1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Monday, October 21, 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 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action regarding the request from Hunt 4 Volunteer Fire Department for reimbursement for FY 19/20. 5 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 6 action on addendum to the Shelter Pro contract. 7 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 8 action on request from the 216th District Attorney's Office for IT assistance in 9 Gillespie County. 10 1.4 Pay Bills. 23 11 1.6 Late Bills. 25 12 1.7 Court Orders. 26 13 2.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 29 14 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 43 action to approve a Resolution supporting 15 Kerrville Independent School District (KISD) Aviation Program. 16 2.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 46 17 *** Adjournment. 59 18 *** Reporter's Certificate. 60 19 * * * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is Monday, October the 2 21st, 2019, 9 o'clock in the morning, and the Kerr 3 County Commissioners' Court is now in session. I want 4 to welcome everyone here. I know you've gone out of 5 your way to be here, and you're very much appreciated. 6 I think it's helpful for all of us to participate in 7 County government and so you are certainly welcome. 8 I wanted to explain about our agendas. As a 9 matter of law I'm going to find this morning that the 10 agenda for today's meeting and the addendum for today's 11 meeting have been properly posted for the 72 hours as 12 required by law before we can have a meeting. And just 13 by way of kind of County governance 101 -- oh, I see 14 Miss Clarkson back there. We have one of our City 15 Council people with us. Thank you. We can't start the 16 meeting until 9:00. You've already observed that. 17 Because that's what's posted. If we started before 18 then, it's an illegal meeting. Or so my attorney tells 19 me. 20 When we post an agenda out there, we can 21 only talk about the items that are on that agenda for 22 that date. We are tempted sometimes to talk about other 23 things, other burning issues that are near and dear to 24 our heart, but we're legally prevented from doing that 25 because we're limited to what we have posted on the 4 1 agenda, that way the public knows what we're going to be 2 discussing and if they have interest, they can be here 3 to hear what we discuss and to provide their input. So 4 that's why this is our agenda for today, and if you 5 notice, we even have an addendum because something came 6 up after the agenda was posted so we posted an addendum. 7 And all of that was done in compliance with the law. 8 If you have noticed, a regular -- and I 9 brought the agenda from the 15th, which is I'm pretty 10 sure why most of you are here. And that agenda, at the 11 beginning of it, we have what is called Visitor's Input. 12 And if you identify yourself, by name, your street 13 address, you're afforded three-minute limitation to -- 14 (Commissioner Belew present.) 15 JUDGE KELLY: -- discuss anything that is 16 not on the agenda. If it is on the agenda, we ask that 17 you wait until that agenda item is called. But if it's 18 not on the agenda, you can speak at the beginning of the 19 meeting. And believe it or not, we -- that's our 20 visitor input. That's -- that's where we invite the 21 public comment. And if you'll notice, today is a 22 special, not a regular Commissioners' Court meeting. 23 Our regular Commissioners' Court meetings are on the 24 second and fourth Mondays of the month. And last week 25 was a regular session, but it was on a Tuesday and not a 5 1 Monday because Monday was a courthouse holiday. It was 2 Columbus Day, a Federal holiday. So we move our 3 meetings over to a Tuesday morning when we have a 4 Federal holiday. And that's what we did last week. 5 With regard to the Visitor's Input section 6 of the agenda, that is the opportunity for you to come 7 up to the podium, identify yourself and tell us what's 8 on your mind. And we faithfully do that. I was going 9 to make a comment that a month ago Commissioner Letz and 10 I were in Austin at a seminar and we were kind of 11 surprised to learn that, believe it or not, I think a 12 majority of the counties, we have 254 counties in Texas, 13 don't even have a public input part to their agenda, 14 which we -- we proudly told them that we do. And some 15 say they put it at the end. And we say no, we put it at 16 beginning. Because we do want to welcome you to come 17 and we know it's inconvenient to stay. So we try to 18 listen to you at the beginning of the -- and if this 19 were a regular Commissioners' Court meeting which next 20 Monday will be, then we would be able to receive public 21 comment. But because it is not on the agenda, we cannot 22 do so today. But we still welcome your input. I think 23 that about -- about covers. I know why you're here and 24 what I would prefer everybody to, if you go look on our 25 website, and that's not the world's greatest website, 6 1 but if you look on the website, you'll find the agendas 2 posted. And the agenda for last week was for the 15th, 3 and if you look down at item 1.24 on last week's agenda, 4 we had an item to consider, discuss and take appropriate 5 action regarding the Animal Services Department. 6 Now, you will also notice that it was the 7 Executive Session and I placed that item on the agenda. 8 You'll see my name beside it. That's just a sample of 9 what a regular Commissioners' Court agenda looks like. 10 And if you look at that agenda, and you go back over to 11 action agenda 5.1, you'll see where we take action on 12 anything that's discussed in Executive Session 13 afterwards. 14 And I've heard stuff about secret meetings. 15 No secret meetings. There was an Executive Session. It 16 was quite protracted. We had some very thorny issues. 17 We had about five topics that day. I don't think we 18 finished up until well after one o'clock. But there was 19 some public action taken when we came out of Executive 20 Session. But that's the way the government works. 21 When we talk in Executive Session, where the 22 public is not included in that, and sometimes not even 23 the Department Heads or Elected Officials are included 24 in that, just depending on the issues. We invite the 25 people in that can help us discuss the issue and get it 7 1 -- make a better informed decision about it. Then we 2 come out of Executive Session, go back into public 3 session and take action. And that's what happened last 4 Tuesday. And I'll offer that just by way of County 5 governance 101. 6 And again, everyone's welcome and I 7 encourage you to stay for the remainder of this agenda 8 and see what we really do and how we do it. And when 9 come back, you'll be a lot more informed and 10 experienced. You'll be a veteran of the courthouse. 11 So with that I'm going to call what is -- if 12 you'll notice our agenda today, it starts off with an 13 approval agenda and then an information agenda. The 14 approval agenda is something that we went to back when 15 the legislature was requiring us to meet every week to 16 pay bills, that we'd have to approve payment of bills 17 every week. The last legislative session changed that. 18 We no longer are required to do it. But our Auditor's 19 department liked it, and quite frankly, we liked it. So 20 we meet every -- we meet on those intermittent Mondays 21 that are not the regular session in a special session, 22 which today is, and we pay bills. And you'll see we 23 enter orders, we listen to Auditor's reports, if there 24 are any. And then we have an information part of the 25 agenda. And I actually started that when I took office 8 1 and that's an opportunity for the Court to talk. And if 2 you'll look down there, you'll see there's three parts 3 of it. One is we get status reports from our Department 4 Heads, status reports from our Elected Officials, and 5 status reports from our Liaison Commissioners. 6 And on the regular agenda, you will note -- 7 this goes back to last week's -- the very last page of 8 the regular agenda has a list of Liaison Commissioner 9 appointments so you know which Commissioner might be the 10 Liaison Commissioner on whatever you may be interested 11 in talking about or discussing with someone. And if you 12 look down there on, where do we have it? Animal 13 Services is Commissioner Letz. So he's -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They know that. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but that's -- so that 16 you know, and -- and today, at the Special 17 Commissioners' Meeting for today, at the end -- towards 18 the end of the meeting when we get to this part of the 19 agenda, the Commissioners, Liaison Commissioner will 20 have an opportunity to inform the rest of us what's 21 going on in their area. Now, we might have a lot to 22 talk about today, I don't know. But -- and that's 23 because only two of us can talk about any issue without 24 having a public meeting, without having that agenda 25 posted and 72 hours notice to you, the public. 