1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, October 25, 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. 7 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action on request to use courthouse grounds 5 for Hanukkah Menorah Celebration on November 28, 2021 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 9 7 action on request to use courthouse grounds on November 11, 2021 for a Veterans Day 8 Ceremony. 9 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action to approve contract with Motorola 10 Solutions/WatchGuard Video to purchase a video camera for the Environmental Health/ 11 Animal Services Department to be placed in one vehicle. 12 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 13 action to ratify and confirm lease agreements with Enterprise Fleet Management 14 for Environmental Health/Animal Services vehicles, two 2022 Ford F-150 trucks. 15 1.5 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 15 16 action to apply for grant for new vehicle equipment. 17 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 18 action to approve request to allow Kenneth Wilke to be sworn in as a Reserve Deputy 19 Constable for Precinct 3 Constable Paul Gonzales. Jeffrey Wendling will remain a 20 Reserve Deputy Constable also. Both positions are unpaid positions. 21 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 22 action on request to close Flat Rock Park, not the dog park side, from February 11-13, 23 2022 for the Texas Pork Producers Association Show. Area to be used for stock trailer 24 parking during this time in order to have enough space to park vehicles at the Event 25 Center. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action to approve the revised FY22 Grade 4 & Step schedule corrected for 1-3 cent per hour rounding discrepancies in the 26-31.5 5 grades. 6 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to clarify and/or approve the three- 7 month overlap of a full-time position in the Environmental Health FY22 budget. 8 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 9 action to approve various departmental job descriptions due to necessary revisions. 10 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 11 action to ratify lease copier contract with Ricoh for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2. 12 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 27 13 action to approve the Enterprise lease for a van for the Agriculture Extension Office. 14 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 29 15 action to approve the Guardian RFID System Agreement Renewal Amendment, and allow the 16 County Judge to sign same. 17 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 31 action to approve contracts with the Center 18 Point Volunteer Fire Department, Tierra Linda Volunteer Fire Department, Ingram Volunteer 19 Fire Department, and Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department, and allow County Judge to 20 sign same. 21 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 31 action to approve getting an updated appraisal 22 of the property located at 500 Ranchero Road. 23 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 action to set the Kerr County Christmas Party 24 for Friday, December 10th at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action to adopt Resolution designating a 4 professional engineering firm for the Texas Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program 5 application and project implementation. 6 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 39 action to hire Rosa Lavender as the part-time 7 Interim Grant Administrator until a Permanent Grant Administrator is hired and trained. 8 Rate of pay to be $25.00 per hour. 9 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 action regarding public input related to 10 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. 11 1.5 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 63 action to apply for grant for new vehicle 12 equipment. 13 1.26 Passed. 14 1.27 Passed. 15 1.28 Passed. 16 1.29 Passed. 17 1.30 Passed. 18 1.18 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 67 Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, Lot 41A, 19 Volume 3, Page 62. 20 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 67 action for the Court to approve a revision 21 of plat for Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, Lot 41A, Volume 3, Page 62. 22 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 23 action for the Court to conditionally approve a final plat for Depot Subdivision, 24 pending approval from Kerr County Environmental Department. 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 72 action on bids received for the Ranchero 4 Road Reconstruction Project, Phase 1. 5 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 77 action to release the Letter of Credit No. 6 400620400, in the amount of $162,500.00 issued by Guadalupe Bank of Kerrville, 7 Texas, as a financial guarantee for the construction of privately maintained road 8 and drainage improvements in the Las Brisas Subdivision, and acknowledge completion of 9 construction of the privately maintained road and drainage in Las Brisas. 10 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 79 11 action to accept 0.11 acres of road right- of-way for the Encino Drive turn-around 12 project, and to abandon and discontinue road maintenance for approximately 495 feet of 13 the end of Encino Drive. 14 1.29 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 82 action to set an American Rescue Plan Act 15 (ARPA) Informational Workshop for Thursday, November 4, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. at Hill Country 16 Youth Event Center. 17 1.31 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 84 action to update the grant administrator 18 contact information for various grants. 19 1.32 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 action to approve partial payment to 20 D. Guerra Construction towards the initial invoice pending with Texas Water Development 21 Board (TWDB). 22 2.1 Pay Bills. 85 23 2.2 Budget Amendments. 86 24 2.3 Late Bills. 86 25 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 87 6 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 2.6 Court Orders. 