1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Monday, June 29, 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 *** Commissioners' Comments. 5 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action regarding update, facility use and 5 other matters related to COVID-19. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 20 action to extend the Local State of 7 Disaster Due to a Public Health and Economic Emergency Proclamation that was 8 signed by Judge Kelly on March 24, 2020, and "extended until terminated by 9 order of the Kerr County Commissioners' Court" on March 30, 2020. 10 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 11 action to determine whether or not to make it mandatory or voluntary to wear a mask 12 in businesses throughout the County. 13 1.4 Discussion regarding the election option 116 for Alcoholic Beverage Sales in Precinct 2. 14 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 117 15 action on request to ban fishing in the Dog Park section of Flat Rock Park. 16 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 131 17 action on relocation of the Kerr County Juvenile Probation Department from 3499 18 Legion Drive to 3501 Legion Drive. This includes, but is not limited to, allowing 19 the Kerr County Juvenile Board to make improvements and modifications to the 20 facility, authorizing transfer of items from Kerr County to the Kerr County Juvenile 21 Board, and setting a timeline for relocation. 22 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 132 action to set a public hearing on July 27, 23 2020 at 10 a.m. to be held in the Commissioners' Courtroom, 700 Main St., 24 Kerrville, Texas for the purpose of presenting the County Clerk's Annual Record 25 Archival Plan. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 132 action on the County Clerk's Office job 4 descriptions for Chief Deputy Clerk, Administrative Deputy Clerk, Deputy Clerk, 5 and Records Management Archives/Juvenile Clerk. 6 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 137 7 action regarding nominations for the Regional Flood Planning Group, RFPG, and 8 the Political Subdivisions Support for the RFPG. 9 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 141 10 action to declare certain items in the County Treasurer's Office as surplus. 11 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 141 12 action regarding an Emergency Solutions CARES Act grant to provide funds for rural 13 residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness. 14 2.1 Pay Bills. 142 15 2.2 Budget Amendments. 143 16 2.6 Court Orders. 146 17 *** Adjournment. 148 18 *** Reporter's Certificate. 149 19 * * * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is the stroke of 9 o'clock. 2 Today is June -- Monday, June 29, 2020. It is 9 o'clock 3 in the morning and the Kerr County Commissioners' Court 4 is in session. This is a Special Commissioners' Court 5 meeting. It's the 5th Monday of the month. The second 6 and fourth are Regulars, the first and third are 7 Specials. 8 On regular meeting, we do the prayer and 9 pledge. On a special meeting traditionally, we have 10 not. But in light of what we're doing today, I think it 11 would be appropriate. Let's stand and I'll say prayer, 12 and we'll do the pledge. 13 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 14 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. It comes to 15 no surprise that we have a busy day. This part of the 16 meeting is where we ask for visitor input. Visitor 17 input that we request at this juncture in the meeting is 18 for those that would like to address the Court about a 19 topic that is not on the agenda. If it is on the 20 agenda, we ask that you wait until that agenda item is 21 called, and we'll address it at that time. 22 It looks like we're going to have a lot of 23 public input today. Is there anybody who would like to 24 address this Court on something not on the agenda? 25 Thank you. We have plenty to do. 5 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Took care of that. 2 JUDGE KELLY: The next part of the agenda, 3 when we did the Special Commissioners' Court meeting, is 4 comment from the Commissioners themselves. That's how 5 we begin the meeting. 6 So let's start with Precinct 1. How you 7 doing? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's great. A little 9 more rain over the weekend, and relaxing weekend. Not a 10 whole lot -- not a whole lot to report. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 2. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Lot of interest on one 13 of the items today from a lot of people in Precinct 2. 14 A lot. We'll talk about that later. 15 But another thing that came to my attention 16 is the Hill Country Youth Event Center is the location 17 for early voting, okay, in Precinct 2. And someone 18 asked me a question, and I don't know the answer to it. 19 I think I do. They want to know what the policy was 20 about putting campaign signs on the fence. 21 Now that's more than two hundred feet from 22 the entrance. They can do that. And could they leave 23 those signs up. I said I don't believe we have a policy 24 on that, but I'll check and find out so we probably need 25 to get some clarification on that so the public can see. 6 1 I know the City at the Cailloux Center 2 allows things, but they -- within the last couple of 3 years they required that the campaign signs be taken 4 down every evening. I don't believe that we have a 5 policy on that, but something we need to make clear. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A couple things. One, 9 had a little bit of rain, which was nice. I had a whole 10 lot of dust, which was not so nice. Which if you hear 11 me coughing occasionally and I have allergies. I don't 12 have the COVID, but I do have African dust in my lungs, 13 I think. 14 And I've also received calls on the fencing. 15 And my response is, is we can't discuss it. But my 16 response is, no you cannot put signs on fencing because 17 that is using County property to promote your campaign, 18 plus there's a safety issue with the wind, with the 19 winds we've had damaging County property. So I told 20 people, I said you're welcome to put them inside on the 21 grounds, but not on County property. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But that, too is County 23 property. The grounds and the -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The ground is, but 25 the -- it affixes to County property. The City doesn't 7 1 allow signs to be put on the side of the Cailloux 2 Center. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We need to clarify. 4 Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, again we gotta 6 little bit of rain. And just like Tom said, we got a 7 lot of interest -- I got a lot of interest over the 8 weekend from calls, e-mails what have you, on other 9 items. 10 But on a sad note, we lost a 20-month old 11 child in the Guadalupe River. Tragedy, and so -- think 12 about that family today. Have them in your thoughts. 13 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to have plenty of 14 opportunity to comment as the evening wears on, so I'll 15 go ahead and start the -- first, what we do on every 16 meeting, whether it a Regular Commissioners' Court 17 meeting or Special Commissioners' Court meeting, we 18 start with the most important thing going on in our 19 community. 20 1.1 consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 action regarding the update, facility use and other 22 matters related to COVID-19. And this is Dub Thomas, 23 who is our Emergency Management Coordinator. 24 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 25 morning, Commissioners. All right, week 17. As y'all 8 1 know -- you have the report in front of you. The 2 majority of it is stuff that's happened in the past. 3 However, as y'all do know that on Friday, Governor 4 Abbott issued an executive order, Executive Order No. 5 28, moving a lot of things back. Closing down the bars 6 and those establishments and things like that. 7 Our COVID current situation is we had no 8 deaths from COVID-19 this past week. Our current County 9 cases to date, we have had 84 COVID cases for COVID-19. 10 We picked up 11 over the weekend. 11 Peterson Regional tested a 120 people, I 12 think, over the weekend. So we're looking at getting 13 some more test results back sometime this week. We have 14 about 60 that are active. And Peterson Regional Medical 15 Center currently has two patients in their facility. 16 Again, DSHS is changing the way they report 17 their numbers. And so if you'll skip back to our Kerr 18 County testing, Peterson Regional to date has tested 19 1,979 people. Texas Military Forces have done 386. 20 Nursing homes 675. Total of 84 COVID positives. Our 21 current infection rate is 2.7 percent. 22 Part of what Governor Abbott has said in the 23 past when we went to -- originally we went to the 50 24 percent ahead of the rest of state because we were 25 before that threshold of six total cases. There's also 9 1 been a caveat to that. There's a -- they was a process 2 for where we couldn't be moved back to 25 -- 50 percent. 3 We are currently at 75 percent. Let me see, if I can 4 find it real quick. 5 Basically, you have to have greater than a 6 12 percent infection rate for -- let's see, where did I 7 pot that. Well, you have to have greater than 12 8 percent -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: And we're at 2.7? 10 MR. THOMAS: -- and we're at 2.7. The thing 11 that they did not say is what they're testing time 12 period is. So and I've called DSHS and asked them that, 13 and they like -- they responded, nobody's asked that 14 question. So is it 12 percent from the time we started 15 doing testing, or is it another block of maybe four 16 weeks or whatever. So I'm waiting to get that 17 information. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And is it 2.7 of the 19 people that have been tested? 20 MR. THOMAS: Of people tested, yes. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's not the County. 22 MR. THOMAS: Not the County. 2.7 of those 23 individuals tested, yes. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On those that are 25 positive, do you have the statistics on what the age 10 1 distribution is on that? Can you get that? 2 MR. THOMAS: I can get that for you. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Would you, yeah. 4 Because several people have asked me that, you know, 5 where is it. I heard this morning on national news like 6 the median age and those positive is 35. It would be 7 very interesting to know in Kerr County what that -- 8 not just the mean, but how the distribution is based on 9 age. 10 MR. THOMAS: I'll see if they've got a 11 breakdown for Kerr County. I'm pretty sure they do. I 12 know they have one for DSHS Region 8, but maybe not this 13 County particular, but I can I can sure check. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the -- Dub, they've 16 changed the methodology on one of the forms we get from 17 the State. And to a probable -- they added probable 18 category. And probable category is included as positive 19 -- 20 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Until it's shown 22 otherwise. And the 84 that we have, are probables 23 included in that, or is that only the actual? 24 MR. THOMAS: No. We have probables included 25 in that. It's pretty minimal. It's probably like two. 11 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we are pretty much up 2 on testing the probable cases? 3 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. So anyway, the other 4 two ways that we can go back to 50 percent is if we 5 reach so many per thousand population, and I think that 6 number was going to be -- I think it was three percent 7 for every thousand population, which would put us at 8 about 150, so we're just right over that halfway point. 9 And the other way was a these are either/or, 10 so it's not that we have to have all three. But the 11 last one is that if our -- that if our surge capacity 12 for Peterson Regional Hospital is less than 15 percent, 13 I believe. And right now, we stand at 24 percent when I 14 checked on that on Friday. 15 But then again, they talk about the Peterson 16 Regional catchment area, but at the same time DSHS does 17 not have a definition for what that catchment area is. 18 So we're still waiting on that clarification from DSHS. 19 That's pretty much it. If we can go back to our Region 20 8 numbers. Well, COVID-19 continues to spread in Texas. 21 There's 143,371 cases. Total deaths is 2,366. Total 22 recovered 78, 248. 23 Testing still continues. They've done 1.9 24 million tests. 1.7 million are viral and 180,835 are 25 the antibody tests. 12 1 Surrounding counties. Kendall County is at 2 62. And for the longest time Kendall County was 3 probably number one other than Medina County in this 4 particular DSHS Region. And sad to say that we finally 5 passed them over. Medina has 90 -- I'm sorry, we've 6 nearly caught up to Medina. They're at 90 with two 7 fatalities. Kerr did not change -- that should be 84 8 instead of 45 with one fatality. Gillespie is 35. 9 Bandera has jumped to 16. Both Kimble and Real County 10 have one. Texas counties, 244 out of the 254 counties 11 have positive COVID cases. 12 The Region 8 numbers. Active, total for the 13 time period is 7,135. Recovered is 4,789. We've had 14 143 deaths. And there are 615 cases pending. That's 15 one of those new categories that DSHS has put in. So 16 the pending investigations are still out there. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have more tests 18 happening, which we knew was going to be more positive 19 cases, and that was a given. It hasn't been stressed 20 much. But if you get more tests, you're going to have 21 more positives? 22 MR. THOMAS: The more tests, the more 23 positives we're going to find yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And recovered rates, 25 they're like 99 percent or somewhere in that category? 13 1 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Maybe above 99 percent. 3 JUDGE KELLY: I read one that said 98. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that was 5 incorrect. So you have 20 -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you Dr. Belew. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. I'm talking about 8 numbers. You don't have to be a doctor to look at 9 numbers. The numbers are about 23 or so until noon, 10 deaths, in the state. 75, 76 thousand people that have 11 recovered that we know of. And that doesn't include the 12 people that never knew they had it and never got tested. 13 MR. THOMAS: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that's where that 99 15 percent comes in. That's a little bit of a gray area. 16 Because everybody that had it didn't get tested. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's another 18 interesting stat particular nationwide. It's kinda 19 limited, but somebody reported, some doctor from the 20 Drug Administration reported that if a person is 85 in 21 the hospital with Corona, the probability of dying is 60 22 percent. If you're 25 in the hospital with Corona, the 23 probability is two percent. So that's kind of a wide 24 range, 85 and 25, but still shows a significance. It's 25 an indicator of significance of vulnerability of older 14 1 people. 2 MR. THOMAS: Well, it's not just the 3 elderly, but even the younger folks that have some kind 4 of underlying condition, whether they're COPD, diabetic, 5 those types of things. It really really makes the virus 6 worse. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dub, at the testing 8 locally, do you still have to have some symptoms for the 9 test, or can anyone just walk in and test? 10 MR. THOMAS: Pretty much anybody can get 11 tested. As a matter of fact tomorrow, June 30th, we're 12 doing testing an the Doyle Community Center. There's no 13 appointment necessary, no doctor referral or anything. 14 They're going to be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and we're 15 going to be testing. Just show up and they'll test you. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How long has it been 17 that just anybody can walk in and get a test? 18 MR. THOMAS: The last two or three times 19 we've done the mobile testing. We've done the just 20 walk-up is what we call it. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Dub, that particular 22 test that they'll be doing, how long until you get a 23 result? 24 MR. THOMAS: Well, Texas Military Force is 25 doing it, so it's going to a state lab and state labs 15 1 have been running anywhere from 48 hours to a week. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Wow. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Of course with everything 4 that's going on, we're reading all kinds of stuff trying 5 to figure out what to believe and whatnot. I did read 6 an article in the New York Times this weekend about the 7 first German cases back in January. And some of you may 8 have read that. 9 What concerned me about it was evidently 10 there was a very active and robust debate between the 11 professionals out there about whether or not if you were 12 asymptomatic, whether or not you could spread COVID. 13 And apparently they've now concluded that in 14 fact people who think they're normal who are not showing 15 any symptoms whatsoever, who usually were not part of 16 the early testing group because they were say 17 asymptomatic, can actually spread this disease. Which 18 means that as we sit in this room socially distanced 19 apart, we don't know, even if we feel good, even if we 20 don't show any symptoms, we don't know if we have it. 21 It a presymptomatic condition. 22 And so that's something that's new to the 23 formula for me. I didn't realize that if you were -- if 24 you had to at least show some symptoms, but apparently 25 this disease can be spread with just normal people. 16 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You can have it and get 2 rid of it and not have any symptoms. 3 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. That's right. 4 But for those of us that weren't here back in the early 5 stages when we were pretty much shut down, we did pretty 6 good. Once the Governor opened us up and everybody 7 started coming into the Hill Country for their 8 recreation, because this is the recreation hot spot of 9 Texas, look what happened to us. 10 And these people came in, probably didn't 11 even know they were sick. Probably left and never 12 showed any symptoms of it whatsoever and here we sit 13 trying to fight through this thing. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's one other 15 interesting piece of information, and that is in Texas, 16 I think the May the first is when a lot of the clamp 17 down was, and in -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: May first is when they already 19 opened. We went to 50 percent day one. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Correct. But 21 there was alleged that some of the increase or the spike 22 going around the nation was because of the -- and I'll 23 just say it. Rioting, okay, because of that. 24 But in Kerr County we didn't have very many 25 people that were demonstrating. Very small. So our 17 1 uptake is not because of anybody congregating to 2 demonstrate, so it's a little bit, you know, different 3 than what they're alleging could be happening in the 4 nation. Because in -- because of the demonstrations 5 being the cause for the uptake, so -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: I think you're absolutely 7 right. And chronologically, the first opening was May 8 1, and we were allowed to go to 50 percent. I think we 9 were probably the most populus county in the state that 10 went to 50 percent when we first opened. 11 Second opening was May 18th, and our numbers 12 started to go up. We went -- we were around five, below 13 ten. And then we started jumping up. And then you had 14 Memorial Day weekend. And between the opening the rest 15 of the state to 50 percent on May the 18th and Memorial 16 Day weekend, and then rolling out Phase 3, which were 17 the gyms and the bars, that if you look at it, all of 18 our numbers coincide exactly with those dates. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So does the increase in 20 testing. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So -- exactly. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So you cannot include 23 one thing or the other. The testing increased as we 24 opened up, so we might have always been at the same 25 steady pace, but the testing increased so there's no way 18 1 to draw a conclusion from what you said. 2 (Talking over.) 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They're variables. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They're not independent 5 variables. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the other part 7 of it, and I think Commissioner Moser asked about the 8 demographics, who has it locally, and the reason why 9 it's the highest group was 20 to 35? 10 MR. THOMAS: Something like that yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And antidotally from 12 friends of mine, it was their college-age kids that 13 caught it and brought it home. And that's a big part of 14 it. And it's that young group. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good point. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they've all been -- 17 almost asymptomatic that I've talk to. They went and 18 got tested and -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's a lot more 20 things that are spread by people that are asymptomatic 21 than just this virus. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's right. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A lot of things. We're 24 exposed to stuff all the time, we don't know what we're 25 being exposed to. When you get your change back at the 19 1 convenience store, the guy behind the counter has the 2 regular old flu, you get a little dose of it and your 3 immune system builds back up. 4 The thing that concerns me is everybody acts 5 as if this is a death sentence. It's not a death 6 sentence. The recovery rate is 99 percent. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Now, with that said, before 8 you get away, Dub -- 9 MR. THOMAS: I tried to run. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 11 JUDGE KELLY: No. I just want to go over 12 with you and make sure that I've got it right so the 13 people get the correct information. The Governor 14 declared the State of Disaster, they did Proclamation 15 back in March, and we followed suit with that. 16 And that Proclamation suspended certain 17 powers and authority that local government had, and 18 meaning that the County Judges and the Mayors could not 19 enter any orders that would be inconsistent with the 20 Governor's order. Is that correct? 21 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And then recently in the San 23 Antonio and Austin City Council, and Bexar County, 24 Travis County, the Governor released some of that and 25 gave back some powers to the local governments, and that 20 1 was that local governments could mandate the wearing of 2 masks to businesses, is that correct? 