1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Tuesday, September 8, 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 10 action for the Hazard Pay Policy for 5 Kerr County. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 32 action to clarify Court Order No. 38277, 7 "Order to Designate Hazard Pay for Sheriff's Office and County Jail during 8 Disaster Declaration". 9 1.3 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 37 action for the scope of the Local Public 10 Defender's Office Committee to report to Kerr County Commissioners' Court. 11 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 12 action to accept the $2,503,264.00 grant awarded to Kerr County for a five county 13 regional Public Defender's Office from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission. 14 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 60 15 action on approval of an agreement for services with Beckwith Electronic 16 Engineering Company to provide fire alarm monitoring for the Juvenile Probation 17 building located at 3501 Legion Drive,and authorize the Count Judge to sign same. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 19 action to surplus various items of furniture from the District Clerk's 20 Inventory. 21 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 action to implement the Kerr County 22 employee payroll verification form to be signed annually at the beginning of 23 each new fiscal year. 24 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 action to approve donating four spare 25 Motorola radios to the Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 action to approve a Communication Site 4 Agreement with Advantage Towers, LLC. This is for the central tower site for 5 the Volunteer Fire Department's radio system. 6 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 66 7 action regarding the East Kerr Center Point Wastewater System service fees for 8 non-profit organizations. 9 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 action to accept Order setting the 10 salaries for the County Auditor and Assistant County Auditors pursuant to 11 Texas Local Government Code, Section 152.031. Salaries effective October 1, 12 2020. 13 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 action to accept Orders setting salaries 14 for the 198th District Court Reporter and 216th District Court Reporter. 15 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 16 action on requests from appointed and elected officials to appoint clerks and 17 assistants for their offices pursuant to Local Government Code Chapter 151. 18 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 19 action to allow use of the Hill Country Youth Event Center for a Household Hazardous 20 Waste Event on September 19, 2020. 21 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 74 action to close Riverside Drive on 22 Saturday, September 19, 2020 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the Household Hazardous 23 Waste Event. 24 1.16 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 75 action to allow various Kerr County staff 25 members to work the Household Hazardous Waste Event on September 19, 2020. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 2.1 Pay Bills. 76 4 2.2 Budget Amendments. 76 5 2.6 Accept Monthly Reports. 77 6 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 79 7 4.2(a) Consider, discuss and take appropriate 84 action regarding accrued vacation of a 8 Tax Office Employee. 9 *** Adjournment. 85 10 *** Reporter's Certificate. 86 11 * * * * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: (Gavel bang.) Good morning. 2 It is nine o'clock on Tuesday, September the 8th, and 3 the Commissioners' Court of Kerr County is now in 4 session. I want to remind everyone feel free to leave 5 your phones on but put them on vibrate so that they 6 don't disturb the proceedings. 7 The next part of the agenda is Public Input. 8 This is the opportunity that the public has to address 9 the Court on topics that are not on the agenda. If 10 they're on the agenda, we ask that you address the Court 11 when the agenda item is called. There's a number that 12 you can call if you would like to address the Court, 13 which is 830-792-6161. That's on -- it's right here 14 with me, right by the microphone. If anyone would like 15 to address the Court, this would be the opportunity. 16 We'll see if anybody calls in. 17 Meanwhile, let's go to Commissioners' 18 Comments. Precinct 1. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Three inches of rain. 20 JUDGE KELLY: That's good. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How many? 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Three. Since Thursday. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Two. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, one. One inch of 25 rain; not two. Still good. Yeah, we're good and we 6 1 appreciate it. 2 Let's see. A couple of things. There's a 3 hearing tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. with TCEQ on water 4 extraction on the river by Wheatcraft, there's a permit 5 application there. 6 The burn ban is off, even though only one 7 inch of rain. We took the burn ban off in Precinct 2. 8 And good news economically in Precinct 2. 9 Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing is coming 10 here and Mooney has got a new occupant, so good things. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well good. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's all good. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've had a little over 15 two inches of rain, so somewhere in between. Very happy 16 with it and it looks like a lot more on the forecast 17 this week which is good news. Burn ban is off. 18 And I meant to mention this last week but I 19 forgot. But that large metal building in Comfort that's 20 on the interstate that's been empty for a while, it has 21 a new business that has bought it. They were removing 22 their -- we're not allowed to release the name yet of 23 who it is. It will be announced probably next week 24 publicly. They'll be hiring -- at some point they'll be 25 getting up to 250 employees as well and a lot of those 7 1 employees will likely come out of Kerr County. There 2 will be -- it's a manufacturing company. A company 3 moving -- family-owned company opening up a plant here. 4 They're currently out of -- and they are from California 5 but they're opening a plant here. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. Fantastic. It 7 will be announced next week? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It should be announced 9 next week. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 11 JUDGE KELLY: A real good economic deal. 12 Precinct 4. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, you know, 14 Precinct 4 is rather large. Our rainfall was varied, 15 you know. Hunt people got over two inches, and Divide 16 people got, oh, just a little over a half total. And a 17 lot of people were calling for me to lift the burn ban. 18 It's a little bit different and I rely on 19 all four of the fire chiefs to let me know when to put 20 it on or take it off, and they weren't ready at this 21 point. I think it's important people know that it's 22 ideal conditions for people in Hunt to burn but just 23 over a couple hills it wasn't. So that's why it stayed 24 on. That's all I've got. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Well, on the countywide 8 1 basis, I've been asked to give kind of an update report 2 on what we're doing with the Capital Improvement 3 Planning Committee. 4 First of all, let me say that with regard to 5 the Earl Garrett property, the 550 Earl Garrett is the 6 two-story office building that needs to be made ADA 7 compliant. We've met with the owners and they are in 8 the process of contracting with the contractor to come 9 in and put in the elevator and redo the bathrooms and 10 fix the outside stairs, the fire escape on the building. 11 So that -- we expect that to probably kick off in the 12 next couple weeks. 13 We had a meeting last Wednesday and 14 discussed frustration with the availabilities of 15 property. Some properties are available, some aren't. 16 And we've been able to make some progress with some, not 17 so much with others. The committee is actively in the 18 processes of viewing additional locations for the Animal 19 Control facility. That is still a top priority for the 20 committee. Just wanted to report that we are actively 21 looking for other locations to be able to do that. 22 Another top priority that we have is the 23 West Kerr Annex. And we're meeting with the landlord 24 this week. We're also in the process of trying to 25 negotiate something and looking for alternatives in the 9 1 event that we can't successfully close on the deal. But 2 it is very much the intention of the committee to 3 recommend that we prioritize and keep that West Kerr 4 Courthouse Annex open. 5 On a different note -- oh, and I should have 6 said we were looking for other locations. We're looking 7 for other locations to locate Road and Bridge if we need 8 to move. So that's also something that's on the table. 9 And then we have some interest from the 10 public to buy some property that the County owns. Which 11 is always kind of interesting. We got some interest in 12 where our maintenance location is, which is always nice. 13 It's an expensive piece of property over there. It is 14 commercial property. And if we were to sell that 15 property, then those funds would be used to offset the 16 improvements that we're making. So that's a good 17 alternative for us to have. 18 And likewise, with the Animal Control 19 facility, we're looking at probably a bigger location 20 than where we are, which would mean that the location 21 where the existing Animal Control facility is, would 22 open up and we've had some interest expressed in that 23 property as well. So it looks like we're doing -- we're 24 making progress. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And Ranchero Road? 10 1 JUDGE KELLY: And Ranchero Road. We're 2 going to sell that one too. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, to be considered, 4 right. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So that's -- I think that 6 covers all the Commissioners' Comments. Let's move on 7 to our Consideration Agenda. 8 Item 1.1 is to consider, discuss and take 9 appropriate action for the Hazard Pay Policy for Kerr 10 County. And I think I've got everyone here. We have a 11 de facto hazard pay review committee that has been 12 working on this since this whole hazard pay issue arose. 13 And that's consisted of Commissioner Letz and myself, 14 along with our County Auditor, Tanya Shelton and our HR 15 Director, Jennifer Doss. 16 And so the product -- the work product that 17 you see there is a group work product. I will make that 18 clear. This is not Jennifer Doss' product. So I want 19 to put it -- get that on the record so she doesn't get 20 called out about it. And we -- but we met -- we met a 21 couple times. I think we probably met three times. We 22 met two times last week and once the week before. But 23 last week we met, I think it was on a Wednesday 24 afternoon, and felt pretty good about where we were with 25 the policy, and then came to work the next morning to 11 1 find out that the Treasury Department had issued updated 2 guidelines on what we could and couldn't do for hazard 3 pay and with regard to the CARES Act and Coronavirus 4 Relief Fund. So we had to sit down and tweak the policy 5 again, Thursday afternoon. 6 And so the product you see in front of you 7 now is our best recommendation on hazard pay. And if 8 you'll note, I'll kind of go through them with you one 9 at a time. We start off with the proposition that 10 everything has to be related to the COVID-19 crisis. 11 The situation. And one of the things that we've learned 12 is various departments and offices have the opportunity 13 to mitigate their exposures better than other 14 departments do. 15 So the first thing we did was recommend that 16 it be the County policy that all Kerr County employees 17 are required to mitigate COVID-19 exposure, if possible. 18 And we understand that there are situations where it's 19 not possible and that is recognized as part of the 20 considerations in awarding hazard pay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, may I make one 22 comment before we go too much further into this? Law 23 enforcement is different a little bit than this policy. 24 I know the Sheriff's here. Law enforcement comes under 25 a -- there's some other guidelines that have been with 12 1 law enforcement. So what we did with law enforcement is 2 -- is still valid. There will be a tweak on that 3 wording a little bit. But this policy is for -- 4 basically for all County employees with the exception of 5 law enforcement. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And that really is the 7 Sheriff's Office and the Jail. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How about Animal 9 Control? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 11 JUDGE KELLY: This would apply. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This applies to them. 13 JUDGE KELLY: No, they -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When the Judge goes into 15 -- they will fall -- the other areas, the departments 16 and individuals and the County employees will qualify. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I understand. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But they're 19 not -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But Animal Control -- 21 I'm not talking about law enforcement, they don't have 22 -- they have some law enforcement, or is that City in 23 their ordinances? That's the only reason I bring that 24 question up. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. It's -- I think 13 1 it's easier for them to qualify under this policy -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- than the blanket 4 policy. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Anyway, the second -- that -- 7 that was policy No. 1. Policy No. 2 is that the 8 position is able to mitigate by use of personal 9 protective equipment, to include the use of masks, 10 Plexiglass, barriers, physical distancing or working 11 remotely, are not eligible for hazard pay. So we want 12 to clarify right off the bat and try to make it as sharp 13 and honest as we can. 14 Then we move on to No. 3, which we've talked 15 about before. And that is that -- that for a position 16 to qualify, this is being done on a position by position 17 basis, a position must serve in one of the following 18 capacities: Public safety, which of course is law 19 enforcement. We've talked about that before. Public 20 health, human services or other eligible employees 21 performing COVID-19 related duties. That's that 22 dedicated discussion that we had last week. 23 And then No. 4 is the hazard pay is 24 applicable for those positions performing -- and here 25 are the key phrases -- hazardous duty or work involving 14 1 physical hardship. And that has been reconfirmed 2 several times now by the Treasury Department as the 3 controlling definition and guidelines for hazard pay. 4 No. 5 is that the hazard pay will be based 5 upon whether there's a limited ability for the hazard to 6 be mitigated due to the employee's job duties and 7 responsibilities, which puts them at significantly 8 greater risk. So when you're talking about Animal 9 Control, you can see there are going to be situations 10 where they're going to have significant greater risk. 11 And that will be a consideration. 12 No. 6, a risk of additional hazardous duties 13 or physical hardship working with the public must exist. 14 There's got to be something in addition to your regular 15 duties. 16 No. 7, the duties performed must be above 17 and beyond the regular duties due to COVID-19. 18 No. 8, hazard pay is only applicable for the 19 time frame in which the job being performed is 20 substantially dedicated to COVID related duties. 21 And then No. 9, Kerr County -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What is related duty? 23 That should be defined. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A good example of that 25 is elections. When they're out there at the polling 15 1 thing, they're forced to be with the public and get with 2 -- working with the public. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's an odd choice of 4 words. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but the -- the 6 guidelines specifically require that whatever it is must 7 be related to COVID-19. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they're having -- 9 their duties are more hazardous because of COVID-19. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if the -- if it's 11 related to COVID-19 I'm taking somebody's temperature 12 and messing around and stuff. If I'm just dealing with 13 people, I may be at risk of exposure but it's not 14 specific. That's -- to me it's a poor choice of words. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, this is the opportunity 16 for the Court to clarify the wording. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I think it should 18 be clarified. Because if I'm -- as I say, if I have to 19 handle something, if I have to take people's 20 temperature, be exposed directly to them, that's one 21 thing, and that would be direct exposure, which is what 22 I read this to be. So I -- I just -- I think it ought 23 to be a little clearer because people are going to want 24 to -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which -- which part 16 1 needs to be clearer? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The last part. The 3 last -- I don't have a problem but the last thing -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: I think it's under tab one, 5 isn't it? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I -- I didn't get -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's in -- well -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the backup. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- in the backup. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 12 (Mrs. Stebbins handed copy.) 13 MRS. STEBBINS: You're welcome. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I think we're talking about 15 No. 7 and No. 8. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: COVID-related duties. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. And it will say due to 18 or related duties. We listed that language straight 19 from the COVID guidelines. And -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: In the one above it -- 21 you have in seven, duties due to -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's a different 24 definition. This is -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: I'm not sure we tried to make 17 1 a mental decision between that wording, to tell you the 2 truth. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it's certainly a 4 red flag for me. COVID-related duties. That's like in 5 the trenches kind of stuff. That's not just come in 6 contact with people. I would think of that as a medical 7 worker or something. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm just -- just reading 9 from the guidelines it says, performing hazardous duties 10 or work involving physical hardship that in each case is 11 related to COVID-19. And I'm quoting that right out of 12 the guidelines. 13 We struggled with what some of the 14 guidelines mean, too, but in terms of the policy, we can 15 reword this to say due to COVID-19. In my mind that 16 means the same thing. But it's gotta be -- there's 17 gotta be a causal connection to COVID. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if you're going 19 to have this COVID related duties, you're going to need 20 a list of what those are. So I would suggest changing 21 that to the wording in the -- 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Judge, in the Guidance for 23 State, Territorial, Local and Tribal Governments that 24 was updated September the 2nd, there's some language 25 there that might make it clearer-er. And one of the 18 1 sentences for -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Which -- 3 MRS. STEBBINS: -- for necessary 4 expenditures -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- page? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: It's page one. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Heather, a suggestion. 9 I watched YouTube. But they can't hear you on YouTube 10 when you sit over there and talk. So you might -- 11 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- go to the podium. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, I -- okay. I -- I 14 can't look at both of the things I need to look at -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, but they can't 16 hear you. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: -- but that's okay. You may 18 change that language -- Judge, are you looking at the 19 Coronavirus Relief Fund Guidance? Do you have that in 20 front of you by any chance? 21 JUDGE KELLY: I do. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Yeah. So there, under the 23 full part about mid page, that first sentence toward the 24 end, it may be helpful to clarify what Commissioner 25 Belew is asking about to maybe use something along the 19 1 lines of what this says, actions taken to respond to the 2 public health emergency. So -- may I? (Retrieving 3 copy.) 4 So if you take No. 8 and change it to 5 substantially dedicated -- job being performed is 6 substantially dedicated in responding to the public 7 health emergency, that might clarify. So the example 8 that Commissioner Letz had was the -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Elections. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: -- elections folks. So 11 they're having to change sort of how that looks because 12 they're responding to the public health emergency. So 13 using some of that language just might help clarify. 14 Does that make you feel any better about it? 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. But -- but to 16 get your legal opinion, if I have that wording in there 17 in No. 8, wouldn't I really by necessity need a list of 18 what that means? What duties those are? 19 MRS. STEBBINS: It would help clear it up. 20 You're right. It would help clear it up. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. So if we can 22 eliminate that and put something that -- like you said, 23 if I'm called upon to do something, if and when, that 24 changes it in my mind. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, literally what that 20 1 definition says is for those employees that are 2 substantially dedicated to responding to or mitigating 3 COVID-19. And that -- that is the causal connection. 4 So when we talk about responding or mitigating is what 5 she's saying adding in those two words. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, but you've not 7 assigned duties specifically to deal with that. That 8 was my point. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think -- well, I think 10 -- I think it probably has. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not if you're at the 12 election. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: So what it sounds like is 14 that their -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: They have to -- 16 MRS. STEBBINS: -- their jobs is changing 17 because they're responding to -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: The elections personnel have 19 to mitigate that environment for the public to try to 20 keep them from being exposed to COVID-19 while they're 21 there voting. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We just don't have 23 mitigating in there -- 24 MRS. STEBBINS: That's -- that number should 25 be -- 21 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- in No. 8. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we put -- we can put -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'd just suggest a 4 little word change is all. I don't think we have any 5 duty assigned to the courthouse that specifically 6 require somebody to go and engage with someone and/or be 7 exposed to -- potential to be exposed to COVID-19. That 8 is not a specific duty. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think there's somebody 10 in the back of the room that disagrees with that. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Nobody in Rusty's -- 12 okay. That's a good example. Nobody in Rusty's 13 department is specifically assigned to do it. They run 14 the risk of doing it, but it's not part of the duty. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We actually do. We try 16 and get anybody coming in if they're down here to put a 17 mask on and -- 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you know they 19 already do it. But it's not -- it's -- it's a potential 20 -- it's a potential hazard. It's not -- somebody -- in 21 the COVID unit at the hospital, that's part of their 22 duty to deal with those people. You run the risk of 23 dealing with those people. And I just think that it's a 24 poor choice of wording, that's all. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- I think 22 1 we're a little bit off with -- the intent of this No. 8 2 was to say that someone like elections, or someone's 3 working with jury, they don't -- all of their pay 4 doesn't go up. It's only the time they're at that 5 location. That's what we're trying to say. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So if we need to -- to 8 me the first -- the important part of that one is really 9 the first part of it. We need to say substantially 10 dedicated to responding to public health emergency. 11 That's not changing, to me, the meaning. I'm fine with 12 that. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I want to use the word 14 COVID because that's what the guideline says. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To -- to COVID-19 public 16 health emergency. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Yeah. But I'm -- I'm 18 certainly amenable to using the language of the 19 guideline itself that says responding to instead of 20 responding to and mitigating. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just think that would 22 be better. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do too. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So what's it going to 25 read? 23 1 JUDGE KELLY: Let me reread it. No. 8, 2 Hazard pay is only applicable to the time frame in which 3 the job being performed is substantially dedicated to 4 responding or mitigating COVID-19 and its related 5 duties. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think that's good. 7 That helps. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And then, finally the 9 last part of the policy is that the Kerr County 10 personnel files should contain supporting documents -- 11 documentation showing the hazardous duty or the physical 12 hardship of each employee receiving hazard pay. This is 13 the paper trail that we need to create for those Federal 14 Auditors. 15 And just for the public's information, last 16 week the Sheriff brought in 116 pages of supporting 17 documentation that we now have in the file. And you 18 will see in our -- in our handout material we also 19 contacted TDEM and have got the green light so far with 20 what we're trying to do. And that's the kind of 21 documentation that we need to be doing on all hazard pay 22 recipients or employees. So that is basically what it 23 is. 24 And I apologize, I thought you were here on 25 1.1. But let me call Mr. Kent Feldman on Item 1.1. 24 1 Would you like to address the Court? 2 MR. FELDMAN: First of all, I want to 3 apologize because I'm not very articulate and I'm -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You can take your mask 5 off if you want. 6 JUDGE KELLY: You can take your mask off to 7 address the Court, when you speak. 8 MR. FELDMAN: Thank you. I'd like to 9 apologize because I'm not very articulate and I might 10 say one or two swear words. And I wasn't raised that 11 way and I apologize to the ladies if I do. And here's 12 something good to know for a man that don't look like 13 Roy Beam to me. 14 But man, I don't know, this hazardous pay 15 thing is -- it looks like a despicable thing to me for 16 the County. We have people out there every day that are 17 helping us. Trying to help us. And they're not getting 18 any hazardous pay. And they're a whole lot more likely 19 to get COVID-19 than somebody in the Sheriff's Office or 20 in the Jail. 21 I believe this man, he said to hell with the 22 Governor's mandate on masks and everything. Says the 23 Governor has more men than he does. Why aren't we 24 asking the Governor for the free money? I think they 25 got more money than we do. 25 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, Mr. FELDMAN, let me 2 explain where this money comes from. The Congress, 3 United States Congress, enacted the CARES Act. And they 4 have a fund, they call it the -- 5 MR. FELDMAN: I can't hear -- I can't 6 understand you. I can hear you, but I'm sorry, I don't 7 hear -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: The money that we have has 9 been subdelegated to the local government by the State 10 of Texas. The money came through the State of Texas. 11 MR. FELDMAN: I just think it's a terrible 12 precedent to set. And you're going to do what you to 13 want do so. And before I sit down or leave, I wanted to 14 thank you for three or four months ago. You had another 15 man come in here, had his hand out for free money on a 16 big real estate deal. And you did the right thing on 17 that. In my opinion, you did the right thing on that. 18 You got rid of that real damn quick. I hope you do the 19 right thing today. Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And this money doesn't 22 come directly from Kerr County taxpayers, is what the 23 Judge was saying. It does come from all of us because 24 it's Federal funds. But it's not coming out of the Kerr 25 County budget to do this. That was what he was saying. 26 1 MR. FELDMAN: I pay the Federal Government 2 tax. I pay everybody taxes and I get squatted on pretty 3 bad. Thank you, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is there anything in 5 this Hazard Pay Policy that says this is applicable only 6 during the emergency declaration? 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: You know, I don't know if we 9 put that in there or not but that's certainly -- my 10 understanding is we were working on it. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Well, because 12 we can eliminate the emergency declaration. We -- 13 almost every Commissioners' Court we vote leave it in 14 place, okay, since it's been in place since March. So 15 as soon as we say we're no longer under that emergency 16 declaration this would go away. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's one of the 18 reasons we left it in. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I just want to 20 make sure it's in there. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. Yeah. Because 22 of stuff like this. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we probably 24 ought to clarify that as a new No. 1. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 27 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. I think it ought to go 2 in the definitions at the bottom where we have public 3 safety, public health. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And just -- and conditions 6 because that's -- those are over-arching terms for the 7 whole program. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. That's fine. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So we'll add that. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A new No. 1 on the 13 Hazard Pay Policy? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 16 JUDGE KELLY: It would be after No. 9. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It goes to the bottom 18 part. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I see it. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And only during the 22 declaration of disaster. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Emergency declaration, 24 right. As established by the Court. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Good catch. 28 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. My only other 2 comment, committee did a good job. It's very -- very -- 3 pretty well thought through. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and then the -- the next 5 page, so that everybody knows, is the process that we're 6 recommending of how to make and determine hazard pay. 7 And you can see that in the process No. 1 is 8 each Department Head or Elected Official must explain in 9 writing how the position qualifies, whether by public 10 safety, public health, human services, or similar 11 employees whose services are substantially dedicated to 12 mitigating or responding to COVID-19 per our Hazard Pay 13 Policy. So we get -- the Department Heads or the 14 Elected Officials are the ones that make the 15 recommendations. 16 Number 2. Each Department Head or Elected 17 Official must explain in writing the position's 18 hazardous duty of physical hardship as it relates to 19 COVID-19 per the policy. In other words, we've got to 20 have that causal connection. 21 Number 3. Each Department Head or Elected 22 Official must explain in writing how the positions is 23 limited in their ability for the hazard to be mitigated 24 due to the employee's job duties and responsibilities 25 which put them at significantly greater risk. 29 1 Number 4. The recommendation must be 2 accompanied by a copy of the position's job description. 3 Number 5. All requests must be submitted to 4 the Human Resources director to be reviewed and approved 5 by the hazard pay review committee, which are the four 6 of us. Should the committee need further clarification, 7 the Elected Official or Department Head will offer 8 additional clarification to the Human Resources director 9 to then be shared with the review committee. Upon the 10 hazard review committee's case by case determination for 11 recommendation, the request for the position's hazard 12 pay will be taken before the full court for final 13 approval. Should the Department Head or Elected 14 Official disagree with the Court's decision, they may 15 appeal directly to Commissioners' Court. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It should be committee's 17 decision. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Committee's decision. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I like this. It's 20 great. Very good. Paper trail all the way through. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And it's designed to be fair 22 and uniform to all concerned. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Back to -- oh. Back to 24 the concern the gentleman had in the funding of this. 25 We have 1.4 million, is that correct, associated with 30 1 this? 2 MRS. SHELTON: (Shaking head yes.) 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Where do we stand -- 4 and I don't know if this would be part of the hazard pay 5 or not. Where do we stand on funds that have been -- 6 expenses identified associated with 1.4 million? I 7 don't want us to run out of money with hazardous pay 8 because we're -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: We're watching it closely. 10 MS. SHELTON: Yeah. Our estimate through 11 the event of the grant for the hazard pay that's been 12 approved so far is about 500,000. On top of that for 13 all the PPE and all of the other items that we've spent 14 money on through this time, it's running about 160,000. 15 I don't think we've updated that yet for the month of 16 August. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 MS. SHELTON: And so we're keeping up with 19 that monthly. So we're -- this would put us at about, 20 you know, 700,000. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And to break that down into 22 percentages, we still have over half of the funds that 23 have been designated by the Federal Government and have 24 been awarded to us through the State of Texas available. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We're in good shape. 31 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The reason I bring that 2 up is, and I've said it before, is you know we -- and I 3 know the Sheriff brought in the reference for the five 4 dollars an hour. That's $10,000.00 a year based on 5 full-time employment. That's like a 20 percent increase 6 in pay. Okay. I think it's high. Okay. I just want 7 to make sure that Kerr County taxpayers are not, in my 8 judgment, paying a really large amount for hazard duty 9 pay percentage wise to what their duties are. So -- so 10 but we're keeping track of that, so thank you. 11 MRS. SHELTON: On just another note, know 12 that just like the Judge said earlier, on September the 13 2nd we did receive more clarification on what could and 14 could not be used. So just keep in mind that this grant 15 is a very fluid grant and it's evolving every single 16 day. 17 JUDGE KELLY: It is a work in progress. 18 MS. SHELTON: TEDM has not had any response 19 so far from what the Treasury put out on September the 20 2nd and so I just want to be clear that there may be 21 changes from it moving forward. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 MS. SHELTON: I also wanted to say on 24 September the 2nd that was said, we said we cannot do 25 across the board raises. So just when it says in here 32 1 each position must be evaluated, we -- we must stick to 2 that. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Now the good news is, that the 4 TDEM, the Texas Department of Emergency Management, is 5 the governmental entity that initially oversees this 6 disaster relief, that has actually been funded through 7 the Federal Government. And we took the recent order 8 with regard to KCSO and the jail, and provided a copy of 9 that to TDEM, and we got back a good report that says 10 looks like it's in order. 11 So things may change, but right now we've 12 got written documentation to support what we've done. 13 We've run it past the appropriate governmental agency 14 and right now, green light. All good. 15 Okay. Then I'm going to make a motion that 16 we approve the Hazard Pay Policy and hazard pay process. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: With changes. 18 JUDGE KELLY: As revised. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: So I made the motion, it's 21 been seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 22 Hazard Pay Policy and process as presented. Any further 23 discussion? Okay. Those in favor raise your hand. 24 Unanimous, five zero. I think we're off on a good foot. 25 Okay. Let's go to Item 1.2, which is a 33 1 clarification. It's consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action to clarify Court Order No. 38277, 3 which is an Order to Designate Hazard Pay for the 4 Sheriff's Office and County Jail during the Disaster 5 Declaration. Commissioner Letz. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Normally, I would 7 address this during court orders, but this one is a 8 little bit different. And make it a little bit simpler. 9 The language that's in italics and 10 underlined is what I recommend that we include. First 11 one is to include the bailiffs and courthouse security 12 personnel, and the second one down toward the middle is 13 related to overtime rate. We just added the language, 14 per county policy regarding overtime and compensatory 15 time. 16 The idea here is that the employees will 17 take compensatory time if at all possible as opposed to 18 getting the overtime rate. And that's -- and I've gone 19 over this with the Sheriff and he's -- I think he's okay 20 with it. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: (Nodding head up and 22 down.) 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's nodding his head. 24 Anyway, but this is a little bit more of a change than 25 just a correction of the court order, that's why I 34 1 wanted to bring it to the Court for clarification and 2 then it would be -- it'll be approved during the Court 3 Orders that wind up. 4 JUDGE KELLY: But all this really is, is a 5 clarification of the intent of the policy. A question 6 came up as to the Bailiffs because even though they work 7 with the Sheriff, they're under courthouse security if 8 you look at the job description with HR. We wanted to 9 make sure that there was no -- no confusion about that. 10 And when you talk about our -- the regular 11 policy that we have, the intent is that we're not going 12 to pay overtime pay on this high rate. That's the 13 intent. And so we're trying to make that up with 14 compensatory time, which is standard County policy. So 15 it just gets everything on the table so everybody knows 16 how to work with this going forward. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do constables come 18 under -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're not eligible. 20 Elected Officials are not -- there are -- no Elected 21 Officials are eligible for this policy. Deputy 22 constables could be but constables are not. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That seems a little 24 weird on the surface, you know. A Deputy Sheriff and a 25 Constable. Constables are doing -- I'm not going to get 35 1 into the -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the Sheriff's not 3 eligible either. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- Sheriff's sandbox 5 here but, you know, they're out dealing with the public 6 just like Deputy Sheriffs are and everything else. 7 So -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, but the Sheriff 9 himself is not eligible. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. And so where is 11 it that says Elected Officials are not eligible? 12 JUDGE KELLY: That comes -- that's right out 13 of the Federal act. There's also a presumption -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. All 15 right. So that's it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Period. Supreme work 18 for working. All right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: That's just government. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't think we 22 need to take any action on this here. It could be 23 modified during the -- when we go through the Court 24 Orders. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 36 1 MS. SHELTON: Just one second. Can we go 2 ahead and add the bond supervision to that also? 3 There's one -- a CSO position that is paid under bond 4 supervision. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's including 6 bailiff, courthouse security -- or bailiff -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Courthouse security -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- courthouse security 9 and bond supervision? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's bond 11 supervision? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't have anybody 13 that's paid -- they're all paid under either Sheriff's 14 office -- the regular Sheriff's office budget -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go to the microphone. 16 Everybody needs to watch YouTube on this and see because 17 you can't hear the Sheriff in the back of the room. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm not sure what she 19 means paid under bond supervision unless it's something 20 inside budget because, again, the No. 10 is -- or fund 21 ten is -- the general fund includes the Sheriff's office 22 and jail budget. Fund 29 is where it separates out a 23 little bit with courthouse security. Okay. It's still 24 part of the Sheriff's office but it's courthouse 25 security so I can understand that. But I don't have 37 1 anybody that's just dedicated to bond supervision. 2 There's corrections officers and there's clerks and -- I 3 mean, I don't care if -- 4 MS. SHELTON: Okay. We think it's an open 5 position that's in the bond supervision fund and that 6 there's not anybody in there right now. It's just -- 7 we use the Department schedule, I guess, from HR and so 8 it's been identified in there. So there's no need to 9 put it in there then. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the one thing that I 12 would like to make sure we do before we get off this 13 topic is we've expressed our intent behind this order to 14 include bailiffs and courthouse security and for 15 overtime to be handled regarding the County's policy. 16 And I would like to make sure that this Court approves 17 that that is the intent of the policy going forward. I 18 see nods of heads. And I'm good with that, I'm not 19 saying we've got to have a motion, but I just want to 20 make sure that we're all on the same page. Because 21 we've got -- we've got people out there that are relying 22 on what we're doing here today. So -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then let's move on to 25 Item 1.3 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 38 1 for the scope of the Local Public Defender's Office 2 Committee to report to Kerr County Commissioners' Court. 3 Well, we've got caught in a perfect storm 4 with COVID-19, the blow up that we had and we probably 5 got a little bit ahead of ourselves with regard to the 6 Public Defender's Office. Because we went on the TIDC, 7 the Texas Indigent Defense Commission schedule for our 8 application that we filed and for their committee review 9 and then their final award, which I've already reported. 10 And so, in visiting with various members of 11 the committee, including Commissioner Letz, who is a 12 de facto member, we're trying to get input as to exactly 13 -- this -- this is the committee that is going to work 14 on incorporating this new department. It has 31 15 employees. This is going to be a huge department coming 16 into the County. And we're going to have to work with 17 four other counties to do it. 18 The PDO contemplates they're going to have a 19 five-county board or committee putting together how 20 they're going to do their interlocal agreements and all 21 of that, which we're trying to get going pretty much 22 simultaneous with this local committee but we've got to 23 get caught up on how we're going to work with the 24 County. So that was really the purpose of putting this 25 on the agenda to get some clarification. 39 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the -- I talked 2 to the Judge about this a little bit. One of the 3 concerns I have is budget. We're at the final minutes 4 or if not seconds of finalizing our budget, and I 5 haven't seen a specific position schedule as to what 6 we're going to pay all these people and this isn't going 7 to be an emergency. We've gotta figure that out in the 8 next couple weeks. And there may be some numbers in 9 there. 10 My big concern is -- or one of my big 11 concerns is we have attorneys in the DA's office, we 12 have attorneys in the County Attorney's Office, and now 13 we're going to have attorneys in another department. 14 I think there needs to be some equity 15 between what we pay attorneys. And I -- I -- for years 16 have been concerned that the DA's seem to pay at a 17 different schedule that we don't have a lot of control 18 over sometimes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but we still trim the 20 budget. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We do the budget but 22 it's -- you know, there's always been discrepancies 23 there. And some of their staff gets paid higher. They 24 have investigators. And I've never really totally 25 understood how all that gets through us, through the 40 1 Court, but I don't want that situation to happen with 2 this department, and I think that we need to be very 3 careful that we're not setting up a pay system where all 4 of a sudden County Clerk, District Clerk, County 5 Attorney's Office are losing all their employees to the 6 new department because they're paying more over there. 7 So I think there needs to be equity there and we need to 8 work with the other counties in determining that same 9 thing. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And as you recall, back when 12 we were doing the application process, this was an issue 13 that came up. And we actually went back to Scott 14 Ehlers, and revised downward the salaries that were in 15 the initial report. And when we filed the 16 application -- but when we filed the actual application, 17 we had adjusted those salaries to be more in line with a 18 five-county comparison. But that -- I think that's 19 something we want to make sure that our local PDO 20 committee oversees and reviews to make sure that that's 21 exactly what we're doing. We tried to do it in the 22 application and I think -- I know -- I know we moved the 23 lowest attorney's salary down to 57,000 because -- for 24 that very reason. I know we did that. Now, I would 25 also point out that I don't know how soon this PDO is 41 1 going to be fully staffed. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good point, 4 Commissioner Letz. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But we just need 6 to make sure that you know we've been, as the Judge 7 said, sidetracked with COVID, and all of a sudden with 8 the end of the budget cycle that we have a new 9 department we're getting ready to fund. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Could that be part of 11 our study that we're going to have on -- on positions 12 and salaries? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we've got to do it 14 before then. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: See, that's the problem. 16 We have to -- the department -- some of these people 17 will be employed -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but we can look 19 at guidelines. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we certainly want to 22 include them. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Well, that -- 24 that's my question. That should be included in the 25 study. 42 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And I think what we're talking 3 about right now is something that we need to do before 4 we get to that study. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And we're planning on getting 7 that study sometime during the fall. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Shelton? 10 MS. SHELTON: As far as the budget, it's a 11 grant that has not been accepted yet and so, once we do 12 the formal acceptance of the grant, at that time we'll 13 be bringing the budget to you based on what that 14 application, grant application was and what the grant 15 award was. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And that will be a line item 17 detailed budget? 18 MS. SHELTON: It's -- it's the Auditor -- 19 it's -- I cannot think of the Local Government Code off 20 the top of my head, but there's a separate one that 21 deals with grants. Because it will be new revenue 22 coming in. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's new revenue coming 24 in but also we're paying 20 percent. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 43 1 MS. SHELTON: Right. So the 20 percent 2 would be again, once we actually get the grant we will 3 be lowering the ad litem attorneys, the court-appointed 4 attorneys, to make up for the 200 and -- it's somewhere 5 around 260,000, I believe, is -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 7 MS. SHELTON: -- what we're going to need. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And I want to clarify for the 9 public before we get too far down the road, we pay our 10 pro rata share of the 20 percent matching grant. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 JUDGE KELLY: So we're going to pay about a 13 third of 20 percent. Something like that. So this is a 14 huge savings for the County right now. 15 MRS. SHELTON: SO the -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Those other counties 17 being involved brings up what Commissioner Letz's point 18 was, is that we don't want to lose from departments in 19 the County to this -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- and I know that the 22 -- that our partners in this don't want to have that 23 same problem either. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So they're going to 44 1 need to be -- you know, have input in that pay. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Coordination. And then 3 there's other things, you know. We just need to really 4 look into the budget and we don't have a whole lot of 5 time. I mean, I know the money's there, but you know, 6 and I know the grant has a budget in it, but I think we 7 need to make sure that budget fits in with the County's 8 system. Everything from lease -- I mean, all of the -- 9 you know, the benefits. 10 And just a question, I just thought of this. 11 The -- on the benefit side of it, they get paid under 12 our benefit program, not the -- not Kendall County's or 13 Bandera County's. 14 JUDGE KELLY: That's correct. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that's where 16 there's a lot of cost involved. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. There is. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And our benefits 19 are different than the other counties. 20 JUDGE KELLY: But they're -- they're going 21 to have to share in the cost of our benefits. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So -- now you're 23 talking about the total compensation package and there's 24 a lot of moving parts in this and the Kerr County -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 45 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and other things that we 2 need our local committee to look at, things we've talked 3 about before, I talked to our County Attorney about, our 4 personnel issues. How we're going to handle that in our 5 HR department. Because this is going to be a lot of new 6 employees. We're going to have potential conflicts of 7 interest. 8 And just kind of off the top of our head, I 9 think we've all kicked this around a little bit. It's 10 probably going to be that the PDO is going to have to 11 hire outside counsel to handle those conflicts. And 12 these are things that all need to come by recommendation 13 from the local committee to the Court to set the 14 parameters by which we're going to incorporate this 15 department into our government. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I see the local 17 committee making recommendations to the other counties 18 as to how the long term committee will be made up and 19 function, you know, how -- what the -- how the -- what 20 the hiring process of these people are. I mean, you 21 have to -- it'll go through our HR Department, but you 22 know, just off the top of my head, I would think that 23 the -- someone from Kendall County and Bandera County or 24 Gillespie, they may want some input into who we hire. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 46 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we just need to come 2 up with a how all this is going to work locally and then 3 present it to some of the -- some of it we have to 4 present to the other counties and say, Hey, what do 5 y'all think? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, are you talking 7 about a -- kind of a review of where you're sitting and 8 looking at resumes? You got a room full of people 9 representing each -- each county? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know yet. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That has to be decided. 13 What's -- what's going to be the arrangement for -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: To have some good 15 structure. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let me just kind of tell you 18 what's on the board so you -- everybody knows, the 19 public knows and -- and all the Commissioners know. 20 We're trying to get together the local committee next 21 week, on the 15th, because we want to try to get -- 22 start that input first. On Friday the 18th, Scott 23 Ehlers is coming in from Austin, the TIDC representative 24 that we work with. Judge Schuchart is come up from 25 Medina County, from Hondo. Andy Murr is coming over, I 47 1 know, to get everybody together and we're going to start 2 talking about how to form this five-county organization. 3 And what the document -- the organizational 4 documents, interlocal agreements, how to do all this 5 stuff so that we -- we know what we have to choose from. 6 Another thing that we've done is I've been 7 working with Judge Schuchart, and I have a draft, and 8 we're not -- we don't have a final draft. We're trying 9 to put together a job description for this chief 10 defender, because we're going to have to post that 11 position. Trying to get that stuff together so that we 12 can start interfacing with everybody here that we need 13 to interface with. 14 And as far as the five county judges, we 15 have all agreed at the AACOG meeting on the 23rd, which 16 would be our first in-person meeting with AACOG in 17 months, down in San Antonio. And by the way, AACOG 18 bought a new building down there, so we're going down to 19 see the new building. 20 But after the meeting, we're -- the five of 21 us are going to meet and start talking about the 22 schedules and trying to do this. We're talking about 23 the possibility -- I talked this over with Commissioner 24 Letz, of having a workshop and -- and maybe an all-day 25 workshop with a couple representatives from each of the 48 1 five counties so that we've got varied input in how the 2 five of us are going to work together. 3 And I think in terms of the board for the 4 regional PDO, I think the general thought is every 5 county wants to have a representative on that Board. 6 All five will. And then there probably will be -- 7 there's got to be an odd number in order to be able to 8 make a decision, so they'll probably be four other 9 positions. And we'll have to talk about what skill sets 10 we're looking for to fill those positions. 11 One of the people that we have working with 12 us on the local committee who is, you know, may be a 13 viable option for the five county committee is we're 14 bringing Judge Williams out of retirement to help us. 15 He's presided in four of those five counties during his 16 career, and kind of like the idea of having somebody 17 that we know and have worked with helping to take this 18 thing into the county itself. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So this being mandated, 20 there have to be specific things required and specific 21 things that are prohibited, and there must be other 22 guidelines that go with it. I mean, we're not inventing 23 the wheel here. I don't want us to reinvent the wheel. 24 We're somewhere in between, though, it sounds like. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We've been sent template 49 1 organizational documents and interlocal agreements that 2 have been used by other regional PDO's, and we're 3 meeting with Scott Ehlers to discuss those, kind of the 4 pros and cons of what we like and don't like about the 5 different templates and forms that other people use to 6 try to kick this thing off. 7 But what's going on, as you can see, we're 8 moving quickly. And that's why we're here talking to 9 the Court. Give us -- this is where we need to get your 10 input on how to -- what input you want the local 11 committee to do and how do we go about trying to put 12 this whole thing together, because it's going to happen 13 pretty quickly. The grant will fund October 1. Now, we 14 staffed by then, but it will fund. And we're going to 15 need to put a chief defender in there pretty quickly. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, the grant is not 17 -- at this time it doesn't -- we don't have to have 18 anything to present. The grant is already available to 19 us. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, it is. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And we -- we don't have 22 to show them that we're ready for it and just open an 23 account for it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We've gone through the 25 application process, we've gone through the review 50 1 process, we've gone through the award process. The last 2 process is Item 1.4 on the Agenda and that is the 3 acceptance process. Once we've accepted it then those 4 funds are earmarked for us. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it's going to take 6 longer to take to do it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, can you or -- can 8 we clarify who's on the committee? Because we did that 9 back in May. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We've got -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think we had one 12 person resign or chose not to. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. Judge Williams -- and 14 that was part of my perfect storm, too. He had surgery. 15 And we got him back in the office last week, which it 16 was good to see him, and he's getting around very well. 17 But Judge Williams is chair of the committee. We've got 18 our County Attorney, Heather Stebbins, is on the 19 committee. We've got one of our prosecutors, Stephen 20 Harpold from the 198th DA is on the committee. And 21 that's because they do the interaction back and forth 22 with other counties. Dawn was unable to serve, she had 23 something come up. We've asked Christine McIntyre, our 24 District Court Coordinator, who works with Gillespie 25 County and Bandera County. Which gives us that -- that 51 1 fluid position. And then we've got Harold Danford, who 2 is one of our local very well respected attorneys. So 3 somebody in private practice who does criminal defense. 4 So we've got a Judge, a Prosecutor, County Attorney, 5 we've got a Court Coordinator, and of course we've got 6 Commissioner Letz and myself. So I think we've covered 7 those bases. Yes, ma'am? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I just -- I've been making a 9 list of the things that y'all have been talking about. 10 Just so that we can help the committee understand what 11 the goal is. I've got budget, position schedule, 12 personnel issues, conflict, HR. 13 The third one is the bigger committee of -- 14 for the Public Defender's Office, who it will be made up 15 and how it will function. The fourth is the hiring, who 16 will be involved in that process, how will other 17 counties have input, what that will look like. And then 18 the 5th one was working out the agreements with the 19 other counties following your meetings with the other 20 individuals. 21 Is there anything else that y'all have 22 questions about or want guidance about from this 23 committee before we get started? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That pretty much covers 25 it. I think that's good. 52 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: If something else comes up, we 3 can certainly expand the list. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I -- the first 7 step, once you start hiring is -- are your head guy, I 8 would think. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I mean you want that 10 person to put the staff together, or at least -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, need to start that 12 process. I'm not going to sit here and say that's the 13 way it's going to be because I don't know for a fact. 14 But normally what I would expect is that the five county 15 committee board will hire the chief defender and maybe 16 the office manager, I don't know. The head of the staff 17 and head of attorneys. But it's attorneys. And then 18 I'm assuming that they probably will be responsible just 19 like an Elected Official or Department Head for filling 20 out the rest of that. Because I don't see being up to 21 full staff probably even by the end of next year. That 22 would be optimistic to think we'd -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, the one thing I 24 would add is any kind of compliance issues that -- that 25 come up through this process. In other words, are there 53 1 deadlines, are there other kind of compliance issues? 