1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Tuesday, October 13, 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(Via Zoom) 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. 7 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 9 action regarding update, facility use and 5 other matters related to COVID-19. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss, take appropriate 20 action regarding the Local State of 7 Disaster Due to a Public Health and Economic Emergency Proclamation signed 8 by Judge Kelly on March 24th, 2020 and extended until terminated by order of 9 Kerr County Commissioners' Court on March 30, 2020. 10 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 11 action to approve Resolution to enable Dietert Center to apply for a grant from 12 the Texas Department of Agriculture to support our Meals on Wheels program in 13 Kerr County. 14 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 31 action to approve contract from Dietert 15 Center and allow County Judge to sign same. 16 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 32 action to approve Resolution of Support 17 for the Second Amendment. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action to modify Court Order 38347, 19 authorizing the use of courthouse grounds by Kerrville Christmas Lighting Corporation 20 and contract with Broadway Bank. 21 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 39 action to discuss the Center for Tech and 22 Civil Life (CTCL) grant in the amount of $34,771.20. 23 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 43 24 action to ratify and confirm "Contribution in Aid to Construction Agreement -- Kerrville 25 Public Utility Board" for the courthouse generator in the amount of $2,131.89. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 action to ratify and confirm the Ingram 4 Annex Lease, and modify or rescind Court Order 38337 regarding a two-year lease with 5 an estimated increase of $311 per month. 6 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 action on request from appointed official 7 with Road & Bridge Department to appoint clerks and assistants for their offices 8 pursuant to the Local Government Code Chapter 151. 9 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 10 action to dispose of furniture from the County Attorney's office. 11 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 12 action to approve $100 donation from a citizen for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund. 13 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 14 action regarding Oversight Board Membership and Policies for the Hill Country Regional 15 Public Defender's Office. 16 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 56 action regarding the Interlocal Agreement 17 for the Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 18 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 63 19 action regarding reappointment of Jonathan Letz as a member of the Kerrville Economic 20 Development Corporation. 21 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 action to set a Public Hearing for November 22 23, 2020 at 10 a.m. to consider a petition to abandon and discontinue road maintenance 23 for approximately 495 feet of the end of Encino Drive. 24 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 67 action regarding Court authorization for 4 the Road & Bridge Department to remove mini speed humps on Mosty Lane and Second 5 Street. 6 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 action to set a public hearing for November 7 23, 2020 at 10 a.m. to consider the installation of STOP signs in all directions 8 at the intersection of Mosty Lane and Second Street. 9 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 73 10 action for the Court to approve final plat of Guadalupe Falls. 11 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 75 12 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10 a.m. on November 23, 2020 13 for a revision of plat for Cave Spring Addition Section Five Phase One, Lots 14 14 and 15 of Block B, Volume 5, Page 164. 15 2.1 Pay Bills. 77 16 2.3 Late Bills. 78 17 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 79 18 2.6 Court Orders. 80 19 4.3(a) Consider, discuss and take appropriate 81 action regarding Kildeer Mountain 20 Manufacturing economic development opportunity. 21 *** Adjournment. 83 22 *** Reporter's Certificate. 84 23 * * * * * * 24 25 5 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me call to order the 2 Special Commissioners' Court meeting for Tuesday, 3 October 13th, 9:00 a.m. Judge Kelly is joining us by 4 Zoom today, and for those that's -- he had a long 5 scheduled, I guess, vacation. He's out of town today 6 and that's why he is not here, but he will join us by 7 Zoom. 8 And Commissioner Moser, I believe you have 9 the prayer and the pledge this morning. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. If 11 everybody will stand and pray with me. 12 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, are you able to 14 hear okay? 15 (No response.) 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's a no. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, the prayer is 18 over. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that answers 20 that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, are you able to 23 hear us? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No? No? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wave your hand if you 2 want to say something. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We can see you. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can see you. We'll 5 start with -- go first with public comment or -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Public comment first. 8 And I think we -- if anyone wants to call in we can give 9 a number for that. We're a little bit tied up with 10 phone lines but we can -- somebody can call Jody's cell. 11 We can call -- 12 VOICE: That's what we're going to use for 13 him. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, Jody's cell? 15 VOICE: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyone wants to call in 17 they can call my cell, which is (830) 739-1699. Is 18 there anyone in the courtroom that would like to make 19 any public comments? Oh, there we go. No, we just lost 20 him. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I can hear. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. You can hear us 23 now? 24 JUDGE KELLY: I can hear you. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I do not see any 7 1 public comment so we'll move on to Commissioners' 2 Comments. Commissioner Belew. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Early voting starts 4 today, it's underway right now. So make sure you go out 5 there and vote. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's not just in 7 Precinct 2 unique thing, but it's a County issue. One, 8 the AG barn, lots of people voting. We have a policy on 9 putting signs up. It was violated yesterday. A lot of 10 people putting signs up yesterday afternoon. I think we 11 owe it to the public to make sure that they understand 12 what the rules are for putting signs up. And it is 13 basically put the signs up -- an hour or half hour, did 14 we decide? An hour before. One hour before and one 15 hour after polling is closed, take the signs down. So 16 I'll repeat that. Putting signs up at voting places in 17 the County, one hour before you may put them up, one 18 hour after polls close take them down. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've got to add one 20 thing. I believe that at Ingram, at the school district 21 building, they're allowed to leave them up because 22 they're not having other events to interfere with that. 23 But the County facility is exactly what Commissioner 24 Moser said. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. County, 8 1 yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And I would add this. 3 If you -- if you're wondering about the hours, you can 4 check the County website and it has the hours posted 5 there. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have any 8 comments. Commissioner Harris. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They stole a lot of my 10 thunder, but I will mention something that probably a 11 lot of people were wondering about yesterday. There was 12 a prescribed burn in Hunt. And they did everything 13 right and what have you, but a lot of people were 14 concerned because that smoke just kind of went all the 15 way down the river yesterday and everybody was wondering 16 what the heck is going on and that's what it was. It 17 was just a perfect storm and drifted down like that. So 18 that was the bad air we saw yesterday. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We saw it from East 20 Kerr County. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I know. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And there was a lot of 23 bad air from just dirt in the air. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You're right. But -- 25 and this didn't help. So that's what it was. 9 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, do you have any 2 comments? 3 JUDGE KELLY: No, other than we probably 4 ought to announce the -- don't have any comments. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. We'll go on 6 into the agenda, consideration agenda. First item is 7 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 8 update, facility use and other matters related to 9 COVID-19. Dub. 10 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Commissioners. 11 Good morning, Judge. Hope you all had a great weekend. 12 I know we'll pray for rain. We need it. 13 Today's COVID-19 data. I'm going to focus 14 on numbers that were posted over the weekend. Believe 15 it or not, the State did work yesterday. It was 16 actually a holiday but the State worked anyway so they 17 did put out some numbers. 18 Total tested by Peterson as of yesterday was 19 7,036. Texas military force testing was 812, nursing 20 homes 675, Curative Incorporated 1,002. Total testing 21 done here in Kerr County that we're aware of is 9,525. 22 Kerr County COVID positives through Peterson Regional 23 was 580. We had 19 new cases over the weekend. 24 Currently, there are three hospitalized. 25 Our active and recovered from the Region 8, 10 1 total active cases is 26 -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me interrupt you, 3 Dub. 4 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that in Region 8 is 6 26? What is it in Kerr County? What's the total active 7 cases in Kerr County? 8 MR. THOMAS: 26. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 26. Okay. So it's 10 confusing to say from Region 8. 11 MR. THOMAS: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So that's just 13 where the information comes from? 14 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Gotcha. Thank 16 you. 17 MR. THOMAS: Total recovered cases is 727. 18 Total fatalities are 13. We've had three fatalities 19 since our last report two weeks ago. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dub, another thing. 21 26. So there's been an increase in active cases in Kerr 22 County the last three or four weeks. 23 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is there much -- I 25 think the key thing is the number of people 11 1 hospitalized, three, that's still very low compared to 2 the capability of the hospital. 3 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's probably more 5 people being tested, therefore, more positive cases? Is 6 there any correlation there or any -- 7 MR. THOMAS: Well, most of -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- discussion or 9 identification on why the cases have increased so much? 10 MR. THOMAS: I think it's just been the fact 11 that it -- it started when we lifted the mask order, I 12 think. And right after -- was it Labor Day, I guess? 13 So everybody -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 MR. THOMAS: -- getting together and no 16 social distancing and not wearing a mask and it flared 17 up on us. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But still, the 19 hospitalization count is still -- 20 MR. THOMAS: The hospitalization count is 21 still low for us. There has been an uptick in I think 22 Region 8 over the last couple weeks. But I think it's 23 starting to level off at this point. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good. Thank 25 you. 12 1 MR. THOMAS: To be determined, 52 at this 2 point. Some of the other stats, you want to -- you'll 3 have to flip back in the back but -- 4 Total deaths in Texas, 16,557. Total 5 recovered 703,000. Kendall County is at 477 with five 6 fatalities. Medina, 1,192 with 30 fatalities. 