1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, December 23, 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 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 24 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 25 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Visitor's Input. 4 4 *** Commissioner's Comments. 9 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action to receive the Compilation Financial 6 Statement of the Kerr County Emergency Services District No. 2. 7 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 8 action on request to authorize County Judge to prepare letters approving the sale of 9 beer at the Kerrville Renaissance Festival from January 24, 2020 - January 26, 2020, 10 and February 1, 2020 - February 2, 2020. Letter to be sent to the Texas Alcoholic 11 Beverage Commission (TABC). 12 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action for the Court to approve the Terms 13 and Conditions of Software License between Easy Vote and Kerr County, and authorize 14 Judge to sign same. 15 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action to accept donations for the month 16 of November, 2019 as listed in the Kerr County Animal Services donation log. 17 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 18 action to accept $250.00 donation from "Kay" to be used for animals at Kerr 19 County Animal Services. 20 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action to accept $250.00 donation from 21 Kerrville Pets Alive to cover half of the adoption costs for ten cats. 22 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 23 action to declare Kerr County Clerk, and IT equipment items as surplus. 24 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 action to ratify and confirm the Resolution 4 regarding nominations for the Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for 5 2020-2021. 6 2.1 Pay Bills. 18 7 2.4 Auditor Reports. 19 8 2.5 Accept Monthly reports. 19 9 2.6 Court Orders. 20 10 4.2a Consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 action on personnel matter regarding 11 Public Relations Officer. 12 *** Adjournment. 22 13 *** Reporter's Certificate. 23 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. It is Monday, 2 December the 23rd, 2019 at 9 o'clock in the morning, and 3 the Kerr County Commissioners' Court is now in session. 4 If you would, please rise for the Pledge and the Prayer. 5 (Prayer and The Pledge of Allegiance.) 6 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, please be seated. 7 The first part of our agenda is this the visitor input. 8 Before I do that, I want to remind everybody to turn 9 your cell phones off. We do have a policy that if they 10 go off they'll be taken up by the Sheriff, who 11 conveniently is not here today. 12 But at this time we're going to ask for 13 public input, and this is the part of the agenda, and we 14 put this on every agenda. It's the first thing we do on 15 our regular Commissioners' Court meeting, and we invite 16 the public to talk to us about something that's not on 17 the agenda. If it's on the agenda we ask that you save 18 your time to talk to us when that agenda item comes up. 19 But I know we have one speaker today, and it's Aaron 20 Yates, and would welcome you to address the Court. 21 MR. YATES: Thank you, Judge, Commissioners. 22 I'll be short because I believe some of us have 23 Christmas shopping left to do. I'm here today just to 24 urge you to take action to start implementing a video 25 recording system to share your meeting with the general 5 1 public. You know we're here as we are every morning at 2 9 a.m. when the majority of the constituencies of Kerr 3 County is not able to join you guys because of their 4 work commitments and trying to make a living and those 5 types of things. 6 So the newspapers highlight the -- will 7 report the highlights of the meetings, but a lot of the 8 proceedings don't ever make it to print. And however 9 the Court Transcriptionist records everything that is 10 said verbally, but sometimes it takes it quite a bit of 11 time for those transcriptions to be available publicly 12 on your website, so that if people are trying to follow 13 the work of the Commissioners' Court find it difficult 14 to do so. 15 A lot of the time is it citizens don't have 16 the inclination to read all of these transcripts either 17 when they come in, tens of thousands of words generally 18 over a couple of hundreds of pages. 19 So now thanks to a lot of modern technology 20 that we have available to us, it's common to see live 21 broadcast or recorded broadcast of meetings that take 22 place for governmental entities across the State and 23 across the country. Everybody from school boards up to 24 state legislatures are making these videos available 25 online. 6 1 A good example of that is the city's video 2 recording system across the street. I know there's is 3 very intense, and has a lot of features that are not 4 necessarily needed to be able to have a good product. 5 They have a -- they've built there's, you know, at a new 6 building so they had the benefit of that new building to 7 be able to make it exactly what they wanted. But I 8 think a much less feature-rich system would still be 9 beneficial to the constituents of Kerr County. 10 And because the video is now so ubiquitous 11 the barrier entry is pretty low. So, you know, I do 12 this for a living as a video professional and, you know, 13 a small system that would be able to record in this room 14 could be manipulated by a single staff member, hopefully 15 with just a few hours per week to not add payroll cost 16 or a large equipment cost to the county's budget. And a 17 lot of the software that's needed to do this is 18 completely free. There's open source software out there 19 that's available for governments and even private 20 entities and corporations to use completely free of 21 charge completely. 22 The hosting platforms are also free. We're 23 also with familiar with YouTube and other sites that are 24 similar to that. That's where the City hosts their 25 public broadcast is on YouTube. So and as I said, I am 7 1 in the video business, and I'm willing to offer my 2 services, or consulting, anything that you guy's might 3 need if you decide to go this route and implement a 4 video system, I'd be happy to consult free of charge. 