department is a 24 different entity entirely and a whole different animal 25 and ought to be handled differently. 57 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the Tax Assessor is 2 in the same situation. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It is. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The Tax Assessor can 5 have a different plan than what the Sheriff has, is what 6 I'm saying. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but you need to 8 have a policy that it doesn't preclude, or -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can't have different 10 policies for every department. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I understand that. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what's magic about 13 60 days? Maybe I -- 14 MRS. DOSS: 60 hours. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's what's hard to 16 keep it down at times. You know, one thing that we need 17 to look at in doing this -- and it may take more than 18 just today to get this done, is one thing that County 19 does do is if you give faith Easter Sunday, and that's 20 the official holiday. 21 So what the County does is change that 22 holiday for a County-observed holiday to be Monday, 23 okay? Now, what happens is, I have a guy that's working 24 Sunday. He doesn't get a holiday. His regular day off 25 is Monday so he doesn't get that either. You see what 58 1 I'm saying? And he actually worked the holiday and 2 doesn't get the holiday. So you have that, where he 3 should be getting it straight time. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, what I was saying 5 60 days, I was talking about days. Compensatory time 6 balance is going to be carried forward for 30 days or 7 two pay periods. So if we extended that, looking at the 8 problem that the Sheriff has, and the Tax Assessor 9 Collector has, would that help alleviate that in making 10 that much greater? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Doss, I want to make sure 12 I understand. What Commissioner Moser is talking about 13 is this year's -- 14 MS. DOSS: Correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: -- General Provisions. That's 16 the comp time policy? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're also talking about 19 what the comp time policy is going to be next year. And 20 that's the 60 hours. 21 MS. DOSS: Correct. 22 JUDGE KELLY: So we're talking about this 23 year's, exactly what you read, Commissioner Moser. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 25 JUDGE KELLY: But the proposal is to change 59 1 it. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And what the consideration on 4 the agenda item that we have in regards to payment of it 5 is for this year's fiscal year budget, to go ahead and 6 try to buy down as much of that as we can. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 8 JUDGE KELLY: So I don't want to submit to 9 apples and oranges. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, You're not. All 11 right, Fair enough. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And we mentioned 60 13 days when we meant 60 hours earlier, so -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: That's the new policy. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I really think it's 17 probably better -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Separate them back? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Let's take care of the old 20 policy first. What do we want to do about comp time 21 under the fiscal year 18-19? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Which is Item 1.14 -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: 1.20. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I mean 1.20. 25 JUDGE KELLY: That's 1.20, right? 60 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And then we can come back and 3 talk about what we want to do for this coming fiscal 4 year. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. Under -- and my 6 recommendation would be somehow to use it up from some 7 of my other line items that weren't used up. But if you 8 paid out every bit of comp time that my people have, the 9 jail, you would -- in the jail you would have leftover 10 some out of my overtime of $4,512 right now. Pay 11 everybody in the jail off. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You have it in your 13 budget? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In my budget. And 15 you'd still have another 400 and -- $4500 left over. 16 Reapply that $4500 to the Sheriff's Office budget. Now, 17 in the Sheriff's Office, if you paid out everything that 18 I have on the books as of right now, it would leave you 19 a balance owing of $24,019. Take that 4500 and apply to 20 that, so you drop it a little bit below the 19,000. 21 And I think somewhere in our salary line 22 item this year, or some of the other line items, we 23 could actually come up with that 19,000 out of my budget 24 and then we start next year's fiscal year October 1 with 25 a clean slate of zero on every employee I have. 61 1 And then we start figuring out how we're 2 going to do that and pay off -- pay the holidays. And 3 let them burn off some of the little comp hours, like 4 you said, 60 hours. But I'd put it lower than -- you 5 know, let them work that off. But the holidays and all 6 that, always pay that so you don't get that large 7 amount. 8 JUDGE KELLY: But to over simplify this, 9 what you're talking about doing is we're going to pay 10 down your comp time for fiscal year 18-19 -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- this year out of your 13 budget? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And we have some others that 16 are not just the Sheriff and Jail, right? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And so your recommendation is 19 to pay those down too, for a total of about 41, we would 20 go to our reserves to fund balance, take the funds out 21 of that to balance out comp time? 22 MR. ROBLES: I don't know if we can pull 23 that -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: From reserves. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So all the rest of it 62 1 is less than $6,000. 2 MR. ROBLES: Everybody who does not have an 3 overtime budget, the total liability is 16,000. 4 JUDGE KELLY: We can find it in the budget. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 6 we authorize the payment of all current comp time out of 7 the overtime budget for the respective departments and 8 direct the County Auditor to look for the funds for the 9 additional amount needed out of other line items and 10 come forward with -- 11 MR. ROBLES: We may have that in our payroll 12 contingency. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the budget amendment. 14 JUDGE KELLY: But the motion is to pay it 15 out. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Pay it out. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Just a second. There's been a 20 motion made by Commissioner Letz, seconded by 21 Commissioner Belew. The floor is open for discussion. 22 Mr. Reeves? 23 MR. REEVES: Just a question to the Court. 24 How does that account for comp time that's already been 25 requested in the remaining part of this fiscal year? 63 1 I've got people that were going to take time off. Are 2 they going to get paid and then -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Take the time off. 4 MR. REEVES: Well, when -- when does the -- 5 how do we account for that? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The taking time off, you 7 know -- take the time off. I mean it's kind of -- I 8 look at it as the discretion of the department head and 9 elected officials to -- 10 MR. REEVES: Yeah, that's fine. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- get people to take 12 it. If you want to use the comp time, take it off. 13 MR. REEVES: But did y'all forward whatever 14 you were working on to all of the offices? I did not 15 get a copy of this prior to -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but to answer 17 your question, if they take comp time when you can. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Amend the order to say 19 this will done effective as the comp time balances on 20 September 30th. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Whatever the day, 22 September 30th? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Our goal is to be even up 24 going into the next fiscal year. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. So what's the 64 1 motion then? Does that change what you said? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm just -- I'm trying 3 to put an effective date. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Put timing on it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A date that it's -- 6 as of September 30th, we can accrue that, can't we? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 8 MR. ROBLES: Yeah, it's just going to be 9 difficult because like the Tax Assessor said, if 10 someone's planning to take something off and if we pick 11 a day and say hey, we're going to pay it off of this, 12 and they don't have any, but next week they were 13 planning on taking it -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But on September 30th 15 they should -- there's no more time to take it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, you have to stop it 17 somewhere. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Can we wait until 19 September 30th? Well, that's the way to do it then. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the effective date 21 would be September 30th. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. And that gives 23 them time to be notified. And then we develop the new 24 policy for the new fiscal year. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 65 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That sounds good. 2 MR. GIVENS: And whatever comp time you have 3 on September 30th will be -- that's what you would be 4 paid. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 6 MR. GIVENS: Okay. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We're trying to cash out all 8 the comp time and close out this fiscal year. That's 9 the over-arching principle that we're trying to 10 accomplish. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think that's a good 12 plan. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Or clean going 14 forward. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that doesn't hit 17 the budget. 18 MS. HOFFER: Just had a quick question. 19 I've got my comp time. I've got one that's taking this 20 Friday a half an hour, and then the other one needs to 21 take a half an hour. I just got a bunch of it down last 22 Friday. And we try to get ours done, you know, within 23 like two weeks. But I wanted to make sure in that 24 policy maybe that it stays at the discretion of the 25 Department head. 66 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is. 2 MS. HOFFER: Good. Because it works very 3 well for us. And I'm afraid -- not that I don't want 4 anybody to make extra money, but it would start I think 5 causing more and more people -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: At your discretion. 7 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. And so I like the idea 8 of the direction we're going. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And I -- we're not 10 micromanaging your department. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I think Jonathan's 12 motion ought to also say that in between now and 13 September 30th, the Department heads and elected 14 officials should attempt to let their people burn off 15 whatever comp time they can. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. That's implied. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's up to y'all. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Our current policy says 19 that. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, Ready to vote? Those in 21 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 22 We will take a ten-minute break and come 23 back at 20 minutes after the hour. 24 (Break.) 25 JUDGE KELLY: Come back to order. 67 1 Housecleaning thing. We took action on 1.20. Let's go 2 back to 1.14. We need to adopt the General Provisions 3 and wrap up what we were talking about. And that's the 4 language that's highlighted in yellow that we were 5 discussing. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Does any of it need to 7 be changed -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: No. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- or we just need 10 to -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: This is to change -- this is 12 the proposed change from General Provisions last year to 13 handle this one. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For some reason is the 15 attachment in here, is that highlighted in yellow? 16 Because I don't -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: No. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, who authored it? 20 Who made the changes? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Jennifer Doss. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Jennifer Doss did. 23 Okay. And she's at the podium. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Uh-huh. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's good. 68 1 MS. DOSS: Y'all just asked me to come up 2 with something. If you need to change something, or 3 there's anything you disagree with -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay, can I ask a 5 question? What were the major changes in what and what? 6 MS. DOSS: Well, previous policy said that 7 you had to pay it out in two pay periods. And we have 8 not been doing that because of all these reasons you 9 heard. I just took a look at other counties in the area 10 or anybody who would respond and tried to do an average 11 of how other counties do it. I did notice that there 12 are several counties that whatever the comp time that -- 13 for regular employees, they'll notate double that for 14 the Sheriff's department. Several counties said that 15 they just pay their Sheriff's department the overtime as 16 they go because they're so short-handed they would get 17 totally out of whack. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Which is, in effect, what we 19 did. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Okay. 22 JUDGE KELLY: But this is the language that 23 would codify that and establish it as a policy to our 24 upcoming budget. 25 MS. DOSS: Yes. 69 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Would it codify that? 2 JUDGE KELLY: It would be the General 3 Provision for the budget, which would be adopted in the 4 court order and then would be the policy in the County 5 and -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because the chief part 7 of this says that the balance at the end of the year is 8 paid. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Now, the problem I 10 have -- as you also have in there, it's paid at the rate 11 of one and a half the employee's normal rate. Okay. 12 You have to go back up to your very first paragraph, 13 where law enforcement a normal employee is 160 hours. 14 That's your monthly pay. Okay. And that's anything 15 over 160 for a normal employee is the time and a half, 16 which that rate would apply to. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Unless you're going to 19 change something with law enforcement, the way FLSA says 20 it is, it's anything over 171 hours. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Which is what is in this 22 General Provisions. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But in this paragraph 24 here, you have time and a half. The 11 hours is 25 normally straight hours in law enforcement. It's not 70 1 time and a half. Now, if you want to pay it time and a 2 half, that's a policy change that this County can make. 3 But normally it is straight time from the 160 to 171, 4 time and a half above 171. 5 The way -- and then like fire fighters is 6 kind of -- the volunteers are in here, but if it's a 7 regular, I think there's is almost 200. Law 8 enforcement, fire fighters get the short end of the 9 stick. 10 MS. DOSS: And we could add verbiage in the 11 yellow section that notates it over 171 hours for the 12 Sheriff's Department it's just straight time. We could 13 do that. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm looking at the old 15 provisions in the notebook here and that paragraph one 16 under overtime says 171 hours within a 28-day work 17 period. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the law 19 enforcement. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. And that's the way it 21 was in this year's budget. And then I look over here to 22 the proposed change that's highlighted in yellow, it 23 also has the same 171 hours within the 28-day work 24 period. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Now, the last paragraph 71 1 down here on that is time and a half. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Right. And the old one was 3 time and a half, too, I think, wasn't it? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, but it's over 171. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: I think they can be. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, I think they are. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Except that there's -- I 8 guess there's two rates for law enforcement that's -- we 9 probably should clarify that. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There's a rate from 160 11 to 171, and there's a rate from 171 on. It's two 12 separate rates for law enforcement. It's not one rate. 13 Okay. Where there's only one rate for courthouse 14 employees. And then the other thing is, are you going 15 to do it with the holidays as the same way? I think 16 that needs to be added in there. Okay. Because I think 17 holidays now -- I think holidays you get into that, the 18 171 won't count. Because 171 only counts on actual 19 hours worked. Okay. So you may still get that with the 20 deputy working a 12-hour shift. If he was off on that 21 holiday, it's still a holiday. Just like the County 22 gets it. Okay. So he should still get that 12 hours. 23 But no matter what, that 12 hours is not actual hours 24 worked. So that 12 hours has to go as straight time, 25 not time and a half. 72 1 MRS. STEBBINS: That's the same for regular 2 employees too. If you have a holiday during a work 3 week. And that's counted as your hours, you don't get 4 comp time unless you've actually worked that 40 hours. 5 And if it's one of those eight-hour days is a holiday, 6 then you don't get to accrue comp time during the week. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But how are you going 8 to -- but you're paying it out. Okay. You're going to 9 pay them if they work that holiday. Well, you have to 10 do law enforcement. So now, in that case, I don't care 11 if they've got 171 hours of actual time worked, they're 12 not getting time and a half for that, they're going to 13 have to get straight time. That's the thing. Most 14 courthouse employees get off on that and just get 15 straight time. It's not vacation. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we had -- your idea 17 or thought would be that holiday time gets us paid? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You get paid out of 20 overtime budget? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. I think it -- 22 that's what kills us. And they bill it comp now. You 23 need to pay it out of overtime budget. but it has to be 24 paid as straight time because it's not -- that may not 25 be actual time worked. 73 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just pay it as straight 2 time. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But there's just a lot 4 of -- you know, trying to write a real quick policy is 5 kind of hard if you're going to cover everything. 6 Either do what Jennifer says, let's go back and have a 7 workshop and cover the law enforcement and some of those 8 differently or we're going to have to try and add all 9 this in it because it does change it. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sounds to me like a 11 workshop is probably -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we have a deadline here. 13 We have got to adopt a budget on this. A budget I don't 14 like, by the way. I hear what you're saying, Rusty. 15 And I think we can probably go back to the drafting 16 boards again and put that language in there so that we 17 do payout your holidays for your law enforcement 18 straight time. Get that clarified in the general 19 provisions. And then that would satisfy your concern 20 and then you would know exactly what to tell your people 21 what's going to happen. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. If we -- if we 23 just adopt a policy that holidays will be paid out as 24 with comp time, then I'm fine. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That's easier to 74 1 accomplish. 2 MRS. DOSS: We can have a paragraph for 3 regular employees and a paragraph for the Sheriff's 4 Department. Put it in two separate -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question for 6 the Tax Assessor, Mr. Reeves. We have it limited at 60 7 hours. I suspect that may not work with your election 8 department. 9 MR. REEVES: No, sir, it won't. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does it need to be -- I 11 mean, because you work -- they work that one prior to 12 election -- 13 MR. REEVES: In a two-week period they could 14 be working -- even though I have enough for, if you 15 will, shift work, try to hold them at eight hours. But 16 within a two-week period, including having to be open on 17 weekends, they could accumulate that much time, and if 18 you throw in election night as well, they might 19 accumulate the 60 hours just during one early voting 20 session. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't we leave it 22 like that and say, unless approved by the Court. 23 Because there's probably not a lot of need -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And unless they're 25 exempt employees, being those, I think anything over 40 75 1 hours in a seven-day work period, is the way that looks, 2 has to be paid at that time and a half which you cover 3 in here, that anything over the 60 hours will be paid at 4 that time and a half. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the issue is 6 generally they take comp time, they can't take comp time 7 within 60 days. They can't get it -- or 60 hours. I 8 mean they can't get it all -- 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're going to have to 10 pay them. 11 MRS. DOSS: Well, and what I put in here is 12 that -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you change it to 90? 14 MRS. DOSS: -- anything that's over -- yeah, 15 we can make that number whatever you want. But anything 16 over the 60 we pay immediately. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right away. 18 MRS. DOSS: They can only carry a balance of 19 60, and they can carry it for 12 months. And we're 20 asking that they take it within 12 months and if they -- 21 whatever they haven't taken they will be paid out at the 22 end of the fiscal year. 23 JUDGE KELLY: But what I'm hearing it's 24 really -- the Departments that this affects most that 25 we're really -- we're trying to build in these 76 1 exceptions because we have adjust for law enforcement 2 and then the special needs for election. And those are 3 the two that really -- everything is revolving around 4 those two departments so that we get it right for them. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, Animal Control 6 and Environmental Health, because they're on call, and 7 Animal Control could run out the same -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Animal Control could. 9 And then IT -- and then IT could. 10 MR. REEVES: Road and Bridge. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: See, you can still -- 12 it can happen to everybody. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: However, your situation 14 and Bob's situation are different. Elections is a 15 specific time period, you know when it is, you know 16 what's going to happen, so that can have special 17 consideration. Because you always know when it's going 18 to be and always know how long it's going to take. 19 Yours is a little different, which is why I 20 suggested at the onset that the Sheriff's Department be 21 handled differently. There could be words for Tax 22 Assessor's office and elections, that that would be 23 differently during election time. And then everybody 24 else be dealt with as they come. 25 MS. DOSS: And under Section 2 it does say 77 1 must not unduly disrupt the operations of the 2 Department. So that kind of -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess I look at it -- 4 I don't know why we couldn't eliminate the first two 5 sentences, all -- everything about the 60 hours, and 6 just leave the language that we pay it at the end of the 7 year. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You want to try and let 9 them burn off some of it; otherwise, you'll have some 10 build up 200 hours during the year and all of a sudden 11 at the end you're going to -- I'd put an 80 hour or 12 something on it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But the elected 14 it's-- we're just saying you can't get more than that. 15 Well, we don't want you to get more than that anyway. 16 You just have to -- you still want the people to take 17 comp time, but you don't -- you're not limiting it to 18 maximum of 60 hours. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I would limit it 20 somewhere or else you'll have elected officials that 21 won't worry about it, and they'll let somebody build up 22 200 hours during the year. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Let me ask the County Attorney 24 a question. If we take that first sentence -- 25 MRS. STEBBINS: I handed mine away. 78 1 JUDGE KELLY: It's highlighted in yellow. 2 It says compensatory time balances will be limited to a 3 maximum of 60 hours unless approved by the Court. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: You could add that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So that if Mr. Reeves has it, 6 he comes in and well, you might not know it beforehand 7 but he looks down there and somebody got 75 hours, you 8 come to us, will you approve the other 15 and we say 9 yes. 10 MR. REEVES: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Let them burn it off. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what I think. 13 Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, that's good. That 15 solves it. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tom brought that up 17 earlier. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I did. A while 19 ago. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, that's where the idea 21 came from. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: It works. At least check 23 over it. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And we're going to try 25 and pay it even before it hits that 60. 79 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, here -- here's the 2 bottom line of what I'm hearing. I'm trying to wrap 3 this up so that we all understand what we're trying to 4 do. 5 We best address the Sheriff's unique 6 situation if we say that we're going to pay holidays for 7 Law Enforcement. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 9 JUDGE KELLY: That gives you a clear roadmap 10 to tell your people what's going to happen. And so, and 11 then we -- we best solve the problem with the 12 elections, which is an exceptional event that takes 13 place, by saying unless approved by the Court. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And that way, you still have 16 the opportunity to burn off those hours without having 17 to pay them. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And we still have generally a 20 maximum of 60 hours that they can accumulate. So the 21 Department heads know the framework that you're working 22 within. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Law 24 enforcement -- the regular comp, I'll say -- falls in 25 directly how she has it written now. What you're going 80 1 to say and Court approval, and then you're going to add 2 a paragraph about paying the holiday. That solves law 3 enforcement. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now, if we're going to 5 do that, let's look at -- I'm trying to be practical 6 now. Let's look at the time table. We're talking about 7 approving the budget on the 23rd. We've got a joint 8 meeting with the City on the 16th. That's going to take 9 at least a couple hours, basically meet and greet and 10 get the -- you all get to slap each other on the back on 11 how well our airport board is doing. 12 But we're going to have to adopt this. Are 13 we going to wait and have her bring that and adopt it 14 before we do the budget on the 23rd? Because -- unless 15 we have another special meeting. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This won't take long, 17 will it? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we just do it as 19 part of the budget. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So get -- get it out to 21 us. 22 MRS. DOSS: Okay. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And on this, if you would, 24 Ms. Doss, make sure all the department heads and elected 25 officials get a copy of what we're about to do so -- 81 1 MS. DOSS: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: -- if there's any more 3 questions, you can get in and talk to us before we do 4 it. 5 MS. DOSS: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And with that, we'll pass 1.14 8 until next time. 9 10 JUDGE KELLY: We'll put it on -- we'll put 11 it on -- first thing on the agenda and do the budget 12 then -- 13 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Well, just a clarification. 14 You have to accept it before the budget, so we can't -- 15 we have to -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: We'll put it on the agenda 17 prior to that, we can do that. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have got a bunch of 20 ten o'clock stuff. Let's skip over to that. 1.16 21 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to set 22 salaries, expenses and other allowances for the Elected 23 Officials as published on August 29th in the Kerrville 24 Daily Times. We have to do that. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Well, I move for 82 1 approval then. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's been moved by 4 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 5 approve the allowances as published in the paper back on 6 August 29th. Any other discussion? Those in favor 7 raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I didn't vote that. 9 JUDGE KELLY: You didn't? 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Four. Do you abstain or 12 against? 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Abstain. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So it would be 4-0-1, 15 one abstention. I'm glad I whipped my head back around. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would have let you 17 know. 18 JUDGE KELLY: 1.17 public hearing for 19 revision of plat for Elmwood Lots 1-5 and 6-7. Charlie 20 Hastings. 21 MR. HASTINGS: The public hearing part? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. So I convene the public 23 meeting. Anybody who would like to speak with regard to 24 the revision to the plat for Elmwood Lots 1 through 7 25 total. No one? Okay. Then I'll adjourn the meeting. 83 1 And we'll go to 1.18 consider, discuss and 2 take appropriate action for the Court to approve a 3 revision of plat for Elmwood Lots 1-5, and parts of 6 4 and 7. Charlie Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal revises six 6 lots into four lots. All the lots are currently served 7 by OSSF; however, two of them at the conclusion of 8 the -- close to the conclusion of our sewer project will 9 be tied on, because they're both less than an acre. 10 That would be Lots 4R and 6R. Lots 1R and 2R will be 11 accessed from FM 480 by a common driveway per TxDOT 12 requirements, and Lots 4R and 6R will be accessed from 13 Elm Pass Road. 14 We have had the public hearing. County 15 engineer requests the Court approve the revision of plat 16 for Elmwood Lots 1 through 5 and parts of 6 and 7, 17 Volume 5, Page 330. This is Precinct 2. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 21 Commissioner Moser and seconded by Commissioner Letz to 22 approve the revision of plat for Elmwood Lots 1 through 23 5 and 6 to 7. Any other discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have a question. 25 What's their water source, Charlie? 84 1 MR. HASTINGS: I think they're with 2 Southwest Water System. 3 MRS. BADDERS: Well, there is a well on one 4 of the lots, too. 5 MR. HASTINGS: And a well. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A well and water 7 service? 8 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, those in favor raise 11 your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 12 1.19 consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action regarding the approval and use of the Kerr County 14 Courthouse parking lot for the South Texas Blood Drive 15 on October 24. Ms. Doss. 16 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. Southwest Texas Blood 17 Drive would like to use the parking lot, the southwest 18 corner of our parking lot, for their semi-annual blood 19 drive. Maintenance typically cones that area off early 20 in the morning. They would like to have use of it from 21 9 to 6. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, it's been moved by 25 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 85 1 approve the use of courthouse parking lot for the South 2 Texas Blood Drive on October 24. Any further 3 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 4 five zero. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you want to do 15, 6 1.15? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, let's go down to 1.23. 8 Is that what you're talking about? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. I said you skipped 10 1.15. Go back. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, okay. 1.15 consider, 12 discuss and take appropriate action on request from 13 appointed and elected officials to appoint clerks and 14 assistants for their offices pursuant to Local 15 Government Code. 16 MRS. GRINSTEAD: We accept their request. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We accept their request? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 21 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 22 request as presented. Those in favor raise your hand. 23 Five zero, unanimous. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Did all of them submit 25 the letter? 86 1 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I don't know if all of them 2 did. 3 MS. HOFFER: We have not. There was some 4 discrepancies in salaries and stuff in the position 5 schedule. So I think we've got it all done, so now we 6 get a number from James and be able to submit ours. 7 It's ready other than the final number. 8 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Typically do these on 9 votes, like we'll do them again September 23rd, the ones 10 we do have. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, I'm going to move 13 item 1.21, and call it jointly with 1.25 so we can 14 combine those discussions. 15 I'm now going to call Item 1.22 consider, 16 discuss and take appropriate action on request to allow 17 Ingram Tom Moore High School to have a bonfire the 18 evening of September 18th. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Judge, we're going to 20 pass on that. It's in the City, and we don't need to do 21 anything. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay then, we'll go to 1.23 23 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to accept 24 donations for the month of August 2019 as listed in the 25 Kerr County Animal Services donation log. Reagan 87 1 Givens. 2 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. You should have 3 a copy of the August 26 donation logs, which we got some 4 food items donated. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 6 we accept the donations as outlined on the donation log 7 for Animal Services. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 10 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to accept the 11 donations in the -- as reflected in the donations log to 12 Animal Services. Any other discussion? Those in favor 13 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 14 1.24 consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action on salary and grade alignment for staff in the 16 Victim Services Department. That's in Executive 17 Session. 