1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, December 28, 2020 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 (via phone) JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Commissioners' Comments. 5 4 1.1 Discussion and update regarding COVID-19. 9 5 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 action on request to close Flat Rock Park, 6 not dog park side, to public parking from February 11, 2021 at 11 p.m. until 7 February 14, 2021 at 5 p.m. for the use of stock show trailer parking for the Texas 8 Pork Producers Elite Showcase. Public access to the dog park would be allowed 9 from the walkthrough gate near the bridge. 10 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 action to appoint a member of 11 Commissioners' Court, or designate a person to perform investigation under 751.005 of 12 the Texas Health and Safety Code for the purpose of determining if the minimum 13 standards for ensuring public safety and order as prescribed by law will be maintained 14 under the application for the permit for Mass Gathering by the Texas Pork Producers 15 scheduled for February 11-14, 2021. Hearing set for Tuesday, January 26 at 11 a.m. 16 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 17 action to declare an office chair as surplus and dispose of properly. 18 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 19 action to accept donations of multiple items from the Tally Elementary School 20 Student Council. 21 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 action to approve renewing the Kerr County 22 Incentive Program as part of the Texas Association of Counties Healthy County 23 Rewards Program for 2021. 24 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 action on the Request for Disbursement of 25 salaries and routine office expenses and to rescind Court Order No. 37520. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 action to recommend the appointment of 4 Jonathan Letz as a member of the Region 11 Guadalupe Regional Flood Planning Group, 5 and authorize County Judge to submit a letter stating same. 6 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 61 7 action to determine liaison positions for 2021 and review liaison policies. 8 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 61 9 action to appoint Chris Hughes as President of Emergency Services District, 10 ESD, #1. 11 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 63 action regarding employee merit pay. 12 1.12 Public Hearing for a Revision of Plat for 67 13 Estates at Turtle Creek Section Two, Lots 27 and 28, Volume 6, Page 241. 14 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 15 action for the Court to set a Public Hearing for 10 a.m. on February 8, 2021 16 for a Revision of Plat for Paradocs Retreat Lot 1, Plat File #14-6816. 17 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 18 action for the Court to set a Public Hearing for 10 a.m. on February 8, 2021 19 for a Revision of Plat for Kerrville South II, Lot 50, Volume 4, Page 64. 20 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 70 21 action to disqualify/reject bid due to late arrival. 22 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 23 action to award the Road & Bridge Department annual material bids for road base, cold 24 mix, aggregates, emulsion oil and corrugated metal pipe. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 2.1 Pay Bills. 84 4 2.3 Late Bills. 86 5 2.4 Auditor Reports. 86 6 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 89 7 2.6 Court Orders. 89 8 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 90 action for the Court to cancel a public 9 hearing set for January 25, 2021 at 10 a.m. and waive platting oversight for Revision 10 of Plat for River Bend Estates, Lots 8 and 9, Volume 5, Page 377. 11 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 93 12 *** Adjournment. 105 13 *** Reporter's Certificate. 106 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. Today is 2 Monday, December 28th, 2020. This is our last regular 3 Commissioners' Court meeting of the year. And it will 4 be the last Commissioners' Court meeting that the 5 Sheriff will preside over as our bailiff. We're sorry 6 to see you go. He's nodding his head -- shaking his 7 head. Not nodding, but shaking his head. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are you speaking to the 9 whole Court? 10 JUDGE KELLY: He's trying to. But we're -- 11 before we can actually get going, we're going to need 12 have our County Clerk present, which we don't have. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think you got the 14 prayer today, don't you? 15 JUDGE KELLY: No. So why don't we go ahead 16 and begin. Let's see -- 17 MRS. GRINSTEAD: She's watching via YouTube 18 she said. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. She's watching via 20 YouTube. 21 So if you would, stand for the prayer and 22 the pledge to be led by Commissioner Letz. 23 (Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.) 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. This is the part of the 25 agenda where we ask for public input, as we do every 6 1 month -- every week or two. And this is the opportunity 2 where the public has the opportunity to offer their 3 input to the Court, but it's not output back from us. 4 We listen to what you have to say. If there's anyone 5 that would like to address the Court at this time, this 6 is your opportunity. Is there anyone that would like to 7 address us? 8 Okay. There not being anyone then the next 9 part of our agenda are Commissioners Comments. We've 10 got Commissioner Moser, who is attending by phone. He's 11 on the telephone right here at the bench. Commissioner 12 Moser, why don't we go with you first. What's going on 13 in Precinct 2? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you, 15 Judge. I think everybody in Precinct 2 had a good 16 Christmas as far as I can tell. We're super dry. We 17 need more rain. 18 There's still a lot of concern about the new 19 quarry that's taking place and they're working 20 aggressively in that area, and close to the river. And 21 we're going to -- we scheduled a town hall meeting, 22 assuming COVID will allow us to do that, for January the 23 29th at the AG Barn. So I think that will be a good 24 one. It's like we had with Martin Marietta. They 25 explain what they're doing. The public got to express 7 1 their concerns and I think it was a good thing. So 2 we've got that planned for January 29th. That's all. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Commissioner 4 Precinct 1, Commissioner Belew. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: All has been pretty 6 quiet. A wonderful Christmastime for us. I hope 7 everybody else had the same. And there's going to -- 8 there's fireworks stands open now. People are going to 9 be buying fireworks so please celebrate with caution. 10 All the proper preparations and don't start any fires. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Very good. Precinct 3. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I really don't have 13 anything, other than we're really dry. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's about the topic 15 of the day, dryness. Hopefully, we've got some rain on 16 the way. We'll see. By the end of the week we should 17 know, but please be careful right now. Especially with 18 the fireworks and everything else going on. That's all 19 I got. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. On the countywide 21 basis, what I'd like to advise the public, I'd like to 22 introduce you to our new Chief Public Defender, John 23 Bull. 24 John, I would ask you to go up to the podium 25 where they can see you on YouTube. But we just hired 8 1 John Bull to run our new 31 member -- 31 employee 2 department of Public Defender's Office. And John comes 3 to us with great credentials. He's a retired municipal 4 Presiding Judge in San Antonio. Presiding over, what, 5 20-some odd courts and 150 employees and $30 million 6 budget. So we have a wealth of experience here. And we 7 want to welcome you to Kerr County and introduce you to 8 everybody. You're welcome to make any remarks you'd 9 like. 10 MR. BULL: Thank you. This is really 11 something I'm really excited about doing. It's going to 12 be a great opportunity. As I've had discussions getting 13 ready for the -- my first official day, I get sworn in 14 on Friday. And then Monday, we're going to start 15 onboarding as quick as we can. 16 But every conversation I've had with people 17 at the Indigent Defense Commission and the other Chiefs 18 from the other areas have told me that this was the best 19 setup office that they've seen of any of them. The way 20 it was funded, the way it was set up, an autonomous 21 office. So I'm really looking forward to it. 22 I think the thing that's going to be the 23 best asset that we've discussed was in addition to my 24 work as a Judge and attorney, is I served as an Adjunct 25 Professor in Trial Ad at Saint Mary's Law School for the 9 1 last 20 years, and already getting a lot of inquiries 2 from young, excited, newly-licensed lawyers that are 3 going to want to be a part of this. And so I'm really 4 looking forward to it. I'm particularly looking forward 5 to being here in Kerrville and working with all of 6 y'all. So -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: We're -- we're excited. And 8 so with that, we're going to move on through the rest of 9 the Agenda. But thank you and -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, John. 11 MR. BULL: Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Welcome aboard. 13 MR. BULL: Thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And John, if you'll wait back 15 there, somebody wants to talk to you. Step out there. 16 MR. BULL: Okay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: It's all good. Thank you. 18 Okay. I see we've got Cory Edmondson from 19 Peterson Regional Medical Center is here with us today. 20 Let's move on to Item 1.1 on the Agenda, which I know 21 this is something that's on everybody's mind right now. 22 It's a discussion for update regarding COVID-19. I've 23 got Dub Thomas, Cory Edmondson is here. We've been -- 24 we've been busy these past few days. So, Dub. 25 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 10 1 morning, Commissioners. I hope y'all's Christmas 2 holiday was as blessed as mine. And like I told 3 Commissioner Harris earlier, I think by having COVID 4 myself didn't hurt my appetite any because my pants fit 5 a little tighter and checkbook's still a little lighter 6 as well. But anyway, I hope y'all had a blessed holiday 7 season. 8 So our COVID numbers, the latest update that 9 I can give you is from what we had on Friday -- I'm 10 sorry, Wednesday. DSHS Region 8 was state holiday 11 Thursday and Friday so they didn't put out any 12 information as far as the spreadsheet goes that I 13 usually give which has a list of everybody that tests 14 positive in Kerr County, whether they're tested at 15 Peterson or CVS or wherever. 16 So on Friday our active -- I'm sorry, 17 Wednesday, our active case numbers were 475, total COVID 18 cases was 1901. We've had 33 fatalities. And as of 19 Wednesday evening, we had 25 hospitalized. We are -- 20 we've been notified by the Department of State Health 21 Services that we're about to come up on seven days of 22 what they call high hospitalization rate. So what 23 everybody's been told is you have to keep 15 percent 24 capacity for your hospital for COVID surge. Well, it's 25 not really capacity, it's about how many actual COVID 11 1 patients you have in your hospital, whether it's 15 2 percent. 3 So for November 12th, and these are just 4 using the Peterson Regional numbers that they give me 5 everyday, from November 12th through December 21st, just 6 through -- just with Peterson's testing, we've been 7 running anywhere from 10 percent to 26 percent. 8 The RMOC, which is the Regional Medical 9 Operations Center for the Trauma Service Area P, which 10 is what Kerr County is part of the P team, the county 11 took part in the TSA-P. Our hospital cases for 12-1 12 through 12-6 were at 15 percent. 12-7 through 12-8, for 13 two days we were at 17 percent. 12-9 through 12-21, we 14 had average anywhere from 10.9 percent, so we had a 15 drop, down to 14.4 -- up to 14.4 before. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Dub, that's a 17 percentage of what? 18 MR. THOMAS: Patients in the hospital that 19 are COVID positive. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to -- we're going 21 to place this out on the -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'd like to know 23 before I proceed exactly what percentages we're talking 24 about. 25 MR. THOMAS: Okay. So it's actually the 12 1 percentage of patients in the hospital that are COVID 2 positive. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So they've gone from -- 4 it varies? 5 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You just said 10 7 percent was the last one you said. 8 MR. THOMAS: 10 percent -- on December the 9 9th through the 21st, it was 10.9 percent. 14.4 from 10 12-22 to 12-26 has been at 14.2 to 16.39 percent. 11 So if we hit our over 15 percent for seven 12 days, we officially go back under the Governor's mandate 13 to go back to 50 percent occupancy. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and just to update you, 15 late yesterday afternoon I received a letter from the 16 Department of State Health Services, Dr. John 17 Hellerstedt, and we have exceeded the seven consecutive 18 day 15 percent COVID capacity in our hospital. That's 19 why we have Mr. Edmondson here today to talk with us. 20 It's now official. I received notice this 21 morning from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission 22 that we are now in a high hospitalization category. 23 We're no longer minimal COVID-19. We're in the -- 24 playing with the big boys now. And all bars are closed. 25 Effective immediately. 13 1 So what we're talking about here on these 2 percentages goes back to the Governor's order GA32, 3 which didn't apply to us at the time because we were 4 exempted because we were a minimal COVID-19 county. But 5 it applies to us now because we're no longer a low COVID 6 county. We're now in a high hospitalization and we are 7 in a Trauma Service Area, TSA. 8 And when Dub talks about the TSA-P, they go 9 A through -- I can't remember, S or P or whatever it is, 10 and we just happen to be Region P of the Trauma Service 11 Area. 12 And the first calculation that's made is 13 whether or not the 22 counties that comprise the TSA-P, 14 which is the Trauma Service Area, and this is so we get 15 people to understand what we're talking about, exceeds 16 the hospitalizations related to COVID exceed 15 percent 17 of a cumulative hospital capacity for that region. 18 Which means that we have a lot of people in the hospital 19 throughout the 22 counties that we're one of. It starts 20 with -- with the TSA. And then you get considered on 21 the individual county basis. 22 And on Kerr County we've also been notified 23 that we are no longer -- we no longer qualify for that 24 minimum COVID exemption. We've lost the exemption and 25 that moves us back to 50 percent open capacity, just 14 1 like the rest of the state. 2 So where we are with this, and that's why I 3 want to put it on the agenda because we need to talk 4 about it, Dub and I sat in on a conversation with 5 Dr. Hellerstedt last Thursday, I think it was, and at 6 that point in time, they were emphasizing the need to 7 preserve our hospital capacity up. That we can't allow 8 our healthcare facilities, in our case Peterson -- PRHC, 9 to be overwhelmed. 10 And so they limit it to 15 percent capacity 11 so that the other 85 percent is open to the public for 12 basic health care. Because we don't want our hospital 13 just completely overrun with COVID cases. 