1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, January 11, 2021 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Commissioners' Comments. 5 4 1.1 Update regarding the COVID-19 vaccination 9 distribution plan. 5 *** Public Input. 11 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 34 7 action to continue the use of the County granted COVID-19 sick time into 2021 where 8 necessary. 9 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 40 action to approve job descriptions for the 10 Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 11 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 12 action to acknowledge Kerr County Treasurer Tracy Soldan for completion of the TAC 13 Leadership Program. 14 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 action to authorize County Treasurer to 15 advertise for depository and banking services contract RFA's. 16 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 17 action to schedule workshops to determine criteria, process and deadlines for merit 18 pay determinations and appointment of Liaison Commissioners to oversee the 19 implementation. 20 1.7 Update regarding the Texas Pork Producers 60 Show scheduled for February 2021. 21 1.8 Recognize the 216th District Attorney for 69 22 contribution of desks and other office furniture to the Hill Country Regional 23 Public Defender's Office. 24 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 70 action to approve contracts with Turtle 4 Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Tierra Linda Volunteer Fire Department, Mountain 5 Home Volunteer Fire Department, Comfort Volunteer Fire Department, and Castle Lake 6 Volunteer Fire Department, and allow County Judge to sign same. 7 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 8 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10 a.m. on February 8, 2021 9 for the creation of an Emergency Service District #3. 10 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 77 11 action to approve a RFP, Request For Proposal, for Redistricting Services 12 Associated with the 2020 Census. 13 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 action regarding the contract with GDM 14 Enterprises, LLC for vending machines located on the 2nd floor of the courthouse. 15 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 88 16 action for the Commissioners' Court final approval regarding the private road name 17 of "Getaway Falls Trl. S." 18 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 89 action for the Court to approve a revision 19 of plat for Verde Park Estates Section 3, Lot 2, Volume 6, Page 93. 20 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 90 21 action to open and receive bids for the 2021 Road Reconstruction Project, read bids 22 aloud, refer bids to the County Engineer for tabulation, and award to the lowest 23 qualified bidder. 24 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 action for the Court to set a public 4 hearing for 10 a.m. on February 22, 2021 for a Revision of Plat for The Ravine, 5 Lots 3, 10 and 21, Volume 4, Page 16. 6 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 97 action for the Court to approve a final 7 plat for Christine Acres. 8 1.18 Passed. 98 9 2.1 Pay Bills. 99 10 2.3 Late Bills. 100 11 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 100 12 2.6 Court Orders. 101 13 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 103 14 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 105 15 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 108 action to open and receive bids for the 16 2021 Road Reconstruction Project, read bids aloud, refer bids to the County Engineer 17 for tabulation, and award to the lowest qualified bidder. 18 *** Adjournment. 109 19 *** Reporter's Certificate. 110 20 * * * * * * 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is Monday, January 11th, 2 2021. This is the first meeting of the Kerr County 3 Commissioners' Court which is now in session. And if 4 you would, please rise and join me in the prayer and the 5 pledge. 6 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance led by 7 Commissioner Harris.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. The next 9 part of the meeting is where we invite public input. 10 And I will remind anyone who would like to address the 11 Court this is your opportunity unless there is an agenda 12 item, that would cover your presentation to the Court. 13 If it's on the agenda, we ask that you wait until that 14 agenda item is called and we'll address it at that time. 15 I also want to remind people that as you may 16 give input to the Court, know that this is input and not 17 output. So we are not allowed the privilege of being 18 able to respond or offer output to whatever your input 19 is. And if you'll try to keep your remarks limited to 20 about three minutes and identify yourself and your 21 address when you come to the podium and you're free to 22 take your mask off at the podium. Is there anyone who 23 would like to address the court? 24 Okay. Now, this is our first meeting with 25 our new Sheriff, Sheriff Leitha. Welcome. 6 1 SHERIFF LEITHA: Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: As our de facto bailiff when 3 we -- when we ask this, you may need to stick your head 4 out in the hallway every once in a while and see if 5 there's anybody out there because we are socially 6 distanced here in the courtroom and everyone, I think, 7 except the Commissioners and the Court Reporter are 8 wearing masks. So anyone that comes in, feel free to 9 take the mask off when you approach the podium. 10 Okay. There being no input at this time 11 then we'd call on comments from our local Commissioners. 12 Let's start with Precinct 1, Commissioner Belew. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We, out of all the rain 14 and all the sleet and all the snow and all of that, got 15 a little less than an inch which I was just startled at 16 how little we got, so -- of moisture. But we're happy 17 to have it and when it comes in the frozen precipitation 18 it actually soaks down in the ground which is good, so I 19 was encouraged by that. So it was good. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Precinct 2. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Precinct 2. Three 22 categories. People are happy because of the rain and 23 being able to burn. People are frustrated because 24 they're not getting vaccines. So we'll talk more about 25 that in a minute. And people are anxious to get the 7 1 next phase of the sewer system going. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Precinct 3. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A general comment. I 4 think everyone is aware that I attend the stakeholders 5 meeting, the Judge and I attend them with a lot of 6 representatives from the hospital and Emergency 7 Management and such. The one thing I want to bring up, 8 I've been somewhat critical of the process and the 9 numbers that we've used, not at -- in the local group 10 but more of the State numbers and how they've been 11 calculated and changed and all that. 12 But one of the things that really hit home 13 at the meeting this last Thursday was our hospital 14 workers. And whether the people are there for COVID or 15 whether they're there for other reasons or they're there 16 for other reasons and they have COVID, is somewhat 17 irrelevant that our staff is really being overworked at 18 that hospital. 19 They're putting in long, long hours. They 20 have some issues with -- if they have COVID and 21 quarantine is hitting them and I think that everyone in 22 the community needs to be aware of that and when you see 23 anyone working with the hospital, thank them. They're 24 doing a yeoman's service to the community and they get 25 the brunt of a lot of angry people and frustrated, as we 8 1 all are. But they're doing their best and I really 2 encourage everyone to just give them a thank you when 3 you see them. That's it. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well said. Precinct 4. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Just thankful we got a 6 little bit of rain. And like Commissioner Belew said, 7 it was a little bit but it's better than nothing. Just 8 less dry days anyway. It's kind of -- it goes hand in 9 hand with the stock show that we had Friday, Saturday, 10 and Sunday, the school shows that kicked off. I went 11 out to the West Kerr show on -- on Saturday and it was, 12 you know, cold and a little moist and -- but everybody 13 got through it and had a good time. 14 I was talking to the County Attorney and her 15 kids show and it's a good way for these kids to knock 16 off the -- haven't showed animals, most of them, for a 17 year and get back in the swing of things this next week. 18 And the show starts this Saturday with Ag Mech show. 19 And it's just our county kids and I would encourage 20 people to come out and watch that. They have a cutting 21 torch contest that's really a fun spectator sport to 22 watch these kids go head to head at that. 23 So that's about all I got. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Good. On a County basis, I 25 want to first of all extend our condolences to the 9 1 Hickey family. Mike Hickey passed away I think on 2 January the 4th. We haven't had a meeting since then. 3 I certainly want to lift the family up in our prayers. 4 Also, I wanted to echo Commissioner Letz's 5 concern about the staff at Peterson Regional Medical 6 Center. This is a very critical time. We've already 7 recruited at least one support group from the Republican 8 Women here in Kerr County that will have a program to 9 get cards and appreciation notes over to the staff. And 10 so anything we can do to show our appreciation and 11 commitment and support for the staff at Peterson 12 Regional Medical Center is vitally important. 13 And so with that, I think we're ready to 14 begin. Is there anything else we need to talk about 15 before we start? Sheriff. 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: Judge, the Chamber CEO is 17 here. He's not on the agenda, but he wanted to 18 introduce himself and I don't know if this is the proper 19 time or would he have to go -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, this is -- go ahead and 21 come up, please. And take your mask off, you're free to 22 do that. Identify yourself. And this is the input part 23 of our agenda. 24 MR. BARNETT: Okay. Brad Barnett, President 25 and CEO of the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce. This 10 1 is my second week on the job, so just getting to know 2 everybody and wanted to come and get a chance to meet 3 you guys. Our address is 1109 Lois Street. So just -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Welcome. Welcome. 5 MR. BARNETT: -- happy to partner with you 6 guys and whatever y'all need from the Chamber, please do 7 not hesitate to reach out and contact us. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Tell us a little bit 9 about yourself. Where did you come from? 10 MR. BARNETT: The last nine years I've been 11 in Midland. And I grew up in Eastern Kentucky so being 12 out in Midland and the desert, kind of, the withdrawal 13 from hill, streams and water and I realized -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: I resemble that. 15 MR. BARNETT: But just really -- we've 16 already felt welcome. I've lived a lot of places in the 17 past 52 years and this is one of the most welcoming 18 communities we've ever been in so. My wife started in 19 the Foundation Office at Peterson Health last week as 20 well. So we have a 20-year-old son in Midland that 21 finishes at Midland College and will be moving back -- 22 moving here to Kerrville in May, so -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. Welcome. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Welcome. 25 MR. BARNETT: Thank you. 11 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good to have you. Thank you. 2 Okay. Let's move along. First item on the 3 agenda is 1.1, which is the update regarding the 4 COVID-19 vaccination distribution plan. 5 And before Dub starts -- we've got Dub 6 Thomas at the lectern here, our podium, who is our Kerr 7 County Emergency Coordinator. And he and I sit in -- 8 sat in on a call, about a week ago I guess it was, with 9 the local providers for the vaccine. And he's going to 10 explain to you how this vaccine is being distributed. 11 It's by provider, and not to entity. It doesn't come to 12 Kerr County, it doesn't come to the City. It goes to 13 the providers. 14 And as I sat in on this call, I was getting 15 kind of discouraged because, as you're going to learn, 16 every provider has their own wait list and people have 17 been calling and wanting to know how to get on the wait 18 list to get the vaccine. 19 And about half way through that conference 20 call I want you to know my heart skipped a beat when Dub 21 stepped up and said that the County would take the lead 22 in being able to put together the call center and the 23 wait list and coordinate it with the other providers. 24 And so I'm very happy to represent -- to present to you 25 Dub Thomas, who is going to give us the update on the 12 1 vaccine. Dub. 2 MR. THOMAS: Thank you, Judge. Good 3 morning, Commissioners. Yeah. So basically what our 4 plan is for getting the vaccine out. Of course, you've 5 got 1A -- you've got the tiers, 1A, 1B, C. And there 6 are several -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For the public, repeat 8 what 1A, 1B, 1C is? 9 MR. THOMAS: 1A is basically people who are 10 health compromised, in nursing homes, and the front line 11 workers, EMS, those types of individual. 1B is 65 years 12 of age or older and you have some kind of a condition, 13 diabetes, dialysis or something like that where -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Health compromised. 15 MR. THOMAS: Health compromised. Yes, sir. 16 So -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And 1C? 18 MR. THOMAS: 1C is to be determined. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 MR. THOMAS: They haven't identified 1C's 21 yet. So our -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: We're still talking 1A's right 23 now. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Always have ambiguity 25 with the government. 13 1 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, we're -- well, like the 2 Judge said, we're stuck in 1A right now since we've had 3 so few vaccines come into our County. So we have 4 several providers that have signed up with the State to 5 be vaccine providers. And what we're going to plan on 6 doing is we have 3400 health care workers in Kerr County 7 that need to be taken care of first. Those tier 1A's. 8 And we're going to open up a call center and we're going 9 to start taking preregistration. 10 So what we're going to do is we're going to 11 register these folks based on information that the 12 vaccine providers give us that they need, and we're 13 going to provide that information to those vaccine 14 providers. When they get to the point where -- whether 15 there's 500 vaccines or a thousand vaccines that they 16 have that they can't get issued in their own facilities, 17 like it would be kind of difficult to put a thousand 18 people in HEB to get their -- their shots, so I have set 19 up with several different providers, places here in 20 town, Kerrville First United Methodist Church, First 21 Presbyterian. We've got the youth livestock barn. 22 Schreiner University is giving us a facility as well 23 where we can set up. And it's basically like doing our 24 flu clinic, only it will be in multiple slots here in 25 town where we can issue the vaccines. 14 1 And then once we have -- once we have 2 reached the point where we believe we have done all of 3 or all we're going to be able to get for the 1A, we're 4 going to start doing the 1B's immediately. If we have 5 any vaccines left over, we're going to start in with the 6 1B folks right away. And the 1B folks will be asked to 7 call in and register to the call center as well. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's the likelihood 9 that we'll have some left over? Do you have any earthly 10 idea? 11 MR. THOMAS: Well, we're going to -- we're 12 not going to stop. We're going to -- we're going to put 13 the vaccine out as fast as possible. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dub, take it from the 15 Federal Government to the State, and to the states, 16 okay, how it's distributed to the states, and then from 17 the state down to local. Take it -- flow -- let that 18 process flow. 19 MR. THOMAS: Well, as far as I know, FEMA 20 and the Federal Government issue vaccines out to the 21 states. The Department of State Health Services and the 22 TDEM, those are the ones that have been issuing them. I 23 don't -- right now, I don't think it's equitable in the 24 way that its been distributed. If you look at the 25 hospitalization rates, especially for like Region 8, you 15 1 know, we -- we lost our 15 percent, and got over the 15 2 percent hospitalization rate, so all the rural counties, 3 if you heard Mr. Edmondson a couple weeks ago, he said 4 that the rural counties around Bexar County are the ones 5 that pushed that hospitalization rate up over 15 6 percent. Because we were running at like 30 percent, 7 25 or 30 percent. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wait. Go back to how 9 it's distributed to the states. What's -- what's the 10 criteria, Texas versus Louisiana versus, etc., and -- 11 MR. THOMAS: I don't -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- then -- and then 13 from the state to how it's distributed in the -- 14 MR. THOMAS: Well, it appears it's been 15 population based. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Population. Okay. 17 That's for the states. How about from the -- within the 18 State of Texas because -- and I know that some people in 19 Richmond and places like that have already gotten their 20 vaccines and they're just -- because of their age. 21 People at -- over in the Marble Falls area, Scott & 22 White, all their first -- first line responders 23 supposedly have all been vaccinated. So what's -- 24 what's -- that's what people are here in this area are 25 saying -- 16 1 MR. THOMAS: I can't -- I can't answer that. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- what the hell? 3 MR. THOMAS: I can't answer that. I don't 4 know what the -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Whose got the answer? 6 MR. THOMAS: I would guess DSHS. I'm -- 7 hopefully I can get the answer today at 11:00 a.m. I've 8 got a -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 MR. THOMAS: -- conference call, a COVID 11 vaccine update. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I might be 14 able to give a little bit what I know and I think this 15 is accurate. As an example, Kendall County has already 16 vaccinated some people over 65; Kerr County hasn't. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Has not. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have 3400 health 19 workers. I don't know what Kendall County has, but they 20 don't have anywhere near that number -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- because they don't 23 have a hospital. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or they have that -- 17 1 they have an emergency -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- you know, a couple of 4 clinics. So they're -- because they didn't have the 5 number of healthcare workers, they get "X" number of -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good answer. Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's a large -- 8 appears to me to be part of the issue. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that, you know, Kerr 11 County for whatever reason didn't get enough to get all 12 their healthcare workers right away, whereas someone 13 like Kendall County that doesn't have that many, did. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, if you just did it 15 on population, it -- it's not going to -- yeah, I can 16 see. Okay. Good. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and -- and let me chime 18 in because Dub and I sat in on the conference call with 19 Commissioner Hellerstedt. And the first thing he told 20 us was whatever vaccines we have are not to be left on 21 the shelves. They're to be used. Whether it's 1A, 1B 22 or whoever. Vaccines will be used and people need to 23 know that. 24 The second thing he told us was they want to 25 do 1A first and they're trying to get the 1A done. And 18 1 Kerr County has not completed 1A; Kendall County has. 2 So who makes that determination? As far as I know, it 3 was Commissioner Hellerstedt and DSHS. I -- I -- other 4 than that, I don't know the criteria that they used. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I agree with Dub Thomas that 7 it appears they're doing it on population. But the one 8 thing that they emphasized to us, is they -- they 9 changed tier 1A and tier 1B to be age based instead of 10 occupation based. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 12 JUDGE KELLY: 1B is now age based. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and compromised based, 15 rather than occupation or profession based. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: So what we know is that we 18 haven't been able to vaccinate all of our tier 1A's, and 19 we're still in the process of doing that. In the 20 conference call we had last week with the local folks, 21 we're trying to get the available vaccine shipped it 22 back and forth between -- between providers, whoever has 23 people on their wait list so that we can get it out. 24 Which is all good news. 25 And then what -- what Dub brings to us 19 1 today, is that the County is going to take the lead in 2 setting up the call centers so that people have a common 3 place to call in -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- and I'm going to let Dub go 6 ahead and fill in the call center, everything that's 7 going on with it. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Before you -- he gets 9 started on that, can I ask you a question real quick? 10 MR. THOMAS: Sure. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Can people from Kerr 12 County go to Bexar County or something and get -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 14 MR. THOMAS: I was about to say, you know, 15 Bexar County, I saw yesterday when I was looking over 16 the CDC website, Bexar County has two full vaccine hubs 17 that you can -- I would call to make sure that you can 18 get a reservation or an appointment so you can get in, 19 but I did see this morning that -- and I don't know 20 which hub it was but 26,000 appointments filled up 21 pretty quick. So we'll try and get -- we'll get those 22 numbers out this afternoon with a press release along 23 with the COVID update numbers. And that way, if you 24 really need it, you can go to San Antonio and get 25 vaccinated. 20 1 JUDGE KELLY: And Commissioner Hellerstedt 2 emphasized that this was not County based, home county 3 based. This is for every Texan. 4 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, those hubs, it doesn't 5 matter where -- where you live, you can -- you can still 6 get the vaccine there. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 MR. THOMAS: So we're going to use -- we're 9 setting up a call center just to kind of give you an 10 idea. This is -- this is going to be a pretty big 11 project, when you consider what it's going to take. 12 We've got some of the players in this call center is 13 American Red Cross, Hill Country Telephone, our 14 volunteer base, our community emergency response team 15 through the Sheriff's Office, and we're also trying to 16 get some other volunteers to fill in some blank spots in 17 there so we're going to have to get those spots filled 18 up. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How does somebody apply 20 for that? 21 MR. THOMAS: Well, I want to -- we're going 22 to get some more information out on that today. My -- 23 my e-mail is starting to backup and I've got messages on 24 my phone at the office. People are wanting to 25 volunteer, so -- 21 1 JUDGE KELLY: If you would, tell the people 2 and the Court a little bit more about your CERT Team, 3 because this is the hub of what we're doing here. 4 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, our Community Emergency 5 Response Team is sponsored by the Sheriff, and they 6 basically do just about anything that we can train them 7 to do, that they can be physically able to do for 8 emergency response, whether it's life search and rescue, 9 first-aid, those type of things. Certain -- we've used 10 them for shelter, operating a shelter. We've done smoke 11 detector installs at the Kerrville Fire Department and 12 the American Red Cross. 13 So they do -- and they have a lot of 14 different things that they can do. And manning that 15 phone bank is going to be one of them. So we're going 16 to be working today with trying to get our volunteer 17 base set up for that. 18 And then when you look at what we're doing 19 as far as where we're going to be putting the vaccines 20 out, we're taking our annual flu chinic and we're moving 21 it out to four different -- four or five different 22 places, depending on how much vaccine is coming in. So 23 we're going to have HEB, Medical Arts Pharmacy, and a 24 couple of the others -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: PRMC, CVS. 22 1 MR. THOMAS: -- that are signing on and 2 we're going to try and get them set up in these 3 locations and we're going to be using Schreiner 4 University nursing students and other volunteers to get 5 everybody vaccinated as fast as possible. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and I'm -- I'm excited 7 about this. The nursing students at Schreiner are going 8 to help us with our preregistration and do the medical 9 screening to get people so that when they come in, they 10 don't have to spend 30 minutes to 45 minutes filling out 11 forms. It's all going to be done. 12 MR. THOMAS: They can also issue the shots 13 as well. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 15 MR. THOMAS: So -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That brings up a 17 question I have, which is what happens to all this 18 information? Where does it go? 19 MR. THOMAS: What do you mean? 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, everybody's going 21 to fill out information and give it to -- 22 MR. THOMAS: Well, we're going to take the 23 information and we're going to provide it to the vaccine 24 providers. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that goes to a 23 1 national data base or what? 2 MR. THOMAS: Well, they -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: I don't know. 4 MR. THOMAS: -- they do some data input for 5 whose been vaccinated and all that other information. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So we don't know. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it -- that's all 8 contracted between the Federal Government, State 9 Government and providers. And -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But it's information 11 that's going to end up someplace. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sure it will end up at 13 some governmental level. I don't know where. One of 14 the things that I found that was kind of disheartening 15 at the beginning of this call I was talking about with 16 Commissioner Hellerstedt -- or local people, excuse me, 17 is all the different providers in town have different 18 preregistration forms. We don't even have a common form 19 to use between them. And they have their own wait list. 20 And so this call center and the unified wait 21 list is finally making progress so that people will know 22 where they can call in, get on the wait list, people 23 will be rerouted and distributed from the call center to 24 the various providers. And what they do with the 25 preregistration information, Harley, I -- I can't -- I 24 1 can't tell ya. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Dub, the -- the 3 people should not be calling Walgreens, CVS or anything 4 else to get on their list. 5 MR. THOMAS: Or Peterson. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wait -- wait for the 7 call center to be set up? 8 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Now, the people that 10 have called Walgreens, CVS or whatever and they were 11 already on the list there, is that list going to be then 12 given to the call center? 13 MR. THOMAS: It's still there. It's still 14 good. We'll move it over to the -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, as soon as we can get to 17 them that's -- those will be vaccinated. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How is all the data 20 entry taking place? I mean is that your staff or -- 21 MR. THOMAS: No, sir. That's going to be 22 the pharmacy staff or whoever is doing the vaccinations. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, like if you have 24 an existing list now that goes into the new one, they're 25 just going to be transferred, right? 25 1 MR. THOMAS: Well, the -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: No, not really. 3 MR. THOMAS: The pharmacies are going to 4 handle all that. We're not going to be doing any of the 5 data. We're just going to transfer the names and 6 information over to the pharmacies and the providers and 7 let them -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that's data. How 9 are you doing that? 10 MR. THOMAS: It's on a piece of paper. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're taking them a 12 piece of paper? 13 MR. THOMAS: Piece of paper and hand it to 14 them. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. That's what I 16 wanted to know. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We've got five or six 18 providers. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. If you got a 20 paper list you can chase that. Easy to understand. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And their wait list survived, 22 just like Commissioner Moser asked. And then whatever 23 their preregistration information requirements are, and 24 medical training are, that will be conducted at the -- 25 by the call center and then passed along to the specific 26 1 provider. If it's -- if they're going to HEB, then it's 2 going to be -- that information is going to HEB. If 3 they're going to Peterson, that information will go to 4 Peterson. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now this involves like 6 HIPAA rules and all that kind of stuff, right? 7 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. Uh-huh. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dub, one other 9 question. Is it going to be like 65 and older or is it 10 going to start with a hundred and work your way down? 11 MR. THOMAS: 65 years of age or older. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So it'll just be 13 a -- 14 MR. THOMAS: We're not going to -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- a group. 16 MR. THOMAS: No, we're not going to break it 17 down into age groups. No, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 19 Well, I -- I mean, people wanted -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A hundred and younger. 21 There's plenty of people around here older than a 22 hundred. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And it -- it does include 25 those younger than 65 who have a compromised condition. 27 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 2 MR. THOMAS: Right. 16 years of age or 3 older. Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So then my next 5 question is what is compromised? In the paper it said 6 chronic. I looked up the word chronic and it -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Comorbidities. 8 MR. THOMAS: Well, what are comorbidities? 9 If you're on dialysis or if you have cancer or -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is there going to be a 11 list of those kind of things? 12 JUDGE KELLY: There already is. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, there's a list of 14 them. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. There's a list 16 of -- 17 MR. THOMAS: There's a list of them, yes, 18 sir. It's -- it's out there. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. 20 MR. THOMAS: So we'll -- we'll get all that 21 information out as well so people will understand 22 whether they're a 1A, 1B category. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 24 MR. THOMAS: So in the next couple days, 25 hopefully within two or three days, we should have the 28 1 phone numbers out for that call bank and we'll have it 2 manned and we'll get that information out as soon as 3 possible so everybody can start calling in. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that will be posted 5 on the County website? 6 MR. THOMAS: On the County website and in 7 social media and a press release. Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And just as -- and FYI for 10 those people that have called in wanting to get on a 11 wait list, when you see this number, this is the new 12 number that you call and that will get you on the 13 waiting list. 14 MR. THOMAS: And if you're not signed on 15 Code Red, it's probably a good time to sign onto Code 16 Red as well because we're going to -- when we start 17 notifying 1A or 1B personnel to start calling up people 18 to call in the call center, I'm also going to use Code 19 Red. The same as when we were doing for the testing. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, as soon as you 21 put that number out, people are going to start calling 22 whether they're 1C or 1D or 1E or whatever. 23 MR. THOMAS: Well, hopefully people will 24 abide by the rules and -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good luck. 29 1 MR. THOMAS: Yeah. Well -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dub, the -- especially 3 in this County, the over 65 is a large group. 4 MR. THOMAS: Uh-huh. 5 JUDGE KELLY: They say about 14,000. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But there's also a 7 segment of that that has, you know, chronic conditions. 8 And they're probably at a much higher risk than -- you. 9 I'm looking at the Judge. Because he's over 65. I 10 could have gone the other route. 11 (Talking over.) 12 JUDGE KELLY: Anyway, for those of you that 13 don't know, I am over 65. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there any -- you 15 know, is the hospital looking at that or there's -- to 16 me it's -- it's not a -- I don't know, fair is not the 17 right word, but a good way just to say if you're over 18 65. I mean there's -- for people that clearly are at 19 much higher risk and maybe because they're financially 20 able, they have home health care as opposed to being in 21 assisted living, but they don't qualify for anything to 22 move them up on the list. Is there any thought to, you 23 know, kind of screening that a little bit? 24 MR. THOMAS: Yeah, I don't know how we're 25 going to do that. We're -- that's something we're going 30 1 to have to work out with the providers. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I thought you 3 already said that they would. If you have a comorbidity 4 or some other -- 5 MR. THOMAS: Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Under 65. 7 MR. THOMAS: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, if you're under 65 9 then you're bumped up into the A category. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: B. The B category. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: B category. 12 JUDGE KELLY: This goes -- this goes to 13 something that Commissioner Hellerstedt explained to us 14 is that they're trying to get this on age based. And so 15 age based, all you gotta do is show a driver's license 16 and determine your age. If you're going to assert a 17 claim under the comorbidities, in other words, even if 18 you're over 65 or under 65 it doesn't matter. 19 There's got to be some sort of medical 20 verification that you, in fact, are suffering from the 21 kidney disease or the -- the diabetes or whatever that 22 chronic condition may be. And so there's -- for those 23 people -- I -- I don't know if they're going to 24 prioritize those people or not. They didn't tell us 25 that. They just told us that this is the way they were 31 1 going to try to get it out to us until nothing was left 2 on the shelf. 3 MR. THOMAS: And I would recommend that if 4 somebody has one of those issues or comorbidities that 5 they try and -- let's go ahead and contact your 6 physician and get him to just write you a handwritten 7 note or whatever, and we'll accept that when it's time 8 for the vaccinations. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, it sounds good. 10 Sounds pretty organized, which has been a complaint from 11 one of my calls that I've received that, well, who's on 12 first, you know, what's going on here. And it sounds 13 like you have things organized in the right direction. 14 You're probably going to see some people's name on 15 several lists, where they have called Walgreens and 16 maybe CVS and -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- just trying to 19 get -- 20 MR. THOMAS: Sure. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- get there first, 22 you know. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So this -- this will 25 be an organized way to tackle it. 32 1 MR. THOMAS: Well, and there's -- there's 2 going to be some bumps in the road but we'll work 3 through those and this is basically just taking our flu 4 clinic plan and kind of expanding it and adding a few 5 more tweaks in there. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Hey, Dub. Why don't 7 you see if you can get Schreiner University some of 8 their Information and Technology folks to maybe help do 9 this in some type of way that would help the data? I 10 mean, those guys could probably -- if they -- if they're 11 available. That's a resource that could really help 12 y'all a lot. Because of the multiple entries of 13 different people, etc., etc. 14 MR. THOMAS: Well, the vaccine providers are 15 going to be the ones who are using all that data. We're 16 just going to take the -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm talking about how 18 to get the data from people calling in. It's just a 19 suggestion. Okay. 20 MR. THOMAS: Well, it's going to be just a 21 piece of paper and talking to them on the phone. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Keep it simple. 23 MR. THOMAS: Right. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Now, before we let you sit 25 down, I want to follow up on Commissioner Harris's 33 1 comment about this appears to be organized. A week ago 2 it was not. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I know. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Trust me, it was not. And we 5 have gotten very little guidance or help from the State 6 on this. And this is a Kerr County initiative, a 7 Dub Thomas organizational effort that -- hats off to 8 you, Dub, you've done a great job. 9 MR. THOMAS: Thank you. We -- and I also 10 wanted to let you know, the call center, we're going to 11 try and run from that 8:30 to 4:30. The Kerrville Fire 12 Department EMS will be there to -- they're actually 13 going to test, COVID test rapid test, everybody that 14 goes in there to work the call center. So they're -- I 15 didn't want to leave them out as well. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And may want to give a shout 17 out to the Hill Country Telephone. 18 MR. THOMAS: I did. 19 JUDGE KELLY: You did. 20 MR. THOMAS: Hill Country Telephone is 21 providing us five phone lines free and the equipment for 22 the phone bank. Red Cross is letting us use their 23 facility. So we're -- we're plugged -- making a plug 24 for the volunteers. I've got CERT and I talked to a 25 lady from Kiwanis the other day and looking at rotary 34 1 and some of those things. We're going to have to vet 2 anybody that goes in as a volunteer, so -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: It's pretty exciting to see 4 the community come together and do this on their own and 5 the State didn't give it to us. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 7 MR. THOMAS: And if you -- if you sent me an 8 e-mail or you called my office phone and left a message 9 for me to get in touch with you about being a volunteer, 10 I apologize if I haven't answered it in such a timely 11 manner, but my plate's a little full right now so we'll 12 get that information out to everybody. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Do we have anything else for 14 Dub? Dub, we're proud of you. 15 MR. THOMAS: Thank you. I appreciate it. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good job, Dub. 17 MR. THOMAS: Y'all have a good day. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Let's move on to item 1.2 19 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 20 continue use of the County granted COVID-19 sick time 21 into 2021 where necessary. 22 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. Good morning, 23 gentlemen. The FFCRA Grant of the 80 hours for sick 24 leave expired 12-31. And there's FAQ's on that FFCRA 25 website, it says employers are not mandated to extend 35 1 this, but they may voluntarily extend this. 2 Well, I'm just asking for an extension of 3 the FFCRA 80 hours, along with the additional 80 hours 4 that the County granted for COVID sick leave time. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jennifer, what do we 6 do -- if we're setting a precedent on this, what do we 7 do next flu season? Are we going to do the same thing? 8 MRS. DOSS: No, sir. This is -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's unique about -- 10 MRS. DOSS: -- this is strictly for COVID 11 purposes. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just only -- 13 MRS. DOSS: Only. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we need to be very 15 specific -- 16 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- about that? 18 MRS. DOSS: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Will you remind me, if 21 everybody else in the room remembers, I apologize. 22 Remind me how this works, why we did this. 23 MRS. DOSS: We did this because people did 24 not want to use their own sick leave. If they felt a 25 little tickle, they just came to work anyway. This way, 36 1 they don't have an excuse not to stay home. And right 2 now we're running at -- I mean, probably out of 21 3 people -- we had several -- we had quite a few people 4 return to work today. But out of 22 people, 17 of those 5 are positive. So there's -- there's thought that this 6 is being abused, but the positivity rate of people that 7 are in quarantine is over three-quarters at this point. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. Okay. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, for clarification 10 purposes, there's the CARES Act COVID sick leave -- 11 MRS. DOSS: Correct. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- and then there's the County 13 COVID sick leave that we did recently to extend it 14 another 80 hours. Is that correct? 15 MRS. DOSS: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And what you're saying is that 17 with regard to the CARES Act sick leave, if we have any 18 money left over to carry it over to 2021? 19 MRS. DOSS: Well, not so much money, it's 20 just -- people are allotted 80 hours. We've had about 21 134 employees up to the last -- end of last pay period 22 used the COVID sick. The average that employees took 23 was about 55 hours. Some took five, ten, 12. Some are 24 like 140 to 159 range, so they're about out. 25 But for the rest of the employees who have 37 1 not used it, for the employees that have used very 2 little, we're asking that they can use the remainder of 3 the 80 from the Act, in addition to the 80 that we've 4 provided. 5 JUDGE KELLY: But do I understand that we've 6 exhausted the funds from the Act? 7 MRS. DOSS: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, this is -- if 9 you're talking about salaried employees, it's not as if 10 it does anything to our budget? 11 MRS. DOSS: Right. It's -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But it does reduce 13 manpower when they're out or -- 14 MRS. DOSS: I talked to the Auditor about 15 that. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- woman power. So, 17 yeah. So it doesn't change our budget and we don't have 18 to come up with new funds for it -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that's what I'm trying 20 to find out. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, apparently not. 22 For salaried employees, it wouldn't. For hourly 23 employees -- 24 MRS. DOSS: No. For hourly employees it 25 would not. 38 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, my understanding was 2 that we've exhausted our funding under the CARES Act 3 thus far. I mean -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So anything moving forward has 6 to be on the County's dime; not on the -- the grant 7 dime. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's on the County's 9 dime but it's a productivity like Commissioner -- 10 reduction, it's not costing us dollars, it's costing us 11 productivity, because the -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- employees are being 14 paid and then may or may not be working at all. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They're just getting 16 more hours to be away basically. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So -- so it 18 doesn't have a direct financial impact, but it does have 19 a -- like Commissioner Belew said a -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It just spreads us 21 thin. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, it spreads us 23 thin. 24 MRS. SHELTON: Where the confusion of the 25 money may be coming in, under the CARES Act that we just 39 1 give money under TDEM, we were able to ask for 2 reimbursement for people that used that COVID sick 3 leave. But that money is all gone, and the expenses on 4 that ended on December the 30th. 5 JUDGE KELLY: 31st. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So now what we're 7 talking about is instead of somebody using the sick 8 leave they've accumulated as an employee over however 9 many years, they're getting this additional sick leave 10 if they have been exposed and so on. And that will also 11 eventually run out. 12 MRS. DOSS: Right. And we've had several 13 people that are on their second round of this and that 14 are over 160, and they will use their own sick leave 15 once they get over 160. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I would be in favor 17 of extending the policy because we -- we want our 18 employees if they are sick to stay home. And if we 19 don't extend it, we're encouraging employees basically 20 to come here unless they're really sick -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Don't do that. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and we don't want 23 that. 24 MRS. DOSS: And we have quite a few that 25 I've talked with that are -- that have laptops that are 40 1 working from home. And so the hours that they're doing 2 regular work, they're coding that as regular and the 3 hours that they're just not feeling so great, they code 4 that as sick. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: In those cases we're 6 not losing production. 7 MRS. DOSS: That's correct. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm for doing it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'll make a 10 motion that we extend the -- 11 MRS. DOSS: The FFCRA 80 in the County -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what I'm 13 extending. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And I'll second that. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 17 extend the COVID-19 sick leave across the board. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. That's both the 19 FFCRA and the County. Each is 80 hours. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 21 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five-O. 22 Item 1.3 consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action to approve job descriptions for the 24 Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 25 MRS. DOSS: Yes. These are provided to you 41 1 in your packet. We're approving eight job descriptions, 2 the Chief Public Defender, the Deputy Chief Public 3 Defender, the Office Administrator, the Felony Public 4 Defender, Misdemeanor Public Defender, Legal Assistant 5 Investigator and the Case Manager job descriptions. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And by way of explanation, 7 we've already approved the Chief Defender's job 8 description. 9 MRS. DOSS: Yes. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So that's redundant. So 11 there's that plus seven others. And what we haven't 12 done is since we've hired John Bull to come in as our 13 Chief Public Defender, he's been writing job 14 descriptions per the grant to fill his staff. And those 15 job descriptions, since they are a Department of the 16 County, must be approved by Commissioners' Court just 17 like any other employee's job description. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I want to ask a 19 question based on something our County Attorney said 20 before. Somebody comes in -- and the Sheriff can speak 21 to this also -- and they have charges on there, felonies 22 and they have misdemeanors and they have this whole 23 gamut. If we have somebody that handles only the felony 24 stuff -- did you say felony or federal? 25 MRS. DOSS: Felony. 42 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Felony. 2 MRS. DOSS: We have felony and misdemeanors. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So now this person has 4 two lawyers? 5 MRS. DOSS: Uh-huh. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How's that going to 7 work? 8 MS. STEBBINS: They will probably just be 9 assigned -- the Court will appoint them the -- to the 10 Public Defender's Office probably. And then whoever the 11 case manager is in that office will probably assign them 12 an attorney. And just for efficiency sake, I would 13 think it would be the same attorney. 14 And what often happens here is if someone's 15 appointed an attorney for their felony, Judge Harris's 16 Court Coordinator will usually check to see who that is 17 and oftentimes appoint the same person for a misdemeanor 18 as well. So there's -- it -- they can -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I mean, if somebody has 20 only misdemeanors, obviously they go to the 21 misdemeanors. But if they have felonies and 22 misdemeanors, they'll go to that felony defender. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, they'll be -- 24 MRS. STEBBINS: I would imagine that they 25 would have. 43 1 JUDGE KELLY: It would depend who they're 2 going to work with because we do that right now. If you 3 have -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what I'm saying. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- a misdemeanor discharge, 6 they're not going to dispose of the misdemeanor until 7 the felony is addressed, right? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Right. It's usually like 9 that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And it's going to be the same 11 thing, it's just going to be internal in that office. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But what will happen is 13 that we'll have a Kerr County employee for one of the 14 attorneys, for the felonies, and it will be an outside 15 attorney for the misdemeanor. Because PDO cannot handle 16 misdemeanors; felony only. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 18 JUDGE KELLY: No, it can handle it, 19 misdemeanors. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, why -- why is he 21 asking for a misdemeanor defender then? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. No, they -- they do 23 felonies, misdemeanors, juvenile -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So then they'll 25 be criminal. So it'll just be handled internally then. 44 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So my question really 2 becomes why are they divided like that if they're being 3 consolidated so that you can -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Previous experience. Your 5 young lawyers are going to do the juveniles and -- and 6 misdemeanors, and the more experienced lawyers are going 7 to do the felonies, and your most experienced, your 8 senior lawyers, are going to handle the really, really 9 bad felons. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, obviously Judge 11 Bull knows best about that, but I need to -- I'd like to 12 understand it, why it's divided up that way and whether 13 it's really necessary. I mean, preference is one thing. 14 But necessity is something else. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that's the way we do it 16 in practice. That's the way it's been handled -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I think the -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: -- and we still -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And probably -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and I've talked to 21 Mr. Bull about some of this stuff. This probably would 22 be helpful to the Court in February-ish, after he's 23 really got all these done, he's interviewing people, for 24 him to get -- for us to do a workshop, to go over the 25 whole PDO operations so that -- because this Court, it's 45 1 critical that we understand how it operates. And -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because I don't. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and I've been real 5 involved and the Judge probably knows even better than I 6 do and I've been involved and I'm still -- there's 7 questions. And we're looking at -- he's looking at a 8 lot of different options right now as to how -- what's 9 going to be best way to do it. He's been working for 10 ten days. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think once he gets 13 his feet on the ground and knows kind of how he wants 14 to -- which direction he's going. I mean, it's 15 everything from what kind of software he's going to be 16 using and how he's going to work with the other 17 counties. 18 And he and I were talking the other day 19 about, just as an example, of whether his office should 20 be a clearing house for all the court-appointed -- you 21 know, whether they go outside or inside. Because 22 someone has to keep track of all that information. 23 There's a lot of things that are new that 24 he's going to be working on and probably once he gets, 25 you know, like say a month, two months down the road, 46 1 have him come to the Court for a workshop and just 2 explain exactly how he has set up the operation. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. Jennifer, a 4 couple of things on position descriptions. It's -- it's 5 kind of interesting on -- even though it's already cast 6 in concrete, the Public Defender doesn't have anything 7 on education, it's called knowledge. Jumps out like 8 everybody else's is education. His -- knowledge -- 9 Doctor of Jurisprudence is not knowledge. 10 MRS. DOSS: He didn't -- he didn't write his 11 own job description. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I'm -- since it's 13 a county -- since it's a county job description, I think 14 there needs to be some -- go back and look at some of 15 these things for consistency. 16 MRS. DOSS: Well, the -- I know the Chief 17 Public Defender's job description was gone over and over 18 and over, back and forth, with the TIDC and -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But still, my simple 21 question is why knowledge rather than -- 22 MRS. DOSS: That's the way that the TIDC 23 grant approved it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, they can be 25 modified. 47 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They can be modified. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, okay. So that's 4 what I'm suggesting. It just makes the County look 5 kind of -- 6 MRS. DOSS Would it need to go back before 7 the TIDC? 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the job description 9 includes you've got to be a licensed attorney in good 10 standing with the State Bar of Texas so -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It says knowledge; It 12 doesn't say education. 13 JUDGE KELLY: I understand there's 14 knowledge. But if you keep reading that description -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 16 JUDGE KELLY: -- it's a two-page 17 description, you have to be a member of good standing of 18 the State Bar of Texas without any record of 19 disciplinary -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well Judge, all I'm 21 saying is the Deputy Public Defender, he's got some -- a 22 category called education. The Public Defender doesn't 23 have a category called education. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, is that to allow 25 for interns or -- 48 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we can -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- something or -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: -- put it on there. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- what? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What is that? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's what? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That -- what you just 9 described? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm looking at the job 11 descriptions in your packet. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I -- I know that. But 13 is that -- I'm asking is that to allow for having an 14 intern or what is -- why is it worded that way? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I'm more -- I mean, I'm 17 getting confused with what y'all are talking about. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm just simply saying 19 for a job description on all categories, it has -- has 20 education, but not for the Public Defender. It's just 21 knowledge. And it just so happens to be an education 22 requirement of Doctorate of Jurisprudence. It's not a 23 big deal. It's just it -- to me, it makes the County 24 look like, what are you doing, you know? You do one 25 thing at one time in one category. I mean -- let me get 49 1 off that. 2 The other thing is, on Office Administrator, 3 it has in there a requirement of willing -- willing to 4 relocate. Is that a requirement? Isn't a requirement 5 to live in Kerr County? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Kerr, or I believe one of 7 the four contiguous counties. 8 JUDGE KELLY: One of the five counties. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have -- these people 10 represent -- we're working -- it's a five county deal. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Well guys, I'm 13 just looking, since this is a county job description -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the office is here. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- it just -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, there's one here and 17 there's one in Hondo. There's a satellite office in 18 Hondo. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. County, County. 20 And another thing is on caseworkers, bachelor degrees 21 are required to be a caseworker? That's what the 22 requirement is. 23 MRS. DOSS: That's what the Chief wanted. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that's what TIDC wanted. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well -- 50 1 JUDGE KELLY: Some of them TIDC wanted, 2 believe it or not, a master's in social work. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Golly. Okay. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and we voted against 5 that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've already reduced it 7 a lot. 8 JUDGE KELLY: They have no idea where we've 9 come from. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right. I rest my 11 case. Well, that's the legal term. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think that the 13 first comment Commissioner Moser has is pretty simple. 14 All you do is take that education and experience, 15 exactly as it's written for the Deputy Chief Public 16 defender and put it under the Chief. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. There you go. 18 MRS. DOSS: Does that need to go back to 19 TIDC or -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: No, no, no. We're 21 independent. 22 MRS. DOSS: Okay. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We just coordinate with 24 them -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you just put that on 51 1 there and then bring it back to the next meeting and we 2 can revise that one and -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or just do it. Give 4 her -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Why don't we just make the 6 proposal -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or we can just do it 8 right now. 9 JUDGE KELLY: -- to make it -- to include the 10 educational requirement for the chief same as the deputy 11 chief. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There you go. 13 JUDGE KELLY: There's no reason not to. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Perfect. Done. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we approve the 16 job descriptions with the -- as presented with the one 17 exception that the education requirement under the 18 deputy chief be also included under the chief public 19 defender office. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 22 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 23 approve the job description as presented, subject to the 24 amendment to include the educational requirements for 25 the Chief Public Defender. Is that correct? 52 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Uh-huh. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there any further 4 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed. 5 Five zero. 6 I'm trying to think. We've got one more 7 with you, Miss Doss. 1.4 consider, discuss and take 8 appropriate action to acknowledge Kerr County Treasurer 9 Tracy Soldan for completion of the TAC Leadership 10 Program. 11 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Soldan, where is she? 13 Yeah. You should be here. Okay, good. 14 MRS. DOSS: So she was selected out of 254 15 counties, 23 candidates were selected for the 2019-2020 16 class. The leadership -- so leadership 254 is designed 17 to advance the skills of County officials to enable them 18 to meet unique challenges of their duties and to enhance 19 the leadership skills with style. Participants learned 20 to overcome their limitations to redefine the 21 possibilities they have set for themselves, their 22 courthouse, their county official association and their 23 county constituents. I know there's four modules that 24 the class members have to get through and she's 25 successfully completed them. I think you had 14 months 53 1 to do that. And so, yeah. There was a lot of work put 2 into it and so I'd just like to say congratulations. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Outstanding. 4 JUDGE KELLY: You can take your mask off and 5 come up. We get a chance to talk about you now. Of the 6 254 counties, she was selected to be in higher than the 7 top ten percent, and we're very proud of your efforts. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And 23 out of the 9 entire state? Is that what it is? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 11 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 13 MRS. SOLDAN: To elected or appointed 14 officials per county department basically. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Fantastic. And you 16 were the top 10% so you're the top two or three. 17 MRS. SOLDAN: I guess so, for that class, 18 yes. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Fantastic. 20 Congratulations. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Congratulations. Well 22 done. 23 MRS. SOLDAN: Thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Super. 25 MRS. SOLDAN: I appreciate that. 54 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Lots of good 2 endorsements in that program for the value of it. I 3 mean, I was just reading the -- what Jennifer and you 4 provided. So very good. 5 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're very proud that 7 you, on behalf of Kerr County, are taking the lead in 8 being a leader statewide. 9 MRS. SOLDAN: Thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: You're very appreciated. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, before you step 12 away, aren't you -- and correct me if I'm wrong, aren't 13 you the state -- over the treasurer or the president or 14 something over all this? 15 MRS. SOLDAN: I'm actually now the immediate 16 past president. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, okay. Well, this 18 isn't your first trip up here to be recognized for good 19 deeds. 20 MRS. SOLDAN: No, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We're proud of you. 22 MRS. SOLDAN: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 25 Item 1.5 consider, discuss and take 55 1 appropriate action to authorize the County Treasurer, 2 Tracy Soldan, for -- to advertise for depository and 3 banking services contract RFA's. Ms. Soldan. 