9 1 So we have an information part of the agenda 2 so that I can find out what's going on, Commissioner 3 Belew can find out, Commissioner Harris, Commissioner 4 Moser, because he can only talk to one other person, 5 because if he talks to the second one, that's a quorum, 6 that's three. And we can't do that. That's against the 7 law. They call it walking quorums, if you do that. And 8 trust me, when we go to these conferences, they teach us 9 diligently to avoid against that. And our County 10 Attorney, very tastefully and subtly sends us periodic 11 reminders of not -- to not do that. 12 So this is when we get a chance to discuss 13 with one another. And we hear from Department Heads, 14 and then we hear from all the Elected Offices. And just 15 a little trivia fact out there that some of you don't 16 know. We have 25 elected County officials. And we 17 got -- we got the Sheriff here today. We got our 18 bailiff -- I mean our Constable Precinct 4 here today. 19 We've got our Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 here 20 today. Those are elected officials. And I'm looking 21 around. And we've got our County Attorney here today. 22 Of course, her assistant is behind her. He's not 23 elected, though. And we got the Sheriff. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And we got one back 25 here in Brian. 10 1 JUDGE KELLY: And we got our County Clerk 2 here and the five of us. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And 20 others. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Who did I forget? No, I 5 think -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 20. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I said -- I said J.P. Precinct 8 3. I looked at her. She looked at me. 9 And so when we say Elected Officials, unlike 10 other forms of government we have a lot of Elected 11 Officials to listen to. And another thing that a lot of 12 people don't understand is that elected officials, they 13 do not report to this Court. Judge Mitchell doesn't 14 have to come tell me anything. Commissioner -- I mean 15 Constable Huffaker does not have to come tell me 16 anything. They're independent. Guess who they report 17 to. You. They report directly to the voters. And so 18 we have a lot of -- a lot of different balls to juggle 19 when we have a meeting but we try to stay legal. And so 20 as excited as everybody is and eager to share, and we're 21 eager to listen and share as well, we're not going to be 22 able to do that today, because we will get in trouble. 23 You wouldn't get in trouble but we would sure get in 24 trouble. And if it got out of hand then I'd have to 25 adjourn the meeting. 11 1 So with that, we're going to start with the 2 approval agenda. And let me introduce our new Auditor, 3 Tanya Shelton, if you would. This is -- this is where 4 you get to tell us what to do. 5 Item 1.1 consider, discuss and take 6 appropriate action -- oh, I'm sorry. We didn't get to 7 your bills yet. We got -- we've got the Volunteer Fire 8 Departments to go. 9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 10 action regarding the request from Hunt Volunteer Fire 11 Department for reimbursement for FY 19/20. Yes, sir. 12 MR. TAYLOR: Good morning. Bob Taylor with 13 the Hunt Volunteer Fire Department. I was asked to 14 submit the signed copy of the extension to our contract. 15 Would you like that? 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You bet. Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Now since we're doing a little 18 informative today. Let me -- thank you for being here. 19 But so that everybody knows, we -- we have contracts 20 with our Volunteer Fire Departments. We're very proud 21 of the work that they do. Hunt in particular. 22 MR. TAYLOR: Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Near and dear to my heart. 24 Because I live out there. But we extended the 25 contracts, instead of renewing them for a year we 12 1 extended them through the end of the year because we had 2 a problem with our insurance coverage, worker's 3 compensation insurance coverage. And in order to get 4 all the Volunteer Fire Department volunteers covered, we 5 had to go to the Texas Association for Counties, who 6 made a special extension for us to cover everybody 7 through the end of the year, because we cannot provide 8 worker's compensation insurance for Volunteer Fire 9 Departments who are not governmental subdivisions. If 10 they're part of an ESD, an Emergency Services District, 11 we can cover them, but the County cannot cover a 12 non-profit 501(c)(3). And so that's the issue that 13 we're dealing with. We've asked them to renew it. He 14 brought it. 15 What we also do by way of our Volunteer Fire 16 Departments is we include them in our budget process and 17 we allocate a certain amount of money to the various 18 Volunteer Fire Departments. And the way we do that is 19 they go out and incur expenses, bring those expenses 20 back to us, and we fund them to reimburse for these 21 reimbursable expenses. And so what they're spending is 22 monitored here at the County level, and then we go ahead 23 and pay them the reimbursements. Because we're in an 24 extension period through the end of the year and not our 25 normal fiscal year, there's a question that's arisen as 13 1 to can we go ahead and fund on our 1920 fiscal year 2 budget under the existing contract. Otherwise this 3 would not be a problem, this is just an unusual 4 circumstance. 5 And so Mr. Taylor has gone out of his way to 6 be down here and we're very appreciative of that, but 7 we're trying to tell everybody what we're doing and why, 8 and we have asked him to come to us and make the request 9 for the reimbursement. So go ahead, please. 10 MR. TAYLOR: The reimbursement amounts will 11 be coming probably to you and Jody once we get all our 12 receipts together. You may know we just completed a new 13 substation in your neighborhood. And -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, you did. 15 MR. TAYLOR: -- we'll be having an open 16 house and a grand opening in November. And we'll extend 17 the invitation to everybody for hamburgers and show off 18 the new facility, fully operational and ready to go. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And it's at the corner of 20 Felix Fisher Road and Highway 39 on the South Fork. 21 MR. TAYLOR: Thank you. And that's all I 22 had for you today. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you very much for coming 24 in. Sorry you had to listen to all my lectures. 25 MR. TAYLOR: No problem. 14 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So, Bob, you turned in 2 a list of equipment that y'all are going to purchase? 3 MR. TAYLOR: Yeah. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So I move that we 5 approve reimbursement on next year's budget for the Hunt 6 Volunteer Fire Department. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I thought what we were 8 going to do is we're going to take a -- we're going to 9 look at the things that we were going to reimburse for. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We are, but I'm pretty 11 sure this falls -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, but we -- let's 13 get that list and then let's decide. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, but Hunt had a -- 15 let's recall Hunt had a purchase they were trying to 16 make earlier than the rest of them. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are we going to -- are 18 we going to do the list or not? 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, we are. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So why don't we 21 get the list so everybody's on the same footing, and 22 decide what we're going to reimbursement, and I'm sure 23 that'll be on there. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, it will. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But let's -- that's 15 1 what we decided to do, so let's follow up on what we 2 decided. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought it was just 4 one piece of equipment. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, it's -- you -- 6 it's in your deal. It's several pieces of equipment 7 about a little over $15,000. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I know. But we 9 said -- that's what we said we were going to do. We 10 said we were going to formulate a list, and from that we 11 would reimburse. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I'm sure that 14 equipment will be on there. But so why jump out ahead 15 of it? 16 JUDGE KELLY: I interpret that as not being 17 a second. Is there anyone who wants to second his 18 motion or not? We're going to open it up for discussion 19 but -- 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I -- and I agree 21 with you. We're going to -- we're going to finalize a 22 list. But we also it's my understanding we said if 23 somebody needed an advance like these gentlemen do in 24 Hunt, that we would have them come in and show us what 25 they had, and they've done that. We -- each of us have 16 1 a list. So again -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe I have the 3 Court order in this group that I just read through. 