87 4 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 88 5 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 88 6 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 90 7 5.1 Action as may be required on matters 92 discussed in Executive Session. 8 *** Adjournment. 92 9 *** Reporter's Certificate. 93 10 * * * * * * 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good morning, everyone. 2 Let's go ahead and get started. Monday, October 25th. 3 9:00 a.m., Commissioners' Court. We'll start with the 4 prayer and pledge led by Commissioner Gipson. 5 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Please stand. 6 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll start. A 8 reminder, everyone please turn off your cell phones and 9 we'll go into the public input portion of the meeting. 10 Does anyone from the public wish to make any comments? 11 This is for items that are not on the agenda. I do not 12 see any, so we'll go to Commissioners' comments. 13 Commissioner Belew. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No comment. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Gipson. 16 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: No comment. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have none. Don? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. We'll go on to 20 the Consideration Agenda Item 1.1 consider, discuss and 21 take appropriate action on request to use courthouse 22 grounds for Hanukkah Menorah Celebration on 23 November 28th, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Greg Bitkower. If 24 you'd go to the podium, please. It's on YouTube so the 25 public can see what's going on. 8 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Smile. 2 MR. BITKOWER: Thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, pull your hair 4 back. 5 MR. BITKOWER: Thank you. Good morning, 6 gentlemen. So as in the past, the Jewish Community has 7 had a Menorah Celebration on the courthouse steps and, 8 of course, we were unable to do that last year. And the 9 Menorah we used in the past just didn't make it. And so 10 we've actually been searching for a year and a half to 11 buy another Menorah and with the chain supply issue, it 12 became a major thing. 13 We actually are buying one that's -- was 14 sent from Israel so -- and it's actually in the states 15 now. So it's on its way to us. If I could approach I'd 16 like to show you a picture. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'd love to see it. 18 MR. BITKOWER: It's actually going to be 12 19 feet tall and it's set up on a P.C. board where each 20 night another light will come on. And so we -- we will 21 need to plug it in. And there will be a rod that will 22 go two feet in the ground to secure it. So we'll be 23 able to -- we'd like to have a celebration where we tell 24 the story of Hanukkah -- oh, going to back here. 25 We'd like to tell the story of Hanukkah, do 9 1 some traditional songs, and then say a prayer over the 2 lighting of the Menorah. And again, we'll light -- the 3 first night of Hanukkah is November 28th, which is a 4 Sunday night, which is why we'd like to do that. And 5 then it'll automatically add a light every night for the 6 eight nights of Hanukkah. 7 And in the past the Court has allowed us to 8 leave the Menorah through the holiday season, like all 9 the other decorations for the holidays. We'd just like 10 to get your approval to do so. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion and a 14 second on the agenda item. Any further discussion? All 15 in favor say aye or raise your hand. It's unanimous. 16 MR. BITKOWER: Thank you very much. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Greg. 18 Looking forward to it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, now item 1.2 20 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on request 21 to use courthouse grounds on November 11th, 2021 for a 22 Veterans Day Ceremony. Mr. Hill. 23 MR. HILL: Thank you, Commissioner. For the 24 two new commissioners, my name is Alan Hill. I'm the 25 Regional Service Officer for the State of Texas for the 10 1 Viet Nam Veterans of America. We have in the past from 2 year 2002 through about 2014, we had the Veterans Day 3 ceremony and the Memorial Day ceremony here at the 4 courthouse, after Miss Baker came on as the County 5 Service Officer she took over that project. 6 We have heard that this year that there was 7 not going to be any, so the Viet Nam Veterans of 8 American with the Local Chapter of Kerr County, 9 Kerrville, would like to be able to do so on the 11th of 10 November at 9 a.m. We will take and have an honor guard 11 here too, as part of the traditional three gun volley, 12 play taps. 13 We're inviting any and all civic and 14 veteran's organizations to come to lay wreaths. We have 15 a speaker, Fred Pence, from the Salvation Army, who is a 16 retired Master Chief of the United States Navy. He will 17 be our guest speaker. 18 And either one of the two pastors here 19 locally will do the prayer, opening prayer and closing 20 prayer. And again, Ms. Sonja Johnson will do the 21 National Anthem and God Bless America. And my 22 understanding, she will not be doing acapella; she has 23 somebody to accompany her on an electric organ. 24 What we're asking is that the courthouse -- 25 the County allow us to be able to do so, and to turn on 11 1 electricity, so that we can be able to plug in the 2 microphones and the electric organ. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Would you like chairs 4 like we have done in the past? 5 MR. HILL: If possible. That would be 6 fantastic. If we could get some chairs out there for 7 people. But we are also -- we have put in the paper, 8 and all like that to, if people can bring their own 9 chairs also, in case the County would not be able to -- 10 if they had something else going on at the time frame. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I presume the podium 12 and the speaker and all of the normal stuff that we -- 13 MR. HILL: Yes, sir. Yeah. We would sure 14 appreciate that, Commissioner. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion from 19 Commissioner Harris, second from Commissioner Gipson to 20 approve the agenda item, and we're going to authorize 21 that -- 22 MR. HILL: We thank the County highly. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Alan. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there any additional 25 discussion? All in favor say aye or raise your hand. 12 1 It's unanimous. Thank you, Alan. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you for stepping 3 up. I appreciate that. 4 MR. HILL: Yes, sir. And we would like to 5 continue forth yearly afterwards. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.3 consider, discuss 7 and take appropriate action to approve contract with 8 Motorola Solutions/WatchGuard Video to purchase a video 9 camera for the Environmental Health/Animal Services 10 Department to be placed in one vehicle. Mr. Givens. 11 MR. GIVENS: Yeah, this was a -- this was 12 actually one of five budgeted camera systems that we 13 have. This is just the one that I was working on prior 14 to the budget change. And we just kind of had a little 15 slow down on it. So I'm just now getting to it. 16 So I'm going to be coming back with the 17 other four, hopefully at once, but this is the first 18 initial one. So this is just a contract. And this has 19 been -- the County Attorney has seen it. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's good. And it's 22 been budgeted, correct? 23 MR. GIVENS: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And was there a problem 25 of availability, or this is just something that took a 13 1 little time? 2 MR. GIVENS: It just took a little time. 3 There was -- this one was -- this one was something on 4 the contract that you had made a note on it. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: I made a note on the 6 contract. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: She's a pretty fast 8 reader, so I'm just wondering. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: I am a fast reader. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have a motion to 12 approve? 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll make the motion. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion from 16 Commissioner Belew, second from Commissioner Harris to 17 approve the agenda item. And the County Attorney has 18 approved the contract. Any further discussion? All in 19 favor raise your hand or say aye. Unanimous, four zero. 20 Item 1.4 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action to ratify and confirm lease 22 agreements with Enterprise Fleet Management for 23 Environmental Health/Animal Services vehicles, the two 24 2022 Ford F-150 trucks. Mr. Givens. 25 MR. GIVENS: Yeah. So this was also 14 1 budgeted as well, so just coming here with the contracts 2 for approval to get those lined out. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. And it's not 4 really probably for you, maybe for the County Attorney 5 or Auditor. Do we have to have a separate contract for 6 each department? 7 MRS. STEBBINS: We have a couple of 8 contracts, I believe, with Enterprise Fleet Management, 9 and I'm not sure why. I know that the Sheriff's 10 Department has one. I'm not sure why they're separate. 11 Maybe they came at different times. Do you know? 12 MRS. SHELTON: And that could be it. 13 There's also different types of vehicles being 14 purchased. I don't know if that makes a difference. 15 They've got to get everyone set up also into their 16 system. So I don't know if it makes it easier on their 17 side. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Probably because 19 they're not all in one request. 20 MR. GIVENS: Well, when they sent the 21 initial quotes for this, they actually had the Sheriff's 22 Department listed down on it so I had them change that 23 to Animal Services just to make sure they weren't 24 getting the bill for it. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have a countywide 15 1 contract so it's a matter of allocation, I would think, 2 which department gets what. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know. I mean, 4 it doesn't make that much difference. It seems it's a 5 little bit excess paperwork but maybe it's from their 6 standpoint it's easier. And I don't know if it would 7 make that much difference to the County. Anyway. Just 8 a comment. Do we have a motion to approve? 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion from 12 Commissioner Gipson, a second from Commissioner Belew to 13 approve the Enterprise Fleet Management contract with 14 Environmental Health/Animal Services. Any further 15 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand or say aye. 16 Unanimous, four zero. 17 Item 1.5 consider, discuss, and take 18 appropriate action to -- excuse me. Consider, discuss, 19 and take appropriate action to apply for grant for new 20 vehicles. Mr. Rider. 21 MR. RIDER: Well, I'm kind of in the same 22 boat with waiting on a vehicle. But in the meantime, 23 you know, I have a 2012 truck with lots of older 24 equipment in it. Didn't realize what a big problem that 25 was until I had to run out -- my camera system still 16 1 runs on a DVD. It's funny, but it gets better. You can 2 get the Memorex DVD, it will not format. You have to 3 have one brand, I can't get one locally. I have to 4 order it online. And that took two weeks to get here. 5 So that being said, started looking at the 6 rest of the stuff and then since it was not budgeted in 7 the budget, the plan was to remove the old stuff and put 8 it on the new truck and move forward. 9 So anyway, I looked at a couple of grants, 10 and they're out there potentially, so I'm just looking 11 at -- at getting permission to apply for some of those 12 grants for new equipment as far as cameras, lights, 13 radar, and just put a new system in a new truck and 14 start from scratch. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem with 16 the request. And I see Ms. Lavender sitting right 17 behind. This may be something that we're going to take 18 up under our ARPA funding for all law enforcement. And 19 I'm wondering what's the -- should we go out for a 20 separate grant now or should we defer and -- for a -- 21 the truck is not here, correct? 