7 Gillespie, 355 and two. Bandera, 198 with three. 8 Kimble -- I couldn't find their number yesterday. Real 9 County, 121 with two fatalities. Region 8 update for 10 the entire region was active 2,317, total recovery 11 76,000, deaths 1,954, and they have 1,066 pending cases, 12 of that 43 are for Kerr County. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a couple of 14 comments. Last week, I attended a meeting with -- we 15 call it the stakeholders group, which is, you know, Dub, 16 Jeremy from the emergency management side, City of 17 Kerrville, hospital representatives, Dr. Blanton, Corey 18 Edmondson, and others. And one of the -- and it was -- 19 the good news from the standpoint I learned a lot, but 20 it was a frustrating meeting because I learned a lot. 21 And I'm going to go over just a couple of the numbers 22 and I don't know if this is going to go somewhere but 23 that's -- 24 If you look at the Region 8 numbers that 25 came out I think yesterday, it shows that Kendall County 13 1 has a hundred probable cases, and one active case. 2 Well, we -- I discussed or we discussed or Dub explained 3 last week a lot of what that means. What that means is 4 that to be active, you have to have a certain type of 5 test. The PCR test, is that right? 6 MR. THOMAS: The confirmed test. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The confirmed test. 8 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But then, to be on the 10 probable case it can be the antigen test, which is a lot 11 of people take. But they don't accept that in the state 12 numbers, yet it's about 80 percent accurate. So we're 13 -- so we are gearing off of the active cases, because 14 that's a real number that we have. And if you look at 15 the probable causes, you know, to me, it's just -- 16 these numbers are very misleading. If 80 percent of the 17 hundred in Kendall County are probably active cases, 18 don't know that for sure but it's the estimate and it's 19 80 percent accurate, so that means there's about, you 20 know, 80 there plus the one, so they should really have 21 81 in Kendall County. We have 40. They gave us -- said 22 active was 32, so we should have like 76. So the 23 numbers are becoming somewhat meaningless to me. 24 I think the trends are very important. And 25 to me, there are four categories in the trends. Active, 14 1 which is on this chart, probable, hospital and death. 2 Beyond that, I really don't care anymore what that trend 3 is. And I would recommend two things. One, Dub prepare 4 a chart which he has in the backup of some of that 5 information, but put it on a chart and coordinate it 6 with the hospital, and send us that weekly. We can 7 distribute that through the PR -- through Lisa, and quit 8 having Dub come into court every other Monday and talk 9 about it. I mean, I just think it's -- we're wasting 10 his time and we're wasting the court's time going over a 11 lot of this information. The public's aware of the 12 situation. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree with you. If 14 -- if it was just a plot showing the trend, that's the 15 important thing. Okay. Because the way you diagnose 16 that data is complicated. That's the reason I was 17 asking about, I mean, it's real, the number of people in 18 the hospital. Okay. And that's three. Okay. That's 19 -- that's the real -- 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- parameters for me. 22 Okay. This other stuff is -- I'm not saying it's wrong, 23 but it's confusing. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's confusing. And I 15 1 think to the public, if we could get the -- maybe the 2 paper to publish something like that on a weekly basis, 3 I don't care how they want to do it, probably weekly, 4 and show the trends of the community. That's what the 5 public needs to be aware of, not -- oh, we had 19 cases 6 over the weekend or we had zero cases. That's somewhat 7 irrelevant as to actual trend. And the Judge and 8 others, and anyone that wants to can drill into the 9 information, it's certainly readily available to the 10 public. So that's just my opinion, that Dub doesn't 11 need to come here every other Monday. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I would -- I 13 would agree with you except for one thing. The 14 probables. What -- what is the point of that? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the probable as I 16 understand it is likely -- is mostly the antigen test, 17 which is a test that is 80 percent accurate. And I'm 18 saying 80 percent -- 19 MR. THOMAS: It's like almost 91 percent. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 91 percent accurate. 21 MR. THOMAS: But the State doesn't consider 22 it a confirmatory test so, therefore, they consider it a 23 probable. Based on the other criteria, case criteria, 24 were they in close contact with somebody or symptomatic. 25 Those types of things. 16 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the way the 2 Sheriff -- the Sheriff wasn't really ever diagnosed, 3 were you, Rusty? You were just assumed to be a probable 4 case? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. Since you 6 brought it up, I'll go ahead and say it. What mine was, 7 and this is another one of those like -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Take your mask off so 9 that we can -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What you're saying 11 Jonathan, what the deal was with us is my wife tested 12 with these antigen test positive. Okay. So that goes 13 into the to be determined. And they told us the way 14 it's determined is when somebody calls her and goes over 15 her symptoms. Well that call took place 15 days after 16 she tested. Because -- so she was already better and 17 out of quarantine. And then with me, I had the same 18 symptoms, so I asked them, okay, do I need to get 19 tested, too? And they said no, since you're in the same 20 household you are both presumed positive and you are -- 21 and I had the symptoms, too. But they said you're 22 presumed without ever being tested. So I don't know 23 where that one shows up. If it shows up in the to be 24 determined or it doesn't show up at all. 25 MR. THOMAS: It doesn't show up. 17 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They just don't -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As I understand it, it 3 doesn't show up at all. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because you never went 5 in and took a test of any sort. So again, I'm not 6 certain what the probable really is -- 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- likely or needed. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, see, I -- I 10 called them back and asked them, do I need to go get 11 tested? And they said no, they would not test me 12 because we're in the same household and my wife had 13 already tested. It's -- I agree with you, Jonathan, the 14 numbers are weird and it's strange all the way through. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go with the trend. 16 MR. THOMAS: And Commissioner, you also 17 remember out of that Executive Committee they appointed 18 another committee to come up with a way to put out the 19 numbers that everybody would understand. So we're -- 20 we've kind of had some conversations about that over the 21 weekend via e-mail and hopefully we'll get that ironed 22 out this weekend and we'll see if we can't make it a 23 little bit more understandable for everybody. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Like a committee to 25 help understand. 18 1 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. Yeah, we're -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That -- that's -- 3 MR. THOMAS: -- we're here to help. So -- 4 yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just remember that a 6 camel is a horse created by a committee. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So anyway, that's all I 8 had to say about that. And Dub was aware I was going to 9 say all this, I think, because I pretty much told the 10 committee last week what I was going to say about it. 11 MR. THOMAS: Sure. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The County Clerk has a 13 question? 14 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. For the people who travel 15 from out-of-county where there's not a hospital or 16 urgent care and they test positive in Kerr County, are 17 those out-of-county residents counted as Kerr County? 18 Just refresh my memory. 19 MR. THOMAS: No. They're counted wherever 20 their -- hopefully wherever their residence is, yes. 21 Their main residence is. Also, I wanted to let 22 everybody know that we are going to be doing COVID 23 testing again on November 3rd at the Youth Event Center. 24 There's no appointment necessary, no doctor's referral 25 or anything like that. 19 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: On election day? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, on election day? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's going to be a 4 nightmare out there. 5 MR. THOMAS: No. There won't be elections 6 at the Youth Event Center that day. They're at the 7 Cailloux. They'll be at the other locations. So yeah, 8 November 3rd at the Youth Event Center from 8:00 to 9 4:00. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we'll let you know, 11 Dub. I know there's another stakeholders meeting this 12 week. 13 MR. THOMAS: This week. Yes, sir. 14 MRS. DOWDY: 8:00 to 4:00 on November -- 15 what day? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The 3rd. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And even -- even when 18 you get good information, you know, early on you told us 19 this many people had tested. Six percent of those were 20 positive. And people hear that six percent of the 21 County has COVID. So even when you have good 22 information, it has to be -- you know, you have to be 23 careful of how it's presented. 24 MR. THOMAS: Right. I think what we want to 25 look at is like Jonathan said, we want to look at what 20 1 the trend is. Are we trending up or are we tending down 2 or are we trending flat. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 4 MR. THOMAS: That's more important to me 5 than a total number. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Dub said he could 7 use the extra sleep to not have him come. 8 MR. THOMAS: I mean hopefully, that'd be 9 nice. All right. Y'all have a good day. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Stick around. This 11 will put you to sleep. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, do you have any 13 comments on that? 14 JUDGE KELLY: No. It's -- my understanding 15 is the probables are the positive antigen tests -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 17 JUDGE KELLY: -- which is somewhere between 18 80, 90 percent accurate. And so, the way I figure it is 19 I can take that number and multiply it by about 80 20 percent and figure that we've got that many probables, 21 that many active cases out here that have not been 22 confirmed. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Okay. All 24 right. Move on to Item 1.2 consider, discuss, take 25 appropriate action regarding the Local State of Disaster 21 1 Due to a Public Health and Economic Emergency 2 Proclamation signed by Judge Kelly on March 24th, 2020, 3 and extended until terminated by order of Kerr County 4 Commissioners' Court on March 30th, 2020. This has been 5 a long-standing item on the agenda. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No action. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No action. But I have a 8 comment and I think that unless somebody can convince me 9 that this emergency is really continuing, and this would 10 be input from the County Attorney, certainly the County 11 Judge, and Chuck Kimbrough, I will be in favor and 12 probably plan on making a motion at our next 13 Commissioners' Court meeting to cancel that emergency 14 order. 15 To me, we do not have an emergency right 16 now. We have a situation where we have a virus that's 17 going to -- is in our community. Everyone is aware of 18 it. And there's a -- we have a mask order in place 19 right now. A lot of people aren't wearing a mask. So 20 we're not enforcing the current order. The Sheriff has 21 made his position well known. KPD is not enforcing the 22 order in the City from their standpoint. So, to me, 23 we're basically diminishing the value of the emergency 24 order declaration and there's no reason to continue it 25 unless someone can convince me from a -- for a financial 22 1 reason that we have to. And it's -- my understanding is 2 that it's a safe way to go, but I think I'm beyond that 3 unless there's a real reason to do it. And that's just 4 to let everyone know and I'll also bring this up at our 5 stakeholders meeting with the City, later this week. I 6 think Thursday afternoon. And I believe the Judge is 7 going to miss that, but I will attend that meeting. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've felt for some 9 time that we didn't really need it, other than financial 10 obligations. If it took us out of the running for some 11 grant money or what have you for COVID. Has that 12 changed? Can our -- somebody from the auditor's office 13 or the County Attorney? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think any of that 15 has changed. I think the answer is still the same. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, the question is 17 do we have anything pending that could be influenced? 18 By that, I don't know of anything we have pending. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: I wonder -- and it may -- I 20 wonder -- and it may not have anything to do with 21 anything. But I wonder whether the Judge's authority 22 would then be, if we didn't have the declaration in 23 place, to permit the opening of particular 24 establishments. Bars. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. That's what 23 1 I'm -- that's what I'd ask you to look into that. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'm also concerned 4 for the County Judge to look into it. My understanding 5 is that if we cancel, the County Judge can re-implement 6 it if it's needed. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: That's correct. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just like -- yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you know -- but I 10 think it's -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think a piece of data 12 too, to make that decision, if we have the trending data 13 and it's trending down, I think you can say emergency 14 over. If it's trending up, then that's another 15 discussion. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The real issue is where 17 we're sitting right now and what the Governor's had to 18 say in this magical number 20. That's the real issue. 19 Because if that were not in place, none of this -- this 20 would be all an exercise in -- an academic exercise to 21 talk about it. 20 active cases in a county just comes 22 from out of the blue. There's no -- it's not based on 23 any kind of scientific anything, so -- and for all the 24 counties opening up their bars and what have you and so 25 people around us are starting to do it in real life. 24 1 The Judge mentioned one day that we're starting to see 2 herd immunity. But the Governor's number 20 is really 3 what all this hinges on. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't think that 5 the -- what we do on our local declaration certainly 6 doesn't, you know, take precedent over what the 7 Governor's saying. So we're under the Governor's order 8 regardless. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Which is why I'm saying 10 that we need to read -- the Governor really needs to 11 look at that. And we -- we are not in the same place we 12 were when this started. We've learned a whole bunch, 13 and yet our rules are still set as if it just happened 14 yesterday. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only thing I'd like 16 to say is when you said Sheriff's made his point clear, 17 that's true, I have. But it's not because of me. If 18 you look at what the Governor wrote, and I've talked to 19 judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, it is 20 unenforceable. The order says that you cannot arrest, 21 and you cannot detain. If you cannot detain, you cannot 22 write a citation. Okay. And if you refuse to sign the 23 citation, in most cases that means you get arrested. 24 And you cannot arrest. The order is totally 25 unenforceable the way the Governor wrote it and that's 25 1 why most sheriffs that I know and police departments are 2 not going to enforce it because we can't. If he wants 3 us to enforce it, then write it the way we could. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I agree, I wasn't -- 5 I agree with what you were doing, Sheriff. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is why, too, we 7 need the legislature to review this kind of stuff and 8 not just have the Governor's order or anybody's -- or 9 any orders -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oops. They're not in 11 session. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Exactly. There should 13 be a special session on that. He should have called it 14 by now. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, so that's -- 16 just to let everyone know that's kind of the direction 17 I'm heading. And the Judge will be here next week so we 18 can have a more lively discussion. Any other comments, 19 Judge? 20 JUDGE KELLY: No. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Let's move 22 on to Item 1.3 consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to approve Resolution to enable Dietert Center to 24 apply for a grant from the Texas Department of 25 Agriculture to support our Meals on Wheels program in 26 1 Kerr County. 2 MS. THOMPSON: Good morning. How are y'all 3 this morning? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good morning, Brenda. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Hey, Brenda. 6 MS. THOMPSON: Well, we have been busy, 7 busy, busy. Just want to let y'all know that through 8 the pandemic we've never missed a day delivering meals 9 to our seniors in our community. In fact, we deliver 10 about 6,000 meals every month to our seniors. That's 11 about 300 meals every single day in our community. So 12 for our total year, our year ends in September so we've 13 delivered over 71,000 meals last year to seniors. 14 And during this time, we also are -- of 15 course, we're -- our building is closed for the general 16 public, so our congregate dining has closed. But we 17 started doing drive-thru. So we've had -- last month, 18 in September we had 565 people come through -- well, 19 565 meals given out during our congregate drive-thru 20 with all of our friendship cafe drive-thru. So we are 21 feeding our seniors and making sure they have extra 22 food. 23 As we're cooking food, we're not doing the 24 congregate dining. So we're cooking the same amount of 25 food so we're freezing extras. And sometimes throughout 27 1 this whole six or seven month period, we've sent extra 2 frozen meals and shelf stable meals home to our seniors 3 so that they have some extra food in their fridge or 4 freezer or their cabinet. So they're -- they definitely 5 don't feel isolated and have some food. 6 We've been very careful with our mask 7 wearing, with our drivers, with our volunteers, when 8 they're delivering, and everything, so I'm proud to say 9 that we've not had anybody sick. We haven't had 10 anybody -- we had a couple volunteers that felt they had 11 something, but it was nothing that they'd gotten from us 12 or that we -- and they stopped themselves from 13 delivering until everything was clear. 14 So we've been very fortunate. And I'm just 15 keeping on, keeping on. Hopefully we'll make it through 16 the next however many months we're going to be doing 17 this. So 71,000 meals a year that we did in September 18 -- last year. 19 And another important thing I wanted to tell 20 you, that we have about 2000 hours per month of 21 volunteer service to the Dietert Center for our Meals on 22 Wheels drivers, our Meals on Wheels assessors, and that 23 equates out to about 200 and -- about almost $300,000 24 worth of value. You know, the volunteer -- the value of 25 a volunteer is about 2354, I think that's what we used 28 1 within our state contracts. And so that's another 2 significant point that we're doing for the Dietert 3 Center is saving our community money by having to pay 4 staff to do these volunteer hours. So that's another 5 significant thing that we're doing in our community, 6 making sure that we've got those volunteers trained and 7 they're good and they're going out and they're 8 double-checking on these seniors that are home, home 9 alone, and making sure they don't feel isolated. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I had the opportunity 11 to ride along with that program last year, a couple 12 days, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I saw the 13 value -- true value and how well organized Brenda has 14 this thing. All the volunteers. It was incredible. It 15 was very eye-opening. And then seeing the -- riding 16 along, seeing the people, you know, they look forward to 17 somebody coming, and just having a casual little visit, 18 and get some food and what have you. And it was -- it 19 was eye-opening. 20 MS. THOMPSON: Thank you. Yeah, we welcome 21 anybody to come and do that drive along, too. You know, 22 they definitely -- I fill in periodically when we have a 23 volunteer that's not being able to come. And they 24 definitely know when you're supposed to be there because 25 if you're running late, they let you know. Because I 29 1 got in trouble with a lady one time. She says, You're 2 late. You should have been here ten minutes ago. I'm 3 sorry, I got lost. I didn't know this route. You know. 4 And so -- and -- and I've sat down in 5 Bethany's office when everybody comes back with their 6 clipboards and everybody comes back in and that's the 7 first question, everything okay? Yes. This one's okay, 8 but this lady -- she didn't look very good. She didn't 9 sound very good. So we'll follow-up and call and say 10 how -- what can we do for you? Do you need any extra 11 food, do you need -- you know. And so it's -- it's more 12 than just here's a meal, it's -- we're looking at them, 13 we're coming back and they're making little notes on 14 their -- on their things that says their dog passed 15 away. And we'll send them a sympathy card. We send 16 them birthday cards. So it's a -- it' a really whole 17 person program. And it's awesome. It's great. 18 So this grant helps us apply for a grant 19 through the Texas Department of Agriculture every year, 20 and last year we got 14,000 from them, because AACOG 21 actually paid us more. If we get -- if we get -- if 22 AACOG purchases more of our meals that we get 23 reimbursement for, then the TDA grant money kind of goes 24 down a little bit but -- and this year, AACOG has been 25 awesome with helping us, paying us for extra meals, 30 1 giving us some extra money to be able to buy some of 2 those frozen meals. And so they've changed a lot of 3 their stuff. So AACOG has been great this year working 4 with to help us make sure we have food for our seniors 5 in our community. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, Brenda, I'll move 7 for approval of the resolution that enables Dietert 8 Center to apply for that grant from Texas Department of 9 Agriculture to support Meals on Wheels in Kerr County. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a motion from 12 Commissioner Moser, second from Commissioner Harris, to 13 approve the agenda item. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One other thing I'd 15 like to add. Not Meals on Wheels but Dietert Center 16 provides a lot of other really important services to the 17 community. Not just the senior citizens, but provides a 18 fantastic meeting place for Dynamic Learning Institute 19 to have their meetings in a safe distance, and I think 20 last Friday there was a meeting between the City Council 21 and Commissioners' Court. I was not there. But Dietert 22 Center provided that facility to accommodate that. So 23 thanks -- thanks, Brenda, for all that. 24 MS. THOMPSON: You're welcome. Thank you so 25 much. We are open a little bit on some -- some rental, 31 1 some classes, and some activities that can be socially 2 distanced. We have a lot of bridge players that are 3 real upset because we won't let them come back in 4 because you can't social distance on bridge very well. 5 So we're doing it with some of them. Some of our 6 classes -- our seniors want to be engaged. And so we're 7 slowly trying to open up some things that we can 8 socially distance. And while the building is empty, 9 we're painting and redoing floors and just getting 10 everything we can doing to upgrade our building at the 11 same time, while we're closed. So we thank y'all and we 12 appreciate your support so much. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 14 MS. THOMPSON: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Any further 16 discussion? All in favor raise your right hand or say 17 aye. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's unanimous. Five 20 zero. 21 Item 1.4 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to approve contract from Dietert 23 Center and allow County Judge to sign same. 24 Now, this is our annual -- our normal 25 contract? 32 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $4,500.00. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: $4,500.00. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 5 Belew. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And second from 8 Commissioner Harris to approve our annual contract with 9 the Dietert Center in the amount of $4,500.00. Any 10 discussion? All in favor say aye or raise your hand. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Five zero, unanimous. 13 Item 1.5 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to approve Resolution of Support for 15 the Second Amendment. Mr. Lehman. 16 MR. WOLFF: I'm Jerry Wolff. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know you're Jerry, but 18 I see Mr. Lehman back there. 19 MR. WOLFF: Well, he's going to come up here 20 in just a minute. I'm the warmup guy. 21 I was here last January, and I can't 22 remember why, but Steve was here that morning speaking 23 and introducing a Resolution to ask Commissioners' Court 24 to support Second Amendment -- a Resolution supporting 25 the Second Amendment in Kerr County. And there was a 33 1 lot of complications and questions about some wording, 2 about whether it was constitutional or not. 3 Well, shortly after that meeting I joined 4 the Kerr County Patriots, which I'm now president. And 5 about a month later Steve joined, and one of our 6 principles of which the club supports and promotes is 7 the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. And so, 8 we have provided some support and encouragement to 9 Steve, and he's worked this Resolution through so he's 10 here this morning to present it to you and I think that 11 hopefully you will find it acceptable. 12 MR. LEHMAN: Good morning. For those who 13 don't know me, I'm Steve Lehman. Just to set the record 14 straight, it was not me who submitted the Resolution 15 last January, it was another gentleman. But I was here 16 to listen to it and I learned from his mistakes. I have 17 since restructured a Resolution based on several others 18 I found around Texas, and I've run it by a couple of 19 you. It's been looked at by the Sheriff and the County 20 Attorney. And I believe all of you have a copy of it. 21 I would like to give you a little bit of history, 22 however, for the record. 23 The Second Amendment sanctuary movement 24 refers to Resolutions adopted by some jurisdictions in 25 the United States, not to expend resources or enforce 34 1 certain gun control measures perceived as violating the 2 Second Amendment. The Resolutions opposed enforcement 3 of universal gun background checks, high capacity 4 magazine bands, red flag laws on the automatic rifle 5 ban, and other measures intended to restrict the gun 6 rights of law abiding citizens. 7 The movement began after Democrats won 8 control of both houses of the general -- Virginia 9 General Assembly in November of 2018, while vowing to 10 enact draconian gun control measures. Presidential 11 candidate O'Rourke from Texas had announced in September 12 of 2019 his intention to ban semi-automatic weapons. 13 Other jurisdictions that have adopted those Resolutions 14 are either fighting Democrat-controlled legislatures or 15 being proactive in fear of their states turning blue. 16 As of March 15th, 2020, over 1000 17 jurisdictions across America have declared themselves 18 Second Amendment sanctuaries or adopted other pro Second 19 Amendment Resolutions, and I'm hoping to add Kerr County 20 to that list. Any questions? Would you like me to read 21 the Resolution? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me propose 23 something. Okay. Instead of reading all the whereases, 24 okay, just looking at the -- what's being resolved or 25 hereby being resolved, on the first one, it says: Now, 35 1 therefore, hereby resolve that Kerr County, Texas does 2 hereby oppose the enactment of any legislation, bill, 3 law, ordinance, state statute or measure that would 4 infringe upon the rights of law abiding citizens to keep 5 and bear arms. 6 But that would be just -- it should say Kerr 7 County does hereby oppose any enactment of any Texas 8 legislation or bill. Are you saying this is national, 9 or just Texas or local, or what? 10 MR. LEHMAN: I'm -- I'm a proponent -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or any legislation? 12 MR. LEHMAN: Any legislation. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Any? National, state 14 local, whatever? 15 MR. LEHMAN: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Just for 17 clarification. Another thing is -- second thing is -- 18 proposes is: Be it further resolved, that Kerr County 19 recognizes the gun-free zones do not keep citizens safe 20 but rather restrict the right and ability of citizens to 21 defend and protect themselves, and that other means 22 should be found to protect citizens from criminal 23 activity as they need no protection from lawful gun 24 carriers. 25 I don't disagree with that, but I don't know 36 1 that it really adds anything. I think somebody could 2 challenge you, or challenge the County if we said we 3 know that it's not a good idea to have gun-free zones. 4 I think that's debatable. Okay. 5 MR. LEHMAN: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So maybe you want to 7 eliminate that -- or I would say -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that doesn't 9 actually call for anything. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That doesn't really 12 call for anything. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it says that we 14 agree with -- it says we agree with that. We agree that 15 gun-free zones are not good. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I agree with that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But don't you? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think we all agree 21 with that. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's just a matter 24 of -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think it's debatable. 37 1 But okay. Well, those are the only two comments that I 2 have. 3 MR. LEHMAN: All right, sir. Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I second that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. We have a 7 motion and a second. Motion from Commissioner Harris, 8 second from Commissioner Belew to approve a Resolution 9 to support the Second Amendment as has been presented. 10 Any further discussion? All in favor raise your right 11 hand or say aye. 12 Judge, do you have a -- is that a -- 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Maybe we lost him. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, are you there? 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You there, Judge? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we lost the 17 Judge, so we'll say that's a 4-0 vote, unanimous. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Steve. 19 MR. LEHMAN: Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Steve. 21 Okay, item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to modify Court Order 38347, 23 authorizing the use of courthouse grounds by Kerrville 24 Christmas Lighting Corporation and contract with 25 Broadway Bank. 38 1 I put this on the agenda, because some 2 things have changed and I think really what I'd like to 3 do is make a motion to cancel that Court Order. The 4 reason is -- and Mr. Eichman's here who's the president 5 of the Christmas Lighting Corporation. The Broadway 6 Bank because of the COVID situation does not want to 7 have a contract this year. 8 I think we need to have an agreement with an 9 exemplar to do an agreement with -- just with the 10 Christmas Lighting Corporation but that hasn't been 11 written yet. We have one -- had one in the past, we 12 just need to update that one. I think we really need to 13 kind of rescind that Court Order and I'll put this on a 14 future agenda to enter into an agreement with the 15 Christmas Lighting Corporation. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now for clarification, 17 this thing with Broadway Bank would have been the whole 18 big thing on the courthouse lawn like we're used to? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They fund a lot of it. 20 It's more of a financial contribution thing. But it is 21 for the Christmas lighting celebration. And then the 22 plan is up in the air right now exactly what that's 23 going to be, it's probably going to be more of a virtual 24 event as I understand it, rather than a large crowd 25 here. But anyway, all those details are still being 39 1 worked. So I'll make a motion that we rescind that 2 previous Court Order. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Have a 6 motion for myself, and second by Commissioner Harris to 7 rescind Court Order 38347. Any further discussion? All 8 in favor raise your right hand and say aye. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. I'm back. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. You're back. 11 Okay. All right. 12 Thank you, George. 13 Item 1.7 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to discuss the Center for Tech and 15 Civil Life (CTCL) grant in the amount of $34,771.20. 16 Callie, here you are again. 17 MS. GRAFF: Hello. Good morning. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good morning. 19 MS. GRAFF: So just for a little recap, 20 Kerr County applied for a grant from a 501(c)(3) for the 21 CTCL and is eligible to receive $34,771.50. I need 22 approval from Commissioners' Court. 23 Kerr County is looking to use this grant in 24 order to reprint ballots because of the Green Party, and 25 other potential election expenses. There is no match 40 1 for this grant. This grant period is from June 15th and 2 it's to December 31st, 2020. And at that point we have 3 to fill out one report at the end of this grant period. 4 This can be used for multiple election 5 purposes, via guidelines for this grant are 6 intentionally flexible, and if this grant is not 7 utilized we will have to use additional County funds 8 that will be -- that will have to be allocated for 9 reprinting ballots. 10 This morning we were made aware that four 11 counties have had lawsuits filed for accepting this 12 grant money. And that's all. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Say that again. The 14 four counties what? 15 MS. GRAFF: Four counties have had lawsuits 16 filed for accepting this grant money and that's all the 17 updates we have. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what would be the 19 basis of the lawsuits for them accepting the -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a partisan 21 organization. It's a highly partisan organization. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: So I was just reading a 23 little bit about it because Tanya told me this morning 24 right before the meeting. And they say that it violates 25 Federal election law because the Federal election law 41 1 puts states and the local governments in charge of 2 elections, and they say that it's an unregulated private 3 grant. The Plaintiffs say that the grant creates an 4 illegal public/private partnership and promotes 5 progressive candidates. That's -- that's what the 6 article says that I just read. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would like to say 8 something. Last week I had moved to approve this and 9 I'll tell you my reasoning. And that's before we found 10 out about the lawsuits. You know, I thought that -- 11 the analogy I used with several people over the weekend 12 is if you're in a battle or something and you have a 13 supply train going to the enemy, if you can commandeer 14 that, would you use it on your own troops? And so that 15 was my reason, kind of gorilla warfare type guy. And -- 16 but now it looks like Harley was right all along. 17 Because it was red flagged to people behind us, without 18 a doubt. Without a doubt it was a red flag. But now 19 that we find out a couple few counties have been sued, 20 we need to back out. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it's going to end 22 up costing those counties. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It could. 24 MRS. STEBBINS: It might. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the comment I 42 1 want to make also is, this is more for the public. I 2 mean, I know everyone on the Court is aware of this. 3 The money came from Mark Zuckerburg, and he donated 250 4 million to a non-profit. And the first line of the -- 5 or part of the grant -- the purpose of the donation was 6 to basically promote those by mail absentee voting and 7 equipment and supplies and can be used for other matters 8 related to election. So we would get into that and 9 other. 