1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, September 13, 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 T. BECK GIPSON, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Commissioner's Comments. 8 4 1.2 Present Military Order of the World Wars 8 Exceptional Law and Order Service Award 5 to Sheriff Leitha. 6 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action regarding update, facility use 7 and other matters related to the COVID-19 Delta variant, including hospitalization 8 numbers and capacity. 9 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action to approve Kerr 911 budget. 10 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 11 action to authorize the Airport Manager, Mary Rohrer, as authorized agent for 12 Airport Sponsor, Kerr County, to sign "Temporary Closure for Non-Aeronautical 13 Special Event Request" for the Airport Race Wars 2 event scheduled for October 23, 2021. 14 1.9 Presentation regarding Workforce Alamo 29 15 Solutions programs. 16 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 35 action to approve the revised Bylaws for 17 the Kerr County Historical Commission. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action to approve the use of the Kerr 19 County logo on official documents of the Kerr County Historical Commission. 20 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 41 21 action to approve Proclamation declaring October 2021 as "Hill Country Night Sky Month". 22 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 23 action regarding donation of artwork for the courthouse from George Waring. 24 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.10 Discussion regarding COVID mandates, 46 vaccinations and informed consent, data, 4 number of sick in hospitals, organizations requiring COVID passports. 5 1.11 Discussion regarding power line upgrade for 51 6 Center Point and around Kerr County. 7 1.17 Public Meeting/Hearing on proposed Kerr 55 County and Lateral Roads 2021 tax rate. 8 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 9 action to take a record vote to adopt the 2021 Kerr County tax rate. This will be 10 the combined tax rate for Kerr County and Lateral Roads. 11 1.19 Public Meeting/Hearing on proposed Lake 57 12 Ingram Estates Road District tax rate. 13 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 action to adopt the 2021 Lake Ingram 14 Estates Road District tax rate. This will be a record vote. 15 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 16 action to approve the Resolution recognizing September 28, 2021 as National Voter 17 Registration Day, and authorize the County Judge to sign the Resolution. 18 1.22 Public hearing for a Revision of Plat for 62 19 Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 128R, Volume 8, Page 163. 20 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 21 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10 a.m. on October 25, 2021 for a 22 Revision of Plat for Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, Lot 41A, Volume 3, Page 62. 23 1.12 Passed. 24 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 action to approve the Texas VINE, Victim 4 Information and Notification Everyday, second contract renewal with Appriss, Inc. for the 5 Statewide Automated Victim Notification Services, SAVNS. 6 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 66 7 action to surplus seven vehicles in the Sheriff's Department as part of the 8 Enterprise Fleet Management Program. 9 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 67 action regarding the Statement of Grant 10 Award from TIDC, Texas Indigent Defense Commission, for the Improvement Grant, and 11 authorize the County Judge to sign same. 12 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 action to adopt Resolution designating an 13 administrative services firm for the HMA, Hazardous Mitigation Assistance, project. 14 Application and implementation contract negotiation may be required. 15 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 16 action to reject bid for audio systems for District Courtrooms 1 and 2. Bid was 17 received by the Court on August 26, 2021. 18 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 72 action on request from Nancy Parker to pay 19 $100 to citizens for getting vaccinated. 20 1.26 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 74 action to approve the Interlocal Agreement 21 between Kerr County and Tom Green County for jail Services, and allow County Judge 22 to sign same. 23 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 75 action to approve contract with Divide 24 Volunteer Fire Department, and allow County Judge to sign same. 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.28 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 75 action to hire a part-time employee to 4 help write job description for full-time grant admin employee and serve as temporary 5 contact person for GrantWorks for ARPA, American Rescue Plan Act, grant. 6 1.30 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 81 7 action to confirm appointment of Commissioner Gipson as Liaison to Kerrville-Kerr County 8 Joint Airport Board. 9 1.29 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 81 action to update Liaison duties, Court 10 Orders 38508 and 38688, to include Commissioner Gipson. 11 1.30 Passed. 12 1.31 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 84 13 action to partner with the City of Kerrville for a Household Hazardous Waste Event to be 14 held at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 15 1.32 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 86 action to approve and adopt the fee schedule 16 of the Sheriff and Constables as presented. 17 1.33 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 93 action to approve contract with Claycomb 18 Associates, Architects for Capital Improvement Bond Consultant Services. 19 2.1 Pay bills. 104 20 2.2 Budget amendments. 105 21 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 105 22 2.6 Court Orders. 106 23 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 107 24 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 111 25 6 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 111 4 4.3(a) Consider, discuss and take appropriate 118 action regarding potential leasing of 5 county facility/real estate. 6 4.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 118 action to award the contract for Kerr 7 County website design. 8 *** Adjournment. 119 9 *** Reporter's Certificate. 120 10 * * * * * * 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's go ahead and come 2 to order. It is Monday, September the 13th, 2021, 3 9 o'clock in the morning, and the Kerr County 4 Commissioners' Court is now in session. If you would, 5 please rise for the pledge and the prayer, which will be 6 led by Commissioner Harris. 7 (Prayer and Pledge.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. I want to 9 remind everyone to take your phones and put them on 10 vibrate or turn them off so they don't interrupt this 11 Court proceeding. We'll start like we do every time 12 with citizen input. We want our citizens to be actively 13 involved in our -- their local government, and we invite 14 them to come address us about anything that they would 15 like to bring to our attention. And in doing that, 16 you're invited to talk about something that's not on the 17 agenda. If it is on the agenda, we ask that you save 18 your comments for when that agenda item is called. 19 So at this point, we ask that you limit 20 your -- your remarks to three minutes, identify yourself 21 by your name and address so that we know what Precinct 22 that you live in and we'll know who your Commissioner 23 is. And with that, I'm going to invite -- is there 24 anyone that would like to address the Court on something 25 not on the agenda? Okay. Very well. 8 1 Then we'll move on to Commissioners' 2 Comments. We'll start with Precinct 1. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I got nothing to say. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Record that. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Everything's going very 6 nicely. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 8 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Precinct 2 is good. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Three. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All is good. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And four? 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'm not going to rock 13 the boat. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Wow. That is the first time 15 this has ever happened that I sat on this bench. Very 16 good. Let's move on to the Agenda. And I'm going to 17 reverse the agenda items today to accommodate the 18 presentation of an award. We're going to defer 1.1 19 until after 1.2. So we'll go to 1.2, which is to 20 present the Military Order of the World Wars Exceptional 21 Law and Order Service Award to Sheriff Leitha. Norman 22 Wells. 23 MR. WELLS: Thank you, Judge. Good morning. 24 I'm Norm Wells, Commander of the Military Order of the 25 World Wars Hill Country Chapter. We're a veteran 9 1 service organization founded by General Pershing over a 2 hundred years ago to promote good citizenship, patriotic 3 education, and military and public service. 4 Our motto is, "It is nobler to serve than to 5 be served". Our Chapter submitted Sheriff Leitha for 6 the Exceptional Law and Order Service Award for an 7 individual to our National Headquarters last spring in a 8 competition with other law officers in the United 9 States. Sheriff Leitha won first place. I was honored 10 to accept that award at our National Convention last 11 month. 12 Sheriff Leitha spoke at our chapter meeting 13 in March and described what he and his staff had done 14 during the winter storm in February. I was really 15 impressed with everything that he said and what he and 16 his staff did. And when it was time to put in for 17 awards I said this is something that really needs to be 18 recognized, and obviously with the award that happened. 19 As you'll remember, we had over a week of 20 record-breaking extremely cold temperatures, severe ice, 21 snow and sleet accumulation and related public 22 utility -- related disruption of public utilities, 23 transportation, and communication. Power lines were 24 down on the roads, which required the deputies to do 25 traffic control. They had to deal with icy roads and 10 1 the many accidents. I-10 had to be closed. The Sheriff 2 had to bring in off-duty deputies to handle many 3 problems. 4 At that point, Sheriff Leitha and his Chief 5 Deputy decided to camp out at the office. They brought 6 in cots and sleeping gear and ended up remaining there 7 for the rest of the week. On the first night, a water 8 pipe in the Sheriff's office burst and began flooding 9 the building. Another challenge that he had to deal 10 with. 11 As the weather continued to get worse, many 12 deputies and staff members slept in the hallways at the 13 office because they were unable to return home to their 14 families. Many jail staff and dispatchers found 15 themselves in the same situation. Communicating 16 information to the public was a major problem because of 17 the downed power and phone lines. 18 The Sheriff initiated the program to use 19 Facebook to advise the public on storm information, road 20 closures, shelter locations, etc. Their posts reached 21 over 220,000 people and were shared 3400 times. 22 In addition to protecting County residents, 23 Sheriff Leitha was also responsible for the safety and 24 security of the County jail inmates. Because of the 25 prolonged road closures and widespread disaster covering 11 1 much of the State, food distributors were unable to make 2 their scheduled deliveries. The Sheriff arranged with 3 the local grocery store to provide food for the inmates. 4 The Sheriff also had to arrange for diesel fuel to keep 5 their generators running. 6 With many County residents out of food and 7 having no water, shelters were established to care for 8 them. Sheriff Leitha and his deputies brought food and 9 water to the shelters. Many other responses handled 10 under Sheriff Leitha's direction were welfare checks. 11 Because of the widespread and many days long power 12 outages and failed communication systems, with icy 13 conditions and downed trees and utility poles making 14 roads virtually impassable, many rural residents were 15 out of touch with relatives, neighbors, or emergency 16 aid. 17 When a concerned party called the Sheriff's 18 office to request a welfare check, deputies were 19 dispatched to the resident because that was the only way 20 to accomplish the check. 21 Frequently, the deputies' official vehicles 22 were unable to travel on the icy roads, then some 23 deputies used their personal four-wheel drive vehicles 24 to reach the residences. In one instance, the people 25 were safe but out of firewood. The deputy delivered 12 1 firewood to the family so they could maintain some heat 2 in their home. There were many other similar instances 3 of deputies rendering humanitarian aid to Kerr County 4 residents. 5 During the weather emergency, the Sheriff's 6 office answered 3,782 calls and dispatched 538 calls for 7 service. Remarkably, there was no loss of life due to 8 the weather event in Kerr County. Sheriff Leitha's 9 exceptional leadership, judgment, experience, innovation 10 and determination to protect the people of Kerr County 11 enabled his department to overcome a wide variety of 12 formidable challenges. His outstanding service to Kerr 13 County is most commendable and deserves to be 14 recognized. 15 Sheriff Leitha, I'd like now to present the 16 ward if you would go up there. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Stand right here in front of 18 the microphone. The camera is over there so look that 19 way. 20 (Photographs being taken.) 21 MR. WELLS: All right, sir. So this is the 22 award, and this is the citation that goes with the 23 award, and here's a description of it in here. And it's 24 my honor -- and thank you. 25 SHERIFF LEITHA: Appreciate it. Thank you. 13 1 I just want to say a few words, please. Yeah, I want to 2 thank Norman and thank y'all for that award. Obviously 3 it's that individual -- which we all know it wasn't an 4 individual award, I mean I appreciate it. I'll take it 5 to the Sheriff's Department and probably display it. 6 But what I do want to thank is all the other 7 people. You know when Rusty left he said, Larry, you've 8 got a good group of people, be sure and take care of 9 them. And he was right. I'll tell you what, at the -- 10 I guess we could call it the Kerr County Inn for that 11 week because, I mean, we had them sleeping all over the 12 place. We even got in Judge Hoyne's jury room actually. 13 But anyway, it was a good experience. And 14 it wasn't just me, obviously, it was the whole team. I 15 have to thank Kerrville Police Department. They were 16 real good in working with us. Ingram Police Department. 17 And a special thanks to our volunteer fire departments. 18 They really -- like he said, we only have one -- we only 19 had one four-wheel drive pickup at that time, but the 20 fire departments were real good out on the west end and 21 east end getting to the people we couldn't. We answered 22 every call. I really appreciate their help. 23 I hate to start thanking people because I 24 always leave people out. Obviously, Clint was very good 25 at social media. When I campaigned, people wanted to 14 1 just know what's going on and that's why we brought 2 Clint in and he did an excellent job. He was actually 3 our weatherman for a few days there when Dr. Doppler was 4 out of commission because there were no radios or 5 phones. 6 But obviously, and Dub did a tremendous job 7 keeping people posted and stuff. So it was a full team 8 effort; it wasn't just me. I just kind of drove the -- 9 I guess you'd call it the -- the bus per se. 10 But in addition to that, you know, 11 Commissioner Harris had asked me to put together a 12 committee of different people. And it's not to gripe 13 about what happened, but to figure it out. You know, 14 I'm already hearing this February, and I hate that 15 because this is supposed to be that 16 once-in-every-50-years storm, right? 17 But we -- I've put a committee. We've met a 18 couple of times to see what we can do better. One of 19 the things that he'd mentioned, pretty much mentioned 20 everything there, but there's one four-wheel drive 21 pickup. Commissioners' Court and the Judge have been 22 very good. We entered into a program with Enterprise. 23 We have additional four-wheel drive pickups coming that 24 will really, really help us be able to do our jobs. 25 I had three set of snow chains and by the 15 1 end of the storm, I don't think they're meant for 2 24-hours a day, they were all out of commission. But we 3 just received eight pairs the next week. So in our 4 preparation we're preparing for the storm. But, you 5 know, everybody joined together. 6 I have to thank Calvary Church early on as I 7 seen people were trying to -- were getting stranded on 8 the interstate, got with Pastor Way and within 24 hours 9 we had a facility up and running. I think he housed up 10 to 75 at one time. That's where I ate supper every 11 night about 10:00 and had three square meals a day, hot 12 meals. 13 But everybody came together. I'm really 14 proud of this County and I appreciate this award. Thank 15 y'all. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And Sheriff, we're proud of 17 you. 18 (Applause.) 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Back to the agenda for 20 item 1.1, which is our update from Emergency Management, 21 to consider, discuss and take appropriate action 22 regarding the update, facility use, and other matters 23 related to COVID-19 Delta variant, including 24 hospitalization numbers and capacity. Dub Thomas. 25 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 16 1 morning, Commissioners. Hope y'all had a great weekend. 