1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, June 28, 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(via phone) 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Visitor's Comments. 5 4 *** Commissioner's Comments. 7 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action regarding Resolution opposing 6 the Federal Government's "30 x 30" land preservation goal. 7 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 8 action to approve Information Technology (IT) consultant and scope of work. 9 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 49 10 action to approve the Subscription Agreement and Agreement Addendum with Lexis Nexis for 11 the Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 12 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 51 13 action on status of Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office Grant Application 14 for FY 2021/2022. 15 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 action on Hill Country Regional Public 16 Defender's Office leasing of property located at 550 Earl Garret Street, 17 Kerrville, TX. 18 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 60 action for the Commissioners' Court 19 approval to sealcoat the parking lot area at the Divide School located at 121 Divide 20 School Rd. NW, Mountain Home, Tx 78058-1107. 21 1.13 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 63 Packsaddle Acres, Lots 10-17, Volume 3, Page 22 55. 23 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 63 action for the Court to approve a revision 24 of plat for Packsaddle Acres, Lots 10-17, Volume 3, Page 55. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.15 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 65 R.H. Ranch Lot 8, Volume 3, Page 84. 4 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 5 action for the Court to approve a revision of plat for R.H. Ranch Lot 8, Volume 3, Page 6 84. 7 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 67 action for the Court to approve a revision 8 of plat for Estates at Turtle Creek Section Two, Lots 39 and 40, Volume 6, Page 241. 9 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 10 action regarding the public notice for Kerr County Park closures. 11 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 70 12 action regarding contract with TotalCom Management to upgrade the fire panel 13 monitoring system in the courthouse. 14 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 action to approve a $500.00 donation from 15 Direct Fluids, LLC for the Sheriff's Special Response Team Fund, 72-370-530. 16 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 17 action to approve a $850.00 donation from Cecil Atkission Motors for the Sheriff's 18 Special Response Team Fund, 72-370-530. 19 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 72 action to approve a $25.00 donation from a 20 citizen for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund, 72-370-531. 21 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 72 22 action to reappoint Marie Hardy to the Emergency Services District #2 (ESD #2) 23 Board for an additional two-year term. 24 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 73 action to eliminate additional step 25 increase for certain certifications. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 75 action to eliminate car allowances for all 4 offices. 5 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 82 action to change vacation time and sick 6 time to Paid Time Off. 7 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 89 action to approve the revised longevity plan. 8 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 95 9 action to approve a payroll market adjustment plan. 10 1.23 Passed. 98 11 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 100 12 action to cancel the current merit pay policy. 13 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 103 14 action to accept a donation of $500.00 from a citizen to be added to operating equipment 15 line in item 10-642-569. 16 2.1 Pay Bills. 104 17 2.2 Budget Amendments. 104 18 2.3 Late Bills. 105 19 2.4 Auditor Reports. 105 20 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 106 21 2.6 Court Orders. 106 22 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 107 23 *** Adjournment. 109 24 *** Reporter's Certificate. 110 25 * * * * * * 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. Kerr County 2 Commissioners' Court is now in session. It is Monday, 3 June the 28th, 2021, nine o'clock in the morning. If 4 you would, please rise for the prayer and the pledge, 5 which will be led by Commissioner Letz. 6 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. Welcome 8 everyone. We've got a busy day. We've got our regular 9 Commissioners' Court meeting and then we have a budget 10 workshop. And just letting everybody know, I've got a 11 heavy juvenile docket at 1:30, so -- I can't miss, so -- 12 But the first part of the meeting is always 13 public input. This is where we invite the public to 14 offer any input to the Court that you'd like to. We'd 15 ask you to limit your remarks to three minutes if you 16 want to do that. And if there's something you want to 17 talk about that is on the agenda, we ask that you wait 18 until that agenda item is called rather than using 19 public input time. So public input is for things that 20 are not on the agenda. So, is there anyone from the 21 public that would like to offer input to the Court? 22 This is Mark Mosier and he's the President 23 of our Airport Board. 24 DR. MOSIER: Thank you, Judge, 25 Commissioners. I come to you, I guess as a concerned 6 1 citizen and also as President of the Airport Board. 2 It's been all over the media the last few days, and the 3 reason I bring it up now and we can discuss it further 4 in the budget workshop that there's been a large need at 5 the legislative level in funding that affected five 6 communities, including ours and Fredericksburg. And it 7 has to do with a pullback on the previously budgeted 8 funds for the budgeted year we're currently discussing. 9 And that's $1.8 million to our airport where we have a 10 10 percent match. 11 So the message I'm getting now is to just 12 stay put. I've had a lengthy conversation, including 13 the Director of Aviation of DOT and they're trying to 14 get these funds back. About $15 million went to Odessa 15 for the border security. They're going to lengthen the 16 runways, build a large hangar there, invest in the 17 airport. Not Midland, but Odessa Airport. 18 And anyway, my -- my message now is don't 19 change our budget. Stay put, and we're working on it. 20 The Judge at Fredericksburg has already drafted a 21 letter, and we're going to be doing similar at the board 22 level. So, if you read anything about it, just know 23 it's in process and we're going to get that back. 24 Thank you. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And for those of you that 7 1 don't know, we have Commissioner Harris, who's under the 2 weather. He is on -- available by speakerphone, so he 3 is present with us and is communicating. Any other 4 public input? Thank you. 5 And let's move on to Commissioner's Comments 6 and we'll start with Precinct 1. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just happy to get the 8 rain. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A good amount of rain 11 in Precinct 2. 12 And an announcement. Effective July 23rd, 13 I'm going to retire. And the reason I'm going to retire 14 is because I'm selling my ranch and I bought another 15 house and it's not in Precinct 2, so therefore according 16 to State Law, I can no longer be County Commissioner, if 17 this all goes through. So anyway, there will be a -- 18 more details and a press release on that but just give 19 everybody a heads up. 20 And the other thing is in Precinct 2 a lot 21 of chatter about new developments, Verde Creek Ranch, 22 number one. People are concerned about that five acre 23 lot. They want it to be 25 acre lots. Okay. Some of 24 the surrounding neighbors. 25 In Center Point Village, a lot of chatter 8 1 there about -- it's too dense of development. Okay. 2 And the biggest concern is water. And so as everybody 3 recalls, neither one of these things move forward unless 4 they demonstrate -- especially in Center Point Village, 5 unless they demonstrate availability in the water 6 sufficient to supply those homes. So this will come 7 forward. 8 But anyway, just a lot of -- a lot of 9 chatter and letters to the editor and ads and all that 10 kind of stuff. The thing is, we'll look at all those 11 things and follow the law and go from there, so that's 12 it. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just follow-up a 15 little bit on your comments, Commissioner. One, sorry 16 to see you leave. 17 But second, on water availability. Water 18 availability studies are mandated by the water code. 19 It's not something that's just an arbitrary, is there 20 water there? There's very strict rules in the water 21 code as to what that means. So people that want to look 22 at what that means, they're welcome to go to the water 23 code. I can't remember the section right now, but 24 that's where the language is that was enacted by the 25 legislature and that governs what water availability 9 1 actually is. 2 Other than that, yeah, we've had a couple of 3 rains unexpected. Again last night we had a shower. 4 Temperatures are well below normal for this time of 5 year, which is really nice. Everything looks good. 6 That's it. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Harris. Do you 8 have anything you'd like to report on Precinct 4? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. I missed out on 10 the showers last night but we're just blessed so far, I 11 think. 12 One thing I want to mention is, for me 13 anyway, that it's hard to believe that this Sunday will 14 be the 4th of July already. Feels like this year is 15 drifting by. And I want to encourage people to enjoy 16 their Independence Day and celebrate accordingly and 17 wear your red, white and blue. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, and speaking of 20 that, one thing I would add. Comfort has a very large, 21 for a small town, parade. A lot of people in Kerrville 22 attend it. It's a lot of fun. It's a small town 23 U.S.A. putting on a 4th of July. Got everything from 24 fire trucks and people just walking, and old tractors 25 and cars and all kinds of stuffs. Bands and dancers. 10 1 So it's a lot of fun. It goes down High Street. It is 2 Saturday, I believe it's starting at 10:00. But I'm not 3 positive, check on the time. It usually starts at 4 10:00. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Countywide, the only 6 thing that I would like to report is we've had a lot of 7 talk about our Public Defender's Office. We had our 8 oversight board meeting last week and all of our issues 9 are resolved. They will be leasing the entire building 10 at 550 Earl Garrett. Both the top floor and the bottom 11 floor. And that will be at market rate and that will be 12 somewhere in the neighbor order of almost $90,000 a year 13 of rent that will be paid to Kerr County out of PDO. 14 And I want to remind everybody that's 31 15 employees. That's the goal. I think currently they 16 told us, I wrote it down, we have 24 right now in that 17 Public Defender's Office and they have four more coming 18 here within the next couple of months, which will take 19 us up to 28. So the goal is 31 and we're almost fully 20 staffed. 21 And remind everyone this is five counties. 22 It's Bandera, Medina, Kendall, Gillespie, and Kerr. And 23 it's housed half a block down here just to the north. 24 So we're relieved to have all that in place. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's working very 11 1 well from the judicial side. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and -- yeah, just on 3 that status report, they told us that they have 1,552 4 case assignments already. They have already disposed of 5 169 cases. It is truly incredible what they're doing. 6 And it's going to save all counties a whole lot of money 7 on indigent defense. 8 And for those that don't remember, we have 9 -- the first year we -- we're finishing out our first 10 year grant, which is an 80/20 match. The State of Texas 11 actually gave us $2.5 million for the five counties to 12 do this. The first time the State's ever helped us on 13 indigent defense. Well, no -- we did get a small token 14 every year. It's like 50,000. 15 But, this is -- this is -- and the other 16 thing about this PDO, we are the talk of the State. In 17 fact, we're even the talk of the nation. That five 18 counties have gotten together and we're doing this and 19 we're saving taxpayers a lot of money and providing our 20 constitutional obligations to provide these people 21 defense. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You make it sound like 23 it was really smooth and easy. 24 JUDGE KELLY: No, it wasn't. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think we've just 12 1 touched on the fact that we proved that it's not. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, you know, once the plane 3 has landed, we don't have to worry about the bumpy ride. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Has it landed? 5 JUDGE KELLY: It's landed. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that, we'll move 8 on to our Consideration Agenda item 1.1 is to consider, 9 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 10 Resolution opposing the Federal Government's "30 by 30" 11 land preservation goal. Commissioner Harris, you have 12 the floor. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you. 14 I want to say that the 30 by 30 idea is nothing to do 15 but -- 16 COURT REPORTER: Could you turn that up, 17 please? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stand by. We're trying 19 to turn up the volume. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- as far as what is 21 coming forward with this. And I got my -- 22 COURT REPORTER: He needs to speak up. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- right off the bat 24 and -- 25 COURT REPORTER: I can't hear him. 13 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But anyway, after 2 looking at this -- started working on a Resolution 3 pertaining to this and protecting property rights, 4 especially here in the Hill Country. We looked at 5 several things. We threw it back and forth. I even 6 sent it to Harley Belew and he looked at it. He had a 7 concern about everything on -- on -- he had concern 8 about one item. We addressed that. 9 And now I think the Resolution that we came 10 up with really fits us to the tee. It fits Kerr County. 11 I think it fits much of Texas. And so with that, I'm 12 going to turn it over -- I'm probably on speaker and -- 13 (inaudible) -- talk about it. I have tossed the 14 feedback on this and so I'm excited to present it. And 15 I asked Ms. Hall if she would read it for us today. And 16 I guess she's there. I hope so. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She is. 18 JUDGE KELLY: She is. Miss Hall. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And so I'm going to 20 turn it over to some other people and let them talk. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Harris, 22 this is Commissioner Letz. I met with Miss Hall briefly 23 before the meeting and I did have two minor 24 modifications to that Resolution. And I think she was 25 agreeable with both of them. The -- the last whereas as 14 1 to wording so it will read, placing private lands into 2 permanent conservation status, without the private 3 property owner's consent, will cause dramatic and 4 irreversible harm to the economy of many states, 5 including Texas. Adding the language, "without the 6 private property owner's consent." 7 And the reason for that is there are 8 conservation easements that have various forms. Some 9 people choose to do them; not many. But that is that. 10 And then on the other -- on item 2, under 11 the "NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED", the first line 12 would read, The County further opposes designation of 13 Federal lands in Kerr County as wilderness. Adding the 14 word "Federal" there, and that is because there are -- 15 one Kerr wildlife management area that is a state 16 property that has limited access because it's a research 17 facility. They also allow the public onto it, but the 18 key here is Federal. