1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, April 26, 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 *** Public Comment. 5 4 *** Commissioners' Comments. 7 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action regarding a request for the Hill 6 Country Amateur Radio Club for the use of Kerr County facilities, accommodations for 7 equipment and a room for monthly meetings. 8 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 31 action to approve the "BuyBoard Lease 9 Agreement" with Quadient, formerly known as NeoPost, and authorize the County Judge to 10 sign the documents. 11 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 33 action to approve operational changes at 12 Kerr County Animal Services. 13 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 action to approve copier lease agreement 14 with Xerox for the Kerr County Animal Services Department. 15 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 49 16 action to accept the bank depository contract and have County Judge sign same. 17 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 53 18 action to approve position schedule for the 198th District Attorney's office. 19 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 20 action to approve a leave time extension for Road & Bridge employees due to the 21 sealcoat season. 22 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 61 action to approve the lease and maintenance 23 agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management. 24 1.10 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 68 Mosty Pecan Grove Subdivision Lot 1, Volume 25 7, Page 310. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 action to authorize the County Judge to 4 execute a change order to substitute a 2-course chip seal in lieu of a prime coat 5 with no net change in contract price for the 2021 Road Reconstruction Project. 6 1.12 Presentation by Texas Association of 73 7 Counties Risk Management of the Kerr County Safety Award. 8 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 77 9 action to appoint Judge Kelly as the Liaison to the Hill Country Regional 10 Public Defender's Office. 11 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 action to establish a travel policy for 12 the Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 13 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 88 14 action regarding Information Technology, IT, issues related to the Hill Country 15 Regional Public Defender's Office. 16 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 97 action to update the job description for 17 the Indigent Services Clerk position. 18 2.1 Pay Bills. 98 19 2.2 Budget Amendments. 99 20 2.3 Late Bills. 99 21 2.4 Auditor Reports. 100 22 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 101 23 2.6 Court Orders. 101 24 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 102 25 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 105 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Adjournment. 108 4 *** Reporter's Certificate. 109 5 * * * * * * 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. It is Monday, 2 April the 26th, 2021. It's 9:00 and Commissioners' 3 Court is in session. If you would, please stand for the 4 prayer. 5 (Prayer and Pledge.) 6 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. Okay. I 7 want to remind everyone to please turn your phones to 8 vibrate so as not to interrupt the proceedings today. 9 First thing on our agenda always is public input. And 10 if you look at our agenda, we're not starting with 11 consideration on the status of where we are with Covid, 12 but I am going to invite Dub Thomas who is with us to 13 come forward and offer it for public input because we 14 need to hear the status of that, which is all good news. 15 So welcome, Dub Thomas. Dub. 16 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Would you just kind of give us 18 a brief update? 19 MR. THOMAS: Well, we're still waiting on 20 FEMA to decide whether or not Kerr County's going to be 21 included in the individual assistance. We've had over 22 548 individual assistance surveys turned in. So I think 23 if -- we're just -- we're just waiting. 24 As far as Covid goes, our numbers are still 25 low. Extremely low. And we hope to -- hope to keep 6 1 them that low. We are still working on vaccinations. 2 We're going to have a large vaccination clinic coming up 3 in May. May 3rd through the 7th. It's going to be five 4 days of Covid testing. Texas Military Department will 5 be here. And we're going to be testing -- not testing. 6 I'm sorry. Vaccinations. May 3rd through the 7th. So 7 five days of vaccinations. It will be open to the 8 public. And it would be first come, first serve. If 9 you -- it'll be a walk-in at the First United Methodist 10 Church. 11 If you have to wait in line, which is 12 probably going to be a possibility, and at the end of 13 the day if the Military Department didn't bring enough 14 vaccines for that day, probably going to have to go home 15 and come back the next day. But they're going to gauge 16 the number of vaccines they bring each day, depending on 17 what they did the day before. So things are looking 18 good right now. If we could just get individual 19 assistance from FEMA, I think we would be a lot better 20 off. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Dub, which vaccine are 22 they going to bring? Do you know? 23 MR. THOMAS: I believe it's going to be 24 Moderna. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that's the two 7 1 doser? 2 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 4 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 5 JUDGE KELLY: For the public, anyone that 6 wants to call in, this will be the last regular court -- 7 Commissioners' Court meeting where we're going to have 8 the call-in option as I understand it. So you can call, 9 the number is (830) 792-6161. And that cell phone 10 number rings out at the Court Coordinator's desk. She 11 will pass a note to me. We will call you here on the 12 speaker phone so you can participate in the meeting. So 13 if there's anyone that would like to offer input on 14 something not on the agenda, this is your opportunity to 15 call in. If it's on the agenda, we ask that you wait 16 until that agenda item is called. 17 So with that, let's go for Commissioners' 18 comments. Commissioner Belew. You look good. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. I don't 20 remember anybody ever saying that to me before, but... 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I wasn't going to say 22 it. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And so I really 24 appreciate that. Just, you know, spring has sprung. I 25 want to remind everybody we still want to be really 8 1 careful with any burning or anything going on. There 2 was a little bit of rain over the weekend and folks went 3 out and burned and just please be careful. We have not 4 a lot to report going on in Precinct 1. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Precinct 2. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A couple things. 7 There's a lot of interest in a lot of the community in 8 Precinct 2 about the housing developments, okay. A lot 9 of questions. So I think what we're going to do, I've 10 proposed and let's see if everybody will support it, the 11 developers that is, have a Town Hall Meeting for the two 12 developers of Center Point Village and Verde Creek 13 Ranch, if that's still the name, come together with the 14 community and address their questions, and let them 15 explain what they're planning to do with those 16 developments. But anyway, just communication session. 17 And -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Can I ask a question about 19 that? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. Sure. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Can we include the expansion 22 of the trailer park in Comfort? Is that -- that's also 23 in Precinct 2? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's -- yeah, sure. 25 JUDGE KELLY: I mean Precinct 3 but -- 9 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Well -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: But they're all new 3 developments on the east side of the County. We ought 4 to have an update on what they're doing. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. That -- that 6 would be good. No, that -- that's an excellent 7 suggestion. Okay. Good. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Sorry to interrupt you, but -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, that's -- that's 10 okay. Now all -- as far as it's been my experience that 11 lot's of rumors start and all kinds of -- the best way 12 to do it is put it on the table and let everybody know 13 what it is and answer questions and hopefully it will 14 help you. 15 The other thing is still a lot of concern 16 about aggregate production operations in and out of -- 17 throughout the County, but in particular West Texas 18 Aggregate. So looking at the possibility of having a 19 lady who's had a lot of experience over in Buda that's 20 been able to work with the ag production operators and 21 with the community and reached some very good common 22 grounds and a balance, I guess is the best way to say 23 it. So looking at perhaps bringing her in and having a 24 communication session, City, County all those that would 25 want to participate in such a thing. 10 1 So those are the two things in Precinct 2. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Three. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All I want -- I really 4 have is that we need rain. 5 JUDGE KELLY: There's some in the forecast 6 this week. I don't know how much. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know it's forecast. 8 Hopefully we get it. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Forty percent tomorrow. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we're a little dry 11 in the eastern part of the County. I looked at a map 12 and the eastern part of the County is drier than the 13 western, but the western is catching up quick. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, we'll catch up. 15 We got a little tease last week of rain and looks like 16 we got a -- maybe another shot midweek this week. 17 One thing I might bring up, I've heard that 18 the voting in Ingram's been very light. Bob, would you 19 say that, or do you know the numbers for what's been 20 going through voting, early voting in Ingram? But I've 21 heard very light. 22 MR. REEVES: The -- for the City of Ingram 23 it's 4.2 percent turnout. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Wow. God. No 25 complaints if you don't vote. Please turn out. That's 11 1 all I got. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I have one other 3 thing. It's not just Precinct 2, but you brought up the 4 rain. Yeah we need it. I've noticed probably a 5 combination of lack of rain and that hard freeze which 6 you mentioned in the prayer. I've noticed a lot of live 7 oaks that have no leaves on them. I think -- I think 8 we've lost a lot of live oaks in this County. Some 9 combination. Jonathan knows more about it than I do, 10 but it -- I mean it -- I walked the area yesterday and 11 it looked devastated in some places. Large -- I mean 12 it's not just oak wilt. Because, I mean, it's just 13 bang, overnight. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's a lot of trees 15 that were really hit pretty hard by it. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I was telling somebody 18 in the audience earlier that the good news is looks like 19 it knocked out the weed thatch everywhere. Which is a 20 good thing. I mean it -- it killed them everywhere I've 21 seen them. 22 JUDGE KELLY: But I did hear that the peach 23 trees in Gillespie County faired pretty well through 24 this. It came just early enough to save the crop. 25 Countywide, as County Judge, today is the 12 1 day that I roll out my budget and I've already given a 2 copy to the Commissioners. And just -- I want to hit a 3 couple highlights in the comment part that's not on the 4 agenda, but this is an opportunity to share what we've 5 tried to do for budget. 6 First thing, let me roll out the numbers, 7 which -- everybody wants to know those numbers. We've 8 got revenues -- projected revenues, tax revenues and all 9 other sources of revenues of approximately $38.4 million 10 and I have prepared a budget for 38 point -- it's not 11 quite six million dollars, which is a deficit of 12 161,000 -- 166,000, which as you know for historically 13 that would be probably in the lowest deficit budget 14 we've had in, what, maybe the last decade? We have 15 faired very well through the Covid season through this 16 past year. 17 It was a lot of money that we budgeted that 18 we were unable to spend, which is a good thing because 19 we still have the money. This is a no new tax rate 20 budget. Taxes will not go up. And we've got about 21 $300,000 worth of new revenue from new construction. So 22 high points are no new revenue tax rate, $300,000 23 thousand dollars for new construction. 24 The only reason that this is a deficit 25 budget, it would have been a surplus budget but for the 13 1 fact that we're funding the capital improvements for the 2 Sheriff's Department on the proposed leasing program 3 that we'll hear later. That's almost $200,000. It's 4 the -- this coming year's budget we have provided for 5 that program. I've also put in 130,000 for Road & 6 Bridge. 490,000 for the airport, and all their 7 requested capital improvements are included in this 8 budget. 9 For the department heads and elected 10 officials, we have taken a good long look at past 11 budgets for the past several years to see how much money 12 is really being spent and how much money is being 13 returned at the end of the year. 14 I'll give credit to Commissioner Belew for 15 creating the phrase that I found very prominent and it 16 is budget culture. And for those of you that don't 17 understand budget culture, basically what that is is 18 every department budgets for every possible contingency 19 that could happen in the unanimous in the budget and so 20 every year, come September, our fiscal year ends 21 September 30, we start having returns of funds that were 22 budgeted that come back to us. 23 And today I can't project for you how much 24 that money is going to come back next September. But we 25 know it comes. And I sat out in those chairs for two 14 1 years, I've been in this chair for three years, and 2 we've watched this and you told me it was a budget 3 culture and you were right. And we're trying to adjust 4 for that. 5 And so what I've done with some of the 6 Departments is we've gone and cut their budgets 7 strategically, surgically, to what we think is actually 8 enough for them to run their department because it's 9 based on what they've been returning every year. So 10 we've taken that into consideration. We're trying to 11 tighten our budget culture to get it a little bit more 12 accurate. 13 I've also, because they do plan for every 14 contingency and I'm trying to not have to plan every 15 year in every budget for every possible contingency, I 16 am increasing our contingency fee fund to $250,000 so 17 that we've got more money in the contingency fund for 18 when some of those contingencies occur and not have a 19 dedicated budget line -- line item. So that we -- we've 20 got the ability to respond, but at the same time, and 21 it's in the budget. 22 And for those of you that don't understand 23 the way the budget works, we can't increase this budget 24 after we adopt it unless there are emergency 25 circumstances. So that's why I'm increasing the 15 1 contingency so that we've got some flexibility because 2 we don't -- we -- we're not covering every single 3 contingency in the budget, we've got a bigger 4 contingency fund to be able to address it if it comes 5 up. 6 I'm also including a 1.5 percent -- I'm 7 calling it a wage adjustment for all Kerr County 8 employees. We haven't really been faithful to an actual 9 COLA through the years. And sometimes the COLA's come 10 in very low and we actually give a little bit greater 11 increase than that. 12 Our sister counties neighboring us have gone 13 to using straight percentages and I've tried to 14 incorporate a one and a half percent increase across the 15 board for our employees. 