1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, March 23, 2020 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 *** Commissioner's Comments. 5 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 8 action regarding an update, facility use, 5 and other matters related to COVID-19. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action regarding the crisis policy for 7 courthouse operations. 8 1.3 Update from County Attorney regarding 29 the responsibilities of the County Judge 9 and Commissioners' Court should Kerr County approve a Disaster Declaration. 10 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 51 11 action regarding the Declaration of a State of Emergency to address the 12 interruption of 9-1-1 service to West Kerr County from trenching and boring on 13 Texas Highway 27. 14 1.5 Update on Hill Country Youth Event Center 66 (HCYEC) operations/events. 15 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 73 16 action to approve repairs of rainwater catchment tank at the Hill Country Youth 17 Event Center (HCYEC). 18 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 74 action to authorize the County Judge to 19 execute a contract amendment with LAN, Inc. for easement acquisition services related to 20 the East Kerr County/Center Point Wastewater Project, and authorize a TWDB (Texas Water 21 Development Board) budget transfer to fund same. 22 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 76 23 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on April the 27th, 2020 to 24 cancel the revision of plat for Horizon Section One, Lot 36R, Plat File 19-00762. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 78 action to accept donations from citizens 4 for Animal Services. Funds to be used to purchase microchips (fund 10-324-235). 5 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 79 6 action to renew the ACA Reporting and Tracking Service, ARTS, Program 7 Agreement between Texas Association of Counties and Kerr County, and have County 8 Judge sign the same. 9 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 80 action to approve submission of TAC, 10 Texas Association of Counties, Property Renewal Schedule. 11 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 81 12 action regarding the list of reimbursable items for the Volunteer Fire Department. 13 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 83 14 action to determine whether to allow the retail fireworks permit holders to sell 15 fireworks to the public in celebration of San Jacinto Day, pursuant to Texas 16 Occupations Code, Section 2154.202(h). 17 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 action to determine whether or not to 18 suspend the County recycling program due to COVID-19 health and safety concerns. 19 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 90 20 action regarding update, facility use and other matters related to COVID-19. 21 2.1 Pay Bills. 91 22 2.2 Budget Amendments. 92 23 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 94 24 2.6 Court Orders. 94 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 95 4 *** Adjournment. 100 5 *** Reporter's Certificate. 101 6 * * * * * * 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. It is Monday, 2 March the 23rd, 2020. A little bit -- a couple minutes 3 after nine o'clock. Commissioners -- the Kerr County 4 Commissioners' Court is now in session. If you would, 5 let's stand for the prayer and pledge. Commissioner 6 Harris. 7 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: I want to welcome our YouTube 9 audience. This is a new experiment for us. But we are 10 able to go ahead and hold Court. And for those of you 11 that are curious, if you count the heads around this 12 room, there are nine of us in the room. I've got the 13 Sheriff posted at the front door and I've got the Court 14 Coordinator over here at the side door and anybody that 15 would like to address the Court in person can be 16 shuttled in and we'll do them one at a time. 17 Anyone that wants to call in, you can call 18 my cell phone number, which is 830-792-6161. The Court 19 Coordinator has that out in the hallway and she can 20 bring the phone in here so that we can take your call. 21 Since we don't have any public here I'm not going to ask 22 for public input because it's just for us. But with 23 that, let's go ahead and have Commissioners' Comments. 24 Precinct 1. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have nothing to 6 1 report. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Other than a nice -- 4 well, two and a quarter inches rain. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Good. That's a lot. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's -- there's a 7 couple things in Precinct 2. The Martin Marietta public 8 hearing by TCEQ has been postponed until further notice. 9 So that's off. It was going to be this evening. The 10 alcohol beverage sale campaign had some events planned 11 and they've all been postponed, probably until June. So 12 April the 1st was going to be the kickoff date to start 13 the campaign. It's probably now going to be June the 14 1st. Okay. So that's -- that's been delayed. 15 Another thing we've got an issue that we'll 16 bring to the Court pretty soon that has to do with 17 several brick off -- offline bridges in the County, but 18 the big one is Center Point, Crossing Street Bridge. 19 It's a -- the County -- the State has made 20 out a design for that bridge. It's two lane. Charlie 21 Hastings, the County Engineer, has proposed to the State 22 that they make it a single lane with two bike paths and 23 two walk paths, and if that passes, then everything's 24 going to be very good; if not, we're going to have to 25 come up with some other options on that. So that's the 7 1 potential $66,000 hit we'll have to address, but I think 2 we can work around that. So that's -- that's all I 3 have. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing other than, you 6 know, a lot of meetings have been canceled and 7 postponed. And, you know, I think if the public needs 8 to really go to anything, check to make sure it's been 9 canceled. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's the thing, 11 though. Thankful for the rain. I think most of all 12 Precinct 4 got some rain. Also a lot of meetings that 13 either postponed or -- or canceled altogether. So we'll 14 see. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and countywide, I'll 16 report that our Emergency Managers, both the City and 17 the County, and as well as the stakeholders have a 18 regular Thursday briefing over -- I can't remember the 19 name of that place on the second floor of the parking 20 garage. City Hall. 21 We met last week. We had school districts, 22 Schreiner, KPUB, Peterson, City, County, and try to keep 23 everybody up to speed on what's going on. As you know, 24 the City's already declared a State of Emergency. I may 25 go ahead and do that today. I don't know. A few people 8 1 I need to consult with. 2 I think it's getting to the point that in 3 order to be able to avail -- our local businesses can 4 avail themselves to some of the benefits that are being 5 offered at this point by the State, its probably wise to 6 go ahead and do it so we can get everybody in line in 7 time. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you want to 9 elaborate a little bit on what that means to be a State 10 of Emergency. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That could be on our 12 agenda. We can't discuss it under public comment. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He can explain what it 14 means. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- but it's on the 16 agenda. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: It's on the agenda. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, it's on the agenda. 19 Okay. I'm sorry. Good deal. Thanks. All right. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So with that, let's go 21 ahead and go to item 1.1. And what we're going to do is 22 shuttle people in. We've got Dub Thomas here in the 23 courtroom with us now, which that makes our 10th person. 24 But 1.1 is to consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 action regarding an update, facility use, and other 9 1 matters related to COVID-19. Dub Thomas is our 2 Emergency Management Coordinator. 3 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 4 morning, Commissioners. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Dub, I think you'll 6 need to go to the green chair so you can be heard. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, this is not business as 8 usual. 9 MR. THOMAS: Right here? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 11 MR. THOMAS: The green chair. Okay. Good 12 morning, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. Kind of 13 give you an update of what happened over the past week 14 as far as our emergency operations center and some of 15 the things that we've been working on. Y'all have a 16 copy of this in your e-mails. I sent it to Jody this 17 morning and she will distribute it so you all will have 18 it. 19 For the period ending to actually yesterday, 20 and we're starting a new period today, our activation 21 level of Kerr County, City of Kerrville, City of Ingram 22 emergency operation center is still currently activated 23 and we're still operating at an increased readiness 24 level. 25 Annex H, health and medical has been 10 1 implemented, and we're still currently operating at 2 Phase 3 of the Pandemic Plan. The EOC is operating with 3 minimal staffing at this time. Basically, that's myself 4 and Jeremy Hughes with the City of Kerrville, and it 5 also includes a call center for citizens needing 6 information. 7 The current situation, basically the numbers 8 below are the situation in the U.S. as of this morning. 9 Total infected is 15,219 throughout the United States. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Let me kind of interrupt. 11 Let's make clear that this is the United States. 12 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. This is the United 13 States numbers we're talking about right now. Total 14 deaths is 201. Of those, 15,337 are travel related, 15 means they tested positive via travel related incidents, 16 and then the other 321 are close contact, meaning 17 they've been in contact with somebody who's COVID-19. 18 And there's currently 14,561 persons under investigation 19 and that's of the 15,219. In Texas, Texas infected, we 20 have 304. Texas has had five deaths. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Can I interrupt? 22 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: On that 14,561, the 24 difference from the top number, is that some that were 25 already had it and gotten over it? Is that the reason? 11 1 MR. THOMAS: That's the -- the 15,219, if 2 you take out the total deaths -- I mean you take out the 3 total travel related, total close contact, that gives 4 you the 14,000 -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dub, so obvious 6 question is, any in Kerr County? 7 MR. THOMAS: Negative, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the important 9 thing. 10 MR. THOMAS: That's the important thing. 11 Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 13 MR. THOMAS: We have no reported cases in 14 Kerr County at this time. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And how many have been 16 tested, Dub? 17 MR. THOMAS: I don't have that number. I 18 don't know. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we have had some 20 tested? 21 MR. THOMAS: As far as I know, yes. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: May I ask one other 24 question? What is the closest that you know of to Kerr 25 County? 12 1 MR. THOMAS: Closest confirmed contact is in 2 Medina County. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is there just one? 5 MR. THOMAS: Just one. Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good. 7 MR. THOMAS: There are -- at the last count 8 I had there were 27 counties in the state that have an 9 affected -- or have a COVID-19 case. The majority of 10 them in Texas are in the major metropolitan areas, 11 Houston, Harris County, Austin, Travis County, Dallas, 12 Bexar County. And that's where the majority of them 13 are. 14 JUDGE KELLY: John -- John, I'm sorry. 15 We're limited to ten. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dub, they reported on 17 the same thing on the news, that there's a case in 18 Boerne. Is that not a confirmed case? 19 MR. THOMAS: No, sir, it's not. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The same in Gillespie 21 County in Fredericksburg is the same report. Those are 22 not confirmed? 23 MR. THOMAS: No, those are not confirmed 24 cases. 25 JUDGE KELLY: I was actually with 13 1 Judge Schuchart when he got the first one confirmed in 2 Medina County. And it was a family, a husband and wife 3 that had traveled to the Philippines, came back through 4 Japan, it's all travel related. And they were tested at 5 the ER at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Very good. 7 MR. THOMAS: To just continue what we're 8 working on right now as far as public education and 9 outreach. Peterson Regional established a line for 10 talking with a nurse. We talked about that the other 11 day. I want to continue to put this stuff out. It's 12 896-4200, Extension 1. And that number is for those 13 individuals who believe they are sick or not feeling 14 well, or displaying flu-like symptoms, they can call and 15 talk to a nurse. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Can you give us the number one 17 more time? 18 MR. THOMAS: 896-4200, and that's 19 Extension 1. And the EOC -- the Kerr County, City of 20 Kerrville EOC has been established and is manned with a 21 number of volunteers. We've got two volunteers working 22 that can respond to frequently asked questions. That 23 number is 258-1111. And it's operating Monday through 24 Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for individuals that may 25 have questions about anything that may be going on in 14 1 the community. 2 Basically, if there's any canceled local 3 events, closed offices or schools, those -- that type of 4 information is contained in that call center and those 5 volunteers can answer those questions. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Countywide? 7 MR. THOMAS: Countywide. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And let me repeat the number 9 for the public out there. It's 830-258-1111. 10 MR. THOMAS: That's correct, sir. So what 11 we're talking about there is the cancelled local events, 12 closed offices or schools, alternate means for accessing 13 certain local offices, banks or whatever. The last -- 14 as of Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m., they fielded 88 15 calls. The primary questions were in regard -- were to 16 COVID-19 testing and school schedules. 17 Our Kerr County and City of Kerrville 18 websites continue to be updated to include links to 19 Peterson Regional Medical Center, the CDC, and 20 Department of State Health Services websites. 