4 Court order we did out on the 15th that says, "Approved 5 that the Hunt Volunteer Fire Department submit a request 6 for a special reimbursement to the Auditor's Office and 7 Commissioners' Court prior to January 1, 2020 as an 8 advance of their 2019-2020 budget." 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that will be this. 10 So I'll second the motion. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Harris, who is our Liaison Commissioner for 14 Volunteer Fire Departments, and seconded by Commissioner 15 Belew. The floor is open for discussion. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For the record, 17 Commissioner Moser seconded that motion last week. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Yeah. I didn't 19 remember we did that for that one. But thank you for 20 comment. 21 JUDGE KELLY: You gotta have a little fun 22 with this. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We got to have -- we 24 got to the moon, though. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then I'll call the 17 1 question, those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 2 five zero. 3 Okay. Thank you very much for coming in. 4 MR. TAYLOR: Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: This is -- kind of illustrates 7 how County Government works. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good thing we have 9 court orders. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.2 consider, discuss and 11 take appropriate action on an addendum to the Shelter 12 Pro contract. 13 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. This was 14 something that the IT Director, Bruce Motheral, and I 15 have been working on as far as the Shelter Pro portal 16 goes. We're seeking -- and Bruce will have some more 17 information on the details of it. But we're seeking 18 approval to go ahead and make the purchase of what we 19 figured out exactly what we need right now. And we want 20 to go ahead and move forward with that. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You going to talk to 22 us, Bruce? I think you all know Reagan Givens, the head 23 of Animal Services. This is Bruce Motheral, he's the 24 head of our IT Department. 25 MR. MOTHERAL: After looking up what the 18 1 accounts were that we had, it comes out that the portal 2 is $500.00. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a separate 5 contract for the portal? 6 MR. MOTHERAL: It's an addendum to the 7 original contract. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'll make a 9 motion that we approve the expenditure of $500.00 to 10 come out of the Animal Services budget and also ask the 11 County Judge to sign the addendum. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion has been made by 15 Commissioner Letz, who is our Liaison Commissioner for 16 Animal Services, and seconded by Commissioner Belew. Is 17 there any over discussion? Those in favor raise your 18 hand. Five zero, unanimous. Thank you. 19 Item 1.3 consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action on a request from the 216th District 21 Attorney's Office for IT assistance in Gillespie County. 22 Do we have anybody here from the 216? I put this on the 23 agenda. 24 What this is, the 216th District, that is a 25 District Court not a County Court, and it covers two 19 1 counties, Gillespie and Kerr County. And they want to 2 do some IT work over in Gillespie County and they have 3 asked our IT department, Mr. Motheral, to go to 4 Fredericksburg to do this work for them. And he's come 5 to me, and I have concern that the 216th is funded about 6 70 percent by Kerr County and 30 percent by Gillespie 7 County, approximately, and it seems like to me each 8 County ought to probably pay for their own IT work. And 9 so whatever IT work that the 216th wants to do seems to 10 me like it ought to come out of the 216th budget, and 11 not the IT Department's budget here. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I agree. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can I ask a question? 15 Is this something, Bruce, that you need to do jointly 16 with someone, or is it just routine stuff? 17 MR. MOTHERAL: It could be both, to be 18 honest. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. So you probably 20 need at least to look over somebody's shoulder and know 21 what's going on? 22 MR. MOTHERAL: Because it does interconnect 23 with stuff we already have. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Now how, then, 25 do we pay for that, or who pays for it? 20 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let's -- while we've got 2 Bruce at the podium. Bruce, explain to the Court and to 3 the public how you've done this with Adult Probation. 4 MR. MOTHERAL: In the past -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Because that's a 216th office. 6 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes. Right. The Adult 7 Probation Department has paid for their own equipment, 8 we prepped it, and then they've taken it to the other 9 counties, and that's the last we see of it. There are 10 other County IT departments actually they go on from 11 there. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They service it and go 13 on. 14 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We got into an issue, 16 as you well know, with Kerr County Appraisal District by 17 taking on more responsibility than we were supposed to. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, we sure did. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And we got into 20 a lot of trouble, a lot of heartache and discussions 21 and finally got it resolved but it took some effort to 22 get it resolved. So I would caution against going over 23 to another county and -- 24 MR. MOTHERAL: That's why we're here. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- getting into their 21 1 system, and -- and I don't -- I don't know what our 2 policy is on supporting with IT outside of Kerr County 3 with District Judges. So I think we need to -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we help. We facilitate, 5 we cooperate. But -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And if they -- if they want -- 8 as I understand it, Bruce, if they want you to order the 9 equipment, you can probably get the best price and order 10 it for them but -- 11 MR. MOTHERAL: Right. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- then we invoice them back 13 and they pay for it. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: But as far as actually sending 16 our IT personnel 22 miles down the road to 17 Fredericksburg courthouse, I'm not in favor of that. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And getting into their 19 system, no, I'm not either. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, I couldn't 21 imagine them -- or us wanting one of their guys coming 22 over here either. 23 MR. MOTHERAL: Exactly. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I'd probably hear from you if 25 they did that, wouldn't I? 22 1 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes, you would. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we have to have a 3 cooperation between -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Absolutely. We share the 5 district. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So in the event that 7 they need to get some advice, Bruce would give those the 8 same as he would expect from them that kind of courtesy 9 so -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Absolutely. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It needs to have a 12 little ebb and flow to it. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what's the motion? 14 I don't think there's any action to take. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't think there is. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I think we've clarified it for 17 you. 18 MR. MOTHERAL: Yeah. Thank you. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So I don't think we have to 20 take any action. 21 MR. MOTHERAL: All right. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And I will communicate it with 23 the District Attorney for the 216th. So don't worry 24 about it. 25 MR. MOTHERAL: Thank you. 23 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now, Miss Shelton. 2 This is usually 1.1. We had a few little things to do 3 today first. But item 1.4 today is to pay the bills. 4 County Auditor. 5 MS. SHELTON: Okay. For Kerr County we have 6 $71,082.02. For the 198th District Attorney forfeiture 7 fund, we have $281.20. And that's all out of the 18-19 8 budget. And so out of this year's budget, the 19-20 9 budget, for Kerr County we have $151,007.70. The 10 airport, we have $601.97. Adult Probation is 11 $18,034.65. And then the 198th District Attorney 12 forfeiture fund is $308.84. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move that we approve 14 the bills as presented by the Auditor. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 17 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew, to 18 pay the bills as presented. We usually just go ahead 19 and vote but I'm just going to explain a couple things. 20 How many people think that we hired 21 Ms. Shelton? We didn't. She's hired by the District 22 Judges, the 216th and the 198. She's our check and 23 balance to keep us straight on our numbers and finances. 24 The 198, how many people know that we have two District 25 Courts here in the courthouse? The 198th is Kerr and 24 1 Bandera. And the 216th is Kerr and Gillespie. That's 2 what the Adult Probation -- Adult Probation covers both 3 of those courts. And the 198th forfeiture fund, that -- 4 that's a fund that they have. 5 MS. SHELTON: That's under their control. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And we pay the -- we pay money 7 out to them. Okay. Any other -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's sort of under their 9 control. It's an odd -- that forfeiture fund is a very 10 strange thing where there's an oversight committee that 11 myself, the Sheriff, and County Judge Evans were 12 appointed to oversee those expenditures. That was done 13 by a previous state representative and it's in State 14 Law, and hopefully we'll have that changed by -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: And I did have -- I did 16 have -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- our new State Rep. 18 JUDGE KELLY: I did get a call this past 19 week over this Animal Services thing, asking about 20 certain line items on the budget. And if you look at 21 our budget and you look for Fund 95, it's on that first 22 page, you'll see it down there, and it's in a completely 23 separate category by itself. And we account for it that 24 way. This is how we pay the bills. 25 We have a motion and a second. Any other 25 1 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 2 five zero. 3 The next item on the agenda is 1.5 budget 4 amendments. 5 MS. SHELTON: There are not any. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.6 late bills. 7 MS. SHELTON: We have late bills and they're 8 all due to Center Point Wastewater. This money has been 9 received into the County, so now we need to pay that 10 money out. And that amount is $996,253.10. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And just -- just for 12 clarification because we're doing a little education 13 here today, what do you consider a late bill? 14 MS. SHELTON: A late bill is one that we did 15 not get in time to process whenever we handed you the 16 initial bills. So we're just trying to get in as up to 17 the date minute as we can in order to pay out our 18 invoices. 19 JUDGE KELLY: But on this one it's not us 20 being late, they were late getting it to us? 21 MS. SHELTON: Correct. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 23 MS. SHELTON: This is a grant so it works a 24 little bit different. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Explain that a little 26 1 bit more because it's a large amount. This is funds 2 from the Water Development Board that are grants to Kerr 3 County that are held in escrow in Austin at a bank, and 4 the Water Development Board now released those funds so 5 we can pay the bills. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move that we pay the 7 late bills. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 10 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris, to 11 pay the late bills. Any discussion? Those in favor 12 raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 13 Court orders 1.7. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This says we have court 15 orders from the October 7th meeting of 37750. I'm not 16 sure why that's in separate group. We may have approved 17 that but -- 18 MRS. DOWDY: We accepted it last meeting. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 20 MRS. DOWDY: We approved them except for 21 that one. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And this one is 23 to approve and make exception and not pay out of -- pay 24 out $111.19 of comp time in the District Clerk's office 25 as instructed in Court Order 37693. 27 1 JUDGE KELLY: Right. We all remember that. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: To not -- to not do it? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To not do it. 4 JUDGE KELLY: We're -- the money is not to 5 be paid out. It was an exception to the policy that we 6 granted the District Clerk's office -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. I remember 8 that. 9 JUDGE KELLY: -- because they wanted to have 10 the comp time carry over. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So that's that Court 12 Order. And then we also have from our October 15th 13 meeting, 37751 through 37777. I move we pay -- or 14 approve those Court Orders as read. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Then motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew. Is 18 there any discussion about the Court Orders? 19 And for those of you who don't know about 20 Court Orders, everything we do here today, when we make 21 a decision, has to be reduced to a Court Order. That's 22 how we do business. Those Court Orders are prepared by 23 the County Clerk, Ms. Jackie Dowdy back over here in the 24 corner, who sits in on all of our meetings. Those 25 Orders have been prepared, reviewed by us. Commissioner 28 1 Letz is our most experienced member of the Court. He 2 reviews the orders, presents them to us. Sometimes we 3 send them back. You saw one that we sent back from last 4 week that needed a correction. So we corrected it and 5 brought it back and anything that happens in this Court, 6 if you want to find out, you can go look it up on a 7 court order on the website. They're there. 8 And I just wanted to introduce -- we have 9 Judge Ragsdale who came in from Precinct 4, who's also 10 here. That's another one of our elected officials. 11 This is County Government 101 day. So you're part of 12 it. 13 Okay. With that, let's go to the -- 14 JUDGE RAGSDALE: It makes me nervous when 15 you announce late "Bills", I thought I wasn't that late. 16 (Laughter.) 17 JUDGE KELLY: We're now to the part that 18 says the Information Agenda. Oh, the -- the Addendum. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nope. We're not there 20 yet. 9:45. Sorry. 21 JUDGE KELLY: 9:45? Okay. Let me explain 22 that. There is an addendum that Commissioner Moser has 23 put on the agenda. We posted it because it was an 24 addendum. We had to post it, but we have to wait 72 25 hours from its posting. And because we didn't get 29 1 posted until 9:45 last week -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On Friday. 3 JUDGE KELLY: -- on Friday, we can't hear it 4 before 9:45. I know, but this is what we have to do, 5 and if we don't do that, it's not legal. So -- I know, 6 it sounds kind of boring, but this is how County 7 Government works. And we will come back to that. So 8 let's start the Information Agenda. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I might add, Judge. 10 All these things that County Government 101 the Judge is 11 presenting, it's all dictated by law to us. We can only 12 do what the State statutes say we can do, with very 13 little exception. 14 JUDGE KELLY: So let's go to 2.1. Status 15 reports from Department Heads. Do we have any 16 department head reports? No, just wait a minute, Bill, 17 we'll get to you. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You're a late Bill, 19 elected official. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We don't have any 21 reports from department heads today. So let's go to 22 item 2.2 status reports from Elected Officials. There 23 we go. 24 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Oh, you guys. 25 MRS. DOWDY: Constable 3 is supposed to go 30 1 first. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Let's go ahead and take J.P. 3 Precinct 3. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well wait. Before you 5 do that, you know what, a lot of officials didn't speak. 6 I talked to Tanya before the meeting. And 7 she went to an education session on budget and other 8 things last week. And you want to tell us, Tanya, if 9 you would, about having a workshop on budget 10 preparation, not this coming year but the following 11 year, please. 12 MS. SHELTON: Yes. So there was a 13 representative from TAC that spoke to us, Texas 14 Association of Counties. And so they are putting 15 together a workshop that they're going to be holding 16 regionally for the Tax Assessor Collector -- now you're 17 going to pull my memory on who all the elected officials 18 are. 19 JUDGE KELLY: That's Bob Reeves. 20 MS. SHELTON: Bob Reeves, thank you. And 21 then, of course, the Commissioners, County Judges, the 22 County Auditors, and different people like that, that 23 will be involved in the budgeting and how the money will 24 work, and collecting and that type of thing. They are 25 recommending that we start the process earlier also. So 31 1 I'm looking forward to going to one of those workshops 2 and hopefully most have us can attend one somewhere 3 around. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I think -- last 5 -- my suggestion is, we have one here. Because every 6 member of this Court and department heads -- department 7 heads even more so, and the criticality of the timing 8 it's got to be done by August the 21st or put it on the 9 agenda, so I recommend that we have a workshop here. I 10 don't know whether it's TAC that should help us with -- 11 facilitate that or somebody, but -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: They're usually cooperative. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 14 JUDGE KELLY: They're usually cooperative. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. And I'm saying, 16 I don't know if they're the right ones. If they're the 17 right ones, we ought to get TAC here because it doesn't 18 cost us anything. But I think we should have a workshop 19 on the new budget legislation. 20 MS. SHELTON: And we -- as soon as those 21 workshops come out, and I can talk them ahead of time, 22 but we will have more information. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. Good 24 enough. Good enough. Thank you. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. This -- we're still on 32 1 the portion of the agenda about reports from elected 2 officials. We've -- we ask our officials -- elected 3 officials -- we request that they come talk to us twice 4 a year and let us know what's going on in their offices 5 and whether or not there's any problems they're having 6 or anything we can do better to serve the people. So 7 let's start with Judge Mitchell. This is Precinct 3 8 J.P. 9 JUDGE MITCHELL: Good morning. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. 11 JUDGE MITCHELL: Not much to report. The 12 office is busy. Nothing has changed. We're not needing 13 anything at this time. I do have some information that 14 I would like to give to the court. From January 1st 15 through October of each of these new years that I'm 16 going to give you. It's all the same time frame. On 17 civil cases back in 2017, from January to October, we 18 had 125 civil cases. In 2018, we had 205, and in 2019, 19 207. So it's going up slightly, and I have a feeling 20 once the 20 thousand comes in it's going to go up even 21 more. 22 JUDGE KELLY: The 20 thousand is the $20,000 23 jurisdictional limit? 24 JUDGE MITCHELL: Jurisdiction that will come 25 into effect on September 2020. 33 1 JUDGE KELLY: And I apologize for 2 interrupting but we're kind of doing this 3 educationally -- 4 JUDGE MITCHELL: Right. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- so the people know, any 6 civil disputes up to $20,000.00 can be brought in the 7 justice courts. 8 JUDGE MITCHELL: Right. And so -- and then 9 on the criminal, same time frame, January to October. 10 In 2017, we had 560. In 2018, we had 477. And 2019, 11 370. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: One's going up, one's 13 going down. 14 JUDGE MITCHELL: Uh-huh. 15 JUDGE KELLY: As long as the criminals going 16 down. 17 JUDGE MITCHELL: That's exactly right. And 18 that's about it unless anybody has any questions. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I have -- I have a 20 question for you because I'm using this to -- well, the 21 public doesn't know what all we do. 22 JUDGE MITCHELL: Right. Right. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And you and I both are 24 involved in mental health. 25 JUDGE MITCHELL: Yes. 34 1 JUDGE KELLY: And a lot of people don't 2 understand that the -- our Justices of the Peace, of 3 course Judge Ragsdale is here also, they handle the 4 detention hearings, emergency detentions, and they also 5 handle the probable cause hearings on mental health 6 issues, which is probable cause for them to be placed at 7 the Crisis Stabilization Unit out behind the State 8 hospital. I serve on the mental health MHDD Board, and 9 I also handle all the civil commitments. So once they 10 get over to the Crisis Stabilization Unit, I'm the one 11 that decides whether they go to the State hospital or 12 they're released. And that's just one of the functions 13 that our Justices of the peace do. So thank you very 14 much. 15 JUDGE MITCHELL: Thank you. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Judge Ragsdale. 17 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Late "Bill". 19 JUDGE RAGSDALE: I thought, man, he's rough 20 on people. Well, thank you for inviting me to come 21 here. Nothing really extraordinary going on in the west 22 end of the County in reference to my Court. There's 23 probably some strange things going on, but that's a part 24 of his responsibility. One of the -- I understood kind 25 of that there's no real guidelines for what you all are 35 1 wanting, but let me give you some statistics to help you 2 get a drift perhaps of what we're doing. I've been the 3 Justice of the Peace for the west end of the County for 4 29 years. And some court -- it's -- being a Justice of 5 the Peace, there are a lot of discretionary things that 6 people do. Each -- we have four people doing the same 7 job for different precincts here, and each one has their 8 own unique way of doing things. 9 And it's even worse, there's 254 counties, 10 and if you've ever been to a convention like that, 11 there's 254 counties with different opinions on how to 12 get things done. I don't dismiss -- when a case -- 13 criminal cases get old, I don't dismiss them; I keep 14 them going. 15 We have a third -- the County has a 16 third-party collection system that goes after these 17 people, and I have disposed of cases routinely. It was 18 a lot more at first, but even now I dispose of cases 19 from 1995, 2000. And they are hostile that people have 20 gone -- well, I thought y'all would have just forgotten 21 us. No, I'm not in the business of forgetting yet. 22 JUDGE KELLY: You're collecting fines and 23 penalties, right? 24 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Yes. Yeah. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 36 1 JUDGE RAGSDALE: That's my duty. I mean, I 2 have a constitutional statutory duty to make as rapid a 3 disposition of a case as I can. And -- and take it to 4 its completion, if at all possible. So anyway, we have 5 2,084 open cases. But keep in mind, this is from 1991 6 to today. That's not bad. It really isn't. 7 We had in traffic cases, 352 cases. That's 8 not good. But there's a reason. Up until just this 9 year, I believe, we have had six highway patrolmen 10 working out of Kerr County, and at any given time, at 11 least half of them have either been at DPS Austin in 12 their training academy or they've been down on the 13 border deployed to protect our borders. Which means 14 they aren't here. And if they aren't here, they aren't 15 writing tickets. It's kind of like letters. If you 16 want to receive some, somebody's gotta write some. 17 And so we have -- when I first took office, 18 literally, we were in what's called a step program. We 19 were -- just my office was taking in 500 cases a month 20 in traffic. We were turning in $55,000 a month in 21 traffic on top of all the civil cases stuff. That 22 doesn't happen anymore. Now, keep in mind a court is 23 not supposed to be a cash cow. I -- I think, especially 24 in this day and age, we do well to cover the budget we 25 have. I think -- I looked at a -- it's difficult, one, 37 1 for me to see the small print anymore, but what I'm 2 looking at is this year to date we've taken in about 3 $78,000. Out of that, 45 has been kept by the County -- 4 and I'm rounding this off -- 22 has gone to the State. 5 So that's the nature of a court. 6 I'm also a municipal court judge and -- and 7 people tend to think that this should be a cash 8 generating thing, but the object, of course, of the 9 courts is to modify people's conduct, not necessarily to 10 shake all the change out of their pockets. So I 11 appreciate that we don't receive any of that kind of 12 push back from the Commissioners' Court. 13 Well, anyway, like I said, we've had 352 14 traffic cases since January filed. We have in the -- 15 on the civil side, which is going up progressively, we 16 have had 121 civil trials. 17 Now, in J.P. Court, I know I'm speaking to 18 the choir, but in justice court we do debt claim cases, 19 which the credit card people have a magnificent lobby 20 and they were able to push a whole set of rules just for 21 credit card cases. Just for credit card cases. And the 22 people who actually have the credit card, don't file the 23 suit, it's the people they sell the bad debt to file the 24 debt claim cases. 25 So anyway, we had 76 of those filed this 38 1 year, 21 landlord/tenant cases which the justice board 2 is the original court and exclusive jurisdiction or 3 authority to hear landlord/tenant cases. They have to 4 file them in J.P. Court, there's no other court to file 5 them in. Or initially. 6 So anyway, we're the original jurisdiction 7 for that. We had 21 of those, which we just don't have 8 apartment complexes. These poor folks that have to J.P. 9 in Kerrville are inundated with landlord/tenant cases. 