14 So I think that's the rationale behind what 15 we're going, and I apologize for -- you know, we asked 16 Dub to come talk to us about this on a regular basis and 17 it sounds like a lot of numbers, but these numbers mean 18 something. And what it's telling us is, as I think I 19 remember the conversation Dub and I had not long ago, at 20 the beginning of October we had, what, some 30 cases? 21 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And it doubled by the end of 23 the month. And then November came and we started off 24 with 60 or 70 cases and it doubled in the first two 25 weeks. And then it doubled again after Thanksgiving. 15 1 And in the first week of December, we doubled again in 2 one week in active cases. So that's what we're looking 3 at. And the numbers that he's reading off on the 475 4 active cases, that was as of last Wednesday. I have no 5 idea what it is today. I'm almost afraid to ask Mr. 6 Edmondson what it is, but it is whatever it is. 7 But what we're looking at here and what 8 Dr. Hellerstedt emphasized to us is with the vaccine 9 there is light at the end of this tunnel. A genuine 10 light. And very optimistic about being able to contain 11 COVID-19, but it's going to get kind of dark in January 12 and February and we have to be prepared for it. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I have a 14 question. I -- I read on the CDC website that they are 15 not -- they have now decided to put pneumonia, influenza 16 and COVID all in one category. So that's on the CDC 17 website. So what are we really counting here? 18 MR. THOMAS: We're counting what's on the 19 DSHS website, which is not anything but COVID. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What I looked at on 21 that website today said positive cases and it didn't 22 give specifics about whether you're talking about COVID 23 or whether you're talking about something else. So I'm 24 trying to figure this out, what numbers we're talking 25 about. Because we had this huge spike -- 16 1 MR. THOMAS: Uh-huh. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- after they said they 3 were going to put pneumonia and influenza in the same 4 category. Can you speak to that, Mr. -- 5 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sounds like we're 7 mixing apples and oranges and I'd like to clarify that. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, this is Cory Edmondson. 9 He's the Executive Director of Peterson Regional Medical 10 Center. He's one of our stakeholders. We meet on a 11 regular basis to share information to try to manage the 12 COVID crisis here in the County. And we'll welcome you 13 to the Commissioners' Court. I don't know, is this your 14 first visit? 15 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah, it is. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Nobody approach the bailiff, 17 okay? We're not going to do that. But if you would 18 please address us? 19 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. Thank you, Judge. 20 And thank you for having me, Commissioners. The 21 positive cases that Peterson reports on is strictly 22 COVID patients. Positive results that we get from those 23 that we test. And that's what we submit to Dub. 24 And so Dub -- I know Dub is tracking what we 25 know what we have locally on a separate spreadsheet. 17 1 We're managing that and also manages what the Texas 2 Department of State Health Services website has. The 3 State website is behind what we're typically have. 4 We're -- we're more real time than what the State 5 website is showing. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How much time for the 7 reports, 24-hours? 8 MR. EDMONDSON: Goodness, no. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: More? 10 MR. EDMONDSON: More. Yeah, I think the 11 State's probably behind, could be five days, as far as 12 reporting the number of cases. And so what we report on 13 is real time and -- and that's to really give us as a 14 community a good business decision perspective versus 15 waiting on the State and being delayed from that 16 perspective. 17 Let me -- let me speak to the number of 18 cases in the hospital and how that looks. I was looking 19 yesterday at STRAC, which is South Texas Regional 20 Advisory Council, which is our Trauma Service Center P, 21 they have most rural hospitals are hovering way up well 22 over the 15 percent -- you know, 15 percent of their 23 patients are COVID. We're -- today, we have 32 24 patients, it's a new record, 32 COVID patients in the 25 hospital. And if you look at what STRAC has as our 18 1 staff bed capacity, which is 88, that puts us at roughly 2 a 36, 37 percent capacity as far as the number of 3 patients -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: And Cory, I don't mean to 5 interrupt. We're trying to be more conversational -- 6 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. 7 JUDGE KELLY: -- because I learned last week 8 when we had our meeting that we have licensed 124 beds 9 in that hospital. So he's talking about a different 10 type of certification from STRAC. So -- 11 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah. We do. We have 124 12 beds in the hospital, 26 of those are acute rehab units. 13 It's our ARU. And the rest of those are medical, 14 surgical and ICU. And the way STRAC likes to look at 15 that is what is your medical, surgical and ICU capacity? 16 ARU, what we've recently done is convert four to five 17 beds on our rehab unit to medical beds so that we can 18 continue to take care of our County and the patients 19 being admitted. 20 The last thing we want to do is divert 21 patients or say we can't except anymore and divert those 22 to San Antonio. We have worked trying to accept and 23 do -- take care of as many as we can at the hospital. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And these are all 25 County residents? 19 1 MR. EDMONDSON: I don't know. I don't know 2 that answer. Those could be from out-of-county as well. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because that would 4 affect our count. We have -- you have the hospital 5 limitation, I get that. And the number of beds. But 6 this is a regional hospital. It's in the name. It's a 7 regional -- 8 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So not all those people 10 are from Kerr County. 11 MR. EDMONDSON: That's true. But they 12 don't -- 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that's something to 14 consider. 15 MR. EDMONDSON: -- that doesn't matter to 16 them. It's what's your -- what is your hospital able to 17 have or do or care for? Whether they're from -- and 18 we -- and we accepted patients from -- and so did 19 San Antonio -- San Antonio accepted patients from 20 El Paso. We had accepted -- or a few months -- a month 21 or so ago a patient from the Odessa and Monahans' area 22 to help. Because we had the capacity at that time. We 23 had the ability to do that. 24 Right now we don't have that ability to 25 accept patients from outside really of -- of our area. 20 1 If they show up to the ED and they are COVID positive 2 and they need to be admitted, and they may be from 3 Bandera or from Gillespie, we're going to admit them and 4 take care of them. So we're not going to transfer them 5 somewhere else. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Cory, do you test 7 everyone that goes to the ER? 8 MR. EDMONDSON: No. Only if they are 9 symptomatic or they have -- if they are -- feel like 10 they've been exposed to a positive patient but they're 11 not experiencing symptoms, we're not going to test them 12 there. We'll send them to either our urgent care center 13 or Kerrville Medical Plaza, our primary care site to be 14 tested. But if they're experiencing the symptoms, we're 15 going to test them right there. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, there's another 17 thing that's come up and that is that they -- we keep 18 moving the goal posts around and that's COVID related. 19 The Judge used the term a minute ago. 20 How many -- so you're saying that everybody 21 in the hospital that you're counting is a COVID positive 22 person that's being treated just for that. 23 MR. EDMONDSON: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not other -- not 25 something else, COPD or something else. 21 1 MR. EDMONDSON: Oh, they could have other 2 issues, comorbidities is what we call them. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 4 MR. EDMONDSON: But we're treating them for 5 COVID situation, or whatever the case is. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Has that still been 7 incentivized? I mean, there was the $3500 we've heard 8 about per patient and 70,000 if they were on a vent? 9 MR. EDMONDSON: We get a 20 percent bump in 10 reimbursement to handle COVID-related patients that are 11 CMS, that are Medicare. And still even at that, that 12 really is not going to incent to accept more or treat 13 more or to say, oh, we -- we want to have more COVID 14 patients. The reality is that that really doesn't cover 15 the cost to take care of a COVID patient. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, with -- with what 17 we've got and in a lot of other places, governmental 18 entities have received grants for whatever undue 19 expenses, expenses we wouldn't have otherwise. 20 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The hospitals are 22 seeing that? 23 MR. EDMONDSON: We -- we -- early on under 24 the CARES Act we received -- we received monies to help 25 with those issues and covering expenses and losses and 22 1 PPE and all the things related to COVID. We apply for 2 those and receive those funds. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are you out of them? 4 MR. EDMONDSON: Yes. Yeah. I mean, when 5 you look at total losses that we've experienced we've -- 6 we've spent now probably four and a half million dollars 7 in COVID direct related expenses, from the staffing to 8 PPE to supplies to hiring additional staff to -- to care 9 for individuals and all, so we've -- we've done that. 10 And then that doesn't count the reduced 11 capacity that we had to have for elective surgeries when 12 we had to eliminate those, and the dollars and millions 13 are -- they mount. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And part of that time 15 you just had empty rooms, empty beds? 16 MR. EDMONDSON: Well -- 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Early on. Everybody 18 was anticipating this and people -- 19 MR. EDMONDSON: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- couldn't have their 21 elective surgeries but there was nobody in the bed. 22 There was no -- 23 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- so how much has the 25 standard changed for Peterson Regional since this began? 23 1 MR. EDMONDSON: When you say standard in 2 regards to -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, they -- they've 4 said we have -- if we have ten active cases or if we 5 have this percentage of hospital beds taken up, these 6 kinds of things, those things seem to be kind of a 7 moving target. It's like trying to nail Jello on the 8 wall. How much of that has changed for you? 9 MR. EDMONDSON: You know, our -- I guess to 10 answer your question, we've certainly seen an increase 11 in the total number of patients that we've seen that are 12 COVID related. We -- it's been pretty consistent with 13 how we have managed and treated those patients. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: CDC guidelines or what? 15 MR. EDMONDSON: Those -- that's been a 16 moving target and we've had to adjust -- 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what I'm 18 trying -- 19 MR. EDMONDSON: -- we've had to adjust some 20 things based on what those new criterias from a variety 21 of -- of forces, certainly we've had to adjust and 22 acclimate to the changes. Or as I should -- we feel 23 pretty fortunate we -- we understand that we also are 24 one of the very few hospitals in the region that are 25 also doing the antiviral and antibody IV therapy drugs 24 1 that have come out recently. There's a -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that kind of -- 3 MR. EDMONDSON: Well, we've been doing the 4 Remdesiver but Regeneron and Bamlanivimab are IV-treated 5 outpatient drugs. And you have to have -- people were 6 scared to do those because those patients that would 7 come in are COVID positive patients and you have to have 8 an isolated area or a concealed area to treat those 9 patients just because of the infection of it. And we've 10 been able to accomplish that and so we've been treating 11 patients and it's helped to keep them out of the 12 hospital. 13 And we ran out, we had 14 people on a 14 waiting list. We called the State, they said they had a 15 lot of inventory because a lot of hospitals weren't 16 doing it. And we said, well, send us your inventory. 17 So they did so we've got a good inventory of treating 18 patients in Kerr County. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's a therapeutic -- 20 MR. EDMONDSON: A therapeutic, yeah. And 21 they have to meet a certain criteria to -- to receive 22 that and when they did, the ultimate goal is they get 23 better and it keeps them out of the hospital. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'm glad you're here, 25 Cory. There's a lot of talk around the community or 25 1 rumors or what have you and -- and one of them is, 2 where's the flu this year? You know? Can you fill us 3 in on that? 4 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah. That's an -- it's 5 really interesting how the dynamics around that. So the 6 southern hemisphere in July time frame, wintertime, they 7 didn't experience flu either, really, at any level that 8 they used to in previous years. 9 We anticipate in the northern hemisphere to 10 experience the same thing. And we have -- we're -- 11 we've -- I can probably count on two hands how many flu 12 cases we've had during this flu season. And we just -- 13 it's just not there. It's out there, it's just not as 14 prevalent as it was. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Of course, the rumor 16 is everything is thrown in the COVID pile and that's 17 where the flu people are. 18 MR. EDMONDSON: We test -- we test it 19 different. There's a COVID test, there's a flu test, 20 there's a strep test, there's a pneumonia test. There's 21 all -- 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. Well, I -- like 23 I say, it's out there. 24 MR. EDMONDSON: I understand. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We've been told they're 26 1 two different tests. 2 MR. EDMONDSON: Two different tests for -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: COVID. 4 MR. EDMONDSON: We just -- we -- well, 5 there's the -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You have a standard 7 test that everybody -- 8 MR. EDMONDSON: There's a PCR test and then 9 there's an antibody test that we can do where the -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: The antigen test. 11 MR. EDMONDSON: The antigen test. Get all 12 my anti's -- 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the thing I was 14 talking about earlier, that "PIC" column that CDC is 15 doing, were you aware of that? 16 MR. EDMONDSON: I'm not familiar with that 17 particular item. Huh-uh. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. So it looks like 19 to me it's all being dumped in the same bucket. That's 20 what the CDC is saying now. 21 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah. Well, I'll have to 22 look into that a little bit more. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's pneumonia, 24 influenza and COVID altogether is listed as "PIC". And 25 there's an explanation for why they're doing it, but it 27 1 doesn't make any sense. 2 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What the CDC said 4 doesn't make any sense. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the DSHS numbers, 6 they do -- if one of y'all can look at the DSHS numbers 7 and see what they are because -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I looked at them this 9 morning. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I mean the local 11 numbers aren't doing that, I mean the hospital counts. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Well, we just 13 found that out from Cory and I appreciate that. 14 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. Yeah. 15 MR. THOMAS: But what I've reported -- to 16 answer your question, Harley, what's reported to me from 17 DSHS is on a spreadsheet from folks that have actually 18 test -- they're just COVID positive. That's -- there's 19 no flu or pneumonia or any of that. This is strictly 20 COVID. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And I want to be clear so 23 there's no confusion. When we first started counting 24 numbers, Dub was the one putting out the numbers and 25 they were DSHS numbers. DSHS's numbers. Okay. And 28 1 they were running way behind what we knew were being 2 tested positive at Peterson. And this was, what, a 3 couple months ago that we decided that the Peterson 4 numbers that were coming back with people testing 5 positive for COVID-19 were more accurate and more 6 current. Maybe not more accurate but more current than 7 DSHS's numbers. 8 And so we started reporting and Dub's -- the 9 numbers that Dub's reporting are numbers that are 10 basically from Peterson, there's some others, but mainly 11 from Peterson. Because we found that when they say 12 people are positive, they're positive. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's something 14 else I wanted to ask you about. I had a guy tell me 15 this week that he has two young employees that had been 16 around someone that ended up testing positive. And they 17 went to Peterson and were told to go home and 18 quarantine, though they didn't test positive. So what's 19 the policy there? 20 MR. EDMONDSON: Well, typically if -- the 21 recommendation -- and again from CDC, if you've been 22 exposed to a positive patient and you're not feeling any 23 symptoms, the best time to get tested is probably five 24 to seven days after you've been exposed. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 29 1 MR. EDMONDSON: Okay. And still even at 2 that you may not be symptomatic. If you're not 3 symptomatic, you can still get tested and we will send 4 you to our Kerrville Medical Plaza to get tested and we 5 can do that. If you are feeling symptomatic, you should 6 go to our Urgent Care Center and we'll test you there. 7 You know, the -- the wise thing to do is 8 you've been exposed to somebody is to go and quarantine 9 until you -- you know, for that period of time and not 10 expose anybody else. If you're feeling symptoms or -- 11 or whatever, you want to be tested, then go get tested. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now does that go into 13 the positive list? 14 MR. EDMONDSON: No. Not until a result 15 comes back positive. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A confirmed test? 17 MR. EDMONDSON: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Good. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me go back for 20 something -- just to clarify between what Dub said and 21 the Judge said because I'm hearing two different things 22 and I'm -- I'm at the meetings. And I know that we're 23 looking at the numbers a little bit differently than we 24 get from DSHS. 25 But Dub is saying he's using the numbers -- 30 1 the spreadsheet from them to come up with his number. 2 So the number in here is a DSHS number. 3 MR. THOMAS: It's part -- the number that I 4 put out every day is a combination of DSHS, which 5 includes all the testing that goes on in Kerr County, 6 whether it's CVS Pharmacy or Franklin Clinic or 7 whatever, and then whatever Pam Burgess sends me -- the 8 infection prevention nurse sends me every day, I add 9 that to whatever is on the spreadsheet because it takes 10 two or three days for whatever positive tests come from 11 Peterson before it winds up on the spreadsheet. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, how do you know 13 when DSHS updates their numbers that they're not now 14 including -- that at some point they're going to include 15 our local hospital numbers, how do you know to take them 16 off? I mean how do you -- 17 MR. THOMAS: Because I can look at the 18 spreadsheet and addresses that Peterson sends me are 19 included on that spreadsheet, I don't -- I don't count 20 them anymore. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because he has more 23 information than we do. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I just wanted to 25 make -- get that out -- 31 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- so it's clear to the 3 public that we're not -- 4 MR. THOMAS: It's a down -- and then every 5 two weeks or every 14 days somebody technically is 6 recovered -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8 MR. THOMAS: -- based on CDC standards, and 9 DSHS sometimes is a little slow in removing those. So 10 based on what Pam sends me, I can delete those out 11 and -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, they're saying 13 that's to ten days now. So that's -- 14 MR. THOMAS: Well, they -- yeah. Well, 15 it's -- I'm going to stick with the 14 days to be -- to 16 be consistent. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Before we get distracted in 18 how we do these numbers -- and we've been struggling 19 with how to do the numbers from the get-go, we talked 20 about it in our first meeting, Cory. Where we are right 21 now and what Dub is doing with Peterson, is what we 22 think is probably our best guess as to what those 23 numbers are. I can't say that they're absolute, but 24 they're our best guess. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But you're -- you're 32 1 talking about guessing about something that's going to 2 shut down somebody's business. We don't need guesses. 3 We need really accurate good information because you're 4 cutting off somebody's livelihood. 5 JUDGE KELLY: That's the best information 6 available, Commissioner. That's all -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It shouldn't be 8 guesswork. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's not guesswork. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It sounds like it is. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Peterson -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Or we have lag time, we 13 have -- we have numbers that are -- that may be 14 questionable. And you're going to tell somebody you 15 need to put a closed -- closed for business sign in 16 their front window. That's pretty important. 17 JUDGE KELLY: What's pretty important to me 18 right now is that these numbers are absolutely blowing 19 up. How many of them, I don't know. But when you start 20 talking about 500, we're going to be 600, 1,000 first 21 week in January, active cases that are, within any 22 margin of error, reasonable -- reasonably expected 23 positive COVID cases. And we have to deal with it. 24 And the State's told us that we're blowing 25 up and we're reporting it back to the public so that 33 1 they know. It's blowing up. And it's going to be a 2 pretty bleak January and February, I'm afraid. I don't 3 think -- I don't think Dub or -- or Cory disagree that 4 we're looking at it's going to get worse before the 5 vaccine starts to close this thing down. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Harley, the one thing 7 I'll say that listening to all of this is that the 8 numbers you're looking at are the hospital numbers. 9 Only the people in the hospital -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- and they're 12 percentages. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So those aren't a 15 guesswork. Those are known numbers that -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the thing we do 17 know about, right? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's exactly what 19 is going to shut down the businesses; not our active 20 cases. That's not what's shutting down the businesses. 21 It's how many people are actually in the hospital and 22 how many extra beds do they have. That's what's going 23 to shut down our businesses. And there's not any of us 24 can do about those. Those are real numbers. 25 JUDGE KELLY: That's -- that's -- it's the 34 1 hospital beds. The actual hospital beds that have 2 rolled us back to a 75 percent open capacity to 50 3 percent open capacity. Hospitalizations. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the other thing 5 that's important is that, I don't know, was it six weeks 6 ago that we refined the way you really cracked the 7 numbers of active cases? Something like that. And it's 8 important that you mentioned you can go ten days. It's 9 important that we stay with what we were doing so we can 10 see what the trend is. We can't change the numbers and 11 the system in the middle of it and then you've got to 12 start over on the trends. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we need to stay 15 consistent with what was six -- maybe it was even two 16 months ago with that new format. I think it would be 17 good, though, if you can get at least for the Court that 18 on a -- on a graph. Or I hope it's on an Excel 19 spreadsheet or something like that. Just so you can see 20 what the trend is on a daily basis and how it's going, 21 or at least once a week. Something, you know, so that 22 it can be readily available. Because we all get 23 questions. 24 And I think the same thing on the 25 hospitalization percentage and the hospital numbers. 35 1 But those are the numbers that are key and we, as you 2 know elected officials, get a lot of these questions and 3 it really helps if we have the accurate numbers daily so 4 that we can -- I mean, we get the DSHS number, but their 5 numbers are big time lag. Your numbers are so much 6 better. 7 MR. THOMAS: The Region 8 number, which is 8 what that DSHS spreadsheet I use, has over 1600 names on 9 it right now -- or I'm sorry, not names, addresses of 10 COVID positive patients that we have had here in Kerr 11 County that have tested positive. Whether it's through 12 Peterson, whether it's through the mobile testing we've 13 done, whether it's CVS, Franklin Clinic. All of them. 14 So it's pretty accurate. And then the 15 number that I take from Peterson -- because Peterson is 16 the only one that notifies me of any testing or positive 17 patients that they've had on a daily basis, I just use 18 that number and add it to it until I find that list of 19 addresses on the spreadsheet and then I quit counting 20 it. And then two weeks later, 14 days, I can delete 21 them off. So it's kind of time consuming but -- and 22 sometimes it's -- I pull my hair out because I can't 23 find an address but it is what it is. 24 JUDGE KELLY: But that's -- but that's on 25 active cases. 36 1 MR. THOMAS: That's active cases. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And I want to retreat back to 3 hospitalizations because that's -- that's what's 4 affecting us right now. DSHS has told us that we are 5 now in a high hospitalization TSA, right? 6 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. The data that I 7 recently looked at yesterday showed that from a rural -- 8 even the rural communities or counties on average are at 9 34 to 36 percent. And in San Antonio, Bexar County, I 10 looked at, they're averaging over the last several days, 11 16 to 17 percent. Routinely. So if you take that, 12 along with what's happening in the rural communities, 13 it's a 36 plus percent that, you know, throws everything 14 out of whack for our region. 15 JUDGE KELLY: But to break this down so that 16 the public can really understand what we're talking 17 about, you've got 124 licensed beds in that hospital, 18 right? 19 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. DSHS recognizes your 21 capacity at 88 rather than 124? 22 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. 23 JUDGE KELLY: 15 percent of 88 is the 24 Governor's Order. If we exceed 15 percent capacity, 25 hospitalization capacity, then we have to close the bars 37 1 and we have to roll back our opening capacity. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: 15 percent for a week, 3 isn't it? 4 JUDGE KELLY: Seven consecutive days is what 5 it says. Seven consecutive days. And so my math tells 6 me that 15 percent of 88, if we go by DSHS 7 certifications, okay, is 13 hospitalizations. And we're 8 at 32. That's a fact of life. We're almost three times 9 what the State allows us to be at this point. And what 10 that -- what that portends in the future is that we 11 could have our medical facilities overwhelmed with COVID 12 and not be able to treat the public for anything but 13 COVID, and that's what we're trying to avoid. 14 That's what Dr. Hellerstedt is trying to 15 emphasize to us. We've got to do this, we've got to cut 16 it back, we've got to reduce the activity. We've got to 17 reemphasize all of these safety protocols from CDC and 18 everybody else to try to get this under control so that 19 we don't have our hospitals overwhelmed. And we're 20 working hand and glove with the hospital, who's done an 21 excellent job. What we're trying to do is to keep the 22 public safe. Keep the people safe. 23 MR. EDMONDSON: And I'll tell you, the staff 24 is fatigued and overwhelmed with the volume and 25 intensity that these patients require in treating them. 38 1 It's -- it's a little concerning to me as the CEO for 2 the staff. I'm trying to make sure that they are 3 staying healthy and that we rotate them and they get 4 their time off and rest and do all those things. But 5 they've been doing a phenomenal job of caring for our 6 community and our county. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And to follow up on that if 8 you would, kind of give us a brief update of vaccines. 9 Because I know we've received our first shipment of 10 vaccines here and we've been trying to get those 11 vaccinations to our healthcare staff and first 12 responders. 13 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. So Moderna is the 14 vaccine that we received last Wednesday and we started 15 vaccinating our employees on Thursday. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that the two dose? 17 JUDGE KELLY: They're all two dose. 18 MR. EDMONDSON: Both of them are two dose. 19 Pfizer and Moderna are two dose. Moderna is 28 days 20 between the doses and Pfizer, I believe, is 21 days 21 between the doses. So we're registering people and 22 getting them ready for their days to come back on the 23 second dose. We don't know when we anticipate the 24 second dose to arrive. We hope we get extra doses, 25 generally speaking, so we can start vaccinating others 39 1 in the community. Those that are based on the tier 2 levels that CDC has that the State level recommends so 3 there's different -- different tiers and who gets the 4 vaccination first. 5 Hospital wise, and we received 500 doses, we 6 should have all of that to dispense by the end of day. 7 That's our goal. If there's any left over then we're 8 going to open that up to others and give that and start 9 calling like first responders and those who maybe 10 haven't had the opportunity in those nursing homes. HEB 11 received vaccinations, I believe. Medical Arts Pharmacy 12 received that, and the State Hospital received 13 vaccinations. And hopefully all of us will receive more 14 again and we can continue to vaccinate our community. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And again, so the public 16 understands on this YouTube, this is Phase 1. And Phase 17 1 is in three parts, right? 18 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah. There's 1-A, B and C. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I learned this by going to 20 these meetings that they explained all this stuff to me. 21 And Phase 1-A is the -- the healthcare providers? 