22 MR. RIDER: Correct. On the truck side of 23 things, Enterprise is still waiting on Ram(phonetic) to 24 confirm some numbers. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's not -- 17 1 MR. RIDER: It has not even been ordered. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Brad, I'd 3 recommend that we defer on this just because you need 4 the equipment, no question, but how we get it there -- 5 because I think we need to be very careful that if we're 6 going through a major upgrade of our emergency services 7 equipment that you get the same equipment basically that 8 the Sheriff is getting. 9 So it's -- everything is -- everyone can 10 talk to each other and make sure they're the same. And 11 I think it would be a better option. So if we can 12 just -- my recommendation is defer on this. And we will 13 deal with this in the next couple of weeks. And if not, 14 come back and we'll, I think, go forward with a grant at 15 that time. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We agree it's needed. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. It needs to be 18 done, we just need to figure out how to get it there. 19 MR. RIDER: Okay. Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 21 Item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to approve request to allow Kenneth 23 Wilke to be sworn in as reserve deputy Constable for 24 Precinct 3 Constable Paul Gonzales; Jeffrey Wendling 25 will remain a reserve deputy Constable also. Both 18 1 positions are unpaid. 2 MR. GONZALES: Good morning. My name is 3 Paul Gonzales. I'm the newly appointed Precinct 3 4 Constable. And ladies and gentlemen of the audience, I 5 just come here to announce that Precinct 3 office came 6 with two reserve deputy positions. They are non-paid 7 positions. And Jeffrey Wendling has done one of those 8 reserve deputy positions, which I am going to retain. 9 The second position that I'm going to bring 10 on board is Kenneth Wilke. Keep him active, you know, 11 he's very -- he's got a lot of experience. He's well 12 known in the community and he has a wealth of 13 information. 14 And so combined with myself and the two 15 reserve deputies, we'll have a combined experience of a 16 hundred years of law enforcement service. So that -- 17 that's going to be a benefit to this community. So I 18 just wanted to bring that forth to -- to the Board. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'll make a 20 motion to approve the request. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 MR. GONZALES: Thank you. And also, just on 23 a side note, just wanted to announce and acknowledge 24 that as of Saturday, October 23rd, was the start of red 25 ribbon week. Our, you know, nationwide drug free 19 1 program. And so I just wanted to acknowledge that that 2 goes on through October 31st. 3 And so nationwide throughout the United 4 States, along with all the schools we'll be recognizing 5 red ribbon week. I didn't have a red ribbon, so I 6 brought my red shirt to honor the -- Kiki Camarena, 7 which is the DEA agent that was tortured and killed, and 8 that's why we celebrate each and every year Red Ribbon 9 Week. Thank you. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. Any further 11 discussion? No. We've already approved the Agenda Item 12 but raise your hand or say aye. Unanimous, four zero. 13 Thank you, Paul. 14 MR. GONZALEZ: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I see Judge Kelly is 16 here. So Judge, I'll -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Sorry. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'll go ahead and 19 call the next item. Item 1.7 consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action on request to close Flat Rock Park, 21 not the dog park side, from February 11th through 13th, 22 2022 for the Texas Pork Producers Association Show. 23 Area to be used for stock trailer parking during this 24 event in order to have enough space to park vehicles at 25 the Event Center. Jake Williamson. 20 1 MR. WILLIAMSON: Good morning, Court. I'm 2 here on behalf of the Texas Pork Producers Association. 3 They're going through a staff transition, but they do 4 have a good show plan being organized to come again in 5 February. So we're really excited to bring that show 6 back to town and welcome them to that. 7 This request is to allow trailers to park in 8 Flat Rock Park so we don't have all trailers up at the 9 Event Center to allow for parking because the show is 10 big enough that we have had overflow in the past and we 11 expect it again this year. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem with 13 the request, but I do have a question. My recollection 14 is that -- I believe Commissioner Moser brought it up, 15 that we ought to have some sort of signage. And I don't 16 see Shane here. But some sort of signage that we can 17 put a sign down at the park to announce we're going to 18 do this type of closure. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have that dynamic 20 sign that could be used. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some sort of signage. 22 But I think we ought to do that. I thought that was a 23 good idea that Commissioner Moser had. But with that, 24 I'll make a motion to approve the agenda item. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 21 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion from 2 myself, second from Commissioner Harris to approve the 3 agenda item which is to close Flat Rock Park, not the 4 dog park side, from February 11th through 13th for the 5 Texas Pork Producers Association Show. Any further 6 discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Those guys really like 8 it here, don't they? 9 MR. WILLIAMSON: They do. And they're 10 really appreciative of all the work you guys help them 11 out with and welcome them to town. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you did -- you 13 did a lot of it. You did most of it. 14 MR. WILLIAMSON: Yeah. With your support. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All in favor raise your 17 hand or say aye. Unanimous, five zero. 18 Judge, 1.8's to you. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I apologize, but even 20 judges have problems sometimes. 