3 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. Yes, sir. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And that's the only local -- 5 that's the only power under the emergency powers act for 6 that -- for the state of disaster, that has been 7 returned to the local government? 8 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And as I understand it, 10 we're getting ready to go to agenda item 1.2, which is 11 every week, every seven days, we review this 12 Proclamation that I made as to the State of Disaster, 13 right? 14 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And this Court has the power, 16 the authority, to terminate that Proclamation. And at 17 the end of this, whenever we get to the end, just like 18 we did back with Hurricane Harvey, we'll have a meeting 19 and we'll all vote to stop it, is that right? 20 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So the people know, the order 22 of where we are in this cycle, and what it takes, this 23 Court does not have the authority to issue that 24 Proclamation, only the County Judge does. That this 25 Court does have the authority to terminate that State of 21 1 Disaster. Does everybody understand that? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, just out of some 3 point you said. The Governor relaxed it so local 4 entities can require businesses to require masks. So 5 there's nothing in that that says that any local County 6 Judge or Mayor can mandate you have to wear them in the 7 public. You have to be -- it's only a business can do 8 it; therefore, the most we could do is allow or require 9 businesses -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- to wear masks, but we 12 cannot require our people to wear them in the public. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I got the quote right 14 here, and this is from Abbott. We want to make sure 15 individual liberty is not infringed upon by government, 16 and hence government cannot require individuals to wear 17 a mask. 18 Local government can require store 19 businesses to require masks. They've always had the 20 opportunity and ability just like they can require 21 people to wear shoes and shirt. These business can 22 require people to wear face masks. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But it says store 24 businesses; not all businesses. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's a store? 22 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It says for stores and 3 businesses. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stores and businesses. 5 JUDGE KELLY: You're our Emergency 6 Management Coordinator, and I just want to make sure I 7 have from you -- we cannot require individuals to wear 8 masks? 9 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. Just stores 10 and businesses. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And when I say we, me as the 12 County Judge, I cannot enter an order that requires 13 people to wear masks in public. 14 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: I can enter an order that 16 requires businesses to do it. 17 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 18 JUDGE KELLY: This Court cannot do that. 19 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 20 JUDGE KELLY: But the Court can terminate. 21 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE KELLY: So people are kind of 23 wondering why I have called this public debate, and I'm 24 getting ready to release you and let you get back to 25 work, as we have this public debate, is because the 23 1 Mayor and I from the beginning of this have tried to 2 work together. And if you notice the County and the 3 City have pretty much been in lockstep with what we're 4 doing to try to manage this COVID-19 crisis. 5 I asked the Mayor to let this Court discuss 6 and have this public debate before he makes his 7 decision, because we're trying to do things together. 8 And I assume that the debate is going to be much more 9 lively in these halls than they would be across the 10 street. So that's the purpose of it. And so that's to 11 help us know exactly what we can and can't do in this 12 emergency situation. 13 Any other questions for Dub? 14 MR. THOMAS: Just one other thing, Judge. 15 The only way to mitigate this virus -- it's not going to 16 go away, it's here for good. The only way to mitigate 17 it is just to do like what you're doing, wearing a mask. 18 Social distancing, washing your hands, proper hygiene. 19 These are the things that are going to keep you from 20 getting this. 21 If you don't wear a mask, at some point 22 sooner or later you're going to run into somebody that's 23 got the virus and you're going to catch it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dub, is there -- so if 25 you wear a mask, you will not get the virus? 24 1 MR. THOMAS: That's not guaranteed. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what I'm saying, 3 you can't make that statement. You can't make a 4 statement that you have to -- that the only way to do it 5 is wearing a mask because wearing a mask -- 6 MR. THOMAS: Just following the 7 guidelines and -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the type of masks 9 that are out in the public right now, no one knows -- 10 they're not up to any standard or testing, so no one 11 knows if they're of any value at all, unless your 12 wearing an N95. And then there's other -- it's a 13 question as to if you're wearing it properly. So I 14 don't think you can make that statement you just made. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Dub, the one thing I 16 might ask. I know you want to escape, but you may want 17 to hang around if we want to ask you a question later. 18 MR. THOMAS: Sure thing. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Hang out with Jody. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You were that close. 21 JUDGE KELLY: You've done a great job. I 22 appreciate it. 23 MR. THOMAS: I appreciate it. I'll hang 24 out, outside. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. This is the previews. 25 1 Item 1.12, and we do this every week, consider, discuss 2 and take appropriate action regarding the Local State of 3 Disaster Due to a Public Health and Economic Emergency 4 Proclamation that I signed on March the 24th, 2020 and 5 was extended until terminated by order of the Kerr 6 County Commissioners' Court on March the 30th. 7 And so every week, we come in here to see if 8 the Court is ready to terminate that Proclamation. And 9 so the Court is open for discussion about terminating 10 the Proclamation. Is everybody getting ready to do 11 that? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Leave it open. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We were supposed to 14 leave it open to apply for grants, especially for the 15 Sheriff. But this conversation we're about to have is 16 the very reason I wanted to close it out. Just so 17 everybody understands. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I've made the 19 statement that I didn't feel we were overreaching. And 20 so we do leave it in place as far as the grants and what 21 have you to help save our local taxpayers money. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I think we leave it 23 in place for agenda item 1.3. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that segue, I'm 25 going to call 1.3, which is to consider, discuss and 26 1 take appropriate action to determine whether or not to 2 make it mandatory or voluntary to wear a mask in 3 businesses throughout the County. I put that on the 4 agenda because this debate needs to happen publicly. 5 And we need -- what I'd like to see is the public up or 6 down, whichever way this Court wants to go. 7 And some of you may be asking yourself, 8 well, Judge, if you've got the power to do it, why don't 9 you just do it. Because they'll terminate it next 10 Monday if they don't want me to do it. And besides, the 11 only way we're going to get through this whole thing is 12 together. We need to stop fighting with one another 13 about these issues and try to figure out how to start 14 working together and try to help the community and work 15 with common good. So with that, the floor is open for 16 discussion with regard to whether or not we're going to 17 order masks mandatory to wear in businesses throughout 18 the County. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: May I, Judge? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Probably like other 22 Commissioners, I received a lot of correspondence from 23 people regarding this issue. This thing is that says 24 that they looked at our agenda or the word gets spread 25 around, I mean, a lot of inquiries on that and comments. 27 1 And interest -- and -- and I'd say 95 percent of the 2 people that I heard from want it being mandated to wear 3 masks in businesses and stores, consistent with what the 4 Governor says. 5 An interesting statistic or the way I look 6 at this is -- is that our median age in the County is 7 almost 50, it's 47. So that says that we're about 8 50/50. People greater than 50, people less than 50. If 9 you take those two categories and you say what is the 10 impact if we were to mandate or if the Judge were to 11 mandate masks, it's -- it's an inconvenience and it's an 12 attack on personal liberty to mandate wearing masks. So 13 that -- that's the impact. 14 On people older than 50, and especially at 15 the upper age of that group, the -- the impact can be 16 very large. Okay. It can be critically ill, seriously 17 ill or even death. So I think the second group of that 18 has got a lot more interest in mandating -- mandating 19 masks being worn. 20 So it's pretty -- pretty obvious to me, from 21 what I've heard and when I looked at that statistic, 22 that it's a good thing to do. And I don't know if 23 you're ready for a motion but I have a motion. 24 JUDGE KELLY: No. Let's -- let's -- let me 25 talk about process because we -- we're going to have to 28 1 do this very orderly. What my intent today is, is to 2 try to trigger a thumbs up or a thumbs down vote on 3 whether or not masks will be mandatory in Kerr County. 4 And to do that together as a Court. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All good. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Regardless of what -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You need to be careful 8 of what your -- your statement. Mandating businesses 9 have the -- have to do it. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not mandated that 12 the public wears it, it's -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- mandating businesses. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And there's a big, big 17 difference in that statement. 18 JUDGE KELLY: True. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's a lot -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we're putting 21 another burden on businesses. Just like we have them 22 collect taxes for the State, now we're going to have 23 them police people and that -- the business community 24 does a lot of junk for the State of Texas, and now, it 25 would be the same thing for the County of Kerr. And we 29 1 put an extra burden on the people that are the life 2 blood and the economy in this community. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Can I make a 4 suggestion? Why don't we get to the -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: But I want -- I want to go 6 over the process because everybody needs to know the 7 process. I got a little speech that goes along with 8 this. I've had a very, very interesting weekend. My 9 telephone, my private telephone with my private law 10 office number the last 25 years, is in the hands of our 11 Court Coordinator over here because I can't manage it 12 and manage this meeting. I use that -- that number, my 13 personal phone number, my -- my professional phone 14 number, for people to call into the Court because of 15 this COVID-19 and the relaxed rules so you don't have to 16 appear in person. 17 And I can't tell you -- and I -- and get my 18 County e-mails on that little phone, too. This is my 19 personal phone. That other one is my -- my business 20 phone. And I probably have had between voice mail 21 messages, text messages and e-mails, somewhere in the 22 neighborhood of 100 to 150 calls this weekend. This 23 morning alone we're already looking at 25 or 30. And 24 what the people are doing is calling up and telling me 25 their opinion. In fact, most of them call and say I 30 1 vote. I vote yes, I vote no. That's not what -- what I 2 invited when -- when I met with the Mayor and gave the 3 public announcement last week. What I said was we would 4 address them here in open court, like we do every week, 5 and we'd use that phone for the call in. 6 And of all but -- of the 150 calls that I 7 got, two people did it right. And those two people who 8 did it to me -- called in to me to do it right, what 9 they did was they asked to be contacted so that they 10 could call in this morning. And -- and the way we're 11 going to do this, it's just like we always do, what our 12 local rules require is you come to the podium or if it's 13 the phone calls, the phone will be put here by the 14 speaker, you announce your name and your address, and 15 you're limited to three minutes to comment. 16 Right now, I've got 25 people signed up to 17 speak just on this one topic. I've got another stack 18 over here to talk about fishing in the Dog Park. So 19 we're going to be -- we're going to have a busy morning. 20 Everybody -- we want to hear everybody. We want to try 21 to make time for everybody. The briefer you can be, the 22 better. 23 We know this is basically going at the end 24 of the day be a thumbs up, thumbs down vote on imposing 25 mandatory masks for businesses. Be clear. My plan is 31 1 -- just so you know, I know you want to make a motion, 2 is I will make the motion at the end of the discussion 3 to do it. I have the power. I'll make the motion. If 4 there is no second, then the motion dies for lack of a 5 second. And the vote in that case you'll see would be 6 effectively four, one against wearing masks -- requiring 7 businesses to wear masks. 8 If there is a second, we'll then do like we 9 always do, just routinely, we'll take a raise your hand 10 vote. And we'll have a vote at the end of the process. 11 And once we do that, then we'll know which way to 12 proceed. Is this going to be mandatory or is it going 13 to be strongly recommended. So everybody's on the same 14 page? Okay. You going to start in. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'll start in. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You can start. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There's a couple things 18 that I think oughta be said first and that -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, this is Sheriff Rusty 20 Hierholzer. I've got to identify everybody when they 21 come up. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- and it's what 23 Region 8 put out a few weeks ago about how they count 24 cases and how they do this. And I'm going to read it 25 verbatim so that nobody misunderstands it. It says that 32 1 they're making some changes to their reporting. Now 2 reporting aggregate case counts. Over the past several 3 weeks, we have seen case counts rise significantly in 4 Region 8. The increase in cases has caused our team to 5 reach a threshold where we are unable to complete 6 investigations on the same day we receive the report of 7 a case. We have decided that reporting total aggregate 8 case counts will give you a better picture of the 9 overall case counts as we continue to work through the 10 investigation. 11 The Region 8 team will continue to work 12 diligently through the case workload and will 13 investigate cases and report them to you as the 14 investigation is completed. What is an aggregate count? 15 An aggregate count is a total number of reported cases, 16 whether or not we have completed the investigation. 17 When we receive a lab result, the result goes through a 18 review. 19 We must determine if the review meets the 20 case definition. Read below for the case definition. 21 We also must verify the address, if it is known, so the 22 case can be attributed to the correct jurisdiction or 23 county. Then we attempt to contact the individual so we 24 can complete the case investigation. Once the 25 investigation is complete, we notify the County of the 33 1 result. Not until we notify the County do we add the 2 result to our case counts. 3 At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4 the turnaround time for this process was less than 5 24-hours. As the number of cases has increased, we are 6 experiencing a backlog and can no longer complete the 7 investigation in 24-hours. We want counties to know the 8 total number of reported cases so they have a clearer 9 picture of the trends in their jurisdiction. 10 We will now include a new column in our 11 daily COVID cases at a glance. Table, title, pending 12 investigation. The numbers in the pending investigation 13 will be added to the overall case count. How will this 14 affect your numbers? Some jurisdictions that are 15 experiencing increasing case reports and testing will 16 see a significant increase in numbers compared to what 17 was previously reported. Others may see no changes. 18 This all depends on the number of test results received 19 in a given day for each jurisdiction. Additionally, 20 active counts will increase initially because active 21 cases are calculated by the total case count minus those 22 that are not recovered. 23 All right. And then it goes into reminder 24 of definitions. And I think this is important. 25 Reminder of definitions. A confirmed case of COVID-19 34 1 is one that is laboratory confirmed in a clinical 2 specimen using a molecular test such as PCR test. A 3 probable case of COVID-19 is one that is not laboratory 4 confirmed by PCR, but that may meet case definition 5 through a combination of symptoms, exposure history, and 6 other lab tests. So it's not even a COVID test. 7 This -- let's see. The purpose of a 8 probable case definition is to identify cases that may 9 not be able to receive a confirmatory test. This may be 10 due to their isolation status or because they had mild 11 symptoms that do not require a health care visit. Both 12 confirmed and probable cases are considered cases and 13 are included in your count. And I think that's key. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We're okay with the count. 15 We're trying to get on the masks. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All right. But what 17 I'm saying -- well, but what I'm saying is I'm not sure 18 how accurate our counts really are because they're 19 probable. 20 Now, as Sheriff, I will tell you one other 21 thing. I have not seen yet where restricting business 22 or making business have every patron they have or every 23 employee wear a mask is set in -- is constitutional. 24 Okay. And when our country lets people go out and 25 protest and tear up stuff and kill cops and injure cops 35 1 and all that and none of them go to jail for it, I'll be 2 damned if I'm going to put somebody in our jail for 3 violating a mask. 4 (Applause.) 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, that's important. 6 But you answered it. So there's no -- in the county you 7 would not intend to enforce a business requiring patrons 8 to wear a mask? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Somebody's got to show 10 me where it's constitutional and I haven't seen that. 11 I'll uphold my oath of office as far as 12 constitutionality and I'll have everybody that works for 13 me uphold that office. But you're going to have to show 14 me where it's constitutional. Not just because County 15 Judge or a Governor or a Mayor says this is what I want 16 done. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Very good. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 19 (Applause.) 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Jody, do we have anybody on 22 the phone yet? Okay. She's coming up. I believe that 23 Mr. Ted Schulenberg is here. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Heading down the hall. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Judge, a lot of these 36 1 are upstairs in the District courtroom. And if you'll 2 give us one -- I know you've got some in here, but just 3 give us time to get them down here. 4 JUDGE KELLY: The two that I'm giving 5 priority to are Ted Schulenberg and Frank Seibert. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Ted Schulenberg? 7 Here's Frank. And I'll get Ted Schulenberg. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Frank, if you would come up. 9 Please come to the podium. And just let me explain why 10 you get priority, is because you listened to what I said 11 and you called in on the phone and you asked to be put 12 on this -- for us to call to get you on this. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Plus he's here early. 14 JUDGE KELLY: No, they -- they've been 15 calling me all weekend. And -- and you and -- and Ted 16 are the only ones that did exactly what I asked you to 17 do so I'm going to let you go first. 18 MR. SEIBERT: I appreciate that. My name is 19 Frank Seibert. My address is 2546 Wallace Creek Road, 20 which is a Medina address but the house is located in 21 Kerr County. We voted in Kerr County. Difficult not to 22 discuss this emotionally. Because we're not dealing -- 23 we're not dealing with an issue here that is being based 24 on logic and numbers. The declaration, Judge -- the 25 declaration that you made of Emergency Management was 37 1 for health and in an economic disaster. 2 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. 3 MR. SEIBERT: There is no health disaster. 4 And the economic disaster that is forthcoming is one 5 that you are aiding. The reasoning behind this is, is 6 that we've taken a look at the numbers. We've got a 7 99 percent recovery rate across all age groups. 8 However, if you take a look at the total population of 9 Kerr County, we're taking a look at .001 percent of the 10 population that has contracted this. 11 Let's say it's twice that much. Let's say 12 it's five times that much. If it is five times that 13 much, it's still in the one-hundredths of a percentile 14 range. And it also means that our mortality rate has 15 gone down. Your decisions on doing this cannot be based 16 on logic or numbers. There's simply nothing that backs 17 that up. Nothing that backs that up. 18 So the decision must be being based on 19 something else. And the only two things that I can 20 perceive is either out of fear or out of politics. Your 21 view on what you -- you have said multiple times here 22 that you have the power to do this. Doesn't make it 23 right, whatsoever. 