1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, September 28, 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. 6 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action regarding update, facility use and 5 other matters related to COVID-19. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action to extend the Local State of 7 Disaster Due to a Public Health and Economic Emergency Proclamation that was 8 signed by Judge Kelly on March 24, 2020, and "extended until terminated by 9 order of the Kerr County Commissioners' Court" on March 30, 2020. 10 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 26 11 action to approve a Proclamation declaring October 2020 as Hill Country Night Sky Month. 12 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 39 13 action on request by Hill Country Dispute Resolution Center (HCDRC) to renew contract 14 with Kerr County to provide mediation services in Kerr County, and for funding. 15 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 40 16 reaction on request to use courthouse grounds for a Libertarian Party of Kerr 17 County Rally on October 9, 2020. 18 1.6 Discuss car races at the Airport on 44 Saturday, October 3, 2020. 19 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 49 20 action regarding repair/replacement of Brinkman Hangar doors at the Airport. 21 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 53 22 action to approve Software Service Agreement with Tyler Technologies for 23 implementation of Tyler Jury Manager, and have County Judge sign the same. 24 software includes Tyler Jury Manager, Tyler Jury Response and Hosting. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 action to approve contract with Xerox for 4 a copier for the 198th District Attorney's Office. 5 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 6 action to approve the Texas VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) 7 First Contract Renewal with Appriss, Inc. for the Statewide Automated Victim 8 Notification Service (SAVNS). 9 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 action to transfer a vehicle from 10 non-departmental to Sheriff's Department. 11 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 action regarding the Center for Tech and 12 Civic Life (CTCL) grant application for elections. 13 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 14 action regarding the Interlocal Agreement with Upper Guadalupe River Authority (UGRA) 15 for the Feral Hog Abatement Program. 16 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 61 action regarding Christmas Lighting 17 Celebration and update on Kerrville Christmas Lighting Corporation. 18 1.16 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 71 19 Elm Pass Ranch No. 2, Lots 21 and 22, Volume 3, Page 100. 20 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 72 21 action for the Court to approve a revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch No. 2, Lots 21 22 and 22, Volume 3, Page 100. 23 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 73 action for the Court to set a public 24 hearing for 10 a.m. on November 9, 2020 for a revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch 25 No. 2. Tract 36A, to be known as Elm Pass Ranch No. 3, Volume 6, Page 248. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 75 action for the Court to conditionally 4 approve a final plat for Deer Run in Center Point. 5 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 6 action for the Court to approve Change Order No. 4 to the East Kerr/Center Point 7 Wastewater Collection Project Phase I in the amount of $445,978.21, and an increase 8 in contract time of 66 days. 9 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 89 action for the Court to award a contract 10 for construction of the Kerr County/ Center Point Wastewater Collection Project 11 Phase II, pending approval by the Texas Water Development Board, and to authorize 12 the County Judge to execute the contract when approved by the Texas Water Development 13 Board. 14 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 97 action for the Court to award a contract 15 for construction of the Kerr County/ Center Point Wastewater Collection Project 16 Phase III, pending approval by the Texas Water Development Board, and to authorize 17 the County Judge to execute the contract when approved by the Texas Water Development 18 Board. 19 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 104 action to designate a day of the week on 20 which the Court shall convene in a regular term for FY 20/21 pursuant to Local 21 Government Code Section 81.005. 22 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 104 action to terminate Hazard Pay Policy and 23 the Court Order authorizing hazard pay for public safety personnel, effective September 24 21, 2020. Court Order #38277. 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 114 action to approve the revised Payroll 4 Verification form. 5 2.1 Pay Bills. 114 6 2.2 Budget Amendments. 115 7 2.4 Auditor Reports. 117 8 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 118 9 2.6 Court Orders. 119 10 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 119 11 *** Adjournment. 128 12 *** Reporter's Certificate. 129 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 JUDGE KELLY: (Gavel bang.) Good morning. 2 It's Monday, September 28th, 2020, nine o'clock, and the 3 Kerr County Commissioners' Court is now in session. If 4 you would, please, stand for the prayer and pledge, 5 which will be led by Commissioner Belew. 6 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. We begin 8 our meeting like we do every week, and that is with the 9 opportunity for the public to offer input to the Court. 10 I want to make sure that everybody understands that the 11 input on the agenda means exactly that. Input from you 12 to us. We don't get to engage you in that conversation. 13 We get to hear you. So -- and some people get confused 14 about that. We can talk about it on agenda items, but 15 we can't talk about it on the input portion. If you 16 have any questions about it, ask our County Attorney 17 because she taught me that. 18 So with that, is there anyone in the public 19 that would like to offer input to the Court? And for 20 those of you that are at home watching on YouTube, if 21 you call, 830-792-6161, that phone is sitting here on my 22 desk and hopefully it'll vibrate and we'll see what you 23 have to input to us. 24 Okay. With that, let's talk about 25 Commissioners' input -- Commissioners' Comments. 7 1 Precinct 1. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Recently, someone asked 3 some questions in Court during his three minutes, not on 4 the Agenda, asked several questions that we couldn't 5 respond to or answer. So what I did was use the 6 occasion to put it on my Facebook page at Harley Belew 7 on Facebook and answered those questions briefly. Just 8 real succinctly as much as I could. My phone number is 9 also on there, anybody that ever wants to call and ask 10 those questions. It was a Precinct 1 folder, so that's 11 why I put it on my Facebook page. So I try to address 12 that kind of stuff when questions come up. So that's 13 it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Precinct 2. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see. A couple of 16 things. Number one, thank you to the Road & Bridge for 17 making improvements and safety a lot on Peterson Farm 18 Road by putting striping in on a really short curve. A 19 lot of kids, Mooney International and all live in that 20 area. Did a great job. Thank you. 21 The other thing is in Precinct 2, but it's 22 also very important for the County and for the City, the 23 joint project between Headwaters and Groundwater and the 24 City of Kerrville, put in the second well. Built a well 25 into the Ellenberger Aquifer, and it's over by the 8 1 Veterans Hospital and, let's see, it's kind of like a 2 spindle top. A lot of water, 800 gallons per minute, 3 was getting out of that. Fantastic. The Ellenberger 4 doesn't run all over Kerr County but fingers of where it 5 could be located, but that's really, really good news 6 for this entire community. 7 And it's my understanding that the Trinity 8 and Ellenberger do communicate, and I don't know quite 9 exactly how that is, probably nobody knows except for 10 God. 11 There was one other credit on that. There 12 was a group of four or five guys that have met every 13 Thursday for the last, what Jonathan, three or four 14 years? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: More than that. Longer. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Something like that. 17 Looking at everything and identifying what the potential 18 is, where to drill the wells. They're former 19 petrochemical guys, geologists and all. So that's 20 really good news for -- for the -- for Precinct 2 and 21 for the entire County and City. That's it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Precinct 3. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a follow-up on that 24 a little bit, is the -- they met every Thursday forever 25 and never charged anyone. It was all volunteer. And I 9 1 mean the -- the value of what they -- if you were to 2 hire a consulting firm to do the mapping that they've 3 done of that formation, it would have been hundreds of 4 thousands of dollars and they did it because of their 5 love for the County. 6 And really, I don't know that I have -- oh 7 I do have one other thing. I think I mentioned a 8 week -- several weeks ago about the large building on 9 the interstate, just to the west side of Comfort. A new 10 business going in there. The company has been announced 11 now, the name of the company is O.W. Lee. They're out 12 of California. It's a family-owned company. And they 13 make upper end outdoor furniture, and some other stuff. 14 But they will be -- I think it's already at 50 or so 15 employees. They've opened it up and hopefully it will 16 be up around 200, 250 employees in five or six years. 17 That's their plan anyway. But it's an established 18 company so it will be good for that area. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 4. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Precinct 4. I need to 23 shout out to Ingram Tom Moore High School. Their 24 volleyball team is 19 and 0. Rated first in State. I 25 know they had a big game last week where they played a 10 1 larger school, 4-A school, that was fourth in State and 2 beat them. So they're on a pretty good roll. And their 3 football team's also 5 and 0. 4 Also, on Saturday the National Day of Prayer 5 was -- ceremony out here on the courthouse lawn was well 6 attended. Quite a few people. I don't know how many -- 7 Harley, I saw you there. How many do you think -- 8 reckon was there, three or four hundred maybe? 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: When it gets past about 10 20 I don't -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Take your shoes 12 off and can't count anymore. So -- but it was well 13 attended. That's all I got. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. On the County basis, a 15 couple of things that I want to share. First of all, I 16 want to congratulate the Texas Tech fans. What a Texas 17 football. 56 to 63, 119 points between two arch rivals. 18 I grew up out in West Texas and, trust me, I've been 19 called by all of my high school friends already. But 20 anyway, that's quite a display of talent. 21 One thing I did want to mention, I've gotten 22 a lot of calls about political advertising on the 23 courthouse grounds. And I wanted to clarify that the 24 policy is not to have political advertisements on the 25 courthouse grounds. Although, if you guys stick a 11 1 bumper sticker on your car or something like that, I'm 2 not asking you to not park your car in the parking lot. 3 But just setting up out on the corner out here with 4 political flags is not -- is not permitted. And the few 5 times that we have gone out there to talk to the people 6 that have done that, they've been very cooperative and 7 have left without a scene or disagreement of any kind. 8 One of the comments I got about that was 9 some of the materials -- use the word that I'm going to 10 abbreviate called BS. They consider that profanity and 11 that -- that is offensive to some folks and I would ask 12 anybody that if you have material like that to please 13 not bring that to the courthouse grounds. We can't 14 really condone that. So I'll just point that out. 15 So with that, we're going to start our 16 Agenda. And what I'm going to do today, which is a 17 little different, I've got Dub Thomas out in the hall, 18 our Emergency Management coordinator. We're going to 19 take 1.1 and 1.2 and I'm calling them at the same time 20 because they bleed over on one another. And when you 21 hear the -- I'll read out the Agenda item, you'll 22 recognize that the conversation I think would be more 23 succinct if we call them both at the same time. 24 So I'm going to call 1.1, which is 25 to consider, discuss and take appropriate action 12 1 regarding update, facility use and other matters related 2 to COVID-19. That's going to be Dub Thomas. And then 3 the one that's mine is 1.2, which is to consider, 4 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the Local 5 State of Disaster order due to the Public Health and 6 Economic Emergency Proclamation that I signed back on 7 March the 24th and was extended by order of this Court 8 until terminated by order of this Court. 9 So we're going to talk about our COVID 10 issues and State of Disaster and COVID related matters 11 at this time. So with that, Dub, give us our biweekly 12 report. 13 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 14 morning, Commissioners. Y'all had a good weekend? 15 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir. 16 MR. THOMAS: Okay. The current situation. 17 We had no deaths from COVID-19 this past week. Total 18 tested by Peterson Regional, these numbers again are 19 from Friday. Nothing gets updated over the weekend. So 20 Friday total tested by Peterson Regional Medical Center 21 was of 6,151. Texas Military Forces have been 812. 22 Nursing homes 675. Curative tests done by Davaco 23 Incorporated are 1,002. That's come up by 51. We had 24 51 folks that were tested on September the 16th. And 25 three positive cases where found out of that testing 13 1 sequence. Total tests were 8,640. 2 Kerrville count COVID positive from Friday 3 was seven new cases that -- from Peterson brought us to 4 497 and we had four individuals hospitalized. Active 5 and recovered. That's kind of changed a little bit over 6 the last week or so. Active is five. Recovered is 616. 7 Deceased, ten. And to be determined is 34. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Let's talk about to be 9 determined. Explain that to the public so they can 10 understand. Because we're going to talk about the 11 confusion of these numbers because people want to know 12 where the numbers -- what numbers count and so let's 13 just start with the TBD. 14 MR. THOMAS: Right. The TBD's, or to be 15 determined, are based on testing. Whether it's Peterson 16 Regional or anybody else, it's -- they do the PRC 17 test -- I'm sorry, the PCR test, that's considered a 18 confirmatory test and it's 100 percent confirmed. 19 JUDGE KELLY: That's the nasal swab. 20 MR. THOMAS: That's the nasal swab. Even 21 the cheek swabs are -- could be PCR tests. The antigen 22 test is not considered as sensitive as the PCR test and, 23 therefore, is like 86 percent accurate. And so, when 24 the Department of State Health Services gets an antigen 25 test they consider that as to be determined until they 14 1 have talked to that individual that was tested and 2 investigated and find out if they had two or more 3 symptoms of COVID at the time that they were tested, 4 then it goes into the probable category. The fun part 5 about the probables are, is that probables will never be 6 a confirmed case unless they go back and get a PCR test 7 done. 8 But for all practical purposes, for an 9 individual that's been COVID tested with the antigen 10 test and DSHS has talked to them and they've had the two 11 or more symptoms of COVID, then for all practical 12 purposes the probable is really a confirmed test, it's 13 just -- it's a confirmed COVID case, it's just not the 14 PCR test. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That sounds like a 16 waste of money. If you have to call somebody and ask 17 how they're doing. And your test didn't tell you how 18 they're doing -- 19 MR. THOMAS: And that's if they answer the 20 phone. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If they answer the 22 phone. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sounds like hanging 24 chad to me. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, what I think is 15 1 important for the public to know is there are different 2 types of tests. And a positive PCR test result is a 3 confirmed active case. Correct? 4 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And we'll talk about testing 6 confirmed with. This is -- jus read off the numbers. 7 Who all did the testing? Peterson, National Guard, 8 nursing homes, and the Curative team that the Governor 9 set up. We've got four different sources. And then 10 maybe test Kerr County residents outside of Kerr County. 11 MR. THOMAS: Well, and even other local 12 physicians and clinics here in town that do testing. 13 Those numbers all go to DSHS as well. 14 JUDGE KELLY: So let's talk about the 15 reporting of the active case. Who are those cases 16 reported to? 17 MR. THOMAS: They're reported to the 18 Department of State Health Services. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And that is the official count 20 of active cases. People -- we've been getting all kinds 21 of input about well, you've got 20 active cases. Well, 22 officially, DSHS, which is the Department of State 23 Health Services, that's what we -- that's the acronym we 24 use is DSHS, determines how many active cases we have. 25 And if it's PCR active, then that confirmed case -- that 16 1 is a confirmed active case. Is that right? 2 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 3 JUDGE KELLY: But the antigen test, they 4 have to do what's called contact tracing. 5 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 6 JUDGE KELLY: They contact the -- the person 7 who took -- had the test taken, and confirm to try to 8 make a determination whether or not that is an active 9 case. And that goes into a probable column, which is 10 not an active column. 11 MR. THOMAS: It's a probable active, it's 12 not -- it's just not confirmed. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Right. And so there's 14 probable active and confirmed active. 15 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And so when you tell us that 17 we have five active case today, you're telling us we 18 have five confirmed active cases? 19 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And we've got some other 21 probables out there that may become confirmed. 