21 Item 1.8 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to approve the revised FY22 Grade & 23 Step schedule corrected for one to three percent(sic) 24 per hour rounding discrepancies in the 26-31.5 grades. 25 Jennifer Doss. 22 1 MS. DOSS: Good morning, gentlemen. When we 2 extended the Grade & Step out from 15 to 20 steps, I 3 just failed to put the at round part in the formula and 4 so, yeah. If you take it out to two versus three or 5 four it makes a difference on the bi-weekly amount, so I 6 just ask that you reapprove the revised Grade & Step 7 schedule. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made and 11 seconded to approve the revision to the Grade & Step 12 schedule. Any discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. There being none, those 15 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I do have a quick 17 comment. 18 Miss Doss, I think -- could you make sure 19 that that revised schedule gets sent to the, you know, 20 appropriate for the employees for each department. 21 MS. DOSS: I will. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. Okay. 23 MS. DOSS: It will also be on our website 24 too, but I'll send it out. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Next is Item 1.9 consider, 23 1 discuss and take appropriate action to clarify and/or 2 approve the three-month overlap of a full-time position 3 in the Environmental Health FY22 budget. Ms. Doss. 4 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. I think that our 5 Auditor and Commissioner Letz has met on this. This was 6 just an oversight. It was not included with the 7 additional positions that were approved in the budget 8 as -- in a line item and it was just left out. You 9 know, the budget was approved as a whole as all the 10 changes were presented, but this did not make it onto 11 the spreadsheet. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is the issues 13 that we have our -- someone retiring in that department. 14 The original request, I believe, was for a six month and 15 we cut it back to a three month. And we discussed and 16 approved that. Or -- so I'll make a motion to approve 17 this item. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So we approved the -- 19 the amount, but we didn't have it as a line item? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We approved doing it, 21 the money just wasn't put on the budget line item. 22 MS. DOSS: Or in the position schedule. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or in the position 24 schedule. Motion to approve. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 1 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion and a second 2 to approve the correction from the three-month overlap 3 for a full-time position in the Environmental Health 4 FY22 budget. Any further discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is done as an 6 example for transparency? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It is? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Uh-huh. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 12 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 13 1.10 consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 action to approve various departmental job descriptions 15 due to necessary revisions. Miss Doss. 16 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. Some of these -- 17 most of these are due to the salary study Grade 18 increases. I'll start with the first one; it was not 19 based on that. 20 So the First Assistant Auditor. We have a 21 First Assistant Auditor, but there was never -- a job 22 description was never created for this position. So 23 this is a new job description. 24 The other is for OSSF Designated Supervisor 25 went to a Grade 17. Ag Extension Office, Office 25 1 Assistant went to a Grade 15. The Corrections Clerk in 2 the County Jail went to a Grade 15. County Court at Law 3 Court Coordinator position went to a 19.5 Grade. Senior 4 District Clerk went to a Grade 17. And District Clerk's 5 Office and Senior Court Compliance Clerk went to a grade 6 17 as well. 7 I just ask for approval for these -- of 8 these job descriptions. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jennifer, on the backup 10 one, the Environment Health OSSF Designated Supervisor, 11 there's no pay grade listed? 12 MS. DOSS: Yes. I've updated that. It's a 13 17.5. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17.5. Okay. 15 MS. DOSS: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval -- 17 or approve the job descriptions as presented. 18 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: There's a motion and a second 20 to approve the revised job descriptions as presented. 21 Is there any discussion? Those in favor raise your 22 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 23 MS. DOSS: Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Doss. 25 Item 1.11 consider, discuss and take 26 1 appropriate action to ratify the lease copier contract 2 with Ricoh for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2. 3 Mr. Robles. 4 MR. ROBLES: Yes. This contract was signed 5 back in April and we're just wanting to ratify that for 6 renewal of the Ricoh contract. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. I move for 8 approval. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So we've got a motion and a 11 second to ratify the lease copier contract with Ricoh 12 for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2. Any discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What are we -- I don't 14 remember doing this before. Ratifying the contract. Do 15 we accept it or -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think we -- 17 COMMISSIONAL BELEW: What exactly is that 18 supposed to mean? 19 JUDGE KELLY: -- I think -- well, I think I 20 signed the contract for the copier. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it's done. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the Court actually 23 didn't do it -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: -- so now we're ratifying it. 27 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We don't normally say 2 we're ratifying something so I needed to know what that 3 means. 