24 What the Sheriff just said, what your 25 disaster manager has implied, is that these things that 38 1 you're calling on are not prudent. Not in one bit. 2 Face masks alone and a position on face masks alone have 3 been changed three to four times by the CDC and, in 4 turn, by the State of Texas. And so you are now 5 arbitrarily deciding to take face masks and imposing 6 them on your citizens and on your businesses. Probably 7 without moral right to do it. 8 So I have to ask you, what are you basing 9 this decision on? Are you basing it on fear? I can 10 understand that. We all fear stuff. Are you basing it 11 on politics in your world view? That is my guess. My 12 guess is, is that you feel like you know better. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Are you talking about me? 14 MR. SEIBERT: You. Because as I see this 15 right now, there are two pro votes that have already 16 been said that they're going to vote for it. You've got 17 two possible no votes. And Mr. Harris is a swing vote 18 over here, because, he is -- he is the -- he's the ex-AG 19 teacher, would no more treat a herd of cattle for one 20 disease that -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 22 MR. SEIBERT: -- only one has. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Mr. Seibert. 24 MR. SEIBERT: My time's up? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir. 39 1 MR. SEIBERT: Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And if you would -- 4 Judge, if you will announce one ahead of them, they can 5 hear you upstairs and they'll go ahead and come down -- 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Get somebody on 7 deck. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- in that same order. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: He already spoke. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And the next one is 12 Mr. Schulenberg. I'll bring him in and he wanted this 13 handed out. Are you ready for him, Your Honor? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Mr. Schulenberg? 15 MR. SCHULENBERG: Yeah. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Please state your name and 17 address. 18 MR. SCHULENBERG: My name is Ted 19 Schulenberg. I've been a resident of Kerr County for 25 20 years. My current address is 221 Canyon Creek Lane in 21 Kerrville. 22 Public health officials nearly all agree 23 that if one must be in public the best way to minimize 24 the risk of being infectioned by COVID-19 is social 25 distancing and wearing a mask. And I recommend that the 40 1 Commissioners' Court -- I understand that maybe it's 2 only the Judge mandate, and I understand that maybe it 3 can only be a commercial status but not individuals. 4 In any event, I hope that you make, to the 5 extent possible, wearing a mask in commercial 6 establishments a requirement and that you enforce it. 7 If you do, there is an excellent chance that we can 8 avoid having an epidemic in Kerr County. If you don't, 9 we might still avoid it, but the risk is too high and 10 the reward is too low to take that chance. 11 At birth the average life expectancy in this 12 country is 78.7 years. For a man it's a little -- a 13 couple years less and for women it's a couple years 14 higher. But this community has a disproportionately 15 high number of elderly citizens. I'm one of them. And 16 I heard Tom Moser earlier say that the dividing line 17 between age 50 and under is about 47 percent or younger 18 and about -- or older and about 53 percent are younger. 19 So we've got a heck of a lot of senior citizens in this 20 County and they're the ones that are the most 21 vulnerable. 22 My companion, since I'm in this older group, 23 tells me that I've already exceeded my expiration date. 24 And that's not a bad analogy. Because if I going to a 25 refrigerator and take out some yogurt, I might see the 41 1 -- I might pay attention to the expiration date, I might 2 not, but at least I'll open it up. And if it looks 3 green on top then I'll throw it out but otherwise I'll 4 probably eat it. 5 My companion, if it's expired she'll throw 6 it out. And that's kind of the feeling that I had, that 7 Mr. Belew has, about senior citizens. And the basis for 8 saying that is that he has said that COVID-19 is not a 9 death sentence. It's not automatically going to kill 10 you. Well, certainly it's not automatically going to 11 kill you, but for some of us it might be a death 12 sentence. 13 But this, if you're a senior citizen there's 14 an increasing chance that it will. I trust that he's 15 aware that people over age 50 in Bexar County constitute 16 94 percent of all the deaths of COVID-19. That's a high 17 percentage. If you -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Schulenberg? 19 MR. SCHULENBERG: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry to interrupt but 21 your time's up. We've got a lot of people coming up. 22 MR. SCHULENBERG: Okay. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We appreciate your comments. 24 MR. SCHULENBERG: Thank you, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm over 50 by the way. 42 1 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Shellhouse? 2 MR. SHELLHOUSE: Yes. 3 JUDGE KELLY: This is Judge Kelly at Kerr 4 County Commissioners' Court. You asked to speak? 5 MR. SHELLHOUSE: Yes, please. Thank you. 6 My name is Grant Shellhouse. I'm -- 7 (Technical difficulty.) 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Why don't we give it 9 to Jody to call him back, and get somebody in the 10 meantime. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Who's next on our list, 12 Jackie, the one on top? 13 MS. DOWDY: Yeah. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Debbie LaFour. 15 MS. LAFOUR: My name is Debbie LaFour. I 16 live at 410 Forest Ridge in Kerrville. We have a local 17 restaurant. We've been in business 37 years, four 18 generations. My grandbabies run around there just like 19 everybody else. Help me wait tables sometimes even. 20 I don't feel that it is my job to police 21 anyone. I've had calls just like y'all have had called. 22 I've had calls to my restaurant over and over and over. 23 What are you going to do? What are you going to do? We 24 are going to be damned if we do and damned if we don't 25 at this point. 43 1 But I feel like that is a person's choice to 2 wear a mask. I don't feel like it's my job to tell them 3 they have to wear a mask if they come into my business. 4 I feel like if -- if someone comes into my business and 5 they have an underlying condition that they cannot wear 6 a mask, it is -- I feel that it is not my job to ask 7 them, what is your underlying condition if you can't 8 wear a mask? So that puts us in a bad situation. 9 So, I mean, we are in a spot right now. 10 We've -- we've gone through hell and back with this. 11 And so -- already. Already. We can't find help. The 12 people that are our waitresses are all on unemployment. 13 They're making $4,000 a month on unemployment. They 14 don't want to come back to work. So my daughter, who is 15 an asthmatic, cannot wear a mask. She waits tables. 16 I heard someone say, well, put her somewhere 17 else. I can't. I have nobody to help do that. I mean, 18 I don't have the help. So the mask situation, I mean, 19 if you read about the masks you will OSHA and it says 20 cloth masks, they do not protect you. N95 masks, it 21 protects you from breathing in but not breathing out. 22 When the air comes out, it's your breath. If you're a 23 COVID -- it's -- your breath is going out into the air. 24 Surgical masks are great in a sterile environment, but 25 not in normal environment. You can wear them 20 to 30 44 1 minutes and they are no good anymore. 2 So really, there's not a mask that's going 3 to protect us from COVID. I encourage people, if they 4 are sick and they have some underlying condition, to 5 take and wear their mask. I encourage them to. But 6 it's going to be hard for them to come in my restaurant 7 and -- and eat food with a mask on. I mean, that's -- 8 it's going to have to come off. At some point it's 9 going to have to come off to put food in their mouth. 10 So how am I supposed to say, oh no, you've got to leave 11 a mask on. Now how is that going to work? It's not. 12 It's going to come off. 13 I have a -- this last week, we had an 14 official from Kerrville that came in and ate with us, 15 and put a mask, his mask, in a chair, sat it down, went 16 across the room and had talked to people from out of 17 town, from -- they were from Hondo, and then come back 18 and go to another table and sit there and talk to them 19 and leave their mask sitting in that chair. 20 My waitress had to go and pick that mask up 21 and take that dirty mask to the City official. Now, if 22 the City officials aren't following rules, why -- I 23 mean, you know. I mean, that's kind of a problem we 24 have here is that, you know, when all this was going on 25 and we were shutdown, all of our to-go's, we took our 45 1 boat and we went to Ingram Lake. On the dam, there was 2 25 to 30 kids, unpoliced. But you're going to police me 3 and not these kids. I talked to a police officer. He 4 said we can't do anything because it -- that's not -- we 5 can't take care of that. I'm like who's taking care of 6 it? Well, the game warden. Well, where's the game 7 warden? I mean, somebody -- look, you're talking about 8 the kids -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. LaFour? 10 MS. LAFOUR: -- the kids going up, the 11 numbers -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you very much. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Time's up. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We appreciate your time. 15 Next. 16 MS. DOWDY: Grant Shellhouse. 17 JUDGE KELLY: If you will, please state your 18 name and address. 19 MR. SHELLHOUSE: Yes. Grant Shellhouse, 20 1407 Sidney Baker Street, Kerrville, Texas 78028. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You may proceed. 22 MR. SHELLHOUSE: Okay. Thank you. The 23 first argument against masks, that they don't like it, I 24 don't really feel a need to address. I think it's 25 pretty clear from the accumulation of research from a 46 1 broad, diverse conservative sources that to maintain 2 masks (can't hear) -- for being at an event -- 3 (inaudible) of course is that. That does not 4 significantly reduce the -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I can't understand him. 6 MR. SHELLHOUSE: (Can't understand). 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Talk slower. 8 MR. SHELLHOUSE: (Can't understand). I 9 specifically heard wear some face masks used seat belts 10 as a comparison in response to this argument. People 11 are legally required to do driver safety, but I think 12 this is an imperfect analogy. Not wearing a seatbelt 13 presents a personal hazard but does little to endanger 14 those around me. 15 In contrast, wearing a mask is the safety -- 16 own good. When I'm wearing a mask it's to protect those 17 around me rather than myself and I trust that my 18 community will do the same to protect me. Furthermore, 19 seatbelts and other safety measures encountered 20 regularly are the status quo. There's an extraordinary 21 law that puts them into place and we have no expiration. 22 A face mask mandate is an extraordinary measure that's 23 -- there's (can't understand) -- threat. So many 24 represented seatbelts are a better comparison for 25 legally mandating face masks for a set period of time is 47 1 ration and blackouts. 2 Leading up to travel World War II, these 3 were instituted for the (can't understand) in the 4 coastal regions were required to turn out lights and use 5 blackout curtains. (Can't understand). Maybe 6 effectively mitigating the damage from the Japanese 7 submarine attack off the Oregon coast in 1942 (can't 8 understand) considered a common good for the war effort. 9 It affects every American household. Rubber was 10 conserved by limiting the use of tires in 1942 in the 11 so-called -- 12 THE REPORTER: I'm sorry, I really can't 13 understand. 14 MR. SHELLHOUSE: -- and voluntary gas ration 15 proven effective. While these measures weren't always 16 well received by the public, they themselves were 17 relinquishing freedom of how much we could purchase. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Shellhouse? Mr. 19 Shellhouse? 20 MR. SHELLHOUSE: Yes? 21 JUDGE KELLY: If you have something to say 22 about masks we're ready to listen to it; otherwise, 23 we've got too many people to listen to to go on about 24 what happened in World War II. So tell -- tell me 25 something about masks. 48 1 MR. SHELLHOUSE: All right. This is a 2 comparison. Whereas the sacrifice of a few for a brief 3 period of time time as far as one good. (Can't 4 understand) -- and in numbers and the time is cliche to 5 say so but it's -- I say it's not as pressing for 6 Americans to collectively agree to self limitation for 7 shared safety and -- (can't understand). Enemy is a 8 matter of life and death and otherwise would be callous. 9 So I'm urging you in Commissioners' Court to 10 display the courage and wisdom needed to mandate that 11 businesses require face masks for employees and 12 customers and I think it's a momentary sacrifice well 13 worth the common good of the gain. So that's my 14 comparison to masks. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you very much. 16 We appreciate your input. Let me pass this back. And 17 the way I'm going to take these is in the order that 18 they came in. And so these other ones that are to be 19 called that came in a 9:30 or so, we'll call them when 20 they're up for that time period. 21 The next one on the list here is Leigh Ann 22 Krueger. And your's is here at 8:05. You've been 23 waiting a long time to say? 24 MS. KRUEGER: Yes, sir. Thank you. 25 JUDGE KELLY: You're welcome. 49 1 MS. KRUEGER: I'm going to go quickly. I've 2 got a lot to say. So my grandfather fought in World War 3 II. He was at Pearl Harbor -- at Pearl Harbor. Not 4 anywhere else, he was there. He didn't fight for our 5 government to overstep their boundaries, abuse their 6 power and -- and force businesses to police countless 7 people to tell them you have to do this and you have to 8 do that. That's a fact. 9 Regarding the items at hand, Governor Abbott 10 already addressed it and ordered D28, Page 4, Line 14. 11 I've already submitted that for the minutes. As an 12 employee at a 37-year-old restaurant that has faithfully 13 served this community for all of this time, consider all 14 of you that come out to eat with us, and everyone whose 15 worked with us family, we treat them like family. We do 16 everything we can to make sure that they are taken care 17 of. Properly sanitized. Everything that we can make 18 possibly clean, sterile, we do. 19 I cannot force a customer to wear a mask 20 anymore than I can force them to take medication. I 21 have asthma. What am I supposed to do? Not one person 22 has answered me. I asked the Mayor directly, face to 23 face, what do I do? He had no answer. And I doubt that 24 any of you have an answer for me either. I can't just 25 stopping working. I have kids to take care of. I have 50 1 a diabetic baby that has to have $2800 worth of insulin 2 a month. That means I can't sit home. And I won't. 3 It's not my job to sit home. I have a job. My 4 seven-year-old thinks it's ridiculous that we have to 5 tell adults to wash their hands. That's on the adults. 6 That's on the adults. I have to tape up signs that say 7 wash your hands. Ridiculous. 8 I want to know how many of you have 9 licenses, permits or -- or any kind of certifications to 10 tell me how to sanitize things. Because I do. I have 11 five food service managers, as well as an entire staff 12 that's full of food certified employees for handling and 13 sanitizing a restaurant to keep public safety at its 14 height. So I want to know, are there any of you that 15 have those certifications? I doubt it. 16 I want to know why a baseball tournament -- 17 you're telling us that in the guise of personal safety 18 and -- and public safety that we all have to wear masks, 19 but the municipality and -- allowed a baseball 20 tournament to be relocated from San Antonio. That 21 San Antonio said, no, you may not have your tournament 22 here and brought hundreds of kids and their families to 23 Kerrville to play at the baseball fields yesterday. So 24 my safety -- you're bringing people from out of town 25 from a high infection zone to our area and then 51 1 screaming at the top of your lungs that you have the 2 power to keep us all safe by putting a mask on us. But 3 what am I supposed to do because my oxygen level drops 4 to 87 after 15 minutes of wearing a mask. I can't do 5 that. But you want to tell me that I have to. Because 6 I have a job. It's wrong. It's an abuse of power. And 7 when -- when does it stop? Are you going to tell me I 8 need a shot vaccination next? Are you going to take my 9 guns next because Kerr County said so? Where does it 10 stop? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Krueger. 12 MS. KRUEGER: Vote for David Barker in 2020. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Next is Bill Rector. 14 DR. RECTOR: Thank you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Dr. Bill Rector. 16 DR. RECTOR: Honorable Commissioners, 17 Honorable Judge Kelly. Appreciate the opportunity to 18 visit with you today. We are, as the CDC, the Vice 19 President of the United States, and the Governor says, 20 time is running out for us to control the coronavirus in 21 this -- in our state. Controlling this virus is like a 22 three-legged stool. One of those is hand-washing, the 23 other is social distancing, and that third leg is 24 wearing a mask. 25 Our Constitution. I'm -- when I read it I 52 1 don't see in it that it says we can't wear a mask, we're 2 not supposed to mandate wearing a mask. But it does say 3 in the preamble that we, the people of the United 4 States, in order to form a more perfect union and 5 promote the general welfare, does sort of give us the 6 mandate to try to protect people from serious disease. 7 Let me talk to you about masks and face 8 coverings and to make sure my education is correct. I 9 went by and pulled a few articles and read those. This 10 mask that I wear protects you from me by 80 percent. 11 I'm only protected from you by 10 percent with this 12 mask. So I wear this mask for y'all in this room; not 13 for me. 14 And that's going to be the key to trying to 15 control this virus is to have enough people wear the 16 masks so that the viruses that are spread out there that 17 we can inhale, people can inhale, are minimized and 18 decreased. That's the key. 19 I also here today represent HDBA, Historic 20 Downtown Business Alliance, which is 35 merchants. 21 Restaurants and building owners in downtown Kerrville. 22 One of the things that we need to do, and if wearing 23 masks will do, is to restore our economy. For people to 24 come into our stores. For people to come into our 25 restaurants. They have to feel safe. A Kerrville Daily 53 1 Times survey showed that 51 percent of our population 2 are not coming out because they don't feel safe. And 3 that's 51 percent of your customers. They're not coming 4 into your stores. They're not coming into your 5 restaurants because they don't feel safe there. And how 6 are we going to make them feel safe? We are going to 7 see that when they come into the stores, people are 8 wearing masks and they are protected from coronavirus. 9 Judge Kelly, I would encourage you to join 10 the judges of Bexar County, Travis County, Dallas 11 County, Tarrant County, El Paso County, and Harris 12 County in mandating masks be worn to try to control this 13 coronavirus. It is a serious problem. It is nothing to 14 laugh at. It is not a hoax. It is a serious, serious 15 disease. And if you don't want to look at the -- if you 16 don't want to look at the numbers, 84 cases in our 17 county, look at the numbers of hospitalizations. That's 18 -- doesn't have anything to do with testing. Thank you 19 very much. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Dr. Rector. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, if I may, let me 22 ask Dr. Rector one question. 23 MR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Number 1, you're a 25 medical doctor. 54 1 Number 2, you mentioned ten percent. That's 2 a statistic I haven't heard of being effective 3 protecting yourself. Is that a -- just a real simple 4 answer, is that a scientifically demonstrated statistic? 5 DR. RECTOR: There are -- I've got some 6 articles here that I can give you that are -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 DR. RECTOR: -- trying to prove that with 9 using mannequins and other simulated things. And it's 10 -- it's pretty well being proven that the masks, 11 surgical masks particularly, don't seal -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 13 DR. RECTOR: -- but they prevent your -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So there is -- 15 there is scientific data to support that? 16 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 18 DR. RECTOR: They -- they don't seal. And 19 -- and as pointed out, the N95 mask is worse for 20 spreading it because the exhaled breath is not filtered 21 at all. So -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you. 23 DR. RECTOR: Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got -- that was 25 number six? 55 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Seven. 2 JUDGE KELLY: That was six. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Counting Rusty, seven. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, I don't know if 5 we count Rusty. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Count him twice. 7 JUDGE KELLY: But we've got 27 signed up to 8 speak and I know we've got at least four of you here in 9 the room that have already spoken. And what we're 10 trying -- they've got room up in the courtroom upstairs 11 where you can see everything, what's going on, but that 12 way we've got more seats to open up to the Sheriff and 13 rotate people through and we get the speakers out a lot 14 quicker. I appreciate everybody coming down to the 15 courthouse. Thank you. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Who's next, Judge? 17 JUDGE KELLY: It's Kathy Rider -- Rider -- 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And if you'll announce 19 them a couple ahead. They can hear it upstairs and it 20 is on a large T.V. 21 JUDGE KELLY: -- who lives at 218 4th Street 22 in Ingram. Kathy R-I-D-E-R -- is what it looks like. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Kathy Rider? 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He's asking you to 25 announce ahead, Judge, so they'll -- 56 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- be prepared. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And then the one behind that 4 is Angela Schladoer, Schladoer -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Schladoer. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Schladoer. And then Ryan 7 Rector. And then Brandon Aery, I think it is. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Are you Kathy? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Kathy -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. Not yet, Your 11 Honor. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But Brandon's here, 14 right? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Brandon -- 17 MR. AERY: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: -- Aery? Okay. Brandon Aery. 19 MR. AERY: Aery. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry, what? 21 MR. AERY: Aery. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Aery. Okay. It's an A. 23 MR. AERY: Yeah. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Sorry. 25 MR. AERY: 341 W. Water Street, Kerrville, 57 1 Texas. 2 Good morning. My name is Brandon. I'm a 3 partner with Texas Video. We're a family-operated 4 business located here in Kerrville. During the lockdown 5 to this date we've been doing our part to keep our 6 clients safe and help prevent the spread of COVID. We 7 did this because it was our own choice. 8 We chose -- or we choose not to wear masks 9 for many reasons and part of it is due to my wife's 10 hearing disability and the lack of effective 11 communication during our meetings when masks are worn. 12 There are many studies discounting what the doctor said 13 regarding effective use of masks from many groups, which 14 I'll not quote due to time. 15 On March 8th, Dr. Fauci said during an 16 interview with 60 Minutes people should not be walking 17 around wearing masks. Masks do not provide the 18 protection people think they do. The U.S. Surgeon 19 General stated during an interview on Fox on March 31st 20 that masks don't help. He also followed up on Twitter 21 and said don't wear masks. This is also reaffirmed by 22 the CDC and the World Health Organization at that time. 23 As you know, all businesses are required to follow 24 guidelines to promote the safe work environment for its 25 employees. 58 1 CFR 29 1910 126 states a space with 2 breathing less than 19.5 percent of oxygen are to be 3 considered oxygen deficient, which would require full 4 testing requirements prior to entering that space. 5 There are countless tests that prove wearing 6 masks reduce the oxygen level below this 19.5 percent 7 threshold, putting the wearer of the mask in danger. As 8 reported in the Capital of -- Capital Report Newsletter 9 in response to what's happening in Bexar County, Senator 10 Bob Hall stated, business owners will become a de facto 11 law enforcement arm but the only tool they will have to 12 enforce the mask requirement is to refuse to sell to 13 their customers and to kick them out of the store over 14 it. These are the same businesses that the Governor 15 recently declared non-essential and ordered a shutdown 16 for months. 17 I agree with Senator Bob Hall. Private 18 businesses should not police its own citizens. Rather 19 Kerr County residents should be allowed to make their 20 own decision to wear masks. We do not need the heavy 21 hand of government punishing businesses and make them be 22 enforcers of tyranny. If you start dictating what 23 businesses are required to do, where does it stop. We 24 are walking a fine line into the induction of 25 authoritarianism and we believe the government needs to 59 1 know its boundaries and stop operating from a place of 2 fear which leads to irrational decision-making. 3 And just to make it clear, I do not support 4 this mandate. Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Kathy Rider? 7 MS. RIDER: It's Rider. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Rider? Please state your name 9 and your address. 10 MS. RIDER: Kathy Rider, 218 4th Street, 11 Ingram, Texas. And just before I get started I want to 12 say first off, I respect all of you in your position. 13 Do not take any of my comments as a disrespect to any of 14 y'all. However, I do not support your mask mandate. 15 I did want you to know I am in several high 16 risk categories and the first thing I did was, like 17 everyone else, I reacted out of fear. However, I did 18 not turn to my local government to say, "Oh my God, 19 protect me. What can you do? I elected you. I need 20 you to make rules and do something." 21 I went to my local doctor, the doctor that I 22 see for my illness, and I said what should I do to 23 protect myself? In that conversation at no point did he 24 tell me to wear a mask everywhere I go. So that being 25 said, I think it's my responsibility and others -- I 60 1 know we're all afraid, none of us want to get sick -- to 2 go to our doctors and seek their advice, their 3 professional advice to deal with this. Everybody's kind 4 of stolen my thunder, including Rusty, thank you, on how 5 to deal with this. And if you pass this mask mandate, 6 how is it going to be policed. And basically, because 7 the Governor's orders, you're asking essentially minimum 8 wage workers who already deal with an angry, scared 9 public, to police this mask mandate. 10 And what you're going to have, and what I've 11 dealt with already, is confrontation from the public. 12 I've been the only customer in a store not wearing a 13 mask and had another customer come in, within the six 14 feet distance, with a mask so loose that I could see her 15 nose -- and I've got a friend that's going to speak on 16 the mask more professionally -- and confront me about 17 not waring a mask. She, essentially, wasn't wearing one 18 either. 19 Okay. So you're asking people that do not 20 have the qualifications to police a mandate which is 21 nothing more than a glorified dress code. Because most 22 of the people are tieing bandanas around their face, 23 wearing masks below their nose and it does nothing. And 24 I think it's going to create more divide and more hate 25 and discontent between an already divided public. 61 1 It's -- it's -- what it's going to do is for 2 us that choose not to wear a mask or have consulted with 3 doctors that do not wear a mask would be like asking 4 those that are proponents of the mask to ask you as a 5 Commissioners' Court to tell them not to wear a mask in 6 public. That's what you're doing to the other half. 7 So I think the most prudent and fair thing 8 to do would be to keep doing what you're doing and allow 9 people that feel safe and comfortable to wear a mask, to 10 wear a mask and not harass that crowd, and for those of 11 us who choose not to wear a mask to not force us into 12 this and not harass us for not wearing the mask and not 13 punish us by taking away our freedom to do our daily 14 shopping, to go to the feed stores and go to do -- 15 handle business, day-to-day business that we have to 16 handle as a society. And yet you expect us to pay our 17 taxes and continue to tax us and make us -- there's my 18 timer -- to do the things we have to do. None of that 19 stops. But the rules continue. And bigger government 20 is never the solution. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Kathy. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Angela Schladoer. 23 MS. SCHLADOER: Schladoer. Right. 24 Hi, my name is Angela Schladoer. I'm 25 Dr. Angela Schladoer. I'm a surgeon. I also teach 62 1 medical students. 2 The recent article published in The Lancet 3 on June 1st of 2020, is the article most commonly 4 referred to when advocating for homemade masks used 5 within communities -- mandated within communities in 6 that community setting. I want to address this article 7 and some fallacies that have been stated regarding the 8 findings of this article. And in reference to the 9 gentleman who said that the surgical masks are 80 10 percent effective, that is not a true number. There are 11 more studies that point to closer to 30 percent. 12 So the name of the article is, "Physical 13 Distancing, Face Masks and Eye Protection to Prevent 14 Person-to-Person Transmission of Mars COVID two and 15 COVID-19." This is a Review and a Meta-Analysis article 16 written by Dr. Chu, et al. Strong findings indicate 17 that protection increased with increased distance of one 18 year or more. Therefore, their recommendation is to 19 social distance one to two meters between people. Face 20 masks involved in the study were only limited to N95 21 respirators and similar masks, and surgical masks and 22 similar masks. The similar mask to the surgical mask is 23 12 to 16 layers of cotton. This is very tightly, 24 tightly woven. At no point were homemade masks -- 25 whether they have sunflowers or bumble bees on them, 63 1 they were not tested. 2 It is also noted that the single layer masks 3 are only mentioned once in this article in a statement 4 as that they did not show the same protection as any 5 mask. It is also very important to note that the 6 stakeholders of this article include 3M, who is one of 7 the major manufacturers of surgical and other 8 respiratory masks. Their recommendation is physical 9 distance and use of face masks and eye protection 10 because they are, I quote, acceptable and reassuring. 11 They did not recommend them based on their 12 effectiveness. 13 Personal protection equipment, PPE is what 14 we call it in the medical community, is required in the 15 hospital setting. It's very important to note that a 16 homemade single layer mask is not sufficient and not 17 considered PPE and doesn't pass the test for any 18 employee that wants to wear that. It's not sufficient 19 at all. 20 We are currently facing PPE shortages. Even 21 if Kerrville had a super large budget to purchase one 22 for every single citizen in this County, you wouldn't be 23 able to get them. Cloth single-wear masks are providing 24 a false sense of security and you can see this anytime 25 you visit any store in Kerr County. People wear the 64 1 masks incorrectly. You can see their nose. It has 2 gaps. It should be tight fitting. Like your mask is 3 tight fighting around your face, that's how it should 4 be. That is not what you're seeing in the public. 5 They're not fitted appropriately. And then they're 6 contaminated because they're reused over and over and 7 over. Then those contaminated masks are taken back out 8 into the community to contaminate further. We need to 9 be honest with our citizens and our community and let 10 them know that the most effective way they can protect 11 themselves is to wash their hands, avoid touching their 12 face, and social distance. The masks are not -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Time's up. 15 MS. SCHLADOER: Thank you. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you very much. Bill -- 17 Rodney Rector. Debbie Barron. 18 MS. BARRON: My name is Debbie Barron. I 19 reside at 108 Palo Verde, Kerrville. I personally feel 20 like wearing a face mask should be a personal choice. 21 If you choose to wear it, that's your choice. If I 22 choose not to wear it, that's going to be my choice. If 23 you don't feel safe being around people that don't have 24 their mask on, don't go around them. That's going to 25 have to be a personal responsible choice of your own. 65 1 Studies have shown that wearing a face mask 2 reduces your oxygen intake from 21 percent down to about 3 17 percent. Over a period of time, this will create 4 some health problems. Me, personally, having almost 5 died 11 years ago in a hospital due to a lack of oxygen, 6 my doctor has already told me do not, under any 7 circumstances, wear a face mask. That is going to 8 reduce your oxygen level. You're going to go and do the 9 same thing that happened to me 11 years ago. So as you 10 can see, for me, that's going to be a health hazard. 11 I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one in Kerr County that 12 has this problem. It's going to be a problem when 13 people are forced by a County to wear a face mask. And 14 if this happens, what do you think your lawsuits are 15 going to be? You don't think they're going to be lined 16 up with lawsuits? I'll bet you are. 17 And businesses requiring all employees to 18 wear a mask is not going to work either. Take your 19 restaurant kitchen workers. Take your construction 20 workers out in the heat. Take your landscape crews out 21 in the heat. Screen print shops, like my own, also 22 known as sweat shops because of the mass amount of heat 23 that those -- we dry our shirts at 750 degrees. And 24 although we keep our temperature down to 60 degrees, 25 you're still going to be more heated than somebody in a 66 1 nice air-conditioned office as such. You're going to 2 have health problems. I'm going to -- I'm going to have 3 lawsuits on me if I require my employees to wear face 4 masks because they're not going to be able to breathe. 5 I think we're going to be putting people in real danger. 6 From what I've been told from local 7 restaurants, grocery stores, Walmart, HEB, everyplace I 8 go into, they have all told me they are wearing their 9 masks to protect me. Okay? That's fine. You go into 10 Japan and China where the pollution is so bad, you -- 11 you can't breathe outside. What do you wear your mask 12 for? To protect yourself. So are Japan and China using 13 different masks than we're using? I thought we were all 14 using the same masks here. So which is it? Are we 15 protecting us? Are we protecting you? I don't think 16 anybody really has an answer. I'll be short and sweet 17 today. I think this should be a voluntary thing. I do 18 not think anybody, especially people like -- that have 19 health problems, should be forced to do it. Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Then the next is 21 Bobby Horton. Jennifer Dixon. Roman Garcia. Michael 22 Piper. And Jerry Wolff. Bobby, go ahead. 23 MR. HORTON: My name is Bobby Horton. I 24 live -- my residence is at 160 Bluff Trail, but I -- my 25 business is 404 Junction Highway. And my whole deal is, 67 1 if you want to wear a mask it's your choice. If I want 2 to wear one it's my choice. Again, what Debbie was 3 saying, a mask reduces your oxygen intake from 21 to 4 about 17 percent. And if you make me wear a mask in my 5 business for eight hours. Can you imagine what that's 6 going to do to my body? Eight hours at 17 percent? 7 Also, the size of the virus that we're 8 talking about is 80 to 140 micrometers. That's the same 9 thing -- the weave that your mask is made out of is the 10 same thing as a mosquito flying through a chain-link 11 fence. You're looking at the same thing because it is 12 not -- that virus can come through that mask just like a 13 mosquito through a chink-link fence. 14 Before, the most deadliest area has been 15 nursing homes. Now don't you think the nursing homes 16 make their people wear masks? And if that's the case, 17 why are so many of them dying? Why aren't they all 18 protected? Obviously, it's not protecting them. 19 And again, studies have shown that the mask 20 you're wearing, the gentleman that talked first awhile 21 ago with that homemade mask, 20 percent of the air that 22 he breathes in comes through his mask. 80 percent was 23 coming around his nose because you could see there was 24 no protection. That does him absolutely no good 25 whatsoever. And it's the same thing when you breathe 68 1 out. It's like water. It takes the least -- the path 2 of least resistance. And if your mask isn't fitting 3 good and tight like a surgical mask, well, you're 4 blowing all the air out the sides so you're just pissin' 5 in the wind as the old salesman always said. 6 Later -- another deal, in the 50's and 60's 7 and even in the late 90's, we had viruses very similar 8 to this. Nobody even mentioned it, other than medical 9 people. The media or nobody ever said anything about 10 it. And those viruses was just as deadly as the one we 11 have today, but the media has blown it plum out of 12 proportion which is unbelievable. 13 Here again, a week ago if you'd asked 14 somebody why you wearing a mask, I'm wearing it to 15 protect me -- or -- or them. Now, from what I hear 16 y'all -- not hear y'all said, but what I hear other 17 people saying, is that, oh, we want you to wear the mask 18 to protect us from you. So here again, which is it? 19 Are we wearing the masks to protect ourselves or 20 somebody else? Nobody knows. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you very much, 22 Mr. Horton. 23 MR. HORTON: Thank y'all. And God bless 24 America. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Let's take a five minute 69 1 recess. 2 (Recess.) 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The Court will come 4 back to order. I'm trying to be practical and give 5 everybody an opportunity to be heard. We've heard a lot 6 of the same things, probably seven or eight times each 7 now. 8 I've got 28 people so far that want to be 9 heard. And we've heard maybe ten or so? What am I up 10 to, Don? 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: 12. 12 JUDGE KELLY: 12? 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If we count Rusty. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I don't count Rusty. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't count. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Of the people that have gone 17 out of their way to come to the Court or call the Court 18 to let your opinions be known, which we appreciate. I'm 19 trying to figure out how I'm going to handle the next -- 20 what do we have, 16? 21 Okay. And we do have some business today 22 that we have to do so I'm trying to figure out how to 23 balance this. If we allow up to three minutes for each 24 of you, I don't think it takes three minutes for you to 25 tell us what you really want us to know. If there's any 70 1 way that you could reduce that and be briefer, it would 2 facilitate everybody being able to have a chance to tell 3 us what they think, which is what we're trying to do is 4 to listen. 5 So with that, let's go ahead and start again 6 and see how this works. The next person is Jennifer 7 Dixon. Hello, ma'am. 8 MS. DIXON: Hello. My name is Jennifer 9 Dixon. I've been a citizen here of Kerrville for 36 10 years and I would like to address -- sorry. I live at 11 215 Kerrville South Drive, here in Kerrville, Texas. 12 I would like to address the issue of mask 13 wearing. I see a lot of people around here wearing 14 cloth masks. I have a medical journal right here that 15 states the cloth mask issue is a health risk to you by 16 putting you at more risk for more upper respiratory 17 infections that pushes viral loads down into your body. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We -- we've heard that over 19 and over, Ms. Dixon. In fact, you've brought a bunch of 20 research -- 21 MS. DIXON: Yes, sir, I have. 22 JUDGE KELLY: -- that you were telling me 23 about, over a thousand hours worth of research and it's 24 ab out a hundred pages, and you've delivered that to our 25 Emergency Management coordinator. 71 1 MS. DIXON: I have it right here. I have 2 part of it -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 MS. DIXON: -- that I would like to address 5 as well. I know that we have an -- a numerous amount of 6 elderly people in our community. From my research that 7 I've done and numerous doctors, it's -- the main problem 8 is glutathione deficiency. And that -- as you increase 9 with age, glutathione is depleted from your body. 10 That's why a lot of elderly are suffering from what's 11 going on. 12 Also, Number 1, whenever they originally 13 thought that it was pneumonia going on in the lungs, 14 it's multiple blood clots and pulmonary embolisms that's 15 going on in the lungs and throughout multiple parts of 16 the body. Many scientists are being treated -- or are 17 treating that right now with anticoagulants and also a 18 thing that's called NAC, which is -- can be bought over 19 the counter as well and people can be using this as a 20 supplement versus having to wait for a vaccine. There's 21 natural remedies that are available and I these from 22 infectious disease experts who are use -- who are 23 suggesting these remedies. 24 So I'm not just speaking from my point of 25 view, these are infectious disease experts speaking from 72 1 their point of view and their expertise and their 2 knowledge. And they are using these methods to treat 3 their patients in their practice at this moment. I'm 4 friends with some on Facebook and I have contacted them 5 personally myself via Messenger. So I -- I do have 6 quite a bit of information that I've been trying to pass 7 on to not only the chief office -- to the chief of the 8 hospital, I've also tried to contact KSAT-12. I've 9 tried to contact News 4, I've attempted to contact three 10 hospitals in San Antonio -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Dixon, I appreciate that. 12 And you explained that to me at the break and that's why 13 I want to try to get it to Dub so we can kind of speed 14 things up and try to get everybody heard. 15 MS. DIXON: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Is there anything else that 17 you would like us to know? 18 MS. DIXON: Just that wearing masks puts us 19 even -- especially the elderly -- at risk by -- by not 20 having the proper amount of oxygen. And also putting 21 you at more risk for upper respiratory infections. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you're against? 23 MS. DIXON: Yes. Absolutely. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you very much for coming 73 1 in. We really appreciate that. 2 MS. DIXON: Thank you. I appreciate your 3 time. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you for 5 your research. 6 MS. DIXON: Thank you, sir. And where 7 should I leave this? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just put it there. 9 MS. DIXON: Thank you very much for your 10 time. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Roman Garcia. Mr. Garcia? 12 MR. GARCIA: Hi, good morning, Judge and 13 Commissioners. My name is Roman Garcia. My address is 14 934 Pecan Street. 15 This COVID-19 pandemic has had many affects 16 on our daily lives and I'm sure we're all ready to get 17 back to normalcy and I know I am. I know one of the 18 things that we're obviously all talking about is the 19 necessity of proper hygiene and such as wearing a face 20 mask. But not everyone wants or feels the need to do so 21 for their own reasons. And this has left our local 22 officials to feel like it's up to them to establish 23 orders that requiring to do so. 24 Now today we're here to consider whether 25 this Court should make it mandatory or voluntary to wear 74 1 face masks in businesses throughout the County. 2 However, I don't believe that government mandated 3 regulations is the way to go about this issue. In 4 Executive Order No. 26, issued by the Governor Abbott on 5 June 3rd, he reiterates what some of his previous orders 6 already stated, in that local government cannot impose a 7 civil or criminal penalty order on previous -- for 8 individuals for not wearing a face mask. However, he 9 did state that they can require businesses to then 10 require their employees and customers to do so. 11 So this puts the burden on forcing the law 12 in this case in the hands of businesses by forcing them 13 to either refuse to sell to the customer and end up 14 kicking them out if they fail to comply or risk the 15 penalty, which is probably going to be a costly fine. 16 What this has created is essentially a loophole for the 17 government to now not only require individuals to wear 18 face masks, but employees of the businesses as well. 19 Those individual businesses should be able 20 to make the decision for themselves, free of any 21 influence of the government. In the same way, some 22 restaurants and stores have dress codes that require 23 shoes and shirts. Not all have those regulations. I 24 believe Texans and every other citizen in this country 25 should be free to decide for themselves on whether or 75 1 not to wear the face mask and to not use the heavy hand 2 of the government to punish the businesses and require 3 them to enforce such a cheering on freedom. We must 4 ensure that we maintain our fundamental rights to make 5 these decisions for ourselves with limited government 6 intervention, not only for our individual citizens but 7 for the businesses. 