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Miss Hall was okay 21 with both of those. Miss Hall, do you want to read the 22 resolution? 23 MRS. HALL: Sure. Should I read it with 24 those changes? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 15 1 MRS. HALL: Okay. All right. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, first of all, identify 3 yourself. 4 MRS. HALL: Yes. Good morning. I'm Terry 5 Hall. And today I get to say I'm representing a new 6 group here in Kerr County. It's We the People, Liberty 7 in Action. And I'm also representing our statewide 8 group, Texans United For Freedom, which is a long-time 9 group that has fought for private property rights around 10 the State, usually related to transportation, but 11 certainly as it relates to this because we feel like 12 it's very much like the Trans-Texas Corridor in a way 13 and that is the land grab. So with that, I will read 14 the Resolution. 15 WHEREAS, Kerr County is a legal and 16 political subdivision of the State of Texas for which 17 the County Commissioners is authorized to act; and 18 WHEREAS, Kerr County contains approximately 19 about 708,506 acres of land situated in Central Texas; 20 and 21 WHEREAS, the well-being, health, safety, 22 welfare, economic condition, and culture of the County, 23 its businesses, and its citizens depend on private land 24 ownership and the use of these resource; and 25 WHEREAS, many of Kerr County's business and 16 1 its citizens are involved in or otherwise depend on 2 industries that utilize private lands and their 3 resources, including farming, ranching, exotic wildlife 4 production, hunting, youth camps, and other outdoor 5 recreation; and 6 WHEREAS, in Section 216 of Executive Order 7 14008, President Biden directed the Secretary of the 8 Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of 9 Agriculture and other senior officials, to develop a 10 program to conserve at least 30 percent of the lands and 11 waters in the United States by 2030, which is called the 12 "30 by 30" program ('America the Beautiful' or similar 13 successor program); and 14 WHEREAS, under 30 by 30 program, some 680 15 million acres of our Nation's lands would be set aside 16 and permanently preserved in its natural state, 17 preventing the productive use of these lands and their 18 resources; and 19 WHEREAS, there is no constitutional or 20 statutory authority for the President, the Department of 21 the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, or any 22 other federal agency to set aside and permanently 23 preserve 30 percent of all land and water of the United 24 States, and no such authority is referenced in Executive 25 Order 14008; and 17 1 WHEREAS, placing private lands into 2 permanent conservation status without private property 3 owner's consent will cause dramatic and irreversible 4 harm to the economies of many states, including Texas, 5 and in particular rural counties such as Kerr County 6 whose citizens depend on private lands for their 7 livelihoods; and 8 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the County 9 Commissioners of Kerr County, Texas, that: 10 1. The county opposes the 30 by 30 program, 11 including its objective of permanently preserving 30 12 percent of the Nation's lands in its natural state by 13 2030, or any similar program that will set aside and 14 prevent the productive use of millions of acres of our 15 lands. 16 2. The county further opposes the 17 designation of Federal lands in Kerr County as 18 wilderness, wilderness study areas, wildlife preserves, 19 open space, or other conservation land, thereby 20 restricting public access to such lands and preventing 21 the development and productive use of the resources on 22 or within such lands. 23 3. The county recognizes and supports the 24 State of Texas' water rights system, appropriation or 25 rule of capture, and other state laws and programs 18 1 governing water rights and water use, and opposes any 2 federal designation of waters and watercourses within 3 the County that would impair or restrict water 4 diversions and uses authorized under Texas law. 5 5. The county also maintains that any land 6 or other rights that are acquired to fulfill the 7 30 by 30 program's objectives should be acquired only 8 from willing landowners for the payment of full and fair 9 market value for all rights and interests acquired, and 10 not through regulatory compulsion. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Commissioner Letz, I'm 13 sorry, but I didn't fully catch that first tweak that 14 you wanted to make to that. The last whereas. Could 15 you restate that again? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. It's placing 17 private lands in the permanent conservation status 18 without the private property owner's consent will cause 19 dramatic. So it's adding, "without the private property 20 owner's consent," after the word "status". 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree with that. I 22 agree with that. And the second thing that you had, I 23 understand completely. And with those changes, 24 modifications, I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 1 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 2 Commission Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 3 approve the Resolution as presented. Discussion? 4 The one thing, that I would recommend that 5 you be included in this is in your first whereas, and 6 down in the now, therefore, should identify Kerr County 7 Commissioners' Court because it is a Commissioners' 8 Court, it's not the commissioners individually so much 9 as it is the court. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And I would probably go ahead 12 and put Kerr County on there as well, Miss Hall. So 13 that makes it clear that it is this Court that will be 14 passing this Resolution. So I would make that proposed 15 addition. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where would you add -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Where it says -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which the Kerr County -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: At the end of the first 20 sentence, which the Kerr -- add "Kerr" County 21 Commissioners, and then right after Commissioners put 22 "court." 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And do that in the Resolution 25 part too. And then that way we have it clear. 20 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It should be 3 grammatically correct also. 4 JUDGE KELLY: I know. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm good as well. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I can't help it. I'm sorry. 7 I'm a wordsmith to the end. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Be more specific about 9 the County. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And we have other people that 11 want to speak on this. And I thank you, Miss Hall. 12 I have Rich Paten. If you would identify 13 yourself and where you live in the County. 14 MR. PATEN: Yes, sir. My name is Rich 15 Paten. I'm a resident of Center Point. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 MR. PATEN: Federal conservation mandates 18 have no constitutional basis and have a potential to 19 devastate the Texas economy. Federal 30 percent 20 conservation goal would interfere with the State's 21 constitutional and traditional power over land and water 22 uses. This is Federal overreach and we must oppose it 23 and protect the County's land and water for the people 24 of our County. 25 Conservation easements have been identified 21 1 by the Biden administration as a primary tool that will 2 be used to place more private land under the 30 by 30 3 federal initiative. The administration has stated that 4 12 percent of America's lands are currently permanently 5 protected in identified areas such as wilderness, 6 national parks and conservation easements in perpetuity 7 on private lands as a classification within this 8 category. 9 All conservation and preservation easements 10 should receive a special use permit from the County 11 which can be denied if they conflict with County plan. 12 It is critical that Kerr County exercise this authority 13 to protect the tax base and prevent further encroachment 14 of federal ties that can impair our usage plans. 15 I therefore ask the Commissioners' Court to 16 pass the resolution to protect our county from this 17 outright stealing of private property by the Federal 18 Government and prohibit County agencies from using 19 discretionary funds or staff support for private 20 involvement of perpetual conservation easements. Thank 21 you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. The next person I 23 have that's requested to speak is Ron Campbell. 24 MR. CAMPBELL: Yes. My name is Ron Campell. 25 I'm a resident here in Kerrville and I want to express 22 1 my -- my hope that you all pass this Resolution to 2 protect landowners from losing their land. I've been a 3 rancher and a landowner for many years of my life. And 4 I just cannot see how we can allow such a land grab to 5 happen in this country. I support this Resolution 100 6 percent. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Next I have Brian 8 McDonald (sic). 9 MR. MCDOWELL: Yes. Hello, my name is Brian 10 Mcdowell. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, Mcdowell. I apologize. 12 MR. MCDOWELL: That's fine, sir. I live 13 here in Kerrville and I'm in support of the Resolution. 14 I don't believe that we should have any Federal 15 interference in Texas, in our County, especially when it 16 comes to our water and our lands. 17 Let us -- let us as citizens and land owners 18 and whatever go ahead and -- and govern all that. So I 19 just wanted to say that I'm in support of the 20 Resolution. Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. And I apologize, 22 Mr. Mcdowell. 23 MR. MCDOWELL: That's fine. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Any other comments or 25 discussion? The only thing that I would add is, and I 23 1 think you'll probably get unanimous support of this 2 Resolution, but there's really nothing we can do at this 3 point other than voice our opinion. And that's what 4 this Resolution is intended to do. 5 And as a court, I encourage us to stand 6 together and express our opinion that this is something 7 that we do not want to see happen, but we understand 8 Washington is going to make the decision, not us. But 9 here we are. 10 So with that, I'll ask for a vote. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Judge, let me say 12 something real quick. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree with you. But 15 I also say that we could give our legislators courage to 16 stand up when they see us standing up like this, as well 17 as other counties. And I think this is going to kind of 18 have a mushroom affect and, like I say, give our 19 legislators some courage to stand up and protect us. So 20 that's what it's all about I think. That's all I got. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 22 in favor raise your hand or say aye. Aye. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. Thank 25 you. 24 1 And then we'll incorporate those little 2 minor revisions and have it signed and posted. 3 Next item on the agenda -- let's see. I'm 4 looking for my IT -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He was out in the 6 hallway when I came in. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We have -- we have a visitor. 8 Bruce, are you out there? 9 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes, sir. 10 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to go ahead and call 11 1.11 because we do have somebody who is here from out of 12 town to address the Court, and I understand that you 13 have exigent circumstances that you need to return as 14 soon as possible? 15 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. Thank you. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And please identify yourself, 17 you're with RX Technology, right? 18 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. Paul Elliott with Rx 19 Technology. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And they are the County's IT 21 consultants. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For security. For 23 security. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it's been about a 25 year since you've been here, is that right? It's been 25 1 about a year? 2 MR. ELLIOTT: Over. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Over a year? 4 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. We don't count last 5 year, I guess. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we count last year. 8 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. I tried to. A little 9 bit of an overview. But the Court asked for the scope 10 of work and some details going on. And some of the 11 things that we had discussed really initially, two years 12 ago about things and upgrades that needed to be done in 13 the infrastructure. You know, it was kind of pushed out 14 to 2021, and you know, this year is kind of -- we -- 15 we're not going to be able to pull everything out of 16 that. 17 However, with some of the age of some of the 18 systems that you have, and this isn't really as a doom 19 and gloom or a funds adequate, it's just -- it's 20 something's going to happen at this point. Like the 21 equipment is -- you know, you got an old Chevy, it's 22 going to go -- the equipment in technology terms is 23 obsolete. 24 Some of the things that we have to do just 25 to be able to get past CJIS audit are things that should 26 1 have been done a year and a half ago, whenever the 2 operating systems were expired so to speak. Right. 3 There's no patches. There's no security updates to keep 4 them going so they stay in the same state. 5 So we're doing a little bit of that just to 6 get through CJIS. And I think that there's -- there's 7 some consideration there that we've already gone 8 through. 9 At this point now, under the scope that 10 we're looking at, there's a few things. They're already 11 going through and making some changes to the network 12 configuration. That's the hardware that controls how 13 your information gets from point A to point B and back. 14 And that's great. There's just a few other 15 considerations. There's a firewall system that has long 16 since seen its last day. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me interrupt you 18 for a second. 19 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rx Technology, 21 whatever, is brought in here to look at security. Okay. 22 You're saying a lot of things now about security. The 23 scope of this is much larger than security. It's the 24 operational readiness of the system, it's how it 25 integrates, how it talks to one another, how it 27 1 interfaces with other systems outside, how it interfaces 2 with the cloud. So I would think it would be beneficial 3 if you give me -- or the rest of the court a little bit 4 of information about your company's expertise in the 5 broad scope of things, not just security. 6 MR. ELLIOTT: That's great. I appreciate 7 that. So we're really a two-prong organization. One is 8 doing IT systems and management for organizations, and 9 the other side is we do surveillance and access control. 10 So construction type. But our breadth of knowledge is 11 both physical and technological IT systems. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm talking about the 13 total architecture, not the subset called security. I'm 14 talking about the architecture of the entire system. 15 What's your expertise there? 16 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. Well, that's really what 17 we focus on, right. It's not just the individual 18 subsets, we're looking at the entire thing. So from 19 a -- where the information comes into the building, what 20 happens inside of the building, who has access to what 21 systems, how that gets pushed back out or what -- what 22 liabilities do you have in place. 