2 Looking forward to some rain from Nicholas. Hopefully 3 it brings us a lot of rain. We can use it. 4 All right. I kind of want to update you on 5 the vaccine and the Delta virus for COVID-19 that we've 6 had over the last two weeks, since my last time I was 7 here. The number of -- for vaccine data, the number of 8 vaccines allotted for Kerr County so far is still 9 20,100. The number of vaccines administered, total of 10 vaccines, have been 43,901. People vaccinated with one 11 dose is 24,953. People fully vaccinated, and this is as 12 of this morning, is 21,218. 13 Vaccinations by age. And this is a 14 percentage of folks that DSHS believes of certain 15 population. Age 12 through 15, there's been 427 fully 16 vaccinated; 16 to 49 is 6,164; ages 50 to 64 is 5,390; 17 65 to 79 is 6,790; 80 plus is 2,442. And they give an 18 age unknown, I don't know how they came up with that, 19 but five total. 20 Vaccination by percentage, 12 and up is 21 54.14. Fully vaccinated is 46.03 for 12 and up; 65 plus 22 that have received one dose is 69 percent; and 65 plus 23 fully vaccinated is 62 and a half percent. 24 From the Department of State Health Services 25 data board, and this is the numbers as of this morning, 17 1 hadn't been updated for today, but active COVID-19 is 2 236; recovered is 5,404; and there's been 107 3 fatalities. 4 Peterson Regional Hospital, I tried finding 5 out what our hospitalizations were from over the weekend 6 but they're still -- the number I have is from Friday at 7 36. I should get an update today, probably by noon, by 8 what our hospitalizations are for today. 9 RMOC, which is the Regional Medical 10 Operation Center for inpatient COVID cases, that number 11 is -- the longer our total hospitalizations, the 12 inpatient capacity for Region 8 or TSAP, which Kerr 13 County is a part of, Trauma Service Area P, the 1,224, 14 17.4 percent of the hotel -- hospital occupancy in the 15 region. 16 So we -- we kind of looked like a plateau 17 when we were up around 43 hospitalizations for Peterson 18 Regional, and our inpatient COVID cases from RMOC was 19 well over 20 percent. So those have kind of dropped 20 down over the last week. We've been kind of in a range 21 between 17 and 19 percent for the last seven days. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now hopefully -- before 23 you move off of that, I've been asked several times 24 lately about the people in the hospital, whether they're 25 from Kerr County or outside the County. We also asked 18 1 the hospital administrator when he was here last, do 2 they track that? And that -- he said no at the time. 3 Do you have any earthly idea where these people live, 4 whether they're Kerr County residents or coming from 5 elsewhere? 6 MR. THOMAS: The ones that I have seen are 7 all Kerr County residents. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How are we tracking 9 that? 10 MR. THOMAS: Well, when they come into the 11 hospital they get their name and address. I don't how 12 else they -- they couldn't track them. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 14 MR. THOMAS: But the ones that I've seen 15 from Peterson's testing, on a daily basis, they've all 16 been primarily Kerr County. There have been very few 17 that have been outside of Kerr County here recently. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Dub, in a similar 20 vein, do we have precise records for what's going in 21 vaccination wise or hospitalization in the VA? 22 MR. THOMAS: No, I have not heard from the 23 VA. 24 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Well, my point is that 25 a lot of vaccinations are taking place by local citizens 19 1 at the VA and some are Kerr and some are outside. So we 2 may have more vaccinee's-- 3 MR. THOMAS: Actually, all those 4 vaccinations should be reported to DSHS. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, they all are. 6 MR. THOMAS: Yeah. They all -- the 7 vaccinations and testing all should go through DSHS. 8 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Okay. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And there's a similar 10 recordkeeping. 11 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. Yeah. 12 Vaccination clinics. On August 23rd, the 13 Department of State Health Services came out. We had 14 a -- I'm sorry, not DSHS, but their contractor came out 15 and we did a vaccination clinic at the Youth Event 16 Center. 29 people were vaccinated with their single 17 first dose at that time. 18 Next Monday, September the 20th, DSHS's 19 contractor will return to the Youth Event Center from 20 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and we will be doing second 21 doses for those that received their first dose last 22 month, and if we have any additionals that want to get 23 their first dose, by all means they are welcome to come 24 out. 25 On a note not related to COVID but the fact 20 1 that we're using the Youth Event Center, something that 2 we've done for at least 12 years that I'm aware of is 3 our annual flu clinic. It's a drive-through event just 4 because of COVID. 5 Before, there was a way to walk in or 6 drive-through, depending on which way you wanted to get 7 your vaccine. And we vaccinated 904 individuals at the 8 flu vaccine on the -- last week on the 8th. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And let me follow up on that, 10 Dub. We've been doing this for over a decade with the 11 flu clinic. 12 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And how many shots in arms can 14 we do with that? 15 MR. THOMAS: That was 904 that day. 16 JUDGE KELLY: That's what you did that day, 17 but what's -- 18 MR. THOMAS: And that was just the 19 drive-thru. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Right. So everybody's been 21 asking before about vaccinations and why the 22 vaccinations haven't been here in Kerr County originally 23 when we have the greatest capacity of any County in the 24 region. 25 MR. THOMAS: So last year our number was -- 21 1 last year I think our flu shot numbers was well over a 2 thousand, 1,116. 3 JUDGE KELLY: So -- so I'm telling Austin so 4 that they know that we have that kind of capacity. 5 MR. THOMAS: And that was drive-thru only. 6 I can't imagine what we could have done if we'd had the 7 drive-thru and the walk-in. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Dub, this is the first 10 time I can remember that you've started out and talked 11 about COVID and the first time I've seen it talked about 12 that COVID-19 Delta variant. Are we just calling 13 everything the variant now? Because I -- it's my 14 understanding we don't test for it. 15 MR. THOMAS: We don't test for it. There 16 are -- it can be tested for, but the hospital requests 17 that through DSHS under certain conditions. But for the 18 most part, COVID-19, the Alpha is still out there, the 19 Delta is there. There's also Lambda running around. 20 And now the Mu variant. So, yeah. I think -- I guess I 21 just called it Delta because that's all I've heard here 22 lately. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, that's all we're 24 all hearing but nobody tests for it -- or very rarely. 25 MR. THOMAS: Well, we don't test for it here 22 1 locally. We send those -- the hospital can send those 2 off to DSHS. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 4 MR. THOMAS: It's called sequencing. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 6 MR. THOMAS: Any questions? 7 JUDGE KELLY? No. Anything else? You're 8 doing a great job. Keep it up, Dub. 9 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. I appreciate it. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Item 1.3 on the Agenda. 11 And we do have a 9:30 presentation, I know. But we'll 12 get to that here in just a second. Let's do 1.3, which 13 is to consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 14 approve the Kerr 911 budget. Mark Del Toro. 15 MR. DEL TORO: Good morning, Judge. Good 16 morning, Commissioners. I am here in accordance with 17 Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 772, Subchapter D, 18 to ask your approval of our fiscal year 2022 budget. 19 This budget was approved by my Board of 20 Managers on August 12th. It is a balanced budget. And 21 it is a slight decrease in -- projected decrease in 22 revenue over fiscal year 2021 and I have adjusted the 23 budget accordingly to fit within the means and I'll be 24 happy to answer any questions over the budget. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I noticed it right 23 1 off that we went down a little bit. 2 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, sir. Our wireline 3 service fees continue to slide downwards because folks 4 are just getting rid of their home wired phones, just 5 becoming a relic. Wireless feeds have plateaued, and 6 VoIP are still -- still on the uptick. They're keeping 7 us alive. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I move to accept 9 it. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 12 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 13 approve the Kerr 911 budget. Any discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question, Mark. 15 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The wireless -- or the 17 phones that -- I guess your revenue is decreasing over 18 time. Is there any plans with the legislature or anyone 19 to -- to add a fee somewhere, because -- 20 MR. DEL TORO: There actually is. As -- 21 being one of the 27 emergency communication districts in 22 Texas, we have a 911 alliance. We introduced 23 legislation this year to increase the wireless fee from 24 50 cents to 75 cents. It made it through the House. 25 Once it hit the Senate committee, it backdoored to the 24 1 Governor's office and the Governor said no, there will 2 be no fee increase while I'm running for reelection. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Is that a quote? 4 MR. DEL TORO: Pretty much. And they -- 5 they did throw us a bone saying that they would give us 6 leftover Federal COVID money that they haven't even 7 applied for. So we have one of those wonderful unfunded 8 mandates that says we have to have next generation 911 9 implemented by September 2025 but we have no means -- 10 financial means to do it. So hopefully next legislative 11 session we'll get this back up. 12 JUDGE KELLY: So no surprises lost in that 13 he gives us mandates and no funds to do it. 14 MR. DEL TORO: Absolutely. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If -- if the funds 16 come, will it go through the -- all -- it'll go to all 17 27 different districts? 18 MR. DEL TORO: It will affect every 911 19 entity in the state, emergency communication districts, 20 municipal communication districts. And then folks like 21 down in San Antonio, AACOG and -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it wouldn't be 23 distributed equally? 24 MR. DEL TORO: No, but it -- it's -- we 25 receive our -- our wireless revenue based on population. 25 1 In a sense, we kinda get a little bit more than we 2 should because of population. You can't expect 3 everybody to have a cell phone. But it all works out in 4 the end. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Those in favor 6 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 7 MR. DEL TORO: Thank you, gentlemen. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Mark. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We can squeeze in another one. 10 Let's go to item 1.4 consider, discuss and take 11 appropriate action to authorize the Airport Manager, 12 Mary Rohrer, as an authorized agent for the Airport 13 Sponsor, Kerr County, to sign "Temporary Closure for 14 Non-Aeronautical Special Event Request" for the Airport 15 Race Wars 2 event scheduled for October 23, 2021. Yes, 16 ma'am. 17 MS. ROHRER: Good morning. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Doesn't she look like a diesel 19 driver? 20 MS. ROHRER: I'm ready for it. At least I 21 know what I'm doing this time. Hey, good morning, 22 everyone. My name is Mary Rohrer, I'm the Airport 23 Manager at Kerrville-Kerr County Airport. We are in the 24 process of making all of our applications for our second 25 Race War coming up in October. 26 1 About -- maybe about a month ago, I got 2 thrown a curve from TxDOT. They gave me a new form to 3 fill out. So we talked about different things that we 4 have to fill out. So this is a new form. It's 5 Temporary Closure for Non-Aeronautical Use Event from 6 TxDOT. 7 Basically over the past 18 months, many 8 communities have used our -- all airports, lots of 9 different airports, for different outside events. Big, 10 wide open spaces. They were using them for 5K runs and 11 for graduation ceremonies and for, you know, just 12 everybody to get out there and get outside and be in a 13 large open space. 14 And then we've also had the -- our car 15 races. So TxDOT felt they needed to figure out a way to 16 make sure that everybody in the community knew that the 17 airport was getting closed for a reason. In their 18 minds, especially TxDOT Aviation, that runways should be 19 used for aircraft. So they wanted to make sure if there 20 were folks that were affected by it that we'd get out in 21 that. So they've asked us to go to our sponsors, which 22 is the County and the City, to make sure y'all are aware 23 of what we're doing at the airport. 24 And I have a big application I've put 25 together to sign and if y'all -- it was approved at our 27 1 last board meeting, so let me know if -- and Ross 2 Dunagan is here to answer any questions that he may have 3 or you may have regarding things like diesel race cars 4 and things. I don't know anything about that. So we're 5 here to answer any questions that you may have. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just want to know if 7 you're going to race those 18-wheelers again this year. 8 MR. DUNAGAN: Yes, I did talk with them over 9 the weekend. They are coming back out. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'm all in then. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And for those of you that 12 don't remember, when we did this last year, Ross had 13 originally came to me and wanted -- we had to have a 14 County Court approval at that point, and wanted approval 15 and I was concerned that we didn't have enough safety 16 measures in place, social distancing, and all of the 17 COVID protocol. 18 And he asked to come talk to me and we sat 19 down around that round table in my office and he said 20 what do we need? And Dub and I sat there and said well, 21 we'd like to see this, we'd like to see that, we'd 22 like -- and we went through a list of about half a dozen 23 things and agreed to all of them. And so I'm just 24 telling you that he's made a very -- it's been a very 25 mutually beneficial relationship. 28 1 MS. ROHRER: We agree on behalf of the 2 Airport as well. 3 MR. DUNAGAN: And it's definitely benefitted 4 the County and the City both, with just the amount of -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: If you're going to speak, I 6 need for you to come up. 7 MR. DUNAGAN: Sorry. 8 JUDGE KELLY: The people at home can't hear 9 you. And we have developed a following. People really 10 do want to know. 11 MR. DUNAGAN: No, well, that's good. No, 12 it's been both beneficial for the County and the City 13 both. We get great exposure across the state. Even a 14 little bit outside the state as well. People coming in. 15 We put up a pretty decent amount of money to get those 16 people to draw in, but I know at the City Council 17 meeting after the event in March, they said it was very 18 close to -- as far as revenue brought in, we're very 19 close to a Black Friday event for the County and City. 20 So we were stunned with those numbers. 21 But it's definitely a good thing and we 22 expect a better turnout because the rain kept us down a 23 little bit back in March. So we're hoping for a better 24 turnout this time and hopefully, even better revenue 25 numbers. 29 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we like those good 2 surprises. 3 MR. DUNAGAN: Right. Absolutely. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And for those at home that 5 don't know, this is Ross Dunagan. He sponsors the 6 event. 7 MR. DUNAGAN: Yes. I'm the one that puts it 8 on and takes care of all the major headaches with it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We appreciate it. I'll 10 move for approval of the agenda item. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Gipson to 14 approve the event as presented. Any discussion? Those 15 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 16 MS. ROHRER: Thank you very much. 17 MR. DUNAGAN: Thank you. Thanks a lot. 18 Appreciate it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Ross. Thank 20 you, Mary. 21 MS. ROHRER: Thank you. 22 MR. DUNAGAN: Thank y'all. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a 9:30 event 24 that I'm going to go ahead and call at this time. We've 25 got people here from out of town. And that is item 1.9, 30 1 which is the presentation regarding Workforce Alamo 2 Solutions program. Dan Wallace. 3 And if you would, Dan, introduce your person 4 accompanying you here. I want to make sure everybody 5 knows we're fully staffed today. 6 MR. WALLACE: Good morning. This is our 7 Director, Gabriela Hubach(phonetic). She accompanied me 8 here today because she believes strongly in the program 9 we're about to present to you. Additionally, we were 10 supposed to have our CEO, Mr. Adrian Lopez present 11 today; however, he had a COVID contact case, and so we 12 thought it prudent that he exercise the necessary 13 precautions. So we do appreciate you being here today. 14 Thank you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And Mr. Lopez is very 16 energetic and enthusiastic about his -- his role here. 17 MR. WALLACE: He strongly believes in 18 everything that we're doing. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Absolutely. 20 MR. WALLACE: Awhile back I was getting gas 21 at a convenience store and a young man came up and asked 22 me if I knew where the unemployment office was. And I 23 thought how strange was that for him to single me out to 24 come ask that question. 