4 MRS. SOLDAN: So I came to you a month or so 5 ago requesting the help of Patterson Associates with our 6 banking depository agreement. Basically what I handed 7 out to you is the request for proposal of bids that I 8 would like to get published today or tomorrow to have 9 banks start bidding on our depository contract. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 15 approve the advertising for depository banking services 16 as presented. Is there any discussion? Those in favor 17 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. Ms. Soldan, 18 thank you. 19 MRS. SOLDAN: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Next item is item 1.6 21 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 22 schedule workshops to determine criteria, process and 23 deadlines for merit pay determinations and appointment 24 of liaison commissioners to oversee the implementation. 25 Our last meeting we voted to continue the 56 1 merit based program and I have approached Commissioner 2 Belew and asked him to head up this effort. And I know 3 we're going to have to have some workshops and agree on 4 the process of how we're going to do this and then 5 hopefully consider and made a determination as to what 6 we're going to do. 7 So with that, I make a motion that we 8 appoint Commissioner Belew to be our Liaison 9 Commissioner for the merit pay program. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. Quick. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So motion's been made 12 and seconded, made by me and seconded by Commissioner 13 Letz to approve Commissioner Belew to head up our merit 14 pay efforts as presented. Is there any other discussion 15 about that? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I would like to know, 17 what -- get some recommendations from y'all about who 18 all should be a part of this. Some guidance on that? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, at the end of the day 20 when we did the budget process, it's probably -- it's 21 going to be the Court that makes the determination. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know that, but the 23 people that are going to be part of this discussion 24 group and where should we draw from? Do you have any 25 recommendations? 57 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: HR? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll recommend HR. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: HR, obviously. Yeah. 4 Anything outside of that? 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I -- I -- what I would 6 envision is that we at least schedule a workshop and 7 invite people to come talk to us and find out who wants 8 to be involved and what their ideas are with regard to 9 their involvement in what -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That puts in an extra 11 meeting and I'm usually against that. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I understand. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just for the record. 14 Okay. Then we'll have a workshop and then talk about 15 it. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Back in 2017, Dawn and I 17 worked to try and gather some other counties and cities' 18 programs, and so I asked her if she had that binder. 19 Jennifer -- 20 MRS. DOSS: I searched everywhere. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. I -- I don't know if 22 any of you have the binder or retained that still from 23 2017, but it was provided to each of us. I didn't 24 retain mine. So if -- if any of you can find that, that 25 would be helpful because it gives some different types 58 1 of programs that you all can reevaluate and see if you 2 like those or part with those. 3 JUDGE KELLY: If I've got it, the boss has 4 it. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Perfect. 6 JUDGE KELLY: But this is an effort for us 7 to keep the ball rolling to advance the merit pay 8 program -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: -- and I appreciate that 11 Mr. Belew is volunteering to do this for us. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I do think -- one of the 13 things in that binder, I'm just going off memory, was 14 that there's different ways to pay. We've gone off -- 15 that's more or less the easy part. The hard part is how 16 to pick who's going to get it -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and how's that done. 20 And the last time -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: From the supervisors on 22 up, but we also included supervisors in there. So we 23 didn't exclude them. So it was that kind of thing. 24 I'll look and see. I think I started this whole thing 25 of merit pay. 59 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know you did. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or the idea. So I -- I 3 may have the thing from Dawn but I'm not sure. But I'll 4 look and see. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: If Jody has -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: What it came down to -- 7 MRS. STEBBINS: -- it, we can get copies 8 from her. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, sure. Yeah. 10 Absolutely. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: So that will be helpful to 12 review them and see if you like those programs. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. It's a place to 14 start. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: As I recall, what it 16 turned on is that we had departments that had only one 17 person. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And then you have an 20 issue with -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: That makes it more 22 problematic. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's very 24 problematic. So then what do we do with that, though? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Workshop. 60 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Workshop. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor of 3 Commissioner Belew being Liaison -- Liaisonee for our 4 merit pay program raise your hand. Unanimous, five 5 zero. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We usually vote for 7 that position when they're not here. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. I knew it was 9 coming. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Item 1.7 update 11 regarding the Texas Pork Producers Show scheduled for 12 February 2021. And I know we have Mr. Gunn is here to 13 speak. This is Commissioner Letz, would you like to 14 introduce the topic? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll start it a little 16 bit just so to get everyone -- refresh everyone's memory 17 as to where we are. The Pork Producers is a big event, 18 has been. It's a stock show type event. It's in early 19 February. 20 Originally, and several weeks ago, Brandon 21 came and put in the application for a mass gathering 22 permit. A lot has happened since that, and I've met 23 with Brandon I think twice since then. He said that -- 24 my recommendation would be one, we're under new Governor 25 orders, and I would recommend that he do everything 61 1 possible to not require a Mass Gathering Permit because 2 I could see that being problematic based on the last one 3 we went through. 4 And he and I met, like I said, several times 5 and he has come up with a solution where I think he was 6 going to withdraw the mass gathering permit and stay 7 well below the numbers that will require. I'll turn it 8 over to Brandon and let him fill you in. 9 JUDGE KELLY: But before Brandon says 10 something, just to refresh everybody's recollection. 11 The stock show, the Hill Country District Junior 12 Livestock Show Association did submit a Mass Gathering 13 Permit request. We submitted that to the Department of 14 State Health Services, DSHS. They came back and said 15 that they met all the requirements for the Mass 16 Gathering, but they recommended against it. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's an important 18 statement. They recommended against it but didn't -- 19 they didn't say you couldn't. 20 JUDGE KELLY: No, they -- they put it back 21 on us. They put it back on -- excuse me, they put it 22 back on me because I'm the one that approves the mass 23 gathering permits, in conjunction with the Sheriff, and 24 with DSHS and the fire department and everybody else. 25 We sat down and visited with the stock show 62 1 folks who were very accommodating, and that's when they 2 reduced the size of their show and dropped the district 3 show, except for the countywide, and are trying to keep 4 everybody safe. 5 And Brandon happened to be here that day. 6 We had a chance to visit in my office, I think during a 7 break, and talk about where we were with mass gathering 8 permits. And so that you understand what he's about to 9 present to you, I told him at that time, that based upon 10 DSHS recommendation I was disinclined to grant the Mass 11 Gathering Permit unless we really needed to. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's the limit on 13 attendance? 14 JUDGE KELLY: That varies by statute and 15 I'll defer to the County Attorney because it's more 16 complicated than I can probably explain. But if 17 children are involved and there's alcohol involved, it 18 can get down as low as 500. But normally we're up 19 around six. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought 500 was like 21 a baseline. 22 JUDGE KELLY: It -- it depends on the 23 gathering. If there's no alcohol involved and it's not 24 a children's event, you can get up to 2500. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 63 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's -- I -- I've 2 visited with the County Attorney a lot on this because I 3 wanted to really understand it. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And it's not clear. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. It's -- you have 6 to exceed 2500 for five consecutive hours. You can go 7 up to -- you can have 4,000 for one hour and you don't 8 need it. You have to have over 2500 for five 9 consecutive hours. If you're serving alcohol, 51 10 percent -- 11 MRS. STEBBINS: More than 500 persons, if 12 51 percent or more of those persons may reasonably be 13 expected to be younger than 21 years of age, and it's 14 planned or may reasonably be expected that alcoholic 15 beverages will be sold, served, or consumed at or around 16 the gathering. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what we call 18 following the science kit. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but this -- this does 20 not directly apply to Pork Producers and I'm not trying 21 to get it to, but for the stock show historically what 22 they have done is they have assumed the 500 because they 23 have so many kids, okay. But they don't serve alcohol 24 most of the time. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They don't except 64 1 for -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: And so, I just offer that out 3 as background before Brandon starts because I know he's 4 worked very hard to try to accommodate our concerns. So 5 Brandon, if you would. 6 MR. GUNN: Judge, Commissioners, I 7 appreciate the opportunity to address the Court. I do 8 have two documents to submit. One is a summary of our 9 safety plan highlighting the significant differences 10 being implemented this year and our attendance and 11 protocols figures and the schedule of it. The second is 12 a letter withdrawing our Mass Gathering Permit. 13 Our current protocols and attendance 14 currently do not meet the requirements of a mass 15 gathering, as defined by the Texas statute. Just now, 16 the County Attorney had mentioned of the Health and 17 Safety Code 751, the part of more than 500 persons if 18 51 percent of these persons may reasonably be expected 19 to be younger than 21 years of age. 20 From a stock show perspective and our event, 21 there's no logical scenario where we would be at over 22 51 percent youth because that would be one -- one youth, 23 one parent. 24 So for that to -- I mean, that right there 25 would be 50/50, without any other adults if the form of 65 1 ag teachers, county agents, staff, volunteers. So with 2 our current plan of three wristbands per exhibitor being 3 admitted to shows at the showcase, realistically we're 4 under that 51 percent. 5 We too will not be selling/serving alcohol 6 at the event. Though, you know, one could presumably 7 expect that some might have alcohol there on the 8 grounds. But with the 51 percent being 21 years of age 9 and older, that would not apply to us. So for us, we 10 maintained on the 2500 count. 11 So for us, according to the Mass Gatherings 12 Act and our submitted application, the Texas Elite 13 Showcase Event does not meet the requirements for which 14 a mass gathering permit is necessary. 15 Previously, we willingly submitted the 16 permit application not only because we expected our 17 attendance might be close to that capacity threshold of 18 the statute, but really to work with the leadership of 19 Kerr County to demonstrate a plan that focused on the 20 health and safety of all attendees. 21 The primary reason our mass gathering permit 22 is no longer applicable is that expected attendance is 23 being further reduced than we originally had planned. 24 The TPPA has revised the event safety plan to limit 25 admittance wristbands to three per exhibitor that shows 66 1 at Texas Elite Showcase, thus reducing the expected 2 attendance by an additional 25 percent. This will 3 reflect expected attendance figures clearly under the 4 2500 persons capacity threshold of the mass gathering 5 statute. 6 We do have a very detailed plan, COVID 7 safety plan, with these binders. But in visiting 8 before, we like things to be condensed, right, the 9 Court? And so we do have a two-pager that outlines 10 significant differences that are being made this year to 11 comply with all guidelines with CDC. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No action needed? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, you're going to 14 hand out that -- your revised numbers. No action needed 15 today. It's just an update. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, then let me explain. 17 One of the reasons that there is no action required is 18 because this is not an outdoor event. In which case, 19 it's a gathering of more than ten people so I do need to 20 approve the safety plan. It's an indoor, which means 21 it's based upon 50 percent capacity. In this case, I 22 have visited with Brandon and we have been over the 23 safety events and the safety plan and, although not 24 required to do so, he has submitted a safety plan, which 25 we appreciate. And he has cooperated with the 67 1 leadership of Kerr County to keep this event as safe as 2 possible under the circumstances. 3 So there is no action required. I don't 4 need to take any action for this meeting. But this is a 5 good faith effort for them to come to us and show us 6 that they are working with us to try to keep our youth 7 and population safe. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Brandon, I want to 9 commend you on taking extra steps to do this. And being 10 there for the kids. A lot of times that gets lost with 11 all the mumbo jumbo talking about this and that, but 12 it's for the kids. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Even though it's less 14 than 50 percent. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Huh? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I said even though it's 17 less than 50 percent. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. But still -- 19 well, they're the reason everybody's gathered. You 20 know, all the adult leaders and everybody else that show 21 up is because of the kids. There may be less than 50 22 percent but still, it's for them. So good job. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I was being facetious. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I appreciate it, 25 Brandon. Brandon and I have met, I guess, I don't know, 68 1 two to three hours on this stuff, going through it and 2 figuring out how to make it very, very safe. He's been 3 very easy to work with, and appreciate your efforts. 4 MR. GUNN: I do have one more additional 5 piece that you had mentioned about capacity of buildings 6 and currently Kerr County at 50 percent. And so in 7 looking at the plans of the Hill Country Youth Event 8 Center, there's 128,000 square feet which is included in 9 our plans. 