1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, August 9, 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(via phone) JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Commissioner's Comments. 6 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 10 action regarding the update, facility use 5 and other matters related to COVID-19 Delta variant, including hospitalization numbers 6 and capacity. 7 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 action on authorization for Kerr County 8 to issue requests for proposals(RFP's) for administrative services, and requests for 9 qualifications(RFQ's) for professional services for the American Rescue Plan Act 10 of 2021. 11 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 50 action on authorization to issue requests 12 for proposals(RFP's) for administrative services, and requests for qualifications 13 (RFQ's) for engineering services related to the Hazard Mitigation Assistance(HMA) grant. 14 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 15 action to approve and authorize the County Clerk to advertise for bids for District 16 Courtroom #1 and #2 sound system and wireless microphone system. Dates to advertise are 17 8/10/21 and 8/17/21. 18 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 action to authorize the County Clerk to 19 advertise for bids for the Ranchero Road Reconstruction Project, Phase I. 20 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 21 action for the Court to approve a final plat for Shadow Bluff, Deed #21-05422. 22 1.23 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 63 23 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10 a.m. on September the 13, 2021 for a 24 revision of plat for Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 128-R. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 action for the Court to approve a preliminary 4 plat for Paloma Ranch in Mountain Home. 5 1.6 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 67 action regarding purchase of signs that 6 detect wildlife for use throughout the County. 7 1.7 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 68 action to approve a Monitoring Agreement with 8 Total Security Solutions for the "fire alarm and area of refuge" for the County facility 9 located at 550 Earl Garrett. 10 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 70 action to approve the optional $1.50 Child 11 Safety Fee, and the optional $10.00 for the County Road and Bridge fee for the 2022 12 vehicle registration per request from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, and 13 authorize the Tax Assessor-Collector to submit the approval to the Texas Department 14 of Motor Vehicles. 15 1.10 Consider, discuss and approve the Resolution 73 of Kerr County Emergency Services District 16 No. 3. 17 1.11 Consider, discuss and approve the appointment 76 of Election Judges and Alternates for the 18 term of one(1) year in accordance with the Texas Election Code Section 32. 19 1.12 Consider, discuss and approve the appointment 77 20 of the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge for the term of one(1) year in accordance with 21 the Texas Election Code Section 87.002. Consider and set the number of members to be 22 appointed by the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge. 23 1.13 Consider, discuss Ordering the Constitutional 78 24 Amendment Election and Emergency Service District No. 3. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.14 Consider, discuss and approve consolidating 79 the polling locations in accordance with 4 Chapter 43 of the Texas Election Code for the November 2021 election. 5 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 82 6 action to approve the Central Counting Station Personnel pursuant to Chapter 7 127.005 TEC. 8 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 83 action to affirm that the Kerr County Tax 9 Assessor-Collector is the designated official for calculating the Tax Rates for Kerr County 10 and Lake Ingram Estates Road District. 11 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 84 action regarding the calculation of the 2021 12 property tax rates for Kerr County and Lake Ingram Estates Road District. 13 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 89 14 action regarding the proposed budget and tax rate as presented by the Kerr County 15 Tax Assessor-Collector. 16 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 action regarding the Hill Country Regional 17 Public Defender's Office for FY 2021-2022 budget. 18 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 96 19 action to set Public Hearing on the proposed Kerr County budget for FY 2021- 20 2022 at 9:45 a.m. on August 23, 2021, and authorize the County Clerk to publish 21 notice of Public Hearing. 22 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 97 action to approve General Provisions for 23 FY 2021-2022. 24 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 98 action to approve Bond for Paul Gonzales, 25 Constable, Precinct 3. 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.26 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 98 action on the implementation of the burn 4 ban. 5 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 99 action to request to waive fines and fees 6 related to property taxes for property located at 312 Sherwood Lane West in 7 Kerrville, Texas owned by Jerry Van Ronk. 8 2.1 Pay Bills. 104 9 2.2 Budget Amendments. 104 10 2.3 Late Bills. 104 11 2.4 Auditor Reports. 105 12 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 105 13 2.6 Court Orders. 106 14 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 110 action to request to waive fines and fees 15 related to property taxes for property located at 312 Sherwood Lane West in 16 Kerrville, Texas owned by Jerry Van Ronk. 17 *** Adjournment. 113 18 *** Reporter's Certificate. 114 19 * * * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. We begin 2 every Commissioners Court meeting with the invitation to 3 the public to offer input to the Court. If you want to 4 address the Court, we'll ask you to come forward to the 5 podium, state your name and your address so we know what 6 precinct you're in, and limit your remarks to three 7 minutes or less. 8 If you -- what you want to speak on is an 9 item that is on the agenda, we ask that you wait until 10 that agenda item is called; otherwise, if it's not on 11 the agenda, this would be the opportunity now for you to 12 come speak to the court. Is there anyone who would like 13 to offer input to the Court? 14 There being none, we'll proceed to 15 Commissioners' comments. Precinct 1. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't have anything 17 to report. It's all quiet. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Moser is on the 19 phone. Any comments? Commissioner? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We might have lost him. 21 JUDGE KELLY: He'll call back. Do you have 22 anything for Precinct 3? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing but school is 24 getting ready to start. So everyone be aware around 25 school zones. And hope all the kids -- all the best for 7 1 the next school year. And the parents. Wish them all 2 the best. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And teachers. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Nothing right now. 5 Thank you. Nothing. 6 JUDGE KELLY: All right. Precinct 4? 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Not a lot. I'm just 8 very appreciative for the mild weather. I mean we're 9 in -- we're deep into August and still haven't had 10 hundred degree temperatures. We're getting close but 11 not quite. So we're fortunate. We're blessed this 12 year. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Well, I'll go 14 last. Everybody knows what I'm up to these days. We're 15 going to have a replacement for Commissioner Moser. 16 We're going to have a preliminary discussion on that 17 today. 18 I want to report that we've had 21 19 applications submitted. And another five or six people 20 that expressed interest that did not submit an 21 application. And it is very encouraging. Very well 22 qualified candidates for this job. Its been impressive 23 to see who has offered to step forward and serve the 24 public. And I couldn't be more pleased. 25 Last Commissioners' Court meeting we had a 8 1 citizen ask us why we weren't having a special election. 2 And it's because the statute doesn't provide for it. 3 The statute provides that we appoint someone to fill the 4 vacancy, the unexpired term, and then that person stands 5 election at the next general election, which will be 6 November of 2022. Correct? 7 MRS. STEBBINS: That's right. Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I'm looking to the County 9 Attorney. So in response to that question, I've given 10 this considerable thought. With this many applicants, 11 and already have five or six people -- five or six 12 people that have announced they're willing to run, 13 whether they got the appointment or not, and I see many 14 nodding heads that are already here in this courtroom 15 that have been coming for weeks and months now. 16 In fact, just out of a show of hands who are 17 our candidates that are here in the courtroom today? We 18 have a lot. It's Dan Kabenca, it's Mike Tackett, Rich 19 Paces, Mark Mosier. Did I miss anybody? 20 And I know everyone's excited. And I've 21 gotten tons of e-mails, letters, texts. There is a lot 22 of interest in this race. And it's a good question that 23 I thought was asked by Alicia Bell, why don't the people 24 get a say in who gets appointed? And the only say you 25 really got is talking to me. And I've spoken to every 9 1 one of you, at length about this, and encouraged you to 2 continue your candidacy. 3 But there's going to be a big horse race in 4 the primary. The primary is either going to be in March 5 or possibly in June, depending on what the legislature 6 does. If they can ever convene. But that's a whole 7 other issue. And as a result of that primary race, 8 there will probably be a runoff, which will probably be 9 in August and then the election will be in November. 10 And because that is going to be a crowded 11 race, we've already got five or six announced 12 candidates. Most of you are here today. And others 13 that I don't know if they're going to run or not. I've 14 made the decision, and as great as all of you are, I'm 15 not going to appoint an announced candidate. I'm not 16 going to give somebody a leg up on somebody else. These 17 are good people. All four of you that are in this room 18 today are good people. Four? Yeah, I got four here. 19 And so I'm not going to put my thumb on the 20 scale. We're going to appoint somebody to fill this 21 unexpired term. We're going to let the people decide in 22 the primary. And we're going to let the people in 23 Precinct 2 make the ultimate decision who's going to be 24 their Commissioner. So that's the decision that I've 25 made. 10 1 And when we go into Executive Session later 2 today, we'll talk about that. But I just wanted you to 3 know, I didn't want to surprise you. And I'm trying to 4 be fair to everybody. This is the people's decision. I 5 don't even live in Precinct 2. I want what's best for 6 them, but the people will decide which one of you will 7 represent Precinct 2. That's -- that's the announcement 8 I wanted to make. And -- and whoever gets elected takes 9 office January 1, 2022. 10 So with that announcement -- I do have one 11 other announcement that I was asked to make from our 12 Veterans Services, and that is that the Kerrville VA 13 Hospital Medical Center continues to offer COVID 14 vaccinations, which are Pfizer, to any veteran, 15 Hill Country or otherwise, their spouse, widow or 16 caregiver. 17 Currently due to reduced demand their 18 vaccination clinic is open Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, 19 from 10:00 to 3:00, in the recreation hall in the 20 basement of the main building. Patients can either make 21 an appointment to walk in during those times. Given the 22 latest surge of the Delta variant, they are prepared to 23 expand days and hours if the demand for the vaccination 24 increases. So with that we'll go on to our 25 consideration agenda and item 1.1. Dub Thomas. 11 1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 2 the update, facility use and other matters related to 3 COVID-19 Delta variant, including hospitalization 4 numbers and capacity. Dub Thomas. 5 MR. THOMAS: Thank you, Judge. Good 6 morning, Commissioners. All right. COVID 2.0 is what 7 I'm calling it. So -- right now as the dashboard stands 8 this morning, DSHS is showing 164 active cases. 9 Recovered is 4,671 and our fatalities are at 95. The 10 RMOC, which is the Regional Medical Operations Center, 11 which includes the 28 counties for the AACOG region. 12 There are 1,237 COVID patients currently in the hospital 13 in those 28 counties, which represents 15.1 percent of 14 the capacity. 15 So if you'll remember back under Governor 16 Abbott's Executive Order No. 32, when we reached 15 17 percent, the State 15 percent in seven days, that's when 18 we got shut down. So I'm not saying we're going to get 19 shut down, I'm just saying we -- I'm letting you know 20 that we're at that threshold that we were at six months 21 ago when we got shut down. 22 Vaccine data, 20,100 vaccines have been 23 distributed in Kerr County. 40,012 vaccines have been 24 administered. Of that for Kerr County, 22,662 people 25 have had at least one dose. And it -- as of this 12 1 morning, 19,388 have been fully vaccinated, which 2 represents about 37 percent of Kerr County's population. 3 Vaccines by age. Between the age of 12 and 4 15, 224 people have been fully vaccinated; 16 to 49 is 5 5,270; 50 to 64, 5,011; 65 to 79 years of age, 6,546; 6 80 plus is 2,333, and unknown age is 4. 7 Cases by age. Just kind of give you an idea 8 of what the statewide average is. For 20 to 29 years of 9 age, that represents 19.8 percent of the cases; 30 to 39 10 is 21.8; 40 to 49 is 19.1; and 50 to 59 is 16.1. So if 11 you'll look between 20 and 59 years of age, that's where 12 the majority of the COVID cases are coming statewide. 13 Some vaccine clinics that we have coming up, 14 August 14th, Kerrville Independent School District, Tivy 15 High School gym. That would be from 9:00 A to 3:00 P. 16 Schreiner University Event Center will be August 18th 17 from 10:00 A to 3:00 P. And I'm trying -- I'm working 18 on one for August 23rd at the Youth Event Center from 19 9:00 A to 3:00 P. I'm still trying to get that 20 confirmed at this time. Trying to get a drive-thru 21 there. 22 And as the Judge, you know, talked about, 23 VA hospital has Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 10:00 A 24 to 3:00 P in the recreation hall of the main building. 25 So any Kerr County or any Hill -- any veteran for that 13 1 matter, it doesn't matter whether it's Hill Country or 2 not. Any questions on anything? 3 JUDGE KELLY: What's the cold hard truth 4 here, Dub? 5 MR. THOMAS: Well we're spiking, obviously. 6 I mean, we've gone from 2.3 percent on -- just on the 7 RMOC data to 15.1. It shot straight up in a matter of 8 weeks. So I think what we're looking at is probably -- 9 maybe long term, depending on how many more variants we 10 get, I think we're going to see peaks and valleys in 11 this for quite sometime. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we've got a 13 representative from the hospital here and I don't want 14 to steal their thunder, but let me just ask him. With 15 the low vaccination percentage rates that we have in the 16 County, is it even remotely possible that we're going 17 achieve herd immunity with vaccinations? 18 MR. THOMAS: Not at this rate. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And tell the people what that 20 means. 21 MR. THOMAS: Well, that means that we're 22 going to have a lot of people either get vaccinated or a 23 lot of people are going to have to get sick. One or the 24 other. 25 JUDGE KELLY: So this Delta variant is 14 1 probably going to burn through our County. 2 MR. THOMAS: Yep. Correct. As a -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: That's what -- 4 MR. THOMAS: -- matter of fact, on Friday 5 the hospitalizations -- I don't have -- I didn't bring 6 that with me, but we had 23 or 24 in the hospital on 7 Friday. None of those folks had been vaccinated. And 8 at one time the ICU -- I think there's 12 ICU rooms, 9 we -- they had to open up another room and make it 13. 10 So hospitals -- the hospital was at capacity. 11 Especially the ICU. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we'll talk a little bit 13 more to the hospital people about it. But anymore 14 questions for Dub Thomas? 