10 We're not. Small claims, 24, so a total of 121 civil 11 cases have been filed this year to September 1st. We've 12 disposed of 81 of those. 13 What's typical, again, of these civil cases 14 is people file these cases, like debt claim cases 15 especially, and then they just leave them sit. It's up 16 to the movant, it's up to the person who has filed the 17 case to urge the case forward. We don't do it. 18 But at the end of the year we have a little 19 party and it's called a dismissal docket. And by -- at 20 the end of the year, I'll send all these people a letter 21 saying you have two weeks to urge your case or it's 22 dismissed. And so that's why we're still up kind of 23 high. 24 We've had only 11 contacts with juveniles 25 this year. And they've all been traffic. 39 1 Thank you very much. Poor Judge Mitchell 2 hears all of the juvenile case -- of the -- not all the 3 juvenile cases, but all of the truancy cases. We 4 elected her to that spot. We all took a vote and 5 said -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: And we're very appreciative. 7 JUDGE RAGSDALE: -- Judge Mitchell should be 8 the one to hear those. I don't. Thank you very, very 9 much. And I will tell you in respect to what she's 10 doing, when I did juvenile -- more juvenile work for 11 truancies -- or at that time it was failure to attend 12 school, it took up a majority of my time. It is 13 extremely time intensive with actually very little 14 result. There is no criminality to truancy anymore. 15 The schools have just about given up on it, except for 16 what they're required to do by law. And I don't blame 17 them. It has -- it's a very unproductive thing that 18 takes a lot of time. 19 Do you have any questions for me? 20 JUDGE KELLY: No. I just want to let 21 everybody know that other duties that the J.P.'s do that 22 you may not be aware of. There was mention about 23 truancy. Truancy was decriminalized in the state of 24 Texas and no longer a crime. So it's not heard as part 25 of a juvenile offense. Truancies are held -- are -- 40 1 they're dealt with at the J.P. level here. 2 JUDGE MITCHELL: Except for the parent's 3 contributing. That's still criminal. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Right. A parent-contributed 5 truancy. 6 JUDGE RAGSDALE: All I wanted to say also -- 7 excuse me. I've done 31 death inquests. 8 JUDGE KELLY: That's where I was headed, 9 Bill. 10 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Yeah. That's -- and again, 11 for people who may not know, in rural counties you don't 12 have a Medical Examiner, you have a coroner. So if 13 somebody dies not attended to buy a physician directly, 14 then we go to the scene. We gather information. We 15 record that information and prepare a death certificate. 16 I just had to go through -- most of -- 17 there's a kind of archaic provision in death inquest 18 called a formal death inquest hearing. And in the old 19 days, especially before monthly grand juries and stuff 20 like that, the coroner would hold a formal hearing and 21 then issue a warrant for someone's arrest perhaps for 22 murder or whatever type of homicide it was and we don't 23 do that much anymore because we have two District Courts 24 here, we have two grand juries a month. And so these -- 25 most of the times these things can be just -- if you 41 1 think it's a homicide we're not going to get involved in 2 it other than doing a death certificate and order an 3 autopsy. But I just had to do -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Let me clarify that. I know 5 it's everyday to you. Also, not only does the County 6 provide the coroner services, which he's talking about, 7 but they also handle the autopsies. And tell us again 8 about what's the average autopsy running us these days? 9 JUDGE RAGSDALE: About $3500 per case. 10 JUDGE KELLY: All that's paid for by the 11 County and it's handled at this J.P. level. Just so you 12 know what we -- what we're doing. This is what your 13 County government does. 14 JUDGE RAGSDALE: And so I -- well, just for 15 instance, this week I had four unattended adults this 16 week, this last week. And ended up having to have a 17 formal -- or almost had to have a formal inquest hearing 18 because two of the parties that I needed to talk to 19 refused to speak to me. And so Deb was going to have to 20 come and do a court reporting of a formal inquest 21 hearing. 22 So I subpoenaed the people, and it was a 23 bizarre thing. They -- they hired lawyers and -- which 24 made me really think that they had done the guy in. The 25 District Attorney was going to appear. And at the last 42 1 moment, their lawyers provided the records that I had 2 requested. 3 And a lot of people are unfamiliar with -- 4 you were mentioning authority to do things. In 5 government, you are only allowed to do the things that 6 the law provides you may do. You're a regular citizen, 7 you can do everything you want to do until the cop 8 catches you, you know, kind of thing and -- or somebody 9 -- there's a sign that says don't do this. But we can't 10 approach government that way. You get in a lot of 11 trouble. You can't be innovative. You can only do the 12 things that the law provides you can do and a lot of 13 people are unfamiliar that a Justice of the Peace is a 14 coroner and has the right to subpoena and talk to 15 people. So anyway, we -- we've had a couple of those. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we appreciate what you 17 do, Bill. 18 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Well, thank you. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And we appreciate your 20 service. 21 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Appreciate it likewise. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now that we have heard 23 from our least loquacious elected official -- just -- 24 just for the fun of it. 25 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Now, I'm a gone "Bill". 43 1 (Laughter.) 2 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to ask our most 3 loquacious, and there's a two-bit word for you, 4 Constable Huffaker. 5 Now, Gene, you can tell us in how many words 6 what's going on out there in Precinct 4? 7 MR. HUFFAKER: Nothing. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We get a report like this 9 every six months and we love it. Thanks very much, 10 Gene. 11 (Laughter.) 12 JUDGE KELLY: I thought y'all would enjoy 13 that. It is passed 9:45, let's go ahead and call the 14 addendum item 1.8 consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action to approve a Resolution supporting Kerrville 16 Independent School District, KISD, Aviation Program. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. I 18 got a call last Friday morning, as you mentioned, that a 19 request from KISD to get the Commissioners' Court's 20 support of their aviation ground school program. So I 21 drafted a Resolution that I would like to present and 22 make a motion that we accept. 23 And I'll read it for the record. Resolution 24 of Kerr County Commissioners' Court supporting the 25 Kerrville Independent School District, KISD, development 44 1 of the aviation ground school program of study. 2 Whereas, Kerr County is the home of Mooney 3 International's engineering and manufacturing facility 4 of the world-renown M20 aircraft; and 5 Whereas, Kerr County -- Kerrville/Kerr 6 County Airport, KERV, has been recognized by the TxDOT 7 Aviation Division as a general aviation airport of the 8 year; and 9 Whereas, the field of aviation provides a 10 wealth of high demand and highways career opportunities 11 as demonstrated by an annual need for 6,000 airline 12 pilots per year; 13 Whereas, Kerr County, as a member of 14 Kerrville Economic Development Corporation aggressively 15 pursues aerospace companies to expand and establish 16 businesses in Kerr County; and 17 Whereas, the KISD established a ground -- 18 aviation ground school program at Tivy High School; and 19 Whereas, KISD has been accepted by the 20 Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, High School STEM 21 program. That's Science, Technology, Engineering and 22 Management program; and 23 Whereas, KISD has worked collaboratively 24 with community leaders and pilots through the Career and 25 Technical Education Advisory Board to develop a sequence 45 1 of academic and technical courses that provides students 2 the early education to obtain a private pilot's license, 3 which is the first step, ground school, and then the 4 next step in becoming an airline pilot; and 5 Whereas, KISD has provided students with 6 flight simulators, drones and other equipment to provide 7 the essential elements of education and training to 8 obtain drone pilot and private pilot certifications. 9 Now, therefore, be it resolved, that Kerr 10 County Commissioners' Court does hereby support and 11 encourage KISD's continued development of the Aviation 12 Ground School Program of Study. 13 So my motion is to approve that Resolution. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion has been made by 16 Commissioner Moser, and seconded by Commissioner Letz, 17 to approve the Resolution approving the aviation ground 18 school program of study at Tivy High School. Any other 19 discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I might add, the reason 21 for this support from the County and from other entities 22 within Kerr County, with KISD, is they have ground 23 simulators where students can -- are in a simulator, 24 they think they're flying an airplane when they're 25 really not, but computer interactive set. They have 46 1 purchased some of these ground simulators. And they 2 want to purchase more, so this is in support of a grant 3 to enable them to do more. 4 And, you know, Kerr County is -- in 5 Kerrville is kind of unique in airline pilots or 6 operations to train and hopefully the thing is that when 7 a person, a sophomore, can begin a program like this, 8 they can look at a path within ten years, they'll become 9 an airline pilot. So this is really good. I mean it's, 10 you know, a really good career. And so, you know, KISD 11 needs to be recognized for that. I know that Schreiner 12 University is continuing a program to compliment to the 13 KISD program. 14 JUDGE KELLY: All good. Any other 15 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 16 five zero. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And just by way of 18 explanation, a Resolution is not binding. That is just 19 an expression of support that we give. Often these are 20 required for grant approval to know that there's public 21 support behind what they're applying for the grant. So 22 that was the purpose of that. 23 Okay. I think we're now to the last item on 24 the agenda, which is Liaison Commissioner reports. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've got something. I 47 1 don't think Commissioner Letz or I had either one 2 brought it up before. But we got a little -- out at the 3 Hill Country Youth Event Center, we kind of have a 4 conflict sometimes when -- in parking. The Extension 5 Office, they might -- all their parking right there in 6 front gets filled up from time to time, when there's a 7 big event going on next door. 8 And Commissioner Letz and I have talked and 9 we need to try to figure out something to -- maybe it's 10 just striping out there in front, you know, where we can 11 block off 20 spaces or something. Just to try to keep 12 it -- because they've had meetings where their people 13 couldn't even park when something else was going on next 14 door. So I just wanted to bring it to y'all's 15 attention. And Commissioner Letz and I will be looking 16 at that and trying to come up with some type of 17 solution. So -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Harris and 19 Commissioner Letz are the liaison commissioners for the 20 Hill Country Youth Event Center, the AG barn. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Liaison on the airport. 22 Commissioner Letz and myself. There's a draft 23 Resolution to have the Court support -- similar to what 24 we did for KISD -- funding of a grant from TxDOT 25 Aviation for $600,000 to build hangars. But the draft 48 1 Resolution has some issues of concern in it so we're 2 working that and it'll be on the agenda so the public 3 will know about it and all the details at the next 4 regular session, which will be next Monday. Yeah. 5 JUDGE KELLY: That's the matching grant that 6 we have with The State of Texas, right? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Uh-huh. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Any other Liaison Commissioner 9 reports? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make one on what 11 Commissioner Harris said at the first, and then I'll get 12 to the one that I'm sure that the big crowd here expects 13 me to say something on, Animal Control. 14 The other thing at the Hill Country Youth 15 Event Center that is an issue from time to time is the 16 coordination between 4-H events and money-making events 17 and the use out there. And Commissioner Harris and I 18 have talked about it a little bit. 19 And we were talking with -- he has more of 20 an interactive calendar put together so that both of 21 those two offices can use it. They're pretty minor for 22 the most part and tend to work it out, but people tend 23 to get a little bit upset when they get moved at the 24 last minute to something else, or they have to get moved 25 to the outside arena, or they end up in the show barn 49 1 for an event, things like that. So we're going to try 2 to smooth that out. The combination of this Court has 3 been committed to support 4-H, and they get free use of 4 that facility, and they get priority use of it. 5 And then the other side of it is we put a 6 lot of pressure on Spectrum to make money off of paid 7 events out there. And when we're mandating free events 8 and we're also mandating them to make money, sometimes 9 there's a conflict. 10 Animal Services. I'm not going to go into a 11 whole lot today about it. I know there's a large number 12 of you are here. I will visit with the Judge and we 13 will set up -- it'll be an agenda item. I suspect 14 there's a lot of comments from the public, actions out 15 there about closing on Saturdays. And we'll figure out 16 a way to get -- you know, I -- it may be a special 17 meeting, it may be at the end of a meeting, but we will 18 post it with a specific time so people don't have to sit 19 here, unless you all -- you're always welcome to come 20 listen to the whole Court but our regular meetings get 21 very long sometimes. So we'll figure out a way to 22 handle this. It will be in the next week to ten days, 23 I'd say. 24 But I'll visit with the Judge to try to 25 figure out a way that we can get the comments. And I 50 1 was going to ask you, I mean, I think that anytime 2 anyone wants to meet with me I have been willing to. I 3 have met with a large number of you that are in the 4 audience one-on-one or in small groups, you know, so 5 certainly I'm willing to listen, and I think the rest of 6 the court is. 7 And the other thing is, you know, I don't 8 look at Facebook very much. But I -- over the weekend I 9 was forwarded some from other people that saw a post. 10 Please try to be respectful to people. There was a lot 11 of folks out there that were almost vicious, you know, 12 against me. I'm elected. That comes -- kind of comes 13 with the territory a little bit. But our staff, it's 14 uncalled for. Our staff should not have to deal with, 15 you know, really ugly comments on Facebook or anywhere 16 on social media. 17 So I just -- you know, comments, fine. 18 Everybody has certainly freedom to speak and say what 19 they want. But civility goes a long, long ways. 20 Anyway. But we will have a public meeting soon on this 21 and like I said, I'll visit with the Judge about that at 22 a time so everyone is aware of that. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'd like to add one 24 comment on that subject. It's been reported and it was 25 reported in the paper that we made a decision in 51 1 Executive Session. That is not correct. No decision 2 was made in Executive Session. The Judge just said that 3 awhile ago at the opening of this session. We came out 4 of the Executive Session where we listen to personnel 5 issues in Executive Session. We're -- the County 6 Attorney really is very strict about what we can and 7 cannot do in Executive Session. We can't talk about 8 things that we're not allowed to by law. So we didn't 9 do that. We came out, and we voted on what 10 to do with Animal Control and the hours. 11 And there will -- it would be good to have a 12 separate session. But I just wanted to say that -- that 13 I think what everybody at this Court looked at, we 14 looked at five different things trying to balance, okay, 15 between our requirement for rabies control, which we 16 have the responsibility for, for our employees, which we 17 have to look at the welfare and care of the employees, 18 of the animals, their care and adoption, the Interlocal 19 Agreement, which we have with the City, okay? They 20 provide library, we provide animal control services to 21 them, and the budget. So when we looked at all those 22 things, it's not going to be perfect for any one of the 23 five, okay? So it was a balancing act and I think it'll 24 be good to have a special session so we can talk about 25 all five of those elements. 52 1 JUDGE KELLY: But let me use that as a segue 2 and I want to point something out. This is the part of 3 the agenda that we have a chance for the Liaison 4 Commissioners to talk about what's going on in their 5 area. This also not our opportunity to talk about why 6 we did what we did. That would be for another time and 7 another place. 8 But I just wanted you to know that some of 9 the things that we talk about in Executive Session are 10 very important that they be in Executive Session. And 11 this was one that was -- that was the issue. And it was 12 mainly a personnel issue. And we're dealing with comp 13 time, which is budgetary importance to us. But more 14 important than that, we're dealing with the health and 15 wellbeing of our staff and the -- the nature of the work 16 environment out there, which is extremely stressful. 