25 But then I realized he just saw my name tag, 31 1 and thought he'd ask me that. Then I realized he looked 2 at my name tag which says Workforce Solutions Alamo and 3 he thought of the unemployment office. Well, we don't 4 have an unemployment office. There's not one here in 5 Kerrville. There's not one in Kerr County. There's not 6 one in the Alamo Region. 7 Now, we do have employment centers, which do 8 the exact opposite of unemploy. They're there to assist 9 people in getting employment. We have programs for 10 adults that need training or retraining or upscaling to 11 find better opportunities. We have programs for 12 veterans who either want to take advantage of the 13 training they received through the military or, if they 14 want to re-train, we can assist them with that. 15 We have programs for those that have special 16 needs, our disabled folks. We served hundreds of them 17 this past summer, getting them opportunities to work. 18 And we have a program that I'm here to talk about today 19 that puts food on the table at the Wallace household and 20 that's our youth program. This is for youth, 16 to 24 21 years of age, with a barrier. That barrier can be 22 anything from a criminal background, teenage pregnancy, 23 or simply on the lower end of the socioeconomic realm. 24 The program allows us to pay their salary, 25 hold the liability for them, while they work for you. 32 1 We'll do that for about three months to let you kick the 2 tires, if you will, check them out and see what you 3 think about them while we pay that salary. They get 4 valuable resume material and experience. 5 We would provide the salary, you would 6 provide the training and the operational supervision. 7 And we've had quite a bit of success with this program. 8 We had a young lady that was working two part-time jobs 9 here in Kerrville, trying to make ends meet. She was 10 struggling. She lost one of those jobs. She knew she 11 was in dire straights. 12 She approached us, and we helped her out. 13 She said she wanted to do something in the customer 14 service computer arena. So we put her in a training 15 program through Leader Quest and then in a work 16 experience program with one of our partners, the 17 Kerrville Chamber of Commerce, and now she's working 18 over there as a full-time employee for them. The 19 program works. 20 We have hundreds of these success stories 21 throughout the region. So we're here today asking for 22 you to partner with us, the County, to help us help you 23 help them help the community. On behalf of our CEO -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: That was so impactful. Repeat 25 the phrase you just said. Help -- 33 1 MR. WALLACE: Help us help you help them 2 help the community. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 4 MR. WALLACE: On behalf of our CEO, Adrian 5 Lopez, and the staff at the Workforce Solutions Alamo, 6 I'm Dan Wallace and I thank you for allowing us to make 7 the presentation this morning. Are there any questions 8 I can answer? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Where does the funding 10 come for this program? 11 MR. WALLACE: This is a federally funded 12 grant that we have. 13 MS. HUBACH: The channels come from Texas 14 Workforce from the Board, Mr. Lopez, and then to us. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And y'all work closely with 16 AACOG. 17 MR. WALLACE: Yes, we do. 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's where I met Mr. Lopez. 19 MR. WALLACE: They're a great partner with 20 us as well. 21 JUDGE KELLY: But I really like the phrase 22 help us help you help them. 23 MR. WALLACE: It -- it's fitting. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is this ongoing or is 25 it a grant? 34 1 MR. WALLACE: This is on -- it's ongoing. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Ongoing. So you gave 3 an example. What kind of things would you think that 4 these folks would learn at the County. Where is the 5 bulk of the people that come to you, what kinds of jobs 6 are they seeking? What kind of training do they need? 7 MR. WALLACE: That could be -- that is so 8 widespread. It depends on the youth that we're 9 recruiting that we're talking with. One that we -- that 10 I like to see, and it's because I spent a lot of time in 11 human resources, but every Human Resources department 12 anywhere always needs help. They always do. 13 And if you talk to human resource managers, 14 they're saying things like, If somebody could just catch 15 the phones. Just do that. Just to bring me up to -- to 16 get things moving. So we to could have administrative 17 positions, clerical positions. We can have -- we have 18 medical positions. We have -- you know, we put people 19 to work in the parks department. It's just a wide slew. 20 One of the things that we're looking at 21 undertaking now with the 911 dispatchers, they recently 22 mandated that they become TCLEOSE certified, and we had 23 some success in Pleasanton putting people to work as 911 24 dispatchers. They came in, they looked at these 25 individuals. They said they have what it takes and they 35 1 are now working. Before, they were making like $8.00 an 2 hour at a local fast food place, and now they're making 3 something like $20 an hour in a career opportunity. And 4 that's what we're looking for is career pathways. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm sorry you didn't get 6 to meet Mark Del Toro when he was here. He's the 7 director of 911. But I do want to introduce you to 8 Jennifer Doss, our HR Director. 9 MR. WALLACE: I'm sure she'll back me up on 10 that phone call thing. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you for coming. We 12 really appreciate you driving up here and making your 13 presentation to us. 14 MS. HUBACH: You're welcome. 15 MR. WALLACE: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We'll go back to the 18 regular agenda, on item 1.5, which is consider, discuss 19 and take appropriate action to approve the revised 20 Bylaws of the Kerr County Historical Commission. 21 Miss Bond. You lost your expert, I see. 22 MS. BOND: My name is Michael Louise Bond, 23 but I'm known as Bunny. My home address is 213 24 Stephanie Drive, Kerrville. I live in Precinct 4, so 25 Don Harris is my Commissioner. 36 1 I'm here today representing the Historical 2 Commission. And I'm currently serving as the first vice 3 chair of the commission. So the request today is for 4 the County Judge and the four Commissioners to ratify 5 the revised Bylaws for the Historical Commission. 6 The commission was created in October of 7 1975, so it's almost 41 years old. The Bylaws were last 8 revised in 2009. At that time, a handbook was created 9 that contained both operating policies and bylaws and 10 some forms. 11 It's been years since the handbook was 12 copied and distributed to members of the commission. So 13 a decision was made to revise the Bylaws, incorporate 14 the operating policies into the Bylaws, to create one 15 document that hopefully will be easier to consult and 16 defog. 17 Per the suggestion of the Texas Historical 18 Commission, the revised Bylaws were submitted to the 19 County Attorney and to the County Auditor for review 20 before submission to the Commissioners' Court for 21 ratification. 22 There were four members of the commission 23 involved in revising those Bylaws. The chair, Julie 24 Mosty Leonard, she's out of town today, the Treasurer, 25 Wilma Council Teague, who's present. The Chair of the 37 1 portal to Texas history, Mary Elaine Adamek Jones, and 2 she's currently out of town today, and myself. 3 As I mentioned, the commission celebrates 4 46 years as a heart of Kerr County government in October 5 this year. And just as a reminder to all of us, Kerr 6 County was organized on January the 26th, 1856. So we 7 have 165 years of County history to record, commemorate 8 and preserve. So I respectfully ask that you ratify 9 these Bylaws today. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 13 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 14 approve the Bylaws as presented by the Kerr County 15 Historical Society. Any conversation about that? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Looks good. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 18 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 19 MS. BOND: Thank you very much. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Don't leave the podium. Let's 21 go on to number -- item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to approve the use of the Kerr County 23 logo on official documents of the Kerr County Historical 24 Commission. Miss Bond. 25 MS. BOND: Yes. And again, I'm asking today 38 1 on the advice of the County Attorney that the 2 Commissioners' Court give us permission to use the 3 County logo on selective official documents of the 4 Historical Commission. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So this was your idea? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What kind of stuff, 7 Bunny? Is this letters that go to the State or what? 8 MS. BOND: Yes. Probably on a letterhead, 9 but more specifically right now we're going to have the 10 Bylaws printed up, so we want a cover sheet, and we 11 would appreciate being able to use the logo there. I 12 have created a draft business card, and we would like to 13 have it on the business card. 14 I've also created a draft of a rack card. 15 The purpose in these last two is so that we have 16 something to hand out and distribute to people, plus 17 we're members of the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce, and 18 as you all may know, you can have rack cards and 19 business cards there. 20 We certainly have plans, hopefully, to be 21 present at other community events where we can 22 distribute materials, because like a lot of 23 organizations, we're searching for younger members. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good 25 idea, and it's a part of County government. So I see no 39 1 reason why we shouldn't allow that. So I move for 2 approval. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I have one more 5 question. 6 MS. BOND: Yes? 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: These cards, these are 8 just board members that are going to have -- you're 9 talking about advertising -- rack cards. That's one 10 thing. But you're talking about board members having 11 business cards with the County logo on them? 12 MS. BOND: I think that it would be confined 13 to the members of the executive board -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what I mean. 15 MS. BOND: -- to elected officers carrying 16 business cards with them. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, there's been -- go 19 ahead. Sorry. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Was there a second? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can we revise it to 23 include what Bunny just said? To be restricted to the 24 executive board on their business cards? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other documents 40 1 that they -- were referenced. Yeah. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: She referred to them as 3 official documents of the organization, so I think it's 4 okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So this -- this is restricted 6 to official documents. Very good. Okay. So a motion's 7 been made by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner 8 Harris to approve the use of the County logo for the 9 Kerr County Historical Commission. Any other 10 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 11 five zero. 12 MS. BOND: Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Miss Bond. 14 MS. BOND: Before I leave, I'll tell you -- 15 I would like to remind everyone to please visit the two 16 exhibit cases in the front hall of the courthouse. 17 There are four members, committee members, who have 18 worked. This is the third exhibit. And it celebrates 19 the 100th Anniversary of the VA Hospital in Kerr 20 County -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 22 MS. BOND: -- which takes place this month. 23 So be sure you take a look at what was assembled and to 24 be displayed out there for a couple weeks. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We invite the public -- this 41 1 is on you, to invite the public to please come to the 2 courthouse and see the exhibit. 3 MS. BOND: Thank you. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Miss Bond. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.7 consider, discuss and 7 take appropriate action to approve the Proclamation 8 declaring October of 2021 as Hill Country Night Sky 9 Month. Yes, sir. 10 MR. RUSSELL: Good morning. My name is 11 Kevin Russell. I am standing in for Bill Rector today. 12 I am the President of Kerr County Friends of the Night 13 Sky. Kerr County Friends of the Night Sky is a group of 14 neighbors that seek to preserve the dark sky for 15 generations to come. Our goal is to share with others 16 the benefit that can come -- that can be realized 17 through properly managing outdoor lighting. 18 I am here today to ask for your support and 19 approval for a Proclamation from Kerr County that would 20 proclaim October 2021 as Hill Country Night Sky Month. 21 This is an educational and voluntary proclamation that 22 encourages citizens to participate in the region's many 23 events around the Night Sky Month, and to learn about 24 light pollution and why it matters, and to understand 25 what dark skies friendly lighting is. 42 1 And Kerr County has afforded dark sky 2 efforts in the past and we appreciate that. We have a 3 cultural heritage here, a historical heritage here with 4 dark sky and we want people in the region to know. So 5 that's really -- this is an educational Proclamation. 6 And from me, personally, I was born and 7 raised in Kerr County. I enjoyed the night sky growing 8 up and I want my kids and their kids to be able to enjoy 9 that same night sky, and so that's what we're working 10 towards. 11 And lastly, I just want to invite you all to 12 a private star party at UBarU, which is a retreat center 13 in Kerr County that has a night sky observatory. And 14 they are International Dark Sky Association approved 15 dark sky facility, and that's where we can view dark sky 16 lighting in an observatory. 17 There are many private observatories 18 throughout the County, as well as Schreiner University 19 and their observatory that depend on the dark sky. So 20 we would like to invite the Commissioners to that. And 21 that's on October 6th, and Dr. Rector has sent an e-mail 22 about that. So if you're interested, please respond to 23 that and we'd be happy to see you there. 24 So with that, that is all I have. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you have a copy of 43 1 the Proclamation? 2 MR. RUSSELL: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't see it in the 4 backup. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Oh. He was unable to attach 6 it so he sent it in an e-mail. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I didn't see that. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I'd seen it. Just to clarify, 9 this in no way interferes with hazard lighting in 10 Halloween when our kids are out on the street, does it? 11 MR. RUSSELL: No, sir. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, good. We don't want to 13 do that. 14 MR. RUSSELL: If anything, dark sky friendly 15 lighting is safer because it creates less glare, which 16 is actually shown to be more dangerous in some 17 circumstances. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I just wanted to 19 clarify. When those kids get out there on the streets, 20 we're going to keep them safe. We're going to have 21 adequate lighting for them. Any other discussion? 22 Okay. Well, those in favor raise your hand. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's no motion yet, 24 is there? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, that's right. 44 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was reading the 2 Proclamation first. Yeah. 3 JUDGE KELLY: This -- this is the same one 4 we did last year, I think, pretty much. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion from 8 Commissioner Harris, and a second from Commissioner 9 Gipson to approve the resolution for proclaiming October 10 of 2021 as the Hill Country Night Sky Month. Any other 11 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed? 12 (Commissioner Belew opposed.) 13 JUDGE KELLY: Four, one. Thank you. 14 Item 1.8 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action regarding the donation of artwork for 16 the courthouse from George Waring. Mr. Waring. 17 MR. WARING: Good morning, Commission. My 18 name is George Waring, AB Arts. I reside in the north 19 side community so I believe that would be Precinct 2. 20 I'm just trying to get some pictures 21 approved -- or a picture approved of the old courthouse 22 to be hung. I'll frame it. It's just a sketch, I have 23 to finish it. But I would like it to be hung up here as 24 a donation. Is that possible? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 45 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Can we take a look at 2 it? I mean, it's not through yet? 3 MR. WARING: No, I wanted to get approval on 4 it before -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: And if I'm not mistaken, I 6 think this Courthouse was opened in like, 1926? 7 MR. WARING: That's the oldest picture I 8 found of the courthouse. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And what we're talking about 10 is a drawing of the original courthouse that burned? 11 MR. WARING: Yes. Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Which would be of historical 13 value. 14 MR. WARING: Right. And I want to put 15 Kerrsville because I just hung up a -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: It was Kerrsville. 17 MR. WARING: I did a little research on it. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And a lot of people don't -- 19 don't remember that the original county seat of Kerr 20 County was Comfort. And then the Civil War, for 21 reasons, the county seat was moved to Kerrsville. 