18 Yeah, I'm going to call 1.21 and 1.25 so 19 that we can go into Executive Session to complete that 20 discussion. So 1.21 is to consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action regarding policies and procedures 22 related to the Kerr County Volunteer Fire Departments. 23 And I know we have a number of the fire 24 departments represented here today. Do you want to 25 talk, Commissioner Harris? 88 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, Commissioner 2 Belew and I went to the KARFA meeting the other night 3 and, you know, it was my understanding, or I had the 4 impression they were going to adopt some -- an ethics 5 code for all of them. And that really didn't come to 6 pass. So -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let -- let me back up 8 and let's kind of start over. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Let's get in the helicopter 11 and go up for about ten thousand feet. We had a general 12 meeting with our Volunteer Fire Departments back in 13 August, that was well attended, to discuss a number of 14 issues. And this is to bring the entire court up to 15 speed. 16 As you know, the Open Meetings Act left us 17 to talk to one other person. And we can't talk to 18 everybody unless we're all convened here in a public 19 meeting with a posted agenda. We had a posted agenda 20 for that. It was unanimously attended by the Court. 21 Since then, we have had developments. 22 And as part of that meeting, we brought two 23 representatives from TAC, the Texas Association of 24 Counties, to address certain issues regarding insurance 25 coverage issues. Particularly with some acts that were 89 1 being conducted by a couple of our local Volunteer Fire 2 Departments, one in Precinct 1 and one in Precinct 4, 3 Turtle Creek and Ingram, that we were concerned would 4 not be covered under our insurance. One of them 5 involved setting a person on fire as a demonstration and 6 putting them out. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That was in mine. 8 JUDGE KELLY: One of them involved using a 9 public vehicle for private purposes, and even putting 10 lights and sirens on. But -- so to address some of 11 these issues and to try to get a more uniform standard 12 for our Volunteer Fire Departments, the rest of which 13 are doing an outstanding and incredible job and we're 14 deeply appreciative for what you do. 15 I came up with a suggestion that we try to 16 adopt some sort of best practices code. A code of 17 ethics. That this -- this is what's going to -- each of 18 our Volunteer Fire Departments countywide would aspire 19 to conduct their business that way. And the original 20 intent was that if KARFA and the Volunteer Fire 21 Departments all agreed to a code that they wanted to 22 hold themselves to and hold their peers accountable for 23 and came to the County, we could adopt that as a policy, 24 incorporate it into an order, incorporate that order and 25 reference it in our contract that we enter into annually 90 1 with these Volunteer Fire Departments, so that we then 2 have an expectation, a reasonable threshold expectation 3 of the way we want our Volunteer Fire Departments to 4 perform. 5 And that was the meeting that Commissioner 6 Harris is talking about. Last week was to go to KARFA 7 to try to get that code, the best practices code of 8 ethics, adopted. And it has not been uniformly adopted 9 yet. 10 Now, ironically, some of the fire 11 departments posted the Code. I know Tierra Linda is 12 here today. But they had it posted on their wall. 13 They've already -- already done it. This is a -- this 14 comes from a National Volunteer Fire Department website, 15 is where we got it. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, we didn't get 17 it. It was sent to me by the KARFA President, and they 18 were going to run it by everybody and what have you. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And what happened at 20 the meeting basically was that Ed -- what's your last 21 name, Ed? 22 MR. BARKER: Barker. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Suggested that 24 everybody -- all the Departments already have their own 25 policy. That each one of them, as they make their 91 1 submissions and paperwork to the County for the funds 2 and all the other registrations, whatever it may be. 3 Just attach that form, which sounds reasonable to me. 4 And that KARFA simply have something in 5 their bylaws that states that everybody who is a member 6 of KARFA has to have a code of ethics by which they 7 conduct business, because not all of them will end up 8 being the same. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And that's reasonable. And I 10 don't think anybody -- that -- that's not the unintended 11 consequence we encounter. The unintended consequence 12 that we encounter is, we brought all of these people to 13 the meeting and so our insurance representatives were 14 listening for the first time that the workers' 15 compensation insurance coverage that they provide for 16 the County volunteers does not apply to volunteers for 17 other non-profit organizations, which a lot of these 18 Volunteer Fire Departments are. So we got a call from 19 TAC telling us that a lot of our Volunteer Fire 20 Department volunteers are not covered under the County 21 policy. And so we went to work on that problem. And 22 what we've discovered is that -- and one of the issues 23 we had at the meeting was TAC had us down for having 20 24 volunteer firemen for the County. Hmm. We got 220. 25 And so they were not -- the underwriters were not 92 1 charging us for the proper number of people that could 2 be covered if they could legally cover them. And so 3 that everybody understands what the -- what the legal 4 technicality with this, the unintended consequence, is 5 that TAC can only insure governmental entities and 6 governmental subdivisions. 7 Volunteer non-profits are not governmental 8 subdivisions, and so they cannot insure the non-profit 9 Volunteer Fire Departments. Now, there's insurance 10 available for those non-profits, but we can't do it 11 through TAC. And part of our contract, the contractual 12 obligations of the County in that contract, is that we 13 were providing workers' compensation insurance. Well, 14 we couldn't, at that point. The reason that we didn't 15 approve the Castle Lake contract when they got it to us 16 was because we couldn't insure them. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We were in limbo right 18 then. We didn't know where we were. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Now in Austin last week, 20 Commissioner Letz and I met with TAC. We had a good 21 visit with Victor Valle(phonetic) and Kelly Flores, and 22 TAC has agreed to insure us because we're all kind of 23 out there for the rest of this year, the calendar year, 24 through the end of December. It's going to cost the 25 County another $42,000 in premiums to do it, but they 93 1 will do that for us to get us out of this dilemma that 2 we have to solve. And so we had a public meeting. It 3 was great. I thought it went very well. I think we all 4 felt that it went well. And what it did was it opened 5 up some other doors that now we have to deal with these 6 other technicalities. 7 So we're kind of in limbo of trying -- we're 8 actually not in limbo. I take that back. We have 9 actually secured insurance through the end of this 10 calendar year. Our volunteer fire fighters are 11 protected. It's going to cost us some money, but we are 12 protecting our volunteers and we're grateful for what 13 you do for the people of this County. It's been a long 14 winding road to get to this point. 15 In the meantime, we're working with 16 Volunteer Fire Departments. We have a new level of 17 awareness of what each of us does. And you'll note that 18 I nominated Chris Hughes because I wanted the Volunteer 19 Fire Department to have a seat at the table when we 20 start planning some of this stuff because we didn't know 21 each other that well. I didn't know him that well 22 until -- until recently. And I know that they have come 23 and I know they have things they want to share with us. 24 And so that's kind of the helicopter view and so we can 25 land this helicopter and get down in the weeds as much 94 1 as you want, but this is where we are with our Volunteer 2 Fire Departments and we're trying to make this work for 3 everybody. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stay at the 30,000 feet 5 and maybe go to 35,000. What do other counties do for 6 workers' comp? 7 JUDGE KELLY: They're all over the place. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But TAC gets involved? 9 JUDGE KELLY: No. Sometimes; sometimes not. 10 We did it through TAC. Kendall County does it 11 through -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, VFI, whatever they 14 are. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Somebody else. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the issue is TAC now 17 understands that they're probably not properly covering 18 most counties in the state on VFD's. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 20 JUDGE KELLY: If TAC is insuring the 21 workers' comp on VFD's, their underwriting department 22 has told them 'eh, they're not insured. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, the one big thing 24 that the Judge -- everything else said, great summary, 25 Judge. One thing, ESD's can get their coverage straight 95 1 from TAC. 2 JUDGE KELLY: They are a political 3 subdivision. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And we have two. ESD 1. And 7 Jack's here with ESD 2. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So they're -- you 9 know, and it's up to them. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And between now and the 12 end of the year, I mean, we will all -- Commissioners' 13 Court will work with the Volunteer Fire Departments to 14 figure out what's best for the Volunteer Fire 15 Departments to get their coverage. They can -- a couple 16 things we can do. Well, I'll let Mr. Eichholz talk a 17 little bit about what they're doing in Comfort, but what 18 Kendall County is doing because that's one option. 19 There's grants available for some Volunteer Fire 20 Departments, that's another option. And/or they can 21 just go out on the private market. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We did reimburse them. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The good thing is 24 there's breathing room -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's breathing 96 1 room -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- at this time. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and we can 5 reimburse -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: From now to the end of 7 the year, calendar year. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But we've obviously 10 been doing it wrong for no telling how many years. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 12 JUDGE KELLY: We bought time to get this 13 fixed. And I was visiting with Tierra Linda and the -- 14 what were -- Don passed out this application to apply to 15 the Forestry Service and get reimbursed. That's what 16 y'all have been doing for years you told me? 17 MR. CLARK: For years. 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's one way to solve it. 19 Kendall County uses VFIS, I think it is. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's VFIS. And the 21 County gets that insurance for all the Volunteer Fire 22 Departments in Kendall County and pays for it, and then 23 pays the premium for it through them, or the Volunteer 24 Fire Departments can go to VFIS directly and get their 25 coverage. So there's lots of options to get coverage, 97 1 and it's all -- it's not -- we have to figure out to 2 make sure all of our Volunteer Fire Departments, because 3 we do have a lot. 4 JUDGE KELLY: But what we secured -- what we 5 secured from TAC -- it was interesting, an interesting 6 week in Austin last week. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How do we -- where do 8 we get the 42,000? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're going to have to 10 come up with it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, where the number 12 comes from -- it will be in next budget year. And it's 13 in the budget. It's because basically the premium for 14 220 versus 20. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a factor. 