16 I've also included in this budget the 17 $174,000 that the salary study recommended that we 18 adjust. So that's included in here. And we're still 19 teetering at a balanced budget including all those 20 items. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are those adjustments 22 downward or upwards? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Upward. Nobody gets adjusted 24 down. Yeah, the whole purpose of the salary study was 25 to make sure that we were competitive and the good news 16 1 is that we were competitive, much more competitive than 2 we realized, but there were still some adjustments that 3 needed to be made, both for grade and step as well as 4 some of our open-range employees. And whatever those 5 recommendations were in that salary study, I've 6 incorporated them in my budget, dollar for dollar. 7 And as I said, but for these capital items, 8 we would have had a surplus budget. Now when you look 9 at my budget, those of you that look at it, some of you 10 will understand these budgets. It looks like a bunch of 11 numbers but they mean something. 12 At the end of next fiscal year, I'm planning 13 for us to still have a very healthy fund balance, which 14 will be -- and it's a little over 30 percent. Right at 15 31 percent. And the purpose for that is we don't know 16 what FEMA'S going to do, right Dub? 17 MR. THOMAS: No, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We've got about a million 19 seven of road repairs out there that are emergencies 20 that have to be done that we think FEMA should help us 21 pay for, but there's no guarantee that they will. And 22 so I want to make sure that we've got enough money in 23 our fund balance to be able to fix Ranchero Road and 24 Sheppard Rees. I mean it would be irresponsible not 25 to -- for us not to plan on having that done if -- even 17 1 if we have to pay for that. So I've included that. 2 I'm happy to report that our income and fund 3 balance is in -- is healthy because this past year we 4 received a little over a million and a half dollars from 5 the Federal Government. You don't hear me say good 6 things about the Federal Government often. We got about 7 a million and a half dollars in the CARES Act. And we 8 anticipate more money from the Federal Government 9 through ARP, the American Rescue Plan. 10 So things are looking remarkably good. 11 Unexpectedly good. And I don't know if that's -- as I 12 told Commissioner Harris earlier, I don't know if it's 13 masks, social distancing or just the good grace of God, 14 but let me tell you, we've come through this Coronavirus 15 problem and this -- this Covid problem remarkably 16 solvent. 17 And so this is good news for the people. No 18 tax rate increase and we've got enough money to run 19 County government for the common good. So that's my 20 report. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Very good. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And it takes a lot of 23 work to get -- for you to get this, so I appreciate 24 that. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And Tanya and James. 18 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, I know. I know. 2 But hats off to y'all. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that, I just 4 wanted to get that out there for everybody to hear. 5 Let's go to the first item on our agenda, 6 which is item 1.1 consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action regarding a request for the Hill Country Amateur 8 Radio Club for the use of Kerr County facilities, 9 accommodations for equipment and a room for monthly 10 meetings. Commissioner Moser. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. I 12 believe everybody has a copy of the proposal in their 13 backup for the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club to use 14 some facilities in the County. And what the -- 15 basically the facilities are, and -- and Clay Lambert 16 will elaborate on this. But at the corner of the 17 storage building out at the Five Star Event Center, 18 okay, that they use to put their -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: River Star. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: River Star. Yeah. 21 River Star. The -- to be able to put their equipment 22 in, and the other is a place to have a meeting once a 23 month. 24 But with that, looking at it as a cost 25 benefit thing. So one of the benefits of what Clay is 19 1 going to talk about, and that is to have Amateur Radio 2 Club communication as another layer of emergency 3 communication within the County. That's basically what 4 it is. 5 So Clay has been talking to the Sheriff and 6 Dub Thomas and to 9-1-1, Mark Del Toro, and they'll 7 probably speak to this, but they -- they're in full 8 agreement to this. So the benefits are another layer of 9 communication in emergency should the others fail, okay, 10 and the cost is it's going to be minutiae. 11 It's going to be a corner of a building out 12 there that Shane has looked at, that Clay can describe, 13 and also the other thing is, is the use one -- one 14 evening a month at the Union Church at no cost to the 15 Hill Country Radio Club. So Clay, fill in the details 16 there. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Clay Lambert. 18 MR. LAMBERT: Thank you, Commissioner Moser. 19 Do I need to state my address or -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: No. We know you. 21 MR. LAMBERT: I'm currently the Treasurer of 22 the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club. And for the 23 benefit of others here in the audience today, I'll share 24 a very quick bit of information about radio amateurs and 25 what we do. 20 1 We have a history of providing 2 communications during times of emergency, when the 3 cables are down and everything else is down and the cell 4 phones don't work, radio transmission is the one 5 reliable source. 6 We participate in a lot of different -- with 7 a lot of different agencies to facilitate that 8 communication, including local governments and their 9 various departments. Many anticipate -- many amateurs 10 participate through the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. 11 The A-R-E-S known as ARES. And that is where many of us 12 amateurs will log our equipment and our capabilities and 13 make that available to the local ARES communication 14 controller, who then makes that available to other 15 agencies in the case of emergencies. 16 As a matter of fact, in 2017 there was an 17 MOU signed between the local ARES operators in our club 18 and the Red Cross. Hill Country Amateur Radio Club has 19 been around for about four and a half decades. And for 20 much of the remainder of the latter part of that we've 21 been meeting at the Red Cross building on Earl Garrett 22 in their classroom. But several years ago we realized 23 we outgrew that facility, standing room only. Not only 24 that, but there's a small closet basically in there 25 where we have our radio station. And it's really 21 1 impossible to get the antennas and everything else that 2 we need for effective communication in that location. 3 So the nature of ham radio operators is to 4 share knowledge and assisting others in advance of this 5 meeting. You've read some information there in detail 6 that I've provided of how we have helped a number of 7 other folks in this area. 8 As a matter of fact, our -- our President, 9 Dale, here with the red shirt, lives in Medina, and he's 10 in the process of working with volunteer fire 11 departments up there to affect some better, more 12 reliable emergency communications capabilities. So 13 we're really into that sort of thing. 14 So we come to you respectfully today letting 15 you know that, you know, we think we have a great 16 portfolio, we've got over 3,000 man years of experience 17 in the club. But unfortunately now, we don't have a 18 roof over our head so that we can continue our mission. 19 And so that's what we're asking for today is a low cost 20 location, in this case the Union Church, where we could 21 meet for about two and a half hours once a month, and 22 then also a permanent location where we can house our 23 station with equipment and design for both routine and 24 emergency communications, and also it probably would be 25 a location where we could conduct some training courses 22 1 for the public that wants to learn more about and obtain 2 an amateur radio license. 3 At that location we would need to erect a 4 tower somewhere between 60 and a hundred feet tall and 5 populate that with the necessary antennas. And in the 6 good spirit of the budgeting time, I want to make sure 7 the Commissioners know that we can do that at our own 8 expense. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Clay, is that like a 10 guide monopole, or what is it? 11 MR. LAMBERT: Well, it could be anything. 12 It could be any number of different antennas. We may 13 have a vertical, but also we could have different beam 14 antennas that could be directed and pointed in a certain 15 location. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's the main stick? 17 MR. LAMBERT: Pardon? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The main stick? What 19 are you going to -- what are you going to fasten those 20 to? 21 MR. LAMBERT: The tower? 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 23 MR. LAMBERT: Well, it could be a 24 self-standing tower or it may be a crank up tower where 25 you pour a concrete base and, you know, you can elevate 23 1 the tower when you need it. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm asking about 3 whether it needs guide wires to -- 4 MR. LAMBERT: Oh. I'm sorry. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: About how much space 6 it's going to take? 7 MR. LAMBERT: Yes. It -- it probably would 8 require some guide wires. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That -- that extends 10 the amount of space. And fencing? 11 MR. LAMBERT: No. Typically, the way that 12 you protect the tower is to take the first 15 feet or 13 whatever and you grill that and -- and put locks and 14 padlocks on there. So that it's not climbable by the 15 general public or anyone else. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We don't want one of 17 those attractive nuisances. 18 MR. LAMBERT: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 20 MR. LAMBERT: So with that I'll -- I'll turn 21 it over for questions. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't you describe 23 the building out there, and Jonathan or Commissioner 24 Harris can describe it. It's a storage building that 25 was damaged during the rain and the flood and so forth 24 1 that's being repaired. It hadn't been repaired yet. So 2 I think that there's a separate room in there, as I 3 understand it, that's -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's a back corner -- 5 there's a room in the back corner that has separate 6 stairs and a separate door that enters so you don't have 7 to enter through the main doors if you go -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, right now it's 9 used for file storage or what? 10 MR. LAMBERT: It was. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was. It's not used 12 for anything right now. This was the old office. 13 MR. LAMBERT: It's vacant at this time. And 14 the part that's been removed is because of the water. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So now it would be to 16 setup your equipment permanently there? I mean 17 semi-permanently anyway? 18 MR. LAMBERT: Well, true. There is no such 19 thing as permanent, is there. But the fact is when you 20 get the equipment setup and with the special grounding 21 that's needed and with the tower erected and antennas 22 and all, that's not something you want to move every two 23 or three years. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 25 MR. LAMBERT: Because there's a lot of 25 1 effort and a lot of expense in that. So it would be as 2 permanent as you would hope. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So Clay has looked at 4 this with Shane. And it looks like from that standpoint 5 it's feasible and I think Commissioner Harris and 6 Commissioner Letz are saying yea verily. That looks 7 feasible also. 8 And then the Union Church, the use of that 9 once a month there, it's reduced cost for not for 10 profits. So this would have to be a modification to the 11 policy of Union Church to be able to let them use it at 12 no cost. So that would have to be something to be taken 13 care of. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It seems to me we 15 probably need an MOU, which would be pretty simple, like 16 a one page document or something to outline what's 17 needed. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I talked -- I 19 talked to Heather and -- there's Heather. And so I 20 think a lease is appropriate. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A lease? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I think a follow-up 23 to this, if it's -- if it pleases the Court, then 24 prepare a lease, okay, because we need to look at 25 insurance and that kind of stuff, make sure we're all 26 1 squared away on that to put something in there. Change 2 the one pager on the Union Church at some point to do 3 that. There's some paperwork to be done. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other thing is 5 the tower. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's what I was 7 thinking. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I just want to 9 make sure that there's -- that the guide wire is -- 10 exactly where that is going to be because that could 11 impact the use of a lot of -- some of that property. 12 Because guide wires can be -- I'd like to see -- we need 13 a footprint of exactly where that's going to be and 14 where the wires are going to be. Because they can go 15 into the parking area pretty easily and we can't afford 16 to lose parking. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 18 MR. LAMBERT: Sure. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I -- I don't know if 20 a motion is appropriate here but -- because we can't 21 approve anything. But at least it would be a motion to 22 move forward preparing the details of how to implement 23 something like this and bring that -- the lease and the 24 plans with the tower and the facility back to the Court 25 for approval. 27 1 JUDGE KELLY: I think you could make a 2 motion subject to completing a feasibility study and 3 final approval. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I will make a 5 motion that we have a feasibility study to enable the 6 Hill Country Amateur Radio Club to use the storage -- 7 part of the storage building out at Five Star and -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: River Star. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: River Star. Excuse me. 10 River Star. And to modify the policy to enable them to 11 use Union Church once a month for three hours in the 12 evening. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And to be reviewed by the 14 County Attorney. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And to be reviewed by 16 the County Attorney, and for the County Attorney to 17 prepare a lease to that end. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Moser, and seconded by Commissioner Belew 21 to approve a feasibility study for the use of Kerr 22 County facilities by the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club 23 to erect a tower and use of Union Church, and all this 24 is subject to final approval by the Court and County 25 Attorney. 28 1 Sorry for the conditions, we've just got to 2 take this a step at a time, Clay. Any other discussion? 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Shane, have you 4 been out there with them? 5 MR. EVANS: Yes, I have. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And where exactly are 7 you talking about putting that tower? I'd like to at 8 least go out there with you and look it over. 9 MR. EVANS: Well, the tower, I don't know. 10 But the office space that they're wanting to use is on 11 the west side of the building. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The -- that's not a 13 problem. But the tower part, I -- I really want to look 14 at. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you're going to 16 have to know the height of that tower. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. And where 18 it would -- 19 MR. LAMBERT: That would potentially be at 20 the rear of the building. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 22 MR. LAMBERT: There's -- there's quite a 23 large triangle space back there. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's -- that's one 25 of the things to put the definition on. 29 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. That's what -- 2 it hinges on that with me. 3 MR. LAMBERT: Yes, sir. 4 MR. GAUDIER: There are several different 5 options if we're talking towers, and we can bring those 6 options to the Court. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We're just trying to work out 10 a collaborative relationship to get this thing done. 11 MR. GAUDIER: Absolutely. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's worth mentioning 14 too that some of the other non-profits might question 15 that, but this is because this can help us during an 16 emergency situation. That should be stressed. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, communication is 18 one of our big deals during a storm. It was terribly 19 weak. 20 JUDGE KELLY: If there's anything we learned 21 from the storm, we all need to be in communication. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think Dub and -- oh, 23 the Sheriff probably has something to say. 24 MR. THOMAS: Just to kind of clarify, we 25 have a communications annex. It's part of our basic 30 1 plan in the 24 annexes. And Hill Country Amateur Radio 2 Club is listed in our -- in that annex as a resource for 3 us. Not only -- I think it has RACES, which is -- 4 MR. LAMBERT: ARES, yeah. 5 MR. THOMAS: Well, we have RACES listed in 6 there, but they have an ARES group here. It's still 7 emergency communications capabilities, so -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's part of the 9 Emergency Management Plan. 10 MR. THOMAS: It's part of the Emergency 11 Management Plan, that's correct. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 13 JUDGE KELLY: We want to find a way to make 14 this work. 15 MR. LAMBERT: Sure. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think the Sheriff 18 wants -- 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Just real quick. Yeah, 20 like you said, Tom, I think that this would be a good 21 added feature to have. I don't think we can have enough 22 communications. Also, since I was in that everyday, I 23 think it would be a real good tool to use. And we 24 talked about -- talked to Mr. Lambert about possibly 25 putting them in our volunteer fire departments. We can 31 1 look at that in the future if we want those to be our 2 HUB's in the case we do lose communications. So I think 3 it's a really good idea. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. Thank you, 5 Sheriff. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 7 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. I 8 haven't seen five hands in one spot like that in a year. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, guys. 10 MR. LAMBERT: Thank you. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.2 consider, discuss and 12 take appropriate action to approve the "BuyBoard Lease 13 Agreement" with Quadient, formerly known as NeoPost, and 14 authorize the County Judge to sign the documents. Bob 15 Reeves. 16 MR. REEVES: Good morning, Commissioners, 17 Judge. The County Tax Office currently has a postage 18 machine from Quadient. The machine is used by my office 19 as well as the County Clerk's Office, and on occasion 20 Road & Bridge, Engineering, and the Veterans Service 21 Office uses it. 22 The rental of the equipment is divided 23 evenly in -- by thirds between the Elections Department, 24 Tax Office, and County Clerk's office. Our current 25 lease will expire in June of this year. The new lease 32 1 term will be for five years. The monthly lease payment 2 is $265.19, which is $4.66 less than the current lease. 3 Quadient is an approved vendor with 4 BuyBoard. BuyBoard provides government approved 5 contracts which have been pre-approved by competitive 6 bidding process. The County Attorney has reviewed and 7 approved the lease agreement, and the County Clerk 8 concurs with the renewal of this lease, since she -- her 9 office uses it. I respectfully request the Court to 10 approve the lease and authorize the County Judge to sign 11 same. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Belew, and seconded by Commissioner Letz to 17 approve the lease agreement from Quadient. Any other 18 discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you for saving us 20 four dollars. 21 MR. REEVES: I try. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know you do. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that in the budget? 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If anybody can save us 25 a dollar, Bob Reeves will do it. 33 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor, raise 2 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 3 MR. REEVES: Thank you, gentlemen. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Item 1.3 consider, 5 discuss and take appropriate action to approve 6 operational changes at the Kerr County Animal Services. 7 Reagan Givens. 8 MR. GIVENS: Good morning, everybody. So I 9 think in your backup I had included a little bit of 10 explanation here as to what I'm requesting. We were 11 talking about in our advisory board meetings for a while 12 some fee schedule changes. But there should be a copy 13 of the fee schedule in there. 14 The only thing that I've changed and added 15 is some surrender fees. We have so many people 16 surrendering animals, there's no -- there's really no 17 accountability as far as these people coming in and just 18 dumping these animals off with us. We found out through 19 the pandemic that appointments worked well. There was 20 actually a lot of animals that didn't end up in our 21 facility because of that. Having people make 22 appointments, it got -- they had to go with other 23 options sometimes. But at the same time, I don't like 24 to turn animals away whenever people are in legitimate 25 problems whenever we are here to help them. 34 1 So the implementation of the surrender fees. 2 We have people that are willing to wait. They don't 3 need an immediate surrender. And if they want to do 4 that, we were talking about if they want to make an 5 appointment, having the same fee as it is to adopt an 6 animal. That way it's not just a regular free dump off. 7 It's to hold these people to some sort of -- it takes 8 money to surrender an animal. Makes it less desirable 9 and less easy. 10 We didn't really have a problem with this 11 through the pandemic. We had a couple instances where 12 animals were dumped because their appointment was set 13 and it took some time for them to get in. But I don't 14 think that's a real problem at this time. 15 So basically, this is kind of a trial. I 16 want to see how this goes, see what we can -- what we 17 can accomplish with it. But appointments -- if you set 18 an appointment, it's going to cost you $50.00. You get 19 a lot of people that come in and need to do this right 20 then and there. If you're an immediate walk-in, we fine 21 them like a hundred dollars because we don't know the 22 situation. But, if you are that desperate to get rid of 23 that animal right at that time, then -- then it's going 24 to cost a little extra. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Reagan, do you think 35 1 there will be people that will look at that and a 2 hundred dollars and just abandon the animal and walk 3 away from it? And then -- then you're going to have to 4 go out and capture it and bring it in at no cost? 5 MR. GIVENS: Well, that's been a concern. 6 That's been a concern. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 8 MR. GIVENS: Like I say, we haven't had much 9 issue with that. I thought it was going to be a huge 10 problem, especially with the appointments that we set 11 when we locked the front door through the pandemic. But 12 we really didn't have an issue that we're aware of. 13 Like I said, we did have a couple instances where we'd 14 have people get upset, leave, threaten to dump an 15 animal. We actually did find the animal later. That 16 happened a couple times. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Overall -- and the 18 committee has been pushing this for at least six months. 19 They feel that there are -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The advisory board. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The advisory board. 22 They feel that there is -- there are other options. And 23 by the fact that we just take animals was not giving -- 24 not making them either spend some money or take some 25 time, that people will find other options most of the 36 1 time. 2 And there's -- most -- the majority of the 3 time, they'll either find another option or pay the 4 money. Very rarely will they dump the animal. And that 5 the benefits to getting -- making the public use the 6 other options outweighs the few people that decide to 7 dump the animal. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the advisory 9 committee, the advisory board, really recommends this? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. They've been 11 pushing this for -- 12 MR. GIVENS: I'd say longer than six months. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Longer than six, at 14 least six months. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 16 MR. GIVENS: So there's different needs 17 here, which you can see. Basically, immediate walk-in 18 for a hundred dollars. If you got a litter, the first 19 animal with an appointment is 50 and then every animal 20 after that is 25. And then litters, first animal 21 walk-in is the 100 and then two animals or more is 22 $50.00 per animal. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I like the way you've 24 incentivized responsibility. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Uh-huh. 37 1 JUDGE KELLY: You know, if people can get an 2 appointment and be responsible with their surrenders, 3 looks like it's a win-win for everybody. And for those 4 that are not, and we understand there are some that will 5 be irresponsible, but we have to -- we have to try to 6 provide for those for the benefit of the public anyway. 7 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. And another thing 8 that I've done, too, just so the Court's aware, I've 9 been doing this for several years now. But anybody who 10 surrenders an animal over there, if it -- you don't have 11 a really desperate good reason then you go on a do not 12 adopt list and you'll never adopt an animal from me 13 again. And there's been a lot of people go on -- on 14 that list. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Reagan, on your -- on 16 your fee schedule you have one category called dangerous 17 dog fees. 18 MR. GIVENS: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's -- what's the 20 definition of dangerous dog? 21 MR. GIVENS: I don't have it right in front 22 of me, but -- 23 MRS. STEBBINS: It's a statutory -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a state law. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, it's a state law? 38 1 MRS. STEBBINS: It's a statutory definition. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's enough of that 3 one. Okay, good. Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's usually if the dog 5 has bitten somebody. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But in short -- 8 MR. GIVENS: There's different requirements 9 for it. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And Reagan, I have a 11 question about the -- 12 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- the average duration 14 of an animal that is at the facility and the costs that 15 are incurred. 16 MR. GIVENS: About how long do we have each 17 one? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: About how much do we 19 spend on the average dog, say, or cat? What are our 20 costs to keep them until the Pets Alive group comes and 21 gets them -- 22 MR. GIVENS: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- or until they get 24 adopted, which is -- you know, one has to come before 25 the other? 39 1 MR. GIVENS: Yes, Sir. Well, since we were 2 allowed to have an adoption coordinator, that has all 3 gone down substantially. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 5 MR. GIVENS: She works diligently daily to 6 get these animals out. Honestly, if we have an animal 7 that's been surrendered, that animal a lot of times is 8 going out within a day or two. The ones, of course, 9 that are -- that are strays that have the 72-hour hold, 10 we have to keep those. 11 I haven't figured up any costs as far as 12 what man hours and things like that. We don't really 13 spend a whole lot of money on the animal while it's 14 there, other than the man hours for cleaning. Their -- 15 a lot of times our food is donated. We don't buy a 16 whole lot of food and water. Volunteers get the animals 17 out a lot for -- get them some exercise and things like 18 that. So it's not a whole lot. But there's -- there -- 19 it just really depends on how long they're there 20 obviously. But I can say we've been getting them out of 21 there at a substantially higher rate since the adoption 22 coordinator was able to be hired. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I asked that 24 because it -- the surrender fee sounds high. I don't 25 think we incur that kind of expense to house an animal. 40 1 I just think that the -- I'm not against the idea. I 2 think it's a good idea. 3 MR. GIVENS: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But I think if it's not 5 priced right, if the price point is not good, we run the 6 risk of people dumping animals or -- 7 MR. GIVENS: I agree. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So I would like for us 9 to look at that a little longer and see if we can come 10 up with something that -- 11 MR. GIVENS: Would you like me to go -- 12 before we implement any fees, would you like me to -- do 13 you recommend a discussion more in our advisory board 14 meeting? 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well -- 16 MR. GIVENS: Because that's been something 17 that I didn't know. I wanted everybody's opinion on to 18 see what everybody thought was reasonable. And it's 19 hard to know what exactly is reasonable. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But obviously your 21 advisory board has looked at all these numbers and 22 everything and -- and this is basically coming from them 23 and you, I would think. 24 MR. GIVENS: Yeah. And I -- 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I trust -- 41 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That was beforehand. 2 MR. GIVENS: -- I can tell you that I 3 thought they were a little bit high. Because just given 4 the situation that a lot of folks are dealing with 5 aren't going to have this kind of money. So -- but 6 there's also, you know, try it, see how that goes. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You've got to start 8 someplace. 9 MR. GIVENS: And then if we need go down, we 10 can. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Then you can always 12 tweak it. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, my -- the thought 14 is this. If I have a dog that's tearing things up, 15 digging up the yard and all that, I'd be willing to pay 16 a hundred bucks to get rid of it maybe. But if my momma 17 passed away and I'm stuck with her 12-year old dog, 18 maybe not. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, there's a point 20 that if you -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's a hundred bucks 22 to take that thing down there. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's 50 bucks if you 24 make an appointment. 25 MR. GIVENS: No, that's just an immediate -- 42 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. So if I just 2 drive down there and they say make an appointment then I 3 save myself 50 bucks? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fifty bucks. Right. 5 MR. GIVENS: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I like that part of it. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that's good. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I still think it's 10 kinda high. That's my opinion on it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, you know, we can 12 lower it. I think -- you know, the concept definitely 13 is a good concept. But maybe lower the fee a little 14 bit. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I say try it like it 16 is. We can always tweak it later. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, I'm -- I'm with 18 Commissioner Harris. I -- I think we ought to go ahead 19 and implement it and just request that Reagan go back to 20 the advisory board and then review these numbers and 21 report back to us after they've sharpened their pencil 22 and -- and considered everything what their 23 recommendations are. We can always go -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I see people -- you 25 know, and the guy who lives out in the sticks where 43 1 these animals show up, you know -- 2 MR. GIVENS: I don't want to see that 3 either. And that's why for a long time I was against 4 this. But we really did learn through the pandemic that 5 some of the things that I thought were going to happen, 6 didn't. And so I figured this was worth a shot and just 7 to see. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And I want -- I want to listen 9 to the recommendations from the public when they're 10 working on these boards to come back and give us some 11 input. I mean, it's important for us to, you know, give 12 some credence to their -- their opinions about this. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other -- Reagan, why 14 don't you go over the other item. The hour thing? 15 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. So this was 16 something that I brought to the advisory board last 17 time, which as you know we talked about schedule changes 18 and what we did I guess probably a year, year and a half 19 ago whenever we moved to -- we did away with Saturday 20 hours kind of as a compromise. We changed our Tuesday 21 and Thursday hours from 8:00 to 5:00. 22 We don't -- well, we didn't have a lunch -- 23 there was no lunch hour at that time. So we got the 24 lunch hour back for the staff, which I think was a good 25 thing. But on Tuesdays and Thursdays we would -- they 44 1 would work from 9:00 to 1:00. Lunch was from 1:00 to 2 2:00, and then they would work from 2:00 to 6:00. 3 What we found is all year long our -- our 4 busiest times of the day is the morning. That's 5 whenever most of our phone calls are coming in. I 6 included in your backup there some incoming calls. This 7 is just from a week. But you can see from -- now keep 8 in mind, please, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, it's 8:00 to 9 1:00 and then 2:00 to 5:00. So our lunch hour shifted. 10 From 8:00 to 9:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 this is just -- this is from February 2nd to February 12 4th, we had 26 calls from 8:00 to 9:00 when nobody was 13 there to answer the phone. Okay. And then 22 that 14 Thursday. That same day from 5:00 to 6:00 we had one 15 phone call and two that Thursday. So three as opposed 16 to 48 missed calls and messages. As I said, our busiest 17 time is in the morning and that's when I really need 18 people there. 19 You would think that over time the general 20 public would have adjusted to some of this. But 21 everybody's still upset at -- there was -- everybody's 22 upset almost daily because our lunch hour is from 1:00 23 to 2:00. You can also see the 1:00 to 2:00 -- you can 24 see that they're -- and like I said, this is just an 25 example. It's just a couple of days. But five missed 45 1 calls or five incoming calls that were answered from 2 12:00 to 1:00 when they're there, and then one on 3 Thursday. 4 And then when they're at lunch, we had 11 5 and six. So there's just -- we get a lot of calls. 6 There's always people that show up there. They don't 7 understand why we're closed from 1:00 to 2:00 and not 8 from 12:00 to 1:00. It just really hasn't worked out 9 like it was thought. 10 And nothing really happens at that office 11 from 5:00 to 6:00. It's really -- as far as paying 12 employees and time goes, it's really a waste of time to 13 be honest. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is one where the -- 15 the old schedule was recommended by the advisory board. 16 And Reagan went along, trying to figure out adjustments 17 and it didn't work. It didn't work like they had hoped. 18 At one point we had no lunch hour and Reagan found that 19 they were -- our employees couldn't eat at all because 20 then people kept on coming in, so -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: That was cruel and unusual 22 punishment. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this was -- you 24 know, Reagan went over this with the advisory board 25 and -- 46 1 MR. GIVENS: Once I explained it, everybody 2 agreed that that was -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They agreed. It didn't 4 work, we made a change and made some adjustments. It 5 didn't improve things, it made it worse. So we put it 6 back to the same schedule. I don't know that the hour 7 change is something that we really need to approve with 8 the Court. 9 The fee schedule is something that I think 10 we do need to and all other fees we do. So I'll go 11 ahead and make a motion to approve the new fees schedule 12 as revised and the change in operational hours. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 16 approve the recommended changes and fee schedule. 17 MR. GIVENS: One other point I just wanted 18 to make real quick on this. This will not affect the 19 agreement with the City of Kerrville. It will actually 20 help our service improve for them. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Discussion? Those in favor 22 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. And report back 23 to your advisory board that we appreciate the hard work 24 and we would like to stay on top of these fees and give 25 us any updated recommendations. 47 1 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. I will. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Next item on the 3 agenda -- don't leave -- is 1.4 consider, discuss and 4 take appropriate action to approve a copier lease 5 agreement with Xerox for the Kerr County Animal Services 6 Department. Reagan Givens. 7 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. This is just our 8 Xerox lease agreement. We're coming to the end of the 9 48-month agreement that we had before. We're needing a 10 new machine which they proposed we get. There was two 11 options, both of which are cheaper than what we have 12 already. 13 One of them is going to save us money as far 14 as having a color machine, it's going to save us money 15 because we do have to print a lot of colored 16 photographs. It's going to save us a lot of money in 17 ink on another printer that we're having to use. 18 And all of this is that to save -- it's 19 going to go from 78, 79 a month down to 62.14 a month 20 with a better machine. So I think it's an all around 21 better. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You saved us more than 25 the Tax Assessor did. 48 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Go down there and tell 2 Bob you saved us more money. 3 MR. GIVENS: That's what I was thinking when 4 you said that. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We'll have a 6 competition. That's what we need around here. 7 MR. GIVENS: And there is something for you 8 to sign, Judge. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, I've got it here. 10 MR. GIVENS: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is not the 12 appropriate time to do this, but I can hook onto what 13 you just said. During the budget process, perhaps we 14 ought to look again at having a countywide policy on -- 15 or agreement on copiers and printers. Seems to me like 16 we probably have 50 or 60 in the County. And I bet 17 there's money to be saved -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, there is. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- by doing that. Not 20 here, okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. We -- we had an 22 opportunity to do that a couple years ago. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, it seems like 25 every time somebody comes in with something new like 49 1 this we're saving money. And we must have started way 2 up here and we keep whittling it down. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But if they can lump 4 them all together you may save a lot more. Okay. All 5 right. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You seconded that, 7 didn't you? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes, sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 10 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 11 approve the lease copier agreement -- or copier lease 12 agreement for Animal Control, Animal Services. Any 13 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 14 five zero. Very good. 15 1.5 consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 action to accept the bank depository contract and have 17 County Judge sign the same. Tracy Soldan. Yes, ma'am. 18 MRS. SOLDAN: I believe you have the 19 contract with our depository. I would like to request 20 that the Court authorize the County Judge to sign the 21 contract based on -- or pending some changes that I'm 22 requesting to make -- to make to some of our accounts to 23 document that -- for opening new accounts. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Which I'm sure they will be 25 happy to do. 50 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And this is -- speaking 2 of happy, this is with Happy Bank. 3 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes, sir. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Having a little fun. We've 5 got to break it up a little bit. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 9 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 10 approve the bank depository agreement with Happy State 11 Bank. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With revision. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And subject to her revision -- 14 recommendation. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's a second, right, 16 already? I have a question. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a -- an 20 attachment that goes over all of the -- the details? 21 And this seems very general to me. And there was a lot 22 of -- they -- when they bid it there was no charge, no 23 charge, you know, all that stuff. Is that an exhibit to 24 us that they're bound to stay by that? 25 MRS. SOLDAN: There is an exhibit in the IP 51 1 that they sent to us, and I believe the contract, I 2 don't have it in front of me, says no fees in it. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It just seems to me that 4 all of it -- I mean, that we ought to -- the contract 5 should include the details. 6 MRS. SOLDAN: I can -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If that can be included 8 in the revisions that you're going to make. 9 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes. I can -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Was it a boilerplate 11 example, or was it a contract? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: It's a contract. 13 MRS. SOLDAN: That's a contract. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: This is the contract. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I know. But the 17 contract doesn't refer to some of the details to me. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. So is that what's 19 going to be changed? 20 MRS. SOLDAN: No, but I can. I did 21 request -- there were a couple of changes that they did 22 make on my request to the contract. The changes I'm 23 requesting now refer to, like, signature cards when 24 you're opening an account. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All I'm asking is that 52 1 the submittal that they put in be attached. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I know there's an 3 attached copy of their schedule. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. To the fee 5 schedule. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Right. And if there's any 7 questions, we'll go back and schedule them. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9 MRS. SOLDAN: Their fee schedule that they 10 sent to me is generic for every customer and they're 11 waiving them for us, so I don't know that the fee 12 schedule would be good but -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the fee schedule 14 that -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the attachment to the 16 bid. 17 MRS. SOLDAN: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, the attachment to 19 the bid. 20 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes. Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Sounds good. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So I forgot who made 23 the motion. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Me. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And second? 53 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tom seconded. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I seconded it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 5 approve the depository agreement. Any further 6 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 7 five zero. 8 Item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 9 appropriate action to approve position schedule for the 10 198th District Attorney's office. Miss Doss. 11 MRS. DOSS: Good morning. What you have 12 before you is a proposed salary and position schedule 13 for approval for the 198th DA. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How does this compare 15 to the 216th? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Apples and oranges. 17 MRS. DOSS: Right. And I don't -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: It really has to do more with 19 non-legal personnel are substantially more in the 198th 20 than the 216th has. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What are the changes 22 exactly, Jennifer? I mean what are we -- what are the 23 differences from what we currently have? 24 MRS. DOSS: Well, from the prior fiscal 25 year, we hired two new legal assistants. And so started 54 1 those out at Step 1. So those salaries were increased. 2 And he basically spread those to the assistant DA's and 3 the investigator. And there was a net change of zero 4 dollars. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: And some of those changes 6 were made before this attorney took office. 7 MRS. DOSS: Right. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: They were made under Scott. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, like I remember the day. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: But this -- this piece of it 11 just hadn't happened yet, and it should. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, this is just to 13 get the -- what's currently being done in paper. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: That's right. That's right. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 18 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 19 approve the position schedule as presented for the 198th 20 District Attorney's office. Any discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question. But 22 there will be another one hopefully down the road that 23 will have ranges and things of that for -- and this 24 is -- there's another step that we've been talking about 25 to get it more equity? 