22 MR. THOMAS: Correct. Well, unless they 23 take a PCR test, they won't be confirmed. They'll still 24 stay in the probable column. But for all practical 25 purposes they are a COVID case and they are in our 17 1 count. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And so, when we talk about the 3 exemption for 20 or fewer active cases, those are 4 confirmed active case. Is that correct? 5 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And who makes the 7 determination as to the number of those active cases? 8 MR. THOMAS: It should be the Texas Division 9 of Emergency Management through the Department of State 10 Health Services numbers. 11 JUDGE KELLY: So now we've got a second 12 state agency involved which is TDEM. Texas Department 13 of Emergency Management. Right? 14 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And they -- we -- we're 16 assuming that they rely on DSHS data. 17 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 18 JUDGE KELLY: But they don't receive 19 individual data from the counties at this point? 20 MR. THOMAS: No, they don't. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And so, for this exemption to 22 be withdrawn, it actually comes from TDEM? 23 MR. THOMAS: I believe that's correct. Yes, 24 sir. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And for those that want to 18 1 know how many counties are exempt, I counted them this 2 morning, they're on the TDEM website, 71 Texas counties 3 have the exemption right now. And last week when you 4 and I counted them it was 56. 5 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So it's a growing number. But 7 once TDEM determines that we have 20 or more confirmed 8 active cases, then they remove us from the list on their 9 website. 10 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And I'm assuming they're going 12 to notify us. 13 MR. THOMAS: Oh, we'll get notified. 14 JUDGE KELLY: So that's the process. And 15 that's the -- if you do your own counting, we have a lot 16 of people doing the test and everybody has their own 17 counts and we have to get them confirmed before they go 18 to -- before DSHS puts them on the confirmed active 19 list, which is the official list that we have to live 20 by. 21 MR. THOMAS: Correct. All the testing in 22 Kerr County, whether it's a private physician or any of 23 the clinics, if they get a positive they're supposed to 24 report it to the Department of State Health Services. 25 And that's the -- basically it's our local health 19 1 authority. We don't have a local health authority, we 2 rely on the Department of State Health Services for 3 that. 4 JUDGE KELLY: So I hope that answers 5 everybody's questions. I know it's been confusing, but 6 we're trying to provide as much information as we can on 7 it. 8 MR. THOMAS: I will -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: And there is a delay with this 10 contact tracing. 11 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. There is a delay, 12 but I'm not sure what that delay is anymore. DSHS is -- 13 is working diligently trying to catch up. They did 14 compliment Peterson Regional's infection prevention 15 folks on Friday when I talked to somebody with DSHS 16 about the quality of the information coming from 17 Peterson Regional has been outstanding. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and I'd like to echo 19 that. And if you would, Dub, remind the people back 20 during the height of the spike, when it flared up back 21 in July, we had almost -- we had just a little less then 22 a hundred active cases in a day? 23 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And Peterson has managed that, 25 to keep it under 20 for going on two months. 20 1 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So Peterson has done an 3 outstanding job in managing this crisis and we 4 compliment them. 5 The other part of the topic here is the 1.2, 6 and that gets back to our disaster order. And we ran 7 all the traps again over the last couple weeks about 8 whether or not we should terminate that disaster order 9 not. And I think that the unanimous input that we got 10 back is it's better that we keep it in place than to 11 terminate it. Is that right? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So if there's any 14 discussion on that, this is the opportunity for us to 15 talk about it. The last thing I want to talk about is 16 corollary to the COVID is -- are these outside 17 gatherings of ten people or more. And that was 18 something that I have to deal with personally and I -- I 19 see Mr. Dunagan here that -- I'm going to compliment you 20 in just a minute. You did an outstanding job there. I 21 wanted to let everybody know how that works. 22 If you will remember, the Governor issued an 23 order initially saying that outside gatherings of 100 24 people or more -- now, don't ask me why he didn't 25 include inside. He just included outside. But he said 21 1 outside gatherings of 100 people or more, the County 2 Judge had to approve the gathering. And then within 3 days he withdraw that order and revised it to outside 4 gatherings of ten or more. And so, it's fallen to me to 5 have to talk to people that want to have outside 6 gatherings. 7 And let me say first of all, I really 8 appreciate those of you that have come to us to get that 9 approval. And for those of you -- and I know there are 10 a number that did not come to us for approval and had 11 your gatherings anyway, let me encourage you to please 12 come to us. I think you will find that we've been very 13 reasonable. And I think Mr. Dunagan can probably 14 confirm that. 15 Because the Governor started at 100 and cut 16 it back to thumb, my rule of thumb, and you can ask our 17 Court coordinator because I told her the minute it 18 happened. My rule of thumb was that the Governor was 19 concerned to say -- to move it from 100 down to ten then 20 I was going to presume any outside gatherings -- I 21 didn't want to approve outside gatherings of over 100. 22 Because the Governor was concerned about that number, so 23 I just -- I just leveraged off his number. 24 But that was when State was open to 50 25 percent capacity. And a couple weeks ago when the 22 1 Governor increased the capacity up to 75 percent, and I 2 was turning people down on these requests for outside 3 gatherings. Mr. Dunagan is living proof that I did 4 that, too. And I'm -- we're going to talk about his 5 case in a minute because he's -- he's my poster child. 6 I'm glad you're here today. But I increased it to 150. 7 Just extrapolated -- I went from 50 percent is 100, and 8 75 percent would be 150. Made sense to me. 9 But some people had gatherings of more than 10 150. And I was turning those gatherings down. And I'm 11 talking about Mr. Dunagan, who is going to talk about 12 his -- his racing event. And there was going to be 13 about four or 500 people in that one and I turned it 14 down. And I just wanted people to know, kind of, where 15 I'm drawing the line on these things. And I do this 16 with the consultation of Dub Thomas, who's at the 17 podium, getting together with my Emergency Management 18 team, and we talk about what we think is safe and not 19 safe. 20 And for the event that you've seen at the 21 courthouse, some large events and other large events, I 22 know there was a large event in West Kerr County this 23 weekend. Well, I guess let me just say for all these 24 events, whether it's 10, whether it's 100, whether it's 25 150 or more, I have made a standard practice to require 23 1 that the event holder provide me with a COVID safety 2 plan. A written COVID safety plan. And I approve it or 3 disapprove it. And I'm going to start talking about 4 Mr. Duncan now. 5 He submitted a plan. He submitted me a 6 written plan. It was a pretty good plan. I think we 7 made it better by the time we were done, but it's a good 8 plan. But it was going to be for somewhere in the 9 neighborhood of four to five hundred people. And I -- I 10 turned it down. 11 And not because the plan wasn't good. I 12 turned it down just because the numbers. That's a lot 13 of people to get together. And so, I met with Mr. 14 Dunagan last week. Dub and I did. And Commissioner 15 Moser. All four of us sat around the table in my office 16 and we discussed ways to improve the COVID plan. And 17 every suggestion that we made, Mr. Duncan agreed to do. 18 And by the time we were done we talked for, what, 30, 45 19 minutes? 20 MR. DUNCAN: Yeah. Uh-huh. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I was very comfortable with 22 having that large event out at the airport. Because 23 that -- with all the open spaces and they were going to 24 park their trucks and space apart, park their trucks a 25 car length apart. There were going to be cones out 24 1 there where they can park. And there would be cones 2 where you had to stand going to the food trucks coming, 3 where you had to stand to go to the port-a-potties, and 4 social distancing, masks, everything that we could ask 5 for he included. 6 He was going to have -- there was going to 7 be an EMS unit on-site. It was going to have four 8 police officers there to help enforce the COVID plan. 9 The fire department was on call. I mean, it was -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And announce it every 11 few minutes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, and they were going to 13 announce it on the PA system and tell people when they 14 were getting too close together. So what more could we 15 ask for in that situation? And I just wanted the public 16 to know that's the way we've approached this. And so I 17 call it -- if you're going to have a gathering of 150 18 people or more, I'm not only going to ask for a written 19 COVID safety plan, I'm going to ask for a written COVID 20 super safety plan. 21 And Mr. Dunagan is going to be my poster 22 child. We'll use his plan as the template that I'm 23 going to ask other people to do. And I've gotten a lot 24 of cooperation from the camps and -- and for the wedding 25 venues. It's gone very well. 25 1 But I just wanted to clarify because people, 2 I don't think, understood how we were doing this and the 3 approach that we took and I wanted to share our thinking 4 with the public. And thank Dub for everything you're 5 doing. 6 MR. THOMAS: Well, and his -- his plan not 7 only included a COVID plan but he also had a safety plan 8 for spectators and everything else as far as high speed 9 vehicles off the crashes and that kind of thing. So it 10 was a good plan altogether. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Bottom line, it was 12 approved. 13 MR. THOMAS: It was approved. Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, just to go 15 over -- how are you interacting with the City on these? 16 I mean -- well, and I presume -- what's coming to mind 17 is the D-BAT facility, where they have a large number of 18 people -- it's in the City and there's also an exemption 19 for supporting events -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: -- Mr. Dunagan's here, so he 23 gets to be the role model today. He came to me. He 24 already had a written approval plan from the City. 25 Mayor already signed it. And I have to say, if it's 26 1 good enough for the Mayor, why is not good enough for 2 the County? So -- there hasn't been any of that. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I think right there 4 the judge -- County Judge has the authority. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's right. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it. The County 7 Judge has the authority right now. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you, Dub. 10 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. Y'all have a good 11 day. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now let's go on to the 13 real business. Item 1.3 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to approve a Proclamation declaring 15 October 2020 as Hill Country Night Sky Month. Bill 16 Rector and Bruce Barton. And you may -- you may take 17 your masks off and speak from the podium. 18 DR. RECTOR: Thank you, Honorable 19 Commissioners. Judge Kelly. We're here to ask you to 20 consider declaring October Hill Country Night Sky Month. 21 We are trying to make people aware of how important 22 night sky is to the Hill Country. We have many 23 astronomers who have their own telescopes looking at the 24 night sky. We have a significant night glow that is 25 developing around Kerrville, and we're trying to make 27 1 people aware that this can be a detriment to enjoying 2 our beautiful skies in the Hill Country. 3 And we're trying to make people aware that 4 that can be very easily decreased in amount by awareness 5 by not asking you to change light fixtures that are 6 already in place, but when new ones are purchased that 7 you look at the effect that those fixtures might have on 8 the night sky. I would point out that KPUB has already 9 changed out the street lights throughout the City of 10 Kerrville to make them night sky compliant. 11 I don't know how many are aware that we have 12 actually a observatory at Schreiner University. We have 13 an astronomer on the staff at Schreiner University. To 14 be able to use that facility to its fullest, we need to 15 make the night sky attractive and available for those 16 students to enjoy and to learn from. So it's something 17 that will help us. 18 I'd like to point out that many communities 19 in the Hill Country, such as Fredericksburg, such as 20 Llano, such as Dripping Springs, such as Mason, have 21 brought their communities into compliance at the 22 International Dark-Sky Association. 23 So it's a move in the Hill Country to 24 attract people for astro-tourism to the Hill Country 25 which will be an improvement and a help to our economy 28 1 to have more people visiting to look at our wonderful 2 night sky. We think that declaring October Hill Country 3 Night Sky Month will be a step in the right direction 4 for making people aware of that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Bill, I -- let me 7 comment on something Bill said. The pollution -- light 8 pollution continues to increase -- 9 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- significantly. I 11 think people are just not aware of how they can have 12 lighting without imposing it on the neighbors and the 13 community. And there's all types of things. You said 14 KPUB did it on street lights. I think that's good. 15 We've brought it up to the Airport Board last Wednesday. 16 Mary's here. I think Mary's going to do some things at 17 the airport. It's a City/County polluter, I'll tell 18 you. 19 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think there are some 21 things to be done. So people can take retroactive 22 action, but they can also know about it when they 23 install lights and can do it in a more effective way. 24 So, you know, the hill country is unique and I think the 25 bright skies is the easiest -- it's an important thing. 29 1 Whether or not we'll ever get to where it is around 2 Enchanted Rock, I doubt that. But at least we can keep 3 it from continuing to get worse. So, thank you for 4 that. 5 DR. RECTOR: Thank you, Commissioner Moser. 6 It's an awareness. And there is no reason to pay for 7 light that goes up into the sky that does no good. That 8 light needs to be directed where it's needed and up into 9 the sky is not a needed place. I'd like to also 10 introduce Bruce. Bruce is president of the Hill Country 11 Astronomers. 12 MR. BARTON: That's correct. 13 DR. RECTOR: And has an observatory in 14 Ingram, Bruce? 15 MR. BARTON: Just outside of Ingram, yes. 16 I'd like to express my appreciation to the Court for 17 offering us the opportunity to discuss this issue before 18 you this morning. And yes, there are a number of us in 19 the immediate area that have and operate our own 20 observatories. So amateur astronomy is a thing and 21 astro-tourism is a thing. 22 The Hill Country has a unique and very 23 valuable character to it. It attracts a number of 24 people to come here, retire here and spend income here. 25 And I just think it would be a shame if -- at this 30 1 crossroad that we find ourselves in now, if we 2 squandered an opportunity to safeguard one of the very 3 reasons why a number of people move here and live here. 4 And so for that reason, I've become active in this 5 relatively new group, the Kerr County Friends of the 6 Dark Sky. And we are joining hands through the auspices 7 of the Hill Country Alliance, with other similar 8 activities going on in surrounding counties. And so 9 this is a unique opportunity coming up. 10 We are going to be having through -- again 11 through the Hill Country Alliance, in October our Dark 12 Sky Awareness. And it will last the entire month. We 13 will have a series of activities that we will be 14 engaging in to help spread the awareness of dark skies 15 in Kerr County, specifically. And I -- I think this is 16 a good opportunity for us to make people aware that 17 there are some relatively inexpensive things that we can 18 do, that many of which will actually pay for themselves 19 as time goes on, that will allow us to safeguard our 20 dark skies without compromising security at night. It's 21 relatively straightforward. It doesn't involve a super 22 fund to do cleanup activities. It's just general common 23 sense things and we can provide guidelines on how to do 24 exactly that for anyone who is interested. 25 And so I look forward to sharing our 31 1 information with the County and the general public for 2 at least the next six weeks as we move forward and 3 observe the -- the Hill Country Alliance Dark Sky Night. 4 So I'll turn it back over to Bill. 5 DR. RECTOR: We've got a couple of 6 activities. We were going to have star parties with 7 gathering of children and parents to look at the 8 celestial bodies. Because of COVID, we have gone to 9 virtual star parties on the 6th of October at UBarU, 10 which is 15 miles northwest of Kerrville, where there 11 will be a virtual star party. Dr. Ellzey will be 12 presenting that on the 19th and 20th. Bruce Barton is 13 going to also do a virtual star party from his 14 observatory. And so there's going to be activities 15 during the month of October just to help celebrate this 16 month. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: With that, Bill, I will 18 move that we approve the Proclamation declaring October 19 2020 as Hill Country Night Sky Month. I'm not reading 20 the whole Proclamation, but it's something I think we 21 can put on our website if we approve it and so the 22 public can read it. It's well done. Appreciate it. 23 DR. RECTOR: Thank you, Commissioner Moser. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll second that. 25 DR. RECTOR: Thank you, Don. 32 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 2 Commissioner Moser and seconded by Commissioner Harris 3 to approve October 2020 as the Hill Country Night 4 Star -- Night Sky Month. Is there any other discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm not sure I 6 understand what it means. What -- what are you supposed 7 to do? 8 MR. BARTON: Basically it's -- what we're 9 trying to do is spread awareness of how individuals, 10 businesses, homeowners and so forth, can regulate and 11 adjust their outdoor lighting so that it is not a 12 nuisance to either neighbors or to folks who are 13 interested in seeing the starry sky at night here in the 14 County. 