16 JUDGE KELLY: The other thing that it does, 17 this premium buys coverage, legitimate coverage, from 18 fiscal year -- from October 1 last year to end of fiscal 19 year September 30 this year. So that -- and they're 20 honoring all the claims that were made during that time 21 period, TAC is honoring the claims. So we're buying 22 that coverage that we had purchased so that no one -- no 23 one is left out. We have not left anyone behind. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It could have been a 25 sad day if we had several departments go to a place and 98 1 unfortunate things happen and we had over 20 -- over 20 2 claims. You know how insurance is. Someone would be 3 left out in the dark. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And one other thing that I 5 would just advise the Court and the public, I'm going to 6 call them our good kids, like we talked about the 7 Airport Board being the good child of the City and the 8 County. Our good children, the Volunteer Fire 9 Departments that are doing a great job and not causing 10 any problems and didn't get us under the public scrutiny 11 and be where we are with regard to the workers' 12 compensation insurance unintended consequence, I know 13 are stinging because they feel like they're getting 14 swept up and besmirched with the bad conduct of a 15 couple, and it's simply not true. 16 And I personally want to go on record to 17 acknowledge that all these other Volunteer Fire 18 Departments, the other seven, are doing an outstanding 19 job. And the other two, it's not that they're not doing 20 a good job; it's just that they're doing things that are 21 not covered and they're doing things that create 22 potential liability and they're very oppositional and 23 obstinate. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Quote, unquote. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, Sir? 99 1 MR. CLARK: Do you mind clarifying the ESD 2 portion that they told you, expanding on that part? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. ESD's are created -- 4 they're a political subdivision. You're created by law. 5 You have taxing authority for your tax rate that you 6 charge. And as such, that makes you a political 7 subdivision of the State of Texas. Just like the County 8 is a political subdivision of the State of Texas. And 9 that qualifies you for insurance with TAC. If you want 10 to, we can get you insured through TAC. They'll deal 11 with you directly -- 12 MR. CLARK: The five board members, or can 13 we expand that to Mountain Home Fire Department? 14 JUDGE KELLY: That would be -- no. That's 15 for Mountain Home Fire Department. That's for your fire 16 department. 17 MR. CLARK: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: But we can -- we can work all 19 that out with your ESD's, because you're political 20 subdivisions. 21 MR. CLARK: Okay. 22 JUDGE KELLY: But for those Volunteer Fire 23 Departments like Center Point -- 24 MR. CLARK: I'm just clarifying ESD 2. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 100 1 MR. CLARK: But that's their option that -- 2 to use TAC, right? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jack, do you have a -- 4 before you said something that just tweaked my ear. He 5 said, does it cover Mountain Home Volunteer Fire 6 Department? If Mountain Home is a separate non-profit, 7 it would only cover ESD and not the Volunteer Fire 8 Department. It's going to depend on the relationship -- 9 MR. CLARK: So it would only be the five 10 member board members. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It depends -- I don't 12 know how y'all are set up. But you need to ask that 13 question to either to -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: These are the questions that 15 we need to sit down with insurance representatives, 16 whether it's TAC, whether it's the Forestry Service, 17 whether it's BFIS, and find out exactly how to make sure 18 we have got everybody covered, and we've got four months 19 to get it done. 20 MR. CLARK: So if we have a planned work 21 session to work on that -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We can get tax 23 insurance reps to come up here and meet with the two 24 ESD's and to make sure that we're not creating another 25 problem. 101 1 MR. CLARK: Okay. Well, I appreciate you 2 getting it extended to the end of the year, but the 3 immediate was a real concern for members. 4 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to work with you 5 to solve the problem. 6 MR. CLARK: Thank you. 7 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, what's your 8 name? 9 JUDGE KELLY: It's Jack Clark. 10 MR. CLARK: Jack Clark. 11 JUDGE KELLY: This is Brian Alexander. 12 MR. ALEXANDER: Mountain Home Fire Chief. 13 All right, so I talked to several outside agencies, fire 14 departments. And their county is paying for all their 15 workmens' comp, okay, so I don't understand why Kerr 16 County can't pay for ours. A different policy or 17 whatever. You made a good comment. There's good 18 departments and there's a couple bad. 19 JUDGE KELLY: We are -- we are paying for 20 it, Brian. 21 MR. ALEXANDER: Well -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: We thought we -- we thought we 23 had it. And then -- let me just correct this so that 24 you don't misunderstand. I've explained several things 25 to you that get misreported. We had comp in place; we 102 1 thought we did. We had a meeting and we found out that 2 the underwriting for TAC said that we can't do it that 3 way, so now we're trying to fix it. And we're in the 4 process of getting that coverage for you. We're paying 5 $42,000 to get you covered through the end of the year. 6 You are covered. 7 MR. ALEXANDER: Covered. Until the end of 8 the year. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And we're trying to figure out 10 how to solve the problem. That's what we're working 11 on -- 12 MR. ALEXANDER: So how many years have we 13 been paying workmen's comp for the volunteers? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Forever. 15 MR. ALEXANDER: I know. And due to the 16 issue between Ingram and Turtle Creek is what brought 17 this up, so the rest of the seven of us are having to go 18 outside to get workmen's comp. 19 JUDGE KELLY: No, that's -- that's not 20 accurate. No, that's not true. But let me explain one 21 other thing. It's almost a blessing in disguise, the 22 unintended consequence, because TAC thought we had 20 23 volunteers and we have really got 220 volunteers. TAC 24 didn't know that we had non-profit VFD's. TAC didn't 25 know that the ESD's -- TAC didn't understand all of this 103 1 stuff. And one of the problems that could have been -- 2 this is not a problem. Let me preface that. But what 3 could have been a problem, is there be a loss, someone 4 get hurt and they come in and find out that technically 5 that person was not insured under the literal reading 6 four corners of that insurance contract, and the 7 insurance company denied the claim. And we never saw it 8 coming, they don't even know it. And don't think that 9 underwriting departments and legal departments for 10 insurance companies won't do that to you. They will. 11 In a nano second. 12 But TAC didn't do that to us. What they 13 did, Brian, is they said we got a problem. We got you 14 out there doing this work and we need to make sure 15 you're insured. And they agreed to go back and honor 16 any claim that's been filed so far so no one is left 17 behind. They've agreed to cover everybody through the 18 end of this year to let us find the best way for each 19 one of you, to custom fit the solution to each Volunteer 20 Fire Department to get you workers' compensation 21 insurance coverage. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, but the other 23 thing I wanted to bring up, is that many and I won't say 24 all because I'm not sure, but many of the Volunteer Fire 25 Departments were not complying with the contract y'all 104 1 signed because you were supposed to give us the list of 2 the volunteers and then those were supposed to give to 3 TAC. That's where breakdown was. I mean, we could have 4 had a huge problem because people -- we weren't -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: And that -- that wasn't you. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That wasn't you. I'm 7 just saying -- and -- 8 MR. ALEXANDER: Well, what I'm determining 9 is that the rosters and stuff were being turned in but 10 there was a miscommunication between -- somewhere along 11 the lines on this County side. Because -- am I correct, 12 Jody? 13 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Well, the roster is -- we 14 don't approve the contract until we have the rosters. 15 That's one of the things. So it's not -- this issue 16 with TAC -- because I didn't know either until Victor 17 said we only have 20 and I'm like, no, I don't think 20. 18 So this is something again, it's -- I don't think you 19 guys were paying for it, it's -- this brought out a 20 problem that's been going on probably for decades, but 21 it was never brought out. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We're fixing the problem. 23 Right. We're committed to fixing this problem. 24 MR. ALEXANDER: Okay. So what's the 25 solution after the end of this year? 105 1 MR. ALEXANDER: To be determined. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we don't know. That's 3 what -- we're working on that. We have got four months 4 to figure out how to solve this problem. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There may be multiple 6 solutions. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There are a lot of 8 options. 9 MR. ALEXANDER: So there's a solution that 10 possibly the County will take over where another 11 workmen's comp -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's an option. 13 MR. ALEXANDER: An option. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I know I talked to Danny 15 Smith. Chief Smith called me. And I know you visited 16 with him. 17 MR. ALEXANDER: Uh-huh. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And he was the one that 19 brought to my attention, and I think you found out 20 through other sources also, that the Texas Forestry 21 Department has a program, which Tierra Linda is using, 22 and you buy your comp insurance, you pay the premium, 23 and you submit it to them, and they -- it's a grant 24 where they reimburse you for your -- your funds. That's 25 one possible solution. 106 1 MR. ALEXANDER: But it's $175 per person. 2 That's the max that they will go. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you get reimbursed, 4 it doesn't matter. 5 MR. ALEXANDER: I know, but I use that same 6 thing for my accidental dismemberment policy. It 7 doesn't even pay the whole policy. So I won't be able 8 to use that for workmen's comp off to the side. I've 9 already used that grant for a death policy. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, okay. Then -- okay, 11 then you're not doing that. You can't do what Tierra 12 Linda does. We have to do something different for you. 13 We have got to find the coverage somewhere. Maybe it's 14 BFIS, I don't know. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The thing is, we can't 16 solve it today. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Maybe -- maybe TAC will do it, 18 you know. Because you are an ESD fire department, so 19 you may get it through TAC. 20 MR. ALEXANDER: Okay. On another note, we 21 did -- you know, very aware of -- that I came up with a 22 code of ethics to send to Don, which were sent to all 23 the nine departments. And I'm pretty positive that 24 everybody -- a majority of them at least, seven of them 25 were okay with it. The problem that we have is the -- 107 1 the issues that have occurred in our workshop, who's 2 going to follow those if they don't do it? Who's going 3 to do the consequences? We can't do it under KARFA, and 4 I know that we've had this opportunity where only two 5 are here, but now y'all are all here. If we adopt that 6 code of ethics, what are y'all going to do if they break 7 those rules? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You're saying how do 9 you enforce it? 10 MR. ALEXANDER: Yes. 11 JUDGE KELLY: You and I have had this 12 conversation a couple of times. And let me repeat 13 myself, I want to be crystal clear. What our original 14 intent was, and my aspirational hope is, that we'll be 15 able to do is to get a uniform code of ethics, the best 16 practices code, whatever you want to call it, from each 17 one of you that we can adopt as a County policy. We can 18 enter a court order that we adopt your -- your code of 19 ethics that you bring to us. And if each of you want to 20 tweak it and the way you want to do it, but you bring 21 it, we approve it, there's a court order, it's 22 referenced in the contract. If you don't live up to 23 what you tell us that your code is, then we have room to 24 complain about whether or not you're complying with the 25 terms of the contract. We're trying to be -- we don't 108 1 have statutory authority to govern Volunteer Fire 2 Departments. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 4 MR. ALEXANDER: But funding, y'all do. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Contractually, we can't impose 6 certain things by contract if we all agree to it. The 7 original concept was if KARFA, which is all the fire 8 departments, okay? If KARFA adopts a policy, one common 9 policy, and comes to the County and we adopt it and the 10 County Clerk writes it into a court order and we make it 11 an official policy of the County -- of Kerr County and 12 you breach that, then we're going to sit down and talk 13 to you about it. That's the idea. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It'll be contractual. 15 JUDGE KELLY: But it's contractual; it's not 16 statutory. That's the way we're trying to do it. 17 MR. ALEXANDER: The other issue is talking 18 to a Chief yesterday, Precinct 1, he's not been 19 confronted, okay, by his Commissioner. And so, I think 20 we have a problem there with -- I know ESD 1 has 21 confronted that department, but -- so they're at the 22 mindset of I've done nothing wrong. So I think 23 somewhere along the lines somebody needs to backtrack 24 somewhere and start doing some discussion and talking 25 and come up with a solution to solve both problems. Am 109 1 I correct? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, one of the things we 3 could do is we could schedule a workshop and request 4 everybody to appear, and talk the specifics of each of 5 these incidents. I mean, there's a number of incidents. 6 I mean, the press got some of them last time when we had 7 the general meeting but we have got baby mamas living in 8 firehouses, we've got babies living in firehouse, we've 9 got cribs and diaper boxes in firehouses. I mean, come 10 on. And -- and, Brian, you've been a model in this 11 whole thing. If we need a workshop to call them all in 12 and sit down and talk to each other face to face and 13 call them out, we'll do it. Is that what you want? 14 MR. ALEXANDER: We need to do something 15 because -- and I'm pretty sure the Sheriff will agree 16 with me, he just had an incident, what, two weeks ago? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: (Nodding head in 18 affirmative manner.) 19 MR. ALEXANDER: That we're having problems 20 now -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: I know. 22 MR. ALEXANDER: -- with Precinct 4. So I'll 23 say it, Ingram, that there's a possibility he may get 24 mad enough and pull dispatch from us, okay? I don't -- 25 I hope he wouldn't do that to all of us, but -- 110 1 JUDGE KELLY: I -- I listened to that -- 2 that conversation myself. 3 MR. ALEXANDER: Because, I mean, we're 4 getting to the point where this is getting uncalled for. 5 You have some excellent volunteers in this room, all 6 right? I'm glad one showed back up. But he had a call 7 today -- 8 AUDIENCE: I had a wreck. 9 MR. ALEXANDER: He had a wreck, so he had to 10 go. But anyway, you do have some very good volunteers. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We know, and we appreciate 12 you. 13 MR. ALEXANDER: But we have two bad apples. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We love you to death, guys. 15 We do. 16 MR. ALEXANDER: Okay. And it needs to be 17 fixed. And we can't do nothing about it. Okay, we're 18 asking for help. This has become more than an issue. 19 JUDGE KELLY: But it's going to take public 20 and peer pressure, and contractual teeth to do anything 21 because we don't have statutory authority. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And adopting that 23 policy and procedure or ethics code, whatever you want 24 to call it, is going to be helped, because it goes 25 through us and get adopted. That'll give us -- 111 1 MR. ALEXANDER: I can answer for seven that 2 we would sign it right now, okay. I can't answer for 3 two. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And I'd -- I'd like to get 5 seven to sign it, because I'm going to put that in your 6 contract. 7 MR. ALEXANDER: And that's not the problem; 8 the problem was during our meeting was -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: We'll deal with the other two. 10 MR. ALEXANDER: -- where are y'all going to 11 help us up here. We can sign any paperwork we want -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, we have a 13 contract with each one so -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And that will be part 15 of the contract. That goes with it, along with the 16 rosters and what have you. Does that make sense to you 17 guys? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Now, everybody out there knows 19 about the burning man incident? They set the guy on 20 fire over there at the Ingram Dam in the parking lot. 21 AUDIENCE: He was in a fire suit. 22 AUDIENCE: Yes, sir. That was ridiculous. 23 JUDGE KELLY: He was in a fire suit. 24 AUDIENCE: Yes, he was in a fire suit. 25 JUDGE KELLY: They lit him up. Ingram Fire 112 1 put him out. 2 AUDIENCE: He was an Ingram volunteer fire 3 fighter. He was -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are we going to solve 5 anything else here on this issue? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Real quick, if I can. 7 I do -- there's two things that I think the County needs 8 to look at. Number one is just what Brian was saying, 9 is I'm not going to allow my dispatchers to be subject 10 to a fireman's rant and raving when it was totally 11 undeserved, okay? That's what happened when the 12 Kerrville PD was dispatching for them years ago and quit 13 dispatching for the Volunteer Fire Department because 14 they couldn't control that. 15 I can control it by ending us dispatching 16 for the Volunteer Fire Departments, because that is just 17 a volunteer service my office does, okay? I don't want 18 to do that because it takes all of us to make this 19 County safe. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And we don't want it either. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I don't plan on 22 doing that, because you got agencies like Brian's and 23 Center Point that really do -- and Turtle Creek, you 24 know, that try -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: And Tierra Linda there. 113 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And Tierra Linda; not 2 Turtle Creek. Tierra Linda. That really try and 3 control, okay? Because -- and there's another part of 4 this that I haven't looked at, but I will, okay? And 5 that is that we are giving these firemen, these 6 volunteers, access to my radio system, which is a lot to 7 do with law enforcement, okay, and I think there needs 8 to be a standard on who is allowed to be a volunteer 9 fireman in this County through the fire department. 10 Y'all can't control it; I can't control it. I can 11 control whether they have access to that radio, okay? 12 And I'm not -- I'm not going to have criminals having 13 access to my radio system, all right, that's number one 14 issue. 15 The other thing that I do have that I think 16 the County needs to look at, and Jonathan and I spoke 17 about this real quickly, and that is the County's First 18 Responder Program. It's not part of the Fire 19 Department; it's a County program. And those people are 20 not covered under any workers' comp, from what Brian was 21 telling me. They even -- and those people, that County 22 first responder program needs to be covered under the 23 County workers' comp program because they go with us to 24 wreck scenes and whatever, just like a lot of the 25 firemen, but a lot of the illness scenes where they get 114 1 exposed to blood or hazards or whatever, and that one I 2 think can be covered under the County's workers' comp 3 program. 4 JUDGE KELLY: They are. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because those you even 6 have Kerrville firemen that are on that first responder. 7 So I would ask that in this, or as soon as possible, the 8 County get that certified first responder program. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think they actually -- 10 probably are covered, but we need to be more clear about 11 it. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, they weren't -- 13 they were not. They had an issue and they were not. 14 And that needs to be clarified and they need to be 15 covered. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All the volunteers who 17 work for the County are covered. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They would not cover 19 one that got blood on them. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, this -- this -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: During the workshop, 22 Chief Smith said that only certain people are called out 23 because of insurance. It was Comfort and it was 24 Kerrville Fire Department. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. That was for 115 1 training, not for -- 2 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, one at a time. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Insurance coverage was 4 the reason -- the reason that only certain ones -- 5 because of certification. Certification, which involves 6 your insurance policy. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're talking 8 liability insurance; not workers' comp. You're talking 9 members of the first responder program. The first 10 responder program is a bona fide program that's 11 administered by Eric Maloney in the Kerrville Fire 12 Department to send certified first responders that 13 operate under a medical director to medical calls and 14 that; volunteer firemen don't, okay? They can -- 15 Comfort is the only one that is actually part of the 16 first responder. But like Brian could qualify to be a 17 first responder, but he is not -- Mountain Home isn't, 18 and his big reason for not being one and not being part 19 of that program, one, I think Kerrville Fire needs to 20 expand the program a little bit, but two was because he 21 was not covered if he -- if he responded, he thought and 22 this is where it goes opposite -- he thought Mountain 23 Home Volunteer Fire Department was covered under the 24 County's workers' comp. And at that time, if he 25 responded to a wreck scene as a member of Mountain Home 116 1 Volunteer Fire Department, he was covered under workers' 2 comp. But if he responded to that wreck scene as a 3 member of the Kerr County First Responder Program, he 4 was not covered under workers' comp. And that's a 5 serious issue for all of us that are out there doing 6 this job, okay? And that's what -- 7 MR. ALEXANDER: I want to clear that up 8 because they said they've never even heard of the 9 program. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. Yeah. TAC said 11 they definitely have never heard of a Kerr County First 12 Responder Program. That is a County run program, okay? 13 And we let the fire department, Eric Maloney, administer 14 it, but it is, you know, Zone 4 first responders, Zone 1 15 first -- those are first responders for medical issues, 16 because they do operate under a Medical Director, 17 they're different than a fireman, totally different. 18 But they need to be covered under workers' comp. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I think we're 20 going to have to have a workshop on all our options that 21 we have. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that's something 23 else we discovered through this process. And it's been 24 a big can of worms. A lot of people upset and 25 everything. But we're finding this stuff out so 117 1 everybody will be better protected at the end of this. 2 MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, Sir. I missed the first 3 of this. We had a car wreck. The only thing I'd like 4 to say since I have everybody here -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Come tell everybody your name. 6 MR. PHILLIPS: Sir? 7 JUDGE KELLY: She needs to know your name. 8 MR. PHILLIPS: I'm Charles Phillips. I'm 9 the Fire Chief from Center Point. I know we're trying 10 to keep all the budgets the same across the board with 11 the volunteer fire departments. It makes sense and all 12 now that I understand it. 13 But we're all different. We're all 14 diversified in different ways. Some of us have ESD's; 15 some of us don't. Some of us rely on, you know, like 16 our fundraisers, we made $35,000. It seems like a lot 17 of money. But, if you look at just some of the salaries 18 that some of the people make in the County, the County's 19 asking some of these Volunteer Fire Departments to run 20 their department off of $24,000 plus whatever we get in 21 donations. 22 I'm speaking from Center Point. It's not 23 enough. I need hose testing, I need pump testing, I 24 need ladder testing, I need gear testing that I can't do 25 because I can't afford it. 118 1 So it's just something to consider when 2 y'all -- next time y'all get in your budget maybe. I 3 know Mr. Moser has spoke about getting us a budget to 4 y'all. And I would love to submit one to y'all and show 5 y'all what we really need. 6 And like I said, we pinch pennies all the 7 time. I know I'm speaking from Center Point. If we 8 have a major engine malfunction and everything, we're 9 done. I don't have the money to fix it. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What you need to do is 11 submit a budget. 12 MR. PHILLIPS: Absolutely. But this is the 13 first we ever talked about it. But that's just -- like 14 I said, that's something to consider. You know, each 15 department is different. Each one has different goals 16 and things that they're trying to do. Like just our 17 gear alone has to do with -- to suit a firefighter is 18 about six grand per person. And if we don't get our 19 gears checked once a year, even the insurance that I 20 have if a firefighter gets injured, we're liable for it, 21 because the gear hasn't been tested. I can't afford to 22 do it. So that's what I have to say about that. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And just to respond with 24 what Commissioner Moser said, 35,000 feet is the jet 25 liner here. Earlier today, we were working on our comp 119 1 time, and that's going to be a material impact on the 2 budget. I think 130 something thousand dollars that was 3 not in the budget. And we're trying to scramble and 4 trying to find that to get that paid. 5 MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE KELLY: We understand what you're 7 saying. We're talking about adopting a budget on the 8 23rd. I'm not happy with that budget because right now 9 it has a $2.8 million deficit in it. We're working the 10 best we can. 11 MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE KELLY: It's hard for everybody. But 13 the thing we -- that would help us the most is to quit 14 fighting among ourselves. 15 MR. PHILLIPS: Absolutely. 16 JUDGE KELLY: We're on the same team here, 17 and we're trying to help each other as best we can. We 18 have had a lot of confusion with the Volunteer Fire 19 Departments. These are new issues for us that we're 20 learning. Existed, but this was not on our radar 21 screen. 22 And so we're going to follow up with another 23 workshop, talk about these very specific things. We can 24 follow up with more workshops on how we can better raise 25 funds for fire departments and what we can do to help. 120 1 We want to work with you. And we really appreciate what 2 you guys are doing. And it's sad when a couple of bad 3 apples -- 4 MR. PHILLIPS: I agree. Because a lot of 5 the Volunteer Fire Departments in this County work very, 6 very hard to achieve the professionalism that we're at 7 today. And I mean we're a role model for a lot of other 8 counties, I promise you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And the truth of the matter is 10 that the two that we're singling out, I'm going to say 11 95 percent or better of them are great guys and gals 12 doing great things. We just have a few oppositional and 13 obstinate people that we need to get on the same plain 14 and let's all work together for the common good. And we 15 appreciate what you're doing. 16 MR. PHILLIPS: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me comment on that a 18 little bit. It would be very helpful to go over y'all's 19 budgets a little bit. I mean, kind of where your 20 funding comes from, what you need. Because we have -- 21 what we've done primarily, you know, one size fits all 22 from a budget standpoint. 23 Some of y'all are small, some of y'all are 24 huge, and the geographic areas that you all cover. So I 25 think all those really, you know, should be looked at in 121 1 next year's budget. 2 MR. PHILLIPS: And to that too, you know, 3 this day and age, everything's changing. We're always 4 talking about liabilities. It's thrown out there in 5 every conversation that we have. And it's across the 6 board through everything, through people making bad 7 choices into gear and, you know, personal apparatuses 8 and everything. 9 So you know, it's 2019, you know, not the 10 1980's. Things have changed and we have adapted and 11 overcome and we just got to move forward and realize 12 that it's not as cheap as it used to be for the County 13 and throughout, for everybody. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And we're looking forward to 15 working with each and every one of you. 16 MR. PHILLIPS: We're excited, Sir. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It will help to get 18 the word out. I mean, because somebody just goes to 19 your fundraiser you had last month and, oh man, they 20 made a killing. Everybody was there and all this. 21 That's not the case, is it? 22 MR. PHILLIPS: No, sir. I mean $35,000 23 seems like a lot of money, it really does. But once you 24 get down to the gritty of what costs, you know, for 25 gear, upgrades, stuff like that. 122 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think bringing that 2 up to the public will be very important, too, and a 3 workshop will do it. Because the public doesn't 4 understand volunteer fire departments, what they are or 5 what their commitments are, and what they do and what it 6 costs. I guarantee you there are people out there that 7 rely on them, that said oh my God, I didn't know that I 8 was relying on something that may be under funded. 9 MR. PHILLIPS: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I think there's 11 some -- you know, I think there's probably some ways to 12 help other than just all the taxpayers -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: We can be your friend. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There's a lady from 15 the media writing feverishly right now. 16 MR. PHILLIPS: I mean like I said, we do the 17 best we can. We got almost $300,000 last year in 18 grants, which one was to replace the truck that was -- 19 had holes in it, water would run out, so we got a brand 20 new truck from the Forestry Service. And we got a 21 little extra from that. But you know, like I said, 22 there's still a lot we need to do. 23 JUDGE KELLY: So I'm just looking for a nod 24 of heads from our volunteer fire department people that 25 are here, scheduling a workshop sound like a good idea? 123 1 AUDIENCE: Yes, sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We'll do that. We'll invite 3 everybody. Thanks for coming. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Before you sit down, I 5 have a question. Is the testing of the equipment 6 required by law? 7 MR. PHILLIPS: Through the NFPA, yes, Sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. And average cost 9 for having somebody check everything? 10 MR. PHILLIPS: For the gear itself it's 11 anywhere from 250 to $400.00 per set. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Per set. 13 MR. PHILLIPS: And I have 24 sets. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that's per 15 firefighter -- 16 MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- basically, is what 18 you're saying, and once annually? 19 MR. PHILLIPS: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. And see things 21 like that, when you go to -- just this is a little 22 marketing tip. When you do your fundraisers you say 23 $250 will pay for this one person's checklist, and all 24 their equipment to be checked. This much money will 25 pay -- and I'll help you do this. All of this -- this 124 1 much money to replace this much equipment, Here's our 2 need this year, that kind of stuff. And this is how you 3 raise money. You gotta put that out there instead of 4 saying let's be at the fish fry and we're all going to 5 raise as much money as possible. It really does help, 6 and you'd be surprised how much difference it can make, 7 and I can help you do that. Individually we'll do that. 8 MR. PHILLIPS: Sounds good. I appreciate 9 it. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. All right. 11 MR. PHILLIPS: So back on what he's talking 12 about, to answer a little bit. We don't -- the 13 volunteers don't have to follow NFPA compliance. But a 14 lot of us do because there's safety hazards on that. 15 One of the things is like ten-year old gear. 16 If we let one of our guys have a piece of equipment 17 that's over ten years and it fails, it can go back on 18 the fire department, the fire chief, everything. Just 19 like air packs. Air packs have to be tested every year. 20 That's an NFPA compliance. We really don't have to do 21 compliance on it, but a lot of us follow it because of 22 the legal aspects down the road. 23 So some of us spend the money on it; some of 24 us can't spend the money. I'll be honest, there's some 25 stuff that we can't be compliant because of the outcome 125 1 of what it costs. If we went NFPA compliant fully, 2 there's no way that any of us in this room would be able 3 to run. There's no way. 4 I mean, you can talk to Kerrville Fire 5 Department. I mean, they -- a lot of -- the majority of 6 their budget, you know, is towards paying staff plus 7 being compliant. There's no way we can do it. But like 8 I said, there's some things on -- like myself, I stick 9 to those compliants because of liability down the road. 10 I would suggest the ones that they're not, they should 11 do that. 12 And like I said on another note, we're 13 trying to work with y'all. We're not -- seven of us, I 14 know are working with y'all. We're not trying to fight 15 here; we're trying to get an issue resolved so we can 16 move forward and do our job like we're supposed to 17 instead of being up here talking to y'all, you know. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And we know that. And we 19 appreciate that, we really do. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This last Saturday I 21 went and spent some time with the guys at Tierra Linda. 22 They have a good operation. They had training. I 23 watched them have some training. 24 You guys want to add anything to this? 25 Something that we're missing or something that you're 126 1 doing that would be helpful? 2 CHIEF KERSTEN: I could talk for hours. 3 JUDGE KELLY: We don't have hours. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's do this in a 5 workshop frame. 6 CHIEF KERSTEN: I could talk for hours. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, something that 8 would be helpful now. If you have already applied to 9 these grants, for example, right? 10 CHIEF KERSTEN: Bud Kerstein. I'm Chief of 11 the Tierra Linda Volunteer Fire Department. You know, 12 you bring up all this insurance stuff. Just for 13 liability or for coverage for our trucks and our 14 building, that costs us $13,000.00 every year. 15 I mean talk about costs and expenses, we're 16 looking at new trucks now that are over a quarter 17 million dollars. I mean, that's not your -- what used 18 to be a $60,000 pickup, you don't buy those anymore, 19 because they're not there. It costs us $6,000 to suit 20 out one guy. Yeah, that's if we only suit him out for 21 structure fires. But we've got wildland fires, that's a 22 different set of suits. That's different. 23 I mean, we in the last 30 days we have 24 replaced 22 tires. Well, 22 tires for big trucks is not 25 cheap. So, I mean, it goes on and on and on. I mean, 127 1 I could talk for hours about that. And most of our 2 residents, they come from the City, they expect services 3 that they get in the City. They expect us to be there 4 in five minutes. Well, we've got to get out of bed to 5 go down to the station. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: See, that's -- you're 7 making my point now, and I don't want to belabor this, 8 but people don't understand. They expect services but 9 they don't understand what it costs. I'll submit to you 10 there are a lot of people if they understood that would 11 pony up. 12 But take yourself as a group of volunteers 13 that are doing a great job. You're not necessarily 14 organized or have the expertise to go out and raise the 15 funds. So -- 16 MR. KERSTEN: We're trying very hard. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, I understand. I'm 18 not throwing stones at you. I'm just saying there's 19 some -- there's some expertise there that you can raise 20 a lot more money, if it's like Harley was saying. I 21 think we can help you in a workshop setting. 22 You know, I think probably the word is not 23 getting out to some of the people that expect services 24 and that would be willing and capable of providing more 25 funds to you. That's my point. 128 1 CHIEF KERSTEN: Well, we send out a 2 newsletter every quarter. And in every -- in almost 3 every newsletter we remind people that we are not 4 recipients of tax dollars, we operate on funds, on funds 5 donated. We operate on grants. We're very aggressive 6 about grants. We have to be because of quarter million 7 dollar trucks. We're not going to get them for the 8 amount that you give us every year. I mean that's -- it 9 costs us about $40,000 every year just to keep the 10 lights on. 11 You know, insurance is part of it. Yes, 12 we've been getting insurance compensation from the Texas 13 Forest Service. Workmen's comp, we get it from 14 Gillespie County, Kerr County, and we have our own, 15 because let's face it, I don't trust you guys. All 16 right, so we have our own, and we do. Partly is 17 Gillespie County, they cover our workmen's comp when 18 we're in Gillespie County, and other counties. But do 19 they really? 20 Kerr County, they give us workmen's comp 21 insurance to cover us while we're in Kerr County, and 22 other counties. But do they really? So we cover our 23 own workmen's comp, so we've had workmen's comp from 24 three areas just so we're safe, so my people are 25 covered. I have to take care of them because if they 129 1 don't show up, I can't run any trucks. 2 Okay, so thank you for your support and I 3 look forward to working at another workshop. I'd like 4 to invite each of you to come out and visit us anytime. 5 Give me a call. I'd be more than happy to show you 6 everything we've got. And Harley's got a little 7 booklet, if he wants to pass it around. We handed it 8 out to him that pretty much lays out what we do. So I 9 thank you for your time. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 11 CHIEF KERSTEN: Any further questions for 12 me? 13 JUDGE KELLY: No. Thank you. Okay, so to 14 move on, we're going to have a workshop to follow up on 15 this. And thank y'all for coming. Thank you very much 16 for helping us work through these issues. And I hope 17 you understand, we are committed to helping you. 18 So let's move over to the approval agenda. 19 2.1 pay bills. 20 MR. ROBLES: Yes. For Kerr County it's 21 $508,944.85, and the Airport, $30,579.00. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Moser has made a 25 motion, seconded by Commissioner Belew to pay the bills. 130 1 Any further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 2 Five zero. 3 Budget amendments? 4 MR. ROBLES: We have three today. One for 5 Veteran Service Office, Constable 4, and Human 6 Resources. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we approve the 8 budget amendments. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved, 11 Commissioner Harris has seconded that we approve the 12 budget amendments. Any further discussion? Those in 13 favor raise your land. Five zero, unanimous. 14 2.3 late bills? 15 MR. ROBLES: There are none today. 16 JUDGE KELLY: 2.4 monthly reports. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For the month of 18 August, 2019, we have Indigent Services, Jennifer Doss, 19 HR Director. Two, we have Animal Services, Reagan 20 Givens, Director. Three, we have Environmental Health, 21 OSSF, Ashli Badders, Director. Four, Constables in 22 Precinct 1, Tommy Rodriguez, Precinct 2, Kyle Schneider, 23 and Precinct 4, Gene Huffaker. And five, District 24 Clerk's Office, Dawn Lantz. Six, fines, judgments and 25 jury fees collected in Justice Court Precinct Mitzi 131 1 French, J. R. Hoyne, Kathy Mitchell. And accepting the 2 monthly reports for July 2019, we have the Treasurer's 3 monthly report, cash receipts, cash disbursements, and 4 ending cash balance, including investments, Tracy 5 Soldan. I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 8 Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to approve the 9 monthly reports. Any discussion? Okay, those in favor 10 raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 11 Auditor's report. 12 MR. ROBLES: There are none. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Court orders. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have court 15 orders from our September 3rd meeting. Court orders 16 37679, 37680, 37681A, 37681B, and 37682. I move for 17 approval. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 20 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 21 approve the court orders as presented. Any discussion? 22 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 23 Information agenda. Anything from 24 department heads? Anything from elected officials? Any 25 liaison commissioner reports? 132 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I have one that -- 2 while we were in Austin. Spent quite a bit of time 3 visiting with Chuck Kimbrough, who is an outside 4 attorney that looking at hiring for legal services for 5 the subdivision rules and regulations. 6 Interesting, something I -- the more I 7 talked to him, the more we need to have somebody guide 8 us through this process a little bit more. One of the 9 good things was that Mr. Kimbrough went back through 10 their files, and in 2011 Kerr County entered into a 11 general services agreement with that law firm. They are 12 willing to continue under that current agreement, even 13 though the rate is substantially less than their current 14 rates. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We haven't been paying 16 them all this time, have we? 17 JUDGE KELLY: No, they only charge for -- 18 when they render services. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's an hourly. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We haven't asked them to do 21 anything. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we haven't asked 23 them to do anything in years. I think, four or five 24 years last time we asked them for anything. 25 Anyway, the good news is it's going to save 133 1 us quite a bit of money at $225.00 an hour for their 2 time versus whatever the rate is now, which is a lot 3 higher than that. But they're willing to do it. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And believe it or not, I tried 5 to get him to go ahead and charge us current rates, and 6 and he said no, we're happy to do it for that. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. That's the 8 grandfather rate. 9 JUDGE KELLY: But we're going to have to 10 renew it, our General Services Agreement. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Sometime we'll 12 do that. 13 JUDGE KELLY: But we're going to update it 14 with current rates. But they're going to -- they're 15 going to help us with all of this at the old rate. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we will have a 17 workshop the way we'll probably have to proceed, and 18 I'll get with Jody and she'll send out an e-mail. 19 Specific questions, so he doesn't come in here and not 20 know -- we're going to specific -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Where to start. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, exactly. This is 23 what we want to talk about. This provision, this 24 provision, this provision, and help us through it so we 25 can hope to get it done maybe in -- his part anyway in 134 1 one workshop. I would probably do that before we do 2 other workshops. Because I think his will be an 3 overview of a lot of different areas. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And let me add one thing. I 5 really enjoyed visiting with Chuck. He made me aware -- 6 you know, we get these -- we went to the legislative 7 update session. So he started talking to us about some 8 of the changes that the big developers in the 9 metropolitan areas have gotten passed. 10 Now, whether it's a preliminary plat, any 11 kind of plat, has to be approved within 30 days, or it 12 is presumed -- it is approved. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's presumed? 14 JUDGE KELLY: It is automatically approved 15 if we don't reject it within 30 days in writing and 16 state the specific reasons why. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So developers are 18 running those places. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, Sir. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a way -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: We wanted to know who is 22 running Austin? Not us. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Lobbyists. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, anyway, it's a 25 pretty significant changes that we really -- I mean, it 135 1 may be a much more of a rewrite than we even thought it 2 was. 3 JUDGE KELLY: I mean, the 30 days scares me. 4 And you got -- it's got to be in writing. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we're looking into a 6 lot of that, and we're willing to -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: I'm ready for him to come talk 8 to us. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: For informational 10 purposes, I sat down with the clerks from -- well, Julie 11 Leonard from the Historical Commission, and they're 12 still looking for places to put stuff, so they're going 13 to store some of it at Maintenance. Shane said they 14 have room for it. There's no more room at the end. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So that's all we have on 16 capital improvement planning committee. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, I talked to them 18 about that too, for a permanent history. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We have on, don't we 20 by the library at the City. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, is there anything else 22 on the regular agenda before we go into executive 23 session? 24 Okay, item 1.24 and 1.25 to be considered in 25 executive session. It is 11:34 and Commissioners' Court 136 1 will go into executive session. 2 (Executive Session.) 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We're back in public 4 session, and it's item 1.24 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action on salary and grade alignment for 6 staff in the Victim Services Department. Miss Doss. 7 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: Yes. I recommend that 8 we bring Carole Machetta up to a grade 18.5 step 2, and 9 Pam up to grade 23 step 2 to be in line with grade and 10 step. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move that we accept 12 the recommendation of the HR Director on the step and 13 grade of Victim Services Department. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 16 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris that 17 we approve the recommended step and grade realignments 18 for the Victim Services Department. Any other 19 discussion? 20 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: Effective October 1st. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Effective October 1st. Any 22 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five 23 zero unanimous. 24 We are adjourned. 25 * * * * * * 137 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify that 6 the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise a 7 true and correct transcription of the proceedings had in 8 the above-entitled Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 13th day of October, A.D. 10 2019. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2020 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25