22 MR. WARING: I'm also in the library. I 23 have four pieces displayed over there and I'm at the art 24 gallery too. I just wanted to make some kind of 25 donation to give back to Kerrville. 46 1 JUDGE KELLY: And we appreciate that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 3 accept the donation. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion's been made by 6 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Belew to 7 approve the art work, the drawing of the old original 8 Kerrsville courthouse, the Kerr County Courthouse. So 9 that -- with that, is there any discussion? Those in 10 favor raise your hand. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I just want to 12 say, Wilma, now there's some of your young people that 13 you're looking for. 14 MS. BOND: That's right. Yes. 15 MR. WARING: I'm a member of the Commerce, 16 too. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. So those in favor 18 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 19 MR. WARING: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Next item on the agenda is 21 item 1.10 discussion regarding COVID mandates, 22 vaccinations and informed consent, data, number of sick 23 in hospitals, organizations requiring COVID passports. 24 Alicia Bell. 25 MS. BELL: Good morning. I'd like to thank 47 1 you for -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Please identify yourself and 3 your address and precinct. 4 MS. BELL: Alicia Bell. And Precinct 2. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 6 MS. BELL: I'd like to discuss the mandates 7 that are coming down. I'd like to know what Kerr County 8 has done with the mandates with COVID and what you're 9 planning on -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: So are you coming before the 11 Court to ask us information? 12 MS. BELL: Not exactly. But -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. What are you asking? 14 MS. BELL: There's a lot of mandates coming 15 down all around -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: There are no mandates from 17 this Court and there will be no mandates from this 18 Court. I'm telling you. 19 MS. BELL: Okay. Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: One phone call would have 21 answered that question. What else do you need to know 22 about? 23 MS. BELL: The school. Also the schools and 24 the masking -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: We have no -- no jurisdiction 48 1 over the schools. 2 MS. BELL: You have no jurisdiction over the 3 schools. Okay. I'd like to discuss the numbers that 4 are coming out about COVID from the hospitals, from the 5 medical system here. There are -- I think the numbers 6 need to be broken down in different ways. How many 7 people are in the hospital that tested positive through 8 the PCR that are there for other than COVID reasons? 9 JUDGE KELLY: You're asking us that? 10 MS. BELL: Right. The numbers that are 11 coming, that are being presented to the Court -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: We have -- we have no control 13 over those numbers. If you want information about the 14 numbers, you need to go to Peterson because that's who 15 is providing the numbers. 16 MS. BELL: Okay. What I'm saying is 17 there -- and this is not exclusive to North Carolina, 18 but doctors want to be scary to the public and inflate 19 COVID numbers -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am, what are you -- 21 MS. BELL: -- so if you don't get vaccinated 22 -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: -- asking about? What -- we 24 have nothing to do with North Carolina. What are you 25 asking that this Court -- 49 1 MS. BELL: I understand. It's not 2 exclusive. This is happening all over the country -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Bell, this is the second 4 time that you've put items on the agenda that we have no 5 jurisdiction over whatsoever. I have been very tolerant 6 and lenient on this. If you have action for this Court 7 to take, this is your opportunity to ask us. But you 8 really need to have these issues vetted by your 9 Commissioner before you put them on the agenda. 10 Normally, citizens don't just walk in and put items on 11 the agenda, you go through your commissioners and talk 12 to them about it. 13 I understand that there are a lot of things 14 going on out there. There's a lot of hysteria. 15 MS. BELL: There's a lot of -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: But there is no hysteria in 17 this Court. I guarantee you. 18 MS. BELL: There's -- there's a lot of fear 19 out there. I'm -- I'm very concerned about -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: I appreciate that. 21 MS. BELL: -- the fear of pushing the 22 vaccine but they're not -- they're not telling you the 23 full truth. They're not giving you informed consent. 24 And people are going to get it that really don't want it 25 because they don't have all the information. 50 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's a lot of 2 confused information. There's -- and that comes from -- 3 it starts at the CDC. It comes all the way down to Kerr 4 County and all the other counties so -- 5 MS. BELL: I have here -- I will read 6 something from the CDC -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am. 8 MS. BELL: -- and this is how -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am. 10 MS. BELL: -- they determine the numbers -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am. 12 MS. BELL: -- whether they're considered -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am, you are limited to what 14 is on the agenda. You wrote this agenda item. You 15 asked us to put it on the agenda. We did. And there's 16 nothing we can do about it. So you can read all you 17 want, but that has -- it's not relevant to the actions 18 of this Court. We're here to govern the local 19 community. We're not here to listen to what's on the 20 internet or what's on Fox News. We're not here for 21 that. 22 MS. BELL: This is from the CDC. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I don't care. There's nothing 24 we can do about it. The CDC does what the CDC does. 25 You -- I know you're new from California and you don't 51 1 understand how local Texas government works. 2 MS. BELL: No. 3 JUDGE KELLY: But we are the County. We're 4 the lowest level of state government. And we don't have 5 the authority to do anything with the CDC or Washington 6 or Austin. They tell us what to do. We don't like what 7 they tell us to do sometimes, but nonetheless, we are 8 required to abide and follow the law. 9 MS. BELL: So what I'm saying about the CDC, 10 they're the ones that determine what numbers the 11 hospital is reporting, which in turn puts fear in 12 people's mind to take the shot. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And there's nothing we can do 14 about that. Why are you here to talk to us? That's 15 what I'm trying to understand. 16 So let's go to item 1.11, a discussion 17 regarding power line upgrade for Center Point and around 18 Kerr County. Miss Bell. 19 MS. BELL: I live in Center Point and was 20 driving through and I see a big sign that says Center 21 Point power line upgrade. So I would like to understand 22 what that upgrade is. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. First of all, that is 24 the LCRA line. And the LCRA is a subdivision of the 25 Texas government. We have no authority over the LCRA. 52 1 They put in power lines. One call, we could have told 2 you that's what it was. We have no authority over them 3 putting in those lines. There's nothing the County can 4 do. I didn't understand when I saw the -- the agenda 5 item, I think what you want to know is what's going on 6 with their LCRA line? Call the LCRA. 7 MS. BELL: I do not know what that is. 8 I'm -- that's -- what I'd like to know, is it 5G that 9 they're installing? 10 JUDGE KELLY: No, ma'am. It's electricity. 11 This is not a communication line; it's an electrical 12 line. And it's done through the Lower Colorado River 13 Authority. And they are one of the biggest power 14 vendors in the country. And they're headquartered out 15 of Austin. And all you have to do is pick up the phone 16 and call them, and they can explain it all to you. We 17 have no authority over the LCRA. 18 MS. BELL: So it has nothing -- they do -- 19 they are able to install 5G on the power line? 20 JUDGE KELLY: We don't -- this is -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have anything 22 to do with it. 23 MS. BELL: Do you -- do you have any idea 24 exactly what -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Look, Miss Bell, let me tell 53 1 you what I did do. It was obvious to me that you didn't 2 know what was going on and you were putting agenda items 3 that requires the time of the public and this Court and 4 of this -- the people gathered here to address answering 5 your questions. 6 So I -- I checked with Hill Country 7 Telephone to find out do we have 5G in Kerr County. No, 8 we do not. There are people that are sniffing around 9 maybe wanting to put 5G in Kerr County, but we don't 10 have any authority -- this -- this Court has no 11 authority to do anything about it. They have 5G in 12 Fredericksburg. You do not have it in Center Point and 13 you do not have it in Kerrville. 14 MS. BELL: T-Mobile shows -- in T-Mobile's 15 map they show there is 5G. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, then you need to take 17 that up with T-Mobile. We have no authority over that. 18 That's handled by the state level. I know you don't -- 19 you haven't learned Texas government. But a simple 20 phone call to request information is the proper way to 21 go instead of putting these items on our agenda and 22 taking up the public's time to answer your questions. 23 I'm sorry. 24 MS. BELL: I have a study and it says 25 evidence for connection between COVID-19 and exposure to 54 1 radio frequency radiation from wireless 2 telecommunications, including microwaves and millimeter 3 waves -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am. 5 MS. BELL: -- this amplifies -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: Ma'am. I -- I appreciate you 7 have a study. And maybe it's from a bona fide expert, 8 maybe it's fake news. I don't know. But let me tell 9 you -- 10 MS. BELL: It's a published peer reviewed 11 article. 12 JUDGE KELLY: But there's nothing we can do 13 about it. That's what I'm telling you. The County has 14 no jurisdiction or authority over any of that. A simple 15 phone call, you could have found that out. If I were 16 you, I'd follow-up with T-Mobile. 17 MS. BELL: Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry. 19 Next item on the agenda is 1.12 consider, 20 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 21 contract with Republic Services. 22 And Shane is not here, so why don't we take 23 our morning recess. We'll take a five minute break and 24 come back at five minutes after 10 o'clock. 25 (Recess.) 55 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Court will come back to 2 order. We do have some timed items that we're required 3 to address at this time, which is 9:45 items. And this 4 is -- we'll start with item 1.17, which is a public 5 meeting or hearing on the proposed Kerr County and 6 Lateral Roads 2021 tax rate. 7 I convened the public meeting. Come to 8 order. Is there anyone who would like to address the 9 Court about the Kerr County Lateral Roads 2021 tax rate? 10 There being no one, that meeting is adjourned. 11 We move on to item 1.18 consider, discuss 12 and take appropriate action to take a record vote to 13 adopt the 2021 Kerr County tax rate. This will be the 14 combined tax rate for Kerr County and Lateral Roads. 15 Mr. Reeves. 16 MR. REEVES: Good morning. On August 23rd 17 of this year, the Court unanimously proposed a tax rate 18 for the 2021 tax year of 45.42 cents per $100 valuation. 19 This rate represents the no new revenue tax rate for 20 Kerr County's general fund and the Lateral Roads fund. 21 The rate is broken down as 39.28 cents per 22 $100 valuation for the maintenance and operations, 23 interest and sinking fund 3.33 cents per $100 valuation, 24 and the Lateral Road fund of 2.84 cents per $100 25 valuation. 56 1 I looked at the Auditor to make sure I had 2 my numbers right. The notices of proposed tax rate was 3 published in a local newspaper in accordance with the 4 Texas Property Tax Code. In addition to the notice, 5 proper internet and website postings were made. A copy 6 of how the motion needs to be made to adopt this tax 7 rate has been included in your backup material, and this 8 vote should be a record vote by roll call, Judge. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for the adoption 11 of the total combined tax rate for the tax year 2021 of 12 .4542 per $100 valuation. A breakdown of the taxes, 13 maintenance and operation is .3928 per $100 valuation, 14 interest and sinking fund is .0330 per $100 valuation 15 and Lateral Roads at .0284 per $100 valuation. This 16 rate does not exceed the 2021 no revenue rate. 17 JUDGE KELLY: No new revenue rate. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No new revenue rate. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 22 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 23 approve the tax rate for Kerr County and Lateral Roads 24 in the amount of -- was it -- .4542 per $100 valuation 25 as presented. Any discussion about this? 57 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Has to be done. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we're going to take 3 a record vote. And I'm going to go in reverse order 4 this time. Precinct 4. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Three. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Aye. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Two. 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Aye. 10 JUDGE KELLY: One. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Aye. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And I vote aye. Five zero, 13 unanimous. 14 Okay. We'll move on to item 1.19, which is 15 a public meeting or a hearing on the proposed Lake 16 Ingram Estates Road District tax rate. 17 I convene the meeting. Is there anyone here 18 that would like to address the Court? There being no 19 one, then I adjourn the meeting. 20 And we'll move on to item 1.20, which is to 21 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to adopt 22 the 2021 Lake Ingram Estates Road District tax rate. 23 This will be a record vote. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, sir. Gentlemen, 25 also on August 23rd, the Court unanimously proposed a 58 1 tax rate for the Lake Ingram Estates Road District 2 being 15.21 cents per $100 valuation for the 2021 tax 3 year. A notice of the public meeting was posted in the 4 local newspaper in accordance with the requirements of 5 the Texas Property Tax Code. 6 In addition, in accordance with the Code, 7 the appropriate postings were placed on the internet. A 8 copy of how the motion to adopt this tax rate should be 9 read into the record may be found in your backup 10 material. This also shall be a vote by roll call. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move to adopt the 12 Lake Ingram Estates Road District tax rate of .1521 per 13 $100 valuation for the 2021 tax year. The entire tax 14 rate will be dedicated to the interest and sinking fund. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 18 approve the Lake Ingram Estates Road District tax rate. 19 Is there any other discussion? Okay. We'll do a record 20 vote. We'll start with Precinct 1 this time. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 2. 23 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Yes. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 59 1 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 4. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And I vote yes. Unanimous, 4 five zero. 5 MR. REEVES: Thank you, gentlemen. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And before you leave, let's go 7 ahead and do 1.21. 8 MR. REEVES: I'm sorry. Yeah. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I'm trying to accommodate 10 people's schedule. We don't want you having to sit in 11 here all day. 1.21 is to consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action to approve the resolution recognizing 13 September 28 of 2021 as the National Voter Registration 14 Day and authorize the County Judge to sign the 15 Resolution. Mr. Reeves. 16 MR. REEVES: Thank you, Judge. The National 17 Voter Registration Day is the country's largest single 18 day voter registration drive and will take place on 19 September 28th, 2021. As many as one in four eligible 20 Americans are not registered to vote. Each year 21 millions of Americans are not able to vote due to easily 22 solvable issues, such as missing a deadline or failing 23 to update their registration after they've moved. Kerr 24 County currently has 37,767 registered voters as of last 25 Friday. 60 1 JUDGE KELLY: Would you repeat that number? 2 MR. REEVES: 37,767 registered voters as of 3 last Friday. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 5 MR. REEVES: Each month our elections office 6 offers a volunteer voter registration testing. This 7 testing commences after completion of at-home training 8 regarding the laws of voter registration. The 9 volunteers then take a test in our office. After 10 passing, the volunteers are then able to register as 11 voters and conduct drives. 12 It should be stressed that every person that 13 is legally eligible to vote should have the opportunity 14 to register and cast the votes. I've included a 15 resolution in your backup material. I respectfully 16 request the Court to approve it and authorize the County 17 Judge to sign. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So motion from 21 Commissioner Letz -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh. Okay. I'll 23 second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- and Commissioner Belew will 25 second. Any discussion? 