22 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And there's a 1-B with first 24 responders, and we get down to 1-C, which even includes 25 teachers, of course. 40 1 MR. EDMONDSON: Teachers. 2 JUDGE KELLY: But those are the people that 3 are going to get the vaccinations first. And we can 4 expect those vaccinations, probably Phase 1-A, B and C 5 through what, by the end of February or something like 6 that? 7 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah, I'd -- I'd love to 8 predict a lot of opportunity for when we can vaccinate 9 others, I just -- I just don't know. But the general 10 public, you know, my kids, for example, when would they 11 get the vaccine? It's going to be late. It's going to 12 be March probably for them. 13 JUDGE KELLY: So the general public's 14 probably not going to be able to get vaccinations 15 probably until the spring? 16 MR. EDMONDSON: Probably. Sometime in the 17 spring. 18 JUDGE KELLY: But I think it's important 19 that the people understand what we're looking at on the 20 timeline here. We're doing first -- we're doing 21 healthcare, we're doing the nursing home staff, we're 22 doing first responders and then the teachers. We're 23 going to do people that are most exposed right now and 24 then we'll go to the next phase, which will include us. 25 And I think Phase C includes the other people with 41 1 comorbidities, right? 2 MR. EDMONDSON: There's -- it's 55 and 3 older. They're even -- you know, they're even looking 4 at some of those as -- I recently received from 5 information that says even for people who are 65 and 6 older with comorbidities potentially could get this in 7 tier one, Phase 1. 8 JUDGE KELLY: But for the general public, 9 we're looking at probably early spring? 10 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Have you had anybody -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, can you ask what 13 he said about people over 65? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Are you cool with that? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? I -- I couldn't 16 hear Cory very well. 17 JUDGE KELLY: He's saying that -- and I'll 18 use myself as an example because I'm over 65, 19 substantially. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you. I 21 was asking that for you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Okay. I resemble that 23 remark. But it would be available to older people with 24 comorbidities and that would be Phase 1-C where they 25 would be put in, right before the general public. 42 1 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah. And the -- the 2 challenge with this is keeping up with all of it and -- 3 and allowing -- as they learn who's getting vaccinated, 4 who's receiving it and who's accepting it and who's not, 5 then they start opening up to -- to earlier -- you know, 6 vaccinating others who they didn't maybe anticipate 7 until late in the process, but depending on how many 8 vaccines are available and who's taking it or not. So 9 those who are 65 and older consider some of those 10 vulnerable individuals who get it sooner rather than 11 later. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Sheriff? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Are they still 14 recommending or are they recommending that if you've 15 already had it that you wait on getting the vaccination 16 until the end? That's what I heard CDC had recommended 17 at one time. 18 MR. EDMONDSON: Yeah, we -- we -- I'm not 19 the clinical expert on that. But what I've learned is 20 whether you've had it or not, still getting the vaccine 21 is fine. You should get the vaccine whether you've had 22 it or not. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, they were just 24 talking about in order to give those that hadn't had it 25 first to the ones that had had some immunity. 43 1 MR. EDMONDSON: Seems like the right thing 2 to do for people, right. Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the trigger is 13 4 bed for our County? 5 JUDGE KELLY: Or it's 18.6 if we go off the 6 124 licensed beds. I -- I thought of the numbers both 7 ways. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But they're not using 9 that. DSHS is using the number 88. 10 MR. EDMONDSON: And they're using the 88. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So 13 beds for a County 12 of 55,000 people, 60 thousand people, and we don't know 13 how many of those -- and you're at about twice that 14 right now have been hospitalized. 15 MR. EDMONDSON: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We don't know how many 17 of those people are coming from other counties. It's a 18 regional hospital so a lot of them are. I -- I say all 19 of this so that people watching at home and that the 20 citizens of Kerr County all realize that not all of this 21 is coming from Kerr County. 22 Just like we saw the big spike in El Paso 23 from people coming across the border, that didn't 24 reflect El Paso County. This doesn't necessarily 25 reflect the numbers of Kerr County. It -- it still 44 1 creates the same problem for us in practical matters 2 because your hospital has too many beds full of people 3 that tested positive. Positive specifically for COVID. 4 MR. EDMONDSON: Correct. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I want to make 6 sure people understand that. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I have another 8 question though with this vaccine. Health care workers 9 get it first, which is understandable. Is it optional 10 or mandated? 11 MR. EDMONDSON: It's optional. We're not 12 mandating individuals getting vaccinated. And I would 13 say that we're probably 50, 54 percent of those front 14 line staff that said yeah, we're going to take it. 15 That's when we did an early survey. Once people started 16 receiving that Thursday, we had more coming out and 17 saying oh, I want to get vaccinated. So I don't know 18 right now what percentage of our front-line staff has 19 accepted the vaccination, but it's -- it's not mandated. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They wanted to watch 21 the others awhile. In fact, you go first. You hear 22 that, Tom? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And Cory, I want to 24 thank you for coming. 25 MR. EDMONDSON: Sure. Thank you for having 45 1 me here. Happy to come anytime you'd like me to so. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you. We really 3 appreciate you bringing our attention to it. 4 MR. EDMONDSON: You bet. Thank y'all. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. That took us a little 7 bit longer than we expected. Is there anything else we 8 need to go over, Dub? 9 MR. THOMAS: Judge, I just wanted to kind of 10 recap the GA-32 Governor's Order for seven consecutive 11 days. My conversation with Onlock(phonetic) yesterday 12 was Tuesday will be -- if we hit over 15 percent on this 13 Tuesday, that will be our seventh consecutive day and 14 the Order will go into effect on Wednesday. 15 JUDGE KELLY: That's tomorrow? 16 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. That's tomorrow. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that's not likely. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So then 32 in the hospital 19 and -- 20 MR. THOMAS: Not likely, no. And it's for 21 the TSA. So we're at 16.9 percent yesterday evening. 22 So I don't expect it to go down. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So in order for us 24 to -- do you know if people get out of the hospital? 25 It'll make a difference. 46 1 MR. THOMAS: In order for us to go back to 2 75 percent, we'll have to have seven consecutive days 3 under 15 percent, 15 percent or under. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Is it seven or 14? 5 MR. THOMAS: I thought it said seven days. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So Dub, to be clear, 7 the 50 percent capacity would start on Wednesday? 8 MR. THOMAS: Correct. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Bars -- 10 MR. THOMAS: Bars, restaurants -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- have to be closed 12 starting Wednesday? 13 MR. THOMAS: Back to 50 percent. Bars would 14 have to close. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That makes no sense to 16 me. That's never made any sense to me. 17 MR. THOMAS: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you have 51 percent 19 of your sale is alcohol, you gotta close down. 50 20 percent is okay. And requires another thing -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I agree it makes 22 no sense, but -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Makes no sense at all. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- unfortunately, we 25 have -- don't have the luxury of -- 47 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's our wonderful 4 government. 5 JUDGE KELLY: The Governor has revoked all 6 the emergency powers that I had. Couldn't do anything 7 about that. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So -- 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'm sorry, Dub. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 12 MR. THOMAS: I'll keep track of it as best I 13 can, Judge, and I'll keep y'all informed. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Appreciate everything 15 you're doing. 16 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. And y'all have a 17 good day. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Dub. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. On that note, we'll 20 move back into our regular Agenda. Item 1.2 is to 21 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on request 22 to close Flat Rock Park, not the dog park side, to 23 public parking from February 11, 2021 at 11 p.m. until 24 February 14, 2021, at 5 p.m. for the use of stock show 25 trailer parking for the Texas Pork Producers Elite 48 1 Showcase. Public access to dog park would be allowed 2 from the walkthrough gate near the bridge. Brandon 3 Gunn. 4 MR. GUNN: Good morning. Appreciate the 5 opportunity to come and visit with you. And we have 6 been planning for the last year, since we ended back in 7 February, the 2021 event, our swine show here in 8 Kerrville. It's a great venue, it's a great County, 9 great area region to work with. Everybody's been 10 extremely welcoming. 11 And so we look forward to working with you 12 through everything in our -- our plans, go through 13 safety plans and -- and how we expect to provide a safe 14 environment for everyone that attends. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- on the -- I met a 16 month ago, I don't know, three weeks ago. We all -- I 17 met out at the AG barn with the Pork Commission and 18 Jake. And things have gotten a lot different since 19 then, these two agenda items. You know, I think that 20 we're going to have to ask, and hopefully we'll do a 21 show, but it may have to be reduced some. I know you've 22 already reduced it a lot. And I think it -- but the 23 date is the 20 what? 24 MR. GUNN: February 11th through the 14th. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it needs to be 49 1 a -- you know, probably back on our agenda in our first 2 meeting in January. I think we can take action on this 3 to closing the park, but I think it needs to come back 4 at that first meeting in January to see where we are 5 after a lot more numbers. And I recommend we continue, 6 but you need to be aware there could be some severe 7 cutbacks in how you have to do the show. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You've planned for this 9 a year? 10 MR. GUNN: Yes, sir. That's the thing. The 11 leadership -- and I don't want to take any situation 12 lightly. I understand it fully. And that's why we're 13 prepared. And it's not a surprise or shock the current 14 state that -- that we're in. This is kind of where we 15 assumed that we would be. And so that's what we have 16 been planning for. 17 The leadership of our organization, and 18 event planning specifically, the experience that we have 19 even over the last nine months with putting on other 20 shows and events around the State, whether it be stock 21 shows that we did back in the spring of this year, the 22 ones that we're planning for February, beyond this one. 23 Another one in Fort Worth. We -- we did a large show in 24 Lubbock a couple weeks ago. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So you just adjust to 50 1 where you're at? 2 MR. GUNN: Yes, sir. We put on multiple 3 events throughout the year. And so, we've been involved 4 and have the leadership and individuals working with us 5 that have put on these events. And so when we look at 6 the safety plans, there are all -- the various documents 7 with CDC and the recommended protocols, we've been 8 prepared in ramping up to exceed those and alter our 9 events to make sure that we provide a healthy and safe 10 environment for everyone that attends. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: For our facilities out 12 there, our show in January should be a good test as far 13 as how things go. Don't you agree, Jake? And -- 14 MR. WILLIAMSON: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- might, you know, 16 might offer some guidelines, because every place that 17 you have shows is set up a little bit different and what 18 have you, so -- 19 MR. GUNN: True. No, it's -- 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's -- that's a good 21 test. 22 MR. GUNN: -- it provides a great 23 opportunity. We will be in attendance. I was in 24 attendance for the large jackpot show that took place a 25 couple months ago, the Tatsch Memorial Jackpot. 51 1 And because of that we've made some -- some 2 alterations to our plans in terms of single entry, 3 single exit points. Trying to establish design and flow 4 to limit spectators and buildup of attendance. We've 5 also made alterations to our schedule in order to 6 provide increased window times for arrival to spread 7 things out as well. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I move for 9 approval. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 12 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 13 approve the request to close the Dog Park -- or close 14 Flat Rock Park, not the Dog Park, February 11th through 15 February 14th. Any other discussion? Those in favor 16 raise your hand or say aye. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. That would be four. 19 And I'm going to abstain. Brandon, I'm working with the 20 stock show on January. The public -- I don't know if 21 the public understands that you're requesting a Mass 22 Gathering Permit. A Mass Gathering Permit is for the 23 gatherings of 500 people or more. And that is presented 24 to me, and we'll set a hearing for that. But at this 25 point, I'm -- I'm taking a look and see, see how we're 52 1 doing. Stock show people have been in touch with me on 2 a regular basis. They have been very, very responsible. 