5 I even have a video camera that I'd be 6 welling to donate that's no longer in use by me. It's 7 about a two thousand dollar remote control camera that 8 mounts up on the wall so as not to take up any floor 9 space in this room that sometimes gets a little crowded. 10 I notice there is a little security camera up there on 11 the wall, it's a little bit bigger than that. But it 12 records and performs on high definition and has all 13 bells and whistles that you night need. So I'm willing 14 to offer that you guys free of charge, if you'd like to 15 get that system started. 16 Mainly though video recordings will just 17 enable your constituents to closely follow the work that 18 you do. A lot of what you guys do gets filtered 19 through, you know, the newspapers, the radio, newscast, 20 political blogs, all those types of things, and it's not 21 always characterized correctly and citizens don't have 22 any direct source to go to to find out exactly what did 23 happen. So these video recordings could be done and 24 shared with the public, you know, within a few hours 25 after the meeting is over, if not live if you decide to 8 1 go that route. 2 So I think it would eliminate a lot of 3 confusion and it will add a lot of accessibility to your 4 constituents to be able to see what you guys do and how 5 you do it, and how you come to the decisions that you 6 do. 7 So I have a petition here that I'll drop 8 off. We circulated a petition on our website, and we 9 have about a little over 650 signatures on that petition 10 that I'll leave with you guys. You'll recognize a lot 11 of the names on here. Also, just kind of has a link to 12 the documentation that we have on the website that kind 13 of shows what the County has done up to this point, 14 because you guys had talked about video recording 15 systems several times over the last few years. 16 But anyway, we urge you, and will continue 17 as group, you know, of concerned citizens to advocate 18 for the video recording system so we that we can all be 19 better informed about the business of this body. Thank 20 you. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Aaron. 22 JUDGE KELLY: You want to drop that off? 23 MR. YATES: Yes, Sir. I made a couple of 24 copies for you guys. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, thank you, Aaron. Next 9 1 item on the agenda are Commissioner's Comments. 2 Briefly. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Briefly. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Briefly. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I'll start. We 6 had -- the Ingram Police Department had their Blue Santa 7 Operation the other day and raised -- got a lot of 8 donations in the way of toys and money for needy 9 children in the area. 10 Also I'd like to urge all of y'all to turn 11 out for the Polar Bear Plunge at Mo Ranch on January 1. 12 The proceeds, it helps the Hill Country Youth Ranch 13 Children's Fund, and as of this morning they've already 14 raised $55,000.00 in donations. So you want to take a 15 dip on January 1, go to Mo Ranch. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are you going to be 17 there? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't think so. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I was watching her. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a reminder that 21 everyone, hope we have a good holiday and be safe. And 22 so I know one of the employees last week where an 23 individual got severely burned because of a heat lamp 24 trying to keep an animal, or a cat, warm overnight, and 25 it started a fire and some damage with that. And it 10 1 remind me that it's really important to really be 2 careful this time of year when there's a lot more space 3 heaters and things of that nature, and just be sure that 4 you are safe. 5 And a good rule of thumb, especially if you 6 live a long ways out, is to have a fire extinguisher. 7 Small fires can be put out very quickly. And when it's 8 freezing outside a lot of hoses seem to be frozen as 9 people found out. 10 Other than that, everyone have a great 11 holiday, and see everybody next year. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Merry Christmas to 13 everybody, and do rain dances. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I'd like to report that we 15 made a lot of progress on our Capital Improvement 16 Planning Committee. We've had three meetings. One was 17 the initial meeting to kind of just get the lay of the 18 land, and then the two subsequent meetings have been 19 tours of the existing county facilities. And we plan to 20 meet again on January the third -- what is it? Jody 21 will tell us. But we have two meetings in January, 22 we'll have two meetings every month with the CIP working 23 on the capital improvements that we need. 24 We're looking for probably a bond issue this 25 November. So those of you in the press, we are going to 11 1 come to the people and make some recommendations on what 2 we think our capital needs are for the next five to ten 3 years. So that's pretty much all we have to report. 4 Let's ahead and go to the first item on the 5 agenda which is 1.1 consider, discuss and take 6 appropriate action to receive the Compilation Financial 7 Statement of the Kerr County Emergency Services District 8 No. 2. Miss Burrough. 9 MS. BURROUGH: You have it in front of you. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, we do. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, we do. 12 JUDGE KELLY: All right. It seems to be in 13 order to me. I'll make a motion that we approve it. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll second it. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So I made the motion, seconded 16 by Commissioner Harris to approve the Compilation 17 Financial Statement of the Kerr County Emergency 18 Services District No. 2. Is there any other discussion? 19 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 20 Thank you very much for coming down, Miss 21 Burrough. We appreciate all your good work. 22 Item 1.2 consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action on request to authorize County Judge 24 to prepare letters approving the sale of beer at the 25 Kerrville Renaissance Festival from January 24 to 12 1 January 26, and February 1 to February 2, next year 2 2020, and a letter to be sent to the Texas Alcoholic 3 Beverage Commission. Jake Williamson. 