8 And to that end, I urge that each of you 9 leave it up to the businesses of this great community to 10 decide whether they want to require their employees and 11 their customers to wear the face mask. Thank you for 12 your time and consideration. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you very 14 much. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Roman. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Michael Piper. 17 MR. PIPER: Good morning, gentlemen. Judge, 18 thank you. Commissioners, thank you for hearing me out 19 today. My name's Michael Piper, 806 Main Street, 20 Kerrville, Texas. 21 Let me start off by saying first and 22 foremost that my wife and I both have parents in their 23 80's. And I don't want anybody to die. I don't want to 24 wish any harm on anybody. But we are trampling on some 25 civil rights here. We are talking about a fine line 76 1 that y'all have to make a decision on it sounds like 2 today. But before you make that decision, let me make 3 you an invitation. 4 I work in a kitchen and I'm short-handed. 5 So we're putting in -- I've got cooks that put in 6 12-hour shifts sometimes. It's 140 degrees in there 7 sometimes. Put a mask on and come in my kitchen. Any 8 -- any one of you guys are welcome. Of course, you have 9 to get certified first. Okay. I want to speak on that 10 matter right now. 11 Myself and our counterparts across the 12 county and across the state are mandated, certified, and 13 heavily regulated to keep people safe from viruses and 14 bacteria. All of a sudden we're not trusted with that 15 anymore and we have to wear a mask? 16 We're talking about safety and health here 17 of my employees. If y'all mandate my employees and one 18 of them goes down in the middle of the floor, we don't 19 get breaks. You know, we have to go by the customers 20 pace, not our own pace. We can't just say, oh okay, we 21 deserve a 15-minute break now, let's go get some air and 22 a Gatorade or whatever. It just don't work like that. 23 We have to go by the pace of the customer or we lose our 24 customers, you know. 25 They got 30 minutes for lunch, an hour for 77 1 lunch. We gotta get them in and out. And it is a 2 matter of health and a matter of safety. Okay. I'm 3 regulating myself by my customers. And I'll let y'all 4 know right now that when we were shut down and doing 5 this PC and the -- the single serve salt, peppers, 6 sugars, everything, ketchups, they were having to 7 squeeze it out of the ketchup packet. They were -- my 8 customers were going where's my salt and pepper packets 9 -- or where's my salt and pepper shaker? I want a 10 bottle of ketchup. So you know what, I went back to it. 11 We sanitize them. We do everything in between service. 12 Guys, this is America. We have a thing 13 called personal responsibility. And that's going by the 14 way side with our Nanny state. Everybody thinks that 15 the government needs to take care of them. I don't. I 16 think the public can take care of themselves quite well. 17 If you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. If you don't 18 want to wear a mask, I'm not going to mandate my 19 customers to wear a mask and I'm not going to police my 20 customers to wear a mask. They can take my health 21 permit. They can shut me down. Either way, I'm out of 22 business there. Or you can leave me alone and let me do 23 my business. 24 Speaking of regulation, I've got 30 entities 25 in my pocket and in -- and regulating me. We're 78 1 regulated enough, guys. I plead to you to vote no on 2 this mandatory mask. My customers -- I'll bet you it's 3 three percent of people come through the door with a 4 mask on. Walk down the sidewalk with a mask, soon as 5 they enter the door they take the mask off. I don't get 6 it. I'm in HEB. I shop for a living. I see -- I'm -- 7 I'm certified, hand washing -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: Thank -- thank you, Mr. Piper. 9 MR. PIPER: Am I done? 10 MS. LEITNER: He can have my time. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Huh? 12 MS. LEITNER: He can have my time. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Carry on. 14 MR. PIPER: Anyway. I'm in HEB because I do 15 -- I shop there for a living, I'm there twice a week. I 16 see violations all the time. An open mask, people not 17 wearing them right, people wearing them over their 18 mouth. They're touching things. Even wearing gloves. 19 Gloves is a false sense of security. I don't even 20 mandate those in my restaurant. 21 But you're safe in my restaurant because we 22 wash our hands in between each contamination. We are 23 certified, regulated, and mandated by the State to keep 24 y'all healthy when you come into our restaurants. 25 We've been through SARS, H1N1. What else? 79 1 The bird flu, the swine flu. We've been through all of 2 these flus and all of these viruses and nothing has ever 3 been said. Nothing has ever been said. Now all of a 4 sudden, we're not trusted to take care of you folks? 5 You can trust us. We're professionals. I've been doing 6 this for 30 years. I do it in my sleep. I implement 7 these -- I drive my wife -- and when my son lived with 8 me, I drove them crazy because of sanitary practices at 9 home. 10 Now, I've always found -- and I'm going to 11 say this and not to offend anybody, but I've always 12 found the City of Kerrville very anti-business. They 13 will do everything they can to make it tough on the 14 businesses instead of nurturing their businesses and 15 stuff like that. Now, I say that in all honesty because 16 I've been doing this 30 years. And man, I'm telling 17 you, it -- we've got to turn this thing around for -- 18 you're -- you guys are going to be at the corporations. 19 Because they're the only ones that can afford to -- to 20 put up with these things. Mom and pop shops, they're 21 going to be going out of here if we don't get a little 22 bit more busy friendly. 23 If the County joins in on this, it's just 24 like a piggy pile, guys. You guys are on us. A 25 gentleman -- Dr. Rector spoke about the Downtown 80 1 Business Associates. I've been in downtown 30 years. 2 He does not speak for me. I speak for myself. I've 3 been a member of that association and I found it 4 worthless because we -- they never had -- get anything 5 done. 6 If we're going to revitalize the downtown, 7 we're going to revitalize the downtown. And the City of 8 Kerrville come along and took some of my parking. Is 9 that revitalization or is that taking my parking? Come 10 on, guys. Come over, get your little certifications. 11 Come over and stand in front of my grill for an 8-hour, 12 10-hour, 12-hour shift and see if you want to wear a 13 damn mask. Excuse my French and my English. 14 I appreciate you guys hearing me out today. 15 Judge, you talk about your power. Sometimes the best 16 use of power is not using it. 17 JUDGE KELLY: If you've noticed, I've never 18 used a bit of that power. 19 MR. PIPER: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I -- I come right back to this 21 Court. 22 MR. PIPER: Thank you, sir. I appreciate 23 you hearing us out today. I appreciate you giving the 24 public a right to say their peace. Looks like it's 25 overwhelmingly against from what I'm hearing. Thanks 81 1 gentlemen. Appreciate you. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think in case 3 somebody in the public didn't hear, his extra time came 4 from somebody else who gave it to him. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Jerry Wolff. 6 MR. WOLFF: Good morning. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Who would be after him, 8 Your Honor? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Linda Bullard. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Linda Bullard will be 11 next. 12 JUDGE KELLY: How are you, sir? Go ahead. 13 MR. WOLFF: I'm Jerry Wolff. I live at 14 509 N. Buckboard Drive in Kerrville and I have been a 15 resident of Kerr County for ten years. And I am also a 16 senior citizen. So I'm in that special group, the one 17 that we're all concerned about the virus. I've listened 18 to all the people before me speaking on YouTube, so I've 19 kind of kept up with what's being stated. I do not have 20 any statistics for you. I think they've been very well 21 covered and many of those things I have read myself over 22 the last many months. 23 And my slant and my viewpoint of all this, 24 think back. Kerrville was -- and Kerr County and the 25 Hill Country in general, was founded on conservative 82 1 principles. And that being that a person look after 2 themselves and their family and their neighbors. And 3 that is encompassing within that, it maybe comes down to 4 just American common sense. 5 And I, as a senior citizen, and I do not 6 have any underlying health conditions, at least not one 7 that I'm aware of, I am not taking high precautions. In 8 fact, I very rarely wear a mask. I've worn a mask for 9 probably a total of 40 minutes in the last four months. 10 And have worn that mask when I have been around people, 11 friends who asked that I wear a mask because of their 12 condition and I respect them and I did that. And I 13 think in this case from about -- you have to go back and 14 use common sense. 15 The only way to protect yourself, if you do 16 have -- you're very -- have great fear about your health 17 because of this virus, you have to quarantine yourself 18 and wear a mask when you do go out. The business 19 community here, as it has been statewide and nationwide, 20 has offered means for people to shop. You can order 21 online, you can order by the telephone, you can come 22 pick it up at curb side, and we deliver to you. That is 23 the way that a person ensures their health. Is by not 24 getting out into the public. 25 If we go further -- you go further as a 83 1 political entity deciding that it is mandatory for 2 everyone to wear a mask to go into a business, it is 3 going to discourage business. And that is the greatest 4 danger that we have. There are businesses here locally, 5 statewide and nationally that will never recover from 6 this. And many of them are restaurants, as we all know. 7 So I advocate to you that you do not pass a resolution 8 to enforce the use of the wearing of masks in 9 businesses. Thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Jerry. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Linda Bullard. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Linda Bullard? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Terri, you're next. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Tell them your name and 16 address when you get there. 17 MS. BULLARD: Okay. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Who would be next, Your 19 Honor? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Terri Hall. She's right here. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 22 MS. BULLARD: My name is Linda Bullard. 916 23 Lazy Lane. I first want to thank all the people who 24 have come before me to speak on this vital question. 25 I've just been so inspired. I'm in the highest COVID 84 1 risk category, and I'm here to speak against a mandatory 2 mask rule. There are two main reasons that mandatory 3 face masks are a bad idea. 4 The first is that they're harmful to the 5 wearers, and the second is that they are not effective 6 at preventing transmission of infectious respiratory 7 disease. And in many cases can actually even increase 8 transmission. The way that masks are harmful to the 9 wearers is that they reduce oxygen flow, causing oxygen 10 depravation. They don't allow carbon dioxide to escape, 11 causing CO2 retention, which is poisonous. And they 12 allow bacteria to multiply in a warm, humid atmosphere 13 of the mask which is then breathed back into the body. 14 A noted neurosurgeon, Dr. Russell Blalock, 15 concluded that by wearing the mask the exhaled viruses 16 will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the 17 nasal passages, entry the olfactory nerves and travel 18 into your brain. 19 The second problem is that ordinary face 20 masks are ineffective at preventing transmission of the 21 disease because they do not fit tightly enough and the 22 material from which the ordinary ones are made, whether 23 it's cloth or the simple disposable ones, do not filter 24 out submicroscopic particles the size of the 25 coronavirus. I would urge you to watch a video for 85 1 which I will give you the link of a man demonstrating 2 the quality of air inside a face mask with an instrument 3 which is used to measure oxygen levels in work 4 environments for compliance with OSHA guidelines. 5 Within a few seconds after the sensor is put 6 inside the mask, the measuring device signals the alarm 7 that there is not sufficient oxygen for a worker to work 8 under OSHA air quality guidelines. In some, in order 9 for you to actually be protected from infection by a 10 mask, you would asphyxiate. The minute the mask allows 11 you to breathe, it can no longer filter out the micro 12 particles that make you sick. The desire for widespread 13 masking is a reflective reaction to anxiety over the 14 pandemic. 15 This psychological response is not an 16 adequate basis for an effective public he alth policy 17 that will hurt, rather than help, the people of our 18 County. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks, poor 19 filtration and poor air quality, cause problems. 20 So I hear my time's up. Keep it voluntary. 21 Don't even strongly recommend wearing a mask in 22 businesses. There's no science to back up. Follow the 23 example of counties in densely populated areas. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Bullard. 25 Ms. Hall. 86 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And after Ms. Hall, 2 Your Honor? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Mike Dyal. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mike Dyal? 5 MS. HALL: My name is Terri Hall and I live 6 at 118 Independence Lane. Sorry for my voice. It's the 7 dust. All right. So you've already heard a lot about 8 the science but I wanted to mention one or two things 9 before I go on to some other things that I think might 10 benefit you in your decision. I'm very against forcing 11 us to wear masks. The virus passes through anything 12 that's not N95. It's too small for the regular cotton 13 mask and it's certainly too small for bandanas and just 14 any old cloth mask that people are wearing around town. 15 Also, once that cloth mask is damp from your 16 breathing, which is generally less than five minutes, it 17 becomes a germ magnet. It actually attracts germs in 18 the air to your mask and into your mouth, making you 19 more sick or more at risk. And I have to remember, I 20 know there was a gentleman, the very first guy to speak 21 mentioned how many times they've vacillated back and 22 forth between wear a mask and don't wear a mask, wear a 23 mask, don't wear a mask. Let's not forget the U.S. 24 Surgeon General was one of them that said at the outset, 25 do not wear a mask, they don't do anything. Healthy 87 1 people should not be wearing masks. 2 Then let's remember that Fauci himself, this 3 is after we've reopened the economy and many states were 4 already on phase two, on CNN says that masks are just a 5 gesture. In essence, it's just to make people feel 6 better about the situation. It has nothing to do with 7 medical science. 8 I have -- eight out of my ten kids have 9 asthma. They should not be wearing masks. And to 10 demand an individual to wear one is ridiculous. But I 11 want us to go to our first principal. Individual 12 responsibility. Lower taxes or less government. That's 13 what we're supposed to be about in this County. We're 14 conservative values. Government mandates on private 15 businesses that are already barely staying afloat, that 16 have already been bludgeoned to death by government in 17 these last four months is not pro free market, and it's 18 certainly not limited government. 19 And certainly making all those front line 20 workers, like these little hostesses in all these 21 restaurants, try and become a police officer to mask -- 22 to -- to police this situation is just absolutely 23 outrageous for these young people to bear. If someone 24 is vulnerable or uncomfortable when they're near someone 25 that maybe is without a mask then back away or change 88 1 the situation or if you really are in that vulnerable 2 category, stay home obviously. 3 But another item was brought up too, the 4 social impacts that are happening with these masks. I 5 have kids that range in age from four years old all the 6 way up to 24. So we're -- we've got the whole gambit at 7 home. But this whole notion that we look around at 8 everybody with masks on, it makes everybody appear like 9 we're sick. Like our whole society is sick. And this 10 hasn't just been temporary, this is going on and on and 11 on. At a time when these young kids, especially school 12 age kids and little toddlers, are getting their social 13 norms plugged in and programmed into their brains. And 14 what are we telling them? You don't want to approach 15 anybody. You have to be six feet apart. Anyone other 16 than your immediate family could hurt you. They might 17 be carrying something that could kill you. That kind of 18 fear mongering is outrageous for these young people. 19 It's government control in a manic state. And if you 20 wouldn't mind me just saying, I think we need to get 21 back to those first principles. And this unpredictable 22 regulatory environment is going to kill our businesses. 23 I just want to end by saying let freedom reign. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Mike Dyal. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And who is after 89 1 Mr. Dyal? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Jessica Ramirez. 3 MR. DYAL: Hi, my name is Mike Dyal, 4 354 Englewood Drive, Kerrville, Texas. I would like to 5 state that I am against this mandate for wearing masks. 6 And I would implore this court to not make it mandatory 7 to wear masks in businesses or even later on leading 8 into in public in general. I believe this to be 9 unnecessary and egregious and only falls in line with 10 the fearmongering that we have been bombarded with by 11 local news, mainstream media minute by minute. You 12 can't turn on the TV without hearing fear. Pandemic. 13 Fear. 14 I heard a story the other day on the San 15 Antonio news, they -- they had a break away to a nursing 16 home, live report, that ten people inside there had 17 fever. I mean that was the story. But that's what gets 18 into people's mind and causes us fear. And -- and 19 that's what the mask is -- is an example of. The virus 20 is real. We all know that. But the pandemic is a hoax. 21 We can't have a second wave. We never even had a first 22 wave. And that's across the nation. 23 There's been other speakers that talk about 24 the numbers. The numbers do not add up. Simply just 25 doesn't add up to shutting down our economy and -- and 90 1 forcing people to do what we've had to do during the 2 lockdown but also with -- with a requirement to wear 3 masks. Local restaurants, businesses and the people 4 that work at these places, can't take another blow to 5 the livelihood, you know, that enables them to provide 6 for their families. 7 I, too, had information about Dr. Fauci and 8 how he has wavered back and forth on having to wear 9 masks. I won't go into that. But the thing about -- I 10 -- I noticed people that do wear masks when I've been in 11 restaurants and different places, they're fooling with 12 them. They fool with their mouth and nose area more 13 with a mask on and then sit there and take our money and 14 hand us our food than if they didn't have a mask on. 15 A friend of mine went to the doctor, some 16 speakers have talked about this. The doctor put a pulse 17 oximeter on his hand. Well, when he walked in he had to 18 put a mask on. The doctor said your oxygen levels are 19 really low. Took the mask off in two minutes and it was 20 gone. Is that my time? 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. No. Keep going, 22 Mike. 23 MR. DYAL: In the fire service if you wear a 24 mask or gloves one time, that's considered contaminated 25 and biohazard which now has to be disposed of. So 91 1 everyone that's wearing a mask that are not disposed of 2 correctly, are we going to create a biohazard problem 3 within our country? Do people really understand that 4 wearing a germ infested face diaper all day, every day, 5 for weeks and months does to your health and O2 6 saturation? That's the truth. Like the lady said 7 before me, people wearing a mask over and over, you're 8 just contaminating yourself. 9 And the craziest thing I've ever seen is 10 people on a beautiful day driving in their car, by 11 themselves, wearing a mask. This is because of fear. 12 I've seen people on the river trail on a beautiful sunny 13 day, by themselves, walking down that trail or riding a 14 bike and wearing a mask. This is crazy. 15 So I'll end with this. And this came out of 16 Lawyer.com over the weekend. Four justices on the Texas 17 Supreme Court just prior to -- government officials, 18 continuing to claim COVID-19 restrictions in Texas, in a 19 concurring opinion Justices Blacklock, Guzman, Boyd and 20 Devine reminded everyone that the Constitution is not 21 suspended when the Governor declares a State of 22 Disaster. 23 I think it's y'all's responsibility to 24 protect my rights, liberty and freedoms. It's not your 25 responsibility to protect my health. I can do that fine 92 1 myself. If somebody is sick, has a problem, I implore 2 them to wear the mask if it makes them feel better or if 3 it keeps them healthy. But don't force us to do it when 4 we're healthy and we don't need to do it. Because it 5 strikes fear into our population. Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Mike. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Who's after 8 Ms. Ramirez? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Sandra Garcia. 10 MS. RAMIREZ: Hi. Thank y'all so much for 11 doing this in Court and having it open to the public to 12 come speak. 13 My name is Jessica Ramirez. I live on the 14 outskirts of Kerr County. And I am against the mandate 15 of businesses having to regulate this for customers. I 16 know a lot of people have said that there has been many 17 studies that show that masks actually hinder your 18 health. And I'm going just to reiterate a few things on 19 that because it is so vital that we know this as a 20 community and we spread the word about it because our 21 health is everything. And our government should not be 22 the one to have our health go town in the toilet. 