61 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Bob, how are we 2 going to promote this or what's the plan? 3 MR. REEVES: I will get with our -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Lisa? 5 MR. REEVES: -- Lisa, our PR Department, and 6 get them out here. And I believe also Mrs. Bond is very 7 excited to hear about this as well. This is an effort 8 that -- there are other efforts going on, but I felt it 9 was beneficial for the Court to recognize this. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. My only comment is I 11 wish our Constitution permitted us to not listen to 12 people that aren't registered voters. But everybody has 13 the right to say -- everybody has the right to their own 14 opinion. But if you don't register to vote, folks, 15 seriously, how can you complain about the decisions 16 anyway. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Or vote. You know. 18 JUDGE KELLY: You do need to vote. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A lot of registered 20 voters don't vote. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And we want to encourage 22 people to register and we want to encourage them to 23 vote. We want to hear what you think. 24 Okay. Any other discussion? Those in favor 25 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 62 1 MR. REEVES: Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Mr. Reeves. Thank 3 you for all your good work. 4 We have timed items that start at 10 o'clock 5 now. We're running a little late, but maybe not as late 6 as usual, huh, Charlie? So we're going to call item 7 1.22, which is a public hearing for a Revision of Plat 8 for Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, 9 Lot 128R. 10 And so this is a public meeting. I'm 11 convening the public meeting. Is there anyone from the 12 public that would like to address the Court? 13 MR. HASTINGS: Judge, I have a letter from 14 the surveyor for this that addresses this. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Please. Feel free. 16 MR. HASTINGS: I got a letter from -- on -- 17 dated August the 10th. It's a memo from Lee Voelkel. 18 He was the surveyor for record on this. And the 19 subject, of course, is Revision of Plat Lot 128R of 20 Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estate. 21 The letter says: Charlie, the Revision of 22 Plat referenced above was on the Agenda of 23 Commissioners' Court yesterday, August the 9th, and the 24 Court set a date for our public hearing and final plat 25 approval for September 13th. 63 1 The owner of the property, John Nelson, has 2 asked me to inform you that he will no longer seek final 3 plat approval. We understand that the public hearing 4 will still take place but request no final plat approval 5 consideration. Thank you for your help in this matter. 6 Call me if you have any questions. And then signed Lee 7 Voelkel. 8 So they have officially withdrawn their 9 request for this plat, but they couldn't quite get this 10 in before -- it was too late. It was -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 12 MR. HASTINGS: -- already advertised in the 13 paper. And there was an expectation because it had the 14 Court's authorization to advertise and we just didn't 15 want to stop that train. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So this process is really just 17 us formally accepting his withdrawal of the request? 18 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there anything else 20 to be conducted at this public meeting? If not, then 21 the public meeting is adjourned and then we'll move on 22 to the next agenda item, which is item 1.23 consider, 23 discuss and take appropriate action for the Court to set 24 a public hearing for 10 a.m. on October 25, 2021 for a 25 Revision of Plat for Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, Lot 64 1 41A. Charlie Hastings. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 3 proposal divides Lot 41A, 13.87 acres, into two lots and 4 dedicates right-of-way along Mountain Drive. Lot 41-A1 5 will be 5.1 acres and Lot 41-A2 will be 8.24 acres. The 6 balance of the acreage being dedicated is right-of-way. 7 Both lots will front Mountain Drive. Lot 8 41B as shown on the plat and is not part of this 9 proposed revision. 10 County Engineer requests the Court set a 11 public hearing for 10 a.m. on October 25th, 2021 for a 12 Revision of Plat for Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, Lot 13 41A, Volume 3, Page 62, Precinct 1. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 17 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Gipson to 18 approve the request for a public meeting as presented. 19 Is there any discussion? 20 The only thing I would offer is for those 21 people that have been recently, at least of recent 22 paying more attention to the subdivision rules, this is 23 the procedure we go through. There is always a public 24 meeting. And it's set out in advance, just like we did 25 awhile ago. They had time to withdraw their request. 65 1 But this is the opportunity for public input. If 2 there's anybody that wants to speak on this topic, they 3 can come to the public meeting and address it at that 4 time. 5 MR. HASTINGS: And Judge, I'd add to that 6 that the public hearings are for revisions of plat. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 MR. HASTINGS: They're not required for a 9 preliminary plat or a concept plan or a final plat. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Right. Thank you. Any other 11 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, 12 unanimous. 13 That's the last of our timed items, so we'll 14 go back to the regular agenda and I've been told that 15 item 1.2(sic) has been requested to be passed. So we 16 will proceed to item 1.13 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to approve the Texas VINE, which is 18 Victim Information and Notification Everyday, second 19 contract renewal with Appriss, Inc. For the Statewide 20 Automated Victim Notification Services. Mr. Robles. 21 MR. ROBLES: Yes, good morning. In the last 22 meeting, this Court approved a contract between the 23 County and the Office of the Attorney General for this 24 program. This agenda item is to approve the contract 25 between the County and Appriss Insights who helps on 66 1 this program. This is our second contract agreement 2 with them. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 6 second by Commissioner Belew to approve the Texas Victim 7 Information and Notification Everyday contract with 8 Appriss, Inc. Any discussion? Those in favor raise 9 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 10 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 11 appropriate action to surplus seven vehicles in the 12 Sheriff's Department as part of the Enterprise Fleet 13 Management Program. Mr. Robles. 14 MR. ROBLES: Yes. The Sheriff has 15 identified as part of the program with Enterprise six 16 vehicles which are Tahoes, and one Chevy Caprice to be 17 declared as surplus as part of our trade in. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 21 seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the surplus 22 of seven vehicles in the Sheriff's Department. Any 23 discussions? Those in favor raise your hand. 24 Unanimous, five zero. Thank you, Mr. Robles. 25 Item 1.15 consider, discuss and take 67 1 appropriate action regarding the Statement of Grant 2 Award from TIDC, which is the Texas Indigent Defense 3 Commission for the Improvement Grant, and authorize the 4 County Judge to sign same. Callie Graff. 5 MS. GRAFF: Thank you. This agreement 6 states that Kerr County will remain in compliance with 7 the grant guidelines set forth by TIDC. And also says 8 that the County agrees with the grant amount set forth 9 by TIDC. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 13 seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the TIDC 14 grant. Any discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a comment, that 16 that -- this is for a nine-month period under this 17 grant. Normally it would be a 12-month period, but it's 18 a nine-month period because we extended the previous 19 year. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So this is a little bit 22 less than we would on an annual basis. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And again to remind the 24 public, the reason for the extension was because we 25 didn't get the office opened at the beginning of the 68 1 fiscal year so we didn't have any funding for the first 2 three months. And this extends that initial grant, that 3 one-year grant funding, for an additional three months, 4 which is important for the county and the other four 5 counties in our five-county region because that is an 6 80/20 matching grant. So they're giving us the benefit 7 of the 80/20 match rather than the one-third/two-third 8 grant that we're getting for this fiscal year. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On top of that, the 10 savings to the five counties is in the neighborhood of 11 $500,000 by doing it this way. It's pretty substantial. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And as a point of information, 13 we had our oversight committee for the Hill Country 14 Regional PDO last Friday and it is just -- it's shooting 15 out the lights. We're the talk of the nation. We've 16 done an outstanding job with this thing. And we've got, 17 what, over 2,000 cases at this point? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 2,500 almost. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. And all five counties 20 are working very well together. So -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're making me 22 nervous. When you brag on yourself it makes me nervous. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well, not me. I'm not 24 bragging on myself. I -- I just said -- it wasn't me. 25 I zoomed in. I wasn't even there in person. But to see 69 1 that it's working that well is encouraging. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, okay. It makes 3 me nervous still when you start talking about it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not related to the -- 5 this on our next agenda. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Speed bumps. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're good items. 8 Maybe. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. All those in favor 10 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. Thank you, 11 Ms. Graff. 12 MS. GRAFF: Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And for those in the public, 14 Ms. Graff is in our Auditor's Office. So, thank you. 15 Item 1.16 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to adopt a Resolution designating an 17 administrative services firm for the HMA, Hazardous 18 Mitigation Assistance, project. Application and 19 implementation contract negotiation may be required. 20 Ms. Graff. 21 MS. GRAFF: Okay. So Kerr County's looking 22 to go for the Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant. We're 23 looking to fund nine generators for each Volunteer Fire 24 Department. And we are also looking to have FEMA fund 25 the covered parking for the SO, for the Sheriff's 70 1 Office, and the Road & Bridge so that vehicles don't get 2 destroyed or anything like that. 3 We went out for bids for an administrative 4 service to help us with this project because it might 5 also be big, and we had one response. So -- 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Harris, 9 seconded by Commissioner Belew to approve the request as 10 presented. Any discussion? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to be 12 clear with the request in that we're approving the 13 GrantWorks -- 14 MS. GRAFF: Yes. It was GrantWorks. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- as the one company 16 that did submit a bid. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 18 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 19 MS. GRAFF: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Graff. 21 Okay. Moving down to where we left off. 22 Back to item 1.24 consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to reject the bid for the audio systems for 24 District Courtrooms 1 and 2, and that bid was received 25 by the Court on August 26th, 2021. Mr. Motheral. 71 1 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes. We received one bid and 2 we, in consultation with the District Courts, they have 3 asked us to reject this bid and they're going a 4 different route. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I had to read twice. 6 Reject the bid. We don't see that often show up. 7 MR. MOTHERAL: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, what does that 9 mean, "go in a different route?" Do you have any idea? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 11 MR. MOTHERAL: I think what they're going to 12 do is they're going to explore repairing their current 13 system instead of proceeding with a newer system. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Good. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I would get -- I'm going 16 to put a shout out to Jason Davis, who is our Chief 17 Juvenile Probation Officer. We were up there. And he 18 was telling us there's a sound problem up there. 19 Unquestionably a problem. And he was there and he said 20 he remembered -- he used to have a band and worked with 21 amplifiers and so there's a short. He says it's a 22 short. 23 And so we -- we -- we had them come out and 24 check it out and sure enough, it's a short. It's an old 25 system and we're going to have to replace it, but we're 72 1 going to get it fixed for the time being without having 2 to spend that kind of money. 3 So this is just cross-pollinization between 4 our departments of let's check this out and let's check 5 that out. So this is good. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Add sound engineer to 7 his resume. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 10 we reject the bid for the audio system for District 11 Courts. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion by Commissioner 14 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to reject the bid. 15 Now, in your decades of service to the County, have you 16 ever had the opportunity to make such a motion before? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have rejected bids, 18 but not for this reason. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. All those in favor 20 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 21 MR. MOTHERAL: Thank you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.25 consider, discuss 23 and take appropriate action on a request from Nancy 24 Parker to pay $100 to citizens for getting vaccinated. 25 I put this on the agenda because I have a 73 1 member of the public that had requested that we 2 incentivize the public to get the vaccination. And I 3 felt like it deserved public discussion. So the floor 4 is open for discussion. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A hundred dollars? 6 How much for boosters? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's in the context of 8 San Antonio is offering $100 HEB gift card as an 9 incentive and other counties are doing different things. 10 But I was asked to put it on the agenda, and I felt like 11 it deserved public discussion so we're here to discuss 12 it, whether you want to do it or not. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think if she wants to 14 do it that's fine, but I don't want it to be part of the 15 County. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I agree with that. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: No discussion about 18 where the funds came from either? 19 JUDGE KELLY: The assumption is the funds 20 come from the County. 21 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Well then -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Then no. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. If she wants to 24 figure out her own way to do it that's fine, but it's 25 not coming through us. 74 1 JUDGE KELLY: So the item fails for lack of 2 a motion. But it was discussed. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Lack of emotion or -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: No. Trust me, there's plenty 5 of emotion out there. Plenty of emotion. 6 Item 1.26 consider, discuss and take 7 appropriate action to approve the Interlocal Agreement 8 between Kerr County and Tom Green County for jail 9 services, and allow the County Judge to sign same. 10 Sheriff Leitha. 11 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. I'm requesting from 12 Commissioners' Court to enter into an Interlocal 13 Cooperation Agreement with Tom Green County to house 14 prisoners. The way I'm looking at it, Medina County has 15 got their jail. It should be done before too long. 16 Kind of transition, we start picking up some inmates 17 from Tom Green. 18 But currently, just to let y'all know, the 19 jail is still shut down. I'm not taking them from 20 anybody. Kind of just going by week by week with COVID 21 and monitoring the COVID numbers, but when they do start 22 going down, we'll open it back up and be taking them 23 from other counties. 24 This is the same exact agreement we have 25 with Kendall and Medina at this time. It's also been 75 1 reviewed by the County Attorney and approved. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Belew, 5 seconded by Commissioner Letz to approve the Interlocal 6 Agreement with Tom Green County for jail services. Any 7 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 8 five zero. 9 SHERIFF LEITHA: Thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 11 Item 1.27 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action to approve contract with the Divide 13 Volunteer Fire Department. 14 And this is just a routine matter. Time to 15 renew the contract so bringing it to the Court for 16 approval. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Harris, 20 seconded by Commissioner Gipson to approve the new 21 contract with Divide Volunteer Fire Department. Those 22 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 23 Item 1.28 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to hire a part-time employee to help 25 write job description for full-time grant administrative 76 1 employee and serve as temporary contact person for 2 GrantWorks for the ARPA, which is the American Rescue 3 Plan Act, grant. 