4 MR. WILLIAMSON: Good morning all. Again, 5 we're coming up on the Renaissance Festival in January 6 and February, two weekends again this year. it's our 7 fourth annual. As part of the requirements with TABC we 8 need to prepare a letter to the owners of the property 9 approving the sale of beer at that event, and to try to 10 provide that service for the patrons. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion been made by 14 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 15 approve the sale of beer at Kerrville Renaissance 16 Festival January 24th through 26th, and February 1 to 17 February 2. Those in -- any other discussion? Those in 18 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 19 Thank you, Jake. 20 Item 1.3 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action for the Court to approve the terms 22 and conditions of Software License between Easy Vote and 23 Kerr County, and authorize the Judge to sign the same. 24 Mr. Reeves. 25 MR. REEVES: Good morning. Merry Christmas 13 1 to all. Easy Vote is a management platform used by Kerr 2 County to process, track and verify ballots by mail. 3 Easy Vote does not require support or hosting from the 4 County IT Department. The annual cost is $3,000.00 to 5 be paid from budgeted funds. 6 I've enclosed a copy of the terms and 7 conditions of the software license in your package. The 8 County Attorney has reviewed and approved the agreement, 9 and the Election's Division respectfully request the 10 Court to approve the agreement and authorize the County 11 Judge to sign. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 16 approve the Easy Vote Software License -- Terms and 17 Conditions of the Software License. Any further 18 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 19 four zero. 20 MR. REEVES: Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Items 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6. I'm 22 going to call them all at the same time so you don't 23 have to leave. 1.4 is consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to accept donations for the month of 25 November, 2019 as listed in the Kerr County Animal 14 1 Services donation log. Item 1.5 is to consider, discuss 2 and take appropriate action to accept $250.00 donation 3 from "Kay" to be used for animals at Kerr County Animal 4 Services, and item 1.6 is to consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to accept $250.00 donation from 6 Kerrville Pets Alive to cover half of the adoption costs 7 for ten cats. Reagan Givens. 8 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. On the first 9 item you'll see our donation register from November 1st 10 to November the 30th, which is going to show you we had 11 some miscellaneous items. Like I always say that can 12 include anything from newspapers to blankets and towels 13 and things like that, leashes, and then some food items. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion 15 that we accept the donations as presented on the 16 donation log for Animal Services. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 19 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Moser to 20 approve the donations from the month of November 2019, 21 as reflected in the Kerr County Animal Services donation 22 log. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 23 Unanimous, four zero. 24 And 1.5 is the donation, $250.00 donation 25 from "Kay". 15 1 MR. GIVENS: Yes. Unfortunately, I don't 2 have Kay's last name. But she had left us a $250.00 3 donation specifically to be used for the animals. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 5 we accept the donation from "Kay" to be used for animals 6 at Kerr County Animal Service. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 9 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris. Is 10 there any further discussion? This is to approve the 11 $250.00 donation from "Kay". Those in favor raise your 12 hand. Unanimous, four zero. 13 We're looking kind of boring on video, 14 aren't we? 1.6, Reagan. 15 MR. GIVENS: So this one is from the newly 16 formed Kerrville Pets Alive. They're donating $250.00 17 to cover half of the adoption costs for ten cats, which 18 is normally a $50.00 adoption, so they're covering half 19 of that. So for people coming in, want to adopt a cat, 20 it's costing them half as much right now, for ten. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 24 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 25 approve the $250.00 donation from Kerrville Pets Alive 16 1 to cover one half of the expense for the adoption costs 2 of ten cats. Any further discussion? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment. I 4 mentioned this to Reagan, I received an e-mail about a 5 $250.00 donation, so I think there's probably another 6 one, but a donation for the same purpose. But Reagan -- 7 we need to confirm if it's a different one or the same 8 one. But good news is there seems to be a lot of 9 interest in making donations to Kerrville Pets Alive and 10 to the Animal Shelter, and with that intent and purpose, 11 which is very good. 12 MR. GIVENS: And thank you just whoever 13 donated. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And just to go on record, I 15 was quoted accurately in the newspaper that I would be 16 one of first to make donation to Kerrville Pets Alive, 17 which I did. And I'm very pleased with this non-profit 18 and their hope to look forward to the long-term 19 partnership we have with them on our adoption program. 20 So with that, we've got a motion and a 21 second pending. Those in favor raise your hand. 22 Unanimous, four zero. 23 1.7 consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 action to declare Kerr County Clerk, and IT equipment 25 items as surplus. This is Tanya Shelton; not James 17 1 Robles. 2 MRS. SHELTON: You have in front of you a 3 list of items that we believe to be surplus property, 4 and we would like for you to approve it. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Harris and seconded by Commissioner Moser 9 to approve the surplus items as presented. Any further 10 discussion? 