23 So in a -- in a sense, it -- to us it's the 24 same thing because we're always going to say, here's 25 where you need to be. And then sometimes budgetary 28 1 conditions say well, this is where we can be, and then 2 we try to get to as healthy of a state with that. 3 But we don't particularly say hey, we're 4 just looking at reactionary causes, right? We're -- 5 we're more preventative maintenance. So we're looking 6 at making sure that all of the technology that's in use 7 is solidified up front rather than having to deal with 8 the problem on the back end, which is much more 9 expensive. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What you were 11 explaining is obsolete machinery and software puts us at 12 risk. 13 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And so the County is at 15 some risk right now, although we have secure servers and 16 the information we need to have secure is secure. What 17 we're trying to do is get to the point where we can use 18 the cloud for the non-essential stuff, for the stuff 19 that isn't -- doesn't need to be secured by the County 20 and protected. 21 In other words, public access kind of stuff. 22 So that some stuff can be stored in the cloud and 23 accessed by a vendor or someone else or to keep County 24 records and those other things secure, which you guys 25 have been helping us do. 29 1 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So we're wanting to get 3 to that point. 4 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. And then the stuff that 5 houses that data, you know, it's an old board. I mean, 6 it's -- it's running, you know. It gets me from point A 7 to point B, but it -- it's two years past the point 8 where we should have done some maintenance on it so 9 there's like this -- we're just waiting for something to 10 happen. And I think -- I think long term it's going to 11 be more expensive for that recovery because of the 12 amount of time and the amount of data. 13 We're going to have a ton of historical 14 records and everything else that people have access to. 15 Sequel servers are just giant databases that are 16 circling the dome. They're running on, you know, 17 equipment that's well past its prime. And it could be 18 anything on there. Just one little chip on a board, 19 right? It's nothing that's still warrantied. You can't 20 find that board to replace it. So you'd be doing this, 21 kind of, backtracking to recover information. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, we're in budget 23 considerations now, that's why we're here and talking 24 about that. 25 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. Yeah. 30 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We need to bite the 2 bullet. 3 MR. ELLIOTT: So a couple of considerations. 4 I think that, you know, we're going to highlight some of 5 the bigger ones, right. The host servers, it's 6 consolidating multiple devices that are aging into a 7 couple of devices and then having them as virtual 8 servers within that. 9 I know it sounds like you're putting your 10 eggs in one basket, but the benefit of that is you can 11 take that virtual server if something happens to the 12 host and you can -- you can run it on another device. 13 So you can bring it back up and recover in an hour or 14 two as opposed to days or weeks. 15 That plays into the -- the next line that 16 says SAN, which -- I'm sorry, I was on the second page 17 there with -- it's just a scope written out, is the SAN, 18 which is just basically a giant storage device that will 19 back up those servers. And if one fails, it'll act as 20 the host server. So we turn it on and it comes to host. 21 So it takes over where the last one left off. So, 22 again, the recovery time of days and weeks, we're 23 talking about a couple of hours. 24 The third one, the Fortinet is a -- an 25 enterprise grade firewall. So now basically, your 31 1 network system is a funnel of information coming in and 2 out. And in best practice, it needs to be straws. We 3 need to know who and what is going on. That way we can 4 isolate it if they occur, and we have a lot tighter 5 control on the security overall and the connectivity 6 should -- more offices. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is this like a 8 detection software? 9 MR. ELLIOTT: No; it's a firewall. So 10 it's -- it's at the edge of the internet. And it 11 protects you from all the malicious hackers or kids out 12 there scanning and trying to get in. It monitors the 13 information coming in and out, so it can filter things 14 like I think incorporated sites and things like that. 15 But that's kind of a secondary function they have. We 16 just want to make sure we're blocking things like 17 malicious files and things like that. That plays into 18 that ransomware that you hear so much about. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's one of the 20 things you're doing for us now? 21 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. Yeah. And there's only 22 so much we can do up to that point. Some of these fill 23 up the gaps that make something that's true. So it 24 really protects as well as possible. Nobody is a 25 hundred percent invulnerable to that. 32 1 The weakest link are pin users. All right. 2 So you -- they go into their Gmail and they click a 3 link, they can unleash something that ends up encrypting 4 all the files and then we can say okay, hey, let's limit 5 that, that ability to go out and clip those links 6 because we can block them off at the firewall. 7 The third part of that is Office 365. And 8 that's really the only cloud component of this 9 conversation. Instead of hosting data internally, you 10 may think you have 400, give or take, e-mails and a lot 11 of them are near a hundred gigabyte. And I know that's 12 an arbitrary number there but just bear with me. 13 So you have, you know, this in box if you 14 will that's got a hundred gigabytes of data and you 15 start talking about the size of that, you're getting 16 into some real storage internally. With managing that 17 storage and backing it up and making sure that 18 everything stays running smoothly, it can be a full time 19 job for one employee. 20 If you start thinking about the cost of 21 Office 365, that starts to offset because they manage 22 that infrastructure. And keeping on, we still have the 23 filter, the e-mail filter for antivirus and ransomware 24 protection in front of that, but it takes the onus off 25 IT to manage that data, that interaction. And it 33 1 also -- the cost offset, I guess, is that you know, all 2 the internal computers are updated with the latest 3 Office sweep products. 4 So it kind of is a -- it makes sense at this 5 point instead of going out and purchasing a bunch of 6 office licenses, you break it out over monthly and then 7 you're -- you have that plus your e-mail host and you 8 don't have to worry about that storage, that data, that 9 backup. All of that is taken care of. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And this is a monthly 11 cost? This is like $60,000 a year for this? 12 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 14 MR. ELLIOTT: And then -- yeah, I added that 15 in under the timeline just because I didn't -- I wanted 16 to make sure that it kind of stood out a little bit 17 there. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that includes 19 updating any contracts and so on, is that part of the 20 service? 21 MR. ELLIOTT: It -- well, the service -- 22 that part of the service is just with Microsoft 23 directly, so you're -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's no extra -- 25 there's no additional -- 34 1 MR. ELLIOTT: No. No. That -- that's it 2 for that part of it. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are there fees that 4 kick in when there's a certain amount of storage use? 5 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. But we're talking about 6 internal policy, about retention, archiving records to 7 keep their in-boxes smaller. Just -- not to go too much 8 of a rabbit hole, but efficiencies with e-mail. 9 A hundred gigabytes is really too much. 10 You're going to notice a lot of slow down. It would be 11 easier to just take your stuff and archive it. You 12 still have access to it in another folder, but keep your 13 in-box much smaller. It would be more reactive and run 14 smoother for you. But yeah, I think, you know, if you 15 get it down to 40 or 50 it makes more sense as far as 16 managing that. 17 Add a little bit. There was just additional 18 for that, which is migrating. Because you don't want to 19 lose any of your e-mails, right? So we're talking about 20 taking that data and moving it over. And I'm working 21 with Bruce and his team to make sure that that all gets 22 transferred over and it's seamless. One day it'll be 23 internal and the next day you'll come in and open your 24 Outlook and it will be internal. So there's no down 25 time associated with that. 35 1 There's a switch. It'll happen over a 2 weekend. But still, it's a small window when that 3 happens and your e-mail will recover from that but -- 4 you know, within an hour or so. 5 They're already making some changes on the 6 internal network. This one's a little bit fluid, but 7 we're talking about the Fortinet and switches and things 8 that are -- that's just how the wires connect to 9 different buildings and to the computers. 10 The way it's set up now is it's not 11 manageable without having to sign into a switch sitting 12 there watching it, right, it doesn't have that layer of 13 connectivity like I mentioned earlier. We don't want 14 the funnel, we want the straw so we can see who's 15 connecting and what data is getting pulled out. I think 16 that's important, especially not just proactively but 17 for litigation if something occurs. So you'll be able 18 to see what's going on there and it will shorten your 19 window and keep you open so to speak if sometimes slows 20 everything down. 21 And then staffing. I think right now 22 we're -- you know, we're working with Bruce's team. We 23 see -- and I just use my experience as I deal with other 24 organizations with similar size and scope. Right now 25 you're right on that line. I think that, you know, when 36 1 projects come in so they're being pushed further and 2 further if we don't have additional -- if you don't have 3 somebody else to help out on the back end. 4 Right now I think we're sitting at four. 5 And I really would recommend all of you budgeting for an 6 additional IT person. And it can be a mid tier. Right. 7 A level two as opposed to a one, which is entry level, 8 two and then three, an engineer. I think we could look 9 for a level two. Even a one, if you have somebody that 10 fits internally for some projects. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now is that -- you're 12 saying we are short-handed now to manage and ride herd 13 over what we have, or the coming changes? 14 MR. ELLIOTT: Support, great. Right. You 15 make the call, are you saying, no, you're going to get 16 support, everything's running smoothly there. When you 17 have any kind of a project or hey, this department wants 18 to implement this or do this, now that skews that. 19 Right? They've gotta pull resources from that support 20 and you're going to have to wait longer. 21 And I think especially with some of these 22 other things. Some of this will help, right, the 23 networking and the new servers will help to smooth that 24 out, but projects are projects. There's just -- 25 different departments are going to have different needs 37 1 and when it first comes up and then that's going to put 2 them into a bind, I think. Right now, you're kind of on 3 the line of managing that pretty well, but I think I'd 4 recommend to hire somebody else for additional support 5 in the IT Department. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The problem I'm having 7 with this discussion is we're looking at the scope of 8 work. Let me just say Kerr County's information system 9 is a vintage ten years ago. The capability today with a 10 new system would be completely different, probably, than 11 what we have. 12 And I hear you talking about switches and 13 personnel, and this kind of -- that's so far down in the 14 weeds compared to what we -- what I'm trying to 15 understand is -- is what do we have, okay, where is it 16 deficient in light of today's technology, okay, so what 17 changes would we need to make? Not at the switch level, 18 not at the personnel level, but at the architectural 19 level. 20 MR. ELLIOTT: So, yeah, it -- the -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I mean, I'm a believer 22 in if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Okay. 23 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Too many times we do 25 things -- in my life I've seen it, okay -- make it 38 1 better and it -- and there's always a problem hiding 2 somewhere. So what is it that we -- what's our 3 deficiency, what do we have relative to what it could be 4 and what are the risks associated with that and what are 5 the costs associated with that. So that's what I'm -- 6 I'm looking for. When we look at the scope of this 7 thing, I think something's better defined not at the 8 switch level of the scope but -- 9 MR. ELLIOTT: Kind of describing what you 10 have now and -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 12 MR. ELLIOTT: -- in a pretty standard term 13 and then being able to show -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 15 MR. ELLIOTT: -- why those changes are -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why -- why are we 17 looking at this subject? There must be some problems. 18 Okay. 19 MR. ELLIOTT: Well, yes. Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And security is 21 important. But beyond security, just operating 22 efficiency. 23 MR. ELLIOTT: Well, yes. Right. So the -- 24 how data gets transferred between each department and -- 25 and, again, you do get into the weeds. In my head I get 39 1 into the weeds because you talk about how long it takes 2 somebody to perform a task. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 4 MR. ELLIOTT: Right? And that matters, even 5 when it's a few seconds. But when you're talking about 6 four or 500 people, those few seconds add up over time. 7 Right? And now we're at this point where, yeah, they 8 just live with it or they're used to it but efficiency 9 makes a big difference and productivity is really the 10 end game. 11 And the other side of it is making sure that 12 the systems stay -- the real cost is if something 13 happens, what is -- how is that going to affect your 14 financials for that time period. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 16 MR. ELLIOTT: And that's -- and that's kind 17 of where this balances out. The aging stuff is just 18 kind of like a call to, hey, it's really -- we really 19 have to do something. The rest of it is, how can we get 20 a better efficiency out of it, right, and get up to see 21 just the standard you need to be on, but balance that 22 out in a realistic way where I'm not just saying, hey, 23 let's just wipe out the whole network and get all new 24 stuff. That's not really where we're going. 25 We're keeping a lot of the same servers, 40 1 we're just going to make them into a virtual mobile kind 2 of idea so that if something does happen -- we don't 3 anticipate it does, right? We have a new server. But 4 if something happens to that server, we can turn around 5 and spin it up somewhere else where you don't have that 6 down time that costs the County -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 8 MR. ELLIOTT: -- a week or two of time. So, 9 yeah, I can definitely draft it out. This is a little 10 more preliminary because there's some changes and 11 there's been a little bit of -- but we're looking at the 12 big picture of what the idea is. And I can definitely 13 outline it with here's what you have in place now. You 14 know, you have all these individual servers for things 15 that are connecting and switches that aren't efficiently 16 being able to transfer data between -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what I'd like. 18 MR. ELLIOTT: -- and they spend time 19 spinning around trying to find it which creates more 20 traffic which creates more problems on the network, 21 right. So those are those things that -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The two things that -- 24 or a couple things, and I think you addressed some of 25 these. But the -- one of the issues that I haven't 41 1 heard is our phone system. And I don't know if that's 2 part of your review or not, but I understand -- I think 3 right now we have Internet based system. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And there's -- but it's 6 also a very old system. I mean, it's been at least -- 7 well, it was put in when we renovated the courthouse. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It was one of the 9 first, I believe, at the time. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. So anyway, I 11 think that needs to be looked at because it doesn't work 12 real well for a lot of people. That's one thing. 13 MR. ELLIOTT: In your point, we are 14 reviewing that or the side of the scope for that. We 15 want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence 16 like we do on the rest. So we're still going through 17 that. And I agree that there's probably some cost 18 savings to be made there. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. The other thing, 20 when you talked about -- I think you talked about the 21 e-mails being moved to a cloud base. There are some 22 departments that are required to use cloud based because 23 they're working with state agencies or other agencies or 24 other counties or something like that. The system that 25 we have or that we create has to be able to allow those 42 1 offices that need cloud based to do their work, to be 2 able to access it off the same computers that they're 3 using but at the same time keep everything secure. 4 That's possible? I mean that can be done? 5 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. Absolutely. So -- so 6 e-mail now, right, is hosted on the server and it 7 goes -- you're looking at a viewer on your computer, 8 right. The idea is -- for the cloud is, those e-mails 9 still reside on your computer, you have access to them 10 even if there's no internet. Not new ones, right. They 11 can't get the new ones up. There's no way. But you 12 still have them there, but the cloud is just waiting for 13 you to restore internet and then it will deliver that. 14 So it keeps a copy in both places. It is encrypted 15 there on the cloud server, right. 16 It's just a server, not data center. And 17 then it -- it's -- all the way down to where you're at. 18 So that information is secured. And then we also have a 19 filtering system been that for a backup system. So if 20 Office 365 goes down, which it has, you can go to a web 21 page for the filter to log in and still have access. 22 Especially if you're looking for something critical 23 urgent. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But beyond e-mail, these 25 other five things, systems that we have to use or we're 43 1 beginning to have to use, is that even compatible with 2 what we're doing? 3 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, 4 that's what the cloud is to make sure that those things 5 are in place so that they are able to communicate here. 6 And nobody else can intercept -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8 MR. ELLIOTT: -- which is one of our biggest 9 problems. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I mean, everyone 11 knows I don't know a whole lot about this stuff. But I 12 think it's very helpful. This looks good to me. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that's -- that's 14 my problem. I don't think any of us up here know that 15 much about it. And we're looking at -- we're looking at 16 a scope of having a contract with somebody look at the 17 total thing. You know, I'm having a hard time reading 18 what you're saying here and here's the scope of work. 19 Okay. You know, it oughta be -- like I'm -- I keep 20 going back to the architectural level, okay. Here's the 21 scope of what we would propose to do to Kerr County's 22 information system and looking at it. 23 MR. ELLIOTT: Agreed. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I don't -- I'm 25 not arguing with this, I just don't have the feeling 44 1 that this covers the full spectrum. 2 MR. ELLIOTT: Okay. You're absolutely 3 right. And so I'm just trying to distill it down but I 4 am perfectly capable of writing that out. It really -- 5 we have that information as to -- you know, now that I 6 know how you want to structure it, I can lay it out for 7 you. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9 MR. ELLIOTT: Just one to one, here's what 10 you have now. Here's the limitations. Here's what 11 we're planning. Here's the results. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Right. 13 Precisely. 14 MR. ELLIOTT: Here's your additional 15 benefits that is not intentional but will occur. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And here's the cost. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And then how much -- 19 how much of the upgrade has to happen in order to change 20 the uses now so that we -- for example, we have 48 21 servers now in the county. Will we have fewer servers 22 after this is over with because some of them will be 23 off-site? 24 MR. ELLIOTT: You asked about -- you 25 definitely will have fewer physical servers, right. And 45 1 so, it -- it's easier to maintain and/or recover, 2 right, additional recovery -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And it's not our 4 headache. 5 MR. ELLIOTT: -- if you don't have so many 6 vehicles to break down. You have, you know, two 7 different points to be able to -- with the redundancy of 8 those. So then you've got backup on that. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the answer to this 10 question may make part of the point. Some of those 11 servers that are in use now, when they're taken out of 12 use what's going to happen to them? They'll be thrown 13 away, won't they? 14 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah, the -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because they're 16 obsolete. 17 MR. ELLIOTT: -- shred the hard drive and 18 get rid of them. There's really not a market right now. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's what we're 20 talking about is making it more efficient. 21 MR. ELLIOTT: Correct. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: All this conversation 23 started because we want to make sure that non-critical 24 information is stored someplace off-site. The critical 25 information in the County is stored here, in our 46 1 possession, and protected by our very own servers. It's 2 a simple as that. That's what we're trying to get to. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That ought to be the 4 lead in to the scope. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. And the thing 6 is that, as an example, we have like 130 laptops in the 7 County. You couldn't get those during the virus 8 epidemic. So we're -- we're behind in part and we're 9 still catching up because of that. You couldn't -- you 10 just couldn't buy them. Everybody was doing work from 11 home. So we got behind on that. 12 We went into last fiscal year knowing we had 13 to upgrade them and then we didn't have enough. And 14 then some of them were obsolete, our laptops, and people 15 were scrambling around here trying to get a new laptop. 16 That still isn't -- that problem isn't entirely over 17 with. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me. I forgot your 20 name? 21 MR. ELLIOTT: Paul Elliot. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Elliot, I have to confess 23 that this sounds like Sanscript to me. I do not 24 understand technology that well and I think this is 25 probably a better topic for a workshop to get together 47 1 and be able to get down into the weeds, so to speak, so 2 we understand what you're -- what you're really talking 3 about here. 4 But basically what we're dealing with here 5 is the County has a need to upgrade the IT 6 architectures, and that includes a number of different 7 things that we probably need to discuss in a little bit 8 greater detail. And I -- I think we've kind of got you 9 on the spot here in a regular Commissioners' Court 10 meeting. We've got all kinds of business to transact 11 today and I know you have distractions back home that I 12 want to be respectful of, and -- 13 MR. ELLIOTT: Thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: -- so what I propose is that 15 we go ahead and kind of stop where we are. We've got -- 16 we've got your report, I think, handy. I think -- you 17 know, I'm not telling you I understand everything that's 18 on here, but it gets me in the ballpark. And why don't 19 we reschedule for a workshop so that we can actually 20 roll our sleeves up and get down to business and 21 understand how we're going to upgrade our system? 22 MR. ELLIOTT: Absolutely. I agree that -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: If you're okay with that. 24 MR. ELLIOTT: -- we can save all these 25 people from having to listen to that. 48 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, well, I bet they 2 understand it about as much as I do. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But I would ask you to 4 do this, Paul, is that you get with Bruce and -- so that 5 you can articulate real clearly what the difference is 6 going to be for us, with the needs we just expressed. 7 That we want to store some things so that it's 8 accessible to vendors that's not critical information to 9 the County, the rest of it we house here. 10 And then, as far as what equipment has to be 11 replaced and that kind of stuff, that's just a list of 12 stuff. But how do we execute on what we're -- what the 13 central issue is? How does that happen. 14 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: At the desktop? You 16 give me a description, I'm saving something, I send it 17 that way or I send it this way. Is the operator 18 responsible? Is there a fail safe? That kind of stuff 19 is what we need to know. 20 MR. ELLIOTT: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If you can do that, 22 that would help. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We appreciate your effort. We 24 really do. And we're pointed in the right direction, 25 but I don't think we're going to be able to get there 49 1 today. 2 MR. ELLIOTT: I agree. 3 JUDGE KELLY: So with that, what I'm going 4 to invite us to do is to come back on a workshop and be 5 able to roll our sleeves up. 6 MR. ELLIOTT: Excellent. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 8 MR. ELLIOTT: Thank you very much. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, Bruce was hiding 12 behind you all that time. I was wondering where he was 13 at. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I knew where he was. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I couldn't see him. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving on with county 17 business, let's go to item 1.2 which is to consider, 18 discuss and take appropriate action to approve the 19 Subscription Agreement and Agreement Addendum with Lexis 20 Nexis for the Hill Country Regional Public Defender's 21 Office. 22 And I know that the County Attorney has been 23 reviewing viewing this contract. 24 MRS. STEBBINS: I have reviewed this 25 contract and they've included the typical government 50 1 provisions in it and I have no other suggested changes. 2 JUDGE KELLY: The only question I have about 3 this is there's two basic providers for legal research. 4 There's Westlaw and Lexis Nexis. That's kind of the 5 universe that we work with here. And I know we have 6 Westlaw for most of our departments. And I really 7 didn't understand why we went with Lexis Nexis for this 8 office. But I don't know if anybody here -- 9 MRS. WILKE: I can answer that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 11 MS. WILKE: We have Lexis Nexis, it's much 12 cheaper than Westlaw. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 14 MS. WILKE: I prefer Westlaw. It's much 15 easier for me to use, but Lexis Nexis is much cheaper. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. That's what I want to 17 know. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I knew that it's a 19 preference that they wanted to use. So I'll make a 20 motion to approve the contract with Lexis Nexis for the 21 Hill Country Regional Public Defender's Office. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. Is it in the 24 budget? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, it's in their -- 51 1 JUDGE KELLY: It's in their grant. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- in the grant. 3 JUDGE KELLY: In the grant. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 7 approve the Lexis Nexis contract for the Hill Country 8 PDO. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your 9 hand or say aye. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's unanimous, five 12 zero. 13 Next is item 1.3 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action on the status of the Hill Country 15 Regional Public Defender's Office Grant Application for 16 FY 2021/2022. Commissioner Letz. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is really just an 18 update. This is for the Court to be aware that that 19 grant application, it's a sustaining grant, which is 20 kind of -- it's really updated for the next four years. 21 We're in the first year of it. And it'll be a 22 two-thirds, one-third. Two-thirds and one-third. Kerr 23 County will be filing the application soon. It will be 24 coming back to us at that -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: For -- for the duration 52 1 each year? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Every year we have to 3 resubmit it based on kind of the numbers we have. 4 Currently, largely it's basic budget issues and we're 5 working -- myself, the Judge, Tanya with John Bull, 6 Elizabeth Berry. We've yet to come up with a budget for 7 next year but that is -- that's something that we're 8 working forward. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So does this change -- 10 which it will. The numbers remain the same or is there 11 a way to -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The numbers will be 13 adjusted by the -- by the TIDC. They have to approve 14 it. And -- but it'll be -- I mean, the current budget 15 is the guideline minus the -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Start up cost? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- start up cost. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what's our proposed 19 action here? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's no action. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No action? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just an update. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good deal. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And just to supplement that, 25 at our meeting last week we did have the executive 53 1 director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission 2 present, Jeff Burkhart, and we talked specifically about 3 these grants. This first year grant is 80/20. The five 4 counties matched the 20 percent for the budget. And 5 then the subsequent years, the sustaining grants will be 6 one-third, two-thirds, with five counties matching the 7 one-third portion of the budget. 8 And we tried to pin him down because the 9 report that we have now had it down for four years, 10 which would be -- almost completed year one and then we 11 would have three more. And I was very pleased to hear 12 Jeff Burkhart say they plan to stay with us as long as 13 we're doing it. 14 So I -- there's no guarantee that we're 15 going to have a grant forever, but this is the State 16 contribution to help us with the indigent defense cost 17 and their plan is to stay with it on some matching basis 18 going forward beyond the original four years. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It demonstrates the 21 difference in a funded mandate than an unfunded mandate. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Oh Lord, does it. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You can imagine us 24 trying to do this by ourselves, folks. That would be 25 pretty expensive. 54 1 JUDGE KELLY: So we move on to the next 2 agenda item, which is 1.4 consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action on the Hill Country Regional Public 4 Defender's Office leasing of property located at 5 550 Earl Garret Street, here in Kerrville. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Judge kind of talked 7 about this during his opening comments, but the original 8 thought would be that they would need the top floor 9 only. After re-looking at it, they're going to need 10 probably the entire first floor also to -- as a 11 requirement under the grant how they -- you know, we 12 looked at it originally as kind of putting two in one 13 office and TIDC kind of thought that was not a good idea 14 and you need space to meet with the clients. 15 So anyway, it's on the agenda that the Court 16 know that the current plan maybe even to have the -- and 17 probably will be to have the entire building. That it 18 was a lot of discussion exactly how -- if Kerr County 19 could lease it to the HBO -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: PDO. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the PDO, the other 22 one's TV -- to the PDO and then kind of recoup it back, 23 basically to ourselves. It was fairly stated by TIDC 24 that that can be done so we can lease it and the amount 25 will be in the neighborhood of $90,000 a year and we 55 1 would probably have a credit for our -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So from a County 3 perspective this is good. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. It's good. It's 6 good, but it may impact a little bit of some of these 7 other issues that we're talking about for a bond issue 8 on space. Because we had thought about moving some 9 offices over there also. That won't be possible, so -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But the building next 11 door -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: No, we're doing that. That's 13 the tax office. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The tax office. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that's going to 16 change. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So that will -- that 18 will free up space here -- but it will have some impact 19 on how we rearrange offices. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And remember, that's the 22 unfunded mandate. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Because we have to have a 25 12-person jury room for County Court at Law which moves 56 1 into the tax office, which means we have to move the tax 2 office and it's like, you know -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dominoes. 4 JUDGE KELLY: -- dominoes. So moving the 5 tax office out in order to be able to provide for the 6 unfunded mandate that the State requires us to have a 7 12-person jury room in County Court at Law. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the oversight 9 committee on last Thursday directed -- I don't know who 10 it directed -- you, me and others to work on the lease. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And some of the particulars. 12 The building has -- there's gross square footage and net 13 square footage. And the bowels of the building that has 14 all the mechanical and everything in it, we don't charge 15 lease space for that. 16 The leasable space for the building is 2,828 17 square feet per floor or 5,626 square feet total. And 18 the going market rate, fair market value rate for 19 leasing in Kerr County right now is $1.25 per square 20 foot per month. And so you can figure that out, it's 21 going to be approximately $90,000. 22 And so that everybody can connect all the 23 dollar signs -- we're not connecting dots, we're 24 connecting dollar signs -- for the matching part of this 25 and the good news that we got from TIDC, is that they 57 1 are going to fund a lease at this amount. They put 2 those requirements in their grant to us, and so they're 3 going to stand behind it. 4 And so, if you talk about one-third, 5 two-thirds, 60,000 of that 90,000 is coming from the 6 State, and the other 30,000 is coming from the County. 7 And -- and we allocate between the counties based upon 8 our case loads. And so Kerr County is about a third of 9 the case loads for the Public Defender's Office. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So about 10,000 a year. 11 Close. 12 JUDGE KELLY: So this is really substantial 13 benefits coming to Kerr County to be able to provide 14 this service. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other item on 16 that, is that there will be some build-back costs to get 17 the building completely ready and that will be borne by 18 the County. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that's not part of 20 our original renovation. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And what's the date of 24 this occupancy by PDO? 25 JUDGE KELLY: As soon as they get that roof 58 1 on. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but date. 3 Ballpark. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd say middle of July. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll start moving -- 7 they should start moving in. It's going to depend on 8 them a little bit -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- because there's 11 some -- you know, they want to move in and then do some 12 remodeling while they're using part of the building, 13 which is what I would recommend but it'll be up to them. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And so the people understand, 16 what we're going to have to do is create a training room 17 for them. To put all those attorneys in. So we can one 18 of those -- two of those offices over there and knock 19 down a wall and make one great big room were they can do 20 their training. That's one step of that. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And some other offices. 22 So it's moving, it's nothing major. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Pardon me. I'll be 24 right back. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway. But I don't 59 1 think there's any action on here that needs to be coming 2 from the Court, I just wanted to update the Court as to 3 the meeting we had last week. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now we -- we bought the 5 building outright? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Which means that -- 8 this isn't really a return on investment. This is kind 9 of a question for the County Auditor. How long is it 10 before there's a return on the investment which -- or is 11 this just a cash flow versus a purchase? There will be 12 cash flow from this, the way I'm hearing it explained. 13 MS. SHELTON: There will be cash flow. 14 We -- we put out 2.5 million just as an obligation to be 15 paid back in seven years. There's some question on 16 whether -- if all of these projects will be added to a 17 bond issue later on. And so the building and everything 18 with the current plan would be paid off in seven years. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And those tax anticipation 21 notes for the two and a half million, just remind 22 everyone, we have that at .75 percent interest. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I remember that. But 24 it -- but there's cash flow is what -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 60 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- I was trying to 2 point out. There's -- there's that debt but there's a 3 cash flow in there. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 5 MS. SHELTON: And -- and this will reduce 6 the amount that we would need from taxpayers in order to 7 make payments on that debt. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because they're not 9 going to run out and spend it at this point. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. It goes towards the 11 debt. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's a couple minutes 13 after ten o'clock. Why don't we take our morning recess 14 and we'll take up 1.5 when we come back. And we'll be 15 adjourned for five minutes. 16 (Recess.) 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let's come back to order. For 18 those of you that are here for 1.5 through 1.10, just be 19 patient with us. 20 First item on our ten o'clock docket is item 21 1.12 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for 22 the Commissioners' Court approval to sealcoat the 23 parking lot area at the Divide School located at 121 24 Divide School Road in Mountain Home, Texas. Kelly 25 Hoffer. 61 1 MS. HOFFER: Good morning. Mr. Bill Bacon 2 contacted Commissioner Harris regarding the possibility 3 of the Road and Bridge Department to sealcoat the 4 parking lot/driveway area at the Divide School lot off 5 State Highway 41. The Road and Bridge Department would 6 do the work, and the Divide School would be responsible 7 for paying for all materials. 8 I did a breakdown of the materials, and that 9 would total $6,507.47. We already maintain the Divide 10 School Road, and that road is on this year's sealcoat, 11 so we will be in that area. Our equipment will be 12 there. Really -- it won't be a better time to do it 13 than -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Sounds like a win-win to me. 15 MS. HOFFER: Yes. And so, at this time I 16 ask the Commissioners' Court for their approval for the 17 Road and Bridge Department to sealcoat approximately 18 32,200 square feet of parking and driveway area at the 19 Divide School, located at 121 Divide School Road 20 Northwest, and request that the Divide School pay 21 $6,507.47 for the list of materials, and this is in 22 Precinct 4. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. Can we -- 24 can we do that? Can we do that? I mean it's like we 25 can't do it on private property. I realize this isn't 62 1 private property, so I'm really asking the County 2 Attorney this. So -- are we setting a precedent here? 3 Because we have a lot of school districts that probably 4 would want us to do the same thing for them and probably 5 some other entities, like school districts, not for 6 profits or whatever, can we do that? 7 MRS. STEBBINS: I think that we can do it. 8 I think that it's been done before. 9 MS. HOFFER: We've done -- we've done VFDs, 10 I know. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do governmental 12 entities; we can't do private. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So that -- that 14 answered my question. If it's a governmental entity we 15 can do it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we've done -- 17 we've done it for KISD. We did their parking lot once. 18 We've done -- we've worked on the road -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- that they repaved. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's -- you answered 22 my question. Good deal. Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So they're paying for 24 materials and we're providing the machinery and the man 25 power? 63 1 MS. HOFFER: Uh-huh. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Harris made 4 a motion and I'll second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 7 approve paving Divide School parking lot. Any other 8 discussion? Those in favor say aye or raise your hand. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 11 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.13, this is a public 13 hearing for the revision of plat for Packsaddle Acres, 14 Lots 10-17. 15 So I'm convening the public hearing. Is 16 there anyone here that would like to speak on that 17 topic? Packsaddle Acres, Lots 10-17. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Nobody's here for that, 19 Judge. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then with that, we will 21 adjourn the public meeting, and move on to Item 1.14, 22 which is to consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action for the Court to approve a revision of plat for 24 Packsaddle Acres, Lots 10-17. Charlie Hastings. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 64 1 proposal revises eight lots, Lots 10 through 17, into 2 nine lots, and it removes right-of-way for Lariat Lane, 3 a road that was never properly constructed. Each lot 4 will be greater than five acres and must coordinate with 5 TxDOT for driveways. 6 Lots 15A, 16A, 17A and 17B will have access 7 from FM 1341. Lots 10A, 11A, 12A and 13A and 14A will 8 have access from Windmill Road and Green Oak Drive. 9 Those driveway permits are coordinated through the 10 County. 11 Although Lot 14A has dual frontage on both 12 FM 1341 and Windmill Road, we have a special note, 13 number 9 on the plat, that prohibits access from FM 14 1341. No sense in having two driveways, especially if 15 you're right at the intersection of a driveway and a 16 road. You don't want any driveways in that vicinity. 17 So they will be able to safely come off of Windmill 18 Road. They will thank us for that later. 19 These lots are located in Kerrville's ETJ 20 and they will be platted simultaneously through both the 21 City of Kerrville and Kerr County. The County Engineer 22 requests the Court approve a revision of plat for 23 Packsaddle Acres, Lots 10-17, Volume 3, Page 55. 24 Precinct 3. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 65 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 3 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 4 approve the revision of plat for Packsaddle Acres, Lots 5 10-17. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand 6 and sign aye. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 9 Next is another public hearing. And this is 10 a public hearing on Item 1.15 for a revision of plat for 11 R.H. Ranch Lot 8. I'll convene the public meeting. Is 12 there anyone here who would like speak on behalf of this 13 topic? Charlie, is anyone outside? 14 MR. HASTINGS: We don't have anyone, Judge, 15 to speak on this. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Since no one wants to speak at 17 the public hearing, we'll go ahead and adjourn the 18 public hearing and move on to the next agenda item, 19 which is Item 1.16 consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action for the Court to approve a revision 21 of plat for R.H. Ranch, Lot 8. Charlie Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. A 23 10.01-acre tract had previously been improperly divided 24 out of R.H. Ranch Lot 8, a platted lot. This proposal 25 attempts to correct the error by platting Lot 8A with 66 1 right-of-way along a privately maintained portion of 2 Byas Springs Road. 3 Lot 8A will be 9.67 acres out of existing 4 Lot 8, which is platted as 98 acres. The remainder of 5 Lot 8, 88 acres, must being platted before it can be 6 further developed. This portion of Byas Springs Road is 7 not maintained by Kerr County and will continue to be 8 privately maintained until such time that the road has 9 been brought into compliance with the Kerr County road 10 specifications and accepted by the Court. There are no 11 known plans to bring this portion of Byas Springs Road 12 into compliance at this time. 13 County Engineer requests the Court approve 14 the revision of plat for R.H. Ranch, part of Lot 8, 15 Volume 3, Page 84. Precinct 4. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 19 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 20 approve the approval of the revision of plat for 21 R.H. Ranch, Lot 8. Is there any discussion? Questions? 22 Those in favor say aye or raise your hand. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 25 Okay. The next item on the agenda is item 67 1 1.17. Consider, discuss and take appropriate action for 2 the Court to approve a revision of plat for the Estates 3 at Turtle Creek, Section 2, Lots 39 and 40. Charlie 4 Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. A public 6 hearing was held on June 14th, 2021, just a few weeks 7 ago. Nobody spoke at that public hearing. This 8 proposal adjusts the lot line between Lot 39, currently 9 3.27 acres, and Lot 40, currently 2.71 acres. 10 Lot 39R will now become 3.11 acres and Lot 11 40R will be 2.87 acres, so it's just a slight 12 adjustment. One lot gets a little bigger, the other lot 13 gets a little smaller. It's a property line issue 14 between these two lots only. 15 The property access and road frontage to 16 both lots remain on Estates Drive. Lot 39 currently has 17 51.9 feet of frontage on the cul-de-sac and will now 18 have 51.3 feet on the cul-de-sac. We do not see that as 19 an issue. 20 The County Engineer requests the Court 21 approve a revision of plat for Estates at Turtle Creek 22 Section Two, Lots 39 and 40, Volume 6, Page 241. 23 Precinct 2. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 68 1 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 2 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 3 approve the revision of plat for the Estates at Turtle 4 Creek, Section Two, Lots 39 and 40. Any discussion? 5 Those in favor raise your hand and say aye. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 8 Item 1.18 -- excuse me. I get to go back to 9 1.5 now. Sorry. 1.5 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action regarding the public notice for Kerr 11 County Park closures. Commissioner Moser. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. When 13 we closed the park for the Texas Archaeological Society 14 for a week duration last week, I received a lot of 15 calls, and probably some of the other commissioners did, 16 about the public not having notice that we were closing. 17 And so that disrupted some people using the park, using 18 the Dog Park, etc. 19 So I talked to Shane about this and the 20 suggestion, recommendation, I don't even know if we need 21 to take any action, is that when we close parks to the 22 public that are used to using them, that we post a 23 notice in advance, at least a week in advance, the park 24 will be closed, the date that they'll be closed so the 25 public will know about it and not be inconvenienced. 69 1 There was -- it apparently did disrupt some 2 people's life by us not letting them know, even though 3 it was decisions made in Commissioners' Court. So I 4 don't know if we need to do anything on this other than 5 just ask the Maintenance Department whenever we do that, 6 have a park closure, which I think there's another one 7 coming up in the future requests, that we post a notice, 8 so -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: At the park? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: At the park. Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I would add a press 12 release because we have a -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's good. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- press officer and 15 then put it on the -- she can put it on Facebook and so 16 on. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's -- that's even 18 better. Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We probably have -- 20 Maintenance should probably make a generic sign that 21 they can just then put the dates on rather than -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- you know, and Road & 24 Bridge can probably make that sign. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. That would be 70 1 perfect. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kelly's back there. 3 Kelly, can y'all make a sign? 4 MS. HOFFER: We can get a sign for them. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good enough. I don't 7 think it takes any court action, just -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: No. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good enough. 10 Thanks. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Moving on to item 1.6 12 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 13 contract with TotalCom Management to upgrade the fire 14 panel monitoring system in the courthouse. Shane 15 Evans. 16 MR. EVANS: Good morning. I ask that you 17 accept the contract from TotalCom Management as 18 presented for the upgrade of the fire panel and the 19 monitoring of that fire panel. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that in the budget? 21 MR. EVANS: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: County Attorney? 23 MRS. STEBBINS: I've reviewed it and made 24 changes that they've included. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I move for 71 1 approval. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 5 approve the contract that is in the budget for TotalCom 6 Management to upgrade the fire panel and monitoring 7 system here at the courthouse. Any discussion? Those 8 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 11 We've got the Sheriff up for the next 12 several. Item 1.7 consider, discuss and take 13 appropriate action to approve a $500 donation from 14 Direct Fluids, LLC, for the Sheriff's Special Response 15 Team Fund. Sheriff Leitha. 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: Can we do 1.7 and 1.8 17 together, Judge? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let me call it. Okay, 19 let's do 1.7 consider, discuss and take appropriate 20 action to approve the $500 donation from Direct Fluids, 21 LLC, for the Sheriff's Special Response Team Fund. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And 1.8 also, Judge. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And 1.8 is to consider, 24 discuss and take appropriate action to approve the $850 25 donation from Cecil Atkission Motors for the Sheriff's 72 1 Special Response Team Fund. 2 And 1.9 is to consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action to approve a $25.00 donation from a 4 citizen for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund. Sheriff 5 Leitha. 6 SHERIFF LEITHA: Judge, Commissioners. I'm 7 asking for y'all's approval to be able to accept these 8 donations for our Special Response Team and also our 9 Equipment Fund. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 15 approve the donations -- the $500 donation, the $850 16 donation, and the $25 donation to the Sheriff's office. 17 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say 18 aye. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero on all of them. 21 Thank you, sir. 22 SHERIFF LEITHA: Thank you, sir. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.10 consider, discuss 24 and take appropriate action to reappoint Marie Hardy to 25 the Emergency Services District No. 2 Board for an 73 1 additional two-year term. Commissioner Harris. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Marie Hardy has 3 done an excellent job serving her first team for the ESD 4 #2, and I move that we reappoint her for another 5 two-year term. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 9 reappoint Marie Hardy to the ESD #2 Board for an 10 additional two-year term. Any discussion? Those in 11 favor raise your hand or say aye. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 14 Okay. Now we go to Item 1.18 consider, 15 discuss and take appropriate action to eliminate the 16 additional step increase for certain certifications. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The following -- the 18 next five or six items are all related. They're kind of 19 taking action on things that were discussed at 20 workshops. The first one is to -- there are -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: Do you want me to go ahead and 22 call all of them? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. I think they need a 24 separate court order for each one. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 74 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That is the -- there 2 weren't a whole lot of departments that had 3 certifications but we were getting more and more cases. 4 And the recommendation is for Elected Officials or 5 Department Heads to incorporate these and the need for 6 certifications into their job descriptions and that 7 they -- so these employees would get it. 8 It largely impacts the Sheriff's Department 9 where there used to be when they were a master police 10 officer, they got an increase in other ones. But this 11 way -- he is, I think, going to adjust his job 12 descriptions that will incorporate basically an increase 13 when they get certifications. 14 And the same thing happens in Road & Bridge. 15 There was a certification from TxDOT license and that's 16 being incorporated into -- and not everyone out there 17 needs it, but those that do, incorporate it into their 18 job descriptions. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's -- this would -- 21 the Court Order would eliminate all the certifications 22 and then job descriptions would need to be adjusted 23 accordingly. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And that's a 25 motion? 75 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, that's a motion. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 5 eliminate any additional step increases certification 6 for Sheriff's Office, Road & Bridge, and Veterans 7 Services. Correct? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 10 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 13 Item 1.19 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to eliminate car allowances for all 15 offices. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is that one -- I 17 believe -- I could be wrong. Most departments got rid 18 of their car allowances awhile back. I know some 19 didn't. I know the 216th DA is one that hasn't. And 20 our current does have a car allowance listed. The 21 current policy is that any travel outside of Kerr County 22 is reimbursable. Any travel within Kerr County is not 23 reimbursable. 24 It should be built into their budgets as 25 mile reimbursement. This is a way to get everything 76 1 consistent across the board. And I'll make a motion to 2 eliminate all car allowances, and all County departments 3 will follow Kerr County policy. And if that policy 4 isn't clearly written, Jennifer, we need to add that 5 into the policy. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 9 eliminate car allowances for all offices and 10 departments. 11 MRS. SHELTON: Will this start at the 12 beginning of the next budget year or immediately? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd say the next budget 14 year is going to be simpler. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I would say that we 18 oughta -- there might be some extenuating circumstances, 19 which would need to be brought back to the Court. I 20 don't know what it might be, what it could possibly be, 21 but it might come up. If somebody has to do a lot of 22 running for awhile or something. We have elections and 23 stuff like that. People do a lot of driving and -- I 24 would say it should be reviewed on a case by case basis. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it can come back 77 1 to the Court. 2 JUDGE KELLY: All we've got on the agenda is 3 the car allowance. And -- and we heard from Judge 4 Ragsdale last workshop about some discrepancies that we 5 might ought to want to consider with regard to what we 6 do in County. But since that's not all we're doing 7 today, all we've got here is the car allowance. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We can always take 9 exception. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just wanted to make 12 sure that everybody understands that, you know, we're 13 not slamming the door shut. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's -- well, 15 it's not -- that item maybe needs back on the agenda 16 because there's some other options to how we solve that 17 problem. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, the point that 19 Judge Ragsdale made was that when the bank's on your way 20 home, it's easy. When it's the other way from home, 21 then you're adding, you know, to your mileage and so on. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Makes sense to me. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Makes sense. 24 MRS. WILKE: So then I have a question. How 25 do we come to the Court for an exception? Because 78 1 that's my situation, too. I have an employee that comes 2 to the courthouse everyday. It's 1.2 miles each way, 3 for a total of about four miles per day. That's -- that 4 adds up, you know, in a week and a month and a year. 5 Other employees we can get around that. 6 For example, we also have to go to the Court 7 in Gillespie County, but I have an employee that lives 8 in Gillespie County and so she leaves early or she comes 9 in a little late so she can stop by. She does not get a 10 car allowance for that reason. But Tammy Feldman gets a 11 car allowance because she does come to the courthouse in 12 her own vehicle every day. So that's the question, 13 how -- how would we request an exception? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, now, she's an 15 elected official who can put that in her budget. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it's still a 17 policy. That's our policy. And we've done it, I think, 18 with all options to follow that. And I think that we 19 need to look at -- put it on the agenda because there 20 are a lot of exceptions. 21 There's a lot of times when -- there's not a 22 lot of exceptions in my mind because a lot of times when 23 individuals, employees, are using the -- their personal 24 cars for business. A lot of -- sometimes it's by 25 choice. Sometimes it's because there's no other option. 79 1 And I think that we need to look at that. But I think 2 that it's a huge -- it's not a simple thing. Because 3 the elections department -- you see when there's 4 elections they drive a great deal. There's -- every 5 office has -- that's not in the courthouse or, you know, 6 basically has to give money to the Treasurer, every day 7 just about. 8 So I mean there's a lot of departments that 9 it impacts and I think we need to look at a policy but 10 just -- right now just get rid of the car allowance 11 because there's very -- there's only two -- I think only 12 two or three employees that get that. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So then when we come 14 back to this we can maybe answer -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 16 MRS. WILKE: Right. Because right now I 17 just thought it would save paperwork and time. One 18 of -- this same employee also drives to Gillespie County 19 twice a month. And she lives here in Kerrville. The 20 attorney goes -- for example, Melissa in the last two 21 weeks has gone to Fredericksburg weekly, three times 22 each week to get ready for hearings this week, and 23 instead of having all that paperwork that goes with 24 filling out a mileage slip every time, turning it in to 25 the Auditor's Office, them having to keep up with it. 80 1 Because when I used to have to do that, they would 2 frequently call me and say you haven't cashed your 3 check. We're going to cancel that one, we're going to 4 send you another one. 5 So I thought to eliminate that we would 6 just -- and we did, we did put some thought into it. 7 We -- you know, Tessa, who lives in Fredericksburg, does 8 not get a car allowance because if we have court in 9 Gillespie County, she drives from home. And if we 10 finish early, she has to drive in to work, but she would 11 have done that anyway even if we hadn't had court 12 because she doesn't get paid to drive in. That's 13 something she would have had to do anyway. 14 But the attorneys frequently have to 15 interview witnesses, go talk to experts, including in 16 San Antonio. And so, we kind of tried to guess how much 17 that would be yearly just to save everybody time and 18 effort in having to fill out all the paperwork that's 19 needed to get reimbursed for mileage. 20 Quite frankly, I think Melissa would make 21 more money getting reimbursed per trip versus her car 22 allowance. So that's just my thought. And we've 23 already put some thought into it. The other -- my 24 office manager also drives to Fredericksburg a couple 25 times a month, at least, and then sometimes she will 81 1 cover for Tammy if she's off. And on Fridays when Tammy 2 is off, she works ten hour days, four days a week. So 3 we've already kind of tried to guess about how much 4 money we need for that car allowance, how much they 5 would get reimbursed anyway for miles, but that's why we 6 did it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's -- there's 8 another reason why I'm against car allowance, and 9 correct me if I'm wrong on this but I'm pretty sure that 10 this is the way it used to be unless that is changed. 11 Car allowances are rolled up into your income. And you 12 pay -- we pay -- in addition to the car allowance, we're 13 paying 30 percent more for the roll-ups. So there's a 14 hidden cost on using a car allowance and it's increasing 15 your income. 