17 And it's beginning to take a toll on our employees. And 18 so we take a look at that. But that's all confidential. 19 But whether you agree with that or not, we 20 do need to have an opportunity for you to come tell us 21 what you think, and my suggestion is -- we hadn't really 22 talked about it, this is our chance to talk to one 23 another about it, is that we have a freestanding 24 meeting. A different meeting than doing it here at the 25 courthouse like this. It may even be big enough that we 53 1 have it out at the AG barn or we have it out at the 2 Youth Event Center. We've done that before if it's a 3 big enough public forum for everybody to come. 4 When we do that, that still is just like a 5 meeting here in the court and the same rules of decorum 6 apply. And -- but if we do it that way, we might be 7 able to expand beyond the three minutes that you 8 presently have. Because you can see, when you have 20, 9 30, 40, 50 people show up, three minutes goes pretty 10 quickly and it's probably going to be, I'm guessing, 11 maybe a two-hour event. 12 Sometimes we have had the public forums -- I 13 know Commissioner Moser has set some stuff up. We've 14 got other things at the AG barn before that we've done 15 in the evening. And so we'll try to find a convenient 16 time so that people will have access to be able to 17 express their opinions. 18 And just so that you know, we welcome that. 19 We really do appreciate your input. And I really 20 appreciate nobody bringing a rope today. And I'm 21 teasing. I'm just teasing about that. But seriously, 22 we do have passionate issues, and we do have 23 disagreements. And trust me, we have disagreements 24 among ourselves, we have disagreements with -- with the 25 department heads and with elected officials. And 54 1 sometimes words are exchanged in the heat of 2 conversation that we later have to go back and make 3 amends for. 4 But this is something that I think we should 5 be able to have a polite civil and professional 6 discourse about the issues facing us. That way, I think 7 we'll have an opportunity to explain to you why we're 8 doing what we're doing, you'll have an opportunity to 9 offer input to us. And I think that's -- that's what 10 democracy is all about. 11 Now, a couple of things I wanted to close 12 with. First of all, you heard Judge Ragsdale refer to 13 Deb. So Deb is Deb Gifford, our Court Reporter right 14 down in front. She takes down every word that is said 15 in this courtroom. When we are in open session, she's 16 busily clacking away on that machine and everything is 17 taken down, it is transcribed and it is posted on the 18 website. And if you want to see what was said in open 19 session, you can go on the website and find it. I think 20 we may be a little bit behind on getting those posted 21 but they will be there. We do get them up and posted 22 for you so you can find that there. 23 And just so that you know, we have four 24 court reporters here at this courthouse. One for this 25 Court, one for the County Court at law, and one for each 55 1 of the two District Courts. And that is a significant 2 expense for the County to be able to provide that type 3 of copy, that transcript of exactly what is said and not 4 said in a judicial setting. All right. That's about a 5 half a million dollar item on our budget just for the 6 court reporters. 7 With regard to me as the County Judge, one 8 of the things I do, as I mentioned to you my mental 9 health function, but I also serve on the AACOG Board in 10 San Antonio, the Alamo Area Council of Governments. And 11 one of the major things that we do with AACOG is we 12 oversee the granting of numerous, many grants, and there 13 are different committees that review these grants. We 14 had one come up over environmental not long ago that we 15 caught at the AACOG level and were able to stop what we 16 considered to be a pollution -- a polluting situation 17 taking place out in our quarries and -- and gravel pits. 18 But also, there are a number of grants for 19 Animal Services. The CJAC Committee met and our 20 representative came back and informed me I have at least 21 four or five potential grant applications for Animal 22 Services. One of those, only one, is for a governmental 23 entity and, of course, we're going to try to get on that 24 list and I'm trying to get a grant writer to prepare me 25 a grant to ask for that money. But the other three, I 56 1 know there's three specifically that I have in mind, 2 there might be four, that are limited to 501(c)(3) 3 corporations, non-profit corporations. And so when we 4 talk about the Animal Services problems and what all can 5 be done to help one another that we can all agree on, I 6 think we all would agree that we need probably another 7 shelter, we need more money to be able to provide the 8 services that I know that the public wants. We get into 9 -- we may have to debate what is a governmental function 10 and what is an optional function, but that would be 11 taking place at -- we'll take -- we'll do that at the 12 meeting. But we do have these grants. 13 And so, let me encourage anyone that has any 14 interest in animal services to please put together a 15 501(c)(3) non-profit organization so that we can get 16 these grant applications in to AACOG and I'll -- I'll be 17 the first to say that if we put together a 501(c)(3), 18 I'll be the first one to donate to it because it is 19 sorely, sorely needed. 20 It's been kind of an interesting day. I'm 21 sure we have bored you to tears at times. I hop you've 22 learned a little from us. I home you at least see the 23 mechanism of how we do business here and the way we have 24 to do it. We don't have any Executive Sessions today, 25 executive items. If we did, this would be where we 57 1 would break and we would ask you to leave and you would 2 go out the door and we switch the little name plate to 3 say it's in Executive Session. We stay in Executive 4 Session. We do not take any action in Executive 5 Session. None. No action. Most of the time we don't 6 even have a court reporter. Occasionally we might have 7 -- we've had what, maybe two or three that we had a 8 court reporter come in and help us with, where we want 9 it. 10 But that -- the transcript from an Executive 11 Session is not available to the public. And it's not -- 12 not even available to one of us to go back and review it 13 if we miss the meeting. You have to have been at the 14 meeting to be able to go back and review the transcript. 15 We do most of it by certified agenda. We put a 16 certified agenda. Those are kept in the County Clerk's 17 Office in the safe, under seal. So there's never any 18 question about what we talked about in Executive 19 Session. There is a legal record for the Texas Rangers 20 to come investigate us. I'm making light about it, but 21 that's why it's there. We are accountable for 22 everything. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, can I make one 24 other comment related to Animal Services? Most of you 25 probably know there's an Animal Services committee 58 1 meeting, I think it's Wednesday at one o'clock. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Which my AACOG meeting 3 conflicts with. I want to come, but I can't come this 4 Wednesday. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. We received a 6 complaint from someone in the public, I'm not sure, it 7 went to the County Attorney. I didn't see it. The fact 8 of how we posted those meetings. And the County 9 Attorney advised that that -- those workshops -- or 10 committee meetings need to have a very explicit agenda 11 on those. So there would be -- this time when the 12 agenda was posted last week there was, I think, five 13 items on it. Those are the only items we can talk about 14 at that meeting and that was because of someone, I don't 15 know, County Attorney knows who filed the complaint, but 16 there was a complaint filed that we were not putting up 17 an agenda. 18 One of the items is 501(c)(3), which was on 19 the last agenda, and I will visit with the Judge and get 20 more more information on the AACOG grant so we can, you 21 know, maybe discuss that a little bit. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And I'm serious, we all love 23 our animals. And I know those of -- there are those of 24 you that are out there that know I have animals. I have 25 anywhere from two to four dogs depending on whether or 59 1 not the grand dogs are with us. And I'm completely 2 supportive of animal rights and doing what we can. But 3 we have a limited budget, and that's why I'm saying I 4 will personally commit financially to help get a 5 501(c)(3) started. And that's -- that's me personally 6 doing it. 7 Okay. With that, is there anymore business 8 on our agenda that we can talk about today? Okay. Then 9 Commissioners' Court will stand adjourned. 10 * * * * * * 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 60 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 Special Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 9th day of November, 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