11 And for those of you in the public, we have 12 to do this, we can't just -- this is public property, so 13 we have to surplus it in order to be able to get rid of 14 it. Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four 15 zero. 16 Last item on the consideration agenda is 1.8 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to ratify 18 and confirm the Resolution regarding nominations for the 19 Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for 20 2020-2021. 21 And that's going to be under Tab 8, I think 22 y'all see that. What we did is we cast 1000 of our 23 votes for Judy Webb Smith, and then we cast another what 24 314 for Eric Lantz, and we were successful in getting 25 both on the KCAD. So we were patient in casting our 18 1 votes this year, and I think it worked to our advantage. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And this is to confirm 3 the Resolution. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 9 approve the Resolution for casting the votes for KCAD. 10 Any further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 11 Unanimous, four zero. Another controversial day here at 12 the County. 13 Let's go to the approval docket and see if 14 we ask get some decisions going on. Item 1.1 -- or 2.1 15 pay the bills. 16 MRS. SHELTON: We have for approval Kerr 17 County invoices for $285,305.30. The Airport, 18 $17,810.98. Adult Probation $6,107.77. Juvenile 19 Probation $32,006.68. District Clerk fees $299.32. 20 County Clerk fees $485.05. County Attorney collections 21 $73.95. And the 198th District Attorney Forfeiture of 22 $490.35. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And these are all out of the 24 FY 1920 budget, right? 25 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 19 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 5 Commissioner Harris and seconded by Commissioner Letz to 6 approve paying the bills as presented. Any discussion? 7 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 8 Budget amendments? 9 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Late bills? 11 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Auditor's reports? 13 MRS. SHELTON: We have -- we have to be 14 received a report on the audit of the J.P. Justice of 15 the Peace Precinct 1, and the related report. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I move that we approve 17 the Auditor's report as presented. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I made the motion, seconded by 20 Commissioner Letz to approve the Auditor report. Any 21 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 22 Unanimous, four zero. 23 Monthly reports. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For November 25 2019, standard monthly report from Constable Precinct 3. 20 1 Ken Wilke, Constable Precinct 4 Gene Huffaker. Fines, 2 judgments and jury fees collected for J.P. 4 Bill 3 Ragsdale. And Human Resources-Indigent Services, 4 Jennifer Doss Director, and Animal Control Service's 5 Director, Reagan Givens. I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 9 approve the monthly reports as presented. Those in 10 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 11 Court orders. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have court 13 orders from our December 16th special session, court 14 orders 37876 through 37878. And I move for approval of 15 those as they are represented. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 18 Commissioner Letz, being seconded by Commissioner Harris 19 to approve the court orders as presented. Those in 20 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 21 The information agenda. Status reports from 22 department heads. Do we have any status reports? 23 3.2 status reports from elected officials? 24 We're on a roll. 25 3.3 status reports from Liaison 21 1 Commissioners. 2 Okay then, there being no further business, 3 court is -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Executive session. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 4.2 6 MRS. GRINSTEAD: 2-a. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Then at this point, we're 8 going to -- it is 9:22, and we're going to go into 9 executive session on item 4.2, which is personnel matter 10 to consider, discuss and take appropriate action on 11 personnel matters regarding Public Relations Officer. 12 So with that, I'm going to ask you to wait 13 outside, this should be very short and we should be out 14 of here in probably just a few minutes. 15 (Executive Session.) 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It is 9:27, and the 17 Court is now back in public session. And do we of any 18 motions? 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, the discussion 20 is about bringing up part-time for their COLA increase, 21 and so with that consideration since we've already made 22 precedents, don't we need to continue with it. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And specifically for 24 part-time employees -- 25 MRS. DOSS: Regular -- 22 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- and for -- 2 specifically for Public Information Officer. 3 MRS. DOSS: Yes, Sir. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I make a motion 5 that we authorize the Auditor and the HR Department to 6 include the COLAS that were approved for all other 7 employees for all the budgeted part-time employees for 8 this fiscal year. 9 JUDGE KELLY: To specifically include the 10 Public Relations Officer. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To specifically include 12 the Public Relations Officer. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Letz to approve the -- applying the COLA to 17 the part-time employees as permitted by law, and then 18 seconded by Commissioner Harris. Any further 19 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 20 four zero. 21 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: There being no other business 23 then Court will be adjourned. Happy Christmas. 24 * * * * * * 25 23 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 29th day of December, A.D., 10 2019. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2021 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25