16 So whereas a -- if you get reimbursed for 17 the actual mile and based on the IRS rate, which is what 18 we use, that's not taxable income. So there's a benefit 19 to both the employees and the government -- the County, 20 for not using car allowance is that there's a hidden 21 cost both ways. 22 And the employees -- you mentioned -- I know 23 it's a little bit of work but, you know, a form can be 24 written out pretty easily. I don't think it's -- you 25 know, you know the mileage and approximate dates you're 82 1 going so -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Is that your motion? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My motion is to 4 eliminate car allowances for all departments and then we 5 can put it on a future agenda about use of personal 6 vehicles. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I think I 8 seconded it, didn't I? 9 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 11 JUDGE KELLY: The motion's been made by 12 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 13 eliminate car allowances for all offices. Any other 14 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 17 Item 1.20 consider, discuss and take 18 appropriate action to change vacation time and sick time 19 to paid time off, or PTO. Ms. Doss. 20 MRS. DOSS: Good morning. Commissioner 21 Letz's name is on this, so -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'll introduce it. 23 This is a pretty major change. This is a benefit to the 24 employees. I think a lot of -- I haven't heard anything 25 or very little negative about it. And basically it will 83 1 be eliminating sick time and vacation and calling it all 2 paid time off. And then there's some allowance to those 3 people or employees that have accumulated sick time, 4 there's a way that we're going to keep -- hold part of 5 that. And I'll let Jennifer give the details of that 6 and then part of it goes into family time or FMLA. So, 7 Jennifer. 8 MRS. DOSS: Okay. We're asking that you 9 consider this PTO. Basically full time employees would 10 earn 6.15 hours per pay period. That equates to 160 11 hours per year, which is the same that you would receive 12 based on the old vacation/sick leave method. Anyone 13 with 10 or more years of service would receive 7.7 hours 14 which equates to 200 hours per year. Anyone with 21 or 15 more years of service would get 9.23 hours each pay 16 period, which equates to 240 hours per year. 17 So you can also be eligible for -- you could 18 carry over 320 hours at each fiscal year, and that's 19 more than we had previously. In the event that you ever 20 reach over the 320 hours, those hours would be 21 transferred to the family medical leave sick bank for 22 each employee and that bank would not exceed 720 hours, 23 like our sick leave maximum now. 24 Now upon termination, you would only be 25 reimbursed for a PTO balance of up to 160 hours, which 84 1 is currently what we have for vacation. 2 So basically, the way it would work is 3 anybody that has -- whatever your vacation balance is as 4 of September 30th, those hours will be transferred to 5 PTO. Sick balance -- sick balances up to 160 hours will 6 remain in the sick balance budget -- or bucket, anything 7 over 160 hours will be transferred to the FMLA sick. So 8 you would no longer receive sick accrual, but we ask 9 that if you are going to use your sick time, that you 10 bring down that balance first before you use your PTO. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Did you get feedback 12 from the employees on this. 13 MRS. DOSS: Everyone I've spoken with is -- 14 likes it. 15 MR. HASTINGS: I'm good. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 17 MRS. DOSS: And also, you have to be here -- 18 to take the time, you have to be here at least one 19 month. One month of continuous service time. And you 20 can only use what you've accrued up to that point. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And so the public knows what 22 we're doing, these are items that we discussed in the 23 recent workshop. And to consider or getting to enact 24 the orders, we're taking them up as we do this 25 incrementally. And so this is -- these are all things 85 1 that have been thoroughly discussed prior to today. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this one took -- it 3 was a challenge to write the policy, I will say, and 4 Jennifer did a really good job. I mean, a lot of 5 conversations back and forth trying to get this so it -- 6 so it works and protecting the employees that do have -- 7 mostly that have sick time accrued. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is it going to be 9 complicated to keep track of it? 10 MRS. DOSS: No more than it is now. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's a good 12 answer. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And long term it'll get 14 easier. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Only because they'll 16 understand it? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, no, because 18 you'll -- eventually the sick -- the employees that have 19 accumulated sick time, that bank will go down to zero. 20 And once it goes to zero it disappears. We won't have 21 to keep track of it anymore. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Now you know why 23 Jennifer's background in the Auditor's Office helps with 24 her -- for her Human Resources exclusions. 25 MS. HOFFER: So like if somebody had 1,238 86 1 hours of sick time, that will remain there? 2 MRS. DOSS: The first 160 will remain in 3 your sick bucket. Everything else will transfer to the 4 FMLA sick bucket. 5 MS. HOFFER: Okay. 6 MRS. DOSS: So you can still use it. 7 MS. HOFFER: So -- but you -- if it's FMLA, 8 you wouldn't be using it on, like, doctor's appointments 9 and things like that, or would you? Just like a -- to 10 go get a physical, I mean, could you -- 11 MRS. DOSS: Well, it's -- 12 MS. HOFFER: Because that's really -- 13 MRS. DOSS: -- that's where -- 14 MS. HOFFER: So the stipulation on that is 15 that it would go -- most of it would go into an FMLA so 16 it would have to be a qualifying FMLA -- 17 MRS. DOSS: Right. Right. 18 MS. HOFFER: So there's a little bit of a 19 catch there. 20 MRS. LANTZ: Some of my employees were 21 asking me about it. We know nothing about what was 22 offered or going to be offered, so this is the first 23 we've heard of it, besides when it was on Commissioners' 24 Court last week, I had the Chief Deputy watch, and she 25 said nothing came about. 87 1 So I mean, I don't know who all was 2 questioned, but we -- in my office didn't get anything. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was a workshop and a 4 lot of people were -- you know, a lot of offices were 5 here? 6 MRS. LANTZ: And a lot were not. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason it was on the 8 last agenda is because there wasn't -- I wasn't here and 9 I kind of was working with Jennifer a lot on it. But I 10 mean the policy is basically -- I mean as Jennifer 11 outlined, we haven't had any employees or Department 12 Heads that didn't like it. 13 MRS. LANTZ: Well, I'm not saying that. I'm 14 saying we didn't know what was going to be proposed. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Right. It was 16 discussed at a workshop and kind of decided at the 17 workshop, kind of figured out how to -- how it would be 18 accrued sick time and then the idea was that we wanted 19 to get, as the Judge said, a specific court order, and a 20 policy before we approved it. And -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, this is the first 22 time it's actually articulated like that in court and 23 all laid out. Are you saying you want more time to 24 think about it? Is that -- 25 MRS. LANTZ: No. I'm just saying it would 88 1 have been nice to know how it was articulated so 2 everybody knew because -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But it really wasn't 4 until now. 5 MRS. LANTZ: -- our -- our long-term 6 employees, especially the ones in my office, are 7 concerned that they're going to lose some of their time. 8 And I said I have no idea. So I mean -- we would watch 9 YouTube. 10 MRS. DOSS: We would never create a policy 11 where anybody lost any -- anything. And I hesitated to 12 put it on the agenda or to share it until the Court had 13 approved it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we can pass on it if 15 employees want to look at it and see more -- some of 16 them have looked at it are -- more that have looked at 17 it are -- 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They like it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They like it. 20 MRS. LANTZ: I mean I -- I agree, it's a 21 good policy. It's just -- to ease their mind to see 22 where they stand with it. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I don't see any 24 problem in delaying it until the next court session so 25 everybody can make sure they've had a chance to learn 89 1 it. 2 MRS. WILKE: So right now if the employee 3 doesn't use their sick time, they lose it, don't they? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They lose it, yeah, 5 or -- 6 MRS. WILKE: Because in my first 20 years -- 7 in my 20 years as Assistant DA, I took two days of sick 8 leave the entire 20 years, and I lost all that, so -- 9 MRS. LANTZ: We're in the same boat 10 essentially. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we can pass on it 12 and so -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's do that. Let 14 everybody take a look at it and work through -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Everybody can look at 16 it and bring up any questions. 17 JUDGE KELLY: So we'll pass on item 1.20. 18 We'll move on to item 1.21 consider, discuss 19 and take appropriate action to approve the revised 20 longevity plan. 21 MRS. DOSS: The only modification that was 22 made to what was handed out to you after Tanya reviewed 23 it, she would like -- I mean it's a great idea -- to add 24 in four more years of continuous service as of September 25 30th each year. 90 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have -- just an 2 over -- to kind of summarize the longevity plans. The 3 current longevity plan which will be addressed on the 4 next agenda item, this is a new policy, basically. And 5 the plan is to give a -- after your fourth year, you get 6 a check in December, early December, for $60 per year of 7 service. 8 So after your fourth year, beginning into 9 your fifth year you would get $240 in December. The 10 following year it goes up to 300. It goes up $60 every 11 year. And it continues through 40 years of service. 12 So you would max out at $2,400 in 40 years. 13 This is a longevity policy -- in fact, a true longevity 14 policy is -- this is modelled after what really most 15 counties that have a longevity policy have something 16 similar to this. Their numbers may be little bit 17 different. So this is something that we currently don't 18 have and it's just a new benefit to the employees. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But this is longevity; 20 not longevity merit, right? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. It's 22 longevity. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, this -- is this 25 sort of taking the place of a merit pay? 91 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the reason I 4 took merit out. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, merit should not 6 be there. You're correct. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not that it doesn't 9 walk like a duck and sound like a duck. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, this has nothing to 11 do with merit. Merit is on here on a later item. 12 But I'll make a motion to approve the 13 longevity policy as presented. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 17 approve the revised longevity plan as presented. Any 18 discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, I'd like to know 20 has anybody calculated the first year? The amount 21 that -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Auditor has, I 23 believe. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What does it cost for 25 the first year, Tanya? 92 1 MRS. SHELTON: Yeah, Jennifer calculated it. 2 It's about $125,000 for the first year that it goes into 3 implementation. So with the roll-ups, we're looking at 4 about $154,000. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: For the upcoming fiscal 6 year? 7 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And the new -- the 9 first time. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it'll be about that 11 same -- I mean roughly that -- that amount every year. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Kelly? 14 MS. HOFFER: I have one question. And I 15 think I know the answer, because I had expressed a 16 concern to Commissioner Letz. But I'm somebody that my 17 anniversary date is September 9th. And so I will have 18 completed -- you know, for my 19th -- I will have 19 completed that and so -- but my paycheck doesn't reflect 20 it until the next fiscal year. So do I not -- do you 21 understand what I'm saying? That -- do I not get -- 22 because I've already worked -- worked the time, and then 23 because my check goes into next fiscal year -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The year -- the start 25 date is the -- we're calculating this. I think we 93 1 settled on this, we went through it a lot, is the month 2 after your date of -- your first month of employment. 3 So if you started on the 15th of May, your first month 4 of credit is June. If you start the 31st of May. It's 5 June. If it's the 1st of May, it's June. It's a little 6 bit -- rather than keeping track of it. So it's -- the 7 effective date is the month after the date of 8 employment. 9 MS. HOFFER: So mine would be October 9th? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it would be October. 11 No 9th. It's just October. 12 MS. HOFFER: Uh-huh. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You get credit for 14 October. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Including the months and not 16 specific days. 17 MS. HOFFER: Okay. So, again, what does 18 that mean? Does it mean my pay rate changes? Or does 19 it mean that I get a lump sum check? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Your -- well, the 21 longevity is a separate check. This is not part of your 22 payroll. This would be a check and you get that check 23 in December based on, you know, I mean -- I mean, it's 24 going to be based on -- you're going to get that years 25 of service based on October. 94 1 MS. HOFFER: Okay. The only reason why I'm 2 asking because if I would have started in August, 3 that -- my pay rate would have changed this fiscal year. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This has nothing to do 5 with pay rate. 6 MS. HOFFER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Nothing to do with it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing to do with pay 9 rates. All employees get the same amount and it 10 starts -- the calculations of your length of service 11 starts the month after your date -- your month of 12 employment. 13 MRS. DOSS: And I think Kelly's talking 14 about the current longevity plan. Her anniversary falls 15 in September, and that's another agenda item. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's another agenda 17 item. 18 MS. HOFFER: Okay. 19 MRS. LANTZ: I have a question for you. Our 20 new fiscal year this goes into effect. Every -- 21 anything we have as longevity on our position schedule 22 is null and void? 23 MRS. SHELTON: No. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. It stays there. 25 Everything is -- 95 1 MRS. LANTZ: Right. For longevity does. 2 Because they're used to getting that two and a half 3 percent. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Changing -- the new 5 policy is going to be addressed. 6 MRS. LANTZ: That's what I'm saying. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. That is no longer 8 longevity. That's -- this is the longevity clause. 9 MRS. LANTZ: We just have the start dates on 10 the position schedule for the longevity. That's it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Start date is all 14 that matters for the longevity policy. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And this goes into 16 effect next fiscal year. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? We've 18 got a motion and a second. Motion was made by 19 Commissioner Letz, second by Commissioner Moser to 20 approve the revised longevity policy -- plan. Those in 21 favor say aye or raise your hand. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 24 Moving along to 1.22 consider, discuss and 25 take appropriate action to approve a payroll market 96 1 adjustment plan. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is the two and a 3 half percent. And it really -- and it was a big 4 surprise to me and maybe to the rest of the court, but I 5 know to myself that when we did the salary study the 6 reason we were competitive is because of the longevity, 7 what we used to call the longevity policy. And I think 8 that we need to keep that -- a plan like that in place. 9 We've never really done -- it's called COLA a lot of 10 times but we've never really done a true COLA. We've 11 just kind of taken an arbitrary -- we look at different 12 things and pick a number. 13 So this basically is -- it's on a market 14 adjustment plan just because salaries do increase. It's 15 like the old longevity plan with the exception you do 16 not get a two and a half percent increase after your 17 first year. You get it at your fourth -- at the end of 18 your fourth year, seventh, 10th, 13th, on through your 19 career as an employee. 20 One of the interesting things about this and 21 it came up with the salary study is the average length 22 of employment in Kerr County is 8.7 years, which is a 23 lot less than I would have thought. And that's -- you 24 know, but -- so, you know, the market adjustment is just 25 like I said, it keeps us competitive. It keeps our 97 1 salaries in line with what we have historically found. 2 MRS. DOSS: And my only question is will we 3 still cap it after 20 years? There was talk in our 4 meetings about not happening. I don't know, I guess 5 there's never been any -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tanya, did you look at 7 how much that additional cost would be? 8 MS. SHELTON: I did not. 9 MRS. DOSS: I thought we did, and it 10 wasn't -- 11 MS. SHELTON: Yeah, that was the longevity. 12 MRS. DOSS: That was the longevity? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The longevity didn't -- 14 is not a huge increase. 15 MS. SHELTON: My understanding is we were 16 keeping the current grade and step just like it is. 17 MRS. DOSS: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it is capped at 20 19 years of employment. Or step capped. 20 With that, I make a motion to approve the 21 new market adjustment plan. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 24 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 25 approve the payroll market adjustment plan as presented. 98 1 Is there any discussion? Any further discussion? Those 2 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. It passes. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The next one, Judge, if 6 we could pass. The next one is to adopt the salary 7 survey. We're still looking at some adjustments for 8 that. Looking at some salary ranges in the attorneys 9 areas and some of the employees that were listed in open 10 range and talking to Department Heads or Elected 11 Officials to see if we can get everybody off of the open 12 range. So we'll have two categories, exempt employees 13 and those on step and grade. And some exempt are on 14 step and grade also, but -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How does that work? To 16 what extent are there for Step and Grade? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, no one's elect -- 18 all elected -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that what you just 20 said? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I said there are -- 22 there -- I'm -- we're looking at -- that's one of the 23 things we're looking at. There are a few exempt 24 employees that are also on step and grade and I'm -- 25 we're looking at that. 99 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the open range is 3 the issue. And I -- to be honest, I didn't know we had 4 employees that are on open range. But after looking 5 into it, we're just trying to get everybody who is 6 non-exempt on the step and grade. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So is exempt not 8 elected? Is it somebody -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Department Heads are 10 exempt. Most Department Heads are exempt. I won't say 11 all of them are. And attorneys are exempt. All of our 12 attorneys are exempt. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know the attorneys 14 are exempt. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we have quite a few 16 exempt employees but it's -- we're trying to get in 17 line. We're looking at the IRS rules on what's exempt 18 and what's not exempt and making sure we're consistent. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There might not even 20 be -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're just making sure. 22 We're just double-checking. So we're not ready to take 23 that action on that yet. It will be brought back. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And for those of you that have 25 a concern, we're trying to make things a little bit more 100 1 standard, and predictable. So that everybody knows 2 exactly were they stand. 3 Let's move on to item 1.24, which is to 4 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to cancel 5 the current merit pay policy. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We currently have the 7 policy that we -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought we did that 9 last week. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we got rid of 11 the -- doing it last -- you got rid of doing it last 12 time, but it's still a policy. And the policy as 13 written is -- doesn't work real well and we need to 14 eliminate that policy. If we choose to bring back a new 15 policy so be it. 16 But the current policy has -- it hasn't 17 worked very well. And we're not -- well, I mean, we 18 didn't use it last time. So I'd make a motion that we 19 cancel the current merit pay policy. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Discussion. I -- I'd 22 rather see -- instead of canceling it, change it. If we 23 want to change it, change it. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what we tried to 25 figure out, how to do that. 101 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, but -- I still 2 think merit pay is a good thing to have. We didn't last 3 year just because of so many people -- from my opinion, 4 getting so much COVID support we didn't need to have our 5 taxpayers pay for merit pay last year. Okay. But I'm 6 not -- I think that there's nothing wrong with having a 7 merit pay policy. We need to define it better. So 8 okay. But I wouldn't -- I don't go along with canceling 9 it until we have something to replace it or think about. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I'm not opposed 11 to bringing something back, but I don't like having a 12 policy that we know is not working in place. We can 13 always bring back a new policy in my mind. And I think 14 that there are some -- I was talking to TDA, and I was 15 looking and, you know, I think there is probably a need 16 for some sort of merit policy -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- but there needs to 19 be -- well, the current policy doesn't work. And it 20 hasn't -- nobody seemed real happy with it when we did 21 it several years ago. Last year we didn't do it at all. 22 My opinion is I make a motion that we -- I think I 23 already made a motion. 24 JUDGE KELLY: You made a motion and you got 25 a second. 102 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I seconded it. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'm not opposed to 4 re-looking at a new one but the current one does not 5 work well. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I -- the impulse is 7 good. The idea isn't good. How to implement it in the 8 structure that we have here is the hard part. So -- 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It just creates 11 trouble. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- with Commissioner 13 Letz. We can always bring something back. But this -- 14 this has to -- I think we need to do away with the 15 policy because we can always bring something back better 16 later on. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion by 18 Commissioner Letz, and a second by Commissioner Harris 19 to cancel the current merit pay policy at this time. 20 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or 21 say aye. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Aye. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? 24 (Commissioner Moser opposed.) 25 JUDGE KELLY: Three one -- four one. Excuse 103 1 me. Four one. 2 MRS. DOWDY: Who was the person who -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Me. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I want to thank 5 Tanya and Jennifer both for really working on all these 6 policies. And we've talked about all of them at the 7 workshops and I thought it was important that we have 8 individual court orders so we can track what we've done 9 because these are three previous policy changes. And I 10 think overall, it's a pretty good benefit or improvement 11 of our benefits for the employees. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Then we have item 1.25, 13 which is on our addendum agenda, consider, discuss and 14 take appropriate action to accept a donation of $500.00 15 from a citizen to be added to the operating equipment 16 line in item 10-642-569. Reagan Givens. 17 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. Just request we 18 received a donation of $500.00. Didn't have a specific 19 purpose for it, so I wanted to put it in our operating 20 line item. I need to spend a little money in there to 21 install a WatchGuard system when I get it. It wasn't 22 anticipated. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 104 1 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 2 approve accepting a $500 donation to be added to the 3 operating equipment line item. Any discussion? Those 4 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. Okay. Very good. 7 Move on to the Approval Agenda. Pay bills. 8 MRS. SHELTON: Invoices for today's 9 consideration, $534,194.03. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to pay 14 the bills as presented. Those in favor raise your hand 15 or say aye. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 18 Budget Amendments. 19 MR. ROBLES: yes. We have seven today. 20 Four are line item transfers within their department. 21 Animal Control, Human Resources, County Attorney, County 22 Court at Law. The last three are the Auditor certifying 23 new revenue for the Special Response Team in the 24 Sheriff's Department, vehicle repair in the Sheriff's 25 Department, and operating equipment in the Animal 105 1 Control Department. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 5 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 6 approve the Budget Amendments as presented. Any 7 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 10 Late bills. 11 MRS. SHELTON: We have $1,982.95 for late 12 bills. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 17 approve paying the late bills as presented. Those in 18 favor raise your hand or say aye. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 21 2.4. Auditor Reports. 22 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We have one internal 23 audit for the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4. And 24 we're asking that you accept the Auditor's report. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 106 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 3 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 4 approve the Auditor's Report as presented. Any 5 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 8 2.5 monthly reports. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have monthly 10 reports for May from the Environmental Health 11 Department, Animal Control Services, and the County 12 Auditor. Move to accept all monthly reports. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 15 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 16 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 17 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. Court orders. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have our Court Orders 21 from the June 14th meeting. Court Orders 38747 and 22 38773. And I was not at that meeting but Commissioner 23 Harris has looked over them and thought they all looked 24 fine. Then from the June 21st meeting, we have Court 25 Orders 38774 and 38776. And I've reviewed those and 107 1 they look fine, so I'll make a motion to approve both 2 sets of Court Orders. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 5 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 6 approve the Court Orders as presented. Those in favor 7 raise your hand or say aye. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 10 Information agenda. Any status reports from 11 Department Heads? 3.2. Any status reports from Elected 12 Officials? Sheriff. 13 SHERIFF LEITHA: I just want to kind of 14 update you on a couple of things in reference to the 15 jail. When I got in office, we were around 200 people 16 in jail. Around 200, 205. And then for several months 17 we were around 220. 18 Here recently, we've jumped up to 235 and I 19 think this is, you know, with Covid rising. And the 20 good thing about that is that out-of-county prisoners 21 have gone up, which also builds the general fund. I 22 look for that to be -- continue to go up. Just kind of 23 want to keep y'all updated on that. We went from my 24 time from about 200 to 235. 25 Also, Commissioner Moser, I know you 108 1 constantly keep an eye on the open borders. We had our 2 third pursuit Friday. Caught three, three got away. 3 You know, tried to get a helicopter, wasn't available, 4 Couldn't. You know, search for several hours. 5 The position that puts me in, you know, all 6 of our manpower is out there, which leaves the rest of 7 the County vulnerable. You know, we've had one other 8 incident in addition to that that wasn't a pursuit, but 9 like I said I look for just a matter of time before it, 10 you know, gets worse. 11 Started a meeting with the Sheriffs, 12 surrounding Sheriffs, and meet once a month to kind of 13 discuss. Thank God for us, Gillespie County is getting 14 a bulk of the pursuits. They're starting to cut up 290 15 and he -- he said they're more interested. Kimble 16 County is having a lot of incidents. But just kind of 17 keep -- let you all know I look at that to be rising in 18 time as time goes on. 19 My understanding, I've been staying in touch 20 with DPS. You know, they're going to be down there 21 three years. When I was there, I was three years. It's 22 a three-year project. So -- you know, which also we 23 don't have many troopers. You know maybe one for three 24 counties. But I just look for things to be -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. Any other 109 1 Elected Officials have status reports? Okay. Any 2 Liaison Commissioner reports? Anything else? Okay. 3 Then that will leave us with adjourning this meeting and 4 go into Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter 5 to consider, discuss and take appropriate action 6 regarding personnel item at the Hill Country Regional 7 Public Defender's Office. And we will stand in recess 8 and go into Executive Session. 9 (Executive Session.) 10 JUDGE KELLY: There was a second addendum 11 that we took up in executive session which was 4.2 12 personnel matters, b., which to consider, discuss and 13 take appropriate action regarding salary survey related 14 to specific employees, which we did, but we're not 15 taking any action today. 16 So with that, there being nothing else on 17 the agenda today, we are adjourned. 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 110 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Court Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify 6 that the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise 7 a true and correct transcription of the proceedings had 8 in the above-entitled Regular Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 7th day of July, A.D. 2021. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2023 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25