10 Now, in looking at what the capacity is of 11 that, we utilized the Certified Commercial Property 12 Inspectors Association, and looked at assembly and 13 concentrated assembly, which there would be between 11 14 and 15 square foot per person. So now taking into 15 account that maybe not all of the 120,000 square feet 16 should go into the determination because bathrooms and 17 some other types of factors are not included. 18 If you figured 100,000 square feet at the 19 figure, the highest figure of the 15 square foot, that 20 would still be over 6600 individuals. So at 50 percent, 21 it's still 3300. And so keeping that in mind in all of 22 our plans to be below that figure. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and that's part of what 24 we're trying to emphasize to the public, is we have bent 25 over backwards to try to get this event reduced in size 69 1 and keep people social distanced and keep them safe. 2 And the Pork Producers have been very cooperative and we 3 appreciate that. We think this is the safest event that 4 we can put on. And so with that, we don't have any 5 action, so thank you very much. 6 MR. GUNN: Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Our hotels and 9 restaurants and everybody else in business appreciates 10 it, too. 11 JUDGE KELLY: The City appreciates you. 12 It's a little after ten. Why don't we take 13 about a ten-minute break and come back at 10:15 and 14 we'll finish the agenda. The Court will be adjourned -- 15 or recessed. 16 (Break.) 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, it's 10:15 and Court 18 will be back in session. 19 Let's move on to agenda item 1.8, which is 20 to recognize the 216th District Attorney for 21 contribution of desks and other office furniture to the 22 Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 23 Commissioner Letz. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just want to put this 25 on the agenda to recognize the 216th. They had a number 70 1 of desks that were in storage that were bought with 2 seizure funds at one point. And it was a question 3 whether they could donate them and who owned them and 4 all that, but they went to the Attorney General and got 5 clarification that they could donate it to a county 6 department and they did. These are good, nice desks, 7 and probably saved the County ten thousand dollars -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- for furniture we 10 don't have to purchase. So I just wanted to recognize 11 Lucy Wilke for her, you know, working with us and 12 helping out. That's it. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Thank you. Thank 15 you, Lucy. 16 Next item is 1.9 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to approve contracts with Turtle 18 Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Tierra Linda Volunteer 19 Fire Department, Mountain Home Volunteer Fire 20 Department, Comfort Volunteer Fire Department, and 21 Castle Lake Volunteer Fire Department, and allow me to 22 sign the contracts. 23 This is our standard annual renewal contract 24 with the VFD's. Commissioner Harris? 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 71 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is -- how about the 2 other volunteer fire departments? Are they going to 3 be -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: These are just -- this is just 5 this batch of contracts. We're going -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So there will be 7 other batches. 8 JUDGE KELLY: -- to have -- we've already 9 approved some. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good enough. 11 I'll second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So the motion's been 13 made by Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner 14 Moser to approve the contracts with the various -- the 15 Volunteer Fire Departments as presented. Is there any 16 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 17 five zero. Good deal. 18 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action for the Court to set a public hearing 20 for 10 a.m. on February 8th for the creation of an 21 Emergency Service District #3. Commissioner Harris. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. And I understand 23 there's been some changes that Mr. Reeves will enlighten 24 us on. I haven't had a chance to speak with him yet. 25 So what's up? 72 1 MR. REEVES: Good morning, gentlemen. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So the public knows, this is 3 our County Tax-Assessor Collector, Bob Reeves. 4 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. Good morning once 5 again. A group basically encompassing the Hunt 6 Volunteer Fire Department service area is attempting to 7 submit a petition in order to call for an election for 8 the formation of Kerr County ESD #3. 9 I had asked Mr. Harris to put this on the 10 agenda for this morning to set a public hearing in 11 anticipation that the petition would be filed by this 12 time. I met with the fire chief here at the courthouse 13 yesterday, and all of the documentation was not ready at 14 that time. 15 What we are up against is in order to have 16 the election on May 1st, the next uniform date, we have 17 to call the election by February 12th. Prior to that, 18 we have to hold a public hearing -- we, being the 19 County -- and I need 21 days advance notice for the 20 proper publications. 21 At this time, I'm requesting that the 22 Court -- and Commissioner Belew, I apologize, call 23 another meeting, either for Friday, or the 19th. I was 24 listening before I came down here, sir. Simply because 25 of dates and publications. 73 1 As you know, publication dates without a 2 paper that's printed daily is very difficult to meet the 3 time frame. We still -- once again, please don't throw 4 rocks, Commissioner -- we'd have to have another special 5 meeting sometime depending on when y'all hold the public 6 hearing or -- either on February 10th through the 12th, 7 depending on when it would be held, in order to call the 8 election for May 1st. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Recap for us. The 10 first hearing is when -- needs to be when? 11 MR. REEVES: The first -- well -- 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, we need a 13 special meeting. 14 MR. REEVES: We need to call a special 15 meeting preferably Friday. I understand there's some 16 other needs to -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Can we -- 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What day is this 19 Friday? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This Friday. Can we -- 21 MR. REEVES: -- to address the Court for 22 another special meeting, looking -- I can push it off to 23 next Tuesday, but that would be the absolute furthest I 24 could push it out. And I say, once again for the 25 record, that we would have to -- if we pushed it out to 74 1 the 19th, the hearing would have to be held on February 2 12th, which is a Friday. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Bob, the other agenda 4 item we would have on a special meeting, trying to 5 confirm whether Friday or the next Tuesday will work, so 6 can we just hold off on this agenda item until I get a 7 call from -- I've got the call in to them to see if we 8 can do it so we can do them all at one time. 9 MR. REEVES: And it's simply all I'm here -- 10 the agenda item was for setting a public hearing. I'm 11 here to request that the Court schedule another meeting 12 with the 72 hours notice and everything for either 13 Friday or Monday, and that meeting would simply be to 14 set a public hearing roughly three weeks in the future. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: That's just -- that's just a 17 two minute agenda item for us to set a public hearing. 18 MR. REEVES: Yeah. 19 JUDGE KELLY: You want to do that this 20 Friday? 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Or Monday. 22 MR. REEVES: Probably -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. Friday or Tuesday. 24 MR. REEVES: -- Friday or Tuesday, with 25 Monday, the courthouse being closed, I'm at the 75 1 courthouse -- I mean the Commissioners' grace for 2 whichever day they would like to hold it. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that -- what I'm 4 saying is we can't decide right now whether it's going 5 to be Friday or Tuesday. Okay. 6 MR. REEVES: That's fine. As long as the 7 Court understands if we're to get this on the ballot on 8 May 1st, no later than Tuesday. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That -- and that's -- 10 that's fine. 11 MR. REEVES: Just to establish -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Because we've 13 tentatively scheduled another one for Tuesday, the 19th. 14 We -- I'm trying to see if we can move it back to 15 Friday. 16 MR. REEVES: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay? 18 MR. REEVES: These are -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the motion -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: I think we're all -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why can we not do that 22 now? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Because I don't have 24 the answer, Harley. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: It's incomplete so we can't 76 1 schedule a public hearing, so what you'll effectively be 2 doing is passing on this item and it will come up at 3 another meeting either on Friday or Tuesday. 4 MR. REEVES: Correct. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: And then we'll schedule it. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That would be fine. 7 MR. REEVES: That's all I'm requesting. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So we're going to pass it and 10 get it done by the deadline, right? 11 MR. REEVES: I just don't have the 12 petition -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 14 MR. REEVES: -- to explain if it's valid or 15 not -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 17 MR. REEVES: -- at this time. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Gotcha. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 20 MR. REEVES: Thank you, gentlemen. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you, Bob. 23 JUDGE KELLY: So -- so the public 24 understands what we've done on item 1.10, we are 25 technically passing that item to schedule a public 77 1 meeting in order to be able to meet the requisite 2 deadline to get it on the May 1 ballot. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 JUDGE KELLY: So moving on, we'll go to item 5 1.11 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 6 approve an RFP, Request For Proposal, for Redistricting 7 Services Associated with the 2020 Census. 8 And this is what we talked about before, in 9 other words going out to bids for various law firms for 10 our Redistricting Services to help us with our 11 redistricting process. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And we were going to 13 have them come in. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We've got to get the RFP out 15 first. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Get the RFP out 17 and then have them come in. Okay, good. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And the County Attorney has 19 prepared a draft of it. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: We've got -- I don't know if 22 y'all have had a chance to review it, but this would 23 just be a formality to go ahead and approve the RFP. 24 And again, this process of they come talk to us as we 25 begin redistricting. 78 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Make a motion we 2 approve the RFP for services so delineated. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 5 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 6 approve the RFP on Redistricting Services based on the 7 2020 Census. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to pick the 9 dates for the RFP to be in. 10 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Yeah, so we can fill it in. 11 Tanya has some dates, so we need to -- 12 MRS. SHELTON: Can I throw out some dates? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Shelton. 14 MRS. SHELTON: We will be getting -- if 15 y'all approve it, we can publish that this Thursday, 16 January the 14th, and then again January the 21st. We 17 would ask that the submission deadline be Thursday, 18 February the 18th at 2 p.m. We will open those bids in 19 the Auditor's Office at 4:00 p.m. And then we will be 20 looking at the date of the award on March the 8th. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: So we're doing January 14 and 23 21 for publication? 24 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And then what is the due date? 79 1 MRS. SHELTON: The submission date will be 2 Thursday, February the 18th. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And awarded March -- 4 MRS. SHELTON: 8th. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- 8th. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So as I look at the month of 7 February, the 18th -- the next regular scheduled meeting 8 after the 18th would be the 22nd of February, right? 9 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And so we would probably want 11 to put that on the agenda because in the event they want 12 to make any presentations they'd want to make it before 13 we make the decision. 14 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. That would be fine. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And then I'm kind of looking 17 at you and I'm looking at the County Attorney. And then 18 what date would we make the actual determination? 19 MRS. SHELTON: On March 8th. 20 JUDGE KELLY: March 8th. So what we're 21 looking at here is we need to have -- and this is just 22 for me; not you. But we need to put this on the agenda 23 for February the 22nd. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let's -- I mean, do we 25 need to drag this thing out that long? 80 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the reason I'm 3 saying is that, I mean we've already received proposals 4 from two of them and there's only one other that does 5 this kind of work. Unless there's a reason we have to 6 have it posted, why can't we move all this up and get 7 this done and let them get started? 8 JUDGE KELLY: I think what she's telling us 9 is we don't have any choice about the 14th -- January 10 14th and the 21st -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- to get the publications out. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But couldn't we move up 14 the 18th? Move that up? I mean -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: They still have time to submit 16 their final proposals until the 18th. 17 MRS. SHELTON: They will need time. Yes. 18 Do they not need that much time? 19 JUDGE KELLY: We'll have them come talk to 20 us and then we'll make our final decision after their 21 deadline and -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. They kind of 23 gave an unsolicited proposal. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I -- we can go 25 with this, Judge, but I think we're going to have to 81 1 have a workshop and listen to them because they're going 2 to -- each one's going to make a presentation which is 3 going to take an hour each. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, is there a rule 5 how many days have to pass before -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: To listen to them? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not if you give them 15 8 minutes each. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But I mean, you can't 10 say it's all due tomorrow. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, what we're conflating 12 here are the statutory deadlines for official notices 13 for RFP's, which we have to satisfy. And that's what -- 14 what the -- what our Auditor is outlining for us. 15 And I think what Commissioner Letz is 16 emphasizing is, we don't -- we can talk to them anytime 17 we want to, why don't we bring them in earlier because 18 we need to get this process at least in our minds and 19 started. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I wouldn't think 21 we'd want to do it before February the 8th. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. And I'm not sure 23 what the requirements are. This may be the only way we 24 can do it. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Is there a rush? 82 1 MRS. SHELTON: The -- yeah. The only 2 meeting in between there is February the 8th. So if 3 you're getting the proposals out on the 21st, I don't 4 know how long it takes a law firm to get back to us with 5 a proposal. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we already have some of 7 it. 8 MRS. SHELTON: That's why I put it off. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It -- it won't take 10 them long. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We already have two. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If they know it's 13 coming they're -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, how about we do 15 it on the 8th then? 16 JUDGE KELLY: That's fine. What we have to 17 do today is approve the RFP, number one. And I'm 18 looking at the County Attorney. Do we need to approve 19 these publication dates or at least acknowledge them? 20 MRS. STEBBINS: I think that you should, 21 yes. And if you -- the first publication is the 14th. 22 That should give them plenty of time to submit it. 23 Because they'll -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They've got something 25 ready already. 83 1 MRS. STEBBINS: They do. All of them do, 2 I'm sure. 3 JUDGE KELLY: So -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We could have them due 5 back on the 5th and we could listen to them. 6 MRS. SHELTON: Let's have them due in on 7 February the 4th. That will give us time to open and 8 get a summary sheet and -- and have them ready for y'all 9 then on the 8th. So the date of the award will be 10 February the 8th. So the presentation -- or the 11 submission date will be February the 4th at 2 p.m. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, let's briefly recap this 13 so that we all are hearing the same thing. And do we 14 have a motion on the floor yet? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not yet because we 17 don't have the dates yet. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There is a motion. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we have a motion on 20 the floor to A, approve the RFP as presented. B, for 21 the publication dates to be January 14 and January 21. 22 C, for the deadline to submit those proposals to be 23 February 4. And D, the award to be made on February the 24 8th. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: So February the 8th will be 84 1 the day that y'all want to have them come and make the 2 presentations to the Court? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So 8th will be the 6 presentation and final award? 7 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is there a motion? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, there's a motion. And 11 I'm just making sure that -- I've gotta look through 12 the -- the maker of the motion and the seconder of the 13 motion, is that acceptable to you to add these -- these 14 parts in? 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On that -- it was real 17 simple until I started talking. But my question is, 18 they're coming on the 4th. So they're going to make 19 presentations on the 8th. Are we going to make a 20 decision right then? I mean, I'm fine with it. 21 JUDGE KELLY: That's what County Attorney is 22 telling us. We can make the -- 23 MRS. STEBBINS: You can. 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- presentation and then make 25 the decision. 85 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'm fine with 3 that. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. That way it 5 will be fresh on our mind. Why spread it out? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Otherwise, the next meeting 7 following that 8th presentation time is the 22nd of 8 February. So you could have the presentations on 8th 9 and then wait to decide until the 22nd but y'all 10 probably know who you want on the 8th. 11 JUDGE KELLY: The sooner the better. We've 12 got a lot of work to do here. 13 Okay, so we've got a motion and a second as 14 presented. I think we've already got that in the 15 record. I'm not going to try and say it again. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other discussion? 18 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 19 Okay, let's move on to item 1.12 consider, 20 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 21 contract with GDM Enterprises, LLC for vending machines 22 located at the 2nd floor of the courthouse. 23 Commissioner Letz. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I, through Jody, have 25 received a lot of complaints about the current vending 86 1 company, that there's barely product in the machines. 2 They haven't been very -- they have not been responsive 3 at all. There's a setup where we get a commission but I 4 think we've received one commission check since they've 5 been doing it. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $21.00. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, $21.00. So I 8 understand that somebody called the company and they 9 finally did come and fill the drink machines Friday or 10 something like that, or Saturday. Anyway, the company 11 is not very responsive, not doing a good job, so I think 12 we oughta move on. And I'm not sure what's in the 13 contract if we can just cancel it? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. I think it's a 60-day 15 notice, written notice, certified mail, 60 days prior to 16 the end of the term. It's a three-year term. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We're already a year or 18 two into that, I believe. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, it hasn't been 20 that long since we approved them, right? 21 MRS. STEBBINS: May of '19. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But isn't there some 23 clause in there that if they're not doing their job that 24 we can terminate it anytime? 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, 60 day out. 87 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, before -- before we get 2 into getting legal advice in Commissioners' Court, how 3 about we just -- just saying -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I -- I'll move that we 5 take action to terminate the contract. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Per the terms of the contract. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Per the terms of the 9 contract. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: Would you like that to come 12 from my office? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. You got it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So we have a motion by 17 Commissioner Moser, second by Commissioner Letz to 18 approve terminating the contract with GDM Enterprises, 19 LLC per the terms of the contract. Any other 20 discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Are we just 22 going to try to find another vendor? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's not part of the 88 1 motion. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No, I was just 3 wondering. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not going to leave them 6 snackless. It's an important thing. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. All those in favor 8 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. Very good. 9 Okay. Let's go to the 10:00 docket. 1.13 10 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for the 11 Commissioners' Court final approval regarding the 12 private road name of Getaway Falls Trail South. 13 MS. HOFFER: Alan and Tammy Brown applied to 14 the Kerr 911 office on 11/16/2020 to name a road, 15 basically a driveway, Getaway Falls Trail South. This 16 road is approximately 380 feet east of Nichols Cemetery 17 Loop off of State Highway 27. 18 The road being named is a privately 19 maintained road, again, slash driveway. There's 20 currently only one property owner for this road. 21 At this time I ask Commissioners' Court for 22 their final approval regarding privately maintained road 23 named Getaway Falls Trail South. And this is in 24 Precinct 4. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 89 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 3 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 4 approve the private road name Getaway Falls Trail South. 5 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 6 Unanimous, five zero. 7 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.14 consider, discuss 9 and take appropriate action for the Court to approve a 10 Revision of Plat for Verde Park Estates Section 3, 11 Lot 2. Charlie Hastings. 12 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. A public 13 hearing was conducted on December 14th, 2020. This 14 proposal subdivides Verde Park Estates Section 3, Lot 2, 15 currently 6.47 acres, into two lots. Lot 2A will be 16 1.46 acres. Lot 2B will be 5.01 acres. 17 Property access and road frontage to both 18 lots will be on Tremper Trail, and the County Engineer 19 requests that the Court approve a Revision of Plat for 20 Verde Park Estates Section 3, Lot 2, Volume 6, Page 93, 21 Precinct 2. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Moser, 25 second by Commissioner Belew to approve the Revision of 90 1 Plat for Verde Park Estates Section 3, Lot 2. Any 2 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 3 five zero. 4 Next item is 1.15 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to open and receive bids for the 2021 6 Road Reconstruction Project, read bids aloud, and refer 7 bids to the County Engineer for tabulation, and award to 8 the lowest qualified bidder. Charlie Hastings. 9 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. Plans and 10 specifications have been prepared by the County Engineer 11 for the reconstruction of approximately 1.5 miles of 12 county maintained roads. The 2021 Road Reconstruction 13 Project consists of the following roads: Westway Drive, 14 Tree Lane, Roy Street, Jonas Drive, and Lowrance Street. 15 The project schedule is we advertised on 16 November the 25th and December the 2nd, 2020. We had a 17 pre-bid conference at 2 p.m. on December 7th, 2020. 18 Bids were due 2 p.m., January 8th, 2021. And the bid 19 award -- opening and award is taking place now. 20 The County Engineer requests the Court to 21 receive bids for the 2021 Road Reconstruction Project, 22 read the bids aloud, specifically read the total bid for 23 each project. There's Projects A through E, and that 24 would be on pages 070-5 through 070-9. If those could 25 be read aloud, we'll tabulate those, then refer the bids 91 1 to the County Engineer for detailed tabulation, and 2 after all the bids are tabulated, award to the lowest 3 qualified bidder. 4 I do have my staff in the hallway with a 5 laptop ready. After those have been read, we will go 6 through the detailed part of it and then like to come 7 back to the Court this morning and tell you who the low 8 bid is and who we give the award to. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Commissioner Letz, 10 you've got the bids? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. The first one 12 we have is from Allen Keller Company out of 13 Fredericksburg. Job A, Westway Drive, $169,313.00. 14 Job B, Tree Lane, $12,391.50. Job C is Roy Street, 15 $61,212.20. Job D, Jonas Drive, $13,137.60. Job E, 16 Lowrance Street, $14,457.80. 17 Looks like the second package is from Tierra 18 Lease Service LLC, Job A, Westway Drive, is $181,262.00. 19 Job B, Tree Lane, $19,526.00. Job C, Roy Street, 20 $98,852.00. Job D, Jonas Drive, $23,664.00. Job E, 21 Lowrance Street, $25,144.00. 22 Next one from EJI, which I believe is Edmund 23 Jenschke, Incorporated. Let me make sure that's right 24 before I say that. Yes, Edmund Jenschke, Incorporated. 25 Job A, Westway Drive is $138,410.90. Job B, Tree Lane, 92 1 $11,903.35. Job C, Roy Street, $58,360.70. Job D, 2 Jonas Drive, $12,933.60. And Lowrance Street, Job E, 3 $14,682.30. 4 Next is from Brannan Paving Company, 5 Incorporated out of Victoria. Job A, Westway Drive, 6 $263,508.66. Job B, Tree Lane, $30,753.45. Job C, Roy 7 Street, $106,303.92. Job D, Jonas Drive, $31,726.08. 8 And then Job E, Lowrance Street, $33,037.42. 9 And then last bid is from J3 Company. 10 Job A, Westway Drive, $192,409.50. Job B, Tree Lane, 11 $14,456.75. Job C, Roy Street, $69,386.50. Job D, 12 Jonas Drive, $17,748.00. And Job E, Lowrance Street, 13 $18,633.50. 14 Make a motion that we accept all bids as 15 read and refer them to the County Engineer for 16 tabulation. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 19 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 20 approve the bids as read aloud here in open court. Is 21 there any other discussion? Those in favor raise your 22 hand. Unanimous, five zero. The bids will be referred 23 to the County Engineer. 24 Moving on to item 1.16 consider, discuss and 25 take appropriate action for the Court to set a public 93 1 hearing for 10 a.m. on February 22nd, 2021 for a 2 Revision of Plat for The Ravine, Lots 3, 10 and 21. 3 Charlie Hastings. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The owner and 5 developer is Daniel Hawkins, and this proposal would 6 enlarge Lots 3, 10, and 21 of The Ravine by adding a 7 portion of the common area to each lot to accommodate 8 existing septic systems that are going over the lot 9 line. Access to all lots will be from Eickenroht Road. 10 The existing lots are less than one acre. 11 Again, this is just an attempt by the owner 12 of the common area to -- to get the septic systems 13 resolved. Now, if you go and look at the plat of this, 14 I think it was done in the 70's, it was not done by a 15 surveyor; it was done by an engineer. That's not a dig 16 at an engineer, but the plat doesn't have as much 17 information as I'm used to seeing on a plat. 18 The common area is not labeled as common 19 area. But if you talk to people who live in that 20 subdivision, and I've had a number of phone calls 21 through the past year and a half, two years, concerned 22 hey, that's common area. If it's common, I own it too. 23 So all that being said, we want to have a 24 public hearing, but we want to take it one step further. 25 We would like also for the Court to direct the County 94 1 Clerk to send certified letters to all property owners 2 in that whole subdivision to make sure that everyone's 3 been notified. Not everybody reads the paper. We 4 understand that. Even though that's the process and 5 that's the law. That's not going to hurt anything, we 6 don't think, to take that extra step. We think that 7 that would be helpful. 8 And we do have provisions in our Revision of 9 Plat that if a change affects another property owner, 10 they need consent of that other property owner. And 11 since this is questionable, we just want to make sure 12 everybody has an opportunity to show up to the public 13 hearing. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, with that, 15 that's a pretty good way to do it, send out the letters 16 and everything. I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 19 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 20 approve setting a public hearing for 10 a.m. on Monday, 21 February 22, 2021 for a Revision of Plat for The Ravine, 22 Lots 3, 10, and 21. Any discussion? 23 MRS. DOWDY: Was it also to direct the 24 County Clerk to send certified letters? 25 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. We do need that in 95 1 there. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. Yes. 4 MR. HASTINGS: And I will be working with 5 the developer's surveyor to get the list, the official 6 list of all those owners. Per our regs, 28 days prior 7 to the meeting they've gotta have that list to us. So 8 we've got some time. This meeting is set for six weeks 9 away. We'll get that to the Clerk just as soon as it's 10 available. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Don't we always send 12 certified letters to the property owners? 13 MR. HASTINGS: When you read the -- the 14 Revision of Plat, it says to only send it to the ones 15 that are affected. And it also says that if it's a 16 minor change, like just a lot line moving, you don't 17 have to send letters. So almost all the revision of 18 plats we've done are -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 20 MR. HASTINGS: -- are minor, in the sense 21 that none of them have ever really involved a common 22 property. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 MR. HASTINGS: So it's -- this one -- this 25 one's new. 96 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And my other 2 quick question. This is the -- in the box as platted, 3 and this thing on the bottom is how he wants to revise 4 it? 5 MR. HASTINGS: Is how they want to revise 6 it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have a question. Is 9 this one of those neighborhoods where people live there 10 or they -- are they part-time or -- 11 MR. HASTINGS: Oh, they live in their homes 12 there, is my understanding. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 14 MR. HASTINGS: And those are the people that 15 are calling because they see -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Full-time residents? 17 MR. HASTINGS: -- they're seeing survey 18 stakes going up and they're going, hey, hey, I think 19 that's common property and I don't think they can do 20 what they think they can do. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. Okay. 22 MR. HASTINGS: It -- it needs to be flushed 23 out. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's going to be a 25 lot of people here then. 97 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 2 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 3 Thank you. 4 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action for the Court to approve a final plat 6 for Christine Acres. Charlie Hastings. 7 MR. HASTINGS: The owner/developer is 8 Shirley Ann Beck, and this proposed subdivision creates 9 a 5.51 acre lot in Center Point. Property access and 10 road frontage will be on Spanish Oak Lane. She is 11 dedicating right-of-way for that road. I think it's 12 .22 acres that she's dedicating. 13 This is one of those subdivisions that there 14 is a -- there's a copy of it somewhere in the 15 courthouse, but it never went to Commissioners' Court. 16 There's no approval from Commissioners' Court. So my 17 understanding from County Attorney is that it doesn't 18 exist. That's why this is not a Revision of Plat, this 19 is just a plat. Just a plat. 20 With all that being said, the County 21 Engineer requests the Court approve the final plat for 22 Christine Acres, Precinct 2. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 98 1 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 2 approve a final plat of Christine Acres. Any 3 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 4 five zero. 5 Item 1.18 consider and discuss a concept 6 plan for Eden Farms. And we'll put that off until the 7 special -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 9 JUDGE KELLY: -- Commissioners' Court 10 meeting we're going to have on Friday? 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Either Friday or next 12 Tuesday. We'll determine that shortly. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And if everybody 15 will -- their handout that they have for this, either 16 hold on to it or -- until then. It's -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. At what point on the 18 agenda are we going to determine the special meeting? 19 Can we just do that now? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, we're just going 21 to pass on this item here. Okay. Then we'll set the -- 22 set the meeting -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: For Friday the 15th? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, we're going to 25 set it for Friday or Tuesday. We can do that the last 99 1 part of this session of court. We're just going to pass 2 on this item. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Until we have more 4 information, right? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Yeah. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So that item will be 7 passed. 8 Going to the approval agenda 2.1 pay the 9 bills. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On this backup for 11 1.18, either hold it close or give it to Jody, so -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You don't trust us? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it's not that I 14 don't trust you; it's just timing. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why waste paper? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why waste paper? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 19 MRS. SHELTON: Invoices for today's 20 consideration for Kerr County, $431,695.77. Adult 21 Probation, $2,792.03. Airport, $774.33. The 198th DA 22 forfeiture fund, $171.09. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills 24 as presented by the County Auditor. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 100 1 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 2 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 3 pay the bills as presented. Any discussion? Those in 4 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 5 2.2 budget amendments. 6 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 7 JUDGE KELLY: 2.3 late bills. 8 MRS. SHELTON: We have one for Kerr County, 9 $269.85. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the late 11 bill. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 15 pay the late bill as presented. Any discussion? Those 16 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 17 2.4 Auditor reports. 18 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 20 2.5 monthly reports. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For November, 22 2020 fines, judgments and jury fees. J.P. 4, Bill 23 Ragsdale. December 2020, payroll report, County 24 Treasurer, Tracy Soldan. Constable monthly report. 25 Constable Precinct -- Constable 1, Tommy Rodriguez. 101 1 Constable 2, Kyle Schneider. Indigent Services, HR 2 Director, Jennifer Doss. Fines, judgments and jury 3 fees, J.P. 2, J. R. Hoyne. J.P. 3, Kathy Mitchell. 4 J.P. 4, Bill Ragsdale. District Clerk's monthly report, 5 Dawn Lantz. Completion of continued education of 6 District Clerk, Dawn Lantz. Treasurer's monthly report, 7 Tracy Soldan. I move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 10 Commissioner Harris and seconded by Commissioner Belew 11 to approve the report as presented. Is there any 12 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 13 five zero. 14 Court orders. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have our Court Orders 16 from the December 28th, 2020 session. They're court 17 orders 38501 through 38521. There are some corrections 18 or revisions to those. Court Order 38504 and Court 19 Order -- make sure I get the right ones here. It was -- 20 reads right now approve to accept donations -- wait, 21 that's not the right one. Different orders here. 22 Oh. This is the one where it says approve 23 to set bond in the amount of constable is 1500. That's 24 not correct for this one. This one should be, approve 25 surplus and dispose of a chair from Environmental Health 102 1 Department. So it was just a -- the County Clerk's 2 office earlier, just the wrong thing was written down on 3 there. 4 On Court Order 38504 currently reads: 5 Approve to accept donations of multiple items from the 6 Tally Elementary School Student Council. To be more 7 clear, I think it should read approve to accept 8 donations of multiple items for KCAS from Tally 9 Elementary School Student Council. 10 Court Order 38506 currently reads -- 11 relating to not having to approve salaries and routine 12 disbursements. Currently reads: Approve the request 13 for disbursement of salaries and routine office 14 expenses. It says in parenthesis, as presented in Court 15 Order 37520. The "as presented" should be deleted. 16 It's just an ongoing change. 17 And then the last one is 38513, and it 18 currently reads: Approve to reject a bid from Wilson 19 Culverts due to late arrival. We had multiple bids 20 coming in about that same time, so I think to be clear 21 it should read: Approve to reject the bid from Wilson 22 Culverts for annual material bids due to late arrival. 23 And with those modifications, those all look 24 to be in order. We also have our Court Orders from our 25 January 1, 2021 meeting. They're 38522 and 38523 and 103 1 those look to be in order. 2 With those proposed changes, I move we 3 approve both of those meetings. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Letz to approve the Court Orders as 7 presented and modified, and seconded by Commissioner 8 Harris. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 9 your hand -- those in favor. Okay. That passes five 10 zero. 11 Information agenda 3.1 status reports from 12 Department Heads. Do we have any department heads that 13 would like to report to the Court? Okay. 14 Let's go on to 3.2 status reports from 15 elected officials. Any reports you'd like to make, 16 Larry? 17 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. This is my first 18 Commissioners' Court. I'd like to just address y'all 19 and tell you I look forward to working with y'all. 20 Also, I watched the last Commissioners' Court that Rusty 21 was here at, and Commissioner Letz, I know you brought 22 up something about notifications. And I totally as all 23 of us being elected officials, I understand the public, 24 we're the first people they go to, so I will continue 25 that. And mainly on significance of major events, and 104 1 also, Judge, you also. But we'll kind of work 2 one-on-one together on what y'all want to or not, but 3 I'm talking about major significant events I'll keep 4 y'all posted because I know they will be asking you 5 questions. 6 And one thing I would like to do is commend 7 Commissioner Letz and Judge Kelly on the public 8 defenders program. I know I've only went to one meeting 9 and I understand there's a lot of working parts. I have 10 already met with Chief Bull three times and we've agreed 11 to work with each other. I look forward to that. I 12 didn't realize how fortunate we are to have that 13 program. 14 I believe -- my understanding is this is one 15 of the biggest programs, and other places are already 16 jealous of him, you know, and what he's got to work 17 with, and he's kind of starting from the ground up 18 building it himself. So I really look forward to that. 19 I think it's not only going to be an asset to us but to 20 all the other four counties once we get up and going. 21 That's it. Just like I said, I look forward 22 to working with y'all. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You say that now. 25 (Laughter.) 105 1 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to follow up on 2 something the Sheriff said. Our PDO truly is the envy 3 of the State right now, so we're going to keep this 4 thing going just as well as we can. 5 SHERIFF LEITHA: Judge, my understanding 6 it's bigger than the one in Austin you're telling me? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Bigger than the one in 8 San Antonio. Bigger than the one in Austin. 9 SHERIFF LEITHA: That's why they're jealous. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's move on to item 11 3.3 status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've got something. 13 As far as maintenance, and everybody's going to be 14 happy, we trapped the skunk that's been giving us fits 15 here around -- during Christmas and then the next week 16 leading up to New Year's. I came in after -- after the 17 swearing in ceremony. I walked in and I said, oh my 18 gosh. I got ahold of Jody. She said, oh yeah, it's 19 been there, so we trapped him. 20 Also we found out that the smell gets so 21 intense, and Shane found a place where they're getting 22 to and where we're going to try to put some weather 23 stripping. I think they're doing it as we speak, to 24 keep that smell from infiltrating so quickly. It looks 25 to be black squirrels that are digging holes and then 106 1 skunks are utilizing them, and so -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Slave labor. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. Exactly. So 4 anyway, hopefully we're a step closer to having this 5 fixed. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The thing I'd report is 7 on the -- and I think everybody's seen the report from 8 the library. A lot of books being checked out. A lot 9 of patrons being there because of schooling at home, and 10 also just being COVID is keeping people in. So library 11 is really busy. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The Historical 13 Commission. I got an e-mail from Julie Leonard about 14 the new rules on Historical Markers that has people 15 concerned. Because there's a little concern that it 16 might be just a move for more political correctness and 17 that we would be examined by the people with the 18 fine-tooth comb. 19 JUDGE KELLY: The P.C. Police? 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The P.C. Police looking 21 for something for Kerr County. So I just want everybody 22 to be aware of it that this could be something that 23 comes up in the future. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We'll be ever vigilant. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the only comment 107 1 I have is that the Animal Services Department was pretty 2 short staffed the last couple of weeks. I think they're 3 getting back up to -- ramped it back up again, which is 4 good news. And I appreciate both the public and the 5 City and everyone's been involved, and certainly Reagan 6 and his staff that didn't have to quarantine for a while 7 to get that operation up and going full steam ahead 8 again. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And I guess the only thing 10 that I would do is reiterate something I've already 11 shared with the Court. I'm just going to ask the County 12 Attorney to help me do this, is to monitor that we keep 13 our discussions in the court to the agenda item. Stay 14 within the scope of the agenda items, do not go far 15 afield, especially on emotional, political, national 16 issues. 17 We've got business to do locally that we 18 need to get done and we need to try to keep people on 19 task. With that, we're going to take a break here in a 20 minute before we go into Executive Session on real 21 estate matters, which is pursuant to Chapter 551.072 of 22 the Texas Local Government Code. We'll talk about our 23 buildings down on Earl Garrett. With that, we'll take 24 just a short break and come back in Executive Session. 25 (Break.) 108 1 (Executive Session.) 2 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 3 It is 11:59 and the Court is coming out of Executive 4 Session back into open session. And I believe the next 5 item on the agenda is go back to item 1.15, which was 6 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to open 7 and receive bids for the 2021 Road Reconstruction 8 Project, read the bids aloud and refer the bids to the 9 County Engineer for tabulation, and award to the lowest 10 qualified bidder. 11 We now have opened the bids, and the County 12 Engineer has analyzed those and we're now ready to act 13 on that, so -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The spreadsheet the 15 County Engineer and Road & Bridge Administrator handed 16 me, the low bid for the total amount is Edmund Jenschke 17 Incorporated. Their total amount for all five roads, or 18 five projects, is $236,290.85. The recommendation is to 19 award the contract to Edmund Jenschke for all five 20 projects. 21 Just for public's information, that being 22 the low bid, the high bid was $465,329.53, so we have a 23 total of five bids that range between those two numbers. 24 I'll make a motion that we award all five 25 projects to Edmund Jenschke Incorporated for a total 109 1 cost of $236,290.85. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Letz second by Commissioner Belew to 5 approve the awarding of bid for the 2021 Road 6 Reconstruction Project to Edmund Jenschke Inc. Is there 7 any further discussion? Those this favor raise your 8 hand. It's unanimous, five zero. 9 Is there any other business before the 10 Court? 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We need to set a 12 Special -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's not Court 14 action. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: That being it, then the Court 17 will be adjourned. (Gavel bang.) 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 110 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 19th day of January, A.D. 10 2021. 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