15 But I want everybody to be aware, the cold 16 hard truth is COVID is going to burn through this County 17 and a lot people are going to get sick. We're just 18 going to have to deal with it. So I'm telling people 19 protect your family, protect yourself. Prepare. Get 20 prepared for this because it's going to be here. It's 21 going to be a crisis. And pray. 22 MR. KINSEY: Does the public get to address 23 this? 24 JUDGE KELLY: If you fill out a form. 25 MR. KINSEY: Okay. 15 1 JUDGE KELLY: They're back at -- should be 2 on the table outside. 3 MR. KINSEY: Okay. There's not a form 4 there; there's just a sheet there to sign in on. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well -- that's okay. 6 We'll fill it out afterwards. Dub, let him take the -- 7 MR. THOMAS: Go ahead, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Please identify yourself and 9 your address. 10 MR. KINSEY: Yeah, my name is Todd Kinsey, I 11 live at 541 Mockingbird Lane here in Kerrville. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 13 MR. KINSEY: You know, I've watched this 14 whole thing. I mean we all have. And now we're 15 calling -- we're up here saying COVID 2.0, which the 16 so-called Delta variant which we can't even test for. 17 We know these PCR tests are not accurate. 18 And I hear you up here kind of promoting fear and it 19 really gets me fired up, because to tell people to 20 prepare for what, people are getting sick and I mean 21 I -- we don't want people -- people get sick. So are we 22 dealing with something that is abnormal? Like people 23 getting sick. 24 So now we're trying to say we have COVID 2.0 25 and everybody needs to get this vaccination, which we 16 1 don't have proper testing for. We don't know what it's 2 going to do to these kids, that we're having a vaccine 3 clinic at the high school to get young kids that we have 4 no idea what's going to happen to them. I -- I -- it 5 just seems absurd to me. It seems like the solution is 6 worse than the problem. 7 And so I would just ask that we ask 8 ourselves, do we really know -- like where are we 9 getting this information that there's a Delta variant? 10 Where -- where is this coming from? Like we're -- 11 we're told believe the science. Like we know that 12 these -- I -- the COVID variant Delta, do we have an 13 isolation? Do we have it isolated? Are we getting it 14 from a PCR test that's been magnified so much that it 15 can detect anything? 16 So it -- I think we need to really ask these 17 questions and -- and not just rush into something that 18 we don't know what the repercussions are going to be 19 later on down the line. I have a vaccine-injured child. 20 So this is something that's dear to my heart. I do not 21 want to see more kids -- adults, if you choose, if you 22 do the research and you choose that I want to get a 23 vaccine, then so be it. But these kids are at an age 24 where they can be manipulated, whatever we tell them, 25 and I just think it's wrong. 17 1 And I think what we're doing to our future 2 generation is going to have some serious repercussions. 3 So to go into another lockdown, I think it's absurd, and 4 I've been told -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry, but there's not 6 going to be another lockdown. Everybody has a choice 7 here. And when I talk about preparation, who ran out of 8 toilet paper last time? Be prepared. 9 See, the important thing is that you need to 10 know that we're probably going to have a lot of 11 confusion. That's been communicated. And what I'm 12 asking people to do is to protect yourself as best you 13 can. Prepare. Be ready for what may come. And pray. 14 I don't want any shaming. I don't want any blaming. I 15 want people to be treated with respect and dignity. 16 Everybody has the right to choose. Is that clear? 17 MR. KINSEY: Right. That's all I want. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 19 MR. KINSEY: Thanks. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. That was Dub Thomas. 21 Anything else for Dub? He stepped out. 22 Ms. Hall, do you want to speak on this one 23 or do you want to speak after the hospital talks? 24 MS. HALL: I think I'd like to wait until 25 the hospital gives their data. 18 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. All right. I have 2 Corey Edmondson, he's a representative of the hospital, 3 he's out of town today. But I think it's important that 4 the people hear from our healthcare system here, the 5 Peterson Regional Medical Center. And Kaeli, are you 6 going to take charge? 7 MS. DRESSLER: Sure. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. If you would, just give 9 your name and identify what your position is at the 10 hospital? 11 MS. DRESSLER: Certainly. My name is Kaeli 12 Dressler. I'm the Chief Nursing Officer at Peterson 13 Hospital. And as the Judge shared, Corey is unable to 14 attend this morning and asked that we share some 15 information about hospitalization currently on his 16 behalf. 17 In mid July, the number of hospitalized 18 COVID patients began to creep up. And we became aware 19 that we were experiencing another wave. Because the -- 20 I witness from day-to-day, I get a report every morning 21 and the number of hospitalized COVID patients went from 22 4 to 8 to 16. And as Dub shared this morning, there are 23 26 hospitalized patients with COVID, and that is 33 24 percent of our hospital census. Eight of those patients 25 are in ICU and seven of those eight are being ventilated 19 1 currently. So three-quarters of our census in the ICU 2 is COVID positive. 3 Pam has some information of the number of 4 patients that sought care for COVID related symptoms 5 over the weekend. There were how many? 6 MS. BURTON: You want total or each separate 7 entity? 8 MS. DRESSLER: Total. 9 MS. BURTON: Okay. Total was 353 that 10 sought care over the weekend. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Burton, it really works 12 best for the public if you come to the podium so they 13 can hear you. 14 MS. BURTON: Sorry about that. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Speak up too. It's 16 hard to hear. 17 MS. BURTON: Over the weekend -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: And first of all -- this is 19 Pam Burton. 20 MS. BURTON: Pam Burton, infection 21 prevention at Sid Peterson Health. 22 Over the weekend, Peterson Health saw a 23 total of 353 people that were seeking evaluation for 24 COVID-like symptoms. Of those 353, we tested 68 -- or 25 over 68 were positive. So up to 19 percent positivity 20 1 rate is being seen in our medical field over the weekend 2 alone. 3 MS. DRESSLER: And also cases -- or of those 4 people that sought care, there were how many that had 5 been vaccinated? 6 MS. BURTON: Five. 7 MS. DRESSLER: So a very small percentage of 8 people who are currently experiencing symptoms, getting 9 sick enough to seek care, either our emergency 10 department or the urgent care, has not been -- have been 11 vaccinated. The great majority have not been. And all 12 of those who have been hospitalized have not been. 13 Our staff are really doing their very best 14 to rise to this challenge. The situation at this time 15 is similar to the last wave but in many ways is a good 16 deal more difficult. A big portion of my day everyday, 17 is working with the other nursing leaders in the 18 hospital to figure out just exactly how we're going to 19 staff adequately to care for all of this -- all of these 20 patients. 21 Last time we had the extraordinary benefit 22 of nurses and respiratory therapists that were provided 23 by the State. At the peak, we had on the order of 27 or 24 28 nurses and 4 to 5 respiratory therapists and this 25 time there are none of those and -- 21 1 JUDGE KELLY: Could you repeat that? I 2 think it's important for people to understand what Corey 3 and I have been talking about. 4 MS. DRESSLER: Yes, sir. STRAC, or South 5 Texas Regional Advisory Council, provided -- the State 6 provided hot shot nurses or agency nurses to all of the 7 areas as they reached their peak. As I said, we had 8 around 28 of them at one time. And -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: So the last time we had -- so 10 the last time we had a surge, the State helped us -- 11 MS. DRESSLER: Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- by sending 28 nurses to 13 help treat the patients -- 14 MS. DRESSLER: To care for the patients. 15 JUDGE KELLY: -- at a cost of -- 16 MS. DRESSLER: Correct. And this time, 17 despite numerous requests from all of the hospitals in 18 the region, that is not going to be provided this time. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And we've been told what? 20 MS. DRESSLER: That that will not happen. 21 JUDGE KELLY: The State's not going to 22 provide any financial support to help us staff the 23 treatment of these patients. 24 MS. DRESSLER: Correct. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why is that? 22 1 JUDGE KELLY: Because that's what the State 2 decided. 3 MS. DRESSLER: Correct. 4 JUDGE KELLY: That's what the Governor 5 decided. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it has to be 7 based on something. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, what we've been told -- 9 and Corey has sat in on these meetings as much as I 10 have -- is those of us that have the American Rescue 11 Plan funds, that's the hospital comes and talk to, and 12 Corey and I have already been talking about that. 13 Because what they want -- the State wants us to do is 14 use our ARPA funds to try to meet this crisis. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the State basically 16 said you have other means? 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 19 MS. DRESSLER: We have, since the time that 20 we had these -- since the draw down that those nurses 21 has occurred, we have hired some agency staff; however, 22 we don't have 28 of them. And I have additional nurse 23 vacancies that have been exceedingly difficult to fill 24 over the last 18 to 24 months. And this increase in 25 COVID patients is happening concurrently this time 23 1 throughout the State. 2 Last time peaks happened in different areas 3 at different times and so hospitals were able to shift 4 the load. And then the hot shot nurses were able to go 5 to the places where the peak was occurring. This time, 6 it's all happening at the same time and agency nurses 7 are literally impossible to come by. We cannot pay 8 enough to -- to recruit them. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And they're -- 10 MS. DRESSLER: There's so much competition. 11 JUDGE KELLY: -- asking for -- they're 12 asking for a lot higher hourly rates, aren't they? 13 MS. DRESSLER: Very much. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I've heard some of them are as 15 high as $150 an hour just for a nurse. 16 MS. DRESSLER: Yes, sir. It's an exorbitant 17 rate. We are also -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge? Let me ask a 19 question, if I may. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It would be very 22 helpful to me to understand what's being requested from 23 the County. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We just have preliminary 25 talks. We're going to -- with what we are expecting to 24 1 have happen, there's going to be an enormous demand for 2 additional medical staff. And what we've been talking 3 about maybe as much is $250,000 a month. 4 MS. DRESSLER: That's how much we're 5 currently spending. Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But how -- how does the 7 County participate in that? 8 JUDGE KELLY: The American Rescue Plan Act 9 awarded grant funds to counties. Not -- and the City of 10 Kerrville didn't get any of these grant funds at this 11 time because they are not an entitled unit, which are 12 treated differently, and they're going through a 13 different process. We were awarded slightly over $10 14 million in grants, $5 million of it has been already 15 deposited in the bank. We have the money from the 16 Federal Government to try to be able to respond to this 17 crisis. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me ask one other 19 question, if I may. And I understand, you know, it's 20 kind of hard to hear the speaker from where it is, but 21 there's a shortage in personnel. If you just take the 22 demand for COVID out of personnel shortage, and consider 23 what the staffing has been at the hospital in light of a 24 lot of new facilities that are incorporated or developed 25 with capital funds, operating funds are different from 25 1 the hospital, so has the shortage been in personnel even 2 before the COVID issues? 3 MS. DRESSLER: Yes. It's been tolerable 4 though. It's -- we're able to handle the load. 33 5 percent of our current census is COVID positive 6 patients. And I can handle a census that is 33 percent 7 of what I have right now with the current openings that 8 I have. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you. 10 MS. DRESSLER: I feel it's important to 11 mention, too, though that something else that weighs on 12 me and the staff at the hospital is knowing that if they 13 or themselves or their family, their friends, their 14 neighbors require healthcare unrelated to COVID, that 15 the current COVID numbers impact our ability to 16 adequately or in a timely manner care for them. We've 17 had to be on hospital diversion a number of times in the 18 past few months. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Now you used the term on 20 diversion. These are things that I learned the hard 21 way. Explain to them what on diversion means. 22 MS. DRESSLER: It means that we are at 23 capacity and we're unable to care for the patients 24 who -- adequately care for or have a bed for the 25 patients who need one. 26 1 JUDGE KELLY: So we're diverting patients? 2 MS. DRESSLER: We're diverting patients. In 3 some cases it's emergency department diversion in which 4 we ask ambulances to go to the next nearest emergency 5 department, and in other cases it's ICU diversion. I 6 don't have an ICU bed available. Or just a hospital bed 7 available. Staff hospital bed. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me just ask you. 9 Can we divert patients to Hill Country Memorial in 10 Fredericksburg? 11 MS. DRESSLER: They have been on hospital 12 diversion for a good bit longer than we have. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And what about San Antonio? 14 MS. DRESSLER: It has been -- it's very 15 challenging to find beds in hospitals in San Antonio. 16 We have had patients boarding in the emergency 17 department for hours and hours, and in some cases days, 18 waiting on an appropriately staffed bed in San Antonio. 19 Because as I mentioned before, this peak is occurring 20 simultaneously and San Antonio is unable to take our 21 hospital patients. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And in fact, the entire Region 23 6, the 28 counties, is virtually over powered? 24 MS. DRESSLER: Over loaded. Yes, sir. In 25 fact, there are -- late last week there were several 27 1 patients in our ICU who would have benefited from a 2 therapy that we cannot provide. Some of you may have 3 heard it, ECMO. And we're unable to find a bed in San 4 Antonio that can take them to provide that therapy which 5 may, in fact, save their lives. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And they're suffering life 7 threatening conditions. 8 MS. DRESSLER: COVID. Oh, yes. COVID-19 9 has overwhelmed their body and they need -- and their 10 lungs and they need ECMO, which is -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: And we don't -- we don't have 12 that equipment. And there's no place we can transfer 13 them to that's available to take them. 14 MS. DRESSLER: No, sir. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And so are they deteriorating? 16 MS. DRESSLER: I don't know the -- their 17 status this morning. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. But it is grave? 19 MS. DRESSLER: Yes. So this is not a 20 hypothetical situation. This is occurring now. And for 21 every elective -- every stroke or every broken bone, 22 every heart attack that comes to the emergency 23 department, it's -- it's a struggle to figure out how 24 we're going to care for them. And we have been able to 25 so far. We have not had to cancel elective surgeries up 28 1 to this point because we've been able to find one 2 patient who can go home for each -- each patient that 3 requires surgery. So -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: And as I understand it, last 5 weekend there were 30 discharges just to be able to free 6 up beds to treat COVID patients? 7 MS. DRESSLER: Yes. Yes. So the staff has 8 all of this on their hearts and their minds continually. 