23 So virus expert Judy Mikovits, of the 24 "Plandemic" fame, has been very outspoken about the 25 dangers of face masks according to Reveilleask.com and 93 1 in her recent post she has written, do you know how 2 unhealthy it is to keep inhaling your own carbon dioxide 3 and restricting proper oxygen flow? The body requires 4 ample amounts of oxygen for optimal health in your 5 immune system. Proper oxygenation of your cells and 6 blood is central for the body to function as it needs in 7 order to fight off illnesses. Masks will hamper your 8 oxygen intake and, therefore, your immune health. 9 And unfortunately, no one is telling the 10 elderly community that -- with lung disease such as 11 COPD, emphysema or pulmonary cirrhosis of these dangers 12 from wearing facials masks of any kind, which can cause 13 severe worsening lung function. As I'm sure a lot of us 14 already know, the elderly community already has multiple 15 issues with lungs, and wearing face masks is only going 16 to hinder them. As well as people with chronic 17 illnesses. Six out of ten people in the U.S. have a 18 chronic disease and four out of ten people have two or 19 more chronic illnesses and wearing a face mask is not 20 going to help them. The virus can get through the face 21 mask, especially the cloth face masks. 22 I am not a health expert, but I have spent 23 my life, as short as it may have been so far, I have 24 spent my life researching so much about health and 25 wellness and what we can do to protect ourselves and our 94 1 immune system. And doing the face masks as mandatory 2 will only hinder businesses and hinder our health and 3 that is unacceptable for our government to be able to do 4 that to us as a community and as a nation. And that's 5 completely unacceptable in my opinion. Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONERS: Thank you. Well spoken. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Sandra Garcia. And then 8 Anke -- 9 MS. LEITNER: I gave up my time. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: She gave up her time. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So after Anke? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Greyson McMurray. 14 MS. GARCIA: Hi, I'm Sandra Garcia, 934 15 Pecan Street. I don't have any more information other 16 than what others have said but I do want my voice to be 17 heard and to be known. 72 cases out of 72,600 citizens 18 based on our census. So again, one thousandth of a 19 percentage are infected. It should be our freedom to 20 decide what's best for us. 21 I decided to homeschool my kids. I don't 22 believe in public education, although I am a certified 23 public school educator as well as a former principal of 24 15 years. So I have that choice as an American citizen, 25 as I do whether or not to wear a mask. 95 1 I also do not want you overstepping your 2 authority as our leaders. You're our leaders but you 3 need to listen to us as well. I'm very disappointed. 4 This is not on you, but our Mayor writes, "I'm calling 5 on businesses to require masks for their employees and 6 that they encourage customers to use masks. If you 7 enter a business and the employees are not using masks, 8 then take your business somewhere else." This is not 9 the kind of leader we want for our city and I ask you 10 not to be that kind of a leader for our County. 11 Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. Very good. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. McMurray. Greyson 14 McMurray. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Greyson McMurray. I 16 think they went upstairs to see if that one was up 17 there, Judge. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Mario Garcia. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mario Garcia? I guess 20 they're still coming down. Next? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Phone calls it looks like. 22 Any other live people here? 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No dead people. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, we don't want the 25 dead ones speaking. 96 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They could not find 2 Greyson McMurray. Mario Garcia is on his way down. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And these are phones 4 calls. 5 (Off the record.) 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mario Garcia, Your 7 Honor. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Good to see you, Mario. How 9 are you doing? 10 MR. GARCIA: Great, Judge. Thank you. 11 Appreciate it. Commissioners. I'll be short. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Name and address. 13 MR. GARCIA: Oh. Mario Garcia, 934 Pecan 14 Street. Everybody's said everything. I'm against it. 15 And that's what you should know. And I think we need to 16 be very careful with where we're going with this. So I 17 just wanted to let you know I'm against it. Everybody's 18 already spoken. 19 I'm guessing if Rector said, you know, the 20 idea he wears a mask because he's trying to protect 21 everybody else, we're all selfish by nature. You've got 22 to take a look at that. We really are. And usually 23 we're selfish and then we kind of come together and we 24 help each other. I think that's kind of -- a mind set 25 to me is very big. So when you start bending that right 97 1 there, he's basically telling me that because I'm not 2 wearing a mask, I'm not concerned about him or I'm not 3 concerned about everybody else that are citizens in our 4 community and that's not true. And he's bending that in 5 a sense that I don't like that. Because he's saying -- 6 he's basically saying that about me and I -- I think I 7 disagree with that. So I'm against it. Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Mario. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And thank you for your 10 brother. 11 MR. GARCIA: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other live people 13 that want to address the Court on mandatory masks? 14 We've got five phone calls here. Alicia Shook. 15 Ms. Shook? 16 MS. SHOOK: Hello? 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, this is Judge Kelly. You 18 may proceed. 19 MS. SHOOK: Yes. I guess the main thing is 20 the County should mandate its citizens to require face 21 masks of employees and customers. Protecting others 22 isn't too much to ask. And as good citizens it's really 23 our obligation to make sacrifices for the good of 24 Kerrville. And I totally believe with what Speaker 25 Bonnen said, is trying to uphold personal 98 1 responsibility, a key tenent of ensuring liberty and 2 freedom. Thank you. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Shook. Thank 4 you for your brevity. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There's no other live 6 persons here. 7 (Off the record.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Conrad Wert? 9 MR. WERT: Yes, sir. 10 JUDGE KELLY: You may proceed. 11 MR. WERT: Yes, sir. This is Conrad Wert 12 from 814 Lee Street, here in Kerrville, Precinct 1. 13 Harley, good morning. Hope you're doing well. 14 Commissioners, good morning. And Judge Kelly, good 15 morning. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. 17 MR. WERT: I guess the -- cutting to the 18 chase, I think it's in our best interest to look at the 19 data, look at states such as Rhode Island and 20 Connecticut and countries such as Germany, Spain and 21 France, where we're seeing proactive actions taking 22 place to defer COVID. Those were mandates in both Rhode 23 Island and Connecticut to wear masks. Since then we 24 have seen cases decrease. 25 On a personal matter, sadly we lost our 99 1 father in April to COVID related respiratory failure. 2 And Harley, if you recall, when we gathered to talk 3 about some of the comments that were made previously 4 unrelated to this discussion, I was not wearing a mask 5 when I met with Harley. But as we've seen the data 6 increase and the concerns coming from Vice President 7 Pence and Governor Abbott, it's clear that once again 8 the cases are skyrocketing. 9 I'm very much for a mandate of wearing 10 masks. I think our liberties, of course, should be 11 protected but I do live by that golden rule, as does 12 Commissioner Harley, that we should treat others as we 13 would want to be treated. So, therefore, I think it is 14 our responsibility to look out for one another, both 15 socially and emotionally and physically. 16 And one last note and I'll let y'all go. 17 Commissioner Letz, I did see on the video that you were 18 keeping a tally of those that were for and against. I 19 think it should be noted that many of us that do support 20 wearing masks do not feel comfortable to come into the 21 Commissioners' Courthouse at this time due to the COVID. 22 So I would encourage the Commissioners' Court to look at 23 those numbers that say this might be somewhat imbalanced 24 in that many of us do not feel comfortable to speak 25 publicly. 100 1 But thank you for your time and I do 2 encourage you to look out for the wellbeing of your 3 constituents here in Kerrville. Thanks so much. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. The next one? 5 You're Linda Stone? 6 MS. STONE: Yes. 7 JUDGE KELLY: You may proceed. 8 MS. STONE: Yes. Hello. My name is Linda 9 Stone, 903 Tanglewood Lane. 10 The national shutdown was originally based 11 on the numbers that are now proven any wrong. But even 12 with that, it was not intended to stop the virus, it was 13 for our medical community to prepare for the virus. And 14 locally, we have no one in the hospital at this time. 15 The medical community now has a better understanding of 16 how to help and they are ready. 84 cases in Kerr County 17 is very bad news. But the good news is that most people 18 are recovering at home. I consider myself a good 19 citizen. 20 But in my opinion, the masks should remain 21 recommended, not mandated. And Texas should remain open 22 for all businesses and people should use common sense to 23 take care of themselves as they see fit. Thank you for 24 listening. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 101 1 Okay. This is Sharon Walling. You may 2 proceed. 3 MS. WALLING: Yes. I'm Sharon Walling and I 4 am a senior. And I would really appreciate it if people 5 would wear masks. I think it's good for the economy 6 and, you know, we require people to wear safety belts 7 and not to drive drunk and kill other people. So I do 8 feel like I can't go anywhere. I've been locked up for 9 three months and the seniors and the tourists do support 10 this town, so I think if its -- if you care about the 11 economy or if you care about other people, it would be 12 really considerate to show that Kerrville is a caring 13 town, that we are just above the average, that we -- we 14 know that from seven months of results that not wearing 15 a mask is not working. 16 Other states and other countries are doing 17 much better than we are. If we want to turn this thing 18 around and be confident that Kerrville can survive, we 19 really need to wear a mask. 20 I had called museums, I have called other 21 places. I can't go anywhere because people do not wear 22 a mask. And if they breathe on me, they're going to 23 kill me. I'm -- you know, it -- we don't know with 24 everybody's immune system who's subject to this or not. 25 The immune system is a very tricky thing. Even the 102 1 young people don't know. If they get the wrong strain 2 of the virus or if they get too much of the virus what's 3 going to happen to them. So I would appreciate if they 4 would respect my Constitutional, you know, rights to be 5 able to go out and spend money. I would like to go 6 spend money. I would like to support the economy. And 7 that's who supports this economy here is the seniors. 8 We are a retirement community in case the young people 9 have forgotten that. 10 So I appreciate that this is frustrating, 11 that it may go on for a while, but they've got to do the 12 intelligent, common sense thing and wear a mask when out 13 in public. And do I have more time? 14 JUDGE KELLY: No. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: She didn't give her 16 address, I don't think, did she? 17 MS. WALLING: What? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's your address, 19 ma'am? 20 JUDGE KELLY: 2062 Summit Crest. 21 MS. WALLING: Yes. That's correct. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 23 MS. WALLING: And then here -- would really 24 appreciate that. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Sharon. 103 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 3 MS. WALLING: Okay. Thank you for having 4 this meeting. Bye-bye. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Fred? This is Fred 6 Henneke. 7 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. Fred Henneke, 2595 8 Bandera Highway. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Proceed. 10 MR. HENNEKE: I've listened to the debate 11 this morning. It's very interesting. I want to make 12 about three points. One is numbers. First two and a 13 half months of this pandemic we had 21 cases. The month 14 of June alone now we've had 63. There is no signs that 15 this stuff is diminishing in our area. 16 Second point I would make is that this order 17 -- potential order of mandating businesses -- to require 18 businesses for their -- masks for their employees and 19 their patrons is the only tool at this time given to 20 local government in an effort to flatten the curve or 21 keep people safe, however you want to put it, outside of 22 having to approve gatherings of more than 100, which I 23 don't think is going to be a big -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: I'm -- I'm not doing that. 25 MR. HENNEKE: -- deal for you guys. 104 1 JUDGE KELLY: Don't worry about that. I'm 2 not doing that. 3 MR. HENNEKE: What's that? 4 JUDGE KELLY: I'm not approving groups of 5 more than 100 right now. 6 MR. HENNEKE: I'm sure you're not. The 7 third point I would make is anecdotal. I went to lunch 8 at a local -- I went to breakfast at a local restaurant 9 to meet one of the few clients I still have, this past 10 week. And none of the wait staff, none of the employees 11 that were out in the restaurant were wearing masks. And 12 the server was doing their usual job of, "Do you need 13 more tea? Would you like more coffee?" But it was very 14 uncomfortable having that person that close without a 15 mask. 16 I went to another restaurant in town to have 17 lunch over the last couple three weeks and all the 18 servers there had masks on. I will not go back to that 19 restaurant where there were those servers. I think it's 20 irresponsible when you are a public accommodation not to 21 take measures that you can in order to keep the public 22 that you serve safe. 23 In light of all the discussion and all the 24 rights and all this, I think that it's incumbent upon 25 local officials who have the authority to take this step 105 1 which will undoubtedly keep a large percentage of the 2 constituents you serve safe. And I urge you to mandate 3 that businesses require masks of those people who serve 4 the public. Certainly not somebody in the back of the 5 room who is eight hours back there doing their thing and 6 not out in the public should not be mandated. But I 7 think it's incumbent upon local officials to mandate 8 that businesses require a mask for their employees who 9 are serving the public and for the patrons who honor 10 their restaurants. Not shutdown a business. You can 11 still take in -- you still have take-out. You still 12 have the sidewalks. But in -- in a business service 13 needs to be designated a safer place for all of us. And 14 I thank you for your attention. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Fred. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Fred. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Fred. Do we have 18 anyone else wishing to address the Court with regard to 19 the consideration of whether masks should be mandated 20 for businesses? 21 MS. LAFOUR: Can I ask a question? If it is 22 mandated, how do we as business groups make -- make it 23 happen? I mean, if people come in there and they have a 24 -- they can't wear a mask, how do we -- what do we do? 25 You can't come in because you're sick? 106 1 MR. PIPER: There's ADA laws. We can't 2 force somebody with ADA -- we can't even ask them what 3 their -- their condition is, sir. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. I think 5 we've been very patient in trying to listen to 6 everyone's concerns. I would like for there to be some 7 discussion by the Court. I think it's important that we 8 give some feedback to the public as to where we're going 9 with this. As I told you, I'm not prepared to issue an 10 order and exercise any power that I have if it is not 11 the wishes of this Court and your representative 12 constituents. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I'll lead off, I 14 guess. I've, as have all of us, heard from a lot of 15 people out in the public. And I've got -- heard from 16 people that normally agree on 95 percent of the things 17 and they're 180 degrees apart on this issue. But either 18 side, whichever side of the bench you're on, you can be 19 accommodated. These businesses were shutdown for 20 awhile. And they got very creative how to keep their 21 head above water. 22 If, let's say, HEB mandates on their own, or 23 we mandate, that customers have masks. If I didn't want 24 to wear a mask, I can -- they've got curb side or home 25 delivery. It these restaurant people, if they do not 107 1 mandate masks, just like Fred said, he's got his choice. 2 He can go someplace else. You know, that's the 3 capitalist way of doing things. If you don't like it, 4 go down the road. 5 So if you don't want to wear a mask and a 6 business requires it, it doesn't say -- if they feel 7 it's the safety of their employees then order curbside 8 or delivery or go to another store. They may lose some 9 customers because of their stance, but they may gain 10 some from another business down the road. And, you 11 know, I'm against mandating. We can urge people, the 12 businesses to do that, if they want. But I am not for 13 mandating. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll go ahead and I'll 16 be pretty quick. To me there's a number of -- or 17 several issues as to why not to do this. One, personal 18 responsibility. I think this is something that we -- 19 our whole country is really bound by and founded on. 20 Second is enforcement. I don't know how you 21 enforce this. And I don't think it's fair to require 22 businesses to get into an enforcement position. They 23 have the ability to require it if they choose, but it's 24 up to the businesses to do it. 25 And really, I think probably the biggest 108 1 thing is that masks don't stop transmission. I mean, 2 the best case they lessen it, worst case they make it 3 worse, so -- with other health issues. So there's 4 nothing -- there's no reason to mandate something that 5 doesn't work and may even be detrimental. So I'm 6 against it. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Anybody else? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We've heard from the 9 diplomat and the pragmatist. So I need to decide which 10 category -- I -- I fall under a different category. 11 Mask advocates want to come and go as they please. And 12 so based on that, I'm supposed to wear a mask for them. 13 They say -- they turn it around and say that I'm the bad 14 guy because I won't do that. 15 But we had -- I'll have you think for just a 16 moment about the historic times in Kerr County when we 17 had tuberculosis and people came here to be free from 18 it. There were people that were self-quarantined, there 19 were people that were well aware of who was sick and who 20 wasn't. And we lived through that. We're still here. 21 Here we are. And we didn't close everything down and we 22 didn't have government mandates about it. People used 23 common sense, what these two gentlemen have just 24 suggested, personal responsibility, common sense. 25 Well people should not wear a mask. The CDC 109 1 has gone back and forth with whether you should wear a 2 mask or whether you shouldn't. Now they've changed what 3 they say are the symptoms. What will change tomorrow? 4 And how much good is it going to do? 5 I've talked to -- you want real protection? 6 I've talked to physician after physician that tells me 7 that the hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc 8 will protect you better than any mask. Now this is come 9 -- in fact, one of them that told me this is the head 10 of, let me see, I've got it here. He's the -- oh, I 11 don't have his credentials here. I have it somewhere 12 maybe. Anyway, I can tell you his name. His name is 13 Dr. Lonnie Schwirtlich. And he is actually the head of 14 Texas Association of Emergency Centers. And he takes 15 it. He doesn't wear the mask. He doesn't order anybody 16 to take hydroxychloroquine and he said the key is if you 17 take it with zinc. 18 So for those people that are worried and 19 concerned about your protection, that mask is not going 20 to do you near as much good as taking those drugs that 21 are readily available and they're generic and they don't 22 cost hardly anything. 23 An old friend of mine, Dr. Steve Hotze in 24 Houston, has said that the mask cuts off your oxygen and 25 is actually detrimental to you. You don't have the same 110 1 blood oxygen levels and you end up having a decreased 2 immune system because of that. 3 So those two things are the scientific part 4 of it. The other part is that we've turned everything 5 on its head. Instead of sick people being quarantined, 6 we want healthy people for every -- everybody -- the 7 generation that everybody got a trophy, now everybody 8 gets a mask. Well, I'm not for that. I don't think 9 that people that are healthy should be wearing a mask. 10 So that's pretty much it. 11 And here's -- here's what we have right now 12 and it's been touched on several times. Number one. If 13 you go to your doctor's office, they're likely to have 14 you wear a mask. It would be mandatory. That's Step 1. 15 Employers, as we stand right now, allow you 16 to wear a mask. Some -- some of the big chains force 17 you to wear a mask. But locally, local businesses they 18 allow it. 19 Third. There is home delivery for 20 everything from a tuba to a pizza, and everything in 21 between. You can get it on Amazon, you can get it 22 shipped to your house. You can get a local Grub Hub to 23 bring it. And third is that you have curb side 24 delivery. So the thing about our economy, that's -- I 25 don't buy that. There's not a reason in the world for 111 1 anybody to be afraid or for you to mandate that 2 everybody wear a mask because you want to come and go as 3 you please. I have family members that are immune 4 compromised. They respect other people's rights. And I 5 think everybody in this County we should respect each 6 other's rights and each other's common sense. And 7 that's all I have to say about that. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How do you read those 9 notes, Commissioner? 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm the only one that 11 can read them. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I firmly believe in 13 never make a decision until you have to. And I came 14 into this Commissioners' Court today listening to a lot 15 of constituents. And as I said earlier, probably 95 16 percent of them said mandate wearing a mask. I listen. 17 But after listening today I thought which was very, very 18 informative, okay, I think that there is -- there is -- 19 the use of masks present false security, listening to 20 scientific data people presented. I think there's ways 21 for people to -- elderly people to protect themselves. 22 And speaking as an 80-year-old-plus person, I'm careful 23 about what I do, okay. So, therefore, I've changed my 24 position after listening. Okay. I was going to come in 25 here recommending that -- making a motion that the 112 1 Judge, as his position you know in the County and the 2 leader in the County during this Emergency Mandate. I'm 3 not for that now. Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aren't you glad the 5 good Judge cut you off? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. No, because -- 7 because I did -- you know, I truly believe in don't make 8 a decision until you have to because you're going to get 9 more information. Okay. So now it's time to make a 10 decision so I've made my decision. I'm not going to 11 support a mandate by the -- by the Judge. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would put -- one 13 other thing I'd like to add. This isn't a flip in 14 position on my part. I live with somebody that's as 15 high risk as anybody in this County. She wore a mask on 16 -- she was off work on Friday. She wore a mask out in 17 the yard because of the dust. Her -- her problems are 18 respiratory to begin with. And so, you know. This is 19 -- something that's not just going with the flow. This 20 is something we've discussed many times and she feels 21 the same way as most of y'all do, that -- that voiced 22 their opinion today. She said I can't hide underneath 23 the couch. I see them with the seasonal flu and it's 24 ugly. It's ugly. So, you know, there's lots of thought 25 that goes into this on my part, I promise you. 113 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one quick comment. 2 Because someone referenced that I was keeping a tally. 3 The tally that I came up with for today was 19 were not 4 in favor of a mask and seven were in favor of it -- of 5 those that communicated. It was probably closer to 6 50/50 that I received outside the panel. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and for what it's worth, 9 the chatter that I got over the weekend on my phone that 10 I talked about at the beginning of the meeting, was 11 probably at least -- about lopsided or more the other 12 way. But I deliberately put this on the agenda and you 13 can see we've spent a lot of time doing this today. We 14 still have a lot of County business to do after this. 15 But I thought it was important for the community, for 16 the public, to hear this debate. And to understand that 17 what's important here is that this community quit 18 fighting over the small stuff and start uniting on the 19 big stuff. And this whole fight over masks and who has 20 the right to wear a mask, who has the right not to wear 21 a mask needs to come to a conclusion. 22 Now, most of you out there in the public 23 that know me or have heard about me know that I had a 24 pretty good idea how this vote was going to go. And 25 that's why in talking with the Mayor, I did not want him 114 1 to charge out and do something that was going to put me 2 in a position that I would have to oppose his 3 declaration, his Proclamation, his orders. 4 And so, in the spirit of still working 5 together with the City, and I understand people have 6 different opinions about the County and the City. But 7 we still work to live in a safe community. And we're 8 all here together. And I want to overcome this. 9 And so I said at the beginning of this that 10 I was going to make the motion. And I'm going to make 11 the same motion that I've been telling the Mayor every 12 time we talk about it. I recommend those people that 13 are concerned about masks, if you feel like you need to 14 wear them, you have the light to wear them. If you 15 don't want to wear the masks, I think you have the right 16 not to wear the mask. 17 I do think that as we do this, we need to 18 quit sniping at one another and start -- and -- and 19 realize that this is something that it's a best 20 practices policy. Everybody needs to do what you 21 believe is the best practices within the guidelines that 22 we've been given. 23 And so, I think that we need to be patient 24 with one another and try to understand where other 25 people are coming from. We -- we need to be patient, 115 1 understanding, respectful and considerate of one 2 another. And if both sides of this issue will do that, 3 we'll get along a lot better and we'll unite in this 4 community. And that's been the real purpose of this 5 exercise. 6 It's been a long process. We tried to 7 listen to everybody. I think somebody sent me an E-mail 8 that they got hung up on. I apologize to whoever that 9 was, we were trying to talk to everybody. I think if 10 you watch this you're going to see. 11 MRS. GRINSTEAD: That was the first one and 12 we called him back on my cell phone. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Good. Good. So we've 14 given everybody the opportunity. The motion that I'm 15 going to make is to follow the mandate of this Court. 16 And that is that we -- I make a motion that we encourage 17 everyone, businesses and individuals, to wear masks in 18 public for themselves and for others if they believe 19 that. And if they don't believe that, they don't -- 20 then, you know, do what you believe. Everybody 21 exercises their own right. 22 And so what I'm trying to do is to be able 23 to send a message to the public. My motion is let's say 24 that that is the best practice and a recommendation of 25 this Court, if that's what you believe. 116 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what's the motion 2 specifically? State it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: For this Court to make 4 recommendations to the public to wear a mask if you 5 believe that is in your best interest. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll second that. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other discussion? 8 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. We worked 9 through an issue that we're -- there's very sharp 10 disagreements and we came out with a unanimous solution. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: From all different 12 points of view. From all points of view. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's take a five 14 minute break. And then we're going to do County 15 business. 16 (Break.) 17 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to 18 session. Next item the agenda is 1.4 discussion 19 regarding the election option for Alcoholic Beverage 20 Sales in Precinct 2. 21 We got anyone here to speak on the alcoholic 22 beverage? Precinct 2. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Me. Okay, good. 24 Claudia could not be here. She's gathering petition 25 signatures at the early voting. But as of this morning, 117 1 we had about 12 hundred signatures. 2 (Technical difficulty.) 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We needed 2020 -- 2016, 4 actually. So that says about 50 a day between now and 5 about July 17th. Chances of getting that is pretty low, 6 but people are trying as hard as they can. So people 7 are out the early voting, and they will be there ever 8 single day the and they'll be there during the voting. 9 So anybody that had any sign that cares to, please 10 please sign. We'll have some -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Set up -- have you 12 tried setting up outside of Mini Mart, things like that? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. We've done lots 14 of things like that, lots of activity. Okay, so that's 15 all there is on that. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Great. Good news. 1.5 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on request 18 to ban fishing in the Dog Park section of Flat Rock 19 Park. Aphyr Feeney. 20 MS. FEENEY: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And I've got your request 22 for -- your request to address the Court. You may 23 proceed. 24 MS. FEENEY: Good morning, Your Honor, 25 Commissioners. MY name is Aphyr Feeney, my address is 118 1 Kerrville Texas. Withholding my actual address for -- 2 I've provided you each with the petition 3 that I'm just going to go ahead and read so the public 4 notice. This is a simple version of the six-page letter 5 that I got to you guys over the weekend. 6 But also a note, that what you have on your 7 paper at the end of the petition there is signatures of 8 90 people that have signed in support of it. Right now, 9 the number is actually at 125. And these are people 10 that are in support of banned fishing at Flat Rock Dog 11 Park. 12 And this is the petition. Flat Rock Dog 13 Park is a very popular dog park in Kerrville, Texas, and 14 a known tourist attraction for canine lovers. It is 15 adjacent to Flat Rock Park, running along the Guadalupe 16 River. The areas set aside for dogs is large, a 17 wonderful place to let dogs run and swim. It is well 18 marked at the beginning of the entrance to Flat Rock 19 Park where it is to be designated Dog Park area begin. 20 However, over the years, as well as 21 recently, it seems that there has been an issue with 22 people fishing within the space while dogs are running 23 free. The situation could arise in which the County or 24 parks department could face a lawsuit for endangerment 25 of animals, or negligence to enforce or change -- and I 119 1 put unposted rules, to keeps our dogs safe. 2 The area beyond the bridge is already 3 designated a Dog Park area for unleashed dogs. This 4 park serves as the only place for river time and play 5 for many dogs and the owners owners who likely obey the 6 other areas of the park and river trails as where posted 7 rules of the dogs are not to be allowed off leash. 8 It is noted that fishing is posted as okay 9 or not okay within any areas, or signage stating rules 10 of Flat Rock Dog Park. This needs urgent attention. 11 There are several signs say off-leash dog park area. 12 There's a beautiful kept field and even 13 doggy waste disposal station. The area along the river 14 is full of weeds, floating sticks, underwater driftwoor 15 and roots. This makes it perfect for dogs for swimming 16 and play here. 17 And other concern being hooks and lures that 18 inevitably get left behind, as well as bait when it's 19 tossed aside, as bait is a natural attraction to dogs of 20 all ages. All it takes is one dog playing in the water, 21 where previously left behind those. That no fisherman 22 will go after those single lures no matter how much he 23 paid for it or how shiny it is. Any dog and every dog 24 has a natural instinct an attraction toward shiny 25 objects in the water, not to mention a fishing pole. 120 1 Fishing debris will also wash shore to shore 2 presenting another rich for injury. Every person 3 allowed to be continued to fish in this area increases a 4 the chances of a dog getting injured there. By 5 mandating and enforcing a no-fishing policy within the 6 designated Dog Park, you'll be helping to advocate to 7 the safety of dogs at the Dog Park by rules that are 8 expected to be a part of a Dog Park area as seen by dog 9 enthusiasts, trainers and veterinarians. You also be 10 helping people enjoy Kerr County Dog Park. 11 Can I add to that, or is this my time? 12 JUDGE KELLY: That's your time, Aphry. 13 MS. FEENEY: Okay, thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If I may, Judge. Thank 15 for your this. That's a lot of people to sign a 16 petition. We've had lots of discussion this morning 17 about personal liberty and freedom and things like that. 18 As an individual, I'm down at the Dog Park 19 often, maybe couple times a week. And after eight years 20 of being on the Court, I've never heard of an issue 21 between people and dogs running in the park and people 22 fishing. Commissioner Letz has been here 20 years, and I 23 don't if he's heard anything like that. 24 We've had question and concerns about 25 compatibility of the use of the dog -- off-leash area in 121 1 the Dog Park. We've had people come in and want to play 2 soccer. We allow them to play soccer. There was not a 3 compatibility issue between playing soccer in the Dog 4 Park and the dogs running. I thought there would be, 5 but there was not. 6 People picnic in that area, okay. In 7 addition to the Dog Park, people picnic in there and 8 know that their food may be consumed by dogs running 9 around, but that's the choice that they take. 10 So to me -- so to me it's people's choice. 11 They know that the dogs are there, they can run around. 12 If they want to fish, the dogs may disturb them, so you 13 know -- but I appreciate you doing that. But I 14 personally don't see it being more restrictive. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I can say, even 16 if you did, people can still fish from boats, and 17 they're going to lose lures and stuff in the water from 18 fishing from the boats and what have you. And I think 19 people know that dogs might interfere, and people should 20 know that fisherman might interfere, I mean with their 21 dogs. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think the Sheriff 23 pointed out also, earlier, that you can't keep people 24 from fishing along the bank, period. So if you wanted 25 to, you couldn't stop them. 122 1 JUDGE KELLY: That's the question I have, is 2 the legality, because that is the Guadalupe River. It's 3 been damned up, and we call it Flat Rock Lake. But it's 4 the Guadalupe River and that is a navigable stream and 5 the public is entitled to use that stream, period. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not from the bank 7 necessarily. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And it's like any land owner 9 who has river property. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So if we own the 11 property that is the bank, that's -- we determine -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: We can regulate the bank, but 13 we can't regulate the lake. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The public owns what is 15 call the gradient bank. The original bank, which is 16 only along the edge, the public has a right to have 17 access to it. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: When I say we, I mean 19 the taxpayer. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The taxpayer. And they 21 have a right to access the river for that and to use the 22 river for fishing or other sporting events. Gradient 23 bank, you can't -- by law, there's too many lawsuits and 24 I think the County Attorney can attest to that. There 25 is lawsuits in this County that went all the way up to 123 1 the State Supreme Court where Shelton Ranches tried to 2 fence off part. And that didn't work. And there were a 3 lot of ones upstream that we've dealt with for the last 4 40 years that I've been here. And I have a file that's 5 about four inches thick says you can't regulate it. 6 MS. FEENEY: So what about just about 7 providing signage -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: If you're going to speak 9 please come to the podium. 10 MS. FEENEY: Sorry. Another issue is just 11 not knowing. So what about just providing signage along 12 the river that states, you know, that this area is going 13 to be open to fishing or not open to fishing, or having 14 a portion of it set aside just for the dogs and, you 15 know, dog people to be safe and fishermen to be safe, 16 because no fisherman wants to have a dog come up and 17 grab his fishing pole out of his hand, you know. And 18 that's a dog instinct. You already regulate that area 19 as a Dog Park, so why not allow it to be just as dogs. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Designated; not 21 regulated. 22 JUDGE KELLY: What I'm hearing from the 23 Sheriff and from the County Attorney is that we can't do 24 what you're asking us to do. 25 MS. FEENEY: You can't put signs up to say 124 1 this is a designated dog park, could you fish on the 2 other side of the park? 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's a sign that 4 says it's a Dog Park when you walk in it, so you know 5 it's a Dog Park when you pull in there. 6 MS. FEENEY: Exactly. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So you know -- 8 MS. FEENEY: That's why I got in an argument 9 with a lady at the park, because I know it's a Dog Park, 10 so why would I need to be yelling at my dog for going 11 after what my dog is thinking is a stick that somebody 12 is throwing. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that works both 14 ways. Kind of like what we were talking about earlier. 15 If you drive in there and you see that it's a Dog Park, 16 but you decide to fish there, you know what you're in 17 for. So it's pretty simple, it's common sense. 18 MS. FEENEY: But the only signs that are 19 currently that say, you know, by the State. State law, 20 you know, it says fishing is applicable by State Law. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other part of it is 22 dogs are free to roam, but they still have to be under 23 your control. 24 MS. FEENEY: If they're aggressive -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Do we need to make that order 125 1 here? 2 MS. FEENEY: I'm ready -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So if the dog is 4 under -- 5 THE REPORTER: One at a time, please. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So if the dog is under 7 your control it shouldn't be going running up and 8 grabbing a lure. 9 MS. FEENEY: No, it wasn't. My dog is well 10 trained. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 12 Miss Burton, would you like to address the 13 Court? 14 MS. BURTON: Yeah. Shawn Burton, 215 15 Robertson Road. How are y'all today? 16 JUDGE KELLY: We're getting tired, but we're 17 getting it done. 18 MS. BURTON: I'm here again to voice my 19 opinion. I was here about a year ago with Karen and so 20 forth about the issues at Flat Rock. I think that all 21 of you know, especially Tom, that I am adamantly against 22 fishing and picnicking at this Dog Park. If we have to 23 put banning food on another agenda, we could, but 24 fishing bait is, I believe, considered food, so maybe we 25 could kind of combine it. 126 1 I was raised in Hunt on the river. I 2 fished. I love to fish. I'm not against fishing. I 3 was fishing since I was about eight years old. It was a 4 wonderful place to live. We had 12 acres, a river, a -- 5 I would catch them, scale them, clean them, gut them and 6 give them to my mother to cook. Now I'm a catch and 7 release. I've gotten even more compassionate for 8 animals. Can't kill them. 9 Okay. But we started, we moved back here, 10 took me 40 years, in 2013, and pretty much immediately 11 started going to the park. I've had several incidents 12 in these seven years with picnickers and fishing. My 13 dogs, I feed the minimum, so they do not get obese like 14 their mother, and they're hungry all the time. So they 15 smell someone's, you know, who has a blanket on the 16 ground with food spread out for a picnic, they're going 17 straight over there. 18 Some people have a grill. They've taken hot 19 chicken off someone's grill before. And then we get 20 yelled at and screamed at. They get up, they try to 21 kick my dog. One's almost 15. And I say, it's not 22 rocket science to bring food on the ground, especially 23 in an off-leash Dog Park. Get your dog under control. 24 I don't believe that the reason this is off-leash is so 25 they can chase squirrels, they can splash -- my one dog 127 1 just loves to leap into the water and swim halfway 2 across the river. I have a 30-foot leash. I do keep 3 them leashed at that park. I normally go to River 4 Trail. I don't want them to get a hold of a squirrel or 5 anything. 6 But anyway, unless they are aggressive, 7 which they shouldn't be there anyway, or unless they're 8 jumpers and start jumping and start knocking down 9 elderly people, adults or kids. They don't need to be 10 under your control; they just need to be, you know, 11 watched by you. And they shouldn't be there if they're 12 like that. But that reads off leash in that whole 13 phrase off-leash dog park, is there for a reason, so 14 they can run around. My dog, he has to be exercised 15 every cay. He's an 80-pound lean mean killing machine. 16 I -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: I don't mean to interrupt, but 18 I am. Because the topic here is no fishing and -- 19 MS. BURTON: Yeah, well, the bait -- I know. 20 But the bait is food, so I'm bringing in the picnicking 21 also. Which if we have to put that on another agenda -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's another agenda 23 item. 24 MS. BURTON: That's what we said before, so 25 we will. Okay, so I can tell you more incidents that's 128 1 happened but I have to shorten it obviously to the three 2 minutes. 3 One man was just arriving, he put a loaf of 4 bread on a bench. He was throwing some kind of little 5 trap and trying to get it in the water. And my 6 four-year old dog was trying to play with the trap. My 7 15-year old dog was starting to eat the loaf of bread. 8 I kept tell help, Sir, my dog's eating your bread. Sir. 9 And he was too busy getting the trap in and baiting four 10 of his poles. And then he finally listened to me and 11 looked, half of the bread was gone. And he looked at me 12 like I should run up to Stripes and buy him another loaf 13 of bread. He didn't say anything. So that went really 14 bad. 15 I've had people fishing that they leave 16 their bait exposed and the dogs run over and start 17 eating it, and I just get screamed and yelled at. And I 18 say don't expose your bait. 19 And then one other thing and I'll wrap it 20 up. There was a young boy -- 14 year old maybe boy and 21 I saw him as I was getting closer and we walk along the 22 bank. He had one pole in the water and I saw one on the 23 ground, so I yelled to him, I said my dogs are coming, 24 please get your one on the ground, get the hook up, if 25 you have bait on it. So they got there before I did, 129 1 and he got it. And I got up to him and I said thank 2 you. I said it's really not a good idea to be fishing 3 or, you know, here with the dogs and leaving your baited 4 hook on the ground. And he agreed, he was are very 5 polite. I met his parents. He was a polite child, and 6 he agreed and he apologized. So that was not a rally 7 bad experience. 