3 And I know that you're -- they're in touch 4 with you also. But we will be monitoring that as we go 5 forward. So at this point I'm not taking a stand one 6 way or the other. I don't know if we're going to be 7 able to do it or not, but we want to do everything we 8 possibly can. 9 MR. GUNN: I appreciate that and look 10 forward to working with each and every one of you on our 11 plans. We'll go to any measure to make sure this show 12 happens. And that's what we promised our people. And 13 so we will carry that out and look forward to your 14 recommendations and we'll work with you on every bit of 15 it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Look forward to it. 17 Okay. The next item on the agenda related 18 to you also, 1.3, which is to consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action to appoint a member of Commissioners' 20 Court or designate a person to perform investigation 21 under 751.005 of the Texas Health and Safety Code for 22 the purpose of determining if the minimum standards for 23 ensuring public safety and order as prescribed by law 24 will be maintained under the application for the permit 25 for the Mass Gathering by the Texas Pork Producers 53 1 schedule for February 11th through 14th; and the hearing 2 set for Tuesday, January the 26th at 11 a.m. 3 What this is, is this is going to be -- 4 there will be a hearing on January 26th for the Mass 5 Gathering Permit. Right now that's the only pending 6 application for a Mass Gathering Permit that we have. 7 And we appoint somebody from the court to conduct the 8 investigation. And customarily, it's one of the 9 liaisons commissioners for Youth Event Center that works 10 with Jake to do that. And then we will have a hearing, 11 a Public Hearing on the 26th, which they will report -- 12 we'll have a report from the fire department and the 13 Sheriff and everybody else with regard to the public 14 safety of it. So -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll be -- I've already 16 been working with them about this so I'll be glad to be 17 the Commissioner on this one. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, I'll -- I'll 19 nominate Commissioner Letz to be the investigating 20 Commissioner. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Seconded by Commissioner 23 Harris. Any further discussion? All in favor raise 24 their hand or say aye. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 54 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. Thank 2 you. 3 MR. GUNN: Thank you, guys. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Item 1.5. 5 1.4 consider, discuss and take appropriate 6 action to declare an office chair as surplus and dispose 7 of properly. This is from the Environmental Health 8 Office. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've visited with Reagan 10 on this. It's just a chair that needs to be surplused 11 and disposed of. It's just a worn out office chair. 12 I'll make a motion to approve the agenda item. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 16 surplus the chair as presented. Those in favor raise 17 your hand. Say aye. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 20 Next item is 1.5 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action to accept donations of multiple items 22 from the Tally Elementary School Student Council. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I visited with Reagan on 24 this one as well. The Student Council helped organize 25 it and they -- the picture is in our packet of a lot of 55 1 the items that they donated for the -- our Animal 2 Control facility. A lot of animals for -- you know, 3 packages of treats, kitty blankets, cat collars, cases 4 of can dog food, dog toys. That's just part of the 5 list. It's a long list that's attached to the agenda 6 package. And I'll make a motion that we accept the 7 donations from the Tally Elementary kids and thank them 8 for their civic mindedness. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 11 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 12 accept the donations from the students at Tally 13 Elementary School Student Council. Any other 14 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Aye. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 18 Next item on the Agenda is 1.6 consider, 19 discuss and take appropriate action to approve renewing 20 Kerr County Incentive Program as part of the Texas 21 Association of Counties Healthy County Rewards Program 22 for 2021. Ms. Soldan. 23 MRS. SOLDAN: Good morning. This will be 24 the third year that I come to you to ask you to do the 25 incentive for the employees if they complete three of 56 1 the four Healthy County Challenges and get an annual 2 physical and provide proof to HR, they could get an 3 extra paid day off in the following year. So that would 4 be for 2022 that you would be approving today. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How's that gone? 6 MRS. SOLDAN: We have 28 from our partial 7 list earlier this month that completed three of the four 8 challenge. I don't know about the -- HR is collecting 9 the information on the wellness exam. But we may have 10 28. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: 28 for -- 28 people 12 that did this all year? 13 MRS. SOLDAN: Uh-huh. Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. You sign up and 15 you do it all year? 16 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes. Three of the four 17 challenges. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What are the 19 challenges again? 20 MRS. SOLDAN: There's steps. You need to 21 walk a certain number of steps per day for the time 22 period. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. I move for 24 approval. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 57 1 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 2 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 3 approve the Kerr County Incentive Program as part of the 4 TAC Healthy County Rewards Program. Any other 5 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand and say aye. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 8 Item 1.7 consider, discuss and take 9 appropriate action on the Request for Disbursement of 10 salaries and routine office expenses and to rescind 11 Court Order No. 37520. Ms. Soldan. 12 MRS. SOLDAN: This is on the agenda because 13 now that you are meeting twice a month, there may be -- 14 there may be expenditures that need to be paid prior to 15 the next meeting. And so the Auditor and I are 16 requesting that the items on this list be available for 17 us to pay, if necessary. We don't -- we don't see 18 ourselves paying weekly, but in case something came up 19 that was on this list that needed to be paid we could 20 and then present it to you at the next meeting. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second then. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 25 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 58 1 approve the request for disbursement of salaries and 2 routine office expenses and to rescind Court Order 3 37520. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your 4 hand or say aye. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 7 Item 1.8. Thank you, Ms. Soldan. 8 MRS. SOLDAN: Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action to recommend the appointment of 11 Jonathan Letz as a member of the Region 11 Guadalupe 12 Regional Flood Planning Group, and authorize County 13 Judge to submit a letter stating same. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Did he talk to his wife 15 first? He's on a lot of committees. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Let's nominate him before we 17 talk about it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've talked about this 19 before, several times. I've visited with Commissioner 20 Moser a little bit about it as well. And it would be 21 very helpful to Kerr County to have a member on that. 22 They have decided to expand to bring in one County 23 representative into this planning group, one additional 24 county member. The current one they have, I believe, is 25 from Guadalupe County. The upper area of the Guadalupe 59 1 Basin was almost left out of the planning group, and is 2 probably one of the more critical areas, at least in our 3 opinion. 4 So we're trying to get someone put on that 5 committee. Ray Buck is also hoping to get his name 6 added as well under a river authority category. The 7 idea would be I'll draft a letter, I'll work with the 8 Judge on that, and that's why it's worded the way it is, 9 for the Judge to submit the letter. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Just to weigh in. I think 11 it's crucial that this part of the Guadalupe River be 12 represented on any committee. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh without a doubt. 14 Absolutely. So I move for approval. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And I -- I appreciate your 16 volunteering to do this. It's just one last thing the 17 rest of us don't have to do. So do we have a motion? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Harris. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Seconded by 24 Commissioner Belew to appoint Commissioner Letz to the 25 Guadalupe Regional Flood Planning Group. Any other 60 1 discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How does this interplay 3 with Region J? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not at all. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not at all? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Chair of this group 9 is former state representative, Doug Miller. And we do 10 have one representative from Kerr County on it right 11 now, Joseph McDaniel, who heads up this region, Aqua 12 Texas. 13 They had the same categories to fill, which 14 really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me the way 15 they -- I mean, because one of the utilities don't have 16 a whole lot to do with flood planning, but that's the 17 way the State wanted to set it up. 18 And then Joseph has been very helpful 19 keeping me advised, and Ray Buck, and Tom advised as to 20 what's going on and hope to try to get somebody else on 21 the committee from Kerr County. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Anything else? Those 23 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 61 1 Item 1.9. I'm going to try to take a break 2 before we get to the 10:00 item. Consider, discuss and 3 take appropriate action to determine liaison positions 4 for 2021 and review liaison policies. Nothing new here. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm entitled to -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval of 7 keeping them the same as we had last year. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 10 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 11 approve the liaison positions the same as last year. 12 Any other discussion? Okay. Those in favor raise your 13 hand or say aye. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 16 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to appoint Chris Hughes as President 18 of the Emergency Services District #1. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Due to several 20 things, they're -- ESD #1 audit did not get turned in in 21 time for the years 2019/20. And -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's not because 23 they're broke. They have plenty of money. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, and -- and 25 there's a -- a lot of factors in this. But the -- the 62 1 law states that the President and Treasurer must be 2 replaced. Okay. And I received a letter of resignation 3 from Chris Hughes, the current President, and -- you 4 know, and we're not going to accept it. So I move that 5 we reappoint Chris because if -- to the ESD #1 President 6 slot. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Let me -- let me just weigh 8 in. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 10 JUDGE KELLY: This is a technical glitch. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Through the pandemic 13 and all the quarantines and this and that, missed the 14 deadline by a date, and was supposed to remove the 15 officers. Well, they resigned and we want to reappoint 16 them because there's nothing bad about what happened. 17 And so I -- that's why I'll second it. Chris Hughes has 18 done a great job with this and we want to keep him. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, without a doubt. 20 And -- and to go forward with what you were saying, Bill 21 Aycock was appointed as Treasurer. Anyway, so you know, 22 it kind of -- no harm, no foul type deal. And you know, 23 a lot of -- COVID even related to some of it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and I have to take some 25 of the blame because I'm the one that's had Chris Hughes 63 1 working so hard on the Capital Improvement Planning 2 Committee. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There you go. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And he did a really 5 good job. 6 JUDGE KELLY: He's done a great job. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: He's a great leader. 8 Great volunteer. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 10 Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Was there a motion on 14 the second one? 15 JUDGE KELLY: He made the motion and I 16 seconded. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Just to make 18 sure. 19 JUDGE KELLY: 1.11 consider, discuss and 20 take appropriate action regarding employee merit pay. 21 Commissioner Moser. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. In 23 light of the fact that a number of our employees, to the 24 best of my knowledge, has -- has suffered unemployment 25 because of COVID, and the fact that every family in the 64 1 County of four roughly received about 5,000 this year, 2 and potentially another $5,000 is -- if $2,000 is 3 approved for each member of the family adults, we're 4 bringing everybody up to five to $10,000.00 per year, 5 and our merit pay is $25,000 we set aside in the budget. 6 Instead of -- I'm going to make a motion 7 that instead of the County residents paying merit pay to 8 County employees when they receive this much from the -- 9 all of the taxpayers throughout the nation, that we not 10 have any merit pay, which is for the -- actually for the 11 following -- previous year. So my motion is that we 12 suspend any merit pay for County employees. 13 JUDGE KELLY: For this year only right now? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, that's correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I second that. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 18 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 19 suspend merit pay for 2020-21. Is that right? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a comment. I 23 mean, I think it's -- I mean I'm in favor of -- I'm fine 24 with suspending it, but we really need to work on a 25 process that we have in place well in advance. We -- 65 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree with that. I 2 just want to take this off the table for this past year. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And I think we 4 need to, you know, either look at it and see how to work 5 and maybe talk to some other counties too and see how 6 they do it. But I think it's a good policy, but I'm 7 fine with suspending it for this year. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't want to -- any 9 County employees to feel like we've broke faith with 10 them in any way. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No, it's not that at 12 all. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Whether -- whether this 14 was a bad year or not. And whether, you know, if -- if 15 dad slips me a 20 when I'm at home from college in one 16 pocket and mom slips me a 20 in the other, am I at fault 17 for that? Have I not still been a good kid, a good 18 student to come and see them? 19 So I feel like that those -- when we 20 entered into this year, maybe some doing their very best 21 hoping to be chosen for this, that we might be breaking 22 faith code. To suspend this because they were fortunate 23 enough, unfortunate also, to get this other stuff. To 24 withdraw this now seems a little petty to me. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think it needs 66 1 to be withdrawn because of the federal funds. I just 2 think that we need to have a process -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I agree with that. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- that we just don't 5 have. That we don't have. And this is for the previous 6 year. It's not for the 2021, it's for 2020 budget year. 7 So you know, I just think we need to come up with -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It was for the previous 9 year. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And it's not 11 eliminated. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I said my piece. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 14 in favor of suspending merit pay for 2020, raise your 15 hand or say aye. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: (Raises hand.) 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's two. Those against? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: (Raises hand.) 20 JUDGE KELLY: One. Abstentions? (Raises 21 hand.) 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: (Raises hand.) 23 JUDGE KELLY: Two. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Two carrying. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we've got a quorum of 67 1 five people so in order for it to pass we have to have 2 three votes that we don't have. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have an abstention. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it seems -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are you abstaining? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- I think -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We went through this a 8 while back. Are you -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: So it's just the three. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- according to the 11 County Attorney, when you abstain, those that are 12 voting -- it goes based on those that are voting, so 13 that's two to one in favor. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Right. So two to one in 15 favor. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It passes. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that, let's take a 18 short break. Be back here close to 10:15, as close as 19 you can. 20 (Recess.) 21 JUDGE KELLY: The Court will come back to 22 order. We have several timed items at 10:00 and then I 23 believe I've got a timed item in Executive Session at 24 10:30. So we'll take those in order. 25 So the next item on the agenda is 1.12, a 68 1 Public Hearing for the Revision of Plat for Estates at 2 Turtle Creek Section Two, Lots 27 and 28. 3 This is a public meeting, a public hearing 4 and it will come to order. Is there anybody who would 5 like to address the Court for the public hearing for 6 revision of plat for Estates at Turtle Creek Section 7 Two, Lots 27 and 28? Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I -- I move for 11 approval for setting a Public Hearing for the date 12 specified. 13 JUDGE KELLY: It's -- this is the hearing. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, this is the 15 hearing. I'm sorry. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm looking at the 18 wrong agenda item. 19 JUDGE KELLY: No, it's okay. There being no 20 one appearing at the public hearing, the public hearing 21 will be adjourned. 22 We'll move on to agenda item number 1.13 23 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for the 24 Court to set a Public Hearing for 10 a.m. on February 25 the 8th, 2021 for Revision of Plat for Paradocs Retreat, 69 1 Lot 1. Bobby. 2 MR. GORE: Good morning. This proposal 3 divides Paradocs Retreat Lot number 1, currently 11.59 4 platted acres into two lots. Lot 1A will be 5.17 acres 5 and Lot 1B will be 6.45 acres. Both lots will front 6 FM 1340 and proposed driveways will require permits from 7 TxDOT. Both lots are in the floodplain and must meet 8 floodplain requirements for development. 9 The County Engineer, Charlie, requests the 10 Court set a Public Hearing for 10 a.m. on February the 11 8th, 2021 for a Revision of Plat for Paradocs Retreat 12 Lot 1, Plat File No. 14-6816, Precinct 4. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Harris, and seconded by Commissioner Letz 18 to approve the -- setting a Public Hearing for 10 a.m. 19 on February the 8th, 2021, for Revision of Plat for 20 Paradocs Retreat, Lot 1. Any discussion? Those in 21 favor raise your hand or say aye. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 24 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action for the Court to set a Public Hearing 70 1 for 10 a.m. on February the 8th -- February 8th, 2021 2 for a Revision of Plat for Kerrville South II, Lot 50. 3 MR. GORE: This proposal divides Kerrville 4 South II, Lot 50, which is currently 6.51 acres, into 5 two lots. Lot 50A is proposing to be 2.34 acres and it 6 will front on Marshall Drive. Lot 50B proposes 4.17 7 acres and will front on Kerrville South Drive. The 8 asterisk there says the proposed lot sizes will be 9 smaller because currently an easement exists and they 10 will be dedicated right-of-way, which will make the lots 11 get a little bit smaller than what is shown on your 12 current proposed plat. 13 The County Engineer requests the Court set a 14 public hearing for 10 a.m. on February the 8th, 2021 for 15 a Revision of Plat for Kerrville South II, Lot 50, 16 Volume 4, Page 64, Precinct 1. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 21 approve setting the Public Hearing for Revision of Plat 22 for Kerrville South II for February 8th, 2021 at 10 a.m. 23 Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye or raise 24 your hand. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 71 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 2 Item 1.15 consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action to disqualify/reject bid due to late 4 arrival. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. There was one of 6 the bids arrived that we did the opening of the bids at 7 our last meeting for the -- for metals and emulsions and 8 rocks and all that, and I just wanted -- I thought it 9 would be best probably, I visited with Kelly and Charlie 10 about this, that we officially reject this one bid. 11 It's from Wilson Culverts, who has bid on -- many, many 12 times but their bid didn't receive -- or had come in 13 late and we -- we should reject it in my opinion. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I'll make a motion 16 that we reject the bid from Wilson Culverts due to late 17 arrival. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 21 disqualify and reject the late bid from Wilson -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wilson Culverts. 23 JUDGE KELLY: -- Wilson Culverts. Any other 24 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 72 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 2 Item 1.16 consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action to award the Road & Bridge Department 4 annual material bids for road base, cold mix, 5 aggregates, emulsion oil and corrugated metal pipe. 6 Miss Hoffer. 7 MS. HOFFER: The Road & Bridge annual 8 material bids were read aloud on Monday, December 14th, 9 2020. We usually award them on the same day, but there 10 were a lot of bidders and we felt it was best to bring 11 the information back to the office to evaluate and put 12 together a spreadsheet regarding the results to ensure 13 accuracy in reporting these results. 14 I have before you the spreadsheets with the 15 results on the bids and last year's number for your 16 review. I'll just kind of briefly, kind of, go over it. 17 On the culverts, we didn't have any bids. Even though 18 that one was late since we stopped doing the driveway 19 installation, we don't purchase nearly the amount of 20 culverts that we have in the past. So really, I have a 21 feeling that's probably why both culvert companies, 22 Contech and Wilson probably did not bid. We will 23 continue probably to leave them on our bid list just in 24 case we run into something to have a bid price. But 25 that's that first page. 73 1 On your second page, and it will kind of 2 help with the map page that I have also handed out to 3 you. You have all your different bid numbers and, you 4 know, some of these bid numbers, especially the ones in 5 San Antonio, they look like the prices are very, very 6 low. For instance, the one that's five down, Martin 7 Marietta, you gotta go to San Antonio to pick up the 8 stuff. So by the time you do that, you're not getting 9 the material for a very cheap price. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You have to figure that 11 in. 12 MS. HOFFER: We have three main quarries 13 here that we use that are all pretty much -- you know, 14 might be in Gillespie just over the Kerr County line, 15 but we have Wheatcraft, Allen Keller, Roger's Pit, which 16 is up off of Harper Road. And then you also have -- 17 Edmund Jenschke has a pit that's by I-10 and 27. Those 18 are the three main pits. 19 And it just kind of depends where the 20 project is located and our base material on -- on who 21 we're going to get it from. We've got a lot of work out 22 in Precinct 4, we're probably more apt to go to the 23 Jenschke Pit or the Allen Keller. You get out into 24 Precinct 3 and 2, it might be the Red Rose Pit with 25 Wheatcraft. 74 1 So that one has always been kind of a 2 question I know in the past with the Commissioners, so I 3 kinda -- I did maps, and you can also see the other pits 4 that bid. One was out of Austin, and it was about a 5 two-hour drive. And so you can kind of see on the -- 6 the base materials that the price may look good but by 7 the time we get done picking up from a location like 8 that, we've spent a tremendous amount of money and wear 9 and tear on the dump trucks. 10 If you go to page three, your emulsions. 11 You'll see for the CRS-2, Ergon won that bid at $1.92 12 per gallon. We're also going to use -- start using the 13 CRS-2P, and the 2P has polymer in it. You can actually 14 take this stuff when it's down on the ground and pull 15 that emulsion, and it'll pull a string. It's almost 16 like a rubber band. We used it -- we used it on the 17 hill in Northwest Hills. We used it on a bunch of the 18 hills. 19 Bandera County uses it, Gillespie County 20 uses it, and Kendall County uses it. It has better rock 21 retention. We've had a lot of problem with getting the 22 rock to stick and we think because it's because of the 23 CRS-2P -- or 2. So we're going to probably use both of 24 these. And we had really good results last year with 25 the polymer. 75 1 Your AEP, this P Squared, $2.04. We've 2 started to use the next row over, the CSS-1H in place of 3 the AEP and Ergon won that at $1.92 a gallon. No bid 4 on -- some of this stuff the vendors just placed their 5 materials in there. We don't actually make the request 6 for some of these. 7 In these last five columns, we didn't make 8 requests for. But MS-2 is a fog seal-type material. We 9 are currently are not doing fog seal. It might be 10 something we may look at once we catch up and actually 11 get us into a true maintenance program to do a fog seal. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is fog seal? 13 MS. HOFFER: The City did a bunch of it. 14 They place the emulsion down and they don't -- a lot of 15 times don't put rock down. They put a surface of oil 16 down, and it's a different makeup of the oil and it 17 helps to kind of seal micro cracks and things like that. 18 It'll usually gain you about two or three more years on 19 your surface. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's a patch material? 21 MS. HOFFER: Kind of, yeah. It's an 22 emulsion. The thing that is hard for us is that a lot 23 of our roads we can't reroute people into re-entry time. 24 And sometimes it's 45 minutes. People throw a fit at 25 the -- sometimes the 15 or 20 minutes when we're trying 76 1 to get the oil down to put the rock down and coat, so 2 that could be a problem for us, making people wait 45 3 minutes before they can actually get back on that 4 surface. 5 And then you have a TR fog that was from 6 Wright Asphalt, $2.16 a gallon, and then no bid on this 7 MSAT-TR. 8 When you go into your black base, we had 9 Vulcan Materials. One of the bids -- nobody else bid on 10 that. $58.54 a ton. This is our most expensive 11 material that we use. The CC is generally what gets put 12 in potholes, the next column over, $58.54 a ton. 13 A Type A -- AA, your AA is a lot finer 14 material, 64.54. This is a Plus, it's got an extra bond 15 material in it. We haven't used it, but they decided to 16 put that in for us. And then the asphalt, the type CC 17 Plus, 64.54 a ton. 18 Type D, it's going to be usually your bigger 19 rock with the asphalt coated onto it for adhesion, 20 $61.54 a ton. And then a Coldmix D Plus, it's like 21 those other -- the AA and the CC, 67.54 a ton. 22 And then Wheatcraft set up a hot mix plant, 23 and they have put Hotmix Type D in here at $65 a ton. 24 And we probably won't be doing any hotmix. You have to 25 have special equipment usually to lay down that hotmix. 77 1 But anyway, they threw us a number and that was fine. 2 Then you get to the last page. This is our 3 paving rock. The trap rock that you got, and that's 4 what we used to use, $60 a ton for the Grade 3, and $60 5 a ton for the Grade 4. 6 And then Vulcan Materials, 69.51 for the 7 Grade 3, and 41.51 a ton for the Grade 4. Grade 5, 8 $40.51. We have kind of switched and gotten away from 9 that black rock just because of the expense. That's not 10 to say that if we had a really, really steep hill that 11 you really needed the traction control that we might not 12 get, you know, a couple loads to do a hill. So we've 13 remained, you know, putting that on our bid list. But 14 the lower boxes is really what we've been using. 15 You've got Wheatcraft with the crushed 16 uncoated white rock Grade 3, $25 a ton. Grade 4, $25 a 17 ton, and Grade 5, $25 dollars a ton. The uncoated white 18 rock that's not crushed, $20 a ton for the Grade 3, $20 19 a ton for the 4, and $20 a ton for the Grade 5. So 20 those are usually the two that -- that we've been 21 purchasing. 22 We also purchased from Allen Keller, $35 a 23 ton for the uncoated white rock Grade 3, 35 a ton for 24 the uncoated white rock Grade 4, and $35 a ton for the 25 uncoated white rock Grade 3. 78 1 We want things delivered. Wheatcraft, if 2 they're going to deliver on their uncoated rock, the 3 crushed or the uncrushed, for the trailer is $4.90 is 4 added onto that unit price of $25. If it's going to be 5 a tandem axle dump truck, it's going to be $6.80 a ton 6 added onto that $25.00 price. Allen Keller, no delivery 7 price on that, so -- 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And Kelly, can I 9 interrupt you for a second -- 10 MS. HOFFER: Uh-huh. Absolutely. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- while we're talking 12 about this flat rock, white rock? And this white rock's 13 running basically at what the black rock runs and -- 14 MS. HOFFER: Uh-huh. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- that we use that on 16 many streets. Y'all used it on my street a couple years 17 ago -- 18 MS. HOFFER: Uh-huh. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- and it looks like a 20 lot of people get alarmed, they think it's caliche. 21 Well, after a couple months it looks just like the other 22 does virtually. 23 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And people get 25 alarmed, so -- but we're saving about half the money? 79 1 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. And that was -- that was 2 a waste -- 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Stretching the 4 taxpayers' money is what we're doing. 5 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. And that was a waste for 6 us, too, because we really were doing about 25 to 30 7 miles a year in our seal coat, which put us on about a 8 19-year cycle. And your oils are only going to last 9 about seven to ten years. And so that's why some of our 10 roads are really starting to show some base failures, 11 some pretty significant cracking, things like that. 12 And so I've come to the Court -- we're going 13 into our fourth year on shooting for more like about a 14 45 to 50-mile a year program to get you back down to a 15 ten-year cycle. And that's where you really want to be. 16 And that was a way to fund the shortfall on that, was to 17 go with this rock. And I think it -- it has done well 18 for us. 19 I know that there's been a few locations 20 that they haven't particularly cared for it, but nothing 21 really has changed in our process. I think people get 22 accustomed to that black looking rock. But really, in 23 the end result it's pretty much the same. Same oil, 24 same process. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And we're buying 80 1 local. 2 MS. HOFFER: Yes, supporting local. So at 3 this time, I ask the Commissioners' Court to accept all 4 material bids, annual material bids for the Road & 5 Bridge Department. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Harris made the 10 motion, seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the 11 annual material bids for Road & Bridge. Any discussion? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just want to say, I 13 enjoy this as much as anything we do. Seriously. I'm 14 serious. 15 MS. HOFFER: That's good. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well you know, I want 17 to commend you, Kelly, because you break it all down, 18 it's easy to follow, it's very important. Our roads are 19 one of the main things we're charged with taking care 20 of. And if I heard you right, you're going to pave all 21 the roads at least twice before you retire. 22 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Did I hear that right? 24 MS. HOFFER: I hope so. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. All right. 81 1 MS. HOFFER: But I do want to give a shout 2 out to Vicki. Vickie is the one that set up that 3 spreadsheet and we both worked on it together this year 4 to -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You did great. 6 MS. HOFFER: -- try to even make it a little 7 bit easier for everybody to understand. There was -- 8 it was hard to read in the last few years and -- - and 9 you all had asked different questions in the last couple 10 years, and so Vickie and I sat down and tweaked it a 11 little bit and then we went and did a map quest so you 12 could actually see the locations. And it gives you the 13 mileage of how far you've gotta drive to go get that 14 base material, so you start to kind of understand why 15 it's local on that base material is the cheapest way to 16 go. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think it's important 18 to point out that, correct me if I'm wrong, Kelly, 19 aren't we one of maybe four counties in the whole state 20 that every county road is paved? 21 MS. HOFFER: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's a rarity. 23 MS. HOFFER: Yes. Our neighboring 24 counties -- 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 82 1 MS. HOFFER: -- don't have all their roads 2 paved. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A lot of caliche 4 roads. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Some don't have any. I 6 mean -- 7 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. Right. You're 8 absolutely right. They don't. So, yeah, there's a lot 9 to be said for that. And that has every bit to do with 10 people that you've had in the past. They were the ones 11 that got all the roads paved. So I feel like our job 12 now is to continue the maintenance on them and -- and 13 hopefully in about another six years, seven years, you 14 can really say that we truly are in a maintenance 15 program. Because I haven't really felt that we've been 16 in a maintenance program. 17 A maintenance program is you get there about 18 every ten years, get back and put a new -- so you don't 19 have these cracks starting to form and you start getting 20 base failures where you're having to purchase a lot of 21 base because you have to rebuild everything up 22 underneath. So we get back sooner and we put one 23 coating of oil and one coating of rock down and that's 24 it. Because anytime you do a total reconstruction, it's 25 got to be two -- two layers of oil, two layers of rock 83 1 so you've just doubled that cost there. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And a lot of your work 3 is based on the budget. 4 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. Very much so. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And so you never know. 6 MS. HOFFER: We were lucky this past year. 7 We -- we did real well last year on what we ended up 8 getting done. And it was because it was so dry. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How many miles did you 10 get done last year? 11 MS. HOFFER: 43. 50 is -- is really hard. 12 We've got a lot of new people. And we've had a lot of 13 key people retire. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A lot of people out. 15 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Just from -- 17 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. So -- but I was really 18 proud of them last year. Because we -- we had some 19 people retire and we had one guy that had surgery, and 20 he's a real key person, he was out for a couple months. 21 And we hit the most that we've hit was this past year. 22 And we were four to five people short. 23 So I guess what I'm getting at is give us a 24 few years and get us fully staffed, and I truly think 25 with the weather cooperating, we can hit that 50 mark. 84 1 I think it kind of proved it to them this past year. We 2 were short staffed and we actually got more done than 3 we've ever gotten done, so -- which is good. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've said it several 5 times, y'all make us look good. 6 MS. HOFFER: I appreciate that. I'll share 7 that with them. Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 9 Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 12 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Kelly. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Approval Agenda. 2.1 pay 16 bills. 17 MR. ROBLES: Yes. The disbursements for the 18 Court's consideration are Kerr County, $423.032.06. 19 Adult probation, $5,977.10. Airport, $4,163.76. 20 Juvenile Probation, $28,325.94. Fund 51 water claim, 21 $146.25. Fund 78 County Clerk fees, $1,665.60. Fund 22 88, County Attorney hot check fund, $1,600.00. Fund 95, 23 which is the 198th DA forfeiture, $658.87. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: James, this juvenile, 25 is that primarily transport? Do you -- do you -- it's 85 1 too small for me to read most of this, so -- 2 MR. ROBLES: Let me get to that one real 3 quick. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You need new glasses, 5 how about that? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I need real glasses. 7 These are the Dollar Tree. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Give him a magnifying 9 glass. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I need a magnifying 11 glass. 12 MR. ROBLES: Well, most of them are for 13 detention. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Detention. 15 MR. ROBLES: And other services they 16 provide, like counseling. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a motion yet? 18 JUDGE KELLY: No. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 20 we approve the disbursements as presented. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 23 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 24 approve bills as presented -- pay the bills as 25 presented. Any other discussion? All those in favor 86 1 raise your hand or say aye. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 4 Budget amendments? 5 MR. ROBLES: There are none. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Late bills? 7 MR. ROBLES: Yes, we do have four. That 8 total is $6,905.96. The main one being the fourth 9 quarter unemployment payment to TAC. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move that we approve 11 the late bills. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 15 pay the late bills as presented. Any further 16 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 19 Auditor reports? 20 MR. ROBLES: Yes. The Auditor's Office 21 conducted an audit of the jail commissary and inmate 22 trust accounts for year ending 9-30-2020 and issued a 23 report to the Sheriff. Based on the testing procedures 24 performed, expenditures and revenue are supported by 25 adequate documentation and purchases were made in 87 1 accordance to the requirement of Local Government Code, 2 Section 351.0415. Upon the Court's acceptance, the 3 reports will be sent to the Texas Commission on Jail 4 Standards. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move to approve. Good 6 work, Rusty. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not me; Jail staff. 8 But the Auditors did find one thing. Again. There's 9 another AG opinion. Last year, we made quite a bit of 10 money off the inmate phone system, off our revenue part, 11 and last year they divided that out. That if it's paid 12 for by the inmate out of his -- if it's deducted from 13 his commissary, then the jail gets to keep that. That 14 goes into our commissary account. 15 If it's paid for by a family member, putting 16 it on a credit card, then that goes to the general fund 17 of the County, okay, which is a pretty summable amount. 18 So we've been doing that all year since that's the way 19 we do it. 20 Now there's another one that says it doesn't 21 matter where it comes from, it all goes to the general 22 fund of the County. So from now on, the County will be 23 getting an excess of 50,000 a year to the General Fund 24 from the inmate system. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Thank them for us. We 88 1 appreciate it. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doesn't that limit where 3 you can -- 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. It will cut down 5 on what we have to spend on certain items from the 6 commissary account because we just don't have that fund 7 anymore. So either way, it allows y'all to use it for 8 different uses, but it's going to require more County 9 funding on certain items toward the jail. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So increase your budget. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Could. Not mine. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Do we need a motion to accept 13 the Auditor report? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We made the motion. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You did already, didn't 17 you? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'll do a second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 21 seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the audit 22 report as presented. Those in favor raise your hand or 23 say aye. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Aye. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 89 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. 2 Accept monthly reports. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. October 2020, 4 Constable Monthly Report Constable Precinct 3, Ken 5 Wilke. Indigent Services, HR Director, Jennifer Doss. 6 November 2020 Constable Monthly Report, Constable 7 Precinct 3, Ken Wilke. Certificate of Completion of 8 Continued Education, County Clerk, Jackie (J.D.) Dowdy. 9 Treasurer's monthly report, Tracy Soldan. And Indigent 10 Services, HR Director, Jennifer Doss. I move for 11 approval. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 15 approve the monthly reports as presented. Those in 16 favor raise your hand or say aye. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. 19 Court Orders. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have the court 21 orders from December 14th regular session, numbers 38479 22 through 38500. They all look to be in order. Make a 23 motion to approve. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 90 1 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 2 approve the Court Orders as presented. Those in favor 3 raise your hand or say aye. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. 6 I noticed that I skipped -- is Bobby out 7 there? I skipped over -- I forgot about the addendum. 8 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 9 for the Court to cancel a public hearing set for January 10 25, 2021 at 10 a.m., and waive platting oversight for 11 Revision of Plat for River Bend Estates, Lots 8 and 9. 12 MR. GORE: Two weeks ago the request was 13 made to set a Public Hearing. The proposal is in the 14 City's ETJ. In fact, it's about 350 feet from the City 15 limits, just right across the river. This proposal 16 combines River Bend Estates Lots 8 and 9 into Lot 8R, 17 which will be 6.9 acres. Access is from Wharton Road. 18 It is completely within the floodway and must meet 19 requirements for development within the flood plain. 20 It is within the Kerrville's ETJ and would 21 typically be platted through both the City and the 22 County. The City of Kerrville is unable to waive their 23 platting oversight; therefore, this agenda item is a 24 request for Kerr County to waive platting oversight to 25 the City. 91 1 Although platting oversight would be waived, 2 signature blocks for both the Kerr County Floodplain 3 Administrator and OSSF designated representative would 4 be required. 5 Again, two weeks ago the Public Hearing was 6 set for January the 25th, and so the County Engineer 7 requests the Court cancel the public hearing set for 8 January the 25th of 2021 at 10 a.m., and waive platting 9 oversight for a Revision of Plat for River Bend Estates 10 Lots 8 and 9, waive that to the City. That's Volume 5, 11 Page 377, Precinct 2. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. But I have a 15 comment also, Judge. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris. 18 And any discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I see we received 20 an e-mail from Eric Ashley early this morning related to 21 this. And I think he would like it to be read into the 22 record. 23 All: I hope everyone had a great Christmas. 24 I did not intend for this to be such an issue; however, 25 it is obvious to me that the County is more than willing 92 1 to work with the City on such issues with dual 2 jurisdiction, but the City seems to lack the ability or 3 willingness to allow the County to take leadership on 4 such a minor replat. 5 Thanks to everyone for their assistance. I 6 will restart the process through the City. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm glad he did that 8 because I was going to ask Bobby. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: And they just don't waive -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- I question that they 12 don't have the ability to waive. I think City Council 13 clearly has the ability to waive and they choose not to. 14 And this is the reason we can't come up to an agreement 15 with the City on how to handle the ETJ. They refuse to 16 give up any of their rights. 17 And I think the other questions -- I do have 18 a question on this one. What's the size of this? 19 MR. GORE: Both lots are about three -- a 20 little over three acres. So the combined of the two 21 lots would be the 6.9 acres. And what I understand is 22 that the City will typically waive anything over five 23 acres. But because these lots are existing lots under 24 five acres each, they are not able to waive based on the 25 five acre rule that they have. 93 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway. It is what it 2 is. And Eric's willing to work with the City to move 3 forward. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now the public knows 5 sometimes why we have issues with the City. We waive, 6 but they won't. Any other discussion? Okay. Those in 7 favor raise your hand or say aye. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 10 MR. GORE: Thank y'all. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Quickly let's go 12 through the information agenda. Any status reports from 13 Department Heads? Any status reports from Elected 14 Officials? Sheriff? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just to say thank you. 16 My last meeting that I will attend, so I appreciate all 17 the years of working with the -- my office, and 18 sometimes we didn't always agree on everything, but I 19 think -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Take your mask off. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Why? Not yet. I think 22 you'll see that I kinda lost my razor and didn't get my 23 haircut ordered, so things are fixing to change. My 24 Chief Deputy did the same thing, so -- 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Those are all the 94 1 rules that you've been enforcing all these years. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. All those 3 policies, now I just broke them. But, yeah. No, I 4 just -- we truly do, Clay and I both, truly do 5 appreciate what the Court has done for that department 6 over the last 20 years at least. 7 And, you know, like I said, we don't always 8 agree on everything, but I know and always understood 9 that y'all have your duties and I had my duties and we 10 worked together to make them work the best they could 11 for each other. And I appreciate that. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I have one request. 13 Don't change your phone number. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. That phone number 15 is mine. Actually, I've never had a -- a County-owned 16 phone. That is the phone number I've always had. And 17 the one I carry is a personal phone. So it's still 18 there. So it will work as long as I don't throw it in 19 the river. But that could happen. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I would like to 21 say, that I appreciate that no matter who you agree with 22 or disagree with that you've always been respectful to 23 everybody and always cooperative as much as you're able 24 and that's not as common as it used to be. I appreciate 25 it. 95 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think that that's the 2 key to it, you know. Like I said, just even with Clay 3 and I. You know, we -- we said it'd never ruin a 4 friendship. You know, we -- we disagree a lot. But I 5 never wanted somebody that just said yes, you know. Get 6 both sides and you don't get the whole story and you 7 don't get to understand it all. And you all have your 8 duties, I had mine. And I think we can all, you know, 9 stand up for -- for what we have to do even if it's 10 disagreeing with the other one, but we can still be able 11 to eat lunch afterwards and that's the way it should 12 always be. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And we have always had each 14 other's back. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And I appreciate that, 17 Sheriff. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You bet. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, Rusty, I 20 appreciate your friendship over the many, many years. 21 And I really appreciate one of the things that you've 22 done, and I hope that Larry will continue to use that, 23 when something happens in any of our Precincts you take 24 the extra time to call the Commissioner and say hey, you 25 know, there's a bad wreck or there's been a fatality or 96 1 there's been a fire or -- or whatever it is, and go that 2 extra little bit that -- it does help. It helps our 3 communication and it helps for us to know what's going 4 on in our areas and you've been really helpful in doing 5 that and I appreciate it. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, and I've already 7 explained that to Larry because I do think that's 8 important. Because just like his phone rings, you know, 9 when something happens in the County, your phone rings 10 when something happens in your Precinct. And I think 11 you have a right and should be able to be up on, you 12 know, most things that are going on so that you have 13 answers to your constituents too. But I appreciate it. 14 Thank you very much. And we'll see y'all later. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any status reports from 16 Liaison Commissioners? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. And 18 Rusty, don't leave. A question, it goes to sort of 19 liaison. Or question -- anyway, it's really not 20 liaison. I'll do it on the other part. It's about 21 the -- how we're going to do Friday's deal with the 22 social gathering and the swearing in. And it becomes -- 23 because the deputies all need to be there. Do you know 24 how Larry's planning to handle -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Larry has talked with 97 1 the Judge. It's going to be at the end. It starts at 2 10 a.m. But I think his swearing in is going to be at 3 the end of it and there's enough room out there to 4 socially distance the deputies coming in and wearing a 5 mask and that so that, you know, the Judge that Larry 6 has chosen to swear him in will swear him in, is my 7 understanding, and then Larry will swear in all the 8 deputies at one time. It's not -- it's not the whole 9 116 member staff of the Sheriff's Office; it's only the 10 sworn peace officers that have to be sworn in. So you 11 know, and there's a few of them that are out, either in 12 quarantine or, you know, on vacation, so you don't have 13 all that many. It's probably close to 50. 50 to 60. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What is the process if 15 somebody can't been there? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Then when they get back 17 in town, Larry will swear them in. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Does that include any 19 elected? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Huh? 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: All elected? If 22 somebody's sick? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The newly elected ones 24 have to be sworn in at that -- what the process is, and 25 that's why the weather kind of bothers me Thursday, 98 1 They're saying we could have snow or ice, okay. 2 Whatever you do, please don't postpone that 10 a.m., 3 Judge, because unfortunately whoever is already in that 4 office, such as myself, if something happens and Larry 5 can't be sworn in at 10 a.m., what it is is the current 6 one in there is still responsible. I'm still 7 responsible. I'm still the Sheriff until he actually 8 takes that oath. And that's the way it works for -- for 9 all those. 10 JUDGE KELLY: The existing office holder 11 holds over until the new -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, until the other 13 one's been qualified, which is taking over. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do re-elected's have to 15 get sworn in? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. And then the 18 deputies, once Larry is sworn in, all deputies 19 commission is under the Sheriff, so he has to swear in 20 all those deputies. And there's some that are on 21 vacation. So as soon as they come back or for whatever 22 reason they can't make it, then he will swear them in 23 there at the office, immediately as they're coming back 24 into town so that they all have their commission. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And so the public understands, 99 1 the swearing in ceremony will be at the Youth Event 2 Center at 10 this Friday, January 1. And they have made 3 arrangements to have everybody socially distanced apart. 4 And when we talk about the Sheriff's Deputies here at 5 the end, I've worked with Larry Leitha on this. They're 6 going to come in at the end and they're going to -- just 7 like we did in the Army on the dress right dress, 8 they're going to get socially distanced apart, and if 9 the public -- if you've never seen them assemble for a 10 swearing in ceremony, I'm telling you, it is an event. 11 But it will be at the end, so there will be the least 12 exposure for everybody. And they will be sworn in, and 13 then complete the swearing in ceremony. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, thanks. 15 JUDGE KELLY: With that, it is 10:57 and 16 let's take about a five minute break. Three minute 17 break, whatever it is. Come back about 11 and we do 18 have an Executive Session item and a consultation with 19 an attorney that we'll take up at that time. 20 (Break.) 21 (Executive Session.) 22 JUDGE KELLY: Well, Jackie, we're assuming 23 you're on the line, we'll come back to order. It is 24 11:26, the Court is out of Executive Session. I think 25 there's one item, action item, following Executive 100 1 Session. 2 And I'll make a motion that we go ahead and 3 approve the Resolution approving the State of Texas and 4 Texas Political Subdivisions' Opioid Abatement Fund 5 Council and Settlement Allocation Term Sheet. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: (Raising left hand.) 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think we'll need to 8 let people know a little bit more about it. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we can't talk about it 10 until we have a motion. So I've got a motion and I have 11 a second from Commissioner Belew. Now we're open for 12 discussion. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'll try to give a 14 quick overview, and our attorney can -- 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There you go. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Awhile back there was 17 a -- Kerr County joined a -- I want to say a class 18 action type lawsuit in the opioid industry and we've 19 been represented by Jay Henderson. We pretty much have 20 gone along with what the Attorney General of the State 21 of Texas and he's kind of the lead on a lot of this 22 litigation against the drug companies and distributors 23 on the opioid medications. 24 And we have a Resolution, subject to the 25 motion that was made, to go along with what the, I 101 1 guess, the Attorney General of the State of Texas, Ken 2 Paxton, and others are recommending as a Resolution to 3 that lawsuit. 4 Kind of the first step, and it appears that 5 Kerr County will get a percentage of funds, that the 6 State of Texas gets. The amount is to be determined. 7 And those funds will be used to address local opioid 8 addiction issues. 9 MR. HENDERSON: I think that's very well 10 said. I don't have anything to add. There's obviously 11 detailed information for anybody that wants it. They 12 should feel free to review it. 13 The bottom line at this point is this is an 14 essential next step. This does not obligate the County 15 in any way to go through the final step, although we 16 will probably recommend it. But this is an essential 17 step to get to the next level of the negotiation 18 process. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sounds good. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 21 your hand or say aye. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Unanimous, five zero. 24 MR. HENDERSON: I hope everybody has a 25 wonderful holiday. And all I can say is obviously 102 1 2021's gotta get better, right? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: In the rearview 3 mirror. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 5 MR. HENDERSON: Thank you so much, gentlemen 6 and ladies. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other business 8 before the Court? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, the last thing we 10 need to get back to Liaison Responsibilities and 11 Announcements. During the Court today, the Hill Country 12 District Junior Livestock Show issued a press release 13 and I'd like to read that just for the public. 14 This is from Steve Bauer, the President. 15 The Hill Country District Junior Livestock Show 16 Association has been working diligently since early in 17 the fall to restructure our County and District stock 18 shows in order to meet the requirements for mass 19 gatherings. 20 October 21st the Texas Department of State 21 Health Services recommended that mass gatherings not be 22 held and according to the president, Steve Bauer, we 23 believed we had a solid plan in place, but due to the 24 expectation of increased COVID-19 cases, the state 25 official responsible for approving our mass gathering 103 1 applications did not approve it. 2 This leaves us feeling both disappointed and 3 frustrated; however, we always knew that there was a 4 possibility that this could happen. As a result, we 5 will be cancelling the 2021 Hill Country District 6 Livestock Show. We'll be back in 2022 stronger than 7 ever. 8 Fortunately, with some restructuring, we 9 will not have to cancel the County Show. We will still 10 have a County Show followed by a County Premium Sale. 11 Additional information will be posted at the Extension 12 Office, including through your AG science teachers and 13 4-H programs. 14 But the main emphasis is the Stock Show 15 Association felt that it was critical that we take care 16 of our Kerr County kids. The Kerr County Show will go 17 on. The date may be adjusted slightly based on what the 18 Stock Show Association does, but it is, I know a big 19 disappointment to a lot of people that the District Show 20 will be cancelled. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm glad that the 22 local kids, especially the seniors, will be able to have 23 the show. That's a pretty big deal. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, I want to echo 25 their disappointment. I know that this -- it will -- 104 1 they weigh this very heavily and what have you and, you 2 know, having been so involved in District Show for so 3 many years, I feel for the -- like you said, the 4 seniors. 5 You know, I saw some seniors in the spring 6 that got -- you know, they were all favored to be State 7 Champions here locally, from the school here locally, 8 and they got it kicked out from underneath them. I've 9 seen these others seniors, ready for a jam up good year, 10 and from the other counties and it kind of gets them 11 knocked out. 12 Also, you know, the new showers that have 13 been looking forward to this first year I get to show in 14 the district show and now suddenly can't. It's 15 disappointing on so many levels, and all we got to blame 16 it on is this China virus. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know Gillespie County 18 is going to have there's also so that's good. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The County Shows are 20 going on in most counties around us. It's the district 21 shows and the larger -- Fort Worth cancelled earlier 22 this year, earlier in the fall. San Antonio, 23 San Angelo, Houston, Austin, they're all up in the air. 24 San Antonio is planning to have theirs, but it is 25 greatly reduced and it may suffer more reductions based 105 1 on what's going on. 2 But I guess we're probably the second big 3 show -- the first one in 2021 that will have to cancel 4 and make -- and too bad. But hopefully, it's -- our 5 County kids will go forward, and hopefully we'll have a 6 lot of people will attend the auction and look after our 7 County kids. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I want to specifically 9 acknowledge Steve Bauer and the Executive Committee for 10 the stock show. They have worked tirelessly and been in 11 almost constant communication with me through this whole 12 thing because I do the mass gathering process, gathering 13 permit process. And they have been very sensitive and 14 cooperative and are doing their dead level best to keep 15 everybody as safe as possible and still have these kids 16 have some positive experience from this stock show. My 17 hats off to him. So with that, there will be no other 18 business before the Court. We are adjourned. 19 * * * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 106 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 5th day of January, 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