15 It has to do with intelligent selection of 16 fully-shielded light fixtures that direct the light 17 downward towards the ground rather than up in the sky, 18 which is the main thing that really helps. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So really this is about 20 more regulations in the future. The whole night sky 21 international thing that you talked about, Bill, is 22 making everybody -- now you buy the squiggle bulbs, now 23 you're going to buy a certain kind of light fixture -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's not -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- and you're going to 33 1 get a fine if you don't do it? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- it's not a 3 requirement. It's just -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not yet it's not. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Right. It's 6 just -- the Proclamation is just an awareness. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what you were 8 talking about with a -- with an eye to the future, that 9 everybody would have a requirement that a new building 10 would have what is approved by the night sky people. Is 11 that the idea? 12 JUDGE KELLY: I think on this as education. 13 This is to teach so that they learn -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How can they -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: -- how to minimize light 16 pollution. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm -- I'm trying to 18 find out what it is about. 19 DR. RECTOR: There is, in Blanco County 20 during the month of October they are having a -- they 21 are having an activity where once -- where every Sunday 22 the restaurants are going to be darkened and there will 23 be candlelight at every table. And that will decrease 24 the amount of light that is generated yet still have an 25 enjoyable evening for all their patrons. 34 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, so -- so that the public 2 knows what's in the Proclamation, is for the 3 Commissioners' Court to encourage citizens to enjoy the 4 night sky and participate in the Hill Country region's 5 events and programs celebrating the night sky and 6 promoting the ways in which communities are working to 7 preserve it. 8 And then the next one is, that the 9 Commissioners' Court encourage citizens to learn about 10 light pollution and why it matters, night sky friendly 11 lighting, and lighting regulations. Just learn about 12 what they are. And implement practices in lighting 13 improvement that will reduce light pollution, thereby 14 preserving our night skies. That's -- that's what 15 you're asking us to do. 16 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE KELLY: So I view that as educational 18 and aspirational. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, some of us don't 20 think of it as pollution but as a safety measure to be 21 able to see things at night. And I just see this as 22 more regulation at some point. I'm not against it. I 23 enjoy the night sky at my place. I don't think you're 24 going to get -- are you going to get the box stores to 25 turn off their lights at night? How are you going to do 35 1 that? 2 DR. RECTOR: We'll see what HEB does. We'll 3 see what Walmart does. Walmart across the nation has 4 started introducing shielded lights in their parking 5 lot. They want people to see. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. 7 DR. RECTOR: They want it to be safe. But 8 they also don't want to pay for light that goes up into 9 the sky. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. Makes sense. 11 DR. RECTOR: It makes sense. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think there's -- and 13 I've seen it in the past where there's an illustration 14 of effective light for safety purposes and how it can 15 even be more effective than shining out. Because I 16 think -- it's a pretty good demonstration. I'll see if 17 I can find that. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think there's a -- I 19 mean, I -- I don't see this as regulatory. I see this 20 as educational, like the Judge said. And I also see it 21 is that they're to make an awareness that that there are 22 new technologies that don't hurt the security and do 23 help night skies. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, they're better 25 illuminating than LED light. 36 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Like, for example, you 3 point the light where you want it to go. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But at some point, 6 somebody's going to say you gotta buy this fixture now. 7 Just like now they say you gotta buy this light bulb 8 now. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I mean I -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: But I want to be crystal 11 clear, we're not doing that. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We're not doing 13 that. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We're not doing that. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is a first step. 16 It starts somewhere. It always starts with one step. 17 DR. RECTOR: It's interesting going to try 18 to buy a tungsten light bulb these days. And you really 19 can't find a tungsten light bulb. But there's a reason 20 for that. Tungsten light bulbs are very expensive to 21 operate. It turns out that LED lights are just as 22 effective, operate much cheaper, and last much longer. 23 And maybe there is a regulation somewhere 24 down the road that required that, for everybody to go 25 away from tungsten. Probably the people who made 37 1 tungsten bulbs weren't enthused about that. But the 2 marketplace has moved away from tungsten bulbs, even 3 without regulation, because they're much more efficient, 4 much cheaper to operate, and last much longer. 5 JUDGE KELLY: But with this Resolution 6 they're just encouraging people to learn more about 7 night pollution -- 8 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: -- and enjoy the night sky. 10 DR. RECTOR: Right. 11 MR. BARTON: We prefer -- we would prefer 12 that they been done out of knowledge rather than having 13 it forced on them by some regulation. In other words, 14 to me, it makes way more sense if you get buy-in from 15 the public that this kind of thing is the right thing to 16 do, rather than trying to force it upon them through a 17 regulation. So if it's a carrot or a stick approach, I 18 would very much prefer the carrot. I don't like the 19 stick. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We don't either. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: How are y'all going to 22 be promoting this or what have you? 23 MR. BARTON: We have a website and a 24 Facebook page at the time, at the current time, that has 25 information on what our upcoming schedule is and events 38 1 will be, as well as links to International Dark-Sky 2 Association, and other light pollution related resources 3 that people can get the information from. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Bill, could you 6 e-mail me something on that? 7 DR. RECTOR: Absolutely. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would appreciate 9 that. I'll help promote it. I mean -- 10 DR. RECTOR: Be glad to. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I've asked -- I would 12 ask our public information person -- 13 DR. RECTOR: Sure. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- to also get in 15 contact with you and she can work with you. If we 16 approve this Proclamation, she can -- she can help 17 promote it. 18 DR. RECTOR: Whether you approve it or not, 19 we would be glad to provide you with any information. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any further 21 discussion or are we ready to vote? Okay. Those in 22 favor raise your hand. Those opposed. So four, one. 23 (Commissioner Belew opposed.) 24 DR. RECTOR: I would encourage everyone to 25 look at our website, kerrnightsky.com, and our Facebook 39 1 page, Kerr County Friends of the Night Sky. A lot of 2 educational discussion there. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 4 DR. RECTOR: Thank you very much. 5 JUDGE KELLY: The next item our Agenda is 6 really pro forma, it's 1.4 consider, discuss and take 7 appropriate action on request by the Hill Country 8 Dispute Resolution Center to renew the contract with 9 Kerr County to provide mediation services in Kerr County 10 and for funding. 11 I put this on the agenda -- well actually, 12 Ed Reaves put it on the agenda. Ed's not out in the 13 hallway, is he? 14 But this is routine. We've been doing this 15 every year. It's already in the budget and we've 16 already approved the funding. So it's really kind of 17 pro forma effective in that regard. But I think it's 18 important that everybody knows that we do have an 19 investment in the Dispute Resolution Center across the 20 street. And it's something that our courts do use 21 frequently, and our litigants and attorneys use 22 frequently, and it's been very, very successful here in 23 Kerr County. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So to confirm, it is in 25 the budget? 40 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 4 approve the contract with the Hill Country Dispute 5 Resolution Center. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 9 approve renewing the contract with the Hill Country 10 Dispute Resolution Center. Any other discussion? Those 11 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 12 1.5 consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action -- appropriate reaction on the request to use the 14 courthouse grounds for the Libertarian Party of Kerr 15 County Rally on October 9, 2020. Josh Butler. 16 MR. BUTLER: Good morning, gentlemen. I am 17 the Kerr County Chair for the Libertarian Party of Kerr 18 County. We're just simply requesting to use the 19 courthouse grounds to spread information about our 20 current candidates in the State of Texas, as well as our 21 national presidential candidate. We have a party member 22 running for Sheriff, his name is Warren Funk. We just 23 want to spread some information about him and his 24 campaign. We also have an ad that's going in the paper 25 starting in October for Kerry McKennon, who I believe is 41 1 running for Senate. 2 We would just like to use the grounds to 3 spread information about our candidates and parties, and 4 that is all. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You heard my discussion 6 about meeting the rigorous COVID safety plan? 7 MR. BUTLER: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And you're anticipating 9 more than 150 people? 10 MR. BUTLER: No, sir, we are not. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Just get me a 12 written -- well, we need a motion and a second, I guess, 13 so we -- discussion about use of the courthouse grounds? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What were you talking 15 about with political signs earlier? 16 JUDGE KELLY: The truck out on the corner 17 that would have the flags. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're just talking 19 about the vulgarities, or were you talking about 20 politicking on the county courthouse lawn, campaigning? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Those -- for the political 22 advertisements on the corner, yes. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is a political 24 advertisement for a party. So does that fit under what 25 you were talking about or not? 42 1 JUDGE KELLY: Not if we grant the request. 2 Like we have with the other groups. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I mean, everybody 4 should have access to it. But you -- you made much of 5 this early on. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So I -- I want to make 8 sure I don't miss the point. 9 MR. BUTLER: This is why I came here. I 10 didn't want to use the grounds without any permission 11 from Kerr County. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. I understand. 13 No, I'm not -- I'm not objecting to it at all. But I'm 14 just going to go back to what the Judge said earlier. 15 So that the issue was not that somebody had a Trump or a 16 Biden sign or something, but it had vulgarity on it? 17 JUDGE KELLY: It was -- it was actually 18 twofold. The vulgarity was one part. Profanity. But 19 the other is that to actually camp out on the corner up 20 here of courthouse and advertise for your political 21 candidate without having courthouse permission. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh. There you go. 23 That was the key there. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Without permission. 25 Okay. That's a good point. 43 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we -- and we have a 2 general policy, I believe, if we just -- political 3 rallies are fine. Having political signs kind of 4 permanently affixed are not fine. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's everybody's 6 courthouse. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I make a motion that 10 we approve the request to have the Libertarian Party to 11 have a rally October 9th, 2020, subject to presenting 12 the -- or the Judge approving the COVID plan, and ask 13 that you work with our Maintenance Department on any 14 specifics where things are or what you may need. Shane 15 Evans. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 MR. BUTLER: Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So the motion's been made and 19 seconded. Motion's been made by Commissioner Letz, 20 seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the use of the 21 courthouse grounds for the Libertarian Party of Kerr 22 County Rally on October 9, 2020, and to coordinate that 23 with our maintenance department. Is there any other 24 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 25 five zero. Thank you. 44 1 MR. BUTLER: Thank you very much, gentlemen. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Just get me the written plan. 3 MR. BUTLER: Yes, sir. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Speaking of which, let's go to 5 item 1.6, discuss car races at the Airport on Saturday, 6 October 3, 2020. Ross Dunagan. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought we did that, 8 didn't we? 9 MR. DUNAGAN: Good morning, Commissioners. 10 Good morning, Judge. I'm the Judge's poster child for 11 the event. So pending FAA approval, we've gone local, 12 state, everything. We're at federal level at this 13 point. That's kind of our -- and my top -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: And actually, the car races 15 are going to be on the Airport runway? 16 MR. DUNAGAN: Yes. Yes. And that's -- from 17 everything I'm reading, it's because the Airport, I'm 18 guessing, takes -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Ross, back up. Tell 20 them what it is. 21 MR. DUNAGAN: Okay. Sure. So this is a -- 22 which I did some research. It was done back in the 23 1950's. But this is a drag race for cars and trucks on 24 the airport runway. Now not the main runway that runs 25 on -- like parallel to 27, but the -- is that the 45 1 north/south? 2 MRS. ROHRER: We call it the secondary 3 runway, yes. 4 MR. DUNAGAN: Okay. So it is that runway, 5 the secondary runway. We'll be at the back of that. 6 But we wanted to, one, for awareness things, make the 7 drag racing community more aware. 8 Two, bring an event to Kerrville and 9 increase the economics of it there and bring people in. 10 Hotel business, restaurant business, help explode that, 11 as well as bring a lot of awareness to the Airport, 12 which it's done a very well job of help them doing that. 13 So that was one of the main goals. 14 Another goal, there is -- not in Kerr County 15 particularly, but across the nation, there is a lot of 16 illegal street racing. So this is a way to bring that 17 into a legal standpoint. People can still have their 18 fun and not get in trouble for it. And also, be in a 19 safe environment where if things do go wrong, they're 20 not putting anybody at risk or very, very minor risk. 21 Things of that nature. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So two cars at a 23 time -- 24 MR. DUNAGAN: Two cars. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- eighth of a mile? 46 1 MR. DUNAGAN: Yes. Eighth of a mile, which 2 is 660 feet. And that's due to keeping, again, the 3 safety of everything. We'll keep the speeds down. But 4 you're still able to have a lot of fun. So -- and I've 5 worked with Mary at the Airport. She's been a huge 6 help. Don's been a great help. I know Harley has 7 jumped in on this. So -- and then definitely with Judge 8 Kelly's approval, with a very, very good safety plan we 9 should be able to have a very good time. Again, pending 10 FAA approval. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Ross, then -- so 12 people that want -- anybody can enter, okay? 13 MR. DUNAGAN: Yes. Anybody can enter. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But we've got to -- 15 MR. DUNAGAN: Anybody can enter up until we 16 reach our capacity point really. You know, we're going 17 to let as many people as we can in until we're at our 18 capacity point. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Commissioner Moser is 20 trying to tell you definitely give a commercial here. 21 He's trying to help you do a commercial. 22 MR. DUNAGAN: Yes, sir. Well, my thought of 23 Thursday afternoon has changed since over the weekend 24 with -- 25 MRS. ROHRER: I'm the party pooper. 47 1 MR. DUNAGAN: So -- yeah. So we're -- at 2 this point I'm sitting -- before I really start making 3 massive commercial information, I'm sitting at the mercy 4 of FAA. So -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, you can make your 6 commercial, you just may have to postpone it. 7 MR. DUNAGAN: Right. We may have to 8 postpone the event until a later date. But yes, this is 9 a drag race for the community. And anybody that wants 10 to come and attend it, please come. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is next Saturday, 12 beginning at -- 13 MR. DUNAGAN: 8:00 a.m. We will have the 14 hard shutdown at 9:00 p.m. But 8:00 a.m. throughout the 15 day, drag racing. I mean, it doesn't matter what kind 16 of vehicle you have, as long as it's not a motorcycle. 17 We aren't doing any motorcycles. But other than that -- 18 I mean, if you got a Toyota Prius and you want to bring 19 it out there and run it down the airstrip, we're open 20 for it. And so -- and we've got vehicles all the way up 21 to -- for example my dragster. I've got -- I've got a 22 purpose-built drag truck that will be out there. Do 23 about 115 miles an hour in the eighth mile. So we're 24 going to have all sorts of crazy fun stuff. Great time. 25 Great community event. And to help spread awareness. 