55 1 MRS. DOSS: Correct. And I'm hopeful that 2 will happen during the budget process. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And you're not just 5 talking about details, you're talking about comparisons. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So for clarification, 8 this is on the agenda. Help me, Jennifer, to understand 9 why? 10 MRS. DOSS: Because some of these positions 11 are a different rate than were originally approved and 12 prior to this budget, this schedule, there were some 13 changes so we're just getting these -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 15 JUDGE KELLY: This is all part of a cleaning 16 up process with the -- our District Attorney's Office 17 and prosecutors and -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I understand. 19 JUDGE KELLY: -- Public Defender's Office, 20 which we'll have later on in the agenda. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is catch up, clean 22 up. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and one of -- one of the 24 lessons learned in all of this is that we need to make 25 sure that the positions, the job descriptions have been 56 1 approved for each one of these offices. Because their 2 duties are different among the different prosecutors. 3 And that the salary position has been approved by the 4 Court. 5 It's a two-step process. We have to approve 6 the job description and approve the -- the actual salary 7 position. And so what this is, is to memorialize or 8 codify where we are today, as we speak, in that office. 9 Now, with the salary study, when we get into 10 the budget process, we've got some step and grade 11 recommendations. But then we also have some open 12 ranges. And with these attorneys especially what we're 13 talking about, maybe we create three, four, five 14 different grades of attorney. And that will be within a 15 range. Maybe, you know, 10 or 15 thousand dollars range 16 there. 17 So that's what we're working toward and that 18 I expect to see in our budget workshops here in just a 19 couple months. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Gotcha. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I'm looking at my Auditor. 22 I'm right, right? 23 MRS. SHELTON: (Shaking head affirmatively.) 24 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Okay. So we've got a 25 motion and a second to approve it as presented. Any 57 1 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 2 Unanimous, five zero. Thank you, Miss Doss. 3 MRS. DOSS: Sure. 4 JUDGE KELLY: 1.7 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to approve a leave time extension for 6 Road & Bridge employees due to the sealcoat season. 7 Miss Doss. 8 MRS. DOSS: Yes. Employees are required to 9 bring their vacation balance down to 150 hours at the 10 end of every September; however, this is during their 11 busy, busy sealcoat time. And in an effort to alleviate 12 the burden to the other employees, we're just asking if 13 the Road & Bridge group that their cutoff be December 14 31st to get their vacation balance down to 150. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 18 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 19 approve the extension of the leave time for Road & 20 Bridge during the sealcoat season. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm surprised we 22 haven't done that before, but it's a good change. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is -- this is a 24 one time. And the reason is it has -- there is a budget 25 impact and it costs us more to do this, but this is just 58 1 more, for the record, so other departments don't come 2 and start asking for the same thing. 3 Road & Bridge during the winter storm event 4 had a lot of their employees that were -- some were 5 working and some were not working. And they were both 6 being paid the same. And to solve that, those that were 7 working got an extra day off. So they all of a sudden 8 seemed to have a lot more vacation or off time than 9 normal. And to allow Kelly to complete her sealcoat 10 program, she's requested this change. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But still, the sealcoat 12 program is dictated by -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. By the weather. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- by the weather. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: But this is -- she looked at 17 also the snowstorm. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. I understand. 19 MRS. DOSS: Well, I -- I was hoping that we 20 could just do this every year, because every year the 21 sealcoat season is the same time of year. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that's -- that 23 was my point. It seemed like -- 24 MRS. DOSS: So I think that's what -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- it should have been 59 1 done before. 2 MRS. DOSS: -- Kelly and I had in mind. 3 Kelly? 4 MS. HOFFER: And I mean the last three 5 Memorial Days and the month of May, I don't know if 6 it'll be the same this year, we could use the rain, but 7 we've had times where we've lost six weeks in that front 8 part, and it's a five-month window of opportunity. And 9 then you hit that September and it usually affects the 10 employees that earn the 13.3 for a month. And some of 11 those employees have lost time because they're trying to 12 get sealcoat done, but -- and so we run into this. 13 I mean this year it's even worse, like 14 Jonathan said, with the ice storm. But this is a 15 problem every year for us, trying to get this timing 16 stuff. And I -- I think it would benefit the public by 17 us having full staff in September there to finish the 18 sealcoat program. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I think everybody knows 20 September is the fourth month of summer in Texas. It 21 really is. 22 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but at a certain 24 temperature they have to quit. 25 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 60 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: But that's rarely -- 3 MS. HOFFER: And we generally -- the last 4 day of September is usually when we quit. We have shot 5 as late as the first and part -- partway through the 6 second week in October, but that ground temperature 7 starts to drop at the end of September. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So let's -- let's look 9 at doing this permanently at some -- some point. Yeah. 10 JUDGE KELLY: But the motion today is to do 11 it for this year; is that right? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Didn't I make the 13 motion? 14 JUDGE KELLY: No. Moser did. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I -- I made the 16 motion. But I thought -- I thought it was just for this 17 year. But if it's for permanent, I'd still make the 18 motion. 19 MS. DOSS: Jonathan, I would recommend that 20 it be permanent. But we'll take -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I'll make the 22 motion that this be -- that the -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: Annual. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- annual be permanent 25 for the proposed -- 61 1 JUDGE KELLY: Sealcoat season. That's it. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. To carry 3 over -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: I think to word it broadly 5 enough to apply for the sealcoat season, which we all 6 know continues into September every year. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'm okay if it does 9 have a budget impact. It costs us more to do it this 10 way. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's always subject to 13 weather, everything Road & Bridge does, so you're going 14 to have good and bad years. It's not going to even out 15 on you, I'm sure. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Anymore discussion? 17 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 18 Thank you. 19 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Sheriff, item 1.8 consider, 21 discuss and take appropriate action to approve the lease 22 and maintenance agreement with Enterprise Fleet 23 Management. 24 SHERIFF LEITHA: Okay. I'd like the Court 25 to consider putting in a lease and maintenance agreement 62 1 with Enterprise Fleet Management. This agreement will 2 replace seven patrol Tahoe's and 14 unmarked units, 3 which about comprises about a third of our fleet. 4 Kerr County Sheriff's office is in a unique 5 position with $384,000 being approved from last year's 6 budget that we can use towards this maintenance program. 7 In addition to that, KCSO will be selling 21 of our -- 8 those leased vehicles if this is passed to be able to 9 put back into the lease program. 10 KCSO, the Auditor's Office, County Attorney, 11 and Enterprise Fleet Maintenance have spent several 12 hours preparing this package for y'all, so y'all should 13 have a package in detail explaining all this. I do have 14 Sergeant Gaige, who headed up the program for us. I 15 also have Simon Ortega, he's our fleet consultant, here 16 to answer any questions y'all may have. 17 In your packet you should have a couple of 18 reference letters from, I believe, the City of Kerrville 19 and the City of Fredericksburg, kind of explaining how 20 the program worked and has been beneficial to them. I 21 just recently learned that Boerne, the City of Boerne 22 joined it. And we do have several other departments 23 that joined in. 24 When I attended the new Sheriff's 25 conference, this is kind of a new way a lot of County 63 1 and City agencies, governments are going, working 2 towards. It has improved vastly in the last several 3 five to six years. 4 So with that being said, I have Simon here, 5 I've got Gaige here to answer any questions you have in 6 reference to this. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I -- go ahead. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only question I have 10 is that if we wanted to add other departments or 11 other -- during, you know, the budget process, is it set 12 up that we could do that, or do we have to go back to 13 square one? 14 MR. ORTEGA: Short answer is yes. You 15 can -- you can do that. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Please introduce yourself. 17 MR. ORTEGA: Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. My 18 name is Simon Ortega, I'm with Enterprise Fleet 19 Management. Thank you for having me today. 20 But Commissioner Letz, yes. The answer is 21 yes, we could easily just add additional departments as 22 needed. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just need to get you in 24 touch with that department and -- 25 MR. ORTEGA: Correct. 64 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now if that happens, 2 are there staggered start dates and so on, or does it 3 all come under an umbrella. 4 MR. ORTEGA: Correct. So each vehicle is on 5 its own schedule. So depending on lead times from the 6 manufacturer and delivery times, you know, we help -- 7 help you manage when you want these vehicles in service. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Now a previous 9 discussion, this seemed like a really good -- good move 10 as far as maintenance tracking of vehicles, the value at 11 the end of a period. Gotta be a money saver. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me say that our 13 Auditor's office has done a marvelous job of going 14 through and analyzing the fleet and working with 15 Enterprise and they've commented and made a lot of the 16 questions and clarifications that we've needed. At the 17 end of the day, this is a good program. 18 I met extensively with James and Tanya on 19 this thing. But I can't tell you that we're going to 20 save a whole lot of money. Some of the numbers we 21 looked at last time didn't exactly pan out, but they 22 still pan out -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But it's in the budget? 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- without a hitch. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's within budget? 65 1 JUDGE KELLY: It's within budget. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's the main 3 thing. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and the Auditor's 5 Office and I have gone through it, and I personally 6 recommend this. I included it in my budget, that 7 $190,000 that I'm including in this upcoming fiscal 8 year's budget is to accommodate this very thing and I -- 9 I've visited with the Sheriff about that to let him know 10 that we are in a position to implement this program. 11 It's just not going to be -- it's not going 12 to be some windfall that we're saving 50 percent of what 13 we're spending, but it's still good. But it's just not 14 as big as we thought it might be. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I go into these things 16 very cautiously and what I like is our neighbors that 17 are using this have good -- have responded with very 18 positive input as far as their dealings with them and 19 everything. So that to me goes a long way. Because 20 really just hearing from a salesman, I'm sorry, but it 21 sounds good when somebody else has dealt with you and 22 have positive things to say. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So in the Sheriff's 24 budget does he -- this is about the vehicle itself. But 25 you still have to outfit every vehicle. Is that a 66 1 different -- 2 SHERIFF LEITHA: That is included in there. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's included in 4 this. Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 6 approve the lease program that Enterprise Fleet 7 Management has presented. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 10 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 11 approve the lease and maintenance agreement with 12 Enterprise Fleet Management as presented. Any other 13 discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I want to clarify. 15 This means when a vehicle is delivered here, it's got 16 all the equipment you need in it, Sheriff? 17 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what it means. 19 Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And going back from 21 the last time we spoke, when you spoke to us over the 22 phone, there will be somebody assigned to us? Explain 23 that a little bit. 24 MR. ORTEGA: Correct. Excuse me. So you'll 25 have assigned a client strategy manager which will meet 67 1 with you quarterly, annually, throughout your budget 2 season. Very similar to the City of Fredericksburg, 3 City of Boerne, Gillespie County, as well as City of 4 Kerrville. He also manages their accounts. He would be 5 the same person that you would work with. 6 SHERIFF LEITHA: And he would be the whole 7 County, if we were to add other departments, the same 8 guy would be doing it? 9 MR. ORTEGA: Correct. 10 SHERIFF LEITHA: Okay. 11 MR. ORTEGA: Yep. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 14 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 15 MR. ORTEGA: Thank you. 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: I want to thank the Court. 17 I think it will pay off for us. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I want to thank you. 19 Because there was a lot of work done behind the scenes 20 before we got to this point. 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: Enterprise was very helpful 22 in working with us and responding to our questions. 23 JUDGE KELLY: So we look forward to this 24 upgrade. 25 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. Thank you. 68 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It is a little passed 2 10:00. We've got, I think, about a half a dozen or more 3 timed items. We're going to come back and pick up with 4 1.9 at that time. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, if I may, I'm 6 going to postpone 1.9. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Pass. So we'll take a 8 five minute break and come back at -- we'll come back at 9 10:15. 10 (Recess.) 11 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. 12 First timed item -- I see Charlie is already in place. 