21 One of the things we need to talk about as 22 far as this next week with members of the EOC is to 23 establish a list of recovery resources, to assist 24 citizens with information for assisting with food, 25 utilities, rental assistance and stuff like that. The 15 1 shutdown where the Governor shut everything down for two 2 weeks. If that -- if he extends that executive order, 3 there's going to be folks that are going to be hurting 4 for money as far as being able to pay their rent, 5 utilities, and those types of things. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and let me kind of stop 7 you there. I have been contacted. Commissioners have 8 been contacted about some of our local businesses that 9 have tried to get interim bridge loans to conduct their 10 businesses. They have been unsuccessful in doing that 11 and that's one of the reasons that I am seriously 12 considering going ahead and declaring the State of 13 Emergency today, to facilitate these people being able 14 to get interim financing. 15 MR. THOMAS: And I've got something else on 16 -- well, the next bullet point, Judge, is the -- the 17 Small Business Administration has established economic 18 injury disaster loan that can provide up to two million 19 dollars in financial assistance. If they'll go to 20 www.sba.gov/disaster and click on "apply for 21 assistance," it'll -- and go through that process. This 22 information is also available on the Kerrville Chamber 23 of Commerce website. 24 The Department of Health and Human Services 25 issued an alert for a malicious fake online corona virus 16 1 map. Y'all know the map that everybody can go to for 2 Johns Hopkins, it's dotted in red all over everywhere. 3 There is a malicious website pretending to be the life 4 map for the corona virus, COVID-19, global cases by 5 Johns Hopkins University and circulating on the 6 internet. And for unaware internet users, it does have 7 a virus attached to it. 8 Visiting the website corona/virus/map.com 9 infects the user with the Azor Trojan, an information 10 seeking program which can infiltrate a variety of 11 sensitive data. It's likely being spread via infected 12 e-mail attachments, malicious online advertise -- 13 attachments -- advertisements, and social engineering. 14 Furthermore, anyone searching the Internet 15 for a corona virus map could unwittingly navigate to 16 that one and accidentally pick it up. So I want to get 17 that out there so folks don't -- don't start getting 18 malicious attacks on their computers. 19 Do y'all have any questions for me? 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There is a rumor going 21 around that somebody was going door to door and saying 22 they were checking people. Is that true or false? 23 MR. THOMAS: I've not heard that rumor. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll have to ask the 25 Sheriff then. 17 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What, that people are 2 going door to door testing people? 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That somebody -- some 4 scam person was going door to door trying to get a look 5 inside of little old ladies houses, I guess. So -- I 6 didn't know if you had heard that in relation to -- 7 MR. THOMAS: No, sir. I've not heard that. 8 But crooks are crooks. They'll take any opportunity to 9 take advantage of something like this. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: I'm not aware of any door to 12 door operation. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you know how 14 rumors go so I want to get it all cleared up here and 15 now today. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Any other questions for Dub? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good job. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Sheriff, are you aware 19 of any door to door operations? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Any what? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Door to door operations with 22 regard to COVID-19? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I am not. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Anybody comes to your 25 door -- 18 1 JUDGE KELLY: So for those of you in the 2 public, there is no door to door operation that the 3 County is aware of at all. So proceed accordingly. 4 Okay. Thanks, Dub. 5 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Next item on the agenda is to 7 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 8 the crisis policy for the courthouse operations. 9 The Governor has issued a number of 10 executive orders. And I know Judge Emerson, who is our 11 Quarantine Judge at this point, has also given some 12 instruction with regard to keeping the courthouse open. 13 We've been ordered to keep the courthouse open and we 14 still have to perform -- in fact, there's Judge Emerson 15 in the back out there in the hallway waiting to talk to 16 us, I guess. 17 Are you going to talk to us, Judge? 18 JUDGE EMERSON: I'm sorry? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Are you going to talk to us? 20 JUDGE EMERSON: Only if you need me. 21 JUDGE KELLY: No, I was just explaining that 22 we have to keep the courthouse open and we have to be 23 able to perform all of our essential functions. 24 JUDGE EMERSON: Correct. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And that's been the executive 19 1 order of the Governor. And at this point, we do have -- 2 we had -- last week a number of the offices began 3 locking their doors and putting notices up on the doors. 4 As I understand it, though, those doors are not supposed 5 to be locked. We can regulate the flow of the public 6 traffic, but the offices have to be open. Is that your 7 understanding, Judge? 8 JUDGE EMERSON: The communications that I 9 have was to have the clerks call the office of court 10 administration and they will provide guidance. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Good. So all that's 12 going to be handled directly between the office of court 13 administration and the individual offices? 14 JUDGE EMERSON: Correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: But -- 16 JUDGE EMERSON: We -- our only requirement 17 is we have to have access to court files. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Right. So with regard to 19 non-essential services, those have been suspended 20 temporarily. With regard to my docket, I suspended all 21 non-essential probate matters until April the 1st. I 22 suspended juvenile adjudications and modifications until 23 at least April the 1st. Juvenile detentions are 24 essential. And I -- I've been conducting those and I 25 have another one this afternoon. 20 1 Mental health commitment hearings are 2 essential services that have to be provided and I've 3 been going over to the Crisis Stabilization Unit to do 4 that. And by the way, they screen you when you come in. 5 I get the thermometer in the ear. Kind of nice to know 6 I'm not sick. But they monitor it very closely. That's 7 something that, if we wanted to, I guess we could 8 consider whether or not we wanted to screen here at the 9 courthouse. I know several places are using the -- I 10 can't remember what the official name is for the 11 thermometer that goes in the ear, but takes very little 12 time. 13 My thought with regard to the courthouse is 14 if at all possible, this courthouse needs to stay open. 15 We can reduce staff to skeletal crews. The elected 16 officials with regard to essential functions must be 17 available to handle those. I think they can be 18 available by phone. They can -- they can schedule 19 alternate -- schedule their employees to have somebody 20 here to at least be able to receive any inquiries as to 21 whether or not essential or non-essential and then be 22 able to perform the essential functions. They -- some 23 of the offices started putting notices up on the doors. 24 This was last week. 25 And I had several people stop and ask me, 21 1 "Is the courthouse closed?" I took the notices off the 2 courthouse doors. They can put their notices up on 3 their doors to their offices. But the courthouse doors, 4 we're not going to put those notices up because we want 5 the public to know that the courthouse is open. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The main doors. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Main doors to the building. 8 Now, once you get inside the building, the individual 9 offices, you may have to get -- they'll be a number up 10 there that you can call to be able to access and visit 11 with them. The public should know that nearly all of 12 the non-essential functions, for example automobile 13 registration, taxes, all of these things have been 14 suspended. And as I understand it from talking to the 15 Tax Assessor-Collector this morning, all of that is 16 suspended for 60 days after, will be 60 days after this 17 crisis has passed. So anybody that's worried about 18 getting your cars registered or getting pulled over, you 19 don't have anything to worry about. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: There was an article in the 22 paper today that gave my direct line as the number to 23 call to find out how the courthouse is operating. I 24 will -- I've had a couple of calls already this morning. 25 And I can't make promises that I'll be able to field all 22 1 of those calls. So I don't know what number should have 2 been printed in the paper, but the direct line to my 3 office is probably not the right number to call to find 4 out what offices are open and how they're functioning 5 and -- because I don't know how all of the offices are 6 functioning. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what happens 8 when you miss a meeting. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: That's right. You're it. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're it. By the way, 11 as a tag onto what the Judge said. DMV has done the 12 same thing with renewal of your driver's license, which 13 has no affect on us, but -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- just to throw that 16 out there. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I was going to 18 say one thing that we might consider, depends on how 19 these streaming live works for us today. Somebody 20 suggested, and I thought something we might want to 21 consider is contacting the City and see if we could use 22 their facilities over there which has live streaming TV. 23 And so a lot of people know how to use that. So it may 24 be an option if this doesn't work for us. We'll find 25 out. But anyway, something to consider. And I don't 23 1 know if the City would be amenable to that but it would 2 -- could be an idea. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I can hear it in the 4 hall and it's working. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I know, but I'm just 6 saying they have -- they broadcast live their 7 proceedings and they've got the system set up to do it. 8 So -- and they probably don't use their facilities over 9 there on Mondays, so -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If this doesn't work, 12 it's an option. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And FYI, for those in the 14 public that doesn't know that we're looking at possibly 15 getting a video system for the Court, the same vendor 16 that provides their services are the ones that we're 17 talking to. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So anyway, I just put 19 that on the table for -- to communicate with the public. 20 Could be an option. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I think you have 22 handled all the elected officials and their duties. 23 What about the county departments that report back to 24 the Court? Who makes the determination if they're 25 essential or not? As an example, I see Reagan Givens 24 1 out in the hall. I know all the departments last Friday 2 were operating and working within the limits of the 3 Governor. I know the OSSF group down there actually 4 sent me an e-mail and said they -- she's talked to her 5 group and they want to stay open. They can get work 6 done and accommodate the public. So do we leave it up 7 to the Departments or do we want to make some sort of a 8 mandate as a court? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think as far as being 10 able to reduce to skeletal personnel, if necessary, I 11 don't see why the departments should be treated any 12 differently than elected officials offices. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I agree. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And so to that extent, I think 15 that we oughta give them similar discretion and 16 coordinate with their Liaison Commissioners. If we have 17 an issue then it's something that we can take up. But, 18 I don't -- I don't foresee having the courthouse fully 19 staffed for the next several weeks. Or the next two or 20 three weeks. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On that -- on that 22 subject, the Veterans Service Officers, the Texas 23 Veterans Commission has gone to working online from 24 home, etc., telecommuting, okay. There was another -- 25 I can't talk about it right now, there was another 25 1 personnel issue within the two ladies there that 2 required them not to be in the office, so they sent 3 messages out. And so the question is, do they need to 4 be here or can they -- can they operate from remotely if 5 they put a notice on the door? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Remotely is fine. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Remotely, as long as they're 9 available for any essential function. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And they're -- they're 11 working all the time. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Phone numbers and 13 everything. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but this -- this 15 was a semi emergency. It was -- I said just go do it. 16 They contacted me, and I said good. And we'll bring it 17 up today. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think all the 19 departments -- I mean, that's their department -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's discretionary. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and to work from 22 remotely and that's fine. Some departments can't do 23 that well. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- but I think if 26 1 they want to go on a reduced staff, that's fine. I just 2 wanted to make sure we have that guidance. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And if -- if it was me 4 and I'm saying to my employees, look, if you feel 5 comfortable coming in, come in. If you don't, don't. 6 And leave it at that and keep the department open. That 7 would be my advice to anybody. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I -- I do say I 9 would lean towards trying to have people report in. And 10 the reason is perception partially. The county 11 employees are going to get their paychecks; there's a 12 lot of people that aren't. And it's difficult to 13 justify to people in the public that county employees 14 cannot work and get their paychecks; if they don't work 15 and they don't get a paycheck. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good point. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I think they should 18 be here if at all possible working in combinations. I 19 think they should be allowed -- they have, I guess an 20 unwritten policy, maybe it's a written policy, about 21 bringing your kids along. You know, I think that should 22 be used with some discretion. 23 But there's a lot of work that can be done 24 in the courthouse by all the offices, even if the 25 offices aren't open to the public. And I think that we 27 1 should encourage that, as long as everything's safe and 2 they follow the guidelines sent down by the Governor. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I made the rounds 4 Friday and just -- you know, just a moral check to see 5 how everybody's doing. And the comment I heard most 6 was, we're getting a lot of work done. So they're 7 getting more work done now than when the courthouse is 8 full of folks. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I think I told Commissioner 10 Harris this morning, I got more done at home this 11 weekend than I have in forever. Just being inside. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's -- another 13 thing is we're acknowledging and honoring the six foot 14 distance between people. We've turned off the fans in 15 here today. We should keep the fans off as much as 16 possible. And anywhere and everywhere. Because the air 17 -- Corona Virus is airborne. It can stay there for 30 18 minutes, according to the doctors, okay. So why -- we 19 oughta keep those fans off from circulating the air and 20 promoting it. Otherwise, the six foot distance doesn't 21 make any difference. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Now, one of the things that 23 I'm interested in doing is making sure that we have some 24 of the Commissioners here at the courthouse that want to 25 -- just figure out when -- when -- we can come up with a 28 1 rotating schedule or what have you. But I think it's 2 important that the people know that county government is 3 open. 4 And I've already talked to the Court 5 Coordinator, and I plan to be here pretty much the whole 6 time. And would encourage the other Commissioners to at 7 least find the convenient times for you to be here so 8 that they are seen. And I want the public to know, kind 9 of like Tom Bodett, we're leaving the lights on and the 10 courthouse is open. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why doesn't Jody make 12 us a schedule so we make sure somebody is always here. 13 That would be good. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We'll do that. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. I think the 16 schools are doing the same thing as far as their office 17 staff and administration buildings and what have you. 18 Now, maybe not having everybody there but rotating them 19 through the different schools. But I know Ingram's 20 doing that. We do have a responsibility of keeping the 21 doors and lights on as you say. There's things that 22 need to get done. And some of the offices will be 23 closed, but they can -- a lot of it can be done over the 24 phone, so it's not like everybody's gone home. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm getting regular 29 1 calls. Is the burn ban on? Is the burn ban off? I've 2 got a pothole. Life goes on. We gotta get stuff done. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Right. Well, good. Anything 4 else on how we can run the courthouse during the crisis? 5 Okay then, let's move on to item 1.3, is 6 update from the County Attorney regarding the 7 responsibilities of the County Judge and Commissioners' 8 Court should Kerr County approve a Disaster Declaration, 9 which I am considering. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. The Court can approve 11 it beyond the seven days. Among the powers granted to 12 the County Judge, under the Chapter 418-R is the 13 authority to suspend procedural rules and laws, use 14 public and private resources to respond to the disaster. 15 Control the movement of people. Restrict the sale and 16 transportation of certain items, and take a number of 17 other actions. 18 Once the State of Disaster is declared, the 19 City or County may enact emergency ordinance or order 20 describing the specific emergency regulations that are 21 going to be put in effect during the disaster. Some 22 examples of the types of things the Court can do, or the 23 Judge has the authority to do in that order, I will tell 24 you -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Heather, is there a 30 1 difference between disaster and emergency? 2 JUDGE KELLY: No. Not really. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think so. 4 JUDGE KELLY: We had a conference call 5 Friday morning, I think it was, with Dub Thomas, the 6 Sheriff, Chief Deputy, and we also had Summer 7 Ray(phonetic) from the Governor's Emergency Management 8 Office in San Antonio on the line with us. And I asked 9 that very question, what's the difference between a 10 State of Emergency and a State of Disaster? And other 11 than one is preparatory and the other one is present, 12 there is no legal distinction between the terms, as 13 Summer explained. 14 And so at this point, we're not in a State 15 of Disaster yet, but we are probably in a State of 16 Emergency. And that's -- and there was an article in 17 last week's paper, in the Daily Times, that explained a 18 lot of this that was actually very accurate. I was 19 impressed that they got Chapter 418 as accurate. I 20 mean, it's -- it's complicated stuff but I mean it was 21 -- it was spot on. And for the public to understand 22 that the Mayor's as declared a State of Emergency for 23 the City and he has the -- the right to do that and 24 responsibility to do that. I did not declare a State of 25 Emergency at the time because we were kind of twiddling 31 1 our thumbs waiting for the virus to get here and it kind 2 of seemed disingenuous to step up and say State of 3 Emergency and then sit back down and keep waiting. But 4 it's closer. 5 And I know of a lot -- a lot of people 6 probably don't know that we do have several people in 7 the county under quarantine that we are monitoring. And 8 that's a very active monitoring situation. They'll be 9 staying -- with temperatures and etc. Kind of see where 10 they are with it. We do not have a positive confirmed 11 case of any kind at this point. 12 And so -- and mainly because of some of the 13 economic considerations. I'm leaning towards probably 14 declaring that today to try to get some of these 15 programs in place to try to help our citizens. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now can you explain it? 17 JUDGE KELLY: What? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why that is and what it 19 means? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Why what is? 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When you declare -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What you just said. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, one of the things 24 is -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Be it the monetary or 32 1 the assistance and so on. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- there's -- the -- one 3 of my constituents called me and mentioned that, and 4 this was Thursday, and things have changed since then 5 with the Governor. But at that point he wanted to get 6 an SBA loan, bridge loan, and he was denied because he 7 was in Kerr County and we had not declared a State of 8 Emergency. And so that's -- so I presume that there may 9 be other programs that may kick in and fall under that 10 type of category. I mentioned that to the County Judge. 11 Now, after that, the Governor declared a 12 Statewide Emergency so that may -- 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Override it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- override this one. I 15 don't know. But I think -- I think we need to do what 16 we can to help small businesses and -- and individuals 17 if that is a criteria that they need. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why don't we get a 19 clarification on whether that's the case or not rather 20 than -- we don't have a confirmed case in this county. 21 JUDGE KELLY: No. We do not. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If we're going to help 23 our citizens in the way that Commissioner Letz is 24 talking about, I'm all for it. But if it's a moot 25 point -- if we could get clarification on that I'd feel 33 1 more comfortable waiting until and unless there's a 2 confirmed case. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If a prerequisite 4 would be just -- be in the state declaring that -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A state declaration. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- overriding it, then 7 so be it. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, plus there's some 9 things at the national thing as of this morning where 10 they're hoping to do something like small business, 11 anything like that, they can go to the bank and get a 12 loan and the Federal Government will back the loan. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: In order for us to get 14 reimbursed for our expenses, Kerr County, we have to -- 15 have to enact a declaration. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the County. 17 What about the SBA stuff? 18 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know about the SBA 19 stuff. Dub, do you have any input? 20 MR. THOMAS: Well, I -- I'm pretty sure we 21 would have to have declaration. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And it can't go under 24 the State Declaration? 25 MR. THOMAS: Well, I think some -- 34 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what -- that's 2 what we're trying to figure out. 3 MR. THOMAS: I think Summer was going to try 4 to get us an explanation of that. I will get in touch 5 with her today and see -- and find out. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: See, I would rather err 7 with declaring it than not, because they -- they can't 8 wait. They need to get money, some of these businesses. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it'll probably take 11 time to get it so them being delayed another week, maybe 12 people will be laid off. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the question is, 14 what does it mean to somebody or what does it mean to 15 citizens that are not small business related? I mean, 16 what -- when we declare emergency, what does that mean 17 to them? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A little more panic, I 19 think. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No -- well, no. Do we 21 know? So what does it mean to the regular citizen? 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Nothing. 23 MR. THOMAS: It gives the Judge certain 24 powers under Chapter 418 of the Government Code. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But what does it mean 35 1 to an individual? 2 MRS. STEBBINS: So to an individual, the 3 Judge could -- this is the Judge's authority. He can 4 enact a curfew, he can regulate -- 5 MR. THOMAS: Restrict movement -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: -- movement of people and 7 occupancy of premises. He can enact rules related to 8 price control. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Doesn't mean -- 10 MRS. STEBBINS: He can protect them in 11 particular ways -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It doesn't -- doesn't 13 mean he will, but it means he could. 14 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So all I'm 17 thinking about is -- is if we declare an emergency, 18 okay, what does that mean to people's concern and 19 anxiety and all that kind of stuff when we don't have a 20 case in the county? 21 MR. THOMAS: Well, we did the same thing 22 when Hurricane Harvey came through. And we did that 23 because it was primarily going to be an economic 24 disaster. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. I understand 36 1 that. Because we got -- 2 MR. THOMAS: And right at this point you're 3 probably looking at an economic disaster if all these 4 businesses have to shut down because they can no 5 longer -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They're already shut 7 down. Some of them. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Irregardless, if -- if 9 we don't have a case we're still being affected. 10 Everybody's being affected. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Economically, yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm all for 17 helping everybody, but I just -- if -- if it's not 18 necessary -- I just think we oughta know. Is it 19 necessary or does -- has the State declared this 20 basically for everyone to get an SBA loan or a bridge 21 loan or whatever it is? 22 JUDGE KELLY: So that the public 23 understands, the Mayor in his singular judgment had the 24 power and exercised it to declare a State of Emergency 25 for the City of Kerrville. I did not last Monday. I 37 1 have that same power according to Chapter 418. I 2 believe that's what my County Attorney is telling me. 3 I have resisted doing that, mainly because 4 we've been waiting. We have discussed that that is what 5 triggers our reimbursement from the Federal Government, 6 but we haven't had that much -- that much time that 7 we've really spent getting ready for this, but this week 8 I think it might be changing. And so I am considering 9 doing it. It's not a court action; it's my action. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And I am hesitant to do it, 12 but at the same time, I want to make sure that we 13 maximize all benefits that are available to our people 14 that are out of work and that may be affected by the 15 COVID-19. 16 And I do not want to alarm anyone and so I'm 17 speaking to the public right now, we do not have an 18 active case in Kerr County. We don't know if we're 19 going to get one. You know, we can pray for a miracle 20 and hope we don't. More than likely we are going to 21 have one at some point. Where we are right now is our 22 preparations are gearing up even more. And our -- our 23 citizens are being more affected the longer this goes 24 on. And so that -- that's why I'm considering it. And 25 I'll make a decision later today. 38 1 The -- the powers that are granted, I wanted 2 to make sure that we all understood, and that's why I 3 wanted the County Attorney to explain that because they 4 are very broad. And it is the power that is given to 5 the County Judge and to the Mayor. And for those of you 6 wondering out there, what if the Mayor and I disagree, 7 the statute provides that my decision prevails. That's 8 what it says. It was in the paper, which was very 9 accurately reported. 10 The Mayor and I have made arrangements to 11 meet this Wednesday afternoon, we're in regular contact. 12 I don't -- I don't foresee that we're going to disagree 13 about any of this stuff. But -- and we do have our 14 regular Thursday morning meeting with all stakeholders. 