48 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Ross, how many do you 2 anticipate coming? I'm sure there's a group that goes 3 to these different things. 4 MR. DUNAGAN: We've got a few interested 5 people from Dallas, Austin. I've got some out of 6 New Mexico. There's a ton of interest around Kerr 7 County. I've had a lot of people calling in. Here 8 lately, I've had to kind of postpone on that until I get 9 some more information from Mary. But I'm definitely on 10 the phone today to make that work. But we've got a ton 11 of community interest to make this thing pretty much at 12 capacity. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 14 MR. DUNAGAN: So I -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 16 MR. DUNAGAN: -- just want to thank y'all 17 and -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Mary, this is 19 pending FAA? 20 MRS. ROHRER: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And what's the plan, if 22 it doesn't? 23 MRS. ROHRER: Yeah. 24 MR. DUNAGAN: Postponed until a later date. 25 We don't know that date yet. We -- we're going to have 49 1 to work with FAA and figure out when they're expecting 2 things, and then from there we can make a call on a 3 future date. But at this time I don't have that 4 information. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's your drop dead 6 date on getting FAA approval -- 7 MR. DUNAGAN: Today. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- before you -- 9 MR. DUNAGAN: Today. I would like to give 10 people enough time that have made reservations from out 11 of town to come in and -- and make the -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you will know by the 14 end of the day whether -- 15 MR. DUNAGAN: End of the day I'll be making 16 a social media announcement one way or the other and see 17 what we can do there. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Thank you for 20 coming in. 21 MR. DUNAGAN: Thank you. Appreciate it. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.7 consider, discuss and 24 take appropriate action regarding the repair/replacement 25 of Brinkman Hangar doors at the Airport. Mary Rohrer. 50 1 MRS. ROHRER: Good morning, Judge and 2 Commissioners. Commissioner Moser asked that I come 3 forth in front of you to talk a little bit more about 4 our large Brinkman Hangar. We have one hangar out at 5 the Airport that has -- is primarily for business 6 tenants. And it has -- it experienced damage on that 7 windstorm that occurred on July 31st, so one of the 8 doors actually lifted up and slid into the hangar and 9 damaged an aircraft. 10 So we've gone through all of our insurance 11 policies through here for the County and received 12 estimates to repair the door, and then received our 13 comp -- whatever the -- whatever you call it, what would 14 be -- what we could receive back from the insurance 15 company. 16 So the storm damage caused about $170,000 to 17 replace -- basically replace existing door. It was 18 damaged. It's been put back up. It's usable right now, 19 but there's concerns with the door in the future. So 20 the estimate that we provided to the insurance company 21 was about $170,000. 22 The repair -- approved repair costs after 23 depreciation is about $125,000 that we have from the 24 insurance agency. So we know that we need to come up 25 with depreciation and different costs as well, but we 51 1 went ahead and had a -- as part of our investigation, we 2 went and had a structural engineer come out and look at 3 the hangar itself. If we're going to invest $150,000 in 4 it, we want to make sure it's a good investment into a 5 hangar that was built in the 1980's. 6 So he came out and reviewed the 7 structural -- basically the structural members inside 8 the hangar and reviewed around the perimeter and felt 9 that this was a good structure, it's in good shape, it's 10 in fine shape for us to continue to reinvest into the 11 hangar and make these repairs to the door. 12 So as we were there, he was trying to 13 determine what the cause of why the door came off the 14 hangar due to the wind, and he's concerned that this 15 will also affect what we call the south door. So 16 really, the north door was -- was damaged by the storm, 17 but we recommend that we also do the south door at the 18 same time. 19 So we're -- I'm working on putting together 20 a bid package to get various different vendors to come 21 out here and provide a cost, and our cost would be 22 separated between what we can do for the north door and 23 what it would cost to do the south door. So I just 24 wanted to give everyone an update. So hopefully we can 25 get some good pricing out there. 52 1 We have subject matter expert contractors 2 there that would then be able to know how to respond to 3 the door design itself. And then if we are able to get 4 funds approved, we would then work on improving both the 5 north and the south doors so that they're very 6 operational for future life. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I asked Mary to come 8 present this to the Court just for information. So one 9 door is covered by insurance, the other door is not. 10 The other door needs to be replaced. It's not in the 11 budget. So that's the flag. Okay. 12 MRS. ROHRER: Uh-huh. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's something City and 14 County are probably going to have to do when she gets 15 some better estimates. And so this was at the Airport 16 Board meeting the other day, and James was there and 17 said, you know, we need to flag this as early as 18 possible and see how we go forward. So this is for 19 information. 20 MRS. ROHRER: For information. So I'll be 21 back. I'll come back. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Well, you're welcome when you 23 come. 24 MRS. ROHRER: Thank you. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 53 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Mary. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.8 consider, discuss and 3 take appropriate action to approve the Software Service 4 Agreement with Tyler Technologies for implementation of 5 Tyler jury manager, and have -- and the software 6 includes Tyler Jury Manager and Tyler Jury Response and 7 Hosting. Ms. Lantz. 8 MRS. LANTZ: Good morning, Judge, 9 Commissioners. This is a contract that we've been 10 working on for over two years to try to get our jury 11 software updated. IT Director and myself have been 12 working closely with Tyler to get this done so we can 13 get it implemented. And the contract before you has 14 gone to the County Attorney and she has approved it. So 15 I'm just waiting for your approval. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Does this -- Dawn, is 17 this a new contract, so it didn't have it in the past? 18 MRS. LANTZ: What would -- what happened is 19 the software that we had with the original contract is 20 no more. Tyler bought this other company out. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 22 MRS. LANTZ: And what happened is our system 23 was not compatible to what they had, so -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So it's 25 logically an update and a new contract as far as -- 54 1 MRS. LANTZ: Correct. The other one is -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- the system that you 3 had? 4 MRS. LANTZ: -- null and void because it 5 doesn't exist anymore. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Gotcha. Move 7 for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 10 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 11 approve the contract with Tyler for the Jury Manager 12 Program. Is there any other discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This has to be done. 14 MRS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's mandated. 17 MRS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just want everybody 19 to know that. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 21 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 22 MRS. LANTZ: Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: 1.9 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to approve the contract with Xerox 25 for a copier for the 198th District Attorney's Office. 55 1 MRS. STEBBINS: I spoke to Todd, I know he's 2 listed on this item, but I told him that I would review 3 it and let y'all know that it's a savings. I don't know 4 how much the savings is. I couldn't -- my office is 5 under construction, I couldn't get to the -- my files 6 today on it. But it's a savings. And I've reviewed the 7 contract with no changes. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Making copies went from 9 seven cents to five cents. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 15 approve the 198th District Attorney's Office contract 16 with Xerox. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 17 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 18 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action to approve the Texas VINE, which 20 stands for Victim Information and Notification Everyday, 21 First Contract Renewal with Appriss, Inc. for the 22 Statewide Automated Victim Notification Service. 23 MR. ROBLES: Yes. Good morning. This is 24 our first renewal contract with the vendor. He does the 25 statewide VINE program. I believe you should all have a 56 1 copy in your backup. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What does this mean, 3 James? 4 MR. ROBLES: Yes. The County Attorney has 5 not had a chance to review it so if you do decide to 6 pass it, it'll be subject to her review. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't think we should 8 do that. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. I think we 10 oughta let the County Attorney look it over. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Is that a motion? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. I'm just saying we 13 don't -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- we don't have to do 16 anything, do we? Or do we have to do something? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you have to. 18 JUDGE KELLY: You have to. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, then I'll make a 20 motion that we pass on this until we get more 21 information. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Until the County 23 Attorney has -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Until the County 25 Attorney has time to review it. 57 1 MRS. STEBBINS: We can come back to it later 2 today if you would like, before the end of the meeting. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can we just pass and 4 come back to it? 5 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. I think the intent from 6 Crime Victim Services was try to get the contract in 7 place today, if possible, so we just need -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is something else 9 that's mandated, right? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. And this is a service 11 that we've been provided. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well then we're going 13 to have to do it either way. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Well, then I 16 move that we approve it. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Pending. 18 MR. ROBLES: And we did receive the grant 19 already and y'all approved it in a prior court. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So approve it pending 22 the -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Pending review by the 24 County Attorney. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So I'll second that. 58 1 JUDGE KELLY: So a motion has been made by 2 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 3 approve the first contract renewal with Appriss, Inc., 4 for the Statewide Automated Victim Notification 5 Services, pending approval of the County Attorney. Any 6 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Commissioner 8 Moser. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 10 And you're up again, Mr. Robles, don't 11 leave. 1.11 consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action to transfer a vehicle from non-departmental to 13 Sheriff's Department. James Robles. 14 MR. ROBLES: This is our Ford Taurus that 15 we've had parked out there for quite awhile. It's not 16 getting much use. We have a Tahoe and a truck that gets 17 a lot more use. The Sheriff was looking for a used 18 vehicle for some of his operations and this would work 19 perfectly for him. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 23 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 24 approve the transfer of the vehicle from 25 non-departmental to the Sheriff's Department. Any 59 1 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 2 five zero. 3 Item 1.12 consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action regarding the Center for Tech and 5 Civic Life grant application for elections. 6 Ms. Gargano. 7 MS. GARGANO: Hi. So we'd like to apply for 8 this grant to help with -- help cover the cost of 9 reprinting ballots because the Texas Supreme Court 10 states ruling adds the Green Party to the November 11 ballots, and they were already printed. So we would 12 like to apply for this grant to help cover those costs 13 because that cost does fall on all counties. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 18 approve the filing for the grant with the Tech and Civil 19 Life -- Center for Tech and Civic Life. Any other 20 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 21 five zero. 22 MS. GARGANO. Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Good job. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 1.13 consider, discuss 25 and take appropriate action regarding the Interlocal 60 1 Agreement with UGRA for the Feral Hog Abatement Program. 2 Commissioner Harris. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Ray Buck was going to 4 come in but he had a conflict with scheduling and what 5 have you. But this is basically what we've done in the 6 past. Same exact as last year where UGRA partners with 7 us. They provide $25,000 and we throw in 5,000. And as 8 we have people bring in the tails for abatement they pay 9 ten and we pay two for each one throughout the year. So 10 I move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 14 approve the Interlocal Agreement with UGRA for the Feral 15 Hog Abatement Program. Any other discussion? Those in 16 favor raise your hand. Five zero. 17 1.14 consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action to approve the Resolution honoring the 100th 19 Birthday of Hazel Burrier Stevenson Oehler. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. Ms. Oehler is 21 Bruce Oehler's -- 22 MR. REEVES: If I may interrupt? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Haley Oehler McMinn is 25 on her way. I know you have a break scheduled. 61 1 JUDGE KELLY: We'll pass that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. We'll pass it 3 until then. 4 MR. REEVES: She's on her way right now. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We'll pass that and get -- 6 come back to it. Let's try to take one more. 7 Item 1.15 discuss Christmas lighting 8 celebration and get update on Kerrville Christmas 9 Lighting Corporation. 10 MR. EYCHNER: May I approach the bench? I'd 11 like to hand out -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, Can you call the 13 addendum as well, which is the same item but -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action regarding Christmas Lighting 16 Celebration and update on Kerrville Christmas Lighting 17 Corporation. That's the addendum. 18 MR. EYCHNER: Commissioner Letz, you want to 19 say anything at this time or just -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, yeah. I think 21 I've announced to the Court awhile back that the 22 Kerrville Christmas Lighting Corporation was back in 23 business and that George is kind of heading it up again. 24 I serve as, I guess, an ex officio member from the 25 County and attend most of their meetings. And 62 1 originally they were going to kind of postpone things 2 until next year to get started, but then it was decided 3 to go ahead and do something this year. 4 The idea is to put ornaments up and down 5 Sidney Baker all the way to the Interstate, that's 6 Phase I, at least as far as they could go. And they had 7 a rather ambitious fundraising goal over about a 8 two-week period. 9 MR. EYCHNER: Actually 22 days. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 22 days. Anyway, I'll 11 turn it over to George to let him go over that part of 12 it. 13 MR. EYCHNER: Well, when I wrote this we had 14 collected $35,550.00 in 22 days. We really struck a 15 nerve in the community. And this morning I picked up 16 about another $2,000 worth of donations. So just for a 17 short recap, the Christmas Lighting Corporation was 18 formed to decorate the courthouse in 1995 and it was 19 incorporated in 2000 and had that mission up until 2017 20 when the Cailloux Foundation took over, and then in 2018 21 got the Commissioners -- the County took over decorating 22 the Courthouse. 23 One of our goals long term will be to help 24 make that more -- more better than it is right now. But 25 what I -- just to give you an idea of what we have here, 63 1 this is a picture of the ornament. It's substantial. 2 It's seven feet tall, weighs 45 pounds and it cost 3 $675.00. 4 And, in fact, Dr. Bill Rector, who is one of 5 our Board Members there and is doing a super job, 6 Commissioner Letz has -- and he and his wife have 7 adopted an ornament and rumor has it that the County 8 Commissioners are going to get in on this as well. 9 JUDGE KELLY: The rumor is true. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think we were 11 drafted. 12 MR. EYCHNER: Exactly. But the interesting 13 thing is that there's not been any decorations on Sidney 14 Baker since 2006. That's when the new light poles were 15 put in. And so for 24 years Kerrville has done nothing. 16 And so we got a publicity blitz and it's going to be 17 Kerrville did it. And trying -- and instill a sense of 18 patriotism and honor and just joy in getting it going, 19 you know. 20 So we've ordered 44 decorations. There's 79 21 poles between I-10 and Main Street. Apparently a couple 22 of them we may not be able to use because of the wires 23 coming off of them. But one of the things we'd like to 24 do with this extra money that the Commissioners and 25 other folks are going to give us, would be to put five 64 1 ornaments on Sidney Baker Bridge. But in order to do 2 that, we need TxDOT approval. And I was hoping that 3 maybe one of y'all had some sway with TxDOT and you 4 could help us reach that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We can tell them but we can't 6 tell them much. 7 MR. EICHNER: Well that's true. But we need 8 to add to our order, and we could, I think, but we need 9 a decision like this week. And so I'm working with the 10 City and -- but if anybody's got a brother-in-law in the 11 office or something like that. Does anybody have any 12 questions on that? 