4 I put this on the Agenda because what we 5 have is we've hired GrantWorks and they're looking for a 6 point person to be able to coordinate working with us. 7 We approved in our budget a full-time employee position 8 for a grant administrator. 9 What we have -- and we're hoping that 10 GrantWorks will do most of that grant administration. 11 What we're looking for is we've got to get from now to 12 be able to hire a full-time grant coordinator to work 13 with GrantWorks. And the part-time employee that we're 14 talking about is Rosa Lavender. 15 I've talked to her. She's talked about 16 helping us with the grant. And what I'd like to do is 17 be able to approach her with authority from the Court to 18 approach her and offer her a part-time position because 19 she offered to work part-time to help us work on the 20 grant. 21 And she's -- as you know, she's worked with 22 us on grants forever. She does a great job. A lot of 23 it she does remotely because she's down -- I think 24 they're down at either Rockport or Aransas Pass 25 somewhere. I'm not sure which one but I think it's 77 1 South Texas. 2 But we need to get a job description. We 3 need to know what it is, what the -- what -- what are 4 the skill sets that we need for this grant administrator 5 and to be able to advertise the position in order to 6 fill it. And I want to ask her to help us do that and 7 to be the initial contact person with GrantWorks so we 8 can get this process rolling. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have a problem 10 with going that route, but why can't we just have HR go 11 out on their list serve and look for -- for the counties 12 that have job descriptions for a grant administrator? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're talking about -- 14 what we're really talking about is the last -- we had a 15 conference call with them and they want us to designate 16 a point person so that they can contact on a regular 17 basis and start getting these grant applications 18 processed. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Immediately? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. That's what they asked 21 for. And the truth of the matter is, I looked at Tanya 22 and she looked at me and she said she doesn't have time 23 to do it and I don't have time to do it. And we don't 24 have anybody to do it. We've got a position that we can 25 hire and so we're looking to have something in the 78 1 interim until we can get that person on board. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Transitions. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, Rosa is certainly 4 capable. She's done it for us a long time. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I don't have -- 6 I mean, it's fine, but it just seems to me that there's 7 a -- for a job -- I think we need help maybe in the 8 short term administering. The job description, I think 9 HR can do. I don't see why we need to hire -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, what -- what 12 exactly is meant by point person? What does that 13 person -- what do they do? Contact person is not a -- 14 there's not a place to do it from. 15 MRS. DOWDY: Yeah. What are their other 16 duties other than being a contact person? What is -- 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That means when 18 somebody calls from GrantWorks, they ask for a name. 19 That's really all it means. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, they want to start 21 getting the forms, the applications, start -- start the 22 whole process. And we put a grant administrator 23 employee position in the budget to be able to do this, 24 but we don't have it. That's -- that's all we're 25 talking about. 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean I -- I don't 2 have a problem with that. But I don't know why we don't 3 actually post it and hire somebody, I guess is my 4 question. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we're looking to hire 7 someone, let's hire them. Because it's going to be 8 confusing to me to have a person start and then all of a 9 sudden in the middle of it make it over. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What strikes me is what 11 we did with the indigent justice system. We had John 12 Bull and from there it -- and he's still there. And 13 really that's kind of what we're talking about, isn't 14 it? Developing something brand new? And your person 15 that is going to help establish that and decide how 16 that's going to run? 17 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're just trying to be 18 more responsive to the public. Because the public is -- 19 is inquiring of us about these grants and we don't have 20 anybody really to respond. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it sounds like 22 we're responding to a request by GrantWorks, is what it 23 sounds like to me. They said we want a person there we 24 can call. Okay, but -- and by the way, I'm still very 25 reluctant to mess with the Federal Government too much 80 1 anyway personally. I don't really like the idea of 2 having -- that and this whole department. But that's 3 another topic. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Who's going to be 5 supervising this person? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Nobody. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: Because wouldn't you want 8 the person supervising this person to be the one who 9 chooses it? 10 JUDGE KELLY: The grant administrator 11 position is going to be supervised by the Court and me. 12 That person. In conjunction with Tanya and the 13 Auditor's Office. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just think we need to 15 hire -- I agree we need the person, but I think we need 16 to hire the person so we don't have all of a sudden 17 changing in a month. It shouldn't take more than a 18 month to hire somebody. 19 Now, if nobody applies then maybe we go a 20 different direction. But I can't imagine there's not 21 someone that's going to apply and that we can -- you 22 know, I'm sure most counties -- or many counties our 23 size or larger have grant people. I believe Kendall 24 County may even have one. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't remember us 81 1 being told what the job description even is. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what I'm saying. 3 So HR can come up with the job description based on what 4 other counties have, bring it to us, and we can approve 5 the person and -- 6 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Post it. And in a 7 month should be able to hire somebody on board. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. That item fails for 9 lack of a motion. Let's move on. 10 1.30 consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action to confirm the appointment of Commissioner Gipson 12 to the Kerr County Joint Airport Board. 13 And I need to correct that. To appoint him 14 as the Liaison for the Board. So -- and Mark Mosier 15 contacted -- 16 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: I think we skipped 17 1.29. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, I'm sorry. I was taking 19 the wrong one. Well, let's go back to 1.29 and then 20 we'll do 1.30. 21 1.29 is consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to update liaison duties to include 23 Commissioner Gipson. 24 And this all began because Commissioner 25 Moser had several liaison positions and the question is, 82 1 does Commissioner Gipson automatically assume those same 2 liaison roles or not? And we can -- we can probably 3 eliminate 1.30, because this all began when Mark Mosier 4 took the initiative to contact Commissioner Gipson to 5 inquire about whether or not he was going to be -- 6 replace Commissioner Moser for the liaison for the 7 Airport Board. So since that requires approval, I put 8 it on the agenda so that we can talk about how we're 9 going to handle filling those liaison roles. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, the item is 11 whether we -- I would say that we would just -- unless 12 Beck disagrees, that he take over those liaison roles. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's the way it's 14 been in the past, isn't it? 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Or if somebody 16 else has an objection to it. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'm fine with it. I 18 mean, I asked him what to do basically. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So I put it on the agenda for 20 us to talk about it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. Including 22 economic development? 23 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: That's fine. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I think -- it seems 83 1 like there's one other. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's five of them. 3 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Is there? 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The library board. 5 JUDGE KELLY: You saw what's on this last 6 sheet? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. That's fine. 8 Substituting Gipson for Moser. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And this actually still has 10 Commissioner Moser down there. And so for the next 14 11 months, we'll -- is it okay -- are we going to approve 12 just to go ahead and allow him to fill in that liaison 13 roll? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we just change 15 it? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just make a motion to 18 change them now. All the ones where Commissioner Moser 19 was listed, insert Commissioner Gipson. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And then, as far as permanent 21 liaison positions if we want to address that we can do 22 that at a later time. This is -- this is for the 23 interim next 14 months. 24 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Sure. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sounds good. 84 1 JUDGE KELLY: So is there a motion? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to -- 3 for Commissioner Gipson to fill all the liaison 4 positions that Commissioner Moser previously had. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion is by 7 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris for 8 Commissioner Gipson to fill the same liaison roles that 9 Commissioner Moser had. Any other discussion? Those in 10 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 11 We'll pass on 1.30 and move down to 1.31 12 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to partner 13 with the City of Kerrville for Household Hazardous Waste 14 Event to be held at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. David Barrera 16 from the City had contacted us, as well as Jake out at 17 the Event Center, and we scheduled an event for 18 Saturday, October 23rd to be held at the Event Center 19 just like we did last year. I don't have the exact 20 times yet but, Reagan, wasn't it -- it's usually like 21 9:00 to 1:00 or 9:00 to 2:00, something like that? 22 MR. GIVENS: Something like that. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Something like that. 24 It's where people can bring their household hazardous 25 waste products and be disposed of there. So I move that 85 1 we approve this event for October 23rd to be held at the 2 Hill Country Youth Event Center. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Harris, 5 second by Commissioner Belew to approve the Household 6 Hazardous Waste event at the Hill Country Youth Event 7 Center for October 23. Any further discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the same day as 9 the Airport Race War. That is a -- I always advise 10 anybody and everybody who's having a big event to double 11 check with the other guy's calendar but this is going to 12 fall on the same day. It's obviously on the way -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- to drop off your old 15 paint and stuff. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There you go. Motor 17 oil or whatever. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just wanted to point 19 that out. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then those in favor 22 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 23 Item 1.32 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to approve and adopt the fee schedule 25 of the Sheriff and Constables as presented. This is the 86 1 Sheriff and Ms. Dowdy. 2 MRS. DOWDY: Good morning. This is standard 3 procedure. There are a couple of changes that the 4 Sheriff's Department will go over. 5 SHERIFF LEITHA: Commissioners, I asked 6 Deputy Taylor here to speak to you on behalf of this 7 race. She's kind of our SO expert on civil process I 8 refer to it as, so I'll let her explain the changes. 9 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Hello, I'm Deputy Pat 10 Taylor, Kerr County Sheriff's Office. We're not asking 11 for an increase in fees; what we're asking for is in 12 addition. Sometimes we do writs of execution and it may 13 take one hour or two hours, a whole day, three days, and 14 we have no way of charging the Plaintiffs, who are 15 responsible on this writ, for the fee of however many 16 officers it takes and how long it takes. 17 So many counties have an additional fee of 18 so much per hour per officer after specific amount of 19 time. So I have rewritten this to say two officers are 20 allowed two hours, and anything over that we're going to 21 charge $50.00 per officer per hour. That way we are not 22 being charged -- we don't have to absorb the fees for 23 Plaintiffs filing suits on somebody else. 24 A lot of these of which are credit card 25 companies from out of state, and yet we're their chief 87 1 debt collectors. So I'm asking for an additional fee. 2 And the only other fee that we're asking for 3 is a per document fee. A lot of times I have to create 4 documents, like a Sheriff's deed. I have to create 5 documents, bill of sale, etc., etc., and I'm asking for 6 a $5.00 per document fee. But everything else is the 7 same. 8 And I've contacted everybody, all 9 Constables, including the Kerr County Animal Control, 10 with reference to any changes they want to make and as 11 of this time everybody says the fees are fine. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it's open-ended. 13 There's not a cap on it? You're just -- 14 DEPUTY TAYLOR: There is no cap. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- as many hours as it 16 takes? 17 DEPUTY TAYLOR: We -- we -- in the past we 18 have actually had writs where we were -- writ of 19 execution or a writ of attachment where we have had 20 condominiums that we had to take, where we have had 21 millions of dollars of equipment that we had to 22 inventory. 23 Now those writs may end up being pulled, but 24 we still have an enormous amount of hours inventorying, 25 putting it on the Internet, getting everything ready for 88 1 a sale trying to get some -- we still have to get the 2 most money for the plaintiff. And so $200 is what they 3 pay. 4 And you know, we're talking about thousands 5 of dollars in fees that we could charge and we're just 6 breaking even. We're not asking to make any money, 7 we're just trying to break even and at least pay for our 8 own costs and expenses. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'll move for 10 approval. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I second that. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Belew, 13 second by Commissioner Gipson to approve the fee 14 schedule as requested. Mr. Reeves. 15 MR. REEVES: And I apologize, I wasn't 16 aware. Will this include anything that you have to do 17 with our office if it goes over to her? 18 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Yes. 19 MR. REEVES: And the only reason I'm asking 20 that, it's taking money out of one pot and putting it in 21 the other one. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is there something we 23 need to know about how that should be structured? 24 MR. REEVES: I'm just asking so I'll know 25 when we're trying to collect on taxes. 89 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I -- I remember about a 2 year ago or so, I lose track of time, Mr. Reeves and 3 Officer Taylor and I spent the better part of a day 4 trying to protect the County's lien position on some 5 assets. 6 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Mooney Airport. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 MR. REEVES: And the only reason -- the only 9 reason I'm asking is so I can notify our delinquent 10 attorneys -- no, that doesn't sound right. Our 11 delinquent tax attorneys -- no offense, counsel -- if 12 there's additional fees that we won't be needing to add 13 when we serve something like that. Because at that 14 time, there was certainly more than just Deputy Taylor 15 there. 16 JUDGE KELLY: There was an entourage. 17 MR. REEVES: There was an entourage. So, if 18 so, I know when we're -- when we're faced with that. 19 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Just for information, the 20 attorneys ask me before they set on anything all of 21 our -- all of our fees. For instance, we get the 22 mailing fees, which are set forth, and so they say where 23 are your mailing fees, what are all your costs so that 24 they can add them to your suit so that when they make a 25 settlement we're -- they're paid back. 90 1 MR. REEVES: And I agree, I just don't want 2 any confusion in the interim. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Well, in all fairness to the 4 public, they need to -- the public needs to understand 5 that these are meant to be tax -- they're ultimately to 6 be paid by the parties. 7 So when -- when we do this, it is the people 8 that are asking for the relief from the Sheriff's Office 9 that ultimately pay for this service. And right now 10 it's the taxpayers that are paying for those parties. 