15 So that's kind of where we are on that. Is there 16 anything else we need to talk about with regard to -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. After that 18 Thursday morning meeting, how do you disseminate the 19 results of the meeting to the public? You know, like 20 the President, after they have a meeting every morning 21 or something, in the evening or whatever he has a press 22 conference. It would be good after Thursday, when all 23 the stakeholders have something to say, give an update 24 to the public. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, of course -- 39 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Maybe that's if. If 2 anything changes. If there's genuine news. 3 Commissioner Moser said when, I'm saying if. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think if there's a 5 summary of any developments it can be put on our County 6 website. I mean, I think trying to get it -- you know, 7 and then the press or anyone else can pick it up from 8 there. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that would be 10 fine. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: Lisa is -- can be very 13 helpful in that regard. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can Lisa go with you? 15 JUDGE KELLY: No. No, Lisa hasn't gone with 16 me but -- 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can she? 18 JUDGE KELLY: She could. It's -- it's not 19 necessary that she go with me, but -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Based on what you've 21 seen in the meetings, would it be beneficial? Is there 22 any -- are we making sausage, are you finding out 23 revelations, or are you just updating? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm happy to update, you 25 know, on the major things that we talked about other 40 1 than the Emergency Management Plan, which we now have -- 2 we're in Phase 3. I think -- was the City talking about 3 going to Phase 4? 4 MR. THOMAS: Not at this point, no, sir. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Then we're all at Phase 3. We 6 had a report from Chief Knight, the Kerrville Fire 7 Department, on the state of preparations. And Jeremy 8 Hughes gave a report. Eric Maloney, who's the head of 9 EMS, was there. The Mayor and City Manager were both 10 there giving us kind of a state of where they are with 11 things. 12 The City has indicated that if it gets bad 13 enough they will lock the City Hall doors. And I took 14 issue with that because I don't want to lock the County 15 Courthouse doors. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me give you an 17 example, Judge. Some people in our neighborhood, we 18 have a gate for the community. It stays open during the 19 day. Some people want to close it at all times because 20 they'd heard that, you know, sort of the riot things 21 where people were delivering things and other people 22 were attacking them, so they had to have police escorts 23 in Fort Worth. 24 And so I tried to alleviate some of the 25 concerns people have by talking about the Emergency 41 1 Management Plan. I say we've got a good Emergency 2 Management Plan. There's a whole annex on this type of 3 thing. The Sheriff has 42 deputies, etc., etc., there's 4 no reason for everybody to panic about this because they 5 didn't -- they didn't know how organized the County was 6 in being responsive to something like this. 7 So what you just said I thought was very 8 interesting. You met with EMS folks, you met with the 9 City -- the police chief and all, and everything is 10 understood and organized and communicated. I think 11 something like that the -- the public -- that would help 12 the public not to be too concerned about what's 13 happening in Kerr County knowing that it's -- it's very 14 accurately -- thoroughly, I should say -- controlled. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think another comment 16 on top -- or with that, Commissioner, is that the -- 17 I visit, you know, with the County Judge on a probably 18 more regular basis now than I used to. And part of the 19 reason was when this started, he was out of state, and 20 all of a sudden it was like I contacted and talked with 21 Dub and said, for whatever reason the County Judge can't 22 act, it goes to the Senior Commissioner. And so -- and 23 just for the public to be aware that Judge and I 24 communicate pretty regular on what's going on. I think 25 -- and he does it with everyone else, all the rest of 42 1 the members of the Court as well. But I think that if, 2 you know, there's a plan in place if the Judge can't do 3 something -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and if I can't do it, 6 it goes to, I guess, Commissioner Moser. So, I mean, 7 there's a process that's set up in the Emergency 8 Management Plan that we are following and we're working 9 within. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Most of the people 11 don't know that, though. That's a very positive thing. 12 I mean, it's a really good plan. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me share a couple of 14 the other things we talked about last Thursday that are 15 public worthy to know. We had KISD, Mark -- Dr. Foust 16 was there, and he announced that all the school 17 districts Thursday at noon closed school. And that's 18 when the announcement came out. They all happened at 19 the same time. 20 We got the preview Thursday morning and then 21 they announced at noon. He announced that KISD was not 22 going to set a termination date. They left theirs open. 23 And that's because they're trying to figure out online 24 instruction. 25 Charlie McCormick was there from Schreiner 43 1 University, and both Dr. Foust and Dr. McCormick talked 2 about they have a lot of employees, especially coaches, 3 since they've shut down all athletic activities for the 4 rest of the semester that need to be reassigned duties. 5 And so they're looking into what can be done, looking at 6 possibly pooling resources. 7 The big issue de jure, which was not an 8 Emergency Management issue, but it is certainly a 9 community issue, is child care during these times. And 10 one of the things that school district and the Schreiner 11 University are working, is possibly trying to come up 12 with some sort of collaborative to be able to facilitate 13 child care for our health care workers at the hospital, 14 as well as those teachers that are continuing to try to 15 educate the children. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Using the people at 17 Schreiner University? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Either using the people at 19 Schreiner or at KISD, but it's a collaborative effort. 20 And so one of the things that we agreed was to form a 21 committee, child care committee, that's going to report 22 back to us this Thursday to see what can be done. At 23 one point it was suggested that the hospital is just 24 right down the street from the Methodist Church and the 25 Methodist Church had a daycare program. They tried to 44 1 set up child care at the Methodist Church for a whole 2 bunch of kids. Well, I -- I interjected that we still 3 have a limitation of 10 per gathering. 4 And so, you know, we can't just take all the 5 kids out of school and put them in one place. If we're 6 going to do this, they're going to have to be spread out 7 so that we can comply with the Governor's Executive 8 Orders. So that's -- that's something that I was very 9 encouraged by and felt like that was progress that we're 10 making. 11 KPUB was there. They gave us a report on 12 grid management. We're in good shape. We're ready. 13 Cory Edmondson was there for Peterson and was -- and 14 gave very informative information with regard to the 15 testing. For those that don't know it, the way the 16 testing will be done is nobody goes to the emergency 17 room. Let me repeat, no one goes to the emergency room. 18 Any testing has to be done through a doctor's order. 19 And once you have a doctor's order then you can make an 20 appointment. But nobody just shows up. 21 We talked about the actual test itself. 22 They take the swabs here and they're shipped immediately 23 to San Antonio and it's a lab in San Antonio that does 24 the testing. So they will be tested in San Antonio but 25 the -- the specimen will be taken here. 45 1 There is an exception for law enforcement 2 and health care providers. They do not require a 3 physician's order, but they still have to be screened by 4 their respective offices, and they can be tested 5 directly. 6 There is a drive-thru testing facility that 7 they have in San Antonio. They told us where, but they 8 told us not to tell the public at this point because 9 they don't want people swamping it. But my 10 understanding is that there are four lanes. It's a very 11 large facility. There's four lanes. You stay in your 12 car, you wait your turn. And they -- they test you at 13 that point and then will let -- notify you later of the 14 test results. 15 So I was very comforted by the fact that it 16 looks like to me that our healthcare providers have come 17 up with a good system to do testing. But these are the 18 types of things that were talked about. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And I understand that, you 21 know, I'll go this Thursday. Dub and I will be there 22 this Thursday. We're pretty much sidekicks on these 23 things, so -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, what you just 25 said was first time I've heard it, you know. So that -- 46 1 that -- that's my point. It would be good if the public 2 heard what you just said. I think -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: And I -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- I think it's very 5 important. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And I agree. But one of the 7 things that we're limited with is the Open Meetings Act. 8 So we have to be here for us to share it. And so I'm 9 glad I did and I have the opportunity to share it. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But you can tell the -- 11 we have a public relation person. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. And so I will coordinate 13 with Lisa and make sure that I get her briefed so that 14 we get a press release every Thursday after the meeting. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and any other interim 17 reports that come up. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That -- that would be 19 fantastic. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And just as an aside, she's 21 been doing an excellent job. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: She has. 23 JUDGE KELLY: An excellent job. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, before we leave 47 1 that, one question for the County Attorney. If the 2 Judge does choose to declare a disaster, the Court -- to 3 get -- to extend it beyond seven days the Court needs to 4 ratify it? 5 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 7 JUDGE KELLY: These -- these orders last for 8 seven days, that's why you read in the paper that the 9 City extended it. Because their seven days was about to 10 expire. If we do it today then we meet every Monday 11 anyway at this point, then it would be a weekly revisit 12 of the issue to extend it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you can also -- I 14 read one of the Governor's orders, it can be done 15 through a virtual meeting. If we cannot attend, you 16 can -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- waive the requirement 19 and we can do a virtual meeting. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And for the -- for the public 22 that doesn't know how technologically challenged I am, 23 this effort to be on YouTube today was Herculean on the 24 part of our IT Department, which we're very grateful to. 25 But we're trying to figure out how to adapt to these 48 1 times. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Dub, did you get some 3 information? 4 MR. THOMAS: Yes. There is no difference 5 between the Governor's Disaster Declaration and ours. 6 So for those SBA loans, the Governor's Declaration 7 should be sufficient. It covers the entire state. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Good enough. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: More good information. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the only reason for 12 the -- a County Judge to declare an emergency is if he 13 sees that he needs some of his additional powers 14 specifically -- 15 MR. THOMAS: At this point. Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Or to reimburse y'all 18 for meetings that -- specifically in regards to this. 19 MR. THOMAS: I think the Governor's 20 Declaration covers there as well, as far as tracking our 21 resources -- I mean, or tracking our expenses for 22 reimbursement. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I could say one 24 thing real quick that I think -- the YouTube is working 25 great. We have it set up out in the hallway. I would 49 1 have Lisa or one of y'all explain exactly how to find it 2 and get onto it. It's a lot different than -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She'll put it on the 4 website. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- YouTube. We need to 6 put in -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just link it to -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- directions so that 9 the public, general public, can find where to go exactly 10 in YouTube to get to it. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: And it needs to be -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: It was in the Daily Times on 13 Page 12, in the upper right-hand corner, The exact 14 contact information. I read it this morning. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I had to get IT to help 16 me locate it awhile ago. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Was it in the San 18 Antonio Express News? 19 JUDGE KELLY: I could care less. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's where they 21 post public notices nowadays. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: In the future, I recommend 23 it be posted on the agenda as well. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The thing is to 25 actually find it, Judge, I had to get IT to even help us 50 1 actually locate it on YouTube. It's not as easy as what 2 you think. 3 JUDGE KELLY: We'll working on getting -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do we have a channel 5 name? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't think so. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what we need. 8 We just need a channel number. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: You also need to post it on 10 the upcoming agenda. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Good idea. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On that, just for 13 clarification. In light of all the emergency 14 declaration and all, do we -- if the Commissioners have 15 to meet and do it without 72-hour posting, is that 16 possible? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: For emergency meetings you 18 can. You still -- the posting requirements are still 19 required under the Governor's Order, but you can meet 20 virtually. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So if the Judge says 22 emergency, we could all meet? 