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I do. Is it both these 14 things, George, the -- 15 MR. EYCHNER: I think it is, yes. Tammy's 16 supposed to be checking on the green garland. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The green part, okay. 18 And this is lighted it says. 19 MR. EYCHNER: Yeah. There's 55 LED lights 20 on it. KPUB, God bless them, is going to install 110 21 power on the poles that we select. Because right now 22 there's no 110 power and they'll -- they'll put them up 23 and take them down and they'll even store them for us. 24 So that's a huge -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So where do you stand 65 1 financially? 2 MR. EYCHNER: We're at thirty-five five 3 right now. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But how much do you 5 need? 6 MR. EYCHNER: Actually, we don't need any. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. Okay. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We're still trying to get you 9 some money. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm trying to 11 understand this. 12 MR. EYCHNER: Well, but we want to buy more 13 to put on the bridge. So we need -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So how much more do you 15 need? 16 MR. EYCHNER: So another thousand dollars 17 would be just great, let me tell you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's exactly what we're 19 thinking. 20 MR. EYCHNER: Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: You read my mind. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We've had to coach a 23 lot of people today, George. I thought you'd be up for 24 that. 25 MR. EYCHNER: And the other thing, the new 66 1 subject would be the lighting ceremony for the 2 courthouse. Michael Huff or -- yeah, and Broadway Bank 3 would like to take that over. As I understand it, and 4 Jonathan and I have talked about this, that Wells Fargo 5 had it up until last year. And then it was some sort of 6 contract, either with the people that brought the stage 7 and the sound and light equipment or -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, let me -- let me 9 interrupt here a minute. Because we've done some 10 research. There was a contract for one year, but last 11 year there was no contract at all. It just slipped 12 through. So -- but it came up at the -- one of our 13 meetings was that the City had cancelled the lighting 14 parade, the Christmas parade. Traditionally, that 15 parade ended up on the courthouse square that, you know, 16 sing, light the tree and everything would be going. 17 The question that came to me was, is that 18 going to be okay with the County. And that's why that 19 part -- that's why it became -- the addendum was put on 20 so we can make a decision today on an action item as to 21 how to handle that, what the requirements are going to 22 be primarily from the Judge from the COVID issue. How 23 we, you know, light the Christmas tree. Kind of how the 24 whole process will work. And then we don't have a 25 contract, but there will be a new contract with Broadway 67 1 Bank -- Broadway, right? 2 MR. EYCHNER: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Broadway is interested 4 in sponsoring it. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm going to have to 6 write my own super COVID safety plan. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, they could. The 8 Broadway Bank could do that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or -- or the bank or the 10 Christmas Lighting Corporation could. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 12 JUDGE KELLY: As long as we have a good 13 safety plan in place, I'm fine with that. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Have we -- we've kind 15 of addressed that this morning, so -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 17 MR. EYCHNER: Well, traditionally it would 18 be -- it's the week -- the Saturday before Thanksgiving, 19 which would be the 21st of November would be the date. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we'll put together 21 a plan, a COVID safety plan in place and then the Judge 22 has the authority to approve it. But we'll -- it will 23 be -- we'll get the contract updated, get it to the 24 County Attorney, we'll bring that to Court in the next 25 couple weeks to approve the contract. But I just wanted 68 1 to make sure that everything was -- that we were all 2 comfortable with going forward with the lighting the 3 Christmas Tree as we've always done. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Do we need to have a motion? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think we need a 6 motion yet. 7 MR. EYCHNER: I'll be happy to -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Did the Court approve 9 the use of the courthouse square? I guess we did. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We did. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'll make a motion 12 that we, subject to a contract being written in the next 13 couple weeks, that we move forward with planning the 14 Christmas lighting on November 21st. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And the contract with Broadway 16 Bank? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And contract with 18 Broadway Bank. That will be part of the contract. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Good. Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second that. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So motion's been made by 22 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 23 approve use of the courthouse grounds and contracting 24 with Broadway Bank as part of our Christmas lighting 25 ceremony. 69 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 3 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 4 MR. EYCHNER: Hey, thank you. I appreciate 5 your support. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, George. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's time to take a 8 break. 9 Have we got time to do this before the 10 break? 11 SPEAKER: Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Then we will. I'm going to 13 call Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 action to approve the Resolution honoring the 100th 15 Birthday of Hazel Burrier Stevenson Oehler. Hi. 16 MS. MCMINN: Hi. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's all yours. 18 MS. MCMINN: All right. What do I say? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're supposed to tell 20 them your name and address. 21 MS. MCMINN: Okay. My name is Hailey 22 McMinn. I live at 207 West Lane. And on behalf of the 23 entire Oehler Family, I wanted to say thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the Resolution -- 25 I'm going to go ahead and read it into the record 70 1 quickly. 2 A Resolution of Kerr County Commissioners' 3 Court honoring the 100th Birthday of Hazel Burrier 4 Stevenson Oehler: 5 WHEREAS, Hazel Burrier Stevenson Oehler was 6 born September 23rd, 1920 in Fredericksburg, Texas, and 7 has called Kerr County home for 73 years; and 8 WHEREAS, Hazel has lived a remarkable 100 9 years in the Texas Hill Country, faithfully serving the 10 church and her beloved communities; and 11 WHEREAS, Hazel spent 17 glorious years 12 working for the Charles Schreiner Bank. The memories 13 she made during her time at the bank are still treasured 14 today; and 15 WHEREAS, Hazel married Carl Oehler deeply 16 loving his three sons, Steve, Donald, and Bruce; and 17 WHEREAS, Hazel was a longtime member of the 18 Sheep and Goat Raisers Association, the Hill Country 19 Emmaus Community, Cowboy Camp Meeting, and the United 20 Methodist Women; and 21 WHEREAS, Hazel volunteered every week for 17 22 years at Hilltop Village Nursing and Rehabilitation 23 Center; and 24 WHEREAS, Hazel has been blessed with seven 25 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. 71 1 NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Kerr 2 County Commissioners' Court hereby offers its admiration 3 and congratulations to Hazel Burrier Stevenson Oehler 4 for her 100th Birthday. 5 I'll make a motion that we approve the 6 Resolution. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 9 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 10 approve the Resolution honoring Hazel Burrier Stevenson 11 Oehler. Any further discussion? Those in favor raise 12 your hand. Unanimous. Thank you. Happy birthday. 13 MS. MCMINN: Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Happy Birthday. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that, we're going 16 to take about a ten-minute break. We'll start back at 17 25 after the hour. 18 (Recess.) 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, let's come back to 20 order. The next item on the Agenda is 1.16, a public 21 hearing for a revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch No. 2, 22 Lots 21 and 22. 23 So I'm calling the public meeting to order. 24 Is there anyone who would like to address the Court at a 25 public meeting? There being no one, then the meeting is 72 1 adjourned. 2 Let's go on to Item 1.17 consider, discuss 3 and take appropriate action for the Court to approve the 4 revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch No. 2, Lots 21 and 5 22. Charlie Hastings. 6 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal subdivides two 7 lots into four lots. Lot 21 is 9.27 acres, Lot 22 is 8 19.84 acres, will be revised into Lot 21A at 11.67 9 acres, and Lot 22A at 6.03 acres, and Lot 22B at 5.64 10 acres, and Lot 22C at 5.72 acres. All the lots are over 11 five acres. The property access and road frontage to 12 all lots will be on Elm Pass II. 13 We just had a public hearing, nobody spoke. 14 County Engineer requests that the Court approve the 15 revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch No. 2, Lots 21 and 16 22, Volume 3, Page 100, Precinct 2. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 21 approve the revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch Road 22 No. 2, Lots 21 and 22. Is there any other discussion? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. Those acreage 24 figures you just read are not the same that are on the 25 plat. Unless -- you were going pretty quick and I was 73 1 trying to catch up with you, but I thought they were 2 different. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He started with -- 4 MR. HASTINGS: Well, let me -- let me revise 5 all that then. They made -- they made a slight 6 adjustment, you're right, since we had the agenda 7 originally written. But the acreages are still all over 8 five acres. Lot 21A, 10.86 acres, Lot 22A, 5.37 acres, 9 lot 22B, 5.47 acres, and Lot 22C, 5.56 acres. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll move for approval 11 for the acreage delineated in the plan. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And you, Commissioner Harris, 13 seconded it? 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Uh-huh. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 16 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 17 1.18 consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10:00 19 a.m. on November 9, 2020 for a revision of plat for Elm 20 Pass Ranch No. 2, Tract 36A to be known as Elm Pass 21 Ranch No. 3. Charlie Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal subdivides Elm 23 Pass Ranch No. 2 Tract 36A into nine lots, and it will 24 be known as Elm Pass Ranch No. 3. Property access and 25 road frontage to all lots will be on Elm Pass Ranch -- 74 1 Elm Pass II and Russel Ranch Road. This subdivision is 2 partially within the floodplain and must meet 3 requirements for development within the floodplain. And 4 the smallest proposed lot size is 11 acres. 5 County Engineer requests the Court consider, 6 discuss and take appropriate action to set a public 7 hearing for 10:00 a.m. on November 9th, 2020 for 8 revision of plat for Elm Pass Ranch No. II, Tract 36A, 9 to be known as Elm Pass Ranch No. 3, Volume 6, Page 248, 10 Precinct 2. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 15 set a public hearing for November 9, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., 16 for the revision of plat of Elm Ranch Road No. II, Tract 17 36A, to be known as Elm Pass Ranch No. 3. Any other 18 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 19 five zero. 20 1.19 consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 action for the Court to conditionally approve a final 22 plat for Deer Run in Center Point. Charlie Hastings. 23 MR. HASTINGS: This subdivision proposes 24 three lots on Church Street within the high density 25 development area of Center Point. A concept plan was 75 1 approved on April 13th, 2020 allowing for Lot 1 and 2 Lot 3 to have less than 150 foot of road frontage on 3 Church Street and Swayze Street. All lots are proposed 4 to be connected to the Kerr County/WCID No. 1 central 5 sewer system. 6 This plat was submitted for review on 7 September 3rd, 2020, and review comments were completed 8 on September 22nd, 2020; therefore, the 30-day period 9 for the Court to approve, deny, or conditionally approve 10 ends on October 3rd, 2020. 11 Required water and wastewater service 12 provider agreements, Appendix M and N of the Model 13 Subdivision Rules, are lacking but they are forthcoming. 14 Existing right-of-way is 23 feet on Swayze Street and 15 40 feet on Church Street. 40 feet wide is typical for 16 streets in Center Point. 17 Therefore, additional right-of-way on the 18 north side of Swayze right-of-way to make the future 19 total 40 feet wide, is being dedicated from Lot 1 on 20 Swayze Street. 21 The plat that you have in front of you 22 doesn't have some of the comments that have been 23 addressed because of the rush to get it on the Agenda to 24 conditionally approve it, but I have been working with 25 the surveyor, and he has those forthcoming. 76 1 The County Engineer recommends that the 2 Court conditionally approve final plat for Deer Run with 3 the condition that the developer/owner provide required 4 water and wastewater service provider agreement before 5 the plat is signed by the Judge and filed by the County 6 Clerk. This is Precinct 2. 7 I will note that Commissioner Letz, I think 8 we talked about this at our last meeting, about the 9 subdivision regulations in the workshop, was able to get 10 some wording changed, a different form for Appendix M, 11 which was the water agreement through the Texas Water 12 Development Board, so I anticipate that they'll be able 13 to use that agreement rather than the one that was 14 already in our regulations. It -- it's clearer as to 15 what's being required from the water provider and 16 they're more apt to sign. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's the only 18 condition is getting the stuff from the water provider? 19 You said conditioned approved. 20 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the only 22 condition? 23 MR. HASTINGS: For Appendix M and N to 24 be provided to us, and then once we have those -- and 25 the actual -- the plat, the mylar plat. I don't know if 77 1 the surveyor's here. Looks like we have them back here 2 in our possession, so -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's just for the 4 additional right-of-way at the corner of Lot 1? 5 MR. HASTINGS: I'll confirm that real quick. 6 But I'd seen one that had been e-mailed to me, and 7 the -- yes, it does. The -- 8 (Off the record.) 9 MR. HASTINGS: He wanted to make sure it was 10 going to get approved before he finalized it. So this 11 is not the one that will be signed. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So summarize the three 13 conditions again? 14 MR. HASTINGS: The three conditions are to 15 provide Appendix M, N, and to dedicate the right-of-way 16 on Swayze Street. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And so this will 18 be conditioned -- 19 MR. HASTINGS: For Lot 1. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I move for approval 21 when those conditions have been satisfied. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 24 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 25 conditionally approve the final plat for Deer Run in 78 1 Center Point, subject to obtaining Appendix M, 2 Appendix N, and the dedication of the right-of-way off 3 Swayze Street on Lot 1. Is there any other discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. What -- 5 Charlie, what was -- what did you say about the water 6 again? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me -- I can explain 8 that. There is a -- we talked about it a little bit. 9 The Model Subdivision Rules require that the developers 10 guarantee there's water for 30 years. I visited with 11 the Assistant General Counsel of Texas Water Development 12 Board, and said that was an unreasonable request. It 13 cannot be -- nobody can really do that. 14 They agreed, and we talked about some 15 alternative language. I wrote a draft letter, sent it 16 to Joe Reynolds at the Water Development Board, who is 17 Assistant General counsel. He approved the language 18 that I wrote. And then that is the letter that we're 19 now using. 20 And it's -- basically it says that they 21 intend to provide water, that they intend to do the 22 infrastructure, and it's subject to other governmental 23 regulations. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rather than assuring 30 25 years. 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that going to affect 3 our subdivision rules? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It'll go in there as an 6 appendix but -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But is that language we 8 should adopt for everything? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Probably just -- 10 only for central sewer system and water. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: All right. That 12 sounded a little strange to me, so -- 13 MR. HASTINGS: The owner/developer is here. 14 We have been having some ongoing conversations about 15 this plat. And the way it had been submitted was for 16 all of the lots to tie on to the sewer that's out there; 17 however, I have been talking with the owner, Lynn Tomm 18 is here, and she has noted that she does have a concern 19 about Lot 1 being able to connect to the sewer, that the 20 septic system is very, very close, adjacent to her house 21 and very close to a very large oak tree that she is 22 concerned that if it does get connected to the sewer 23 system or if the septic tank ever has to be dug up that 24 she might lose that tree. 25 MS. TOMM: Then I have to address this. 80 1 That's my proposition is that right now I am declining 2 to connect. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You don't have to 4 connect. You're over one acre so you don't have to 5 connect. 6 MS. TOMM: Well, that seems to be -- isn't 7 that what's on there? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. That's not going 9 to be a condition that she has to connect, because 10 they're over one acre. 11 MR. HASTINGS: Well -- 12 MS. TOMM: Yeah. 13 MR. HASTINGS: So let's talk about our 14 regulations now. Our Model Subdivision Regulations -- 15 well, our Subdivision Regulations require if you're 16 going to have this many lots and water and wastewater is 17 available that you connect, so -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's inconsistent 19 with one acre. We've got a conflict. Which takes 20 precedence? 21 MR. HASTINGS: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We got too many 23 properties out there that were one acre or slightly more 24 than one acre that did not have to connect. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The difference is that 81 1 these are the new development and these are now subject 2 to the Model Subdivision Rules, where the additional 3 ones were grandfathered because they weren't subject to 4 the Model Subdivision Rules. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why can't her property 6 be a cut out? 7 MS. TOMM: Well, can I just add -- there is 8 a house, an existing house on Lot 1. It's 120 years old 9 and that's where the big tree is that I don't want to do 10 anything. So when you say, you know, they're new, that 11 one lot won't really be new. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, ma'am, we've 13 got -- we've got a fundamental thing here. We've got a 14 discrepancy -- an issue between what we've had in the 15 past and what we're proposing in the future. And I 16 think -- and we haven't adopted the new subdivision 17 rules. So I think we need to look at that? 18 MR. HASTINGS: The developer and the 19 surveyor in an effort to be consistent with our 20 regulations submitted it following the rules. And that 21 would be for all the lots to be connected to the sewer. 22 If we would like to do something different for Lot 1 now 23 is the time to talk about it. Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would say that let's 25 let Lot 1 not have a central sewer. 82 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, it's four acres, 2 right? 3 MR. HASTINGS: It is. 4 MS. TOMM: It's four acres. Right. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think we're -- I 7 think we have the ability to do that and be consistent 8 still with the Model Subdivision Rules. 9 MR. HASTINGS: We should add one more 10 condition on the plat. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I want to make -- 12 MR. HASTINGS: A note that excludes Lot 1. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll make a motion that 14 we approve with all the conditions with the exception of 15 Lot 1 being four acres, not having to attach to the 16 central sewer system. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second that. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we've got a motion 20 by Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 21 conditionally approve the final plat for Deer Run in 22 Center Point, excluding Lot 1 from having to hook up to 23 sewer. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Perfect. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? 83 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question on -- 2 did Moser and Belew make the original motion because it 3 wasn't Moser. 4 MRS. DOWDY: I have Moser and Letz. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, I didn't -- I 6 didn't realize you had -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: How did I miss that? What was 9 the motion? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The first motion was the 11 three conditions. And then there was a fourth condition 12 that was relating to Lot 1, and I will agree with that. 13 JUDGE KELLY: You'll agree to -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll agree with -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Well, I'll 16 withdraw my second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We need a second anyway. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Letz is second. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No -- I made the second, 20 and I agreed to the amendment that Commissioner Moser 21 made. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So there are four 23 conditions. One is Appendix M, Appendix N, dedication 24 of a right-of-way off Swayze on Lot 1, and to exclude 25 Lot 1 from having to hookup to the sewer system. 84 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Everybody agree on that 3 one? Okay. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 4 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's like this all the 6 time. It wasn't just you. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Lynn. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Miss Tomm. 9 MS. TOMM: No, thank all of you. I was 10 really, you know, holding my breath. I'm just a tree 11 lover, what can I say, and I've got -- 12 MR. HASTINGS: What's the canopy on this 13 tree? 14 MS. TOMM: 70 feet, Charlie. 15 MR. HASTINGS: 70 foot canopy. 16 MS. TOMM: It's 70 feet both ways. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Oh, that's a big oak. 18 MS. TOMM: And otherwise it's just a little 19 old house on the prairie, and then you get this -- this 20 gorgeous oak. I mean it's just -- 21 MR. HASTINGS: We don't know what makes it 22 grow so big. 23 MS. TOMM: I think Ashli did that one. 24 Thank you all. Did you have -- do I have to do 25 anything? 85 1 MR. HASTINGS: No. You're -- oh, let me get 2 your name and address for the record. 3 MS. TOMM: It's Lynn Tomm, 125 Oak Park, 4 Boerne, Texas 78006. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Beautiful property. 6 MS. TOMM: Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.20 consider, discuss 8 and take appropriate action for the Court to approve 9 Change Order No. 4 to the East Kerr/Center Point 10 Wastewater Collection Project Phase I in the amount of 11 $445,978.21, and an increase in contract time of 66 12 days. Charlie Hastings. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The attached 14 Change Order No. 4 in your packet is for additional work 15 by the contractor, including additional lengths for 16 private service connections, coordinating with Atmos 17 Energy on unmarked gas services that interfered with 18 construction, special construction associated with 19 service connections to houses, special connection and 20 demolition associated with an existing septic beneath 21 the structure at the Hill Country Cabinet Shop, 22 additional sewer service connections to structures, 23 demolition of septic tanks and special property 24 restoration for additional sewer services, a tap for the 25 floating weir at the Comfort Wastewater Treatment Plant, 86 1 flowable fill demolition of septic tank at map id 282, 2 223, and 171, additional hauling of septage from larger 3 than normal septic tanks, abandonment of septic tanks 4 under structures and connections under structures, 5 schedule delays in getting services ready for 6 connections, replacement of services to make connection 7 by gravity instead of pumps, and material escalation for 8 steel pipe used in bores. 9 We do have the design engineer here if 10 there's any questions. The County Engineer recommends 11 that the Court approve Change Order No. 4 to the East 12 Kerr/Center Point Wastewater Collection Project Phase I 13 in the amount of $445,978.21 and an increase in contract 14 time of 66 days. Precincts 2 and 3. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Charlie, just for the 16 record, that -- those necessary funds are in the budget? 17 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that correct? 19 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And I think 21 we've gone through these changes and proposals, 22 Commissioner Letz and I with you and project engineer at 23 Tetra Tech ad nauseam, so I move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 87 1 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 2 approve Change Order No. 4 to the East Kerr/Center Point 3 Wastewater Collection Project, Phase I, in the amount of 4 $445,978.21, and an increase in contract time of 66 5 days. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. And it may be 7 to Don, I'm not sure which one of you. There was a long 8 list of change order requests from Pesado. This comes 9 and approves some of them that primarily Don thought 10 could be justified, but there were some that were left 11 undone. Are there still negotiations on a few of those 12 other items or is this the end of it? 13 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. Yes. This is, what, 14 about six of the ten items? 15 MR. BURGER: Yes. 16 MR. HASTINGS: I don't remember how many -- 17 MR. BURGER: Yeah. There's -- there's still 18 two or three items that we're waiting for additional 19 information on from the contractor. 20 MR. HASTINGS: Yeah. We -- Don had 21 rejected, based on the information they had provided, 22 their request for reimbursement for certain items, he 23 said you don't have enough data to back it up. And so 24 they said, tell you what, let's pull that out. Let's at 25 least get what we can agree on in front of the Court. 88 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I just wanted to 2 check on that. And so there may be one more change 3 order coming in -- 4 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- that relates to that. 6 And I will also just say Don Burger held their feet to 7 the fire on these and he was not overly generous. He 8 did the right thing. I mean, he -- if they can justify 9 it and I think the list here is pretty all encompassing. 10 So thank you, Don, for being so proficient at that. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, out of curiosity, 12 what -- how much more of it will be outstanding? How 13 much more was in question, Don? 14 MR. BURGER: I don't have an exact number, 15 but it -- it's -- it would be several hundred more 16 thousand dollars. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a substantial 18 amount. 19 MR. BURGER: It's still -- yes, it's a 20 substantial amount is what they're asking for. But I 21 said they had not been able to prove it up to my 22 satisfaction at this point in time so I wouldn't 23 recommend that until they have. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There are funds in the 25 budget, overall budget, to -- 89 1 MR. BURGER: Yeah. Right. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- pay for it if needed. 3 But we're just not going to pay unless we absolutely 4 have to. 5 MR. BURGER: Exactly. Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Good. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then those in favor 8 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Don. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.21 consider, discuss 11 and take appropriate action for the Court to award a 12 contract for construction of the Kerr County/Center 13 Point Wastewater Collection Project Phase II, pending 14 approval by the Texas Water Development Board, and 15 authorize the County Judge to execute the contract when 16 approved by the Texas Water Development Board. Charlie 17 Hastings. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. Bids were 19 received, opened and read aloud publicly at the Kerr 20 County Courthouse in the Commissioners' Court chambers 21 on September 3rd, 2020. The results of the bid opening 22 were presented to the Commissioners' Court at the 23 meeting on September 4th -- 14th, 2020 and officially 24 received. 25 The bids have been reviewed by the County 90 1 Engineer and the Engineering Consultant on the project, 2 Tetra Tech. Tetra Tech's recommendation and tabulation 3 of bids is attached hereto for the Commissioners' to 4 review. 5 The low bid for the project is from D Guerra 6 Construction, LLC for $9,029,557.52 for all work bid, 7 including Contract No. 1 financed by the Texas Water 8 Development Board, Clean Water State Revolving Fund 9 funds, and Economically Disadvantaged Area Program 10 funds, and Contract No. 2 financed by the Texas 11 Department of Agriculture, Construction Economically 12 Disadvantaged Area Program funds, and Contract No. 3 13 financed by TDA CDF funds. 14 The funds from the Texas Department of 15 Agriculture are grant funds to connect low to moderate 16 income households to the project. After analyzing the 17 bids, the cost to connect the remaining low to moderate 18 income households is not sufficient to spend down the 19 entire amount currently granted by TDA for this project. 20 The project team needs additional time to 21 find additional low to moderate income households in the 22 project area if they exist to better define the budget 23 for this portion of the work. 24 Therefore, at this time no recommendation is 25 being made for award of Contracts No. 2 and No. 3. 91 1 Again, Contracts 2 and 3 are for the actual connections 2 connecting houses. An award at this time may create 3 unnecessary financial risks to the project. 4 Therefore, a tentative award is recommended 5 for Contract No. 1 for the Kerr County/Center Point 6 Wastewater Collection Project Phase II to D Guerra 7 Construction, LLC in the amount of the low bid for 8 Contract No. 1 of $8,055,964.52. You can see the 9 Engineer's recommendation of award and bid tabulation 10 for additional information. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There was -- the bids 12 came in and this particular bid was low, very low 13 compared to the others. I think Don and Charlie have 14 been through it in great detail, checked the references 15 on the contractor. 16 MR. BURGER: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: With that -- and Don 18 made a term "should cost", an estimate of what he 19 thought it should cost, if it was consistent with that. 20 So the contractor is -- looks like he's not only low 21 bidder, but qualified. 22 And then a complication came in, as Charlie 23 just brought it on, was not awarding the contracts based 24 on the grants from TDA because of the low to moderate 25 income number of people that qualified, and so to 92 1 postpone that -- those portions of the contract award to 2 a later date. 3 MR. BURGER: That's correct. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that a summary? 5 MR. BURGER: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 MR. HASTINGS: I need to also read into the 8 record for the purpose of -- since there's multiple 9 contracts, you need to make sure that when you analyze 10 that, that it doesn't make somebody else eligible to win 11 the award. 12 Contract No. 1 for all other construction 13 funded by grants and loans from a combination tax and 14 surplus revenue certificates of obligation series 2018, 15 the Texas Water Development Board, Clean Water State 16 Revolving Fund loan forgiveness funds, Texas Water 17 Development Board Economically Distressed Areas Program 18 funds, and a grant from the United States Environmental 19 Protection Agency. 20 Contract No. 2 is for service connections, 21 septic tank mitigation and subsidiary work funded by the 22 Colonia Economically Distressed Areas program 23 administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture. 24 TxCDBG No. 7217045. 25 Contract No. 3 was for service connections, 93 1 septic tank mitigation, and subsidiary work funded by 2 the Colonia Fund Construction, CFC, administered by TDA, 3 TxCDBG No. 7218045. 4 And the County has reviewed all bids and 5 determined whether awarded per contract, or awarding 6 total bid for Phases II and III will result in the same 7 low bidder, and that the bids remain competitive in 8 nature. 9 County Engineer and Tetra Tech request that 10 the Court take the appropriate action to award a 11 contract for construction of the Kerr County Center 12 Point Wastewater Collection Project Phase II, pending 13 approval by the Texas Water Development Board, and to 14 authorize the County Judge to execute the contract when 15 approved by the Texas Water Development Board. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's for Contract 17 1 and not contract 2? 18 MR. HASTINGS: Contract 1 of Phase II, yes, 19 sir. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So move. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 23 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 24 award a contract for construction of the Kerr County 25 Center Point Wastewater Collection Project, Phase II, 94 1 pending approval by the Texas Water Development Board, 2 and that's Contract No. 1, D Guerra Construction 3 Company, correct? 4 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The amount was eight 8 million? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Eight million, what, 10 Charlie? 11 MR. HASTINGS: $8,055,964.52. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question I have is, 13 the unit pricing from Guerra on a lot of the pipe being 14 buried is really low. And we're going through some 15 pretty rugged terrain on this phase. Did you talk to 16 them about that? 17 MR. BURGER: I did. They feel like that 18 they understand the terrain, and the field conditions 19 here, and that they bidded it appropriately for what 20 they believe their production. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's an Austin 22 company so they should know. 23 MR. BURGER: They are, yeah. Yes. They are 24 out of Austin, they should know the Texas Hill Country 25 and the soils that we have here. They have paid 95 1 attention to the soils reports that were provided, 2 they've also been out on the site and walked around and 3 looked, kicked the dirt so to speak, so they feel -- 4 feel comfortable. That was the first question I asked. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And really those 6 numbers -- it's just that they're up to 50 percent lower 7 than the current contract that we're finishing up and 50 8 percent lower than everyone else's in some of those 9 categories. 10 MR. BURGER: Yeah. They're not hitting us 11 with a big premium to go deeper -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 13 MR. BURGER: -- is really what it is. 14 They're -- shallow pipe is -- is competitive and lower 15 than everybody else pretty much, but it's right in where 16 we expected it to be. And the -- as you go deeper the 17 costs don't increase that much, so -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 19 MR. BURGER: -- that was something else that 20 I noticed there. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It may have scared the 22 other ones. Didn't scare these guys. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I mean, this is a 24 big company. They should know. Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's take a vote. 96 1 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 2 Thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How long do you 4 anticipate hearing from the Water Development Board to 5 approve? 6 MR. BURGER: You know, it's -- the Water 7 Development Board currently is not moving as fast as 8 we'd like, to be honest. They are taking a good 30 days 9 to review things, so that's -- it will probably be about 10 a month before we're able to sign contracts and issue 11 notice to proceed. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Six months ago 13 our schedule was to begin September 1st, so -- 14 MR. BURGER: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- looks like we're 16 going to be two months behind. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When do you anticipate 18 having -- and I presume you'll have a similar format for 19 monthly meetings or weekly meetings like last time? 20 MR. BURGER: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When do you anticipate 22 having them? That first meeting, will it be after 23 notice to proceed or -- 24 MR. BURGER: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 97 1 MR. BURGER: We'll have a pre-construction 2 contract -- pre-construction conference about the same 3 time as the notice to proceed. So typically, we would 4 give the contractor his notice to proceed at that 5 meeting or immediately before or immediately after. So 6 we'll have -- and that -- we'll invite everybody to that 7 meeting. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's proceed on to 10 Item 1.22 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 11 for the Court to award a contract for construction of 12 the Kerr County Center Point Wastewater Collection 13 Project, Phase III, pending approval by the Texas Water 14 Development Board, and authorize the County Judge to 15 execute the contract when approved by the Texas Water 16 Development Board. Charlie Hastings. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Bids were received open and 18 read aloud pubically in the Kerr County Courthouse in 19 the Commissioners' Court chambers on September 3rd, 20 2020. The results of the bid opening were presented to 21 the Commissioners' Court at the meeting on September 22 14th, 2020 and officially received. 23 The bids have been reviewed by the County 24 Engineer and the Engineering Consultant on the project, 25 Tetra Tech. Tetra Tech's recommendations and tabulation 98 1 of the bids is attached hereto for the Commissioners 2 review. 3 The low bid for the project is from D Guerra 4 Construction, LLC for $6,751,688.55 for all work, 5 including Contract No. 1 financed by the Texas Water 6 Development Board EDAP funds, and Contract No. 2 7 financed by the Texas Department of Agriculture CDF 8 funds. 9 The funds from the Texas Department of 10 Agriculture are grant funds to connect low to moderate 11 income households to the project. After analyzing the 12 bids, the cost to connect the remaining low to moderate 13 income households is not sufficient to spend down the 14 entire amount currently granted by TDA for this project. 15 The project team needs additional time to find 16 additional low to moderate income households in the 17 project area, if they exist, to better define the budget 18 for this portion of the work; therefore, at this time no 19 recommendation is being made for award of Contract No. 20 2. An award at this time may create unnecessary 21 financial risk to the project. 22 Therefore, a tentative award is recommended 23 for Contract No. 1 for the Kerr County Center Point 24 Wastewater Collection Project, Phase III, to D Guerra 25 Construction, LLC in the amount of the low bid for 99 1 Contract No. 1 of $6,428,688.55. You can see the 2 Engineer's recommendation of the award and the bid 3 tabulation for additional information. 4 As I mentioned before, the County has 5 reviewed all bids and determined that whether awarded 6 for contract, or awarding total bid for Phases II and 7 III will result in the same low bidder and that the bid 8 remains competitive in nature. 9 For Phase III Contract No. 1, was for all 10 other construction funded by grants and loans from a 11 combination of tax and surplus revenue certificates of 12 obligation, Series 2018, the Texas Water Development 13 Board, CWSRF loan forgiveness fund, the Texas Water 14 Development Board Economically Distressed Areas Program 15 funds, and a grant from the United States Environmental 16 Protection Agency. 17 Contract No. 2 was for services -- service 18 connections, septic tank mitigation and subsidiary work 19 funded by the Colonia Fund Construction administered by 20 TDA, TxCDBG No. 7218055. 21 County Engineer and Consultant to the 22 County, Tetra Tech, requests that the Court take 23 appropriate action to award a contract for construction 24 of the Kerr County/Center Point Wastewater Collection 25 Project Phase III, pending approval by the Texas Water 100 1 Development Board, and to authorize the County Judge to 2 execute the contract when approved by the Texas Water 3 Development Board to D Guerra Construction, LLC in the 4 amount of $6,428,688.55. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 9 award the contract for construction of Kerr 10 County/Center Point Wastewater Collection Project Phase 11 III, pending approval by the Texas Water Development 12 Board. Any other discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have two questions. 14 One is you mentioned in there that the project would be 15 at risk. I don't remember the wording, but is that 16 because of underfunding, or is that some kind of fall 17 back if we -- 18 MR. HASTINGS: It's actually because of 19 overfunding. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 21 MR. HASTINGS: So if we award a contract for 22 that work and then decide that we don't have enough LMI 23 connections to actually have installed with those funds 24 and have to rescind that contract, then the contractor's 25 going to expect payment for his bonds and insurance and 101 1 things like that. And so we don't -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. So -- 3 MR. HASTINGS: -- want to take the risk of 4 awarding a contract that we might have to rescind 5 because we don't have enough work to do under that 6 contract. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that brings me to my 8 second question, which is what method is employed to 9 determine how many hookups are required? What do you -- 10 how do you do it? 11 MR. HASTINGS: There's -- well, our other 12 team member GrantWorks who's been administering the 13 grant -- the projects here doing administrative work, 14 they have a team of people that contact the folks in the 15 community. They've been sending out letters, they've 16 been knocking on doors and making phone calls, things 17 like that. Trying to get in touch with various 18 residents to determine -- to ask them to provide 19 applications and provide income information, etc., to 20 show that they're low to moderate income, and they may 21 qualify for that funding. 22 You know that response is entirely voluntary 23 by the residence. And so some do volunteer that 24 information and have qualified. But there's still, what 25 was it, 200 and some customers that have not responded 102 1 at all. And so out of that, there may be some 2 additional low to moderate income residents that we need 3 to identify. But we need more than what we have 4 identified at this point to be able to spend all of 5 grant money that we have. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that was the main 7 part. I think we're up to 115 people and estimate it'll 8 probably go up to 150 or something, depending on how 9 many -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That he's talking 11 about? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Right. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So there's a point at 14 which you -- you have enough and you can proceed and -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Once you reach a point 16 where nobody else is responding then you say okay, you 17 know, this is how many we have, this is the funds that 18 we have and we didn't want to do that prematurely, okay, 19 and leave people out and leave money on the table. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We had -- it depends on 21 which pocket the money comes from is the issue. With 22 low to moderate income it has to come out of one pile. 23 If it's not, or we can't verify it, then it comes out of 24 a different. There's funds available, it just depends 25 on where the money comes from. 103 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the repercussions if 2 there -- I mean obviously there's -- there's at some 3 point a good faith effort made and provable? 4 MR. BURGER: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So once that's executed 6 do you -- 7 MR. BURGER: Then we can -- then we'll spend 8 down as much of the grant money as we can. Part of the 9 potential is, is that we have too much money and we'll 10 have to give some back to the State. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I mean, these 12 two know a lot of this stuff but we don't. 13 MR. BURGER: I understand. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So we'll all just be -- 15 MR. HASTINGS: It's not a bad problem to 16 have. 17 MR. BURGER: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the reason we 19 have almost weekly, monthly meetings on this project. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, but after two 21 we're tapped out. They're the only two that -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's right. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- to begin with. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I think 25 Commissioner Letz and I would be willing to let you -- 104 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can start -- you can 2 start going. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No, I don't want to go. 4 I just want to get the -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And let's go ahead and 6 vote. Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five 7 zero. 8 Item 1.23 consider, discuss and take 9 appropriate action to designate a day of the week on 10 which the Court shall convene in a regular term for FY 11 20/21 pursuant to Local Government Code provision. 12 And this is -- we meet on Mondays, second 13 and fourth Mondays. We have to renew every year. We 14 can keep doing that or change it. It's sitting on your 15 plate. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we have our 17 regular meetings on the second and fourth Monday. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 21 continue on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. 22 Any other discussion? All those in favor raise your 23 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 24 Next item on the Agenda is 1.24 consider, 25 discuss and take appropriate action to terminate Hazard 105 1 Pay Policy and the Court Order authorizing hazard pay 2 for public safety personnel, effective September 21, 3 2020. Court Order #38277. 4 This comes up because there's some new 5 interpretations of the Treasury guidelines. If you want 6 to address that, you're certainly welcome to. But just 7 basically summarize, the across the board raise that we 8 gave the new interpretation from the Treasury says we 9 cannot do that. 10 I've talked to the Sheriff about this and 11 offered to postpone having this on the agenda when he 12 could be here. He is perfectly fine with us terminating 13 the hazard pay policy at this point. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So did they get paid 15 for that interim time or not? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Through September 21. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And those -- those -- we paid 19 that and then we send it to TDEM, we've talked about 20 them today, submitted it to TDEM for reimbursement. 21 They have approved reimbursing the hazard pay through 22 September 21 but they will not approve it going forward. 23 So recommend we terminate it. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that because the of 25 the emergency order? 106 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, there's these Treasury 2 guidelines that come out. And the earlier 3 interpretation was that you do it. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And then they -- what was it, 6 September 2nd they set new guidelines and it says, well, 7 we changed our minds, can't do it. So -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Too many people 9 applying. 10 JUDGE KELLY: I think that's probably the 11 case. I don't know. But that's where we are. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 13 we terminate the hazard pay policy, Court Order 38277, 14 effective September 21. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Jonathan, there are two 16 different things. The hazard pay policy will be one and 17 then the Court Order authorizing hazard pay for public 18 safety personnel, I believe, is that Court Order 38277. 19 So -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So I'll make a 21 motion that we terminate the hazard pay policy. One 22 item. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The policy or the Court 24 Order? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The policy. 107 1 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to do it in two 2 steps, right? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: I think you can do it in two 5 steps. That would be clean. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we're going to do 7 the policy first and then we're going to do the order. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We're going to 9 eliminate a policy? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. That we pay 11 hazard pay. That's it. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why eliminate the 13 policy? Why don't -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have the money. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I understand. But why 16 not have the policy in the event that it's necessary or 17 needed in the future? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Because the policy says across 19 the board. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that was the part 21 that they said we couldn't do? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. All right. 25 Makes sense. 108 1 JUDGE KELLY: I'm glad they're going to do 2 that. I'm glad they caught it early. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Exactly. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So we have the motion by 6 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 7 terminate the hazard pay policy, which is Public Safety 8 personnel. Any other discussion on that? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Are we going to be 10 dinged for having done it for however many weeks? 11 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think so. This 12 seemed -- this was -- my impression from sitting in on 13 one of these conversations, this was just matter of 14 fact. They caught TDEM by surprise. They thought it 15 was in the -- you know, when they changed the 16 interpretation, so -- 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Also, I think Jonathan's 18 motion was to terminate the hazard pay policy generally. 19 I don't think it was just for the -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: -- public safety personnel. 22 I think that will be the second part, the second motion. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So -- so to clarify 24 then, the motion is to terminate the hazard pay policy, 25 period. 109 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Period. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 MRS. SHELTON: And we -- we are amending -- 5 they did say that they were not going to cover some of 6 this, but we are going back and we are going to appeal 7 the decision. And we do have other funds that we've 8 spent that we can use instead of the hazard pay, so we 9 will be fine. We will get the money back. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It'd be a different 11 subject. We'll come back with that. 12 MRS. SHELTON: I don't -- we don't have to 13 come back for that. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That will be handled 15 through your office? 16 MRS. SHELTON: It'll be handled through our 17 office, it's just a reporting. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That will come up in a 19 budget amendment. 20 MRS. SHELTON: Shouldn't. Shouldn't. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what you're saying 22 is part of it will be -- if it's not covered by the 23 grant, we're going to cover it some other way? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's other funds in 25 the grant. 110 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, other funds in the 2 grant. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Other funds that we can 4 apply for under the grant. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Still under the 6 grant. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Still under the grant. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you. I 9 didn't understand. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it wouldn't be in 11 our budget. It wouldn't come out of our budget. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It'll come out of the 13 grant. 14 MRS. SHELTON: It'll come out of the grant. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Out of the grant. The 16 money that was budgeted through the grant? 17 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Which we already have 19 and we haven't used it all. 20 MRS. SHELTON: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it'll be spent from 22 that. 23 MRS. SHELTON: Correct. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Everybody got this? 111 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yep. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's your motion? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To sever the hazard pay 4 policy. 5 MRS. SHELTON: That's it. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Period. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's perfect. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 10 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 11 Second motion. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second motion will be 13 that we term -- or cancel Court Order 38277, which was 14 the hazard pay for public safety personnel. 15 JUDGE KELLY: I want to make sure, we're -- 16 we're not rescinding, we're terminating that order, 17 right? 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Terminating that Order 19 effective September 21st, 2020. 20 JUDGE KELLY: But it's still in effect with 21 the part that we paid. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Right. 23 Terminated effective September 21st. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 112 1 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 2 terminate Court Order 38277, which was hazard pay for 3 public safety personnel. Any other discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, to make this 5 clear because of what the Auditor said, that we have -- 6 this money has to be spent a certain way. It has to be 7 earmarked. So if we were to -- for anybody that would 8 ask the question, why can't you continue the hazard pay 9 and just pay it another way, this was coming out of that 10 fund. 11 MRS. SHELTON: TDEM made it clear to us on 12 the 22nd that there were issues with what we had. We 13 had contacted them on the 1st, on the 2nd, we had a 14 conversation with them on the 8th. We've turned over 15 more information to them on the 9th. On the 18th they 16 sent back the first e-mail to us that said, oh, there 17 may be issues with it based on clarification from the 18 Treasury. And so that was when we started looking at 19 it. That was late on Friday afternoon. 20 On Monday is whenever they sent the 21 additional information to us or on the 22nd. I don't 22 know if that was Monday or Tuesday. It's when they said 23 their recommendation was for us to stop paying hazard 24 pay. They -- we are going to appeal it. Just to say, 25 you know, we -- we followed y'all's guidelines, we've 113 1 done it all through -- we've got a timeline situated, so 2 we will be appealing their decision. But we do have 3 other expenses that we can use for that money. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I just want 5 everybody to understand that we -- they don't just send 6 you a bunch of money and you can use it any way you 7 choose or there's different ways you can use it and if 8 you use it in the wrong way you've gotta pay it back. 9 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Which costs the 11 taxpayers. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Uh-huh. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's been -- it's 14 also more for the public, the Treasury Department sets 15 out the rules on how you play the game with all this 16 grant funds, and the Treasury Department has changed the 17 rules several times in the middle of the game. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, there's been a 19 lot of moving the goal posts and -- 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh yeah. It's very 21 fluid. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And just so that the public 23 does know, this has been communicated with the Sheriff's 24 office, step by step. Every step of the way. 25 Okay. Then those in favor raise your hand. 114 1 Five zero. 2 Item 1.25 consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action to approve the revised Payroll 4 Verification form. Miss Doss. 5 MRS. DOSS: Good morning. I just wanted to 6 add the last sentence, it should be in your packet, to 7 include the longevity date in the payroll verification 8 letter. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Due to clarification, I 10 move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 14 approve the revised payroll Verification Form, which 15 provides, what, the anniversary date? 16 MRS. DOSS: The longevity date. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Longevity date. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Longevity date. Any other 19 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, 20 unanimous. 21 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Approval agenda. Ms. Auditor, 23 let's pay the bills. 24 MRS. SHELTON: All right. Invoices for 25 today's consideration, $277,039.20 for Kerr County. The 115 1 Airport, $10,518.38. Adult Probation for the 20/21 2 year, $14,365.52. Adult Probation for the 19/20 Fiscal 3 Year, $25.02. Juvenile Probation, $2,711.00. For the 4 216th DA Forfeiture Fund, $709.65. And for the 198th DA 5 Forfeiture Fund, $2,112.50. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 9 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 10 pay the bills as presented. Is there any discussion? 11 Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 12 Budget Amendments. 13 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have 13 today. On the 14 first page, adjustments No. 1 through 9 are operating 15 account line item transfers for Ag Extension, Animal 16 Control, District Clerk, Sheriff, County Attorney, 17 non-departmental, County Engineer, Road & Bridge, and 18 transfer accounts. 19 You will see on Page 2 and Page 3, 20 adjustments No. 10, 11, 12, and 13 are all payroll 21 related. This is to account for our payroll accruals at 22 the end of the year. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And 13 is payroll? 25 MR. ROBLES: Yes. It's payroll related as 116 1 well. 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? 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just -- I have 8 something I want to ask. On the conferences, James, 9 from the County Attorney, you didn't go to any 10 conferences. So you just put it in -- put it back in 11 your -- 12 MR. ROBLES: No. It's taking it from 13 conferences and putting into group insurance. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, it's insurance? 15 MR. ROBLES: Or, I'm sorry, County Attorney. 16 We're putting it as a capital outlay. This is for the 17 flooring. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because I know nobody 19 went to any conferences. But I thought there might be a 20 specific need for it, taking it from that line to 21 another. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Remember, a few weeks ago we 23 came and talked about the flooring for my office? 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: They're working on that 117 1 flooring right now. And that was some of the money that 2 we used to go ahead and do that -- that flooring. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: So that's why it was 5 transferred out of there. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: You should come and see it 8 next week after we have it cleaned up. I'll let y'all 9 know. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We'll wait until next week. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 13 Or did we already do that? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 15 hand. Unanimous, five oh. Late bills. 16 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Auditor reports. 18 MRS. SHELTON: In front of you, you will see 19 the graph for the August -- the month of August. On the 20 general fund on revenue we've collected $26,530,000. On 21 the expenditures down at -- the graph at the bottom, 22 we've spent about 22 million of that. For fire 23 protection, we've collected 1.5 million. We've spent 24 about 1.5 million. 25 On Road & Bridge we've collected 3.2 million 118 1 and we've expended 3.2 million. And then in Indigent 2 Services we've collected $232,000 and we've expended 3 181,000. And then in debt service we've collected 4 $2,000,000, and we have spent about $2,000,000. 5 Sales tax still continues to remain strong. 6 For the month of August we collected $437,000. And then 7 we -- for the month of October we will collect $417,000. 8 So it continues to remain strong. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So buying local seems to work. 10 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 12 MRS. SHELTON: Any questions? 13 JUDGE KELLY: No. 14 Item 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. August 2020. 16 Treasurer's monthly report, Tracy Soldan. Fines, 17 judgments, and jury fees collected, J.P. 4 Bill 18 Ragsdale, County Clerk Jackie "JD" Dowdy, Animal Control 19 Services, Director Reagan Givens, Environmental Health, 20 OSSF, Director Ashli Badders. I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Motion was made by 23 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commission Belew to 24 approve the monthly reports as presented. Is there any 25 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero. 119 1 Information Agenda. 3.1 status reports from 2 Department Heads. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Court Orders. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, court orders. I'm sorry. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Court Orders from our 6 September 21st meeting. I don't have them right here, 7 but I did look through them all and they all look to be 8 in order so I make a motion to approve. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 11 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commission Harris to 12 approve the Court Orders as presented. Is there any 13 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 14 five zero. 15 3.1 status reports from Department Heads. 16 Okay. 17 There being none, 3.2 status reports from 18 Elected Officials. Okay. 19 There being none, 3.3 status reports from 20 Liaison Commissioners. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Something on the 22 Airport. The Airport is wrestling with the hangar 23 construction. There's -- we had a -- a plan to have ten 24 T-hangars built for $900,000, I think. What was our 25 share of that, Jonathan, a third of that I think, 120 1 something like that. City and County. 20 percent, 30 2 percent. 3 Anyway, with the new procedures with TxDOT 4 Aviation, that cost has gone up to 1.6 million. So it's 5 put on the back burner. I think the Airport Board is 6 going to meet with -- try to meet with TxDOT Aviation 7 and find out what's going on there and what they can do 8 about the policy. 9 In the meantime, they're still looking at 10 box hangars. There's been some interest by private 11 people to build some box hangars out there at their 12 expense. But it would just be a ground lease from the 13 Airport so that would be less revenue. 14 But anyway, the Airport will come forward at 15 the right time to present to the Court what's being done 16 on that. And there are a couple of other -- look like 17 significant business opportunities out at the Airport. 18 That will come through KEDC and/or the Airport. So 19 can't go into any detail right now, but it's all good. 20 JUDGE KELLY: That's good. Any others? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll probably put it on 22 the Agenda coming up or circulate it. Happy State Bank 23 has come up with a rendering of what they want the sign 24 to look like at the Hill Country Youth Event Center per 25 our agreement with them. And the Court does get to 121 1 approve it so it'll be an agenda item. But it looks 2 pretty classy, nice. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Other than the colors. 5 But anyway. It's their colors. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Colors you don't like. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, if you go to 8 Abilene -- if you go anywhere out in West Texas you see 9 Happy State Bank. It's the same colors they use 10 everywhere. Kind of, you know, orange and gold, I 11 believe. But it -- it's all right. It looks good. But 12 we'll put that on the agenda and proceed with that. 13 And I guess I will have another interesting 14 thing. I happened to have dinner the other night with 15 the head of the San Antonio livestock show. And they 16 are planning to have a sale -- I mean, a show this year. 17 And they are planning to limit it only to exhibitors and 18 families. Be very tightly controlled as the number of 19 attendees. Their concern is more for the youth, not the 20 public as a whole. And they're pretty adamant that 21 they're going to go on with the show that will -- all 22 the 4-H and FFA kids can participate in. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But they will have a 24 sale? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They will have a sale. 122 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they're going to 3 have -- they're trying to figure out how to do a rodeo. 4 They want to have a rodeo -- well, they're going to have 5 a rodeo, they're trying to figure out how to have people 6 at the rodeo, other than the performers. So that was 7 good news. So they're working with that. And that 8 certainly will have an impact for a lot of the kids in 9 Kerr County. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Just a brief update on our 11 Public Defender's Office. Our local committee, we're 12 moving right along. We're in the organizational 13 document stage and job descriptions for the chief 14 defender, public defender. Our local committee has met, 15 and will meet again tomorrow. And I think one more week 16 after that, trying to finalize everything. Some really 17 good input. 18 The five judges -- four of the five judges, 19 let me say, met last week at the AACOG meeting. So 20 they've got more stuff to get back to the local 21 committee. Everybody seems to be working well and we're 22 on -- we're on track probably to have the organizational 23 documents ready to finalize mid to late October. And 24 got the schedule yesterday that I sent out. So it's -- 25 it's very busy and very productive and very 123 1 constructive. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So if all went 3 according to plans the schedule would be to begin -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: We would like to be able to 5 form the oversight board by the end of the month. We 6 would like to be able to try to have the job posting for 7 the Chief Public Defender within a week or so, and try 8 to start that interview process with the oversight board 9 and everybody at the end of the month, end of October, 10 that range. 11 And there will be temporary office space 12 available in the building as they complete the ADA 13 construction process. And then, hopefully, we'll have a 14 chief public defender hired sometime in probably mid 15 November, would be my guess. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So before the end of 17 the year -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- we'll have the 20 public defender's office. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. And we will -- we will 22 have -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Probably be December. 24 Is that fair? 25 JUDGE KELLY: I think we'll have an office 124 1 open probably -- a small office, a temporary office, 2 open probably -- well, late November. Probably. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Right after Thanksgiving. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The chief public 6 defender, he will have a lot of work to do to get it 7 operational to do any public defending. That probably 8 won't take place probably until early January sometime. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, probably. But the good 10 part is, we will have all the counties, we'll have all 11 of our interlocal agreements, we'll have our oversight 12 board, it will be -- we're talking about having -- 13 we'll be talking about that more tomorrow, about how 14 we're going to staff that. 15 Looks like it's going to probably be an 16 11-person board. And -- and my guesstimate is probably 17 every county is going to have a couple representatives 18 on there. And they'll probably be chosen by their 19 Commissioners' Courts. And we'll have three. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Five counties. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Five counties. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And fully staffed, how 23 many people will participate? 24 JUDGE KELLY: When it's fully staffed, which 25 probably won't be until late next year, we'll have a 125 1 total of 31 employees. If -- if we need that many. 2 We're not sure what we'll really need at this point. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 4 JUDGE KELLY: That's what the grant is for. 5 Ten of which would probably be in Hondo. Twenty-one of 6 which would be here. And of those 21 would be 7 attorneys, and fully staffed at that level, and ten 8 would be staff. Support staff. 9 But we're very busy, but we're all working 10 well together and we're making progress. And that's -- 11 it's really fulfilling to see so many different people 12 working in the same direction and get so much done in 13 such a short period of time. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good job. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Anything new with CIP? 16 JUDGE KELLY: In CIP, we've got -- we have 17 submitted a contract on the property in West Kerr 18 County, which was refused. And we have identified three 19 other sites that we're actively looking at. We'll be 20 considering those the next time CIP meets, which I think 21 will probably be not this Wednesday, but the following 22 Wednesday. 23 So should have something to bring back to 24 you in West Kerr County in the next couple weeks. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've also had feedback 126 1 on the property -- the potential property for the Animal 2 Control facility as well. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. For the -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Animal Control. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is on Spur 100? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, yeah. The five acres. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The five acres. Okay. 8 Okay. Fantastic. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So we made -- I think we're 10 submitting an offer on that -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- and we'll get a report back 13 on that. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the only thing that 15 we've effectively consummated is Earl Garrett 16 sanctuary -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- and so forth, and 19 the lot. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: West Kerr County is 22 still negotiating. I mean, looking at their negotiating 23 on Spur 100 -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I think -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- five acres. 127 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The big news is that we 2 weren't able to come to an agreement on West Kerr -- on 3 two of the big properties, so we're moving on to other 4 properties. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Okay. Good 6 deal. And -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: And the committee's actively 8 doing due diligence on everything. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Super. And with that 10 would be looking then at the sale of property that -- we 11 have three properties, for the animal facility, Animal 12 Control facility, the Maintenance facility, and Ranchero 13 Road. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maintenance will depend 15 a little bit on what -- how it all falls together. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And Ranchero Road we've 18 already had interest expressed by one group. So -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Good deal. 20 JUDGE KELLY: -- we're -- you know, the 21 County's busy. It's all good. 22 I don't believe we have anything on 23 Executive Committee? 24 MRS. STEBBINS: No, sir. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Executive Session, I'm sorry. 128 1 So with that, there being no other matters before the 2 Court we are adjourned. 3 * * * * * * 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 129 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 Regular Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 4th day of October, 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