2 Do you have to have a certain number of people work on 3 this, that or the other? And that's probably just 4 something for review. But TAC or somebody should know 5 about that. We want to make sure we cover that. So any 6 compliance stuff can get -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: And we did have one of those 8 come up in the application and review process and we had 9 not provided for the ability to have people handle 10 immigration cases. And I got a call from Scott Ehlers 11 in Austin and said, Hey, did you all intend not to 12 include this or did you mean that you would like to have 13 it included? And so we went back and amended the 14 application to include that. And I think we got an 15 additional $35,000, whatever, in the grant just to be 16 able to comply with those requirements. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the timetable is 18 another thing that -- you know, projected timetable is a 19 good thing to keep deadlines. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and to that end let me 21 share some other information with you. I met with the 22 owners, the owner/representative from Skeena(sic), the 23 fellow that owns the Earl Garrett property, and we had a 24 long discussion about the ADA construction necessary in 25 the building. And there are a lot of compliance issues, 54 1 trust me. A lot of compliance issues. Anytime we -- we 2 break into the surface, we're going to have to have 3 asbestos inspections and -- and the whole thing. 4 But based on the time it takes to 5 manufacture a custom-made elevator and to go through all 6 the hoops to get your permits and start the construction 7 and get the approval on the elevator plans and inspect 8 and design. And the length of time it takes Peter to 9 get those completed, which we're targeting the end of 10 the month. 11 The bottom line is we're looking at probably 12 not having the elevator completed for the second floor 13 use, and the second floor going in, until probably 14 February of next year. However, there is a suite of 15 offices downstairs that they're vacating all the tenants 16 in the building. And there's a suite of offices that we 17 can move into and be able to plant the flag October 1, 18 which is all good, but we're not going to be able to 19 actually use the second floor in the way that we want to 20 until maybe March 1. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that's still -- 22 March of '21 is -- that's moving pretty fast. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. That helps us with the 24 timeline of where we are. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: I just have a suggestion 55 1 that during -- that during at least some of -- one of 2 these committee meetings, the local committee or the -- 3 yeah, the local committee I think is what you're calling 4 it, it might be helpful to have Diana with TAC, is it 5 Diana or Diane with TAC, who's so helpful on a lot of 6 the HR issues. It might be helpful for her to call in 7 and be able to talk through some of the things that we 8 might be worried about and then we can come back and 9 talk to the Court about it and the -- the bigger 10 committee. So that -- that might work. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And it might be helpful if you 12 could give her a call maybe before our first meeting -- 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Sure. 14 JUDGE KELLY: -- so we can have an idea of 15 what -- what's on the menu that we can have her help us 16 with. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. You got it. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now this is a little 19 off topic. I know we don't have to have an office fully 20 functional to say we have an office, right? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You'll fill it as you 23 go. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's -- what's going 56 1 to happen in that first month? We'll start taking cases 2 and processing cases or -- or what? What's going to be 3 the procedure? 4 JUDGE KELLY: Don't walk off, Bruce. We've 5 got lots of logistical things. We're going to have to 6 get the chief defender hired. We're going to have to 7 get an office manager. There are going to be ten staff 8 people and 21 attorneys. So we're not going to fill all 9 of those positions, but we've got to fill the office 10 manager and the chief defender. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is it at that point 12 then considered functional? 13 JUDGE KELLY: I -- I think we can have a 14 photo op. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You're saying when are 16 they going to start defending -- 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We got -- it'll probably be 19 end of the year, first of the year before we have -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But there's not -- I 21 guess my question is, that we don't have to have a 22 certain number of personnel before we consider it final. 23 JUDGE KELLY: No. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We just have to have 25 the office, we have to have the essential people, we 57 1 move forward. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And we're going to have to -- 3 we're going to have to get the building wired prior to, 4 and it's going to be a huge issue for us. And -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Don't break any 6 sheetrock. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it just is what it is. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think part of 9 your question, Commissioner, will be that there will be 10 a period that we're going to be paying under our current 11 system local attorneys or attorneys we can get to take 12 some of the cases, and we'll be doing some of the cases, 13 and over time it'll transition that we'll end up with 14 all of them except those that are in conflict of 15 interest for some reason. But we will continue to use 16 the line items in the budget for indigent defense. And 17 they'll gradually reduce over time. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A transition period. 19 JUDGE KELLY: But those are things that 20 we've got to do. We've got to find the furniture for 21 this office. And we've all got some surplus furniture 22 that we can use. We're trying to cobble that together. 23 We've got to go in and figure out the configurations of 24 the office. Are we going to have to put up a partition 25 or how are we going to do this. Probably be two lawyers 58 1 to an office. Something like that. And it's just 2 logistical things that have to be done. You know, we 3 gotta get copiers, gotta get phones. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Be like living in a 5 house while you're remodeling. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Right. Exactly. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Literally there will be 8 some of that. 9 JUDGE KELLY: But fortunately we're going to 10 have the office space downstairs to be able to have all 11 of these -- those logistical needs be serviced right 12 there. And I think in talking it over with the owner, I 13 really agree with him that it's going to go a lot 14 quicker by having the entire building vacated. And then 15 when we go into our office space, he's going to be 16 looking to us to pay rent for the part that we -- that 17 we rent downstairs, which is in the grant budget. 18 But we're going to have a busy fall and 19 first of the year. But I'm looking at it by spring 20 break, we're going to be in next year. Up and running. 21 Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Any action on that? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Do we need to take any action 24 on the local committee or do we just -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think so. 59 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then let's go on to 1.4 2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to accept 3 the $2,503,264.00 grant awarded to Kerr County for a 4 five county regional Public Defender's Office from the 5 Texas Indigent Defense Commission. 6 And this is what we've been talking about 7 now for months, and we have been awarded and we need to 8 accept it. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll move for 10 approval. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 14 approve and accept the grant from TIDC in the amount of 15 $2,503,264.00. Any further discussion? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is at -- for the 19 first year, which is basically 80/20. 20 JUDGE KELLY: 80/20. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the projections 22 for years two through five? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Two-thirds. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Two-thirds. Yeah. 25 JUDGE KELLY: One-third, two-thirds. 60 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For each of those years? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. It's the same for all of 3 them. 4 MRS. SHELTON: It's a sustainable grant, I 5 believe is what they call it. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Say again? 7 MRS. SHELTON: A sustainable grant. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 11 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 12 It's a little after 10:00. Let's take about 13 a five minute break and come back. Be back at, let's 14 say, ten minutes after 10:00. 15 (Break.) 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's 10:10, 17 Commissioners' Court will come back to order. 18 Next item on the agenda is 1.5 consider, 19 discuss and take appropriate action on approval of an 20 agreement for services with Beckwith Electronic 21 Engineering Company to provide fire alarm monitoring for 22 the Juvenile Probation building located at 3501 Legion 23 Drive. Jason Davis. 24 MR. DAVIS: Good morning, Judge, 25 Commissioners. What you have before you or been 61 1 submitted is a contract for services with Beckwith. The 2 County Attorney has reviewed and approved this contract 3 with changes. 4 Beckwith has agreed to the changes as well. 5 There are two separate systems in the building. Again, 6 we're talking about the 3501 building, the red brick 7 building. One is the alarm and suppression system. It 8 is actually separate from the control panel. Johnson 9 Controls is currently the vendor that is working with -- 10 that provides inspections and repairs to the fire 11 control, fire alarm, all of that type of -- all of that 12 system. The control panel that controls all that is a 13 company called Beckwith and we are -- Beckwith has 14 suggested replacing the panel because the current panel 15 is outdated. 16 The Juvenile Board has funded the 17 replacement of that panel to the tune of about 18 $12,500.00. It is being replaced. With the purchase of 19 the panel comes a one-year service agreement. It's 20 actually a service agreement -- pardon me, it's a 21 one-year monitoring. So when the alarm goes off there's 22 notification. This is the contract for that 23 notification for that monitoring. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What's the cost? 25 MR. DAVIS: The cost is $390 and I expect it 62 1 will go up after that. I think it's probably an 2 introductory offer but I don't know what the long term 3 cost is. It's $390 in this contract but it's already 4 been paid. It was part of the purchase price of the -- 5 buying the new panel. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh. So it was included 7 in the 12,000? 8 MR. DAVIS: It's included. Yes, sir. We're 9 not asking the Court for any funds. The Board has 10 already paid that. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we're just approving 12 the contract? 13 MR. DAVIS: That's correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 18 approve the contract with Beckwith Electric Engineering 19 Company for the alarm monitoring system for the Juvenile 20 Probation building. Any further discussion? Those in 21 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 22 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: 1.6 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to surplus various items of furniture 25 from the District Clerk's inventory. Miss Lantz. 63 1 MS. LANTZ: Good morning, Judge, 2 Commissioners. I have several items to be surplus. A 3 file cabinet, a desk, and some storage shelves. I did 4 add two other items onto the list so I need to give the 5 County Clerk an updated copy, and it's a five-drawer 6 filing cabinet and another two-tiered shelf besides 7 what's already on there to surplus. And these could be 8 used at your new Defender's Office. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I move for approval. 10 And that's what I was going to ask is what are -- when 11 things like this that we can collect, quote collect now 12 for the new PDO, how do we -- what do we do or how do we 13 do that? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, come -- come over and 15 I'll show you where we're going to put the facility. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And where would 17 that be? 18 JUDGE KELLY: The Juvenile Probation. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. So 20 when things like this -- and I think Dawn made a good 21 suggestion is that that type of thing be at least stored 22 over there until we -- something we could do with it. 23 Okay. Good deal. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's made by Commissioner 25 Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 64 1 surplus of the items of furniture from the District 2 Clerk's inventory. Any discussion? Those in favor 3 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. Thank you, 4 Miss Lantz. 5 MS. LANTZ: Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: 1.7 consider, discuss and take 7 appropriate action to implement the Kerr County employee 8 payroll verification form to be signed annually at the 9 beginning of each new fiscal year. Miss Doss. 10 MRS. DOSS: Yes, good morning. We looked at 11 this last week and we have removed a sentence and the 12 County Attorney is agreeable and Commissioner Letz is 13 agreeable and just hope that y'all are, too. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 18 approve the revisions to the employee payroll 19 verification form, which is signed annually. Any other 20 discussions? Those in favor raise your hand. 21 Unanimous, five zero. Thank you. 22 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: 1.8 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to approve donating four spare 25 Motorola radios to the Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire 65 1 Department. Sheriff. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Remember a few weeks 3 ago we donated some to the Center Point Volunteer Fire 4 Department, Some that we had that were older and extras 5 and that. Had four remaining and I have a request from 6 Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department from Chief Wesley 7 Gordon that they would like for us to donate those to 8 them so they can upgrade some of their older analog 9 radios. So I'm asking for approval to do that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 14 approve donating four spare Motorola radios to the 15 Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department. Any further 16 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 17 five zero. 18 1.9 consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action to approve a Communication Site Agreement with 20 Advantage Towers, LLC. And this is for the central 21 tower site for the Volunteer Fire Department's radio 22 system. Chief Barton. 23 CHIEF BARTON: This is not a new project. 24 This is the same project we started back in 2011. It's 25 just that their contract has expired and all renewals 66 1 have expired so we just need to get a new contract in 2 place. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No changes? 4 CHIEF BARTON: No changes in money. In 5 fact, it's probably somewhat less. Just because of the 6 escalator on it I believe had rolled up to so much a 7 month, plus 77 cents and I think they rolled off the 77 8 cents. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval or 10 second. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 14 approve the communications site agreement with Advantage 15 Towers for the volunteer fire department. Any other 16 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 17 five zero. 18 1.10 consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action regarding the East Kerr Center Point Wastewater 20 System service fees for non-profit organizations. 21 Commissioner Moser. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. I 23 was asked by the -- some of the non-profits and American 24 Legion Hall in particular in Center Point if we could 25 waive the sewer fees associated with the debt retirement 67 1 of $20 per month for not-for-profits. 2 And I think there are probably -- you know, 3 on the service fees I think it's $35.00 for sewer 4 treatment services and $20 for debt retirement. I think 5 if we were to do that, it would set a policy, which I 6 think would be opening up to churches and everything 7 else and we'd be subsidizing that, so I bring it here 8 for discussion. I'm not going to make a motion that we 9 -- that we do that now. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I agree with him. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we've got to retire the 12 debt though. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. We -- we're 14 keeping the -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: I know, that's why -- so why 16 wouldn't -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. And it's also 18 the entire county's paying the $40 a month, so -- I 19 meant for that. So -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Tell him that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. And he was 22 asleep. He didn't know. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I was out there when 24 that happened. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, therefore, I bring 68 1 it -- I just bring that before you. It's been requested 2 but I think it's not the right thing to do. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So no action. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No action. 5 JUDGE KELLY: I'm not hearing a motion. 6 Let's pass that and go on to 1.11. Consider, discuss 7 and take appropriate action to accept an Order setting 8 the salaries for the County Auditor and Assistant County 9 Auditors pursuant to Texas Local Government Code. 10 Ms. Shelton. 11 MS. SHELTON: You have before you, the order 12 signed by both District Judge Emerson and Judge Patillo 13 setting the salaries for the Auditor and Auditor's 14 office for next year. This is in line with the budget. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion we 16 accept the order from the District Judges setting the 17 salaries for the Auditor and Assistant Auditors. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 21 approve the order from the District Judges regarding the 22 setting salaries for the County Auditor and the 23 Assistant County Auditors. Any other discussion? Those 24 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 25 Item 1.12. 69 1 MS. SHELTON: You have before you the orders 2 setting the salaries for the 198th District Court 3 Reporter and the 216th District Court Reporter. These 4 are signed by Judge Emerson and Judge Patillo also. 5 This -- both of these salaries, one of them is split 6 with Bandera and the other one is split with Gillespie. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What is the -- there's 8 a difference in the salaries. Why is that? Does 9 anybody know? 10 MS. SHELTON: If I had to guess it would 11 be the length of service. That might have something to 12 do with it. 13 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So length of 15 service. Okay. Move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 18 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 19 approve the order from the District Court setting the 20 salaries for the 198th and the 216th District Court 21 Reporters. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 22 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 23 1.13 consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 action on requests from appointed and elected officials 25 to appoint clerks and assistants for their offices 70 1 pursuant to Local Government Code. 2 This is what we were requesting a few weeks 3 back. And at that time in order to review all of this 4 and I think we've received all of them, haven't we, 5 Jody? 6 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I don't know if we've 7 received them all. But there's a large -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: We have a bunch of them, I 9 know that. And this has been approved, the ones that we 10 received. It's where they're authorized to hire their 11 assistant clerks and other employees. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is only for 13 elected -- appointed and elected officials? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Good. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we accept the 17 request from the various appointed Elected Officials to 18 appoint clerks. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 21 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 22 approve the request for Appointed Elected Officials to 23 appoint clerks and assistants for their respective 24 offices. Is there any other discussion? Those in favor 25 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 71 1 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action to allow use of the Hill Country 3 Youth Event Center for a Household Hazardous Waste Event 4 on September 19th. Commissioner Harris. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. This has been -- 6 from what I understand this has been an annual event and 7 this is kind of been kicked down the road a little bit 8 because of COVID and what have you. And so it -- we're 9 finally agreeing to do this, and it's in conjunction 10 with the City. And you know, we need this. So I move 11 for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 15 allow the use of the Hill Country Youth Event Center for 16 a Household Hazardous Waste Event on September 19th of 17 this year. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do we know what is 21 included in that list of things? 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. And there's a 23 press release with all that on it that we're putting 24 out. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So there's going 72 1 to be a press release? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If it hadn't already 5 taken place. But it was in the papers already. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I didn't know if 7 there -- because a lot of people don't take the paper. 8 So maybe -- 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It'll be on the 10 website. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It'll be on the 13 website. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It'll be on the 15 website, okay. Good deal. 16 JUDGE KELLY: It might be helpful just to 17 bring it next Commissioners' Court meeting. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So we'll have it available if 20 there are any questions. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. And then 22 that -- on the 19th the hours are from like 8:00 to 23 12:00. It's not all day. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's a really good 25 thing but I don't -- 73 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- I think the Judge's 3 recommendation to bring it in on the 14th so we can make 4 it public there and the website. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I was told it was 8:00 6 to 5:00. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 8 MRS. GRINSTEAD: We've never done it all 9 day long. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, there's a bunch 11 of stuff this year we've never done before and we missed 12 the last one and they may be anticipating more stuff. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. So we'll bring 14 that press release in and read it off. But yeah, I'll 15 confirm it's 8:00 to noon. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 8:00 to noon? Not 7:00 17 to 1:00? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I would anticipate a 20 large amount on this one. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: This has been pushed 23 back for awhile. I do, too. Good option to get rid of 24 all that paint and tires and whatever else. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We voted on that, right? 74 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, we didn't vote. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, okay. Then any other 3 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 4 five zero. 5 The next two items are also on this -- 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Hold on. Yeah. I was 7 looking at the next one, it states hours and it's off 8 from what I said, but I was going off something I read 9 in the paper, so we'll clarify. 10 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Those hours are correct. 11 We have to do before and after. They need time to -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, that's the closing 13 of Riverside 7:00 to 1:00, but the thing is 8:00 to 14 12:00. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What the deal is to 16 get set up at 7:00 and then after we close at noon, to 17 have another hour to clean up and get everything in 18 order, so -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: And just to clarify, what 1.15 20 is, is to take appropriate action to close Riverside 21 Drive. And that's an hour before and an hour after the 22 event. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 75 1 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 2 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner -- excuse 3 me, by Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner 4 Harris to approve closing Riverside Drive on Saturday, 5 September the 19th from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Is there 6 any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 7 Unanimous, five zero. 8 1.16 consider, discuss, and take appropriate 9 action to allow various Kerr County staff members to 10 work the Household Hazardous Waste Event on September 11 19th. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And from what I 13 understand, it's been customary and Reagan Givens is 14 already on it, he's going to get a lot of his crew to 15 help with the event that day. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And some maintenance 17 people help sometimes too, I think. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Reagan's 19 coordinating all of that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 23 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 24 approve the various Kerr County staff members to work 25 the Household Hazardous Waste Event on September 19th. 76 1 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 2 Unanimous, five zero. 3 Moving on to the Approval Agenda 2.1 pay the 4 bills. 5 MRS. SHELTON: For Kerr County for today we 6 have $155,264.37. For the Texas Water Development 7 Board, $59,256.37. The Airport, $7,972.29. And County 8 Clerk fees of $4.00. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills 10 as presented by the Auditor. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 14 pay the bills as presented. Any other discussion? 15 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 16 2.2 budget amendments. 17 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have ten today. One 18 for County Judge, non-departmental, County Court at Law, 19 District Clerk, Sheriff's Department, Constable Precinct 20 1, Road & Bridge, Indigent Service, and District 21 Administration. 22 And as I'm sure the Court is already aware 23 as we approach the end of the year we typically have a 24 higher number of budget adjustments. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Makes sense to me. I 77 1 move for approval. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 5 approve the budget amendments as presented. Is there 6 any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 7 Unanimous, five zero. 8 Late Bills. 9 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 2.4 Auditor 11 reports? 12 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 14 2.5 accept Monthly Reports. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: None. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And then finally, Court 17 Orders. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have our Court Orders 19 from our August 31st Special Session. The Court Orders 20 38276 to 38287. We already discussed the clarification 21 or the changes to 38277 related to the hazard pay to the 22 Sheriff's Office. 23 The only other question I had, and I meant 24 to ask Jackie this before, on Court Order 38280, is 25 approve and update Kerr County policy regarding 78 1 employee's payroll policy and procedures as presented. 2 I don't remember what we did on that one because it's 3 broad -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Read the number again. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 38280. I'm wondering if 6 it was the same policy and we just updated it again. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: No. No. This was actually 8 policy language for the personnel manual -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: -- that y'all did last week. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That's fine. 12 Okay. I'm good with that. Okay. All right. 13 And then on 38281, which is payroll and tax 14 obligations during the disaster and the Court Order 15 currently reads, approved upon the advisement of the 16 Texas Association of Counties, this Court takes no 17 action on deferring payroll tax obligations for Kerr 18 County employees during the ongoing disaster until -- 19 and it reads, any mandatory guidelines come from the 20 Department of Treasury. It shouldn't say any 21 guidelines. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, they're not mandatory. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're not mandatory so 24 "any mandatory" should be stricken from that one. And 25 for those two modifications, I move for approval. 79 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 3 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 4 approve the Court Orders as revised. Any other 5 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 6 five zero. 7 Information Agenda. Reports from Department 8 Heads. Do we have any? 9 3.2 reports from Elected Officials. 10 3.3 reports from Liaison Commissioners. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have something. 12 Awhile back during our budget discussion, it was brought 13 up whether or not we were required by law to fund the 14 Historical Commission. I had a feeling they didn't 15 know. 16 They didn't seem interested in giving me an 17 answer so I looked into it a little bit and decided that 18 really is not my job as a liaison so I let it go. And 19 then they found out they weren't in the budget. And I 20 said well, you can find out if you're -- if we are 21 supposed to do that or, you know, try to help me out a 22 little bit here. 23 So they got kind of panicked and, while I 24 think it's a good thing just as a general rule, any -- 25 any of these organizations you're a liaison to, you're 80 1 here to help if you can but not to hold hands. Just to 2 throw that out there. 3 And I think that it's something we probably 4 should fund, it's the 4,400 bucks we were talking about 5 this morning. Not a lot of money. They're always 6 struggling to get money. But when you come to the Court 7 to get money, you should make a presentation and you 8 should tell us why the people of Kerr County need to pay 9 a dollar for anything, not just assume it's going to 10 happen. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right. Or at least 12 send a letter. I say or at least send a letter. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I want -- I want them 14 to come here and make a case for it in person. If you 15 can't do that, I don't think that you should really get 16 any funds. It shouldn't just be a rubber stamp deal. 17 This year was especially different and nobody got rubber 18 stamped this year, including our Volunteer Fire 19 Departments that protect everything that the Historical 20 Commission preserves. 21 So I just -- I know we all get into a habit 22 and we all think it's all going to be taken care of, but 23 they got cut out of this year's budget, and you've got 24 to make a presentation and it should be compelling. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But you are in favor of 81 1 adding $4,400 back into the budget? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's on the agenda for 3 next Monday. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It'll be on the agenda 6 but I was wanting to state that very clearly for 7 everybody. I mean if we don't have our history, we 8 don't know where we're going. So I'm a firm believer in 9 it and I support everything they do, but procedure 10 should be that you come and ask for it. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We provide all those numbers 12 to rewrite history. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, we could. But we 14 can just wait -- wait until they rewrite everybody's 15 history. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I'm just teasing everybody. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They're your neighbors. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would like to set 19 up -- try to pick some dates for a couple of workshops. 20 We kind of let subdivisions and regulations go on hold 21 and we really need to get that moving. There's a couple 22 of issues there that -- drainage we really need to look 23 at. We need to look at how we're going to -- how the 24 placement of the Model Subdivision Rules get impacted. 25 And combination of environmental health and planning and 82 1 what they have to look at. 2 And there's other counties around us that 3 have modified their rules and -- so that in some 4 situations it's not subdivisions, therefore, there's no 5 platting, therefore there's no review by the OSSF 6 department. 7 So I just think we need to set some dates. 8 I think we could do it in a workshop in half a day. And 9 -- or not half a day, a couple hours. Two, three hours. 10 So -- so do we look at the calendar and try to figure 11 out when we want to do this or just bring back some 12 dates next time? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Next Monday. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And keep track of all this. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We just need to get that 17 going. Because as soon as we get that done then we need 18 to take these impact assessments, which is about a 19 60-day process. So we're already looking at three 20 months down the road and we need to get this moving. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: By the end of the year. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We had an 23 environmental workshop on the schedule until things got 24 turned upside down back in March. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other liaison 83 1 reports? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Y'all might not 3 have seen it, but I had Jody send some pictures that 4 Shane sent to me of the recycling trailers over at 5 maintenance and stuff. People just pile stuff all up. 6 And of course, it got wet and rained on and, man, if 7 it's full don't dump it off on us. And it's just 8 another headache they're having to deal with on top of 9 everything else with recycling. And I'm sure they 10 weren't real excited to see a bunch of wet cardboard 11 laying all over the place in the driveway. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We need to fish or cut 13 bait on recycling. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Exactly. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we need to put it on 16 the agenda or something and discuss it. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think we've 18 already decided. Didn't we already -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We did decide. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- decided to 21 discontinue it subject to approval that our grant 22 obligations are met. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And my understanding 25 those have been met, so we just need to -- I'd just as 84 1 soon, you know, through the end of this month or 2 something and that would be it. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought August ended 4 the obligation. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It did. It was right 6 at the end of August. 7 JUDGE KELLY: But he was looking for the 8 verification. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As a matter of fact, I 10 think I made the motion to do it. 11 JUDGE KELLY: You did. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. How soon we 13 forget. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other liaison 15 reports? Okay. I believe we have one item on Executive 16 Session. Is that correct? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: I think so. Let me see. 18 JUDGE KELLY: It's a personnel issue. This 19 will be a personnel matter under 4.2, I think. 20 And with that, it is 10:36 and the Court 21 will adjourn briefly and we'll come back in Executive 22 Session. 23 (Executive Session.) 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's 10:46, and we're 25 coming out of Executive Session. I believe there's 85 1 going to be one action item on the agenda at this point. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I make a motion 3 that we authorize payment for 40 hours of vacation for 4 the Chief Deputy of Tax Assessor-Collector's Office 5 because she was not able to take this vacation because 6 of election changes that were established because of 7 COVID-related matters. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 10 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 11 approve the earned vacation request for an employee of 12 the tax office due to COVID-related matters. Any other 13 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous 14 five zero. 15 Okay, there being no other matters on the 16 agenda, we are adjourned. 17 * * * * * * 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 86 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 18th day of September, A.D. 10 2020. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2021 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25