9 Every day. And it is -- it's exhausting work. Because 10 it is very challenging emotionally and physically, and 11 it's amazing to me that they're holding up as well as 12 they are. 13 But we need -- we need the County's help 14 through the ARPA funds and -- because I can't keep the 15 staff booted up indefinitely. It's been quite the long 16 haul and I need to keep the staff that I do have and I 17 need to keep the agency staff that I have. 18 And if possible, I need to be able to 19 recruit additional agency staff to be able to continue 20 to care for. And if we're going to see an increase in 21 illness, which all indications point to that -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: And Kaeli, let me just ask 23 you, what happens -- you've done a great job. We really 24 appreciate what you're doing. And you've been able to 25 keep this thing going. What happens when we get 29 1 overpowered and you can't treat all the people that are 2 sick? 3 MS. DRESSLER: Then we have to begin 4 employing some previously unimaginable scenarios that, 5 up to this point, have really only been, like I said, 6 hypothetical or table top exercises in operating on a 7 limited resource sort of a situation and having to make 8 some decisions based on, frankly, survivability and who 9 is most likely to survive and it's -- it's -- again, 10 it's unimaginable ethical wellness that -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: And our medical staff is going 12 to have to make life and death decisions on who lives 13 and who doesn't? 14 MS. DRESSLER: Right. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And you remember we were at 16 that meeting on Thursday before last and I was -- I was 17 absolutely shocked -- I'm an old Army veteran, to hear 18 that we might consider having to put up mash tents for 19 people to be able to wait until we get to you. 20 MS. DRESSLER: We can put up mash tents, but 21 I don't have any nurses to take care of the patients 22 that would go in them. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I understand. 24 MS. DRESSLER: I can barely take care of the 25 patients who are in the hospital right now. 30 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So how would this 2 change then? 3 MS. DRESSLER: This would keep what I have. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's all? 5 MS. DRESSLER: Most likely. I might be able 6 to recruit some additional agencies by being able to go 7 up on the price. But the competition for agency staff 8 right now is extreme. As Judge Kelly said, we have 9 gotten requests for 120, 130, 140 dollars an hour. And 10 it's just become -- the costs have become exorbitant, 11 just for labor. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And so the public knows, 13 because I've already explained this to Corey and 14 hospital administration, we're in the process of putting 15 out a request for proposal to be able to hire a grant 16 administrator to help us administrate for public fund. 17 We're not in a position to do anything now, 18 but we do need to be aware of what the needs are. And 19 that's why I asked them to come today because I've been 20 listening to Corey and it's -- it's concerning that we 21 may get that sick. But we need to try to get ahead of 22 this thing as best we can. Anyone else that needs to 23 address the Court? 24 MS. DRESSLER: Any other questions for me? 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I want to -- 31 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Judge? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes? What? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's no action on 4 this agenda item? 5 JUDGE KELLY: No, no, no. This is all 6 information. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The question has come 9 up a couple of times about the test and the Delta 10 variant. Is there a test for that or not? 11 MS. DRESSLER: Yes. 12 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: No, there isn't. 13 MS. BURTON: Hi, Pam Burton again, infection 14 prevention. Actually, we can send samples to the Texas 15 Department of Health lab in Austin and they can run 16 sequence testing on the sample that we send. And we can 17 pull the Delta variant in that sequence testing. It's 18 kind of like a family tree. 19 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: The CDC just announced 20 that there was no positive test. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me. Let's not get out 22 of order. We're going to let -- people who want to 23 address the Court will have the opportunity but we need 24 to do this one at this time. Ms. Burton, you may 25 proceed. 32 1 MS. BURTON: So when we are -- we don't 2 actually test. We aren't testing per se like we do for 3 COVID. We don't go up the nose for that specific test. 4 We are sending the test to Austin to their laboratory 5 and they are breaking it down. And they are looking for 6 different types. Sequence testing is what they call it 7 or breakthrough testing. 8 So we aren't specifically testing for that, 9 we are looking for and seeing where we can find the 10 delta variant, the alpha variance, the lare -- the "L" 11 one. So we are looking for those in -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Lambda. 13 MS. BURTON: -- the sequence testing. 14 There's a lot of them. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Lambda. 16 MS. BURTON: So we don't specifically test 17 for it, you are correct. 18 MS. DRESSLER: Locally we do not, correct. 19 But it is possible to detect it. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So do you send any of 21 those off to be tested? 22 MS. BURTON: Yes, sir, I have. And it 23 requires -- I have to contact the health department, the 24 Texas Department of Health, and I have to send them all 25 the pertinent information and then they say yes, we send 33 1 it or no, don't send it. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I -- my wife and I 3 just went through this last month. I went through CVS, 4 she went through Walgreen's to get tested. Our report 5 doesn't tell you if you have a variant or whatever. It 6 just says COVID positive. 7 MS. BURTON: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And so we don't know. 9 So you're getting a lot of people go through these 10 places and so they're -- you don't know -- find out 11 about those. As far as whether it's the Delta or 12 whatever. 13 MS. BURTON: We aren't specifically testing 14 for it. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 16 MS. BURTON: We aren't specifically testing 17 for any other variants. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we're talking about 19 that, that if that's the cause for why we're here today. 20 The Delta variant is -- comes up over and over again. 21 So that's why it's important to know whether or not we 22 really can test for it. That we're having a surge in 23 what we had this time last year is one thing, but to 24 call it something that we don't really know that that's 25 what it is, is where I would like to stop this. 34 1 We have -- we know that this virus is out 2 there. We know that it is dangerous to people and that 3 seems to be enough without putting something in there 4 that really shouldn't be. 5 MS. DRESSLER: Indeed. And as you can tell 6 from my remarks, I do not use the word Delta variant. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know you didn't. 8 MS. DRESSLER: We -- I'm just describing 9 what is currently in my -- in my hospital this 10 morning and what we have been dealing with as -- 11 regardless of what variant is out there in our community 12 right now. COVID-19 is in our community right now and 13 it is running roughshod. 14 And I feel like this group of community 15 leaders needs to set the example and lead. Because 16 it's -- it's going to be very, very challenging to -- to 17 deal with the -- with the wave that is coming. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What -- what are the 19 breakthrough cases that you are hearing about? What 20 does that mean? 21 MS. DRESSLER: Breakthrough means that 22 someone who has been vaccinated or who has had COVID 23 previously gets it again. That's what that means. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So if -- on a practical 25 level, if you have to hire people at the hospital, 35 1 newcomers, at $140 an hour, what's that going to do to 2 your morale with the rest of the nurses that aren't 3 making that kind of dough? 4 MS. DRESSLER: Not good. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How are you going to 6 handle that? 7 MS. DRESSLER: We have -- we have done a 8 number of things. We have looked at what the market is 9 doing, paying registered nurses, twice in the past six 10 months and we have given two small -- two incremental 11 increases to meet the market. The average wage in the 12 San Antonio area for registered nurses. 13 And we have also -- we also give them 14 bonuses for working extra. I have nurses working 15 incredible number of hours. Sometimes five 12-hour 16 shifts a week, which that's 60 hours. When they would 17 normally be working 36. And we bonus them for that. 18 And we -- we just try to support them in every other way 19 that we can. 20 We've also implemented bonuses for them 21 recruiting other permanent staff. And we are also 22 planning on providing some retention bonuses as well to 23 offset some of that dissatisfaction. But honestly, they 24 just appreciate the help and know that if there 25 necessary -- I won't say necessary evil, but it's 36 1 something necessary to -- to help them out and get them 2 through. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kaeli, in the past 4 kids -- whatever -- however you want to define it, have 5 not had much of an adverse effect to COVID. Is that 6 still the case, or is it -- or are kids in the hospital 7 more than they were in the past? 8 MS. DRESSLER: Children? We have not seen 9 that here; however, we do not typically care for 10 patients -- pediatric patients who have anything more 11 than just a mild respiratory virus. We transfer all 12 patients who require hospitalization -- pediatric 13 patients -- to San Antonio specifically. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And I think it's important 15 that the public know that Peterson does not have a 16 pediatric unit. 17 MS. DRESSLER: Correct. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So seriously ill children have 19 to be transferred to another hospital and you can't 20 transfer anybody right now. 21 MS. DRESSLER: The children's hospitals do 22 not have quite the limitations on transfers that the 23 adult critical -- in critical care hospitals do; 24 however, we have heard, you know, through all of our 25 channels and organizations that those hospitals also 37 1 have been seeing an increase in the number of children 2 who have contracted COVID. And nationwide, that's been 3 on the increase as well this go around, compared to last 4 time. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: One last question for 6 me. When people come in to be tested, it's documented 7 they've been vaccinated or not been vaccinated, right? 8 MS. DRESSLER: I believe so, yes. Uh-huh. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. So -- so 10 there's rumors that maybe those numbers weren't being 11 kept track of. 12 MS. DRESSLER: Oh, no. Yes, sir. We -- we 13 have. I know that that's reported every day. So for 14 instance, the number that we see in our urgent care, we 15 hear how many total patients they saw, how many were 16 tested, how many were positive, and how many of those 17 positives had been vaccinated. Each morning. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 19 MS. DRESSLER: Thank you. 20 MR. PACES: Just one question. 21 JUDGE KELLY: No. You don't get to ask her 22 questions. You can ask us questions. 23 MR. PACES: Okay. Well, do you know 24 anything about demographics of the patients that are 25 being treated? 38 1 JUDGE KELLY: I know Dub read them off just 2 a minute ago. I know those. I know what Dub read off 3 just 30 minutes ago. 4 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, what is your 5 name? 6 MR. PACES: Rich Paces. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Go to the podium. Go to the 8 podium. Identify yourself. 9 MR. PACES: Yeah, my name is Rich Paces. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 11 MR. PACES: Simple question. I just would 12 like to know the demographics of the current caseload at 13 Peterson Hospital. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Is Dub here? Did he go? He 15 read them off this morning. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Age wise? 17 MR. PACES: Yeah. Age wise. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Ballpark it was like 19 20 percent for each group. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, he's got the 21 information. If he comes back in we'll have it again. 22 Dub, they're talking about the demographics. Could you 23 read off those demographics again? 24 MR. THOMAS: Vaccines by age or cases by 25 age? 39 1 MR. PACES: Cases. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Cases. 3 MR. THOMAS: Cases by age; 20 to 29 was 19.8 4 percent; 30 to 39 was 21.8; 40 to 49 is 19.1; and 50 to 5 59 is 16.1. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Ballpark 20 percent all the 7 way up to age 60? 8 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 9 MR. PACES: That's the cases in the 10 hospital? 11 MR. THOMAS: Cases -- this is statewide. 12 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: He's asking about in 13 the hospital. 14 MR. THOMAS: I don't have that -- I don't 15 have that information. 16 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, what is your 17 name? 18 MR. THOMAS: The hospital has that 19 information. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to ask you, please 21 don't speak unless you're recognized. It's making it 22 terribly hard on her to do this. So Dub has the stand 23 and is at the podium right now. Any other questions on 24 demographics? 25 MR. PACES: No, sir. 40 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Dub, thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment. 3 You know, I know there's a lot of people, whether it's 4 conspiracy or not a conspiracy, whether you get 5 vaccinated or whether you don't get vaccinated. And 6 that's all up to personal decision. I believe that. 7 But what is a fact for this community is the hospital 8 has a lot of patients in it. It's beginning to impact 9 their ability to treat the general public. And their 10 staff has a huge burden right now. 11 So you know, aside from all the issues about 12 COVID and all that, that's -- to me that's irrelevant. 13 The issue is that our hospital does have an issue right 14 now. And I think the people need to be aware of that 15 part and people need to do what they think is safe. And 16 that's as far as -- you know, and that's what they 17 should do. That's it. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But these funds come 19 because of COVID. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And these overruns of 22 cases are because of that. So they need the money and 23 they need the staff. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And they -- we have gotten a 25 preliminary opinion from a consultant that these -- 41 1 these expenses would be eligible for the ARPA funds. We 2 know that they would apply. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean -- for the 4 record, I support being able to use these funds if we 5 figure out how to make them truly help the hospital. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And there's others 7 that -- that would fit for these funds. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And a lot of them are 10 coming out. You know, you start talking ten million 11 dollars, everybody wants it. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, what Commissioner 13 Letz said, this helps everybody. Because folks aren't 14 able to go in and get treatment for other things if 15 they're bogged down with the COVID cases. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And the more we hear 18 about it on the news, the more everybody thinks they 19 have it. So they may go in and get a test. If you feel 20 okay, don't go get a test. 21 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a lot of time 22 sensitive things on the agenda. It's a quarter until 23 10:00. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think you have one 25 more. 42 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Terri, too. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Identify yourself. 3 MS. HEMMERLINE: Maria Hemmerline. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And where do you live? 5 MS. HEMMERLINE: All I really want to say is 6 that on July 29th, Governor Abbott issued an Executive 7 Order. So no matter what the hospital says, no matter 8 anything else, you have to abide by the Governor's 9 order. And the Governor is not -- he's saying that the 10 path forward relies on personal responsibility rather 11 than government mandates. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 14 MS. HEMMERLINE: So I would just, you know, 15 recommend that we take a look at that Executive Order, 16 and not try to go outside the confines of it. And also, 17 you might take a look at Harris County, who the judge 18 there is very eager to impose mandates but is not able 19 to because of the Executive Order. Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Mandates haven't come 21 up here. 22 JUDGE KELLY: There will be no mandates in 23 Kerr County. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We're not -- none of 25 us are for that. 43 1 JUDGE KELLY: So let's -- let's take a quick 2 break. A five minute break. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wait. Terri Hall. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, go ahead. 5 MS. HALL: I'm sorry. Terri Hall. I live 6 on Independence Lane in Ingram. And I want to just 7 bring up the fact that it seems like one thing that 8 keeps getting left out of this mix is natural immunity. 9 There's many of us that had it already. Like one of the 10 Commissioners has already experienced this in the last 11 month. And that that is a far better immunity than a 12 vaccine. 13 And I'm surprised that we're not listening 14 to some of our own Texas doctors, some of them have been 15 called the Texas front line doctors. Dr. Peter 16 McCullough is one of them. Dr. Richard Bartlett is 17 another. Dr. Robin Armstrong, who's the vice chairman 18 of the Republican party, and is a hospital physician as 19 well as geriatric care. 20 All of them say we should never go back down 21 the road of mandates and lockdowns, which y'all are, I 22 believe, in agreement for that. But they have been 23 putting out through Senator Bob Hall, through Facebook 24 town halls -- and there's another one tonight, I would 25 encourage you to watch. It's all very high substance. 44 1 All from our Texas physicians. One who's seen nothing 2 but COVID patients for the last 18 months. And they 3 have an incredible expertise that can help our hospitals 4 not be overwhelmed. 5 And the first thing is early intervention. 6 And they talked about getting people within two to three 7 days of symptoms on Ivermectin and HCQ. And they said 8 that inhaled Budesonide has gotten people off 9 ventilators and back home again. 10 Why are we not doing this? Why are we 11 overwhelmed in our ICU and why are we -- our staff 12 overwhelmed? Why are the hospitalizations what they 13 are? If we were doing these early interventions and 14 treatment, people wouldn't even be hitting the hospital 15 door. They'd be able to get the treatment they need on 16 an outpatient basis. 17 And so I would really encourage you to tune 18 in to that. It's tonight at 7:00. You can go to 19 Senator Bob Hall's page and get the information there. 20 I can give it to you as well. I can send y'all a link 21 after the meeting today. 22 But that really concerns me that we're kind 23 of ignoring the fact that there's already a lot of 24 people that already have better immunity than vaccines 25 by having had it already. And I feel, frankly, upset 45 1 that we have an open border where we're shipping people 2 in, into our COVID region, and that's probably what 3 we're seeing the huge spike in San Antonio area in 4 particular, and wouldn't surprise me if we're seeing it 5 here in Kerrville as well, from a bunch of illegals that 6 we know are pouring in that are COVID positive that are 7 impacting our community. 8 So I think border security needs to be a 9 part of the plan as well. And I just see the ill 10 effects on an education and trying to now talk about 11 masking up the kids again in schools, the economy. 12 Certainly Peterson Health is not the only one with a 13 labor shortage. We have a labor shortage in every 14 industry across the board. Our supply chain has still 15 not recovered from the last set of lockdown. 16 And the mental health will be felt for 17 years. We're now impacting the third school year for 18 these kids. The third school year. And some of them 19 are at the very early part of their childhood 20 development and education and I don't know how they're 21 going to recover from the lack of socialization and the 22 mental health issues that that has reaped on them. 23 And I know that we can't test for the Delta 24 variant but there's been a lot of research talking about 25 how the Delta variant is less virulent. It's more like 46 1 traditional flu. I mean there's no reason why we should 2 be having hospitals overwhelmed if we follow the 3 protocol that these doctors have found to be incredibly 4 successful. 5 I mean, we're talking about next to no 6 deaths at all from the way these doctors have been 7 treating their patients. And there are hundreds of them 8 all over the state. One of the clinics is here in 9 San Angelo and another one in Marble Falls. These are 10 our local Texas doctors, folks, and they can give some 11 great advice to help get these people out of our 12 hospitals and much better and be able to get well at 13 home. 14 And I would also wonder how much of the 15 staff have we lost at the hospital level because they 16 have been forced to be vaccinated. Maybe there's a 17 whole lot of people we're losing because we're trying to 18 force vaccines on healthy people rather than do an early 19 intervention, keep them out of our hospitals and not 20 affecting our labor shortage because of government 21 mandates. 22 So I'm sure my time has expired, but I would 23 really encourage you to do that and I'll send you all a 24 link to the town hall that will be on again tonight. 25 Thank you. 47 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 2 MS. DRESSLER: May I respond to the question 3 that hospital is -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Get up to the podium. 5 MS. DRESSLER: The hospital has not required 6 anyone to become vaccinated. So that is not a cause for 7 people choosing to separate. The stress of caring for 8 COVID patients, that has been a reason for nurses and 9 other staff leaving. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Let's have -- the 11 Court will be in recess for five minutes. We'll come 12 back and take our time sensitive matters. 13 (Recess.) 14 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 15 I visited with our Tax Assessor-Collector and we're 16 going to move his 9:30 docket until after the 10:00 17 docket to try to get -- take care of some of these other 18 issues. We start -- so I'm going to skip from 1.3 and 19 all the way to 1.15. I'm going to -- I'm not going to 20 skip 1.3, 4 or 5. I'm skipping from 1.6 through 1.15. 21 That's what we're doing. I've got some time sensitive 22 items. We've gotta get those to the newspaper in time. 23 Let me call Item 1.3 consider, discuss and 24 take appropriate action on authorization for Kerr County 25 to issue requests for proposals for administrative 48 1 services, and requests for qualifications for 2 professional services for the American Rescue Plan Act 3 of 2021. 4 And I put this on the agenda. We had a 5 conference with GrantWorks, who we work with regularly, 6 and we need to get the RFP to them so they can get it 7 back so that we can act on it on Commissioners' Court 8 meeting on August 23rd. And then once we have them in 9 place, they will review these things and advise us on 10 what is available and what's not. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's -- it's not 12 only GrantWorks; it's anybody that may want to provide 13 the service. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Right. Right. GrantWorks is 15 just -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We already have a 17 contract with GrantWorks. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Right. But this -- we have to 19 put it out for public bids so everybody makes a 20 proposal. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 24 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 25 approve to put out the RFP for the American Rescue Plan 49 1 Act. Any discussion? Those in favor -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I have some 3 comments. Can you hear me okay? 4 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I -- I don't have 6 any issue with going out for an RFP. But it's my 7 understanding that there are more issues at Peterson 8 with personnel that are not related to COVID. So I 9 think this will give us the time to better understand 10 what those things are and how the County should proceed 11 with contract with administrative services. That's my 12 only comment right now. Right now I -- I'll go along 13 with issuing an RFP. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, what we're told is there 15 will be an application process. The applications will 16 be vetted and reviewed by whoever the administrator is. 17 And then the ultimate decision is here with the Court. 18 We will vet whatever comes out of that and approve or 19 not approve whatever is requested. So people are 20 beginning to line up with questions. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 22 JUDGE KELLY: So let's get back to meeting 23 somebody -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sort through it. 25 JUDGE KELLY: -- to administer grants. 50 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, and make sure 2 that they're -- they fit -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- the criteria. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And all the grant -- it has to 6 be COVID related except for a couple things, like 7 broadband and a few others. But other than that, it has 8 to be COVID related. So with that, those in favor raise 9 your hand. Four of us -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Unanimous, five zero. 12 The next request for proposal is 1.4 13 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on 14 authorization to issue request for proposal for 15 administrative services and requests for qualifications 16 for engineering services related to the Hazard 17 Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grant. 18 And they've extended the deadline for that 19 and we still have the opportunity to file some grants 20 through the administrator. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, a little bit of 22 background on that would be appreciated. What hazard 23 mitigation are we talking about? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Shelton. 25 MRS. SHELTON: In speaking with Dub, what is 51 1 on there is generators for the fire department. We'd 2 like to look in there, the volunteer fire department. 3 There's also a possibility that we would be asking for 4 covered parking for the Sheriff's Office and Road & 5 Bridge. And that's what -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you. 7 MRS. SHELTON: -- we've got identified right 8 now. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And the reason for the covered 10 parking for the Sheriff's Office is that when we had the 11 hailstorm it cost us more to fix them than they're worth 12 so we're trying to figure out how to protect the 13 vehicles. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 14 your hand or say aye. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 17 MRS. DOWDY: That was item one point -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Four. 19 MRS. DOWDY: Who made the motion and the 20 second? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'll make the motion. 22 Who will second? 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Ratify the vote, 25 anybody change their vote? Okay. We're good. 52 1 Item 1.5 consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action to approve and authorize the County 3 Clerk to advertise for bids for District Courtroom 4 1 and 2 sound system and wireless microphone system, 5 dates to advertise are August 10 and August 17. 6 Mr. Motheral. 7 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes, we were asked to take a 8 look at the system in both courtrooms and we have used 9 the services of a local consultant that was asked to 10 help us out. And they basically came back and said that 11 the issue of noncompliance is not an issue. We are in 12 compliance with FCC. Period. 13 The other thing is that they will have a 14 complaint of feedback and noise. It was the opinion of 15 the consultant that this was a result of the COVID 16 shields, the plastic plexiglass COVID shields, and the 17 sound is echoing off of them. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So what do we do? 19 MR. MOTHERAL: Yeah. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we go out for proposal. 21 And what we -- what we've been told from the District 22 Courts is that they've got a compliance deadline of, I 23 think, October 1 per the Office of Court Administration, 24 I think, and so we're trying to get the proposal out to 25 find out where we really stand. 53 1 MR. MOTHERAL: But we don't have 2 specifications for any of it yet. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're saying we're in 4 FCC compliance and we have a feedback issue because we 5 have a screen up. 6 MR. MOTHERAL: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That doesn't sound like 8 a need to go out for a bid to change all of that. 9 MR. MOTHERAL: The consultant said that you 10 should be good for awhile yet. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the -- I don't know 12 who all got it but I know I received it, from Judge 13 Emerson saying he wants that system fixed. And when 14 Judge Emerson or any District Judges basically say that 15 our -- the system is not working properly and it's a 16 little bit old and archaic in his mind, I think we need 17 to take a look at fixing it, because if not they can 18 just tell us to fix it. We're going to fix it either 19 way. We don't have a lot of options. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But we're going to try 21 to find something to work around these shields and 22 stuff, is that what you're saying? 23 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes. That's the real thing. 24 Is that you have to have equipment that will allow for 25 that. 54 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I understand what you're 2 saying, Commissioner. But I don't -- the District 3 Judges are a little bit different than everybody else. 4 And when it comes to budgetary issues they can mandate 5 that we do it. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And he said he wants it 8 done by October 1. But I -- 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But I don't think he 10 wants to spend more money than is necessary, he just 11 wants it fixed. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But he wants a 13 system that works and he's requested in the e-mail that 14 I got was about that Bluetooth and other things that are 15 customarily used in courtrooms currently, that ours is 16 not compliant with. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just an upgrade then. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're going to need an 20 expert opinion one way or the other. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: How long do you think 22 that will take, Bruce? 23 MR. MOTHERAL: Design to construction, I 24 have no idea. It could be relatively quick. The 25 speakers -- unless you're going to replace every little 55 1 thing, most of it exists today. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Bruce, there's 3 not a lot of companies that do sound systems. 4 MR. MOTHERAL: No, there are not. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know that the company 6 that we used for the Hill Country Youth Event Center is 7 no longer in business, as I understand. But there is a, 8 I think, San Antonio Sound is a company that they are 9 talking to right now about fixing that sound system. 10 MR. MOTHERAL: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So that might be a good 12 place to start. 13 MR. MOTHERAL: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jonathan, Audio Visuals 15 in Kerrville also does that. 16 MR. MOTHERAL: Yeah, there's several. 17 There's a couple here. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Okay. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So what -- but I guess 21 the question is -- goes back to the specification. What 22 do we want them to bid or -- or are we hiring somebody 23 just to do an analysis of it or are we -- 24 MR. MOTHERAL: I think that would be a good 25 step one. 56 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think -- can we just 2 say analysis and proposal? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We can do an 4 analysis and develop an RFP. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, what -- what the Judges 6 are concerned about is the time sensitivity of this. 7 We've only got the rest of August and September to get 8 this done. 9 MR. MOTHERAL: And you -- one thing that you 10 probably need to at least put in the mix, is that we 11 don't know what the supply chain is going to do. We 12 have enough problems getting computers. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We may be waiting 14 high. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. He -- he may 16 want something he can't get. So -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I mean that's -- 18 to me -- we -- go ahead. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Whoever -- whoever is 20 going to look at it is going to give you their analysis 21 of what needs to be done, so that's in -- in with your 22 FRP(sic) anyway. If you have three that come back and 23 they say the same thing, you know that the problem -- 24 that that is the problem. But if each one of them comes 25 up with something different then -- 57 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tanya, I'm looking at 2 you just because -- could District Courts come up with 3 the things that they want? I mean, a pretty short list 4 of what they want the courtroom to have? 5 MS. SHELTON: My understanding is what that 6 e-mail says, they want it done by October the 1st and 7 they want to use Bluetooth technology. That is my 8 understanding. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Which is based -- 10 that's an upgrade. So they do need that. 11 MRS. DOWDY: May I make a comment? This is 12 one of the time sensitive items that needs to get to 13 paper. And right now the advertisement is just saying 14 replacing audio visual sound system in District 15 Courtrooms one and two. There aren't really 16 specifications. So my question is, do the 17 specifications need to go in that ad or are they just 18 going to -- I mean -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't think you know 20 what they are. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I think we can 22 probably go the way we're going and have them look at it 23 and do what -- kind of what Commissioner Belew said. 24 Have them look at it and come back with what they think 25 can fix it. 58 1 JUDGE KELLY: I'm good with that. As long 2 as we're making a good faith effort, I don't think the 3 Judge is going to be upset with us. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And we need to find out if 6 there's a better way to do it. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, if we -- could 8 we -- eliminate that step and just get bids, and people 9 come analyze it and say this is what we can do to fix 10 it, you know, rather than get to pay somebody to analyze 11 it, get these -- whoever you're going to -- 12 MRS. STEBBINS: It'll probably cost over 13 $50,000.00 so we have to go out for bid on it, which is 14 why it has got to go in the paper. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But it doesn't have -- 16 we don't have to also pay for an analysis. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They'll do the analysis 18 when -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They'll do it when they 20 do the bid. That's what he's talking about. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: Oh, okay. I thought he was 22 talking about skipping the -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. No. So do we have 24 a motion? 25 JUDGE KELLY: No. 59 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 2 approve going out for bids for the sound system for the 3 District Courtroom one and two. 4 JUDGE KELLY: As presented. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As presented. Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris for 9 an RFP for the sound system in the District Courtrooms 10 one and two as presented. Any discussion? Those in 11 favor raise your hand or say aye. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 14 Okay, 10:00 docket. I'm sorry. Skip over 15 to the 10:00 docket. I want to thank Bob Reeves for 16 deferring his so that we can get to that at another 17 time. 18 Item 1.21 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action to authorize the County Clerk to 20 advertise for bids for Ranchero Road Reconstruction 21 Project, Phase I. Charlie Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. 23 Although 2.6 miles of Ranchero Road from 24 Highway 16 to Calcote Road was damaged in the Winter 25 Storm Uri, the worst damage is in the first 1.3 miles 60 1 from Highway 16 to Fawn Valley, which is comprised of 2 hot mix asphalt cement that can be reconstructed in the 3 fall, spring, or summertime. 4 The remaining portion of Ranchero Road from 5 Fawn Valley to Calcote is a seal coated road, and can 6 only be reconstructed during the summer; therefore, it 7 will be included in the annual 2022 road reconstruction 8 project for the summer of 2022. 9 Since the road will be reconstructed in two 10 phases at different times of the year, plans and 11 specifications have been prepared by the County Engineer 12 for the reconstruction of approximately 1.3 miles of 13 Ranchero Road, we'll call it Phase I, from State Highway 14 16 to Fawn Valley, this fall, weather permitting. 15 As previously stated, this work is a direct 16 result of damage caused to the road by repeated 17 freeze-thaw cycles from the Winter Storm Uri, and has 18 therefore been created and funded as a county project in 19 the 2022 fiscal year, which begins October 1, 2021. 20 Reimbursement requests have been sent to FEMA following 21 the Winter Storm Uri request deadlines of June 2021, 22 FEMA has not yet responded to those reimbursement 23 requests. In order to award and begin the project this 24 fall, it must follow the below schedule: 25 We would advertise August the 11th and 61 1 August the 18th. We have a pre-bid conference in 2 September. The bids would be due October the 8th. And 3 the opening and award would be Monday, October the 11th. 4 The first meeting in October -- the first meeting of the 5 fiscal year for 2021. 6 The County Engineer requests that the Court 7 authorize the County Clerk to advertise for bids for the 8 Ranchero Road Reconstruction Project, Phase I, 9 Precincts 1 and 2. And of course, this is all 10 contingent on the budget being ultimately adopted. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 14 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 15 approve the advertise for bid for Ranchero Road 16 Reconstruction Project, Phase I. 17 Charlie, when -- when do we anticipate we're 18 going to be able to get that done? 19 MR. HASTINGS: It would start in October and 20 we -- we'd like to be done before Thanksgiving. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So we're pushing it through 22 our paving season, right? 23 MR. HASTINGS: Well, since it's a hot mix 24 road it can be done if the weather is warm enough and 25 you typically have warm weather year-round. If you -- 62 1 if you have several days of warm weather, you can do hot 2 mix. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. We're trying to do this 4 as rapidly as we can. 5 MR. HASTINGS: We -- we want to get it done. 6 If we go through another winter of that road and the 7 condition that it's in, it's just putting patches over 8 patches and it's very expensive material, the patching 9 material. Very expensive band-aids. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 11 Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 14 Move on to 1.22 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action for the Court to approve a final plat 16 for Shadow Bluff. Charlie Hastings. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This plat 18 proposes 8 lots and a common area park in Hunt, Texas. 19 It also dedicates 20-feet of additional right-of-way 20 along Bear Creek Scout Road. Access to the proposed 21 lots will be from Bear Creek Scout Road, Cedar Cliff 22 Loop, and FM 1340. 23 Access from FM 1340 must be approved by 24 TxDOT. A portion of the property is in the floodplain 25 and must meet requirements for development within the 63 1 floodplain. 2 They did have the area studied by an 3 engineer and base flood elevations determined, so that 4 is what is reflected on that plat. And it's referenced 5 back to the engineering study. And Conn Cemetery is on 6 the property, and it's shown on the plat. A preliminary 7 plat was approved on June 14th, 2021 by Court Order 8 No. 38762. 9 The County Engineer recommends the Court 10 approve final plat for Shadow Bluff, Deed No. 21-05422. 11 Precinct 4. There is no need for any kind of a bond on 12 this because all the roads that are serving it are 13 existing. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 18 approve the final plat for Shadow Bluff in Precinct 4 as 19 presented. Any discussion? Okay. Those in favor raise 20 your hand or say aye. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 23 The next timed item at 10 o'clock is 1.23 24 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for the 25 Court to set a public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on 64 1 September the 13th, 2021, for a revision of plat for 2 Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 128-R. 3 Charlie Hastings. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. Lot 128, 5 3.51 acres, and Lot 129, 3.24 acres, of this subdivision 6 were originally platted and recorded in Volume 7, Page 7 363. Later, these two lots were revised and combined 8 into Lot 128R, 6.75 acres, and recorded in Volume 8, 9 Page 123. 10 This proposal restores and returns Lots 128 11 and 129 to the previously platted layout. Access to the 12 lots will be from Cypress Estates Parkway and Spring 13 Lakes Parkway. 14 County Engineer requests the Court set a 15 public hearing for 10 a.m. on September the 13th, 2021 16 for a revision of plat for Vistas Escondidas de Cypress 17 Springs Estates, Lot 128R, Volume 8, Page 163, Precinct 18 4. 19 This would ultimately put this lot right 20 back the way it was before they combined those lots. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 24 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 25 approve the revision of plat for Vistas Escondidas de 65 1 Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 128R. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, a quick comment 3 on this. I received an e-mail from Kash Morrow, who was 4 I think the original developer of the subdivision. And 5 he sent some information that there may need to be some 6 additional approval of this. I just want to make -- put 7 it on the record that I forwarded that to Charlie and to 8 Commissioner Harris, and at the time of the public 9 hearing if it needs to be brought up that's the proper 10 time to bring this up. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 13 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 16 The last timed item at 10 o'clock is 17 Item 1.24 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 18 for the Court to approve a preliminary plat for Paloma 19 Ranch in Mountain Home. Charlie Hastings. 20 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal subdivides 145 21 acres on State Highway 41 in Mountain Home into 22 approximately 25 lots. Each lot will be greater than 23 five acres. Access to the proposed lots will be from a 24 proposed road to be known as Paloma Ranch Road, 25 approximately 3,600 feet long, and from State Highway 66 1 41. Access from State Highway 41 must be approved by 2 TxDOT. A concept plan was approved on March 22nd, 2021 3 by Order No. 38647. 4 The County Engineer requests the Court 5 approve a preliminary plat for Paloma Ranch in Mountain 6 Home, Texas. Precinct 4. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. A motion's been made by 11 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 12 approve a preliminary plat for Paloma Ranch in Mountain 13 Home as presented. Any discussion? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your hand 15 or say aye. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. Five zero. 18 Okay. And I apologize for the confusion, 19 folks. We're going to go back on the agenda. Thank 20 you, Charlie. 21 And so you can understand what we're doing, 22 we're going back to Item 1.6. When we have specifically 23 timed items on the agenda we have to take them at those 24 times or as close to those times as we can get them. 25 And I prevailed upon Bob Reeves to move his items back. 67 1 So his actually start at 1.9 so we could start the 9:30 2 items which he deferred, so we're going to take those 3 now. And the first one will be 1.9. I gotta give Bob 4 time to get here. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: He's close, I think. 6 JUDGE KELLY: He is. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.6 will be real quick. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 1.6 consider, discuss, 9 and take appropriate action regarding purchase of signs 10 that detect wildlife for use throughout the County. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I visited with Cody 12 during the break about this and I advised him that in my 13 opinion if he wants to use signs, and it's a pretty neat 14 idea, that he needs to get the signs approved by TxDOT 15 and put in the manual, which the manual of -- whatever 16 it's called. 17 MS. HOFFER: MUTCD. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The name of that 19 manual MUT -- what is it? 20 MS. HOFFER: MUTCD manual. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: MUTCD manual. And once 22 that's done, then we can entertain and discuss using the 23 signs. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, it's a neat deal. 25 I'm proud of him. One of my ex-students. It's a great 68 1 deal but it needs to go through TxDOT first. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we can't put up 3 regulatory signs that are not in compliance with that 4 code or that -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: So there's no action required? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No action required. But 7 I did visit with him and I think Commissioner Harris has 8 as well. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's go ahead and do 10 1.7, which is to consider, discuss, and take appropriate 11 action to approve a Monitoring Agreement with Total 12 Security Solutions for the fire alarm and area of refuge 13 for the County facility located at 550 Earl Garrett. 14 Shane Evans. 15 MR. EVANS: Good morning. Yes, I ask that 16 you accept the contract as presented for the Total 17 Security Solutions for $69 -- or $69.99 a month for the 18 fire alarm monitoring and $35.99 for the area of refuge 19 system. 20 And if y'all do not understand what the 21 refuge system is, that is the area in front of the 22 elevators and there's a panic button right outside the 23 elevator so if you push that button, you're going to get 24 ahold of the fire department there. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Do we have a motion? 69 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's -- I was half 2 thinking of something else. What's the cost of this? 3 MR. EVANS: It'll be monthly. The 4 monitoring of the fire alarm panel will be $69.99 a 5 month, and then the refuge area in front of the 6 elevator, that will be $35.99 a month also, for a total 7 of a hundred and -- let's see if I can add. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all right. We 9 can add it up. All right. I move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion by 12 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 13 approve a Monitoring Agreement with Total Security 14 Solutions for the fire alarm and area of refuge for the 15 county facility located at 550 Earl Garrett. Any 16 discussion? 17 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your hand 18 or say aye. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 21 Okay. Mr. Reeves is still not here yet. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, he is. 23 JUDGE KELLY: He is? Where is he? Oh, I -- 24 I didn't see him. Snuck in on me. Thank you. 25 I want to thank you for deferring it. 70 1 Really made it easier for us to get through this agenda 2 today. 3 MR. REEVES: No problem. 4 JUDGE KELLY: So we'll call Item 1.9 5 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 6 the optional $1.50 Child Safety Fee and the optional $10 7 for the County Road and Bridge fee for the 2022 vehicle 8 registration per request from the Texas Department of 9 Motor Vehicles and authorize the Tax Assessor-Collector 10 to submit the approval to the Texas Department of Motor 11 Vehicles. Bob Reeves. 12 MR. REEVES: Good morning, gentlemen. 