13 1.10 public hearing for a revision of plat for Mosty 14 Pecan Grove Subdivision, Lot 1. 15 I convene that the public meeting will come 16 to order. Is there anyone who would like to address the 17 Court on this issue? 18 MR. HASTINGS: Judge, there's no one in the 19 hallway for this item. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Then I will adjourn the 21 meeting and we will move on to Item 1.11 consider, 22 discuss and take appropriate action to authorize the 23 County Judge to execute a change order to substitute a 24 2-course chip seal in lieu of a prime coat with no net 25 change in contract price for the 2021 Road 69 1 Reconstruction Project in Precincts 1 and 3. Charlie 2 Hastings. 3 MR. HASTINGS: Judge and Commissioners, the 4 2021 Road Reconstruction project consists of 5 reconstruction of the following roads: Westway Drive, 6 Tree Lane, Roy Street, Jonas Drive and Lowrance Street. 7 Bids were opened and awarded in January 2021 to Edmund 8 Jenschke, Incorporated in the amount of $236,290.85. 9 Construction began April 12th on Lowrance 10 Street and have proceeded to Roy Street as of April 11 21st. They're still there today on Roy. They should be 12 rounding the corner and going up Jonas soon. 13 The original scope of work is for the 14 contractor to remove the existing sealcoat surface and 15 six inches of base material, then reconstruct the road 16 with six inches of new base material and apply an 17 asphalt cement prime coat. Kerr County forces would 18 then apply a two-course chip seal to finish the job at a 19 later date. Weeks later. 20 The contractor has concerns that application 21 of a prime coat might have a negative effect on any 22 vehicles that need access during the application as it 23 takes at least an hour to cure before it can be driven 24 on and has, therefore, offered to apply a two-course 25 sealcoat instead of the prime coat, at the same price as 70 1 the prime coat, provided that Kerr County supplies the 2 asphalt cement and paving rock. 3 The Road & Bridge Department finds this 4 arrangement to be very favorable since they already have 5 the work scheduled and the oil and rock on order. They 6 merely need to coordinate delivery to the contractor's 7 yard. 8 In summary, this change order would avoid 9 prime coat oils tracking on vehicles, save labor efforts 10 from county forces, advance the construction completion 11 date by three to four weeks, and there would be no 12 change in the contract price. 13 The County Engineer requests the Court 14 authorize the County Engineer to prepare a change order 15 for the County Judge to execute with Edmund Jenschke, 16 Incorporated, whereby the County provides oil and rock 17 materials, and Edmund Jenschke provides the labor and 18 equipment to apply a two-course chip seal in lieu of a 19 prime coat, with no net change in the contract price for 20 the 2021 Road Reconstruction Project, Precincts 1 and 3. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 22 I've talked to Charlie about this. And the only thing 23 I'd add is that the change order needs to be run through 24 the County Attorney's Office. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 71 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 3 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 4 approve the proposed change for the prime to two seal 5 coat application. 6 And for those that don't know, when I first 7 saw these streets I didn't know where they were. 8 They're actually -- I would say in the City of Kerrville 9 but not because they never accepted those streets. So 10 they're still in the County. It's like this little 11 oasis that we have to take care of here in the City. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have a few of those. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's across from Tivy -- 14 the old Tivy High School is where it is. Sorry. But -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One behind the 16 hospital. 17 JUDGE KELLY: But we were talking earlier, 18 you can learn something every day in this job. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Judge, it would be fabulous 20 if sometime later we could have conversation with the 21 City about possibly doing some swapping since these 22 roads are going to be brand new, fresh, they're going to 23 be a hundred percent. Maybe it would be a good time to 24 swap some maintenance. Kind of like what we did with 25 Ingram. Very easy process. They don't have to annex, 72 1 we just simply have to say we're not going to maintain 2 anymore and we would like something from the City 3 Council that says we're going to maintain. It's really 4 something to talk about. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, remind me to do that. 6 We'll set that meeting up. 7 MR. HASTINGS: Sure. Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: That needs to happen. 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Charlie, you're not 11 going to talk about the gas line that broke? 12 MR. HASTINGS: Okay. It's not on the 13 agenda. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Though it's on 15 the same road. 16 MR. HASTINGS: But it is on Roy and it got 17 handled very professionally and very fast. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it's in Kerr 19 County. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: You can do that during the 21 Information Agenda for status reports from Department 22 Heads. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We'll defer that. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 73 1 second. Is there any other discussion? 2 MRS. DOWDY: Who -- I'm sorry, Judge. Do we 3 have a second? Who has the second? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I did. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Moser. 6 MRS. DOWDY: And so this is a proposed 7 change order, or you're executing a change order? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a change order that 9 the County Engineer and the County Attorney will prepare 10 for the Judge to sign. 11 MRS. DOWDY: But will it be brought back to 12 the Court? 13 JUDGE KELLY: No. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it will not be 15 brought back to the Court. 16 MRS. DOWDY: All right. Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor, raise 18 your hand. Five zero. Thanks, Charlie. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Next is Item 1.12. Larry 21 Boccaccio. Presentation by the Texas Association of 22 Counties Risk Management of the Kerr County Safety 23 Award. Good morning, Larry. Good to see you. 24 MR. BOCCACCIO: Good morning, Commissioners. 25 How is everybody? 74 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Good to have you back. 2 MR. BOCCACCIO: I'll tell you, it's good to 3 be back. I was telling Jennifer, I said, this is my 4 third road trip since March the 13th of last year, so -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, you weren't here at the 6 beginning, but this is the first time that all five of 7 us have been at this bench in over a year. 8 MR. BOCCACCIO: Is it really? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 10 MR. BOCCACCIO: Well, I love it. I was at 11 West Texas Judges and Commissioners last week in Odessa, 12 and of course I walked in with my mask on. And I looked 13 around and I went, nobody's wearing a mask. Guess where 14 this thing's going. So I took it off. 15 You know, I was thinking -- and of course, 16 I've got the press release here and all that good stuff, 17 but I'm going to ad lib. So I deal with 62 counties. 18 Victor and I, and David Whitis, law enforcement, and 19 Cheraun who's our new HR person. 20 Out of my 62 counties, I don't have a County 21 other than you guys that are as consistent with employee 22 safety and earning safety awards. Period. So here's 23 another one. This is -- I lost count, to be honest with 24 you. I -- I really don't know. 25 And folks, these things don't come cheap. 75 1 You have to have a loss ratio on the workers' comp side 2 of less than point 65. So that's less than 65 percent. 3 Historically, y'all's has been at least that, if not 4 less. And I just want to congratulate you and say thank 5 you, because that's -- that's money that the taxpayers 6 save, not spending on workers' comp insurance to keep 7 somebody unsafe. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Big money. 9 MR. BOCCACCIO: It's big money, yeah. So 10 we've kind of snazzied them up a little bit and that's 11 the new one. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Larry, thank you very 14 much. We appreciate all you do. 15 MR. BOCCACCIO: You're welcome. Y'all want 16 to do a photo op or -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Judge, I -- I need to talk -- 19 to address this real quick, if you don't mind? 20 MR. BOCCACCIO: Come on, Judge. 21 JUDGE KELLY: No, you can't -- you can't 22 address -- 23 (Laughter.) 24 MR. HASTINGS: Well, I'm a licensed 25 professional engineer and I've been evaluating the wall 76 1 over there that's holding these and I believe we're 2 going to need to hire a structural engineer to come in 3 and inspect the structural integrity because if there's 4 one more after this then I've got concerns. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm a structural 6 engineer. It's okay. 7 (Laughter.) 8 MRS. STEBBINS: And he volunteered that. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We need to give credit to our 10 Department Heads -- 11 MR. BOCCACCIO: Absolutely. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- and -- and Elected 13 Officials. This could not be done if they were not on 14 top of their department. 15 MR. BOCCACCIO: You're a hundred percent 16 right, Judge. And -- and since Covid is going, going, 17 gone, let's hope, I'm ready to get back in the training 18 mode and -- and do some training at Road & Bridge and 19 see what we can't accomplish. 20 (Photos taken.) 21 MR. HASTINGS: Larry, for the record, is 22 there a particular department that shines on that? 23 MR. BOCCACCIO: And this is not just 'cuz 24 you're here. 25 MR. HASTINGS: It's not my department. 77 1 That's why I asked. 2 MR. BOCCACCIO: But -- but when I get a call 3 from one of those other 62 counties about how to do 4 something, guess who I forward it to? Kelly. And I 5 guarantee you if she doesn't know the answer she'll ask 6 me and we'll get the answer. But that's -- that's what 7 I do. And y'all's Road & Bridge Department is 8 excellent. 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, they are. 10 MR. BOCCACCIO: Keep it up. 11 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. 12 MR. BOCCACCIO: You're welcome. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Larry, enjoy your beautiful 14 ride home. 15 MR. BOCCACCIO: I'm actually going to go do 16 some work. I don't want to go back to Austin yet. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I think we're right on 18 time. Next item on the agenda is 1.13 consider, discuss 19 and take appropriate action to appoint Judge Kelly as 20 the liaison for the Hill Country Regional Public 21 Defender's Office. 22 It's got three topics on here. We'll go 23 through them in quick order. 24 I put this on the agenda mainly because we 25 are learning how to run this office. For those of you 78 1 that don't know, we've got the Hill Country Regional 2 Public Defender's Office is a five-county public 3 defender's office that is headquartered here in 4 Kerrville. It is a department of Kerr County. 5 And there will also be -- and there's an 6 office in Hondo for Medina County. It's Medina, 7 Bandera, Gillespie, Kendall and Kerr. And we -- we 8 applied for a grant, and y'all remember all that 9 process. But what we're learning is, if this is where 10 the public defender's office is, and right now they're 11 temporarily officed out at the Juvenile Probation 12 offices. 13 There is an oversight board that we 14 established for that PDO. And that is made up of 11 15 people. Two from each County, except Kerr County that 16 has three, and Commissioner Letz and I serve on that 17 Board. And Judge Williams is the chairman of the Board. 18 And so you've got PDO and an oversight board. 19 But if you'll remember, we went -- we had 20 our own countywide committee to -- because this is the 21 second largest department that we have in the County now 22 with -- we'll have 31 employees by the time it's fully 23 staffed. And second only to the Sheriff's office. 24 So, this is a -- a big responsibility. And 25 we were trying to have it earlier, but we did have our 79 1 very first quarterly meeting of the oversight board here 2 just, what, a little over a week ago. Something like 3 that. And we're trying to figure out the relationships 4 between each of us. 5 And one of the things that I'm learning in 6 working with John Bull and Elizabeth Berry is we need 7 more liaising than what's afforded. And I'm not saying 8 this is a daily thing or a weekly thing necessarily. 9 But I don't know if y'all know, we do have reports from 10 Liaison positions every two weeks before the court, at 11 our regular meetings. And it's important for Kerr 12 County to stay on top of where we are with all of this. 13 And -- and the office is doing very well. 14 In fact, John, if you want to make a -- not particularly 15 on the agenda, but if you want to kind of just make a 16 snapshot of where we are, we're very impressed with it 17 but we're trying to learn how to manage this. And -- 18 and we've had a couple issue come up that we're going to 19 take on separate agenda items here, one on IT and one on 20 travel that we've had to work through. And we've got 21 everything worked through. It's all good. 22 This is just -- really at this point we need 23 to establish an official liaison position with the 24 office so that we can report on it on a regular basis. 25 And then we need to address these two issues. One is in 80 1 IT and one is with travel. So -- no alarms. Just 2 things that we need to do. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A couple of comments. 4 And I agree with Judge Kelly. I'll make a motion to 5 have him as Liaison, but I'd also ask that I be the 6 alternate or second liaison or whatever you want to call 7 it on that. Just because of the relationship. 8 But also would like to, you know, really 9 encourage -- I went out to the office and met a lot of 10 folks last week. I think it was last week. I'd 11 encourage, because it is a department, for everyone on 12 the Court to go out and familiarize themselves, you 13 know, with the staff out there. There's a lot -- a lot 14 of new employees. 15 Anyway. But I think it's a good -- a good 16 thing to do, and I'll make a motion to appoint Judge 17 Kelly as Liaison and myself as the alternate, or second 18 Liaison to that department. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 21 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 22 appoint Commissioner Letz and I to be the Liaisons for 23 the Public Defender's Office here in Kerr County. Any 24 discussion? 25 John, we want to welcome your discussion. 81 1 Anything you'd like to discuss with us before we vote on 2 that? 3 MR. BULL: No. Judge, I think the last time 4 I talked to y'all we were almost at 400 cases, we're at 5 700 cases now. We were contacted by Kendall County last 6 week about taking a couple of appeals. We have eight 7 full-time attorneys now. We've got all the -- most of 8 the support staff positions filled. We still have a lot 9 more attorneys that we're off-boarding over the next few 10 months. 11 I think I told y'all last time, all the 12 judges and courts have been really supportive about 13 sending us cases and getting us on board. So -- and 14 we're really excited. We're -- we're moving forward. 15 My -- my -- one of my personal heros was Chuck Yaeger 16 and he used to say that the cockpit rattled the most 17 right before you'd break the sound barrier, and so the 18 rattling is slowing down some and I think we're just 19 about at that point. 20 So -- and -- and what we're doing today and 21 with Judge Kelly and Commissioner Letz, this is -- this 22 is going to be good. So we're really looking forward to 23 it. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You just -- PDO is a 25 great thing. I think -- I've forgotten what we 82 1 projected, the savings to the County -- Kerr County 2 would be -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Fully staffed it -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Three hundred -- three 5 hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand or something 6 like that. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Three hundred some odd 8 thousand. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Per year. How 10 would we, at the end of the first year, be able to say, 11 this is what we estimated we saved over the old way of 12 doing it without a PDO? 13 MR. BULL: Well, we -- we have a quarterly 14 report we're required to file pursuant to the grant. 15 And -- and we have to list the number of cases we're 16 appointed on, the dispositions of the cases, things like 17 that. You can get a pretty good gauge just based on the 18 number of cases. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 20 MR. BULL: So if I tell you right now we've 21 already been appointed on 700 cases, if you do the math 22 on what your average court appointed cases would pay on 23 that, that's a substantial amount of money. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that's -- that's 25 what I was looking for. 83 1 MR. BULL: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just historically in 3 the past this is what it cost per case. I know it -- it 4 varies. But it would be really good metric to be able 5 to see something like that at the end of the year. 6 MR. BULL: The other advantage is because we 7 really want to maximize the funds from the grant that 8 we're getting from Austin. So those court appointed 9 fees would be coming straight out of your, I guess, 10 general fund or however you're paying it. And right 11 now, just to stay on staff salaries and things like 12 that, Austin is picking up 80 percent of that cost. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Right. 14 JUDGE KELLY: This year. 15 MR. BULL: Yeah. This year. And then 16 there's -- there's adjustments. I think -- and we'll 17 talk about that another time, about since the -- there 18 was kind of not a lot of activity that first quarter 19 'cuz I didn't come on board until January, and I think 20 we'll probably have that discussion with TIDC about 21 whether we extend that first year at least for a quarter 22 of -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It would be -- it would 24 be really interesting just to get a -- and I know it's 25 going to be an estimate, but here's what -- here's 84 1 what's been saved by doing it. We did that with 2 Veterans Service Officer. We said, okay, we'll try it. 3 And there was a potential to bring in more revenue to 4 the County, but bring in more benefits to the veterans 5 which is a win/win. And so we tried to track that 6 metric of how much has been additional revenues been 7 brought into the County and, therefore, more money to 8 the taxpayers as a result of that. So I think this PDO 9 is going to be a big savings. So some -- some vehicle 10 with that to me would be very interesting. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And they keep actual numbers 12 and -- and work closely with the Auditor. And I have 13 every confidence that once we get more of this under our 14 belt we're going to be able to crunch out some of those 15 analyses for you. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. Good deal. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Because I think it's going to 18 be pretty impressive. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think it would be 20 super impressive. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And also, savings don't 22 come just to Kerr County, does it? If this is a 23 cooperative -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So you're talking about 85 1 our -- our portion. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Our portion. Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And I -- I would add there's a 5 preview of issue to come. This thing is -- it has 6 exploded. It's grown a lot faster than what we really 7 anticipated and now we're running out of space over at 8 Juvenile Detention Facility, such that we're looking for 9 temporary office space. We're still on target it looks 10 like. 11 We're closing on 550 Earl Garrett. And 12 we're anxious and eager to get on up there and housed in 13 the building, but we may need to get some temporary 14 office space just to be able to put bodies because this 15 is really expanding. 16 So we need to have -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've got a motion and a 18 second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second. 20 Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero. 21 The next issue on there is 1.14, and that is 22 to consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 23 establish a travel policy for the Hill Country Regional 24 Public Defender's Office. 25 This came up through the Auditor's Office. 86 1 And I think that Miss Berry actually -- I think she 2 wrote the policy. I'm not sure. It was attached to 3 your e-mail. And we tweaked it a little bit to be 4 consistent with what we're doing in the other 5 departments and offices. 6 And just so that -- to remind everybody, our 7 tradition has been not to pay mileage for in-county 8 transportation. So -- but this is moving -- when you're 9 moving from Kerr County to Bandera County, you get 10 reimbursed. When you're moving from Kendall County 11 to -- to Hondo, Medina County, you get reimbursed for 12 that. You just don't get anything in the county where 13 you're -- you're -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So from the County line 15 to where you're going, is that what you're saying? 16 JUDGE KELLY: No. No. If it's from 17 courthouse to courthouse. But -- but we're not going to 18 try to do county lines. I mean, my gosh, that would 19 be -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if you go by -- 21 you're not going to pay within the County, but -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: Unless -- unless your 23 destination is outside the County. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 25 MR. BULL: That's understandable. 87 1 JUDGE KELLY: Which is what we do right now. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The same as for all 3 those departments off -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It should be. School 5 districts are that way. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is this -- and this is 7 consistent with travel policy for reimbursement for the 8 rest of the County? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- we sort of don't 11 have an actual policy for the County, which when we come 12 back at another time. We have a unwritten policy that 13 we've been following, but we are working and we'll be 14 bringing back the actual policy for everybody else. But 15 the PDO needs it now. 16 JUDGE KELLY: This is an opportunity for us 17 to get it standard. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And they wrote an excellent 20 policy. And the other thing that I would point out, 21 is -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 23 JUDGE KELLY: -- no one gets compensated 24 from their home to the office. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Okay. 88 1 JUDGE KELLY: Just like -- 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And Heather, we just 3 follow the state rates and guidelines for mileage, 4 right? 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. It's Federal. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That works. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we approve the 8 travel -- the travel policy for them. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 11 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 12 approve the travel policy for PDO as presented. Any 13 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 14 Unanimous, five zero. 15 The last item we have related to the PDO is 16 item 1.15, and that's to consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action regarding Information Technology 18 issues related to Hill Country Regional Public 19 Defender's Office. 20 Well, like when you start up anything new 21 you learn things. And I think everybody here is 22 familiar with the way the IT system is set up with the 23 county, which is server based. 24 We don't know what we're going to end up 25 doing with the entire properties over on Earl Garrett. 89 1 But we found that the case management program, the best 2 case management program that was available for the 3 Public Defender's Office is cloud based, not server 4 based, which has presented some unique problems. And I 5 guess at various points in time in the last couple 6 months, we have discussed and maybe even cussed these 7 issues trying to get it all teased out. 8 But the bottom line is that we've come up 9 with a recommendation to treat the IT needs for the 10 Public Defender's Office at 550 Earl Garrett the same as 11 we do Juvenile Probation. Juvenile Probation may or may 12 not know, it's not on our server. They have a computer 13 over there, I think actually two, that are compatible 14 and connected to our server and they use that for all 15 the official things, such as in code, timesheets, 16 budget, purchase orders. These types of things that 17 have to be done on the County system. 18 They have purchased already computers that 19 they're running through the cloud right now. Most of 20 them are using your own personal phones and computers at 21 this point. Been kind of a rough start to get it up. 22 But what we've worked out between the IT 23 department and the PDO department is just to do the same 24 thing we're doing over at Juvenile Probation. And they 25 can have their own domain name. They can run their 90 1 program, their case management programs on Computers 2 through the cloud based storage. And -- but anything 3 that has to come back -- the essential functions back 4 here at the County will come through a couple computers 5 that they'll have over there at their offices. And I've 6 worked out that agreement for everybody on this, so I 7 think this is a win/win on this. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The Juvenile Probation, 9 is that what you said, uses -- the system you just 10 described, is it cloud based? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And they -- and in fact, they 14 don't use their own domain name over there, they 15 actually use yahoo.com for their e-mails. Now they do 16 have -- they still e-mail us officially on the 17 co.kerr.tx.us on the computer that they have that are in 18 our service system, which will be the same thing for the 19 PDO. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so Bruce and IT 21 Department think this is the way to go? 22 MR. MOTHERAL: (Shaking head affirmatively.) 23 JUDGE KELLY: Yep. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And I will -- 91 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Bruce? Can -- can I 2 ask him a question? If you'll come in. I'd -- what I'd 3 like to know is, and we went through this before with 4 KCAD and it was about security at the courthouse. Do 5 you have any concerns about that at all? 6 MR. MOTHERAL: Negative. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. That's all I 8 need to know, that we have a firewall to protect it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the -- and the 10 big reason for this is that they're dealing with four 11 other counties. And they have -- and their attorneys 12 have to be able to access this data from those four 13 counties when they're in Court. And this is the way 14 that enables them to do it and keeps our security where 15 it needs to be. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's good. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: And I want to compliment John 19 and Elizabeth, as well as Bruce. We've all worked 20 together to get this thing worked out. And when we had 21 an oversight board meeting maybe a week or so ago, we 22 actually put together a subcommittee that we didn't have 23 to utilize because we worked it out here locally again. 24 So this is just -- these are just growing pains. 25 Everybody's playing nice. It's all good. 92 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, what -- how do 2 we -- do we need a motion for this? I'm just trying to 3 figure out looking at this agenda item, we know what 4 they're doing. I'm not sure how we would word what we 5 want them to do and I don't recall that we ever had a 6 motion for Juvenile Probation -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think we did. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- for them to do it 9 either, so do we need one? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think they've got the 11 authority to do it. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: I think they have the 13 authority to do it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the policy is that 15 everything goes through IT. And what we're doing here 16 is making an exception to that because of the 17 circumstances. So I think we'll need -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's still -- it's 19 still going through IT in a certain way, it's just IT is 20 not doing their unique -- 21 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think we have a 22 written policy either, and I mean similarly other 23 departments could choose to have their own IT to do it 24 themselves, so -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The other question I 93 1 have is that we have five counties involved in this. We 2 have -- is our IT Department going to maintain it? And 3 if so, do the other counties pay for that? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, they -- sure. 5 Just like the rent and air-conditioning and everything 6 else. 7 JUDGE KELLY: It's a simple explanation. 8 And the Judge is ready to give them. The simple version 9 of this is IT will be responsible for those computers 10 that are on the server system, and troubleshooting. But 11 for the system that they're using that is cloud based, 12 that is a PDO responsibility, to be paid for and shared 13 by all five counties. Right, Jonathan? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not by our IT. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I get it. But now 17 you -- but there are always problems. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, he's here to -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So are you going to -- 20 are you going to have your IT guy, John? 21 MR. BULL: Well, the -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: For now? 23 MR. BULL: -- the case management system 24 we've used, they provide the support for that. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 94 1 MR. BULL: For example. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So they would send 3 somebody? 4 MR. BULL: Yeah. We'd call -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's how -- that's on 6 contract? 7 MR. BULL: -- the 1-800 line or however you 8 would do it. And then just like when we purchased the 9 computers, you know, so we -- we, you know, maximized 10 the use of the grant. We bought all the computers for 11 the office, about $20,000. TIDC is paying 80 percent of 12 that cost. So -- and then same thing, the case 13 management system was 14 seven. And they're paying 80 14 percent of that as well, so -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: And to clarify, what John's 16 saying is absolutely correct. But here's the way it 17 works. Kerr County pays for it. Okay. The purchase 18 order comes to the County. And they're processed 19 through the Auditor's Office. And then we apply TIDC 20 because this is a reimbursement. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's reimbursement. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We get reimbursed. And they 23 reimburse us for the 80 percent and then we bill out the 24 others. And the way we set our Interlocal Agreement's 25 up is we have it amortized by month of what we expected 95 1 those costs to be. So actually -- and we've actually 2 billed and been paid. I don't -- have all the counties 3 paid? I know several have. 4 MRS. SHELTON: Several have. 5 JUDGE KELLY: But -- but what John said is 6 exactly what's happening, we just have multiple steps to 7 get there. And that's -- that's part of -- we have to 8 work these little steps out as we go. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm just thinking 10 about the practical part of it. Because what John 11 mentioned is they have support. The support contract 12 comes with what you purchase with your software and the 13 rest of it. And practical day-to-day, somebody running 14 over there and fixing something, if that's our IT 15 Department then, you know, everybody needs to understand 16 that that's the way it works. 17 And everybody in the courthouse and at the 18 Sheriff's Department needs to understand that's one more 19 place that our IT guy has to be. One more person you're 20 in line behind. So I'm just talking about the practical 21 stuff here. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and -- and just so that 23 we -- we're focused on that detail of practicality, it's 24 only on the two computers that are hooked up to this 25 server. And anything on the other -- the rest of the 96 1 system goes through the PDO. And we've had good 2 cooperation from all five counties. Medina County, by 3 the way, outsources their IT. And we've been -- 4 provided names to Bruce to be able to interface with 5 that so that we have somebody that we can draw on to 6 come in and help if they have problems over there that 7 are not within the scope of what his responsibility is. 8 But the thing about it is, it's all being 9 coordinated with all -- with everybody. We lay it all 10 out on the table, that's why we're coming here to you 11 all, to tell you what we're doing and why. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 13 JUDGE KELLY: It's just transparent. So I 14 don't know if we need a motion or not. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think so. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't think so. 17 JUDGE KELLY: You have the authority and we 18 approve. And -- we like the way everything is and so 19 we're just affirming that we've got all this out in the 20 open and worked out. So thank you. 21 MR. BULL: Thank you. 22 MS. BERRY: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to work on that 25 temporary office space. 97 1 Okay. Last thing on the Consideration 2 Agenda that I have is 1.16 consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action to update the job description for the 4 Indigent Services Clerk position. Miss Doss. 5 MRS. DOSS: Good morning again. Yes. My 6 Indigent Services Clerk will be retiring and in lieu of 7 changing -- 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Jennifer, can you 9 speak up a little louder? I'm sorry. 10 MRS. DOSS: Sorry. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 12 MRS. DOSS: My Indigent Services Clerk will 13 be retiring very soon. And in the transition between 14 hiring a new person, I'd like to update the job 15 description to be 50 percent Indigent Health and 50 16 percent HR assistance. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think to me it makes 18 sense. I visited with Jennifer about this and it allows 19 her a little more flexibility how she operates the 20 office. And remember, she is getting -- this will be 21 now two new employees in the next couple months. Cindi's 22 going out to Road & Bridge. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And just to refresh 24 everybody's recollection on top of what he's saying, 25 this is what the outgoing indigent health employee 98 1 wanted to do, and wanted to be able to work into an HR 2 position, but we never changed the job description. So 3 with this opportunity, we sat down with Jennifer and 4 said this is -- this is the time to go ahead and make 5 it, so -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: And she's working with all 7 of the new employees for the PDO, so that's a lot more 8 HR work that comes into play. Just -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make -- 10 MRS. STEBBINS: -- it's that important. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- a motion to approve 12 the updated job description for the HR Department for 13 the Indigent Services Clerk position. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 17 approve the job description change for the Indigent 18 Services Clerk in the HR Department. Any other 19 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 20 five zero. 21 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Okay. Approval 23 Agenda. Pay the bills. 24 MRS. SHELTON: Good morning. Invoices for 25 approval amount to $750,295.14. 99 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 5 approve paying the bills as presented. Any further 6 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 7 five zero. 8 Budget amendments? Mr. Robles. 9 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have six today. All 10 line item transfers within their department. One for 11 Road & Bridge, 198the DA, 216th DA, HR, Sheriff and 12 Agriculture Extension Office. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 17 approve the budget amendment as presented. Is there any 18 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 19 five zero. Late bills. 20 MRS. SHELTON: We have one late bill. It's 21 for $12,532.00. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move that we approve the 23 late bill. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 100 1 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 2 approve the late bill as presented. Is there any 3 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 4 five zero. 5 Auditor reports? 6 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We performed an 7 internal audit on the Animal Services -- Animal Control 8 Services department. We've issued our report and we 9 just ask that you accept the report. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it part of the 11 monthly bills or will it be? Or not monthly bills; 12 monthly reports? 13 MRS. SHELTON: No. 14 MRS. GRINSTEAD: No. These were e-mailed 15 earlier. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So we don't need 17 separate action on this then? 18 MRS. GRINSTEAD: We do. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, we do? Oh, okay. 20 I'll make a motion that we accept the monthly -- the 21 Auditor's report for the Animal Control Services. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 24 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 25 approve the audit report for Animal Control Services. 101 1 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 2 Unanimous, five zero. 3 Monthly reports. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Amended reports 5 from Animal Control Services for the month of October 6 2020, November 2020, December 2020, January 2021, 7 February 2021. Fines, judgments and jury fees collected 8 for March 2021, J.P. 4, Bill Ragsdale, Animal Control 9 Services for March 2021, Director Reagan Givens. I move 10 for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 14 approve the monthly reports as presented. Is there any 15 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 16 five zero. Court orders. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have court 18 orders from our April 12th meeting, the 38649 through 19 38677, and from our April 19th meeting, Court Order 20 38678. 21 We have a slight change in Court Order 22 38658, related to the backup settlement disbursement. 23 And I think it would be appropriate to add the amount of 24 that so we added at the end of that, which amounts to 25 $32,068.79 so it's clear to the public. And with that, 102 1 I'll make the change and make a motion to approve. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 5 approve the Court Orders as presented with the revision. 6 Okay. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 7 Five zero, unanimous. 8 Information agenda. 3.1 status reports from 9 Department Heads. Charlie. 10 MR. HASTINGS: Hey. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Made you wait the whole time 12 this time. 13 MR. HASTINGS: That's right. Last week on 14 Thursday our contractor, Edmund Jenschke, was grading 15 Roy Street and they're getting the drainage fixed. 16 There's an area that has always been a problem and this 17 is the time to fix it, and got a little too close to a 18 gas service. Clipped the service. 19 It did bend it and they called Atmos 20 immediately. Atmos came out and got the situation 21 resolved very quickly. They -- there wasn't an 22 evacuation but as you know when these things happen 23 there's a lot of precautions that have to be taken. The 24 contractor has to just stop his equipment right where 25 it's at, turn it off, get out and get away. And anyone 103 1 that's in the area has to be told, don't go anywhere 2 near. 3 So there were some folks on Jonas and at the 4 end of Roy Street, they were not allowed to leave. And 5 the reason is that Roy Street right there is very 6 narrow. The motor grader that clipped the line was in 7 the way. Atmos trucks were in the way. They had a 8 backhoe. They had to unearth the main and -- and get 9 that service cut off until they could put a new one in. 10 A lot of folks don't realize that the gas 11 lines are steel and in order to -- you have to have a 12 welder come out and weld a new cap onto the top of the 13 steel line, which that -- and you've got to wait until a 14 welder shows up. But I can tell you, Atmos had their 15 game on. They don't have a welder that has an Atmos 16 badge on. He doesn't work for Atmos, but he -- he's an 17 independent welder that is certified to do their work. 18 And they have a number of them. And they had one come 19 out and the guy got on it right away. 20 As a matter of fact, while he was doing his 21 welding, I went down the street and talked to one of the 22 workers who was having to turn people back and say I'm 23 sorry -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: I want entry. 25 MR. HASTINGS: You -- you can't go down this 104 1 street. We had someone -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You notice how he went 3 down the street. 4 MR. HASTINGS: We had someone who -- who 5 needed to get to work. They couldn't leave. And I 6 think they had their boss on the line, and hey, she 7 really cannot leave, boss. She's gotta stay home. We 8 need to be safe. 9 But the whole situation, I think they had 10 everything back in order within four hours. Three or 11 four hours of -- from when the incident started. It was 12 handled very professionally. Very quickly. The 13 contractor got back to work in the afternoon, after 14 lunch, and got back on schedule. So that's -- that's 15 what happened on Thursday. 16 And you know, those things are just a good 17 learning experience for everyone to see how the process 18 works and talk to the contractor kind of out of, okay, 19 what can we do different next time to prevent this from 20 happening? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How deep was the gas 22 line? 23 MR. HASTINGS: Two feet. So the service -- 24 the tap on top of the gas line -- it's a two-inch gas 25 line. The tap sticks up about six inches. And now 105 1 you've got a service about 18 inches deep. And that -- 2 unfortunately, that's how deep the lines were installed 3 years ago. 4 I think there's a minimum of at least three 5 feet and maybe more for a gas line and I can't remember, 6 there's a specific code. But we all know they're 7 shallow. Everybody knows that they're shallow and we've 8 got to take extra precautions to try to avoid these 9 things from happening. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Happy ending. 11 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, it was. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well done. Well done. Any 13 other department heads? Status reports from Elected 14 Officials? Move on then to status reports from Liaison 15 Commissioners. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For one, the airport 17 and the Sheriff has been involved in that. We've had -- 18 stop me if I'm wrong, Sheriff. Some things out at the 19 airport that had to do with safety, and it's individuals 20 spotlighting airplanes with high intensity lights to 21 cause problems for pilots, including Air Evac. 22 Airport -- President of Airport Board contacted the 23 Sheriff, said we've got to take action on this 24 immediately. 25 With that, Sheriff took action. And 106 1 Sheriff, why don't you tell us what happened there. But 2 it -- it could have been a really dangerous situation 3 that was corrected. 4 SHERIFF LEITHA: Was stopped. Basically, 5 you stop -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Basic information. 7 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, basic information. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: We will be prosecuting it. 9 SHERIFF LEITHA: My office was contacted by 10 the President of the Airport Board. Some spotlighting 11 incident. A pilot was coming in from Air Life to land. 12 I believe he was using night vision. A -- I guess I'd 13 say cubing was used to flash and kind of blinded him. 14 My understanding it's kind of abort, try to 15 get his eyesight back together and can't even land. At 16 that time he was spotlighted again. They were able to 17 film it pretty much that second time. Then that was 18 reported to us and within 24-hours we were able to 19 conduct an investigation and identify a second party. 20 Both parties were arrested and placed in 21 jail. And it could have been real dangerous but, you 22 know, we were able to take care of that. And you know, 23 if it continues on, about all we can do is just continue 24 to re-arrest them. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But good cooperation 107 1 between the airport board and the Sheriff and so forth, 2 so -- 3 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and I think we ought to 5 emphasize this is truly dangerous. 6 SHERIFF LEITHA: Very, very dangerous. Yes. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And my understanding is there 8 are some adjacent landowners that did this? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Don't go that far. 10 SHERIFF LEITHA: To some extent, my 11 understanding it's been going on for like three years. 12 But that's the first time -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And this is for public 14 information use. 15 SHERIFF LEITHA: You know, it's been going 16 on for three years, but I guess it's evolved to this 17 extent where, like I said, they kind of have to abort 18 and regroup and come back in for a landing a little bit 19 more east. But the -- the lights were still flashing at 20 them. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I just want to make it clear 22 that I support your enforcement efforts. 23 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: It's too dangerous for the 25 public. 108 1 SHERIFF LEITHA: It is. It could have been 2 really bad. Thank God we were able to deal with that. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We had a pilot killed 4 over the weekend in Texas. A plane crash out near the 5 coast. 6 JUDGE KELLY: We don't need to have anybody 7 contributing to the danger of flying. 8 SHERIFF LEITHA: That's correct. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So, any other status reports? 10 I don't think we have anything for Executive Session. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think so either. 12 JUDGE KELLY: So we are adjourned. 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 109 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Court Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify 6 that the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise 7 a true and correct transcription of the proceedings had 8 in the above-entitled Regular Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 5th day of May, A.D. 2021. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2021 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25