10 And I appreciate -- and I told this to 11 Commissioner Belew, I appreciated him catching this, I 12 missed it last week. But I think that, you know, Mark 13 Zuckerburg is -- his company anyway, and I presume him 14 personally because he's head of the company, is against 15 the First Amendment many times. He's against the Second 16 Amendment. He is -- politically promotes candidates 17 that I don't support. And for that reason, I don't want 18 his money. And it's a principal issue to me. Yes, it's 19 nice to -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's how I felt. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- get the money, but to 22 me it's not a whole lot different than taking money from 23 a drug dealer and I don't want to take his money. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I would liken it 25 to a drug dealer in that your first case is free. And 43 1 they give you a little something and later on they want 2 something. So that was the first red flag for me and 3 then I read up on the organization, so -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I was looking for the 5 strings or the hook and I didn't see it. But now 6 with -- this is the way they're going about it with 7 lawsuits and stuff. Looks like. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So does anyone choose to 9 make a motion to support this -- as far as this grant? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I do not hear anyone, 12 therefore, the motion -- or no motion really, so no 13 action be taken. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks again, Callie. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Thanks, Callie. 16 Item 1.8 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to ratify and confirm "Contribution 18 in Aid to Construction Agreement -- Kerrville Public 19 Utility Board" for the courthouse generator in the 20 amount of $2,131.89. Shane. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think they're moving 22 that generator today. But what this was is they had to 23 replace the transformer out there for the whole 24 Courthouse and KPUB needed that payment up front, like 25 you said. And so it was done and that's why now you're 44 1 ratifying that agreement to pay for that transformer. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They had to buy a piece 4 of equipment? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. The whole 6 transformer for the Courthouse had to be replaced so 7 that they can put that generator into it. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You'd think that we'd 9 be good for it but apparently not. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's what I said. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's what I said too. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we're putting -- 13 it's just to ratify. So we need a motion to ratify the 14 contribution aid to construction agreement. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So motion from 18 Commissioner Moser, second from Commissioner Belew to 19 approve the agenda item. Any further discussion? All 20 in favor raise your right hand or say aye. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Item 1.9 23 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to ratify 24 and confirm the Ingram Annex Lease, and modify or 25 rescind Court Order 38337 regarding a two-year lease 45 1 with an estimated increase of $311 per month. 2 Commissioner Harris. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. We renewed the 4 lease on the West Kerr Annex, and it's going to be a 5 flat $1,800 a month for a two-year lease. So that just 6 kind of cleans up what we had originally stated. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So this is just to 8 ratify that? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, sir. So I move 10 for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: County Attorney, is this 13 cleaner to -- so we have a motion from Commissioner 14 Harris, second from Commissioner Belew to modify it or 15 rescind? Is it modify the Court order to make it a 16 flat -- 17 MRS. STEBBINS: I think that -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or should we rescind -- 19 MRS. STEBBINS: -- the Order -- this order 20 was -- I'm not looking at it but I feel like my -- if 21 memory serves me well, that that was just approval 22 made after my review, approval of the contract. And it 23 is a substantially different contract from what it has 24 been in the past, just the -- the form of it. So I 25 would -- I would rescind it and -- and ratify the new 46 1 contract. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me read the Court 3 Order to you? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Made a motion by Judge 6 Kelly, second by myself, unanimously approved five zero 7 to authorize Judge Kelly and Commissioner Harris to 8 finalize and negotiate a two-year lease with three 9 one-year options, if possible, with an estimated $311 10 per month increase to West Kerr County. I think all we 11 need to do is ratify it. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: I think we need to ratify 13 it. I -- that -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So let's just ratify 15 rather than rescind. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. I agree. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the motion then is to 19 ratify the new lease agreement to have the flat rate of 20 $1,800 per month for a two year term. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. And that was 23 Commissioner Harris made the motion and Belew made the 24 second. Any further discussion? All in favor raise 25 your right hand. Say aye. 47 1 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.10 consider, discuss 3 and take appropriate action on request from appointed 4 official with the Road & Bridge Department to appoint 5 clerks and assistants for their offices pursuant to the 6 Local Government Code 151. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 10 Moser, second from Commissioner Belew to approve the 11 agenda item. Any further discussion? All in favor 12 raise your right hand. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unanimous, five zero. 15 Item 1.11 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to dispose of furniture from the 17 County Attorney's office. Miss Stebbins. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. Thank you. I have a 19 couple of mats that go under chairs and a desk that 20 cannot be put back together that I'd like to dispose of, 21 please. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion by Commissioner 48 1 Harris, second by Commissioner Belew to dispose of the 2 items listed by the County Attorney. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: And I'll give the numbers to 4 the Auditor's Office so they can take them off their 5 inventory. Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Any further discussion? 7 All in favor raise your right hand. Unanimous. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Item 1.12 consider, 10 discuss and take appropriate action to approve $100 11 donation from a citizen for the Sheriff's Equipment 12 Fund. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's exactly what it 14 is. A citizen donated it and we'd like to put it in the 15 equipment fund. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 19 Harris, second by Commissioner Moser to approve the 20 donation to the Sheriff's Equipment Fund in the amount 21 of $100. Any further discussion? All in favor raise 22 your right hand. Unanimous. 23 Item 1.13 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action regarding Oversight Board Membership 25 and Policies for the Hill Country Regional Public 49 1 Defender's Office. Judge, did you want to start with 2 this one? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. This is just a document 4 that we put together that forms the oversight committee 5 that will actually hire or fire the Chief Public 6 Defender that we hire, and also oversee the -- not 7 necessarily the daily operations, but the quarterly 8 oversight of what the PDO does. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this agreement has 10 been -- all of the other counties judges have looked at 11 this. Is that correct, Judge? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. All the other judges, 13 and a number of the commissioners from the other 14 counties, as well as the TIDC staff, and even the 15 Representative Murr's office. But the whole thing was 16 agreed that we'd have an 11 member Board, and that each 17 of the counties would have two members of that oversight 18 board, except for Kerr County, they would have three. 19 And that we would have a group of what we 20 call permanent members of that Board, which would be the 21 County Judges of the five counties. It would have six 22 other members, and we have outlined various criteria for 23 selection of those board members by the other counties. 24 And then we established a super majority that would need 25 to be -- we'd have to have if we were to remove somebody 50 1 as the Chief Public Defender because that's the primary 2 purpose of the Board is to hire and fire that Chief 3 Public Defender. And the super majority is three of the 4 five permanent members and/or a total of seven of the 11 5 total Board members be able to take that type of action 6 or to even modify approvals. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So Judge, let me ask a 8 question. It says regarding oversight and policies, but 9 it's really more than that. It's really administrative. 10 So if this Board has the authority to hire and fire, is 11 that -- is the way I -- is that the way I understand it? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Just -- just one employee. 13 Chief Public Defender. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So just one. So 15 it's really more than just discussion and policy, and 16 I'm not arguing with it, I'm just trying -- for 17 clarification. 18 JUDGE KELLY: No. The way the TIDC 19 explained it to us is they want the Board to be not 20 completely autonomous, but they want it to be fairly 21 independent so that it can operate just like the 22 District Attorney's Office does except defending the 23 defendants rather than prosecuting them. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: But because it's going to be a 51 1 department of Kerr County and it's going to represent 2 all five counties in their indigent attorney 3 appointments, they wanted to have some oversight of that 4 office. So this is a way that the five counties have 5 some say over the office, with Kerr County having the 6 major. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, would this -- 8 would this Board also approve budgets and things like 9 that? 10 JUDGE KELLY: They would recommend budgets. 11 The budget actually is going to be approved by Kerr 12 County Commissioners' Court. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So the Board 14 would recommend the budget. Sort of like -- it's 15 pretty -- pretty similar to the Airport Board, okay. 16 The Airport Board -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- has the authority to 19 hire and fire, but it's for consultation and advice to 20 the owners and then recommend the budget. So similar to 21 that. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And let me say, we went to 25 the -- if you'll remember, we had wanted our own local 52 1 committee for the Public Defender's Office. And -- and 2 I want to give it a -- recognize the people that helped 3 us with this. We got input from the chairman of the 4 committee, which was Keith Williams, our retired Judge 5 for the 216th. District Attorney Stephen Harpold of the 6 198th. Harold Danford, a local attorney. Christine 7 McEntyre, who's the Court Coordinator for Gillespie, 8 Kerr and Bandera Counties, as well as our own County 9 Attorney, Heather Stebbins. And Commissioner Letz and I 10 sit, ex officio. 11 And we also had input from our Auditor Tanya 12 Shelton and from our HR Director, Jennifer Doss. So 13 there was a lot of work. We had -- I think we had, 14 what, a total of three or four meetings, I can't 15 remember now, inputting this together. So this was a 16 very collaborative effort on the part of many people 17 here in the County to make sure that Kerr County is 18 protected in this endeavor. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, is this policy 20 available for the public to see, or what's the status of 21 it? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Oh yeah. It's all public. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So it's on the 24 website or where? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 53 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. If you recall, we've 3 already approved the job description for the public -- 4 the Chief Public Defender, which has been posted. This 5 is -- the next step is to approve the mechanism by which 6 we oversee and hire and fire that Chief Public Defender. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 JUDGE KELLY: The next item on the agenda, 9 you'll see down here more particularly when we get to 10 it, is the Interlocal Agreement between the five 11 counties. And so there's been a great deal of time and 12 effort put in in how to kind of work together for the 13 five counties and to protect Kerr County's interest as 14 the host county for making this a department of Kerr 15 County. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only thing I'll add 17 is that this is more just informational. All of the 18 employees, even though it's located in Medina County, 19 will be Kerr County employees and they will be subject 20 to our policies, our retirement, all of our benefits 21 package and all of that. And that's why -- you know, 22 Kerr County has more of a say. And because those are 23 all job descriptions and things of that nature, while 24 they'll be developed by the Chief Public Defender and 25 through the oversight board, this Court's going to have 54 1 a lot more involvement with that whole Public Defender's 2 Office than any other Commissioners' Court out of the 3 five. It'll be a -- it's a Kerr County department that 4 we oversee through the Oversight Board and through the 5 Chief Public Defender. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I think it all 7 sounds good, but I haven't seen the proposed policy or 8 anything. I don't know if the other members of the 9 Court has or not. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is it. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we just received 12 that this morning. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Well -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, this looks similar 16 to what we got, I guess, last week. Because I was just 17 comparing the two. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's new and improved. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, new and improved. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There were just a couple 21 of minor changes to this agreement and the next 22 agreement. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Well, I haven't 24 read it yet so I'll let somebody else make a motion. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'll make a motion 55 1 to approve the oversight board membership and policies 2 for the Hill County Regional Public Defender's Office. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I made a motion to 5 approve, and Commissioner Harris made a second to 6 approve the oversight board membership policy for the 7 Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. Any 8 further discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just want to say, 10 I'm -- I have a high level of confidence in Judge 11 Williams and his involvement was really helpful. I 12 think that most everybody in the community. And when 13 you ask the attorneys in the area about Judge Williams, 14 they all respect him, so -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was -- I will say 16 that this agreement has moved and changed quite a bit. 17 There was a lot of input from the people, the local 18 group, because they went through it line by line. And 19 especially Judge Williams, who's very -- and I think 20 everybody on the committee went through it. County 21 Attorney Stebbins as well. And everyone had a lot of 22 input into it to make sure that Kerr County's interests 23 are protected. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think he'll look to 25 our financial interest in a special way. 56 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. You bet. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Any further 4 discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I haven't read it, but 6 I wish it had been in the backup. I think I would have 7 read it. But -- and I wasn't here last week. So I'm 8 sure that it's -- I have confidence it's okay but I want 9 to abstain because I haven't read it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. All 11 in favor raise your right hand. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Against? Abstain? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Abstain. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So it's at 4-0-1. 16 Commissioner Moser abstained. 17 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 18 appropriate action regarding the Interlocal Agreement 19 for the Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 20 This is the agreement between the counties. 21 It's a very -- it's as brief as it could be, mainly 22 because most of the actual meat is in the actual -- in 23 the agreement we had approved, to give a little 24 flexibility. 25 Judge, do you have any comments on this? 57 1 JUDGE KELLY: No. Other than I would say 2 that the delay in getting this document out, 3 Commissioner Moser, was my technological incompetence 4 with regards to the redline process. It took a call 5 back to TIDC and have them send me just a Word document 6 so we could change it. But all the changes that were 7 made in it was made by our committee, with some input 8 from TIDC. But really, the other four counties were in 9 complete agreement and all of the changes that were 10 made, I think Ms. Stebbins can confirm, were to protect 11 Kerr County. To give us -- to more clearly spell out 12 exactly what our rights are in this thing. 13 And the Interlocal Agreement between the 14 counties is what obligates them to pay us their share of 15 these expenses for the matching grant. That first year 16 is 80/20. So that 20 percent that the counties 17 contribute, this is the document that obligates them to 18 pay us. So this is a pretty important document. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, the only question 20 I have -- do you have the document in front of you? 21 JUDGE KELLY: No. Let me see if I can get 22 it. No, I don't. I'm sorry. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it's -- on Page 5, 24 on the signature page, there's a typo for Judge 25 Schuchart. There's a "7" before Schuchart. Just to get 58 1 that corrected. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, there's some 3 other things, other problems too. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And I corrected that on my 5 redline but I could never get it printed. And I 6 apologize. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other item that I 8 noted was on item 4, because each County agreed to 9 appoint two representatives except for Kerr, and they 10 appoint three. Shouldn't it say each County's 11 Commissioners' Court? Because that would be consistent 12 with the -- the policy agreement we just approved. 13 JUDGE KELLY: I think -- I'm trying to 14 remember -- at least in one of the documents I know we 15 said Commissioners' Court. I thought we said 16 Commissioners' Court in this one too in a different 17 place. But it's -- I would certainly clarify that by 18 saying it was always intended it was going to be the 19 Commissioners' Courts that make these appointments. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So in the other 21 agreement it says that it's the Commissioners' Court 22 that makes the appointments, but this one it just says 23 each County. And it -- it could be -- I'm probably okay 24 this way, with this agreement. But this is the 25 agreement that's been approved by all counties and the 59 1 other one is only approved by Kerr County, probably 2 should say Commissioners' Court for this one as well. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. We're going 4 to have to make corrections -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: I agree. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- anyway. So might 7 as well clean it up. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, the redline on 9 this was weird. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Any other comments? 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: With those corrections 12 noted, I move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. We have a motion. 14 Do we have a second? 15 JUDGE KELLY: I'll second. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion from 17 Commissioner Harris, second from Judge Kelly to approve 18 the Interlocal Agreement for the Hill Country Regional 19 Public Defender's Office with the two modifications made 20 today. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: Is he going to -- Judge, are 22 you going to tell -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He can't hear you. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Heather has a question, 25 Judge. 60 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: Judge, are you going to tell 3 whoever is in charge of redlining that document that 4 those two changes need to be made? 5 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, number four has a 8 lot of stuff that I can't understand the redline at all. 9 I don't even get the gist of it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Item 4? 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Item 4 is a jumble. 12 And -- and not understanding anymore about the redlining 13 that the Judge has expressed, I don't -- maybe somebody 14 that's familiar with it can read that. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can read that. Each 16 County agrees to appoint two -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Take the word "delete" 18 out. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It says delete. And 20 then I don't know what's deleted and what isn't. I'm 21 going to have to abstain if we're going to -- 22 MRS. STEBBINS: I think that this document 23 that y'all have is the same one that I have. I don't 24 think that that's really the final document, because it 25 does have some of the -- somebody's comments. Probably 61 1 Judge Kelly's. I don't know if you got it in front of 2 you, Judge Kelly, but I think it's got some -- some 3 language in there that shouldn't be adopted in the final 4 version. I agree. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How about if we -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you can't understand 7 it, it's talking about this being deleted or -- 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I think it's just somebody's 9 comments that they were sending back and forth. We 10 may -- we may not have the final version in front of us. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How about -- do you 12 think yours is different? 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Mine looks just like 14 Harley's. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would recommend -- 17 because there is some content there and we need to get 18 this done. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you can have -- 20 you have a -- you know, a vote without my vote. But I'm 21 going to abstain. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One week -- one week -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, a question, is 24 this on the agenda for the other counties? Because we 25 need to make sure that we all are approving the exact 62 1 same document. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Exactly. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can we -- is it 4 possible -- is it going to cause a problem if we delay 5 this? 6 JUDGE KELLY: No. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or -- or we could 8 authorize the County Judge to make some modifications, 9 which I believe is the route that some of the other 10 counties are taking. Is that correct? 11 JUDGE KELLY: That's what they're doing. 12 Let me just kind of say what the -- what the timeline 13 is. Everything is geared towards having all five 14 counties approve all our organizational documents and 15 appoint our representatives by the last regular meeting 16 of the month, which I think is October 26th. That's our 17 time deadline. 18 And I apologize, but I think I got a clean 19 copy out, I don't think it got distributed to y'all, 20 sometime over this weekend. I think Heather and -- I 21 don't know if she's received that or not. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Huh-uh. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She didn't get it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We didn't get it. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We didn't get it. 63 1 MRS. STEBBINS: The one I got, Judge -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: That needs -- we'll get that 3 out. And there's no problem in delaying the approval 4 until next week. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: What we're trying to do was to 7 finalize this as quickly as we could so that the other 8 four counties could adopt what we've adopted. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's do it next week. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And so, I don't know if that's 11 going to delay other counties, but if it does, it does. 12 Because we're still -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll withdraw my 15 motion. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. We will pass on 17 this. And Commissioner Harris withdrew his motion. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We'll do it next week. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. We'll do it 20 next week and then it'll work. It's cleaner that way to 21 make sure it's an accurate document. This -- I mean 22 this is an important document because it involves four 23 counties -- five counties to be signing. 24 Okay, we'll go on to 1.15 consider, discuss 25 and take appropriate action regarding reappointment of 64 1 Jonathan Letz as a member of the Kerrville Economic 2 Development Corporation. Commissioner Moser. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, yeah. 4 Commissioner Letz's term has expired on the Kerrville 5 Economic Development Corporation and I make a motion 6 that we reappoint Commissioner Letz to that position. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I second that before 8 he backs out. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Motion and a 10 second to reappoint myself as a member of the Kerrville 11 Economic Development Corporation. Any further 12 discussion? All in favor say aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. And it's 15 almost ten after so we'll take a break and come back in 16 at 10:20. 17 (Recess.) 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Let's go 19 ahead and call Commissioners' Court back to order. 20 1.16 consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 action to set a Public Hearing for November 23rd, 2020 22 at 10 a.m. to consider a petition to abandon and 23 discontinue road maintenance for approximately 495 feet 24 of the end of Encino Drive, Precinct 1. Mr. Hastings. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. Shirley Ann 65 1 McGraw Bell owns Lots 6 and 7, all parts, and 8 of 2 Ranchero Estates, it's Volume 3, Page 46, and has 3 generated a petition to abandon and discontinue road 4 maintenance for approximately 495 feet of the end of 5 Encino Drive. Said portion of the road serves the 6 aforementioned Lots 6, 7, and 8. 7 The request is being made so she can gate 8 this portion of the road off from the public. There is 9 not a request to vacate the road, so that Lots 6, 7, and 10 8 will still have legal access to a road; however, once 11 abandoned and discontinued the road will become private 12 in nature. 13 Kerr County standard practices and 14 procedures for a request to abandon the end of the road 15 is for the requestor to provide some means for vehicles 16 to turn around in the form of right of way dedication, 17 either a cul-de-sac, a T-head, or a Hammerhead. Neither 18 the petition nor any other document addresses this 19 concern. 20 According to Texas statutes, the Court may 21 order public roads laid out, discontinued, closed, 22 abandoned, vacated, or altered. The statute defines the 23 relevant terms. In this case, Abandon, to relinquish 24 the public's right-of-way in and use of the road, and 25 Discontinue, to discontinue the maintenance of the road. 66 1 The statute defines the process to abandon 2 and discontinue: 3 1. Prepare a petition with 8 signatures 4 from people who live in the precinct; the petition must 5 show the limits of the road that is to be Abandoned and 6 Discontinued. The petition must be posted at both ends 7 of the subject portion of road, as well as the 8 courthouse for a minimum of 20 days prior to a public 9 hearing. 10 2. A public hearing is required before the 11 Commissioners' Court can consider the petition; and 12 3. Following the public hearing, the 13 Commissioners' Court may consider and take action on the 14 subject request. 15 The County Engineer recommends that the 16 Court set a Public Hearing for November 3rd, 20 -- I'm 17 sorry, November 23rd, 2020 at 10 a.m. to consider a 18 petition to abandon and discontinue road maintenance for 19 approximately 495 feet at the end of Encino Drive, 20 Precinct 1. 21 There are exhibits in your packet, if you 22 want to see what that looks like. There's a copy of the 23 petition to abandon and discontinue the road 24 maintenance. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But this is just to do 67 1 a public hearing? 2 MR. HASTINGS: This would be just to set the 3 public hearing. Then at the public hearing date, we can 4 get down into the weeds during the public hearing and I 5 can give you a full report and analysis. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I move for 7 approval. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A motion by Commissioner 10 Belew, second by Commissioner Moser to set the public 11 hearing for November 23rd, 2020 at 10 a.m. to consider a 12 petition to abandon and discontinue road maintenance for 13 approximately 495 feet at the end of Encino Drive, 14 Precinct 1. Any further discussion? 15 MRS. DOWDY: Do I need to publish it one or 16 three times? Just one -- one publishing? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Clarify that with the 18 County Attorney afterwards. 19 MR. HASTINGS: I'll get with you. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Any other 21 discussion? All in favor say aye or raise your hand. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Five zero, unanimous. 24 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action regarding Court authorization for the 68 1 Road & Bridge Department to remove mini speed humps on 2 Mosty Lane and Second Street, Precinct 2. 3 MR. HASTINGS: The intersection of Mosty 4 Lane and Second Street in Center Point has limited sight 5 visibility due to the extremely close proximity of 6 existing buildings to the edge of the road. The 7 buildings are within two feet of the edge of the road 8 and Mosty Lane is 18 feet wide. 9 In addition, the right-of-way for Mosty Lane 10 is prescriptive and both sides of the road are owned by 11 the Mosty family, who have used the road in their tree 12 and plant nursery operations for decades. The 13 commercial operation consists of pedestrian, equipment 14 and vehicles crossing Mosty Lane to access the buildings 15 that are on the edge of the road, going back and forth 16 between those buildings that are on either side of the 17 road. This has created a unique safety concern where 18 the use of the mini speed humps placed on the road 19 surface was believed to create a safer corridor for the 20 traveling public on Mosty Lane and its intersection with 21 Second Street. And on January 9th, 2017, the Court 22 authorized the installation of said speed humps. 23 On July 17th, 2020, the Engineering 24 Department received an e-mail from Bryan Wofford of 25 Mosty Nursery requesting the speed humps be removed and 69 1 I quote, As they only cause people to drive faster over 2 them or swerve through our parking lot to go around, end 3 quote. 4 County Engineer requests the Court authorize 5 the Road and Bridge Department to remove the mini speed 6 humps on Mosty Lane and Second Street, Precinct 2. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have a motion and 10 second. And Mr. Schultz? 11 MR. SCHULTZ: I have nothing to add. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 13 Moser, second from Commissioner Belew to authorize 14 removing speed humps from Mosty Lane and Second Street. 15 Any further -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The only thing I would 17 comment on is it was a good idea, but they did not work. 18 MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All in favor -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That was a mini good 22 idea. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All in favor raise your 24 right hand, say aye. It was unanimous. 25 Item 1.18 consider, discuss and take 70 1 appropriate action to set a public hearing for 2 November 23rd, 2020 at 10 a.m. to consider the 3 installation of STOP signs in all directions at the 4 intersection of Mosty Lane and Second Street. 5 Mr. Hastings. 6 MR. HASTINGS: The intersection of Mosty 7 Lane and Second Street has limited sight visibility due 8 to the extremely close proximity of existing buildings 9 to the edge of the road, i.e. the buildings are within 10 two feet of the edge of the road and Mosty Lane is 11 18 feet wide. We established that in the last agenda 12 item. 13 In addition, the right-of-way for Mosty Lane 14 is prescriptive and both sides of the road are owned by 15 the Mosty family, who have used the road in their tree 16 and plant nursery operations for decades. The 17 commercial operation consists of pedestrians, equipment, 18 and vehicles crossing Mosty Lane to access the buildings 19 that are on the edge of the road. There is an existing 20 STOP sign on Second Street at Mosty Lane. There are no 21 STOP signs on Mosty Lane at Second Street. 22 An engineering study was conducted following 23 the Texas Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the 24 results are attached and will be read allowed. 25 The speed limit on Mosty Lane is 30 miles 71 1 per hour, that is the major road. The minor road is 2 Second Street, speed limit is 30. 85th percentile speed 3 for Mosty Lane is 18-19 miles per hour. 85th percentile 4 speed for Second Street was 22 miles per hour. The 5 average daily traffic on Mosty Lane is 40 to 94 vehicles 6 per day. The average daily traffic for Second Street is 7 90 vehicles per day. 8 Vehicles per hour equates to 5 to 12 for 9 Mosty Lane, and for Second Street 11. That's over an 10 8-hour period. Multi-way stop control can be useful as 11 a safety measure at intersections if certain traffic 12 conditions exist. Safety concerns associated with 13 multi-way stops include pedestrians, bicyclists, and all 14 road users expecting other road users to stop. 15 Multi-way stop control is used for the volume of traffic 16 on the intersecting roads is approximately equal. The 17 restrictions on the use of STOP signs described in 18 Section 2B.04 of the Texas Manual of Uniform Traffic 19 Control Devices also apply to multi-way stop 20 applications. 21 And then there's a whole list of reasons why 22 you would or would not use a STOP sign. Basically, we 23 don't have the volume at that intersection, but the 24 manual would recommend it. However, there are other 25 criteria that may be considered and one of them is 72 1 locations where a road user, after stopping, cannot see 2 conflicting traffic and is not able to negotiate the 3 intersection unless conflicting cross-traffic is also 4 required to stop. Yes. That's the one that we're 5 really concerned about. 6 If you're on Second Street, you cannot 7 necessarily look to your left and tell if there's 8 another vehicle coming until it's there because of the 9 building there. And you also are not -- probably not 10 going to see a little further down the road where there 11 might be some activity going on, whether it's a 12 pedestrian that's working or they've got a skid-steer or 13 some kind of equipment trying to work this operation. 14 So with all that being said, County Engineer 15 requests the Court consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to set a public hearing for 17 November 23rd, 2020 at 10 a.m. to consider the 18 installation of STOP signs in all directions at the 19 intersection of Mosty Lane and Second Street, 20 Precinct 2. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 24 Moser, second from Commissioner Harris to set a public 25 hearing for November 23rd, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. to 73 1 consider the installation of STOP signs in all 2 directions at the intersection of Mosty Lane and Second 3 Street. Mr. Schultz(phonetic), any questions? 4 MR. SCHULTZ: Nothing to add. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing to add. All 6 right. Thank you. 7 Any further discussion? All in favor say 8 aye or raise your hand. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unanimous, five zero. 11 Item 1.19 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action for the Court to approve final plat 13 of Guadalupe Falls. Precinct 4. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The owner is Alan 15 Brown. Proposed total acreage 5.01 acres. Number of 16 lots, one. If it's going to be a private well, two. If 17 on a public water system, they have the option of doing 18 either one since they're -- they've got the five-acre 19 minimum. With this lot they can drill a well if they 20 need to. There is public water available in the area, 21 but there's some question about who's CCN at the end. 22 They haven't got that answered. So they've got it both 23 ways right now, they can do either/or. 24 They plan on this being a commercial lot, 25 but there's -- since they're over five acres, if they 74 1 want to use it as residential, they can. So really, 2 they can -- they can do a whole lot with this piece of 3 property. Aqua Texas would probably be the water 4 provider, if they can work a deal out there. And get 5 the CCN issues resolved. 6 The sewer would be septic. They're out of 7 the floodplain on this lot. There's no proposed roads. 8 This plat proposes one lot on Nichols Cemetery Loop and 9 Junction Highway, State Highway 27. It is within 10 Ingram's ETJ. Access from Junction Highway (State 11 Highway 27) must be shared with adjoining property, and 12 it will require a driveway construction permit from 13 TxDOT; not from us. 14 The County Engineer requests the Court 15 approve a final plat for Guadalupe Falls, Precinct 4. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Charlie, just for 17 clarification, this five acres, Headwater Groundwater 18 will have to approve a well. Is that correct? 19 MR. HASTINGS: They can approve it. If it's 20 under five, they -- they don't have the ability, 21 necessarily, to approve the well. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. We can approve 23 something like this without Headwater or Groundwater -- 24 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. Yes, sir. And they 25 will have the ability to go get a well. 75 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: People ask that. So 2 just for clarification for the public. Okay. Thanks. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On that form, 4 Commissioner, Headwaters does not normally sign our 5 plats. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's been new 8 discussion whether they should or not. And that's kind 9 of on the table -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and Mr. Hastings and 12 myself are visiting with Headwaters about it to try to 13 clarify it. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Because that 15 question came up this weekend as a matter of fact on a 16 constituent asking that question. So just for 17 clarification. Thanks. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 21 Harris, second by Commissioner Belew to approve the 22 final plat for Guadalupe Falls. Further discussion? 23 Those in favor raise your right hand or say aye. It's 24 unanimous. 25 Item 1.20 consider, discuss and take 76 1 appropriate action for the Court to set a public hearing 2 for 10 a.m. on November 23, 2020 for a revision of plat 3 for Cave Spring Addition Section Five Phase One, Lots 14 4 and 15 of Block B, Volume 5, Page 164. Mr. Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The 6 owner/developers are Raymond and Nancy Atkins, 7 A-T-K-I-N-S. Proposed total acreage is 1.86, one lot, 8 combining lot. And smallest size lot of 1.86. The 9 public water supplier is Vlasek. They are on septic out 10 there. They're out of the floodplain. There's no 11 proposed roads. This proposal combines Lots 14 and 15 12 into Lot 15A (1.86 acres). Property access and road 13 frontage is on Rimrock Circle. 14 County Engineer requests the Court set a 15 public hearing for 10 a.m. on November 23rd, 2020 for a 16 revision of plat for Cave Spring Addition, Section Five 17 Phase One, Lots 14 and 15 of Block B, Volume 5, Page 18 164, Precinct 4. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Did you say that is Lot 20 15A or 14A? 21 MR. HASTINGS: They're going to call it 15A 22 after they combine Lots 14 and 15 together. Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here it says 14A. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It shows 14A on the -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It doesn't make any 77 1 difference. 2 MR. HASTINGS: It's a typo. We'll go with 3 what's on here. It'll be 14A. Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 8 Harris, second from Commissioner Belew to set a public 9 hearing for 10 a.m. on November 23rd, 2020 for a 10 revision of plat for Cave Spring Addition, Section Five 11 Phase One, Lot 14 and 15 of Block B, Volume 5, Page 164. 12 Any further discussion? All in favor raise your right 13 hand or say aye. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unanimous, five zero. 16 All right. Do y'all want to do the Approval 17 Agenda or do Executive Session first? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do the Approval Agenda. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Move to the 20 Approval Agenda. First to the Auditor, Pay the bills. 21 MRS. SHELTON: Invoices for today's 22 consideration: Kerr County, $188,655.45. The Airport, 23 $960.00. Those are all for last year. For this year, 24 we've got Kerr County, $516,511.98. Adult Probation, 25 $2,728.95. And then for the DA Forfeiture Fund, 198th 78 1 DA Forfeiture Fund, we've got $7.50. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Motion from Commissioner 5 Harris, second from Commissioner Moser to approve the 6 disbursements, pay the bills. Any further discussion? 7 All in favor raise your right hand, say aye. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Tanya, when will we 10 know how we came out for the year? 11 MS. SHELTON: We're still doing the entries. 12 We're looking at closing the books by the end of 13 December. We're hoping to be through before then, 14 though. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. Thanks. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Budget 17 Amendments? 18 MS. SHELTON: There are not any. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: None. Late bills? 20 MS. SHELTON: We have one amount for 21 $109,668.69, and that's for the Texas Water Development 22 Board grant. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. A motion? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Moser made 2 the motion, Commissioner Harris made a second to approve 3 the one late bill. Any further discussion? All in 4 favor raise your right hand or say aye. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unanimous. Auditor 7 reports? 8 MS. SHELTON: There are not any. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There are none. Monthly 10 reports? 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For August 2020, 12 standard monthly reports from Constable Precinct 3, Ken 13 Wilke. September 2020, standard monthly reports from 14 Constables Precinct 1, Tommy Rodriguez. Constable 15 Precinct 2, Kyle Schneider. Constable Precinct 4, Gene 16 Huffaker. Fines, judgments, and jury fees collected 17 J.P. 1, Mitzi French, J.P. 2, J. R. Hoyne, J.P. 3, Kathy 18 Mitchell. District Clerk, Dawn Lantz. County Clerk, 19 Jackie "JD" Dowdy. And payroll approval report, month 20 ending September 2020, County Treasurer, Tracy Soldan. 21 I move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a motion to 23 accept monthly reports. Do we have a second? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A second from 80 1 Commissioner Moser. Any further discussion? All those 2 in favor raise your right hand or say aye. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unanimous. Court 5 Orders. We have the Court Orders from our October 5th 6 meeting. Court Orders numbers 38362 through 38372. And 7 they look to be in order. I'll make a motion to 8 approve. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second from Commissioner 11 Harris. Any further discussion? All in favor raise 12 your right hand or say aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unanimous. Information 15 Agenda. Status reports from Department Heads. I don't 16 see any. 17 Status reports from Elected Officials. 18 Don't see any. 19 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners? 20 I don't see anything. 21 We do have an Executive Session item, and 22 4.3 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 23 regarding Kildeer Mountain Manufacturing economic 24 development opportunity. So we will go into closed 25 session. 81 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Take a five minute 2 break? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, take a five minute 4 break and go into closed session. And be back in at 5 quarter till. 6 (Break and Executive Session.) 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, it is 11:15, and 8 we are back in open session. And let me call 4.3 what 9 was discussed in executive session is consider, discuss 10 and take appropriate action regarding Kildeer Mountain 11 Manufacturing economic development opportunity. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll make a motion that 13 we establish an agreement with Kildeer Mountain 14 Manufacturing consistent with the policies of the County 15 on abatement and economic development. And that this 16 agreement be -- follow those guidelines and those 17 policies, and be established with the concurrence of the 18 County Attorney and Kildeer Manufacturing to -- 19 basically what it'll be is an abatement of taxes for ten 20 years, but tied to the number of employees that Kildeer 21 Manufacturing would have in Kerr County. And it would 22 start with 15 in the year 2020, and increase to at least 23 200 by the year 2029, and they'll be callback provisions 24 in that if they do not meet those, the schedule of 25 employees at that facility, that the abatement would be 82 1 reduced proportionately. 2 And this was -- this recommendation and 3 proposal is based on the return on investment analysis 4 to the County as being very positive, somewhere in the 5 neighborhood of $754,000.00 over a ten-year period to 6 the County and the benefits as opposed to the tax 7 abatement of something like 534,000 for the same period. 8 So with those basic principles, I move that we establish 9 the agreement and bring that agreement back to the Court 10 for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. All right, we 12 have a motion and a second to approve the concept and 13 enter into an agreement with Kildeer Mountain 14 Manufacturing and that will be consistent with the Kerr 15 County policy for economic development, and the general 16 parameters will be it'll be a ten-year abatement of 17 their property taxes to be tied to performance criteria, 18 including job -- number of jobs established, and other 19 criteria set out by the proposed -- by the Governor's 20 office, and we'll direct the County Attorney to work 21 with the economic development -- Gil Salinas on creating 22 that agreement to bring back to the Court. Is that 23 right? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Any further 83 1 discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I would like to 3 say that I'm not a big fan of abatements other than 4 these types that produce good paying jobs with benefits. 5 There's difference in jobs. Some of them are just jobs, 6 but others are lasting jobs that create -- you know, 7 people can raise a family on. So I'm for it. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And I echo that. I'm 9 really -- I hope people understand this is not -- this 10 does not set a precedent, unless the precedent is that 11 an abatement must bring with it primary jobs. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You bet. You and I 13 discussed another situation earlier that we -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. That didn't do 15 that. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Any further 17 discussion? All in favor raise your right hand or say 18 aye. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Aye. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's unanimous. Okay. 21 And with that, I think that's it for today's 22 Commissioners' Court, and we're adjourned. 23 * * * * * * 24 25 84 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 23rd 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