8 But there's another issue. I've walked by 9 and they're starting to, you know, throw their pole out, 10 you walk by and it's almost hooked me in the eye, or 11 hooked my dog on the head. You know, the hook before 12 they cast out. 13 I almost got blinded by a person when I 14 lived in Hunt. A friend of mine came to fish and I was 15 baiting my hook and Michelle(phonetic) was behind her 16 and she was getting ready to cast and almost got me in 17 the eye. But that's another thing that can happen 18 too -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Burton, it's noon and we 20 have a lot -- 21 MS. BURTON: I know. 22 JUDGE KELLY: -- more business to do and -- 23 MS. BURTON: I know. Am I -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- we have a workshop at 2 25 o'clock and I have a juvenile hearing at 1:30, so -- 130 1 MS. BURTON: And we have been waiting here 2 for two and a half hours and we're hungry, too. So 3 thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 5 MR. BURTON: Can we put picnicking on the 6 agenda next? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You can, but -- 8 MS. BURTON: But you're done. You're done. 9 And I'm not a paranoid schizophrenic either, okay? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll say one thing. It 11 the says -- the sign says off-leash Dog Park. That 12 means warning if you're going to picnic, warning if 13 you're going to fish, the dogs are running around, end 14 of story. 15 MS. BURTON: It needs to say that because 16 they don't get it. We get things down -- 17 MS. FEENEY: You have people that are 18 intentionally going down there to fish. That's the main 19 problem is you have people that are intentionally saying 20 I can fish down there when your dogs are running free 21 and -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: They can. Legally they can. 23 MS. BURTON: But all the dog parks I've been 24 to, I have copies, there's no food permitted, and that's 25 bait, too, in the park, on the dog rule board. It's 131 1 just a no-brainer. 2 MS. FEENEY: It's in fact negligence. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you. 4 MS. BURTON: They're done. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Item 1.6 consider, 6 discuss and take appropriate action on relocation of the 7 Kerr County Juvenile Probation Department from 3499 8 Legion Drive to 3501 Legion Drive. This includes, but 9 is not limited to, allowing the Kerr County Juvenile 10 Board to make improvements and modifications to the 11 facility, authorizing transfer of items from Kerr County 12 to the Kerr County Juvenile Board, and setting a 13 timeline for relocation. Jason Davis. 14 MR. DAVIS: Good morning. How are y'all, 15 Judge, Commissioners. I'll get -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's not morning 17 anymore. 18 MR. DAVIS: Give me a yes, and you can go to 19 lunch. The Juvenile Board -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: I make a motion the Juvenile 21 Board -- the Juvenile Probation Department move into the 22 new facility like we've been talking about for the last 23 year and a half. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 132 1 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 2 hand. 3 (Laughter and talking over.) 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That was very 5 compelling. 6 JUDGE KELLY: That was good strategy. He 7 has done an outstanding job. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They think you've done 9 a good. 10 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. I appreciate it. 11 JUDGE KELLY: 1.7 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action to set a public hearing on July 27, 13 2020 at 10 a.m. to be held in the Commissioners' 14 Courtroom, 700 Main St., Kerrville, Texas for the 15 purpose of presenting the County Clerk's Annual Record 16 Archival Plan. Miss Dowdy. 17 MRS. DOWDY: Standard procedure. We can 18 open up for discussion. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I make a motion that we set 20 the public hearing. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 24 hand. Unanimous five zero. Good work. 25 Got one more. 1.8 consider, discuss and 133 1 take appropriate action on the County Clerk's Office job 2 descriptions for Chief Deputy clerk, Administrative 3 Deputy Clerk, Deputy Clerk, and Records Management 4 Archives/Juvenile clerk. Miss Dowdy. 5 MRS. DOWDY: I provided the Court with those 6 four job descriptions. Just to make a note though, the 7 third one, the general draft of the Deputy Clerk is 8 really the same as the Juvenile Records Management 9 Clerk. The only difference is the proposed portion in 10 time spent, so I'm going to leave it up to the Court to 11 decide if you want to pass all four job descriptions or 12 just three. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And this is just updating your 14 job descriptions? 15 MRS. DOWDY: It certainly is, yes. Correct. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Does it change anything 17 materially? 18 MRS. DOWDY: Commissioner Letz had asked 19 that I provide a job description specifically for 20 Records Management and Juvenile Deputy Clerk. So I've 21 done that, but I updated them all because they needed 22 it. But what I found was that that position that was 23 requested should be provided a job description actually 24 matches the Deputy Clerk general job description. It's 25 just a difference of the proposed portion of time spent 134 1 on each task. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Is this anything we need to 3 run passed HR, or leave it up to the official? 4 MRS. DOWDY: I did provide -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: I'm looking at the County 6 Attorney. 7 MRS. DOWDY: I did provide it to HR and the 8 County Auditor as well. I didn't provide it to the 9 County Attorney. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: I usually don't, if there 11 are not real questions about tasks and things, I don't 12 usually review everybody's job description for them. So 13 if HR and Auditor have signed off then -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it seems like she knows 15 her job descriptions in her office. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I may say, the last 17 salary study they did back in 2000, part of that study 18 actually did the job descriptions, so they may get 19 redone if you do that same type of study if that's what 20 you are going to do. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But is this going to 22 change grades and steps? 23 MRS. DOWDY: It's not going to change -- 24 however the job description that I was provided did have 25 a grade on there that didn't match what I -- what is 135 1 officially -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So what's the 3 resolution to this? 4 MRS. DOWDY: To adopt the job descriptions 5 as presented. Either all four or just the three. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why is this really 7 necessary, what's it change? 8 MRS. DOWDY: Because -- well, it updates the 9 amount of tasks that we've taken on. For Chief and 10 Admin, at least to my knowledge, the number of -- the 11 number on the pay grade did not match what they're 12 actually -- what their job is. 13 And then also the issue of having a Records 14 Management/Juvenile Deputy Clerk. Did I need to provide 15 that job description, so I did. But what I found is 16 that job description actually matches the general job 17 description. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Could I make a 19 recommendation and work this with HR and Commissioner 20 Letz and come back next session? 21 MRS. DOWDY: I can do that certainly, or -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That'll make it much 23 faster. 24 MRS. DOWDY: I think Commissioner Letz -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is it necessary? 136 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think this is 2 necessary, and there's two reasons why it's necessary. 3 One, part of the job description includes records, and 4 that portion of that salary can get paid out of a 5 records archival fund which saves the general fund 6 money. So I'm in favor of that part of it. 7 The other part of it, as long as it's not 8 increasing budget, and on the grade, as long as we're 9 staying -- the grades are staying the same on this 10 versus the other, we'll pass the 4 of them, I think we 11 can go ahead and do it. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And there's no 13 personnel change? 14 MRS. DOWDY: No. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 16 approve the job descriptions as revised. 17 MRS. DOWDY: All three or all four? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've gotta look at that 19 part of it. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now is that pending 21 some -- something about the archival fund? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's just a given. 23 MRS. DOWDY: Did you want the Juvenile 24 Deputy Clerk Records Management Clerk separate from the 25 general job description -- of the job description? 137 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe go with 2 Commissioner Moser's idea and hold off one more time. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And the guidelines, Miss 4 Dowdy, if you could, please when you come back show us 5 with regard especially with record management because we 6 know we have got funds that we can use to help partially 7 fund that position. Just give us an explanation of 8 how -- how is that allocated that, so that we know. 9 MRS. DOWDY: And I have. It's just I think 10 we're pressed for time and I don't mind coming back. 11 JUDGE KELLY: I think you deserve our 12 undivided attention next week. 13 MRS. DOWDY: All righty. Thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: 1.9 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action for the nominations for the Regional 16 Flood Planning Group, RFPG, and the Political 17 Subdivisions Support for the RFPG. Commissioner Moser. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Judge. I'm 19 going to be real quick on this. I mentioned last 20 Commissioners' Court what takes place on the Board is 21 creating regional floodplain groups, and they're also 22 asking for political subdivision support for flood 23 planning groups. 24 Be very brief. They'll be 15 regional flood 25 planning groups of which will be formed. One of them is 138 1 the Guadalupe Region, okay, which goes from Kerr County 2 all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. I've presented a 3 Resolution here for everybody to look at. This has been 4 coordinated with Commissioner Letz, and Ray Buck of 5 UGRA. 6 The bottom line in this whole thing of the 7 12 interested categories, which will have a person 8 representing each one of these 12 categories in the 9 Guadalupe Region, okay, flood planning region. 10 The categories are agriculture, industries. 11 River authorities, counties, municipalities, water 12 districts, flood districts, electric generating 13 utilities, public, water utilities, environmental 14 interests, and small business. 15 With that, the Resolution -- I'll read 16 that -- I won't read all the whereas's. Therefore, be 17 it resolved that Kerr County Commissioners' Court does 18 hereby on June 29, 2020 supports the following 19 individuals to submit -- for them to submit interest 20 forms in the categories indicated. 21 Kerr County Commissioner Tom Moser for 22 Counties. 23 Southwest Turf and Irrigation Owner, The 24 Garden Haus Owner, and the Cherry Creek Ranch Owner, 25 Jonathan Letz, being in the category of small 139 1 businesses. 2 UGRA General Manager, Ray Buck, under River 3 Authorities. 4 Camp La Junta, Executive Director and Owner, 5 Blake Smith, will be under Public. 6 And the City Engineer under the City of 7 Kerrville, Kyle Burrow under Municipalities. 8 So with that, I make a motion that we adopt 9 the Resolution. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Motion been made by 12 Commissioner Moser, second by Commissioner Harris to 13 approve the Resolution with regard to the nominations to 14 the Regional Flood Planning Group and Political 15 Subdivisions Support. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. And the other 17 thing is, and authorize Kerr County to submit an 18 interest form to serve as the Political Subdivision 19 supporting the regional -- Guadalupe Flood Planning 20 Group. That's significant, okay? 21 Because with that then Commissioner Letz can 22 elaborate on exactly what commitments would be to do 23 that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Before we get to that, I 25 visited with the City Manager and he recommended the 140 1 City Engineer Kyle Burrow, that's how ended up on the 2 list. 3 And this is a note to me and to Jody, I 4 misspelled when I did this revision, municipalities. We 5 need to redo that. And if anyone has questions about 6 the Political Subdivisions, I'll be glad to answer. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is it a requirement to 8 have somebody from the City? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's an interest 10 group for municipalities, so they get one, and I don't 11 know that the city's going to have time to do something 12 like this. I just told them we have no problem -- I 13 have no problem recommending Kyle Burrow for that slot. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And these people will 15 submit things, and none of them may get approved. With 16 the endorsement be in a Resolution just helps. 17 But the other one is the County submitting 18 an application to be the sponsoring political 19 subdivision. And that's some administrative -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The Political 21 Subdivision handles the contracts, and if there is money 22 they handle the money side of it. It's much likely 23 grants we do. Could be on the sewer project. 24 There -- you know, this is not a regional 25 planning group is not a political entity, or corporate 141 1 entity. They can sign documents, so you have -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No taxing entity? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, no taxing entity. 4 So a Political Subdivision is an entity that can execute 5 documents on behalf of the planning group and will 6 receive funds and do the accounting of that and 7 disbursed, and so a consultant will be hired. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is a planning 9 group. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The planning group is 11 these people that get appointed by the Water Development 12 Board. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, any further discussion? 14 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 15 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to declare certain items in County 17 Treasurer's Office as surplus. James Robles. 18 MR. ROBLES: You saved the easiest one for 19 last. We have two chairs, two desk chairs in the County 20 Treasurer's Office we'd like to declare as surplus. 21 They're no longer functional. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? 25 Unanimous, five zero. 142 1 Item 1.11 consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action regarding an Emergency Solutions 3 CARES Act grant to provide funds for rural residents 4 experiencing or at risk of homelessness. 5 And this came in at the last minute. And we 6 have the deadline to submit the grant application. Jody 7 said that I want to amend the agenda so we did so we can 8 meet the deadline and see where it goes. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What have we been doing 10 with this? 11 MRS. SHELTON: On this one it deals 12 specifically with rural residents experiencing or at 13 risk of homelessness. We don't have a conduit already 14 to connect into that. It's going to be having to start 15 a whole new program. At this point, you would probably 16 have to go ahead and find a grant administrator in order 17 to devise something like this. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They can relax. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we'll take no action on 20 that. 21 Let's move on to the approval agenda. Don't 22 leave. Pay the bills. 23 MRS. SHELTON: Today's invoices for Kerr 24 County, $1,008,781.98. For the Airport, $9,174.97. 25 County Clerk fees, $288.28. 198th DA Forfeiture 143 1 $185.00. And the Plateau Water Planning is $70.00. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 5 Commissioner Belew, second by Commissioner Letz to 6 approve the bills as presented. Any further discussion? 7 Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 8 Budget amendments? 9 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have 8 today. They're 10 kind of a variety. First one is nondepartmental to 11 Information Technology, this is for purchasing laptops. 12 Second one is nondepartmental contingency to 13 professional services. 14 Third is line item transfer within the 15 Veteran Service Department. 16 Fourth is a line item transfer within the 17 Environmental Health. 18 Number five is certifying new revenue for 19 insurance proceeds as hail damage to the Sheriff's 20 vehicles. 21 Number six is a line item transfer within 22 the Juvenile Probation. 23 Number seven is certifying new revenue for 24 the HAVA CARES elections, and setting up the 25 corresponding budget. 144 1 And number eight is a transfer out -- from 2 contingency to transfer out. This is going to our debt 3 service fund. This is to makeup the gap in the lack of 4 connection fees we perceived in anticipated revenue to 5 make our debt service payment. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Which fees -- 7 MR. ROBLES: Kendall County connection fees. 8 We had anticipated receiving a little more money than we 9 have. We need to cover that debt service payment. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And forgive me for asking, but 11 is there any way that's COVID related? 12 MR. ROBLES: I don't believe so. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's because we're 14 behind schedule at the sewer project. 15 JUDGE KELLY: I'm just asking. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But the laptops might 17 be. 18 MR. ROBLES: Yes, they are. The first 19 budget amendment is COVID related. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Let me ask one question 22 about the alternative housing in juvenile. What exactly 23 is that? 24 MR. ROBLES: That is to move their offices 25 from one building to the other. 145 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The housing and the 2 others is where we send kids out of the county, which 3 the Judge does. 4 JUDGE KELLY: I need a second. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that COVID related? 7 Or we're not sending -- you're not sending them out 8 because of COVID? 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They have to go 10 somewhere. 11 JUDGE KELLY: No actually, what happens 12 during this whole pandemic is we've had counties that 13 won't take our kids, and so we can't -- we've got money 14 in alternative housing in the budget that we can't spend 15 because we can't house the kids. So they're 16 unsupervised out there, running around. Some of them 17 are doing okay and some of them are not. I have a 18 hearing at 1:30 on one. 19 So the motion's been made by Commissioner 20 Harris and seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the 21 budget amendments. Any further discussion? Those in 22 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 23 Late bills? 24 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Auditor reports? 146 1 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 3 Monthly reports. 4 MRS. DOWDY: Judge, may I make a statement? 5 I'm sorry. I do have two monthly reports. One from HR 6 and one from the Environment Health Department; however, 7 State mandates states that monthly reports be accepted 8 by this Commissioners' Court on a certain date for like 9 J.P.'s, and Treasurer's Office, and Constables, so I 10 don't know if that law applies to Environmental Health 11 or HR, but I have two pending reports in my office. So 12 I guess my question to the Court is should all monthly 13 reports be accepted on a regular term of Commissioners' 14 Court? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This isn't a -- this 16 isn't a regular meeting. 17 JUDGE KELLY: If there's a problem, let us 18 know and we'll call an emergency meeting. 19 MRS. DOWDY: No. I think just standard 20 information. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And then last item here on 22 approval agenda, 2.6 court orders? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have court 24 orders from the 22nd of June, 38136 through 38151. 25 Motion to approve. 147 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 3 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 4 approve court orders as presented. Any further 5 discussion? Unanimous, five zero. 6 Information Agenda 3.1. Any status reports 7 from Department Heads? 8 3.2 status reports from elected officials. 9 3.3 status reports from liaison 10 commissioners. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I do have a quick one on 12 liaison. At one of the storms that came through, blew 13 over and damaged the bleachers, aluminum bleachers that 14 are out there, about $9,000.00 worth of damage. I'm 15 just updating the Court. I've talked to the Auditor 16 about this a little bit. Those bleachers are a weird 17 category. They're technically owned by the Stock Show 18 Association. But we use them, and they were damaged at 19 our use because they only use them indoors, and we had 20 them at the outdoor area. So I looked at it as it's our 21 responsibility to get them repaired. 22 The idea will be we'll submit this as an 23 insurance claim and about if have a problem with TAC, 24 I'll bring it back to the Court at that time. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Let's don't 148 1 leave them outside anymore. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just don't have any more 3 storms. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any other Liaison Commissioner 5 reports? 6 I report that we do have a CIP meeting, 7 that's the Capital Improvement Planning Committee this 8 Wednesday afternoon. And I've been invited to meet with 9 the owners and our realtor that morning to discuss 10 details of a possible purchase. So that's all we have. 11 Anything else? Okay. We have nothing in 12 executive session. We're adjourned. 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 149 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 Court Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify 6 that the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise 7 a true and correct transcription of the proceedings had 8 in the above-entitled Special Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 21st day of July, A.D. 2020. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiation Date 04/31/2021 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25