11 MR. REEVES: And I just want to make sure we 12 collect what the taxpayers need to have collected. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So is this -- just a 15 technical thing, is this an additional fee in an invoice 16 or is this a whole new form, a whole new invoice, 17 separate billing? 18 DEPUTY TAYLOR: It is an -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How would it be worked? 20 DEPUTY TAYLOR: -- additional service fee. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. So it's just 22 with whatever we're sending to that particular 23 plaintiff? 24 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Correct. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 91 1 DEPUTY TAYLOR: The Plaintiffs are made 2 aware, before we take one step, of all the fees that can 3 be charged. 4 JUDGE KELLY: It's really just a line item 5 added to the invoice that's -- 6 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Exactly. 7 JUDGE KELLY: -- already presented to them. 8 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Exactly. And they can say 9 no, I don't want any other officers, and I don't want 10 more than two hours spent -- 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. 12 DEPUTY TAYLOR: -- if they own the suit. 13 And we are basically working for them, just that we are 14 working very, very cheap. We're talking a penny on the 15 dollar. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: May step down on some 17 of them. 18 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Well, it's not a matter of 19 cutting down, it's -- you know, they can file a lien on 20 property and get their money on down the line or, you 21 know -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: And I want the public to also 23 understand, these Plaintiffs are not trying to cheat the 24 County. We just have our fee schedule and they follow 25 the fee schedule. 92 1 DEPUTY TAYLOR: Many counties have this fee 2 schedule, it's just that we have not updated it in many, 3 many, many years. Some counties charge more than we do. 4 But I don't see a need for an additional charge, I just 5 see a need for -- for additional cost as far as the 6 amount, just charge for what we do. 7 And all the fees are located online through 8 the Comptroller's -- State Comptroller's website. All 9 counties that have this fee schedule, their fee 10 schedules are available to the public online. 11 JUDGE KELLY: In my opinion, this is long 12 overdue. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sounds like it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have a motion and 15 second. So those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 16 five zero. Thank you, Officer Taylor. 17 Before I call this last item, as I was 18 reading this agenda, my eyes started rolling back when 19 we got to 33 items on the agenda. The last few weeks 20 we've had the longest one ever, and that was how many 21 items? 22 MRS. GRINSTEAD: 45. 23 JUDGE KELLY: 45 or something like that. 24 And that took us about four hours to get through that 25 one. And I'm just commenting that we're not even two 93 1 hours into this one and we're getting ready to go into 2 Executive Session shortly, which will take some time, I 3 understand. But we've done a record amount of business 4 in a short period of time today. 5 So I'll call 1.33, which is consider, 6 discuss and take appropriate action to approve the 7 contract with Claycomb Associates, Architects for the 8 Capital Improvement Bond Consulting Services. 9 We've been working with Jolie Willis who 10 handled the bond issue for Ingram a couple of years ago, 11 and Bobby Temple who served on our CIP. He recommended 12 her. She works with our bond council. They recommended 13 her. She's come so far and -- to probably a half a 14 dozen meetings or so, trying to advise us on how to 15 present the bond issue for the capital improvements when 16 we do it. And this is an educational function, this is 17 not an advocacy role that she's playing. She's viable. 18 And this is a contract that they proposed. 19 They are architects. And what they 20 generally do is use her and then they get paid their 21 architectural fee when they take the contract and design 22 the capital improvements that are going to be built. 23 This is an unusual situation because we're using Peter 24 Lewis as our architect. We've had him on contract for 25 sometime. 94 1 And so this is an actual consulting role 2 where she's helping us with this bond issue. And she's 3 been very, very helpful. And very insightful. And the 4 architect submitted a contract to us for consulting that 5 was an AIA contact, standard contract form, which was 6 not applicable at all, and sent it back to him and asked 7 him to revise it. 8 So we sent it back and -- and he just 9 revised the same form that did not really apply to the 10 situation. And she keeps coming to the meetings. We 11 don't have a contract in place. And so I ultimately 12 said we've got to do something about this. 13 So I gave it to the County Attorney, who 14 drafted a -- a standard consulting contract. And that's 15 what this contract is, it's her work product that we 16 sent on to them. And one of the main purposes was, they 17 estimated that over the year and a half period of time, 18 it's going to cost about $30,000.00 to help us. And 19 they had a lump sum contract that I didn't want a lump 20 sum contract, so I had them come back and break it down 21 into increments so that we pay as we go. 22 And that's -- that's what we've done here 23 and that's why we're -- the CIP asked me to put it on 24 the agenda and bring it to you so we can officially 25 establish our legal relationship with Jolie. 95 1 And as far as the CIP progress, just to 2 report what she's helping us on right now, we had a -- a 3 meeting where each one of the members of the CIP had 4 three team captains to help them with their designated 5 project for this bond issue. And we did this, oh, 6 several months ago. Three or four months ago. 7 And the unanimous result of that group as 8 they got up and made their practice pitches is that 9 there's not enough awareness to -- for people to 10 understand what it is that we have as far as the need 11 for these improvements. 12 And so what we've done at the CIP level is 13 we've embarked upon what is a bond project awareness 14 program. So for example, this month is the West Kerr 15 County Annex, and Bobby Temple has been meeting with the 16 rotary clubs and going around advocating, you need to 17 know what we've got out there and how bad it is. And 18 why we need to have our own facility that's been 19 upgraded and modernized. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are we going to 21 coordinate this with our own press officer or -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. She comes to the -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I haven't seen any of 24 the -- no, I don't mean that. I've not seen a press 25 release saying Bobby Templeton will be at the rotary 96 1 club. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We can fix that. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, that needs to 4 go -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: That's a good point. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- out ahead of him 7 prior to it, so people will know. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, and -- and just 9 so -- you know, and that -- this month is the West Kerr 10 County Annex. Next month is the courthouse and 11 courthouse security and the need for that 12-person jury 12 room down there, and having to move the tax office. 13 And then the month after that we're talking 14 about our storage space. And we had originally talked 15 about trying to refurbish that old Juvenile Detention 16 Facility that we're probably going to rent out at this 17 point. And so now we're working on a new storage 18 facility that we're talking about putting over behind 19 the ball fields across -- off Spur 100 across from Road 20 & Bridge. And that will be next month. And we'll take 21 off the month of December. 22 And then, I think January we kick off with 23 the indoor arena awareness, and then I'm trying to 24 remember what goes from there. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I've said all 97 1 along -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think Animal Control 3 is last. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Animal Control is last. That 5 is -- February will be the Earl Garrett campus and what 6 we're going to do with the tax office down there. And 7 then we -- we'll wind up again with -- then we -- we put 8 together -- then we start advocating the bond issue 9 itself. We'll have everything priced out at that point. 10 So what we're looking at is by April of next year, we're 11 going to be active bond election mode. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, prior to all of 13 this we should let the public know because even if they 14 can't attend the rotary club or the Elks or whatever -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. We'll get that out. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- they know it 17 happened and it reiterates what the issue is and so on. 18 That's why we have a public relations person. 19 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the main reasons 21 to hire a consultant is that there's a -- you know, we 22 have to walk a tight rope between information and 23 advocating. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And any literature or 98 1 anything comes out of the County, they look at it and 2 make sure that we're on the -- you know, we're providing 3 information, not being in favor of it. And advising us 4 as to what we can say and when to say it. 5 And there's raising money for it, if there 6 is an outside source and how it works. And so a lot of 7 it is legal advice to us as to keep us on the right side 8 of the law. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: From saying anything. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And she works with our 11 counsel. But -- but this is probably a good time to 12 mention this by way of the value that she brings to the 13 table. What we learned was that in terms of the 14 information hat versus the persuasion hat, we can't -- 15 once we call the bond election, we call the election. 16 Then this Court, the five of us, put on the information 17 hat only. Prior to that, we can have the persuasion hat 18 on and tell people how bad it really is and what we need 19 to do. 20 But once we call the election, then the 21 people that are running the bond campaign are the ones 22 that are advocating instead of us. And what we do is we 23 tell people the black and white facts. Here's the need. 24 Here's the proposal. You know. Just the facts of it. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think those that 99 1 watched our former Sheriff do this for the jail bond, 2 that was a really good example. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Right. And so that you know, 4 normally this election is probably going to be filed 5 sometime next August. So we have between now and then 6 to be able to put this all together. Once we call the 7 election, then it will be the citizen leaders that will 8 be advocating and we will be answering questions and 9 explaining it. 10 And -- and we learned that when she came to 11 the meeting with the lawyers and then stood up and told 12 us -- like one of our questions was, can corporations 13 contribute? They can. We need to know the answer to 14 that question. The other question to them is can County 15 employees advocate or participate. 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: Judge, my question is as 17 elected officials, does our hat change also? 18 JUDGE KELLY: No. Just this Court. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Okay. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Just this Court. And all the 21 county employees and elected officials, you have your 22 right to have your opinions about it, good or bad. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I've said all 24 along, the awareness is the way to go. Because just 25 like the CIP committee, those people didn't -- weren't 100 1 aware of our needs until they looked beyond the curtain 2 and saw storage inadequacies and everything else. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And if you had heard their 4 gasps when they saw how many -- 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. So the 6 average person out here, they think the county needs 7 more this or that -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: And that's what Billy is 9 helping with. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. And, you 11 know, tell you what, now there are a lot, lot more down 12 the road. 13 JUDGE KELLY: So we kind of feel like we 14 have the best of both worlds. We've got our own 15 architect that's been helping us with it, and now we 16 have -- we like our bond counsel and now we've got the 17 consultant that they work with on a routine basis to 18 help us with the project. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good example. You 20 know -- y'all know I was at Ingram High School before 21 here and those roads and drainage, everything was a 22 wreck at that high school. And Bobby Templeton got that 23 bond passed and that thing is slick and nice. It was 24 like driving through a war zone, our roads and stuff. 25 But you know, that bond passed and everything and it's 101 1 nice and -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: It really was. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It was terrible. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It was like where they 5 take Jeeps and test them. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. I mean -- I 7 mean, there were holes by my Ag Department that a 8 Volkswagen disappeared in. No, it was bad. But -- and 9 now it's one of best high schools in the hill country. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And Jolie asked me if she 11 should come and make a presentation and I told her she's 12 already spent too much of her time on the road and she 13 pays her own expenses. So I told her I would -- so that 14 we could move forward with that. So with that, I'll 15 make a motion that we approve the contract. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: I -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: So I made the motion -- 19 pardon? 20 MRS. STEBBINS: I just need to include -- 21 I've made all the changes for the -- detailing the 22 payment. I just need to include who the County wants to 23 designate as representative with authority to act with 24 respect to the project. So this has -- I don't know if 25 you need it to be one or two of you. Those may be the 102 1 two of you who have been working with the capital 2 improvement committee? I -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: That's what I would think. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Me too. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: And then, do you just want 8 me to put the contact number for Jody if they want to 9 get in touch with you? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can you define what you 13 just said? You said to act? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: The -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You said to act? 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Well -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: To coordinate -- 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How are we defining 19 this? 20 JUDGE KELLY: They -- they coordinate -- 21 they tell us information they need to know who to 22 contact to tell us -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: She said "and to act." 24 So what is that going to mean? 25 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't really know that 103 1 they would do anything without coming back to y'all to 2 make a decision that binds the County. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So is that the action 4 or -- present it to Commissioners' Court or what? 5 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That just seems vague 7 to me. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: The language in the contract 9 just says the County designates so and so as its 10 representative authorized to act on its behalf with 11 respect to the project. 12 JUDGE KELLY: But is that -- is that our 13 language? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: That is our language. So to 15 answer the question -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: So take out the word "act." 17 MRS. STEBBINS: May contact -- okay. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Or put "represent" 19 instead. I mean, would that work? 20 MRS. STEBBINS: As the -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, CIP always comes back 22 here. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and we'll come back 25 here just like we have. 104 1 MRS. STEBBINS: I'll take out, "authorized 2 to act on its behalf," and just put, "as its 3 representatives with respect to the project." 4 JUDGE KELLY: The Court does the action. 5 Okay. So we've got a motion and a second. 6 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 7 Five zero. 8 Okay. Let's quickly move through the 9 Approval Agenda. We have 2.1, which is to pay the 10 bills. 11 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 12 consideration total $1,240,344.28. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I'll second it. So we've got 15 a motion by Commissioner Belew, I seconded, to pay the 16 bills as presented. Is there any discussion? Those in 17 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 18 2.2 budget amendments. And this is a little 19 bit different format this time. I understand. 20 MR. ROBLES: That's correct. We have seven 21 adjustments overall. The first three are payroll, just 22 taking care of some housecleaning items, and the next 23 four are operating accounts, and to prepare us to get to 24 the end of the year. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 105 1 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Commissioner Belew 3 moved and Commissioner Gipson seconded approving the 4 budget amendment as presented. And so the public knows 5 what we're talking about, we had a number of pages, 6 because this is the year -- fiscal year end adjustments 7 to -- to comply with our budget requirements. So is 8 there any other discussion? Those in favor raise your 9 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 10 Late bills. 11 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Auditor reports. 13 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. And we'll move on 15 to monthly reports. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For August 2021 17 payroll approval report, County Treasurer Tracy Soldan. 18 Constable monthly report, Constable 1, Tommy Rodriguez. 19 Constable 2, Kyle Schneider. Constable 3, Ken Wilke. 20 Constable 4, Brad Ryder. Fines, judgments, and jury 21 fees collected. J.P. 1, Mitzi French. J.P. 2, J. R. 22 Hoyne. J.P. 3, Kathy Mitchell. J.P. 4, Bill Ragsdale. 23 And Environmental Health OSSF, Director Ashli Badders, 24 Auditor Tanya Shelton, and District Clerk, Dawn Lantz. 25 I move for approval. 106 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Harris, 3 second by Commissioner Belew to approve the monthly 4 reports as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor 5 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 6 Court orders. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. We have Court 8 Orders from August 23rd, numbers 38884 through 38926. 9 And from our August 26 meeting, Court Order 38927. 10 I recommend corrections to two of them. On 11 38886, we should add the language of, "understanding 12 that this is the last year that the plan will be offered 13 to retirees." It's a bit of an important point. I 14 thought it was more informative. 15 And then on Court Order 38903, it's approved 16 that Charlie Hastings be nominated and recommended to be 17 a voting member of Region 11 for the region flood 18 planning group. A slight modification to the wording 19 there. With those two changes, I make a motion to 20 approve. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 23 seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the Court 24 Orders as revised and presented here in court today. 25 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 107 1 Unanimous, five zero. 2 Information Agenda. 3.1 status reports from 3 department heads. 4 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. I just needed to 5 advise the Court on an incident that we had last week. 6 It was Thursday. We responded -- one of our Animal 7 Control Officers responded to an early morning call, 8 somebody was arrested. And we take what we call 9 protective custody of an animal that they have with 10 them. 11 This individual had a dog. So the Animal 12 Control officer went to the location, picked up the dog, 13 placed it in a crate, put it in the back of the truck 14 and left. Ended up at the shelter, went to the back of 15 the truck, the tailgate was down and there was no crate 16 or dog in the back of the truck. 17 So once we found this out, we launched a 18 search for the animal in between the areas where he had 19 been. Thanks to the Sheriff, provided some of his 20 staff, deputies, and we did an extensive search. And I 21 will say this does have a happy ending. 22 The Sheriff assigned an investigator who 23 assisted me with figuring out exactly what happened, 24 which we did. It turns out that the tailgate was 25 actually left open when he departed the scene. I 108 1 contacted the owner of the missing animal on Friday 2 around 3:30. He did advise that he had the dog back 3 uninjured. And he does not live here but he does have 4 his dog back. Everything is okay. 5 And I want to thank the Sheriff for all the 6 help that he provided in this. I want to thank 7 Kerrville Pets Alive because I notified them and they 8 had people looking as well. But I wanted to assure the 9 Court that I am going to take action to remedy this. 10 I'm going to be doing a review of our procedures 11 whenever we do pick these animals up to see if there's 12 anything we can improve on to keep this from happening 13 again. So that's what I'll be looking at this week, to 14 try to -- try to prevent anything like that from 15 happening. 16 But it was a good team effort that we had 17 between us and the Sheriff's Office and Kerrville Pets 18 Alive and other citizens in looking for this animal. So 19 it was a mistake by our department. And luckily it 20 turned out the way it did. But we'll be figuring out 21 how to not have this happen again. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Well, what I would say, 23 Reagan, is we understand that this was an inadvertent 24 incident and mistakes happen. And the other thing that 25 I would like to acknowledge is that the Good Samaritan 109 1 that found the crate and returned the dog to the owner, 2 we appreciate the public's support and understanding as 3 we have to deal with issues such as this and it was -- 4 as I understand it. Did we ever find out how the 5 injured person was doing in the hospital? 6 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. They did not make it, 7 sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: It was -- it was a fatal 9 vehicular accident. And apparently, I think his -- 10 his -- he had a relative that was following him. 11 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: He was intoxicated and 13 arrested for DWI. We had to take possession of the dog 14 and that's how all this happened. 15 SHERIFF LEITHA: Correct. Just so the 16 public knows that -- yeah, the owner of the dog was 17 arrested for DWI and that's why they took custody of 18 him. But, you know, hats off to Reagan and them, you 19 know, we found the dog. I just wish the owner would 20 have called us instead of Reagan calling him. You know, 21 we -- I had several people assigned to it. 22 I believe the dog was released to the owner 23 about 10:00 a.m. and about 4:00 p.m. we were still 24 looking and I was visiting with Commissioner Letz about 25 that time and Reagan got ahold of them and let them know 110 1 the dog was found, it would have saved us about six 2 hours of time. 3 JUDGE KELLY: So we -- we understand these 4 things happen. But we really appreciate the way the 5 departments worked together, officers worked together. 6 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And we appreciate the help of 8 the public too. 9 Okay. Any other department head reports? 10 Then let's move on to elected officials. Any elected 11 official reports real quick? 12 MRS. DOWDY: Go ahead. 13 SHERIFF LEITHA: Talking about 14 Dr. Templeton, yeah, and I told y'all earlier, I don't 15 like thanking a group of people because you always 16 forget somebody, but I need to thank Dr. Templeton on 17 the -- during the storm. He opened up the cafeteria 18 where we personally took about 50 cots over there one 19 night. I need to thank him. 20 Also the Methodist Church opened up their 21 church and we housed people during the storm also. But 22 I want to thank both of them. 23 MRS. DOWDY: Good morning. I just wanted to 24 report that I attended the fall conference of the County 25 District Clerk Association last week between Wednesday 111 1 and Friday. District Clerk Dawn Lantz was also there. 2 And I believe there's a new fee that's going to be 3 charged on civil cases, both in District and County 4 level. A $20 fee. And I believe it's going to be for 5 county facility or court facility, I'll have to 6 double-check. 7 But I'm going to come back to the Court with 8 a full report on stuff. So I thought that would be 9 interesting -- or good information for y'all to know 10 with the, you know, the bond thing coming up. There's 11 going to be a new fee to help with that. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Thank you. 13 Any other elected official reports? No? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: No. Thank you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 3.3. Status reports 16 from Liaison Commissioners. We're going to call you 17 first. 18 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Because I'm over 19 burdened. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You have some calls to 21 make. Call to make appointments or something. 22 I want to thank the historical society. 23 Bunny is always on top of things. Just pleasant to see 24 you. 25 MS. BOND: Thank you. 112 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Always nice. They do a 2 good job. So -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Any others? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- and the Judge was 5 there as well, I know he was there but -- we were both 6 in Austin last week at the TAC legislative conference. 7 Actually, I thought it was one of the better ones 8 because there are some new programs that I knew nothing 9 about. One of them was about the miracle rescue plan 10 and some of that stuff and it was interesting. I was 11 there. 12 And as the Judge -- we talked briefly about 13 the TIDC oversight committee meeting last Friday and it 14 was hosted by Medina County in their new Courthouse 15 annex, which was quite interesting. I didn't know until 16 Judge Schuchardt that their Commissioners' Courtroom was 17 not large enough for the number of attendees we usually 18 have at ours. It was very, very nice but it was -- he 19 said we don't get a lot of people in their courtroom but 20 we get -- I said we frequently have quite a few here. 21 But the meeting went well. 22 And what we will be bringing back on our 23 next agenda, to give you a little bit of insight, 24 there's some additional -- I think we've all heard about 25 the Lone Star program, and the Governor arresting 113 1 people. They're looking at trying to hire -- the State 2 hiring attorneys to prosecute the -- the illegal aliens 3 that are crossing, mostly for misdemeanor charges. And 4 they're looking at using the PDO offices to do that. 5 And also, they're looking at some mental 6 health assistance in that area. So there's some new 7 grants and things we may be looking at and we'll have 8 more details at our next meeting. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I see -- I see some wrinkled 10 brows out there, not understanding exactly what we're 11 talking about. Let's clarify what the Lone Star -- 12 Lone Star -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Governor's Lone Star 14 program, where -- yeah. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. And -- and what that 16 is, is I think I've mentioned some months back that a 17 bunch of us were asked to go to Del Rio to meet with the 18 Governor about the undocumented immigrant problem that 19 we have on the border and we did that and he announced 20 at that time that the Lone Star program, which has been 21 implemented in 43 counties, and that is they declared a 22 State of Disaster, which has the affect of enhancing 23 certain crimes that are committed instead of being a 24 Class B misdemeanor, criminal trespass, aggravated 25 criminal trespass, I think it goes up to a Class A. I 114 1 think that's right, isn't it, Heather? Something like 2 that? 3 MRS. STEBBINS: I'm sorry. I wasn't even 4 listening to that part. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, anyway. What the 6 Governor is doing is trying to -- the people that 7 trespass, cut fences and -- and cross people's land are 8 to be arrested. And then -- and they're -- and once 9 they're arrested, they have to have -- they have the 10 right to an attorney. 11 And so the Governor's working with TIDC, the 12 Texas Indigent Defense Commission, to work with the 13 individual regional PDO's, public defenders offices, to 14 provide the representation for the accused in those 15 situations. And there will be special grants coming 16 from the Governor's office to pay for the PDO services 17 that are being provided. 18 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Are we one of the 43 19 counties? 20 JUDGE KELLY: No. 21 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Okay. I just wanted 22 to know. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We haven't had -- had that big 24 a problem -- I mean it's a problem for all of us. But 25 we haven't had it like they have on the border. Most of 115 1 those are border counties. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The counties -- the two 3 main counties right now are Val Verde and Kinney as far 4 as most of the arrests are taking place. 5 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Kimble is too. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and it comes up 41. You 7 go -- you go from Val Verde and Kinney to Real, Edwards 8 and then Kimble. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think Edwards was 10 included. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Edwards is included. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, it's something 13 that will be up on our next agenda. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: My perplexed look was 15 because I'm thinking this involves money and we're going 16 to -- that money ain't going to come from the Federal 17 Government, that's for sure. 18 JUDGE KELLY: It's coming from the Governor. 19 Those are his funds. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That makes more sense. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And it -- it really is an 22 efficient use of assets that we have. That PDO is a 23 great asset to be able to use them to handle that 24 situation without burdening those counties individually. 25 So did you have anything else you wanted to 116 1 add, Don? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that, we're going 4 to adjourn the public meeting and go into Executive 5 Session. But I need to have some determinations from 6 the Court because we're going to talk about contract 7 negotiations, which means that we have to have a 8 unanimous vote that deliberating in open meeting would 9 have a detrimental effect on the position of the 10 Commissioners' Court in negotiations with the third 11 person. 12 So do we have a motion -- I'll make a 13 motion, that it would be detrimental for us to talk 14 about how we're going to negotiate with these people in 15 public and we'll talk about it in privacy to get a 16 better deal. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So with that, those in favor 19 raise your hand. We have a unanimous vote, which is 20 required. Then I have to have a written determination 21 that the deliberation in open meeting will have a 22 detrimental effect on the position of the commissioners 23 for the negotiation which comes from the County 24 Attorney. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. And I sent that e-mail 117 1 to you -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: Oh, good. 4 JUDGE KELLY: It's right here in my hand. 5 Okay. So with that, we will adjourn the public meeting 6 and I think we have a couple items on the Executive 7 Agenda. Let me read them out so that people know what 8 we're going to be talking about. 9 4.1(a), it's consultation with County 10 Attorney and Litigation Update. And 4.3(a) is consider, 11 discuss and take appropriate action regarding potential 12 leasing of County facility and real estate, and that's 13 that Juvenile Probation building. That's what we're 14 going to be talking about. 15 MRS. GRINSTEAD: And 4.5. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Pardon? 17 MRS. GRINSTEAD: 4.5. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And 4.5, which will be -- 19 MRS. STEBBINS: The contract. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. The contract for the 21 Kerr County website design. Those are the three items 22 we'll be discussing in Executive Session. So we're 23 adjourned from the public meeting. 24 (Executive Session.) 25 JUDGE KELLY: (Gavel bang.) It is 12:24 and 118 1 we've come out of executive session. We have two 2 matters to take up for action. 4.3(a), which is 3 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 4 potential leasing of county facility/real estate. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 6 appoint a committee for our policy regarding the sale or 7 lease of county property in relation to the Juvenile 8 Detention Facility, and to appoint yourself, and Mr. 9 Gipson, and Jason Davis to that committee. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 13 second by Commissioner Belew to appoint -- to designate 14 myself, Jason Davis and Beck Gipson to this committee. 15 We've already got a policy regarding the leasing policy. 16 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 17 Unanimous, five zero. 18 Did you hear your name? 19 MRS. STEBBINS: His ears were burning. 20 MRS. GRINSTEAD: He's been here the whole 21 time. 22 JUDGE KELLY: You just got designated. 23 MR. DAVIS: Great. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good job. 25 JUDGE KELLY: The next item we have is 4.5, 119 1 which is the Commissioners' Court will consider, discuss 2 and take appropriate action to award the contract for 3 Kerr County website design. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. I make a motion 5 that we use the Alara Company, a local company, to 6 design our website for Kerr County. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 9 Commissioner Harris, second by Commissioner Belew to 10 award the contract for the Kerr County web design to 11 Alara, that's Clint Morris's company. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that is per the 13 proposal with the dollar amounts in it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, any discussion? Those 15 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 16 That is all we have on the agenda. We are 17 now adjourned. 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 120 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 23rd day of September, 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