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: I think it's -- I think it's a 51 1 four hour minimum, isn't it? 2 MRS. STEBBINS: Uh-huh. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 4 Thank you. Okay. Good deal. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's segue into 1.4 6 that I put on the agenda, and that's to consider, 7 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 8 Declaration of a State of Emergency to address the 9 interruption of 9-1-1 service to east -- well, it's 10 actually East and West Kerr County, from trenching and 11 boring on Highway 27. 12 This is an issue that came up this past 13 week, where I was considering whether or not to -- 14 there's Mr. Del Toro. 15 Okay. Dub's out; Mark's in. Green chair 16 right over here, Mark. 17 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: This is Mark Del Toro of 19 9-1-1. 20 MR. DEL TORO: Good morning, Commissioners. 21 Good morning, Judge. The telephone issue, I was 22 notified about last week in a late afternoon telephone 23 call by Mr. Motheral asking if I knew about a fiber 24 optic cable company. I wasn't aware until he told me. 25 Did a little bit more research. 52 1 Patrick Tinley from Hill Country got ahold 2 of me, let me know what happened, and expressed his 3 concern that if the contractor continues, we could have 4 another situation. What was it, Tom, maybe three years 5 ago, four years ago? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Right. 7 MR. DEL TORO: We put in a -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: Let me kind of interrupt, 9 Mark, and give -- 10 MR. DEL TORO: Okay. 11 JUDGE KELLY: -- the public a little bit of 12 background and the Commissioners a little bit of 13 background. 14 MR. DEL TORO: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: This did come up last week and 16 -- and you and I spoke. I talked to Patrick Tinley, as 17 well as Rusty Henderson with Windstream. The 18 construction that's going on along Highway 27, both in 19 east and west Kerr County, and it's a TxDOT contractor. 20 I think there are multiple contractors that are doing 21 this work. And I -- I don't know all the details about 22 how they're doing it, but I know there's some boring and 23 there's some trenching. 24 But they are using the right-of-way along 25 Highway 27 to install, I guess what, more fiber optic 53 1 cables? 2 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah, more -- more cable and 3 more ducting going in. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and the problem is that 5 they severed existing fiber optic lines, Ethernet lines, 6 in a number of places and on a number of occasions. And 7 they even hit a gas line in front of Schreiner 8 University. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's what I've 10 heard. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, and it's just -- it's 12 just been a mess. And with -- and the calls that I 13 started receiving -- and I've talked with Mark, I've 14 talked with Patrick, and I've talked with Rusty -- I was 15 requested to order them to cease and desist. 16 Just so the public knows, even though I 17 might be an elected constitutional County Judge, I don't 18 have the right to walk around town and order people to 19 cease and desist to do things. In order to do that, we 20 would have to go through the judicial process, a 21 judicial proceeding. 22 You can always file a civil lawsuit and get 23 a temporary restraining order for stuff like that. It's 24 somewhat cumbersome to do that. That would be the 25 advice that I gave I think everybody. I even mentioned 54 1 that to you, Mark. 2 MR. DEL TORO: Yes. 3 JUDGE KELLY: That that was one way to go. 4 We took a look at the Chapter 418 powers that we just 5 discussed, to see whether or not we thought they were 6 broad enough to arguably include a cease and desist. I 7 think the orders do allow me to -- or the Mayor -- to 8 order ingress and egress or evacuation. 9 I can -- I can commandeer properties, I can 10 -- I can do a lot of things, but it doesn't clearly say 11 that I can order somebody to cease and desist, but I 12 think a reasonable construction is that probably could, 13 if it really were a threat. And a threat, so I want the 14 public to understand, is that we cannot afford to have 15 any portion of this County, any portion of this County 16 without 9-1-1 coverage during this crisis, and we were 17 at risk to that. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Could I ask a question? 19 We had -- Mark's right. Three years ago we discussed 20 this. And we have redundant loops, so we did not have 21 this kind of issue. So go from there. 22 MR. DEL TORO: True. We -- we do. We have 23 two physical networks that transport all -- not just 24 9-1-1. We did that first with Hill Country and 25 Windstream and then they did a plan to -- to transport 55 1 all of Kerrville communication over two legs, different 2 routes to San Antonio. We have one -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just for credit, for 4 Hill Country Telephone, they spent a lot of their own 5 money -- 6 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah, they did. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- to make sure that we 8 got redundant paths of communication. 9 MR. DEL TORO: And at 8:00 a.m., I believe 10 it was on January 13th three years ago, contractor in 11 Boerne tore up the fiber, one of the main legs. We were 12 halfway down, no problem. I still have -- I still have 13 survivability for the 9-1-1 network. 4:30 p.m. that 14 afternoon in Bandera County where the other leg goes, 15 another contractor severed that fiber. We were toast. 16 9-1-1 was out. All Kerrville communication was out. It 17 was -- you know, people were -- were going nuts. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make it clear. That was 19 three years ago. 20 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah. Right. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So bring us -- 22 MR. DEL TORO: We can't afford to have that 23 happen again. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- forward to today. 25 Do we still have communication? So this cutting the 56 1 fiber, that didn't jeopardize our -- 2 MR. DEL TORO: It did not jeopardize our 3 communications. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 5 MR. DEL TORO: But if we hit that same 6 scenario that happened three years ago -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: The perfect storm. 8 MR. DEL TORO: Sure. And right now with 9 what's going on. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There were two cuts? 11 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah. If there were two 12 cuts, we're toast. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good enough. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it's like being able 15 to get out of your driveway but the doors are blocked 16 so -- I mean, the roads are blocked so -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It would take two 18 failures. 19 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah, two failures. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You can't go either 21 direction out of your driveway. You're going to have to 22 stay there. 23 MR. DEL TORO: And we put plenty of 24 safeguards in place so we can get the calls back to our 25 call center, but when the calls can't even get to the 57 1 selected router, there's nothing we can do. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So takes -- so in 3 summary, we've got redundancy. Cut one, you still got 4 capability. 5 MR. DEL TORO: True. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You cut the other one, 7 you lose. 8 MR. DEL TORO: We're done. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You lose. So it takes 10 -- it takes two to do that. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But these contractors 12 have cut multiple times and multiple areas at the same 13 time. 14 MR. DEL TORO: Correct. Well, my 15 understanding -- Hill Country was able to make their 16 repair. They have a temporary line setup so they're -- 17 they're back online. But we -- we can't run the risk of 18 that happening again. 19 JUDGE KELLY: But to dovetail this back with 20 what we've been talking about. One of my considerations 21 in whether I should declare a State of Emergency is we 22 may need to stop this contractor if this is going to 23 threaten connectivity to 9-1-1 and the County. We 24 cannot have that. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This would just be one 58 1 of them, though, Mark? 2 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah, that's it. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So for clarification, 4 where this contractor is working, he can violate one of 5 our lines of communication. He's not working in the 6 area where the other line of communication is, correct? 7 JUDGE KELLY: They're all over us. 8 MR. DEL TORO: Well -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, I understand. But 10 I'm trying to understand -- 11 MR. DEL TORO: -- on this -- on this 12 particular leg, my understanding is that's the path down 13 27 to I-10 and then on into San Antonio. And then the 14 other one goes way out. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Way out to Bandera. 16 MR. DEL TORO: We're -- we're about -- we 17 have about a 40 mile separation where he's working now. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So he's not working -- 19 this contractor along 27 is not working in the other 20 area? 21 MR. DEL TORO: But we don't know that maybe 22 AT&T -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Somebody else may be -- 24 MR. DEL TORO: Right. We don't know. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But right now, you 59 1 still would have the one backup? 2 MR. DEL TORO: Correct. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. You got a back 4 door for this. 5 MR. DEL TORO: Right. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Except, if I may 7 interject. What Patrick Tinley told me was that if he's 8 on the west side of 534, okay, between right there, and 9 if he cut one between there and say Schreiner College, I 10 don't know if they're past that point, it would be 11 cutting Windstream's backup and totally going to Bandera 12 and their router. It would totally isolate Windstream. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, I see. 14 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah, we have a meet -- 15 what's called a meet point. And if they get to before 16 that meet point, then we're done. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's the same point 18 thing? 19 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah. Where -- where 20 Windstream hands off to Hill Country. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, exactly. And 22 that doesn't sound like good redundancy really. I mean 23 it sounds like -- 24 MR. DEL TORO: No. It -- it protected us 25 because of all the construction at the time that was 60 1 going on along I-10 between Comfort and Boerne. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we don't have 3 redundancy of one area? 4 MR. DEL TORO: In this one area -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 6 MR. DEL TORO: -- in the County. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. So 8 what does it take to get redundancy there? 9 MR. DEL TORO: It's going to take getting 10 AT&T, Windstream and Hill Country -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what it did 12 before, right? We had AT&T, Windstream and HCTC 13 altogether and we all agreed how to do it, okay, so when 14 we looked at eliminating that single point failure. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I was told Hill 17 Country is above ground from this point out to the 18 airport, okay, so it will not affect them, but it would 19 totally cut off Windstream. Okay. So you would still 20 have Hill Country going above ground, but Windstream is 21 what's below ground below that. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Anyway. Should 23 be looked at. Okay, good deal. 24 JUDGE KELLY: But -- but the issue de jure 25 is if we invoke the State of Emergency powers, my 61 1 construction of the powers that are granted would be 2 broad enough for me to be able to order these people to 3 stop until this crisis past. And if they want to take 4 me to court, they can. But I would have the enforcement 5 power to be able to protect the County and our 9-1-1 6 system in the meantime. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Good. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the idea would be to 9 basically suspend this work until we feel like we're out 10 of the woods? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Trust me, TxDOT does 12 not want me to do that. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 14 MR. DEL TORO: And make it broad enough it 15 covers any contractor; just not them. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. And -- and 17 going back. They cut one line, and a gas line? One 18 fiber optic line -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: They cut -- they cut fiber 20 optic lines in several places. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They were -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: And then they hit the gas line 23 in front of Schreiner. It's been a comedy of errors. 24 And it's not just one contractor. If it was one 25 contractor it would be a lot easier. It's multiple 62 1 contractors. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And part of the problem 4 is because in -- correct -- and help me with this, Mark. 5 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That we have a general 7 idea where this stuff is, but we don't know exactly 8 where it is. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's correct. 10 MR. DEL TORO: That's right. And they have 11 to rely on the Texas -- the dig alert service, the 12 locate service. And you know, that -- that's fairly 13 accurate but, you know, I don't know, maybe they just 14 don't know how to control their own ground borings. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Remember, three years 16 ago we found it was not very accurate. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now see, they're out 18 there digging with backhoes and stuff. Do they put a 19 crew in there with shovels first to figure out where 20 the -- 21 MR. DEL TORO: Yeah, I don't know. All I've 22 seen at this point is the horizontal boring machines. 23 And they're blind. They're blindly drilling. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The one I want to say 25 in Boerne, they were just digging -- 63 1 MR. DEL TORO: They -- they were. They were 2 putting -- it was a plumbing company actually that did 3 it. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. So all of that, 5 you know, we don't have our infrastructure mapped out 6 very well. And the way it was explained to me and you 7 may have been the one that explained it, or one of the 8 guys at the office, if you have a trench that's ten foot 9 wide and you drop that cable in there, it goes -- 10 MR. DEL TORO: Sure. Uh-huh. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- back and forth. And 12 so you can be digging and you think you're four feet 13 away from it and it's right up at the edge in that spot 14 and you tear it up. Because I -- I kept asking and 15 asking, why in the hell does this keep happening. And 16 then finally they said okay, here's -- and you have to 17 know that stuff; otherwise, it's just abstract that we 18 think we have a bunch of idiots running things and we 19 don't. It's just not mapped out very well. 20 MR. DEL TORO: It's not. And it -- it's 21 very difficult for -- because a friend of mine is a 22 contractor that installs this stuff and there are 23 underground obstructions that they have to go around, so 24 therefore it's -- it's deviated right there. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Especially here. Lots 64 1 of rocks and stuff. 2 JUDGE KELLY: I just want -- I want our 3 conversation to reflect that we're not talking about 4 what the civil liabilities are for this or even what the 5 criminal liabilities are. There are certain criminal 6 liabilities that attach depending on if it's properly 7 marked or not. 8 But what we're concerned about right now is 9 an emergency situation, in fact in the State of 10 Emergency, is this something that if we declare a State 11 of Emergency, will I be on the phone this afternoon 12 telling these contractors to stop? 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I would think 14 that if a line is cut and we're down to one, the 15 backup -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, they've got it patched. 17 It's patched back right now. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. But if it 19 happens again, at least until we got it patched back 20 up -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's patched, he said. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If it happened again. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The one we're talking 24 about. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 65 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What -- what -- could I 2 ask, what is the cable they're putting in? It looks 3 like it's an inch, inch and a half diameter. Who is it 4 for? 5 MR. DEL TORO: I don't know. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know either. 7 Do you know, Jonathan? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know either. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a need to know 11 thing. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it's a big cable. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the bottom line 14 is, if the Judge feels he needs to stop them, stop them. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Right. If he 16 declares an emergency, he has the authority. 17 MR. DEL TORO: Well, it's not just 9-1-1 18 traffic on these lines; it's everything. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Sure. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I mean, for our phones to be 21 down during this crisis is -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's not good. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it's not good. 24 The -- you know, people need ambulances and they need to 25 -- you know, that stuff keeps going on. 66 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I think it's -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: So I'm looking at my County 3 Attorney. May need to cover me on this one. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a go. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Next item on the agenda 7 is 1.5 update on the Hill Country Youth Event Center. I 8 don't know if Jake's out there. 9 Thanks, Mark. 10 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, if I may. I'm 12 thinking about that. If you -- a scenario. If we have 13 a -- if you declare an emergency, which is -- okay, then 14 that enables you to tell a contractor stop, okay? You 15 could -- right now you've got dual pass, if the fix is 16 in there. And so what you could do is you could tell 17 the contractor if the line is cut again and we're down 18 to a single path, then you'll cease and desist. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's exactly what I 20 was trying to say. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That way -- yeah, that 22 way he can -- he can keep working but knowing if he cuts 23 it again, until you get -- until you get dual paths -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's multiple -- 25 multiple contractors; it's not just one contractor. 67 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, so you can tell 2 all of them. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Anything that I might do with 4 those emergency powers will be in close conjunction with 5 HCTC, Windstream and 9-1-1 -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and TxDOT and the 8 contractor. And -- and we may have to sit down and cuss 9 and discuss, but we will get -- we will protect the 10 people of the County. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And TxDOT is opposed? 12 I thought I heard you say that. 13 JUDGE KELLY: They're just -- they're 14 just -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They just want to get 16 the work done and how they arrive at that. 17 JUDGE KELLY: -- they're just the State. 18 What can I say? 19 Okay, Jake. 20 MR. WILLIAMSON: Good morning. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. 22 MR. WILLIAMSON: Thanks for taking the time 23 today. I just wanted to come and gave a, I guess, brief 24 update as to operations at the Event Center as we're one 25 that works on discretionary income and revenue for 68 1 y'all. I just want to make sure that you guys have all 2 the information you have as decisions come up in the 3 future. 4 So simply put, you know, this is absolutely 5 -- hits home to us with events not being allowed at 6 least through April 1st, if not for a foreseeable future 7 past that. So I just want to let you guys know that 8 currently we have -- we're operating on appointments 9 only. 10 We're not closed, because we have a lot of 11 things on the books. We have a very full schedule. As 12 soon as anything's rescinded we're in full operations. 13 So we're being very flexible. It's very fluid. We're 14 in contact with all groups for the next four months 15 pretty much every day. Started just an e-mail chain and 16 let them know changes, anything that might come up, and 17 we're working with everybody very hands on. 18 So immediate impact of what we're looking at 19 is we've already had to reschedule or postpone 15 20 contracted events through this time period. Including 21 4-H and other free-use events, we have lost 67 event 22 days, so that's a very significant portion of our 23 calendar that's been affected with immediate 24 repercussions from the onset of this. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jake, if you will keep 69 1 an accurate record with the dollar amount of each of 2 these, these may be reimbursable by the Federal 3 Government. 4 MR. WILLIAMSON: Correct. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you need to keep a 6 very accurate detail and any of your staff. I don't 7 know how your staff would be because it's on-call 8 regardless. But anything we're doing beyond the normal 9 scope of your work or your people's work, but definitely 10 all the event center cancelled and -- 11 MR. WILLIAMSON: Correct. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- keep track of that if 13 you would. 14 MR. WILLIAMSON: All right. And so at this 15 time -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And the estimated lost 17 revenue. 18 MR. WILLIAMSON: Absolutely. Our -- our 19 estimated lost revenue, of course, is fluctuating 20 because some of these events, we were able to keep in 21 this fiscal year. Others are -- we have not. 22 So for prudent sake, these are a lot of 23 annual events that have actually hit right now, so we're 24 trying to -- we can push that money to the next fiscal 25 year but save their event. That makes sense for 70 1 everybody. You know, let's keep them here. Let's do 2 these things now to help everybody through this 3 situation. 4 If this extends into May, June, we're 5 looking at a lot of one-time private events that 6 probably cannot be rescheduled. And we're looking at 7 alternatives to come up with something for those. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And one event was the 9 EasterFest and we had the Mass Gathering Permit that 10 they had filed. I did not grant that permit. They were 11 very accommodating. They came in and recognized the 12 problems, and it was really by agreement that we did not 13 do that. And that would be there at the Youth Event 14 Center. 15 MR. WILLIAMSON: The parking lot. 16 JUDGE KELLY: The parking lot. Another one 17 that we have a Mass Gathering Permit that we had was 18 with -- for the Folklife Festival. And that's been 19 withdrawn. Just so that you know. And I have no plan 20 of issuing any mass gathering permits for the time 21 being. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The problem you would 23 have I would think is, you know, even if it's postponed, 24 you got other events down the road that you might not be 25 able to have dates for people if they want to postpone. 71 1 MR. WILLIAMSON: Correct. So that's why 2 this fiscal year is going to have a direct impact but it 3 will extend into next fiscal as well. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 5 MR. WILLIAMSON: As people book a year in 6 advance, those that are in employment fluctuation at the 7 time that would have been booking a private party, 8 they're not going to be doing that. So, you know, 9 that's the repercussions or the overall economic impact 10 of what we're going through. Everybody's going through 11 it. It's -- but we're -- we're there for those folks. 12 We continue to operate. We already have a 13 small staff. We have one working from home to limit her 14 exposure in any way just because she's in the risk 15 demographic. And we have those abilities to do those 16 things. So we're operating as we can. We're rotating 17 shifts in case one of us unfortunately would go down, we 18 have backup. That's really how we have to operate 19 because we don't have backups past our core. 20 We have -- went into fiscal mitigation. 21 We've canceled any projects we would have had coming up 22 that required purchasing that we had budgeted for at 23 this time until we know the full impact. But we -- we 24 have supplies on-site. We've already started 25 maintenance projects and we're making sure that when we 72 1 do reopen fully, the place is going to look new, clean, 2 ready to go. Not that it was a shutdown and we came 3 back whenever. 4 So those are the things we are doing to make 5 sure that we are staying up to date so that when we do 6 get order the order -- when we do get the word, we're -- 7 there's no hesitation, we're already ready to go. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Have people put 9 deposits on these? 10 MR. WILLIAMSON: Correct. All these -- 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do you have to 12 reimburse or are you holding them? What's the mood of 13 most of them? 14 MR. WILLIAMSON: Per the contract, the 15 County does have a reserved right if we cancel the 16 contract they would get a full refund. We have not 17 invoked any of that. We've elected for postponement, 18 saying that we'll hold their deposits for a later date. 19 This is -- if it becomes next fiscal year right now, if 20 this doesn't extend too much further, our financials -- 21 although we're taking a hit, we won't make our record 22 revenue that we were looking at, we're still in line 23 with budget. So we're one lucky event centers in the 24 entire country at this stage because we don't take risks 25 on events; we're all rental. Things of that -- but the 73 1 industry has, of course, crashed. And it's going to 2 affect a lot of people. 3 We are lucky in isolation a bit here, but it 4 won't -- it can't last for any more of an extended 5 period of time to not cause drastic financial bottom 6 line issues at this Event Center. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Keep doing the 8 best work you can. We appreciate it. 9 MR. WILLIAMSON: Okay. Will do. Thank you. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you, Jake. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.6 consider, discuss and 12 take appropriate action to approve repairs of the 13 rainwater catchment tank at the Hill Country Youth Event 14 Center. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the 16 agenda. The company that installed that originally was 17 Rainwater Systems. Barry Wall gave us an estimate. 18 That estimate has been turned in to our insurance 19 company. His business, he is a small operation, wants 20 to continue to work. So my preference would be that as 21 soon as we get the insurance check that we go ahead and 22 authorize repairs. 23 So I make a motion that as soon as we 24 receive the insurance proceeds for the damage to the 25 rainwater catchment tank at the Hill Country Youth Event 74 1 Center that we authorize the County Judge to enter into 2 the contract with Barry Wall's company, Rainwater 3 Systems, Inc. to conduct such repairs. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: The motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 7 approve the repairs for the rainwater catchment system 8 at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. Is there any 9 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 10 Unanimous, five zero. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: You've got a couple of timed 12 items, Judge. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. It is 10:15. We've got 14 two timed items at ten o'clock. Let me skip down to 15 1.12, and I think both is with Charlie Hastings. Is he 16 out there, Sheriff? Okay. 17 Item 1.12 consider, discuss and take 18 appropriate action to authorize the County Judge to 19 execute a contract amendment with LAN, Inc. for easement 20 acquisition services related to the East Kerr County 21 Wastewater Project and authorize a Texas -- is that 22 Water Development Board -- 23 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- budget transfer to fund the 25 same. Mr. Hastings. 75 1 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The easement 2 acquisition process for the project that we've been 3 talking about lacks two easements and one simple fee 4 tract. One sewer easement due to realignment of the 5 sewer main, one fee simple tract due to the relocation 6 of the pumping station in the Verde Creek Boulevard 7 area, and one easement due to encroachments. There was 8 a hay barn constructed over a sewer easement that we 9 acquired. 10 Kerr County's easement acquisition 11 consultant, LAN, Inc., has prepared an additional 12 services scope in the amount not to exceed $23,380.00. 13 A Texas Water Development Board Project No. 10366 budget 14 transfer in the amount of $23,380.00 from the 15 contingency to the easement acquisition line item. 16 Under the L1000484 funding source is required to fund 17 the additional services from the easement acquisition 18 consultant and costs associated with purchasing the fee 19 simple tract and the easements. 