13 Section 502.403 of the Transportation Code allows the 14 County to charge a fee not to exceed $1.50 when 15 registering a vehicle. The $1.50 fee is dedicated to 16 child safety. This fee must be approved prior to 17 September 1 of each year. The fee would then become 18 effective January 1 of the following year. 19 Kerr County began collecting this fee on 20 January 1, 2021 and to date, as of when I submitted 21 this, the County had collected $50,115.00, which is 22 divided proportionately between Kerr County and the two 23 municipalities according to population. I've copied and 24 in your backup is the relevant information from the DMV 25 handbook. 71 1 In addition, Section 502.401 of the Code 2 allows the County to charge a fee not to exceed $10.00 3 when registering a vehicle. The $10.00 fee is dedicated 4 to County Road and Bridge maintenance fund. According 5 to the Texas DMV during the 2020 calendar year, Kerr 6 County collected $534,570.00 from this fee. During the 7 current calendar year, we have collected $348,800.00 8 from the fee. 9 This fee must also be approved prior to 10 September 1, and it becomes effective of January 1 of 11 the following year. I've also copied the relevant 12 information from the DMV handbook. 13 These are known as optional fees. The 14 option rests with the Court, not an individual car 15 owner. The County Tax Assessor-Collector respectfully 16 requests that the Court approve the $10.00 optional fee 17 for the Road & Bridge Fund, and the optional $1.50 fee 18 for the Child Safety Fund. Such fees would be effective 19 January 1, 2022. After the approval, I will forward the 20 Court Order to the DMV. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Bob -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We got a motion by 24 Commissioner Moser -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second. 72 1 JUDGE KELLY: -- to approve this, and a 2 second by Commissioner Belew to approve the optional 3 Child Safety Fee and the County Road & Bridge fee for 4 2022. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Bob, how is the Child 6 Safety Fee used? Where does it go and how is it used? 7 MR. REEVES: That fee is paid out once a 8 month from my office. It is sent to the Treasurer. The 9 Auditor can verify and probably Road & Bridge. I do 10 know that some of the County's portion has gone to 11 crosswalk striping, etc., in unincorporated areas. But 12 I'll leave that to Road & Bridge and to Mrs. Shelton. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And so last year we 14 got what, half a million dollars? 15 MR. REEVES: No, sir. The last year -- the 16 half a million plus was for the Road & Bridge. And 17 that -- 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's what gets -- 19 MR. REEVES: -- and that goes directly to 20 Road & Bridge's budget, if I'm not misunderstood. 21 MRS. SHELTON: Correct. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and second. 24 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 25 Or say aye. 73 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 3 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and approve the 4 Resolution of Kerr County Emergency Services District 5 No. 3. Bob Reeves. 6 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. And I have Chief 7 Holt with me from the Center Point Volunteer Fire 8 Department. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I see him there in the 10 doorway. 11 MR. REEVES: On May 19, 2021 a petition was 12 filed by Gary Holt and Michael Earney with the -- and 13 filed with the Kerr County Clerk, Jackie Dowdy, to allow 14 for the creation of an Emergency Services District. 15 This District, if passed, would be known as 16 the Kerr County Emergency Services District No. 3. My 17 office deemed that there was enough qualified signatures 18 on the petition. A public hearing was scheduled for 19 July 21 of 2021 in accordance with Texas Health and 20 Safety Code, Section 775.015(b). The notice of the 21 meeting was published by Sheriff Leitha's Department 22 twice in the local newspaper. No one spoke in 23 opposition to the proposed ESD at the public hearing. 24 A portion of the proposed District is 25 located within the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction of the 74 1 City of Kerrville. The City must give its consent for 2 this territory to be included in the proposed district. 3 The City did, in fact, give their permission 4 with the exception of a small portion near the airport, 5 which has since been excluded from the airport -- from 6 the ETJ and from the proposed district. 7 The Commissioners' Court must make certain 8 findings in order for the proposed ESD to be placed on 9 the ballot. The proposed Resolution is found in your 10 backup, outlines what findings the Court must come to. 11 The Resolution has been reviewed and approved by the 12 County Attorney. 13 At this time, I ask the Court to approve and 14 sign the Resolution, a separate item on today's agenda 15 will ultimately call for the election and the creation 16 of ESD No. 3. The Resolution is in the back. It meets, 17 in my opinion and I believe Mrs. Stebbins will concur, 18 all of the requirements of the statute. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 23 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Moser to 24 approve the Resolution of Kerr County Emergency Services 25 District No. 3. Charlie, anything you would like to 75 1 add? 2 CHIEF HOLT: Sure. Charles Holt, Fire Chief 3 of Center Point. Just if anybody has any questions in 4 the public about the ESD, and things once everything 5 moves forward, give me a call. (830) 377-2420. We put 6 stuff in the papers, on our Facebook page, all over 7 town. So I just would really appreciate everybody's 8 support on ESD No. 3. 9 JUDGE KELLY: This one turned out to be a 10 little bit more difficult than we anticipated working 11 with the City on the ETJ one. 12 CHIEF HOLT: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And you did a great job. 14 Thank you. 15 CHIEF HOLT: Thank you, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And you know how to put 17 out fires, right? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I just want to 19 compliment Charles on all the communications he's had on 20 this subject and letting the public know exactly what's 21 involved. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. So we've got a 23 motion and a second. Any other discussion? Those in 24 favor raise your hand or say aye. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 76 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. Thanks, Charles. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good job. 3 CHIEF HOLT: Thank you, sir. Thank y'all. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.11 consider, discuss 5 and approve the appointment of Election Judges and 6 Alternates for the term of one year in accordance with 7 the Texas Election Code Section 32. Bob Reeves and 8 Nadene Alford. 9 MR. REEVES: Ms. Alford is in the office 10 trying to take care of a couple other things. 11 I respectfully request that the Court 12 approve the list of Judges and Alternate Judges as 13 designated by the respective political party chairs. 14 And they are found in your backup. I can read them into 15 the record or you can accept them as presented. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: One question. These 17 people, they don't have to live in that Precinct, or do 18 they? 19 MR. REEVES: The judges will, and the 20 alternates. You're thinking of clerks, Commissioner. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval of the 23 list submitted. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 77 1 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 2 approve the list of election judges as presented. Any 3 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 6 Item 1.12 consider, discuss and approve the 7 appointment of the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge for 8 the term of one year in accordance with the Texas 9 Election Code Section 87.002. Consider and set the 10 number of members to be appointed by the Early Voting 11 Ballot Board Judge. Bob Reeves. 12 MR. REEVES: Yes. Judge Kelly, I would like 13 to have Linda Bowman appointed as the Early Voting 14 Ballot Board Judge. The Early Voting Ballot Board is 15 the one that reviews and tabulates the ballots by mail. 16 And also, we'd like to set the maximum number of workers 17 that the Judge can appoint to five clerks. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 21 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 22 approve appointing Linda Bowman as the Voting Ballot 23 Board Judge, with up to five clerks as presented. Any 24 other discussion? 25 Linda is a good choice. She works her fanny 78 1 off. I'm telling you. So those in favor raise your 2 hand or say aye. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. Item 5 1.13 consider, discuss Ordering the Constitutional 6 Amendment Election and Emergency Service District No. 3. 7 Bob Reeves. 8 MR. REEVES: Yes. And I will have to come 9 back to the Court next Monday after the public hearing 10 on the proposed ESD No. 4. But at this time, I'd like 11 the Court to order an election to be held November 2nd, 12 2021 in Kerr County, Texas for the purpose to adopt or 13 reject a proposed Constitutional Amendment as submitted 14 by the Legislature, in the regular session of the State 15 of Texas. 16 In addition, I'd like to request the Court 17 to order an election for the creation of Kerr County 18 Emergency Services District No. 3. Early voting will be 19 held at the Hill Country Youth Event Center in the 20 Administration Building of the Ingram Independent School 21 District. The times of early voting are noted in your 22 backup. The last day to register to vote would be 23 October 4, 2021. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 79 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Was that you, Don? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 5 approve ordering the election for the Constitutional 6 Amendment in the Emergency Service District No. 3. Any 7 discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question. The 9 ESD 3 will only be voting at both locations? 10 MR. REEVES: During early voting they will 11 be able to vote at either location. Come election day, 12 which we'll get into in a minute, part of ESD 3 is in he 13 Commissioner Precinct 3. So depending on where you live 14 here on election day will depend on where you will vote 15 that day. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's just in 17 Ingram that threw me a little bit when I saw that. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, I saw that. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 20 your hand or say aye. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 23 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate -- approve consolidating the polling 25 locations in accordance with Chapter 43 of the Texas 80 1 Election Code for the November 2021 election. Bob 2 Reeves. 3 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. I respectfully 4 request that the Court approve consolidating the 5 election precincts. Those living in Precincts 101, 107, 6 109, 113, 118, and 119 would vote at River Hills Mall, 7 200 Sidney Baker South. 8 The voters living in Precincts 202, 211, 9 215, and 220 would vote at the Union Church at 101 10 Travis Street in Kerrville. 11 Those living in Precincts 303, 308, 312, 314 12 would vote at the Cailloux Theater, 9010 Main Street in 13 Kerrville. 14 Voters living in Precincts -- voting 15 Precincts 404, 405, 406, 410, 416, and 417 would vote at 16 City West Church being 3139 Junction Highway. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 20 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 21 approve the -- to consolidating polling locations for 22 the November '21 election. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only question I 24 have, it's really more for Commissioner Moser, is the 25 Union Church the best location for that considering the 81 1 higher voter turnout probably in Precinct 2? 2 MR. REEVES: There will be a -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Say again, Jonathan, 4 I'm sorry? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question was, is the 6 Union Church the best location considering the ESD 3 is 7 probably going to have a higher turnout than the other 8 areas of the County for this particular election. 9 MR. REEVES: I'll leave that -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are you asking is the 11 Union Church the best place to have that? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was just a -- yes. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. I think it is. 14 Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're -- you're 17 talking about size? The size of the facility? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I'm talking about 19 just location of it. ESD 3 is -- mostly is Center -- 20 based out of the Center Point area. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's basically Center 22 Point. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And the Union 24 Church is in the City of Kerrville. So I mean -- but I 25 think the people that are in favor of it will -- they'll 82 1 find the location. I'm good with it. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion and a 4 second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So those in favor raise 6 your hand or say aye. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero, it passes. 9 Item 1.15, yeah. Consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action to approve the Central Counting 11 Station Personnel pursuant to Chapter 127.005 of the 12 TEC. Bob Reeves. 13 MR. REEVES: Yes. I would like to approve 14 the Central Counting Station Personnel listed in your 15 materials. The Presiding Manager or Judge will be 16 Nadene Alford. The Alternate Judge, Jamie McClintock. 17 Tabulating Supervisor, Sierra Kinsel. 18 Assistant Tabulating Supervisors, Jana 19 Henderson, Cintia Tejeda. Clerks, Mimi Valverde, Cindy 20 Hernandez, Teresa Walker, Julie Lara. And the website 21 will be managed by Bruce Motheral. 22 Respectfully request the approval of these. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 83 1 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 2 approve the Central Counting Station Personnel pursuant 3 to the Election Code. Any discussion? Those in favor 4 raise your hand or say aye. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 7 Okay. Let me go back and check. Do we have 8 all the items? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.8. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We still have Bob up 11 here. 12 MR. REEVES: We still have a few. 13 JUDGE KELLY: You've got one more? I'm 14 sorry. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Bob has two more. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.16. 18 JUDGE KELLY: 1.16 consider, discuss and 19 take appropriate action to affirm that the Kerr County 20 Tax Assessor-Collector is the designated official for 21 calculating the Tax Rates for Kerr County and Lake 22 Ingram Estates Road District. Bob Reeves. 23 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. This is just a piece 24 of housekeeping that is now required from Senate Bill 2 25 of the 2019 legislature. 84 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move for approval. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 4 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 5 affirm that the Kerr County Tax Assessor-Collector is 6 the designated official for calculating the Tax Rates 7 for Kerr County and Lake Ingram Estates Road District. 8 Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 11 Item 1.7 -- 1.17 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action regarding the calculation of the 2021 13 property tax rates for Kerr County and Lake Ingram 14 Estates Road District. Bob Reeves. 15 MR. REEVES: Yes. Gentlemen, I placed this 16 on the agenda after consideration with Miss Shelton in 17 working through the various tax rate calculation. As 18 you will recall, last year was the first year that we 19 began using new terminology such as voter approval rate, 20 no new revenue rate, and the calculations were more 21 extensive in what the rates could be. 22 The no new revenue rate is basically the 23 rate which it would require any entity, such as the 24 County, to levy to get the same amount of revenue from 25 the same properties for -- in the following year. In 85 1 other words, you take 2020's no new revenue rate, which 2 was .4757 per $100 valuation. This was the -- also the 3 rate the County chose to adopt. 