20 The County Engineer requests the Court to 21 authorize the County Judge to execute a contract 22 amendment with LAN, Inc. in the amount not to exceed 23 $23,380.00 and authorize a Texas Water Development Board 24 Project No. 10366 budget transfer in the amount of 25 $23,380.00 from the contingency to the easement 76 1 acquisition line item under the L1000484 funding source 2 to fund the same. It's Precincts 2 and 3. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 7 approve the budget transfer item of what -- $23,383.00? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Uh-huh. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? Those 10 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 11 Let's move on to 1.13 consider, discuss and 12 take appropriate action for the Court to set a public 13 hearing for 10:00 a.m. on April the 27th, 2020, to 14 cancel the revision of plat for Horizon Section One, Lot 15 36R, Plat File 19-00762. Mr. Hastings. 16 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The owner, 17 Charles Robertson, owns two lots currently. They -- he 18 replatted them into one lot and now he's wishing to 19 revert back to two lots again. It just wasn't 20 beneficial for it to stay one lot. We run that through 21 Environmental Health to make sure there weren't going to 22 be any issues with reverting back to the old 23 configuration, and issues would be things like building 24 a septic tank over a lot line and then if you revert 25 back and it's over the lot line that would be an issue. 77 1 They said there's no issues. 2 So this proposal would cancel the revision 3 of plat for Horizon Section One, Lot 36R, which is Plat 4 File No. 19-00762, which combines Lots 36 and 37. This 5 proposed plat cancellation returns Lot 36R, which is a 6 total of 14.15 acres to Lots 36, 7.6 acres, and 37, 6.55 7 acres, as previously plated in Volume 6, Page 391. 8 These lots are in the floodplain and must meet flood 9 plain development regulations. 10 The County Engineer requests the Court set a 11 public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on April 27th, 2020 to 12 cancel the revision of plat for Horizon Section One, 13 Lot 36R, Plat File No. 19-00762, Precinct 1. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question for County 15 Attorney. Can we set a public hearing if we can't have 16 the public at the hearing? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, you're able to have 18 the meeting virtually. I don't know that you want to 19 set a public hearing now for that. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but if you can't 21 have the public here, they can't participate. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, there are ways that 23 they'll be able to participate, like calling in like the 24 Judge announced at the beginning. They can submit 25 questions and comments -- 78 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: -- before the meetings. 3 There are ways to do it. Whether y'all want to do that 4 or not at this time, I don't know. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So is -- so the answer 6 to the question -- you -- we can have a public hearing 7 and handle it by this other virtual methods? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: You can, yes. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. Good 10 enough. Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I move for 12 approval. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Belew, and seconded by Commissioner Letz to 16 approve the public meeting for April 27th. Is there any 17 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 18 Unanimous, five zero. Okay. Thank you, Charlie. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We'll go back up to 1.7. 21 Sheriff, is Reagan Givens out there? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, sir. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Consider, discuss and 24 take appropriate action to accept donations from 25 citizens for Animal Services. Funds to be used to 79 1 purchase microchips. Reagan. 2 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. Yes, sir. We 3 received recently $225.00 in total from three different 4 citizens. Each of them -- they had not specified 5 microchips, they just said for our animals. So 6 everybody's been pretty consistent with okay that we use 7 it for microchips a lot. So I'd like to put it in our 8 microchips line item if it's all right. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion that we 10 accept three donations that total $225.00 and put it in 11 the microchip line item of the KCAS. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 15 approve accepting the gifts for the microchips for 16 Animal Services. Any further discussion? Those in 17 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 18 MR. GIVENS: Thank you. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Reagan. 20 Item 1.8 -- I guess Ms. Doss is out there? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action to renew the ACA Reporting and 24 Tracking Service, the ARTS Program Agreement, between 25 Texas Association of Counties and Kerr County and have 80 1 the County Judge sign the same. Ms. Doss. 2 MS. DOSS: Yes, sir. This is just an annual 3 renewal that has to do with the Affordable Care Act 4 reporting and tracking system and TAC prepares the 1095C 5 forms for us. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 9 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Moser to 10 approve the renewal of the contract with TAC for the 11 ARTS program. Any further discussion? Those in favor 12 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 13 MS. DOSS: Thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 15 Item 1.9 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to approve the submission of TAC, 17 Texas Association of Counties, Property Renewal 18 Schedule. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is our annual thing 20 that we do. We are -- they filled out the 21 questionnaire, I think that's attached in the backup. 22 The schedule we are looking at, mainly because of the 23 Wastewater Project, exactly what -- how we include 24 certain parts of that. The lift stations are all 25 itemized already, but we're looking now at the sewer 81 1 lines in the ground. But once that list is completely 2 complied with we will forward this in, and there is a 3 deadline, I believe, the 30th of March. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And this is with regard to 5 renewal of our insurance? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, this is insurance 7 renewal of our property insurance. So I make a motion 8 that we authorize the submission of the property 9 insurance renewal. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 12 Commissioner Letz, and seconded by Commissioner Moser to 13 approve the renewal of the Property Renewal Schedule for 14 our insurance purposes. Any further discussion? Those 15 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One question. 17 Jonathan, does that -- since we got the horseshoe 18 facility from Mooney, is that included in that? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll check. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because -- I believe it 22 is, but we'll check and see. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good enough. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, item 1.10 consider, 25 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the list 82 1 of reimbursable items for the Volunteer Fire Department. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, I'm going to pass 3 on that. There was something that came in from one of 4 the Volunteer Fire Departments for a reimbursable item 5 to be added and I asked them to have KARFA submit a 6 request. So they have not done that yet so -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, while we've got this 8 topic before the Court, I do want to report that 9 Commissioner Harris and I met with KARFA -- I'm losing 10 track of time, was that two weeks ago, Don? 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The week before last, 12 yes. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And they're very pleased with 14 the way we've redone the contracts with them, which was 15 arduous for us. It seems to be -- have been a hit. 16 They did mention some things to us that we ought to put 17 on our radar screen. They liked the contract. They'd 18 like for us to put more things in the contract. So 19 instead of taking things out of the contract, they want 20 us to put more things in it. 21 But -- and we talked -- and the only thing 22 that's on the agenda are the reimbursables and that's 23 one of the things that we talked about. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's what I couldn't 25 talk to you about this morning. 83 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. I understand. 2 JUDGE KELLY: All right. So as we do this, 3 this is something that we probably want to involve 4 KARFA, as well as the individual volunteer fire 5 departments, because they do have input. And I've only 6 talked about what's on the agenda, but there are other 7 things that they want to talk about. Other issues that 8 they want to talk about adding to the contract. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.11 consider, discuss 11 and take appropriate action to determine whether to 12 allow the retail fireworks permit holders to sell 13 fireworks to the public in celebration of San Jacinto 14 Day. Anybody want to do that? 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, after the last 16 round for Texas Independence Day and we had Mr. Jeffers 17 in here speaking, and what they're doing with money when 18 they sell these different things, they're helping the 19 church and their youth camps and stuff, I -- I move for 20 approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The motion's been made 23 by Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew 24 to approve the sale of fireworks for San Jacinto Day. 25 Any further discussion? 84 1 MRS. STEBBINS: May I add that this is sort 2 of in the face of the Governor's declaration to -- or to 3 focus on essential needs in the community and essential 4 things like groceries. And this is -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is what? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- many local businesses 8 that we can encourage to stay open and operate right 9 now, we should. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's right. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And, you know, if you 13 don't like it, you don't have to go there. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, abide by the 16 Governor's, you know, rules but I applaud them if 17 they're able to to safely continue to operate. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And we've had plenty of 19 rain, so. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We need more outside 22 activities. Hopefully people won't do these indoors. 23 JUDGE KELLY: They will not do these 24 indoors. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know. We have 85 1 a big AG barn out there. Internal. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other discussion 3 about the fireworks sales? Those in favor raise your 4 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 5 Okay, Sheriff, we need the Auditor. We're 6 going to move on to the Approval Agenda. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Going to do 1.14? 8 JUDGE KELLY: Huh? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Going to do 1.14? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, one four, yeah. 1.14 11 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 12 determine whether or not to suspend the County recycling 13 program due to COVID-19 health and safety concerns. 14 MR. EVANS: Good morning, gentlemen. A 15 couple of my guys brought some of their concerns to me 16 about the recycle trailer with everybody putting their 17 recycle plastics in which are a potential concern for 18 corona virus, so my question to you is -- what we're 19 doing now is wearing the gloves and medical masks while 20 we're doing that. My question is, should we continue on 21 with that, or maybe temporarily suspend the recycle 22 trailer? 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I put it on the 24 agenda, because -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Sit down. 86 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- I thought it might 2 be a good idea to suspend it for a while during all 3 this. They're doing a lot of extra work as it is as far 4 as getting things up to snuff and we're throwing new 5 things at them all the time. So I thought it might be a 6 good idea just to suspend it. But that's open for 7 discussion. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: My thought is that the 9 more people you have at home, the more there's going to 10 be a need for it. If you're at home eight hours a day 11 instead of, you know, six hours at night, you're going 12 to be -- they're ploughing through groceries because 13 they're eating out of boredom. They're going to have 14 all kinds of stuff piling up. And they can take it to 15 the dump there themselves. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think it's a good 18 practice to use the gloves and the masks all the time, 19 personally, dealing with trash. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would think so. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Recyclables or 22 whatever. 23 MR. EVANS: Well, I continue on with it then 24 as -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What do you want to do? 87 1 MR. EVANS: Well -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You've got to make your 3 staff happy. 4 MR. EVANS: Well, that -- that was -- I'm 5 doing this because -- you know, to put their concerns to 6 rest is the whole purpose of it. You know, if they deem 7 necessary we have to keep on with the recycle, we're 8 going to do that. That's -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: But as the department head, do 10 you feel like discontinuing the recycling would protect 11 the health and safety of your staff? 12 MR. EVANS: Potentially, yes, sir. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Do you consider it significant 14 enough -- I mean, do you consider it an essential 15 service or non-essential service? 16 MR. EVANS: Well, I don't -- it's not an 17 essential service but, you know, it's a free service, 18 you know, that we're providing. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do they -- is it -- how 20 much do they come in contact with the stuff? 21 MR. EVANS: When they're removing the 22 cardboard, it's hands on. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, I see. Okay. 24 MR. EVANS: And then the plastic water 25 bottles that everybody's drinking off of, sometimes they 88 1 have to crawl inside the trailer to get those things 2 out, to get -- get all the, you know, recycle out. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's on the trailer 5 that has the slots in it? 6 MR. EVANS: Well, that's all -- that's both 7 of them. I mean, because -- 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's either way. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I see this as a safety issue. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I do too. So, 11 therefore, I move that we suspend operations for the 12 near future. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 16 suspend the recycling operations for health and safety 17 concerns until the crisis passes. Is there any other 18 discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a non-essential 20 service. That's key, what Shane said there, so -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. And just if we 22 could -- if we put that on the left side, and I'm going 23 to vote for it, but we also let people know that they 24 can take their recyclables to the landfill on 534. 25 MR. EVANS: Yes, sir. 89 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that will be open 2 and that's just them putting it in a dumpster. So we 3 oughta put that on the website if we put this on that 4 we're suspending this. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And I would like for the 6 record to reflect that we have to balance the health and 7 safety of the public with our staff as well. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We're working through 9 this. 10 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. And this -- 11 this is a work in progress. And this is something that 12 we have to do together. So if they want to continue the 13 recycling they're certainly welcome to do it on their 14 own. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Uh-huh. 16 MR. EVANS: My only question is to how long 17 are we going to do this? 18 JUDGE KELLY: We'll let you know. That's 19 unknown. 20 MR. EVANS: All right. 21 JUDGE KELLY: That's as good as we can do. 22 MR. EVANS: Yes, sir. I understand. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As the President says, 24 we'll see. 25 MR. EVANS: Yes, sir. Lisa Walters had 90 1 asked me about this in an e-mail. So I'll respond to 2 her that we will suspend operations until to be 3 determined. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Put it on the website. 5 MR. EVANS: Yes, sir. That -- and she will 6 do that. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. She'll get a 8 press release out, I'm sure. 9 MR. EVANS: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: She's getting press releases 11 out, two or three a day. All right. Thank you, Shane. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Shane. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Will you recall item 1.1, 14 please, Judge? 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, item 1.1 consider, 16 discuss and take appropriate action regarding update, 17 facility use and other matters related to COVID-19. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: I got a letter from Judge 19 Emerson. He was called out but wanted to let y'all know 20 that District Courts are still hearing cases. All 21 non-essential cases will be heard by teleconference or 22 until our Zoom accounts are confirmed. Upon 23 confirmation, cases will be heard by Zoom with YouTube 24 channel observations comply with the open courts 25 requirement. It(sic) has already set up separate 91 1 YouTube channels for the 198th -- oh IT; not "it" -- 2 216th and 6th Administrative Region. In custody 3 criminal law cases will still be heard in person on a 4 staggered time frame to minimize the number of persons 5 present. He said please let him know if you have any 6 questions, he's glad to answer. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And I'm -- I'm glad we have 8 that clarification on the record, especially with the 9 YouTube broadcast events. That was something that was 10 in this morning's paper that was incorrect. The 11 District Courts are open. You haven't seen the article? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do we have another 13 reimbursable item for IT since they're having to do all 14 this extra work? 15 JUDGE KELLY: Probably. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. I think so. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Probably. Now, I have been 18 told that the reimbursement process is arduous and 19 frustrating. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm sure so. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No doubt. 22 JUDGE KELLY: But we will undertake it. 23 Okay. So with that, we move on to the 24 Approval Agenda. And we have our Auditor here, 25 Ms. Tanya Shelton. Item 2.1 pay the bills. 92 1 MS. SHELTON: Yes. So invoices for this 2 week. For Kerr County, we have $243,913.76. Airport, 3 $3,208.45. Adult Probation, $20,774.28. Juvenile 4 Probation, $3,067.21. District Clerk fees, $7,481.31. 5 Plateau Water Planning, $431.95. 216th DA Forfeiture 6 Fund, $449.85. And the 198th DA Forfeiture Fund, 7 $870.81. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills 9 as presented by the Auditor. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 12 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 13 pay the bills as presented. Is there any further 14 discussion? All those in favor raise your hand. 15 Unanimous, five zero. 16 Budget amendments. I think we have two? 17 MRS. SHELTON: We have two. The first one 18 is $280.00, and this is for the flooring for the Union 19 Church. And then the second one is moving funds from 20 Direct Testing into Counseling for the Specialty Drug 21 Court. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 25 Commissioner Letz, second by Commissioner Harris to 93 1 approve the budget amendments as presented. Any further 2 discussion? 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm going to -- 4 on the $280.00 on the Union Church, was there some kind 5 of change in scope of work or something? 6 MRS. SHELTON: I don't think it was. I 7 think we just -- the estimate was off a little bit. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. The estimate 9 was like $3,200 or something if I remember correctly. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it came in closer to 11 35. 12 JUDGE KELLY: He came in last week and was 13 telling us about the sub flooring and it was just a 14 little bit more expensive. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Did he mention then it 16 was going to cost more? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He did? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, he did. He didn't know 20 how much. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I don't know why 22 I forgot that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The floor looks 24 fantastic. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And it's sturdy. And 94 1 the ladies aren't going to get their high heels stuck in 2 it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Good. All those in favor 4 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 5 Late bills. 6 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Auditor reports? 8 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 10 Okay. Item 2.5 monthly reports. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. For 12 February 2020, standard monthly report from Constable 13 Precinct 4, Gene Huffaker. Fines, judgments and jury 14 fees collected for J.P. 4, Bill Ragsdale. Animal 15 Services monthly activity report, Director Reagan 16 Givens. Human Resources and Indigent Services report, 17 Director Jennifer Doss. County Clerk, Jackie "J.D." 18 Dowdy, and County Treasurer's financial accounts report, 19 Tracy Soldan. And I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The motion's been made 22 by Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 23 approve the monthly reports as presented. Is there any 24 further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 25 Unanimous, five zero. 95 1 Item 2.6 Court orders. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, Judge. We have the 3 Court Orders from our March 16th, 2020 meeting. That's 4 Court Orders 38015 through 38019. There were two slight 5 changes. 38016, corrected the spelling of Lonnie, it's 6 listed originally as L-A-N-N-I-E and it's L-O-N-N-I-E. 7 And on 38017 I asked that it be modified by adding the 8 word "opioid" in it, so it reads now, "Approved that 9 Kerr County opt out of Federal Opioid class action 10 lawsuit." I thought it was a little bit clearer. 11 I move for approval of the Court Orders as 12 corrected. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Letz, second by Commissioner Harris to 16 approve the Court Orders as corrected. Any further 17 discussion? All those in favor raise your hand. 18 Unanimous, five zero. 19 Move on to the Information Agenda. Item 3.1 20 status reports from Department Heads. 21 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. I just wanted to 22 address the only first response -- Corona Virus Response 23 Act that we're required as an employer. It was passed 24 on Friday to pay employees 80 hours of sick leave if 25 they meet certain criteria. And one of which is if 96 1 their child's school or daycare is closed. And I've 2 already received numerous calls -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I bet. 4 MRS. DOSS: -- on that. So I think we're 5 going to be developing some time entry codes. Take that 6 into consideration. 7 Also, I had a question. If the employees 8 live in Bexar County and apparently Bexar County is 9 shutdown and they have a travel ban, are they required 10 to come to work? So that was a question. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They have a travel ban? 12 MRS. DOSS: That's what I'm told. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If their -- I would say 14 that if their job -- it depends on where the job is. If 15 it's an essential job, I would think they should. But 16 may need to get a letter from the County Judge or 17 someone saying it's an essential employee. But that 18 would be up to the discretion of -- to me, the 19 Department Heads and Elected Officials. 20 MRS. DOSS: Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Does that work? 22 MRS. DOSS: That works. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If your employees are 24 going to get the paid sick leave, okay. You know, if 25 they are non-essential, you're aware that they're just 97 1 sitting home and don't have sick leave? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Say again? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Say that again. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's a question that I 5 had asked. You know, they -- they said that we should 6 be paying paid sick leave for all these people. But if 7 it's just for cutting staffing for a while, they're not 8 sick but they're -- you're cutting the staff of the 9 courthouse in half or 50 percent, or elected officials, 10 how -- how are those employees going to be compensated 11 that are sent home during that time? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do we have a County 13 policy for layoff? 14 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think we're talking 15 about layoffs. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's what it 17 sounds like. You're going to send somebody -- 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're saying you're 19 reducing -- you know, I saw where the County Clerk was 20 going to be operating off, you know, like half force for 21 a while, or some of these were sending employees home, 22 and you're -- and you're not operating at full staff 23 because of just the shortage. 24 Are all County employees supposed to still 25 be reporting to work, or are you going to allow the 98 1 elected official to send some home? And if they are, 2 are you going to pay those employees for being at home? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Where I'm coming from on this 4 is I appreciate that the HR Director has advised us of 5 the recent legislative enactments, and understand 6 whatever we're required to do, the County will certainly 7 meet its obligation. But with regard to a decision 8 about these issues today, that's really not on the 9 agenda so we don't really have notice of it. And I 10 think it's something that needs to have more careful 11 study into how we ought to handle all this as we go 12 forward. It's not like we're not going to have plenty 13 of time to figure this out. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would think that a 15 lot of Departments could catch up on other things that 16 they're continuously involved with the public like 17 normal. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: And if -- if they're 19 working, and I've heard from several departments, if 20 they're sending people to work from home, people are 21 able to access remotely. Like, for example, when my 22 attorneys are home when we're on a rotation, we -- they 23 have access to everything that we do on their computers. 24 IT has taken very good care of our staff and so they're 25 able to do work from home and communicate. You know, if 99 1 they want to set up and work at 4:00 a.m., they're able 2 to do that. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And I think the various 4 Elected Officials and Department Heads know their 5 offices much better than we do right here, and when we 6 get down to this they'll be able to explain exactly what 7 was done and how it was done and the work products that 8 were generated as a result of it. But I just don't 9 think that's something that we can decide today. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I -- I mean, I tend 11 to think in general that people -- County employees are 12 expected to work and make arrangements to work, and if 13 they're sick, they're sick. But it's not a vacation 14 day. And if they're capable of working, they should 15 work. Either -- and make arrangements with their 16 Elected Official or Department Heads as to how to 17 accomplish that. It may mean coming in, it may mean 18 working remotely. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I think we all need to be 20 aware, not only the Court and Elected Officials and 21 Department Heads, but all the employees, the public is 22 watching. And so if this -- if this is being abused, I 23 -- I invite the public to report it to us so that we can 24 address it appropriately. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Agreed. 100 1 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good question. 3 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Item 3.2 status reports from 5 Elected Officials. 6 Item 3.3 status reports from Liaison 7 Commissioners. 8 We've had a pretty thorough day. Do we have 9 anything we want to take up in Executive Session? 10 Okay. Then that being the case, we will be 11 adjourned. 12 * * * * * * 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 101 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 Regular Commissioners' Court? 9 Dated this the 28th day of March, A.D. 2020. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2021 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25