4 You look at value that has been lost during 5 the year, value that has been gained during the year, 6 court cases that were settled, court cases that are 7 still pending, you come up with a no new revenue rate, 8 which would basically be the revenue neutral, from the 9 same properties. 10 We're not talking about any new value that 11 came on the board -- on the roll, but this year the no 12 new revenue combined rate for Road & Bridge, debt 13 service, and general maintenance and operations would be 14 .4542 per $100 valuation, and the maximum rate we could 15 go would be .5418, anything above that rate would 16 require an election. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Repeat that again, 18 .5418, is that what you said? 19 MR. REEVES: For the voter approval rate, 20 Commissioner. This would breakdown of .0285 for the 21 Road & Bridge fund, .330 for the interest in sinking 22 fund or debt service, and .3927 for the maintenance and 23 operations portion of the budget. 24 I would like to compliment Ms. Shelton in 25 working with me on this. This has been a pretty 86 1 extensive -- the calculations seem simple but remember, 2 the formulas come out of Austin. And to get this was 3 about 35 pages of calculation. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Our State government is here 5 to help us, right? 6 MR. REEVES: No comment, Judge. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, ask Bob to -- or 8 would you repeat for me. He said something about a max 9 rate. I believe it's .5418. Is that correct? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So the no new 12 revenue rate is what we've had before? .4542? 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a lower rate but it 15 generates the same amount of revenue. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I understand, I 18 understand. I'm just confirming the number. 19 MR. REEVES: From the same properties. We 20 still get revenue from new constructed buildings, new 21 businesses, etc. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I think it's 23 important to note, you know, all these terms. No new 24 revenue tax rate and stuff. The tax rate will actually 25 lower from what it was last year, right, with that. 87 1 MR. REEVES: That will be up to y'all. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. That's what 3 it would do. 4 JUDGE KELLY: So what -- what the proposed 5 -- well, what the, in fact, no new tax revenue rate will 6 be is 2.15 cents less than last year. 7 MR. REEVES: That is correct. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And one cent of this in our 9 revenues translates to about $430,000. Do I understand 10 that correctly? 11 MR. REEVES: Of existing properties. Yes, 12 sir. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How -- how much is 14 that, 430 per one cent? 15 JUDGE KELLY: One cent. For existing 16 properties. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 430,000 per one cent? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. So this is -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. That's gone up a 20 lot. It used to be 350. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Right. It's a little under a 22 million dollars. Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So do we -- do we take 25 a vote to accept the no new tax revenue? 88 1 MR. REEVES: No, sir. I was just -- I'm 2 bound to present my calculations to you. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And we appreciate the -- all 4 the time and labor that you put in bringing this for us. 5 So that's just information? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No action on that item. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 MR. REEVES: If I may, as we are talking 9 about tax collections and new laws, if the Court would 10 indulge a minute. I'm sure everybody received a very 11 generic looking postcard in the mail this week. This is 12 a result of 2019 legislation. The larger counties were 13 required to send it last year. 14 The date that the Appraisal District sends 15 out the postcards, the website that's co-maintained by 16 the Appraisal District in my office, they were required 17 to send it out last week. People who log onto it see 18 there is nothing on there yet because the entities are 19 just beginning to propose the rates. Our phones have 20 been overwhelmed. I admit it's very confusing, and I'd 21 like to stress this is something else that has been 22 mandated. 23 Once all the information is on there, I 24 think it will be very good for the public to see how the 25 rates are calculated; however, the dates that the 89 1 legislative mandates that the cards go out and what 2 actually happens in the day-to-day operations of any 3 entity do not mesh. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Creates a lot of extra 5 work on your personnel. 6 MR. REEVES: Actually, the phone calls -- 7 there's a lot of work on my side of the appraisal 8 district. It comes out of their budget to mail all of 9 these cards. And this is not the only County. I had 10 friends call me from our neighbors to the north that 11 this was really a legitimate thing. 12 As the rates are proposed, my calculations, 13 the proposals and all of that will be on this website. 14 And so I just would like to let the public know that I 15 very well understand it's confusing, but once again it's 16 not up to us to decide when they're mailed out. There's 17 a statute that says they have to be mailed out. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Ready or not. 19 MR. REEVES: Ready or not. Thank you, 20 gentlemen. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, Bob, before you get 22 away. Why don't we go ahead and call the next item, 23 which is 1.18 consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 action regarding the proposed budget and tax rate as 25 presented by the Kerr County Tax Assessor-Collector. 90 1 Commissioner Moser. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. 3 Looking at the proposed budget that we have, with a 4 bottom line of reserve of 27.62 percent, I did a rough 5 analysis and -- and estimated what the tax rate would be 6 if -- if we had a 25 percent reserve, which is a good 7 goal, it's one set by TAC that we have, so I think we're 8 seeing that. My numbers show that if we had a 25 9 percent reserve, our tax rate would be .392. That's 10 just my numbers. Okay. 11 And I think Judge, what I would like to see 12 is that if we have a workshop on August the 18th, which 13 we tentatively planned, to ask the Auditor to take a 14 look at it in confirming what our tax rate would be for 15 25 percent reserve. That could mean something, you 16 know, a tax reduction for individuals that -- my 17 estimate is using the .39 on somebody with a $250,000 18 house would be saving about $150 a year. Again, those 19 are my numbers, that's not -- that's not the Auditor's. 20 So that's something that we should consider, okay, 21 before we adopt the budget. 22 On the other hand, let me go to the other 23 stream. I think, you know, reducing the budget to what 24 the no new revenue tax rate is, Judge, as you mentioned 25 awhile ago there's about a two cent per hundred 91 1 valuation and that would correspondence to about a 2 million dollars in revenue. Something like that. 3 I think inflation is going to be greater 4 than what we are all anticipating when we established 5 this proposed budget. So I think there's some merit in 6 even considering keeping the tax rate where it was. So 7 going from one extreme, reducing it to 25 percent 8 reserve, reduces the tax rate by about six cents or 9 something like that per hundred, as opposed to the no 10 new revenue tax rate. Keeping it the same would better 11 accommodate inflation. 12 I think we looked at inflation as we were 13 going through the proposed budget for fuel and some 14 other things, but I think it's going to hit the County 15 more than that. 16 So I would encourage us to -- to hold a 17 budget workshop on the 18th and look carefully at what 18 the Auditor could come up with and show us exactly what 19 these numbers would be for each one of the categories. 20 Number one, 25 percent reserve. 21 Number 2, keeping it at the current tax rate 22 of .4757 to see how much additional revenue that would 23 be considering the unexpected cost from -- associated 24 with inflation. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sounds good to me. 92 1 JUDGE KELLY: And we have a workshop set on 2 the 18th at two o'clock in the afternoon, right? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but -- if -- if 4 needed it says in our -- in our calendar. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And so you would -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I mean I'm 7 encouraging us to -- let's hold the budget workshop. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And so there will be no 9 action today? 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we'll defer that to 13 the workshop on August the 18th, which is Wednesday. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Now as I look back 16 over my -- my agenda, I think the only item before this 17 that we haven't acted on is 1.8. Is that correct? 18 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So let me call that. Item 1.8 20 is consider, discuss and take appropriate action 21 regarding the Hill Country Regional Public Defender's 22 Office for FY 2021-2022. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I put this on the 24 agenda. This is the budget. I worked with John Bull at 25 length and Vanessa out there on this, and with the 93 1 Auditor a great deal. A couple things, I just want to 2 point out this is for a nine-month period, starting 3 January 1st, because we're going to extend the previous 4 budget a little bit. So this is not an annualized 5 budget. 6 A couple of areas. I mean, there was 7 adjustments made on the -- from the original grant in 8 two main areas. One is salaries. Two things that 9 happened. There were salary ranges in the original 10 grant that was put together by the TIDC. And they just 11 took the midpoint of those salaries based on the number 12 of personnel hired. 13 On the upper end of that on the felony 14 individuals, the people that were hired were a little 15 bit -- were above the mid point. So the salaries are a 16 little bit higher there, plus there's an additional 17 $50,000.00 for interns to help work out there. 18 And I think there's five interns for a 19 ten-week periods. And the idea is that they will then 20 be, hopefully, set to come on after they graduate law 21 school and hopefully pass the bar. Those are in the 22 proposed budget. 23 And the other items will be changes, the 24 office rent is going up to an annual amount of about 25 $80,000 as opposed to the $40,000 that was in the 94 1 original budget. So -- this is the budget. I don't 2 know -- we don't -- do we approve it? I don't think we 3 really approve it. This is just a grant request. This 4 is just more informative, I think, as to the Court -- 5 MRS. SHELTON: (Shaking head yes.) 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and what the budget 7 looks like going into the TIDC for the next funding 8 cycle. 9 And then at the bottom, there is a budget 10 impact of the apportion part of Kerr County, which is 11 $335,038. And that number may be adjusted slightly 12 based on the number -- on the case load, the actual case 13 load as opposed to the estimated case load. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why did the rent 15 change? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because they're taking 17 the whole building now instead of just the top floor. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. And just so 19 the public knows that Kerr County accounts for ballpark 20 38 percent. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I think that number is 22 actually maybe dropping a little bit. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Could be. 24 JUDGE KELLY: But it was 38 percent. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's right. And this 95 1 is still basically probably going to be closer to 31, 33 2 percent. Somewhere in there. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Even better. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is a commission 5 with a grant to TIDC and they pay two-thirds -- is it 6 two-thirds or one-third? 7 JUDGE KELLY: This one will be the 8 two-third, one-third. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two-thirds, one-third. 10 JUDGE KELLY: It existed for the three 11 months of the last part of this year is on the 80/20. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And they graciously let us do 14 that. That's on the benefit of the County. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So there's a few 17 adjustments between line items to get things in the 18 right category based on what was originally thought to 19 be the case. But anyway, this is just informative. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and -- but do we approve 21 it so that we incorporate it into our budget? 22 MS. SHELTON: Once the grant is approved, 23 we'll be coming back with the budget stating this is the 24 revenues for the grant. And we'll allocate the expenses 25 at that time. But it would -- should follow this. 96 1 JUDGE KELLY: But ultimately this PDO, even 2 though it's grant funded and grant driven, it will be 3 incorporated into the Kerr County budget? 4 MS. SHELTON: Correct. 5 JUDGE KELLY: But there's no action required 6 at this time? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. And I've been 8 e-mail or texting a couple times with John Bull this 9 morning. He brought on three new attorneys this morning 10 that he's already -- they're going -- kind of going 11 through orientation with him at his office and that's 12 why he -- I said that's probably more important than 13 being -- coming down here. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Very good. 15 Okay. Going back on our agenda, I think 16 we're at Item 1.19 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to set Public Hearing on the proposed 18 Kerr County budget for FY 2021-2022 at 9:45 a.m. on 19 August the 23rd, and authorize the County Clerk to 20 publish notice of the public hearing. 21 MR. ROBLES: Yes. Judge, in conformity with 22 the provided copy of the budget calendar, we're 23 requesting the Court to hold a public hearing on the 24 proposed budget on August 23rd at 9:45 a.m. We'd like 25 to point out that this is not required to be published. 97 1 It should be posted by the County Clerk; not published. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Posted? 3 MR. ROBLES: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 7 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 8 approve setting the public hearing for the Kerr County 9 budget for this coming year for August the 23rd, 2021 at 10 9:45 a.m. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your 11 hand or say aye. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 14 Item 1.20 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action to approve General Provisions for the 16 FY 2021-22 budget. And these are the standard 17 provisions that we've used in the past. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So move. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 21 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 22 approve the General Provisions as presented to the 23 budget for FY 2021-22. Any other discussion? Those in 24 favor raise your hand or say aye. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 98 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 2 Now, skipping down, I think to get us truly 3 back in numeric order. Item 1.25 consider, discuss and 4 take appropriate action to approve Bond for Paul 5 Gonzales, Constable, Precinct 3. 6 MRS. DOWDY: Judge, we got that squared away 7 today. He signed the bond and -- he actually signed a 8 statement, the statement first and then the bond has 9 been signed. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So it's ready to be approved? 11 MRS. DOWDY: Correct. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. Third. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 18 approve the Bond for Paul Gonzales for Constable of 19 Precinct 3. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your 20 hand or say aye. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous five zero. 23 Item 1.26 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action on the implementation of the burn 25 ban. 99 1 We do this every two months to put it back 2 in place, or make the Commissioners make the decision. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move to approve the 4 agenda item to implement the burn ban per our current 5 policy. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 8 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 9 approve the burn ban, The same burn ban we've been using 10 for a long time, as presented. Any discussion? Those 11 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous five zero. 14 Item 1.27 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action to request to waive fines and fees 16 related to property taxes for property located at 17 312 Sherwood Lane West in Kerrville, Texas owned by 18 Jerry Van Ronk. We can do this in Executive Session. 19 MR. VAN RONK: I'm here. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know that this would 22 need Executive Session. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I was wondering why unless we 24 got legal advice or something. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know that -- if you 100 1 need legal advice, it can be outside of the presence of 2 the requester who put that item on the agenda. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As I understand it, we 4 don't have authority to do this -- any action on this 5 regardless of where it's at. I mean, we can't -- a 6 district court is my understanding. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: That's right. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We need to hear something from 9 somebody to tell us -- 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Go ahead. 11 MR. VAN RONK: Your Honor, I tried to 12 resolve this -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Identify yourself. 14 MR. VAN RONK: I'm Jerry Van Ronk, the owner 15 of property 312 Sherwood Lane, Ingram, Texas. Now every 16 year since I've lived in Kerr County, which is -- this 17 is my fifth year, we always pay our property tax as soon 18 as we get the statement. This year we did not get a 19 statement. And my wife, who takes care of the books, 20 kept looking for the statement and I said well, we gotta 21 pay our taxes, it should be due. 22 Finally, I looked online and saw that I had 23 a penalty. So I went down and talked to Mr. Reeves. 24 Mr. Reeves says well yeah, your -- it came back. It's 25 one of 14 sitting on my desk that were returned by the 101 1 post office. So we got into a discussion on whether the 2 address of 312 Sherwood Lane West, Kerrville, Texas was 3 the address on it because I always use 312 Sherwood 4 Lane, Ingram, Texas. 5 So he said since it was apparently the wrong 6 address as Kerrville, I owed the whole thing and I had 7 to pay the bill. So I paid the bill. He pointed out 8 page three. Let's see, I've got it right here. 372. I 9 sent it to Mr. Harris(sic). He showed me the lines 10 below, it said if the address was wrong by the reporting 11 agency or through someone else, then I had to pay the 12 tax, he could not waive it. So I paid the tax. 13 I went to my title insurance company and 14 said hey, this address has been recorded wrong. After 15 two months, I get a letter from their attorney 16 stating -- well, actually it was an e-mail. They didn't 17 send a paper letter. But they said it's not our 18 jurisdiction. You'll have to take it up with the County 19 or the post office. 20 So I went to the post office. I took it up 21 with the postmaster. Which Ingram postmaster is 22 separate from the Kerrville postmaster. The Ingram 23 postmaster said I got to take it up with the Kerrville 24 postmaster. So I go to the Kerrville postmaster and it 25 takes me about a month and a half to get to see her, and 102 1 she says no, that's Kerrville because you're in the 2 County, not in the City of Ingram. Red Oak divides the 3 prop -- the boundary line between the City and the 4 County. So it's always been Kerrville. 5 So the proper address was the one that was 6 mailed out to my residence to pay, which is the one 7 we've been paying for four years. And according to page 8 372, the paper that Mr. Reeves gave me, if the 9 postmaster returns the mail at a proper address, they 10 have 21 days to send me another letter out, which they 11 never did. Number one. 12 Number two, because the post office that 13 same statement, B of page 372 of the section says, that 14 I am not obligated to pay a penalty. That no penalty 15 will be collected. So now, we're down to this. I've 16 taken all the time trying the figure this out. 17 I went to Mr. Reeves, explained that to him. 18 And he said it's up to this Court to decide whether I 19 get my refund. Not only do I want the refund of 20 $441.14, but because it's extended to the six-month 21 period of time in this negotiation and things, I want 22 the same 42.6 percent penalty and fee added onto it. 23 So that makes it now, let me just bring up 24 my little figures here for you. I think I just had it. 25 It makes it $441.14, which was what I was charged as a 103 1 penalty, times 41.6 percent, which is the six month fee 2 that the County imposes, which equals $336, which makes 3 a total of $807.28. I'm willing to let that just go as 4 credit towards next year's tax but I do believe that I'm 5 owed that as a citizen of the County and in fairness of 6 the old regulations that the County proposes. It's that 7 simple. 8 It's your decision. If I have to hire an 9 attorney then we can add on attorney's courts and we can 10 go to the newspaper and we can bring that out, and it 11 can become a public matter that could turn into a fiasco 12 if there's 14 other people that had their letters 13 returned. I didn't want do that. 14 I went to Bob last week and I said, you 15 know, I don't want to start anything, I just want what's 16 right and what's fair. So now it's on your shoulders. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Or is it? What's the law? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's the County 19 Attorney think? 20 MRS. STEBBINS: We can go into Executive 21 Session. I'll give you all some advice. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We'll do that in 23 Executive Session. Let's move on to the approval 24 agenda. 2.1 pay the bills. 25 MRS. SHELTON: Invoices for today's 104 1 consideration are $1,063,372.75. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move we pay the 3 bills. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 7 pay the bills as presented. Any discussion? Those in 8 favor raise your hand or say aye. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 11 2.2 budget amendments. 12 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have eight. One for 13 the Sheriff, County Jail, Justice of the Peace, Precinct 14 4, non-departmental, 216th District Court, Road & 15 Bridge, and Parks. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 19 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 20 approve the budget amendments as presented. Any 21 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Five zero. 24 Late bills. 25 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. $635.03. 105 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move we pay the late 2 bills. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 5 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 6 pay the late bills as presented. Any discussion? Those 7 in favor raise your hand or say aye. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous, five zero. 10 Auditor reports. 11 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We performed an 12 internal audit for the Tax Assessor-Collector's Office 13 and we ask that you accept the report. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 18 approve the Auditor's report as presented. Any 19 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 20 Unanimous. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 22 JUDGE KELLY: 2.5 monthly reports. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For June 2021, 24 Treasurer's report, Tracy Soldan. For July, 2021. 25 Constable's report Constable 1, Tommy Rodriguez. 106 1 Constable 4, Brad Rider. Fines, judgments, and jury 2 fees collected, J.P. 2, J. R. Hoyne. J.P. 3, Kathy 3 Mitchell. J.P. 4, Bill Ragsdale. District Clerk, Dawn 4 Lantz. County Auditor, Tanya Shelton. County Clerk, 5 Jackie, J.D., Dowdy. Payroll approval report, County 6 Treasurer, Tracy Soldan. Indigent Services, HR Director 7 Jennifer Doss. Environmental Health, Director Ashli 8 Badders. I move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 11 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 12 approve the monthly reports as submitted. Those in 13 favor say aye or raise your hand. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. 16 Moving on to the Information Agenda. Status 17 reports from Department Heads -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have court orders 19 still. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, I'm sorry. Court orders 21 2.6. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have court orders 23 from our July 26th meeting, 38822 through 38844, and 24 from our special meeting on August 2nd, 38845 through 25 38848. Court Order 38848, it originally read approve 107 1 and adopt salary adjustment recommendations -- yeah, 2 recommendations based on the most recent compensation 3 study. I added the language, as modified by 4 Commissioners' Court, because we did not adopt those. 5 We made some changes to them. We based it on that but 6 we did make some minor changes to that. 7 And the other question is on court order 8 38834, I think we need to bring this one back at a 9 future date. There was a word or a line. On the first 10 line there should have been a -- it says on the paid 11 personal leave. It says full-time and part-time. And 12 part-time should not have been in that court order. But 13 it was in it, in the handout. So I think we need to 14 come back at our next meeting. I don't think we can 15 change that as a revision to the Court order. 16 MRS. DOSS: It's clarified further down. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well still, the way it 18 was -- this is what we did approve. And there was an 19 error on that form. So do we need to bring it back or 20 do we correct it here? I think we just bring it back. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: I would bring it back. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: To be safe. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To Commissioners' Court. 25 We'll clean it up and bring it back and get it correct. 108 1 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. So with the exception of 2 38838 -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 48. 4 MRS. DOWDY: What was that Court Order again 5 number? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: 38848. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 48 was the one that we 8 made that correction in. 9 MRS. DOWDY: And then -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 38834 we'll -- 11 MRS. DOWDY: 34? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- we will bring back. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Did you get that? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With those 15 modifications, move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 18 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 19 approve the court orders as presented and revised. Any 20 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. 23 Moving on to the Information Agenda. 24 Department Heads. 25 3.1 elected officials. 109 1 3.3 status reports from Liaison 2 Commissioners. 3 Okay. There being none, then we will 4 adjourn the public meeting and go into closed session to 5 deal with two items, they're both personnel matters. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: How about a five 7 minute break? 8 JUDGE KELLY: We'll take a five minute break 9 and come back and take up 4.2 (a), which is to consider, 10 discuss and take action regarding the applications 11 received for the Commissioners' Court Precinct 2 12 position being vacated by Commissioner Moser. 13 And then 4.2 (b) is discuss candidates for 14 County Extension Agent. 15 And then, we'll take up Mr. Van Ronk. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Under 4.1 consultation with 17 the attorney. 18 JUDGE KELLY: 4.1 consultation with the 19 attorney. 20 So we'll be adjourned for five minutes. 21 (Recess.) 22 (Executive Session.) 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It is 11:29, and the 24 Court is back in open meeting. Jackie's here, we've got 25 the Court Reporter. 110 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Uh-huh. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got everybody. So we're to 3 take action on item 1.27, which is consider, discuss and 4 take appropriate action on request to waive fines and 5 fees related to property taxes for property located at 6 312 Sherwood Lane West in Kerrville, Texas owned by 7 Jerry Van Ronk. 8 We have met in executive session. We've 9 heard the advice of our County Attorney. We've heard 10 the advice of our private attorney, which is the law 11 firm of Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott in 12 Austin. And they have educated us on the appropriate 13 sections of the Tax Code. 14 And we find that this Court does not have 15 jurisdiction over this claim. And that will be -- I 16 guess we need to take vote on that. I'll make that 17 motion that we don't have jurisdiction, to deny the 18 claim, for you to pursue whatever public remedies you 19 have. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I made the motion and 22 Commissioner Letz seconded to deny this for lack of 23 jurisdiction per advice of council. Those in favor 24 raise your hand or say aye. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Aye. 111 1 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. Mr. Ronk, we're 2 sorry, but we just don't have jurisdiction. 3 MR. VAN RONK: Okay. No problem. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's a problem for you. 5 We're sorry. 6 MR. VAN RONK: No. It's more than a problem 7 for me because if I didn't pay my taxes, what do you do 8 to me? You sue me and take my property. So you have 9 the jurisdiction to take over and take possession of my 10 property for failure to pay the tax. So you also should 11 have jurisdiction to take care of this matter of 12 overpayment. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Van Ronk, I've been a 14 practicing lawyer for 47 years. And let me tell you, 15 you need to go talk to a lawyer. And the other thing 16 that you need to understand is that this tax money that 17 you pay, part of it goes to the County, but part of it 18 goes to other entities that you haven't sued, that you 19 haven't made a claim with. It's not all our money. 20 MR. VAN RONK: But it's the Tax Board that 21 collected it. And that's why Mr. Reeves said I had to 22 come to this place for jurisdiction, but that's okay. 23 We'll take care of it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, in defense of Mr. 25 Reeves, he's doesn't have a law degree either. So 112 1 that's why we listen to our lawyers and tell us what we 2 can do. And being a lawyer myself, I listen to smart 3 lawyers when they tell me that's the law. 4 MR. VAN RONK: I understand there's 5 recourse. I understand. Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now, it is 11:31 and 7 we're going to go back into executive session. 8 (Executive Session.) 9 JUDGE KELLY: (Gavel bang.) It is 12:40, the 10 Court is back in open session. We discussed the 11 Extension Office personnel issue, and we discussed the 12 vacancy for Commissioner Precinct 2 personnel issue, and 13 we have no action to take at this time. 14 We're going to have a special workshop -- a 15 special Commissioners' Court meeting on the 16th to talk 16 about the extension agent. And a lot of that will be in 17 executive session because it is personnel matter. 18 And in the meantime, with regard to the 19 Commissioner's position, I want to thank my fellow 20 Commissioners for their input, and everybody was very 21 cooperative and helpful. And I want to -- I'm not going 22 to announce anybody today, but I'm going to probably do 23 a press release and have a YouTube press release 24 sometime this week and let the Sheriff's Office start on 25 the background checks, and Jody will set up the 113 1 appointments for the interviews. 2 And we -- the plan is to make that 3 announcement sometime later this week or next week, 4 early next week so that we can get them sworn in on 5 August the 23rd. That's the plan. 6 So is there any other business before the 7 Court? There being none, we're adjourned. 8 * * * * * * 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 114 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 27th day of August, A.D. 10 2021. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2023 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25