4 JUDGE KELLY: But the need came up and -- 5 and somehow or another we just inadvertently did not 6 take affirmative action that day. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Gotcha. 8 JUDGE KELLY: But we have the copier and 9 we've been using the copier. 10 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Transparency. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: More transparency. 12 MR. ROBLES: We had a different Judge sign 13 off on that one. J.P. 2 signed off on it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Different Judge. Okay. 15 Is that a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. I did. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion and 19 a second to ratify the contract. And the Judge in JP 2 20 signed that? 21 MR. ROBLES: (Shaking head yes.) 22 MRS. STEBBINS: Should give that to Judge 23 Kelly for signature. Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 25 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 28 1 1.12 consider, discuss and take appropriate 2 action to approve the Enterprise lease for a van for the 3 Agriculture Extension Office. Mr. Robles. 4 MR. ROBLES: Yes. This is along with our 5 Enterprise program. We're going to -- I don't know what 6 they're going to do with the old vehicle. It's pretty 7 outdated. I don't know if they're going to trade it in. 8 But this is a new vehicle that was approved in the 9 budget and we're requesting to order it. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion and 13 a second. Any discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought that under our 15 general agreement that they were taking trade-ins on 16 most of them, weren't they? 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's what I 18 understood. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if they don't 20 then we'll just surplus it or -- or keep it around the 21 courthouse or wherever we need it. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't need it. I 23 don't think. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not after the 25 description they've given us that they may have under 29 1 sold it. We'll be talking different when it's time to 2 trade it in. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the reason I'm 4 bringing it up is because we don't need to put all these 5 in surplus because it's the same contract with 6 Enterprise as all of them. We don't have to surplus 7 each vehicle, do we County Attorney? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Sorry. I don't really know 9 if you have to surplus this vehicle. I don't know what 10 their goal was with it. But I -- I also don't know why 11 they wouldn't have traded it in like the other vehicles. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, can we amend it 13 to say that whether it's traded in or surplused, add 14 that language to it? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Then it's all taken 17 care of. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine with me. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any discussion? Those 20 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 21 Going to Item 1.13 consider, discuss and 22 take appropriate action to approve the Guardian RFID 23 System Agreement Renewal Amendment and allow the County 24 Judge to sign same. Sheriff Leitha. 25 SHERIFF LEITHA: Good morning, Commissioners 30 1 and Judge. Just so the Court knows what we're doing 2 here. This RFID system, basically it's an android 3 device. This is what we use to check on the inmates 4 hourly and get a count. There's a bar code that you 5 scan. 6 As you know with phones and technology, ours 7 are five years old. They're at the end of their shelf 8 life. They're not working correctly and connecting to 9 the internet. What we're doing here, this is a contract 10 that the Judge can sign. We will be leasing and moving 11 forward. 12 As you know, previously the Sheriff 13 purchased these, and as you know, I mean here I've got 14 about 11 of them, they're no good to me anymore. But 15 we're going to enter into a lease. Also with the lease 16 they will replace parts, so we have to buy regular 17 antennas and straps moving forward. I do have this 18 money in my budget and it has been approved by the 19 County Attorney. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 23 second to approve the Guardian RFID System Agreement 24 Renewal Amendment as presented. Any discussion? Those 25 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 31 1 SHERIFF LEITHA: Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.14 consider, discuss 3 and take appropriate action to approve contracts with 4 the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department, Tierra Linda 5 Volunteer Fire Department, Ingram Volunteer Fire 6 Department, and Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department, 7 and allow the County Judge to sign the same. These are 8 just routine? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. I move for 10 approval. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 13 second to approve our contracts with the Volunteer Fire 14 Departments as presented. Any discussion? Those in 15 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 16 Item 1.15 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to approve getting an updated 18 appraisal of the property located at 500 Ranchero Road. 19 I put this on the agenda, and I will make a 20 motion that we do this. This is a small tract of land 21 we have over off Ranchero that was given to us sometime 22 back for the use of the Volunteer Fire Department. 23 Quite some time ago. Which we haven't been able to use. 24 Habitat for Humanity is interested in trying to purchase 25 that property from us. We can't do it unless we have an 32 1 appraisal. We have to know the fair market value. 2 We have an old appraisal that you did, that 3 Beck Gipson did, I think for $35,000. And we just need 4 to check and see what the market value is these days so 5 we can sit down with Habitat and negotiate. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's a multi-use 7 zone? 8 JUDGE KELLY: I don't remember. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's right across the 10 street. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: It's not in the City. 12 JUDGE KELLY: It's not in the City. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, it's a no zone? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I discussed this 16 with Lonnie Marquardt, who has done a lot of our 17 appraisals recently. But I don't think I ever confirmed 18 getting one so -- but it's in your Precinct 2, isn't it? 19 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then I'll make a motion 21 to approve the agenda item and request Commissioner 22 Gipson contact Lonnie Marquardt to -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion to let our 24 Commissioner that made the appraisal review and update 25 the new appraisal because he has a conflict of interest 33 1 in getting it now. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Lonnie Marquardt has 3 been doing appraisals for us most recently. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second. 6 Any discussion? Ms. Stebbins. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: I have. Our policy for the 8 sale or lease of real property permits the Court to 9 appoint a committee to make these decisions, so it 10 sounds like you're appointing Commissioner Gipson to be 11 the committee to get the -- get this moving so that you 12 can publish your notice of the intent to sell the 13 property under the policy. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Didn't our committee 15 that's been reviewing all those properties, didn't they 16 look at that one too? I mean, wasn't that part of all 17 this? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have looked at it, 19 but I'm not sure -- I know we didn't ever receive one 20 from Lonnie. I'm not sure if he's working on it or -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, they could -- 22 they could do this. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We -- we were approached by 24 Chris Hughes with Habitat with interest in this sometime 25 ago. And Bob Reeves and I went in there and with Jody's 34 1 help we found the appraisal. And we talked about it and 2 we talked about getting it updated and it just slipped 3 through the cracks. 4 And so what we gotta do now is actually do 5 it. And it's fairly simple and straightforward. If 6 we -- if the procedure is we have to have a committee, 7 then we've got -- or need one to at least come back and 8 present it to the Court. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: The designated 11 representative. Uh-huh. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. That's fine. 13 JUDGE KELLY: So he'll be our point person 14 to work with. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, and Lonnie. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And Lonnie Marquardt. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Commissioner Gipson, I'll go 18 ahead and send you the policy for the sale and lease of 19 real property. I don't know if I've done that yet since 20 you've been here, but I'll get that to you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: You -- you did send it to us 22 when we were looking at the Juvenile Probation facility 23 and that committee did meet. 24 MS. STEBBINS: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and Commissioner Gipson 35 1 is part of that committee. 2 MS. STEBBINS: Okay. Thank you. 3 JUDGE KELLY: We have it. 4 MRS. DOWDY: I'm sorry. Did you say Lonnie 5 Marquardt? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Marquardt. 7 MR. JACKSON: So what is -- who is that 8 person? 9 JUDGE KELLY: He's an appraiser. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's a certified 11 appraiser. 12 MR. JACKSON: Is he going to be designated 13 along with Commissioner -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. He -- he will be 15 the one to do the appraisal. 16 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. So designated rep is 17 Commissioner Gipson. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 19 MRS. DOWDY: So you want me to say anything 20 in the order -- is there anything in this motion 21 referring to Lonnie Marquardt? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's the appraiser that 23 we've been using. 24 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. I just want to make sure 25 I have all the language I need in there. 36 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you need to just 2 say to have it appraised. We don't need a name 3 actually. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Just have it appraised. 5 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have it appraised and 7 turn it over to the committee of one. 8 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 10 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 11 1.16 consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action to set the Kerr County Christmas Party for 13 Friday, December the 10th at the Hill Country Youth 14 Event Center. 15 We did not have one last year. It looks 16 like we may be able to have one this year, so we need to 17 go ahead and set it. So that's why it's on the agenda. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion and a second 21 to have a Christmas Party this year on December the 10th 22 at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. Any discussion? 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's a conference 24 going on that day over there that I'll be in. I don't 25 know if anybody else is going to be there. 37 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I may be in and 2 out of it. It's an Extension Service deal. I went to 3 it in Uvalde last year. This year they're having it at 4 our facilities but I don't see a conflict. I mean -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just so everybody's 6 aware of it. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we need to follow up and 8 check and make sure there is not a conflict. Why don't 9 we approve it subject to availability? 10 MRS. GRINSTEAD: He's already been -- I 11 mean, I've already spoken with Jake on that date. 12 Initially we were going to go with the 17th but the 13 facility is full, so the 10th is available. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And the -- the 15 conference will be in one of the meeting rooms. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The number of 17 people that was at it last year, I think we could do it 18 in one of the rooms probably. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, good. Do we have a 20 motion and a second? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 23 your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 24 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action to adopt a Resolution designating a 38 1 professional engineering firm for the Texas Hazard 2 Mitigation Assistance Program application and project 3 implementation. Miss Shelton. 4 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. This is the project 5 that we went out for bids or a request for qualification 6 for on an engineering firm. We had one company that 7 submitted and so we're asking that you pass the 8 Resolution that authorizes Hewitt Engineering, Inc. to 9 be awarded the contract to provide these services for 10 the Hazard Mitigation Grant. 11 JUDGE KELLY: This is just routine. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have a motion and a 15 second to approve Hewitt Engineering for the Texas 16 Hazard Mitigation Assistance program grant application. 17 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 18 Opposed? Abstain? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Abstain. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Four, zero, and one. This is 21 a milestone. I don't believe this has happened before. 22 But we have some timed items at 10 o'clock and our rules 23 require that those items cannot be called before 10 24 o'clock. So rather than take a break at this time, 25 which we normally schedule at 9:50, we're about 25 39 1 minutes ahead of schedule, so we're going to move over 2 to the untimed items after the timed items. 3 So if we go over to Item 1.24 consider, 4 discuss and take appropriate action to hire Rosa 5 Lavender as the part-time interim grant administrator 6 until a permanent grant administrator is hired and 7 trained, rate of pay to be $25 per hour. 8 I put this on the agenda because we had -- 9 I'm not going to say a panic about a week ago, but we 10 could sure hear the footsteps coming at us, getting 11 behind on our deadlines. And it was a Sunday afternoon, 12 and I get criticized for that, but it was a Sunday 13 afternoon and I reached out to Rosa to see if she could 14 come in and help us on an interim basis until we can get 15 this position filled. And she's agreed to do that. 16 And it has been a huge sigh of relief for 17 Jody, for Tanya, and for myself to know that we're going 18 to be able to get this done in a timely manner. We 19 don't know how long it's going to take. Rosa's 20 committed to help us, I think, what -- through the end 21 of the year maybe. 22 MS. LAVENDER: However long you need me. 23 JUDGE KELLY: But in any event, we're trying 24 to make sure that we don't misstep. So I'm going to 25 move that we go ahead and hire Rosa as the part-time 40 1 interim grant administrator. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 4 second. Is there any discussion? Okay. Those in favor 5 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 6 Then the next item -- now, I see -- I see 7 you moving. 1.25 consider, discuss and take appropriate 8 action regarding the public input related to the 9 American Rescue Plan. And Miss Lavender. 10 MS. LAVENDER: Good morning. I'd like just 11 a couple of personal minutes here if you'd let me do 12 that. A lot of people know me in the community as the 13 teacher. And so a lot of people may say, what is a 14 retired teacher doing this? 15 So I was going to give you just a little 16 background on me for the Commissioners that didn't know 17 me when I worked regularly for the County. I taught 18 school until 1999 and spent about five years in the 19 media locally. 20 And then in 2004, I came to work for the 21 County as the victim services person and the first 22 Commissioners Court meeting I went to, and we presented 23 the idea, they told me that they would hire me part-time 24 until I wrote a grant to fund the position. And each 25 year after that, they said write the grant, and if you 41 1 get the grant, you keep your job. And very few people 2 can say that. And it worked out for 12 years. And then 3 I retired about five years ago. 4 During that 12-year period, they sent me to 5 a very good grant writing workshop. And I came back, 6 and I wrote grants for the victims services job, I wrote 7 a number of other grants for the County in that 12-year 8 period, plus I wrote grants for Habitat for Humanity and 9 Crime Stoppers. So I have a little bit of background in 10 the writing part of it. 11 And then three years ago I was appointed as 12 one of the two representatives to the Alamo Area Council 13 of Government's Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, 14 which is kind of a mouthful, but referred to as CJAC, if 15 you needed an acronym. 16 And one of the major things -- well, really 17 the major thing we do in that committee is we screen, 18 score and rank all of the grant applications that come 19 through that funding stream through the Governor's 20 office through a block grant from Federal government. 21 And so I've had three years of reading, scoring and 22 ranking grants from the 13 counties in the AACOG 23 District. And I do not want to do anything to interrupt 24 that commitment. 25 And so the grants that I'm going to be 42 1 working with will not be any of the CJAC grants at all 2 that come in. Right now the only one you have is the 3 victim services grant. But there's potential for law 4 enforcement, and mental health and juvenile grants 5 through that grant stream. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'll just follow up on 7 that. She says three years ago she was appointed. I 8 did that. And I want you to know that she showed up in 9 my office shortly after I took office and volunteered 10 without pay to help me with grants because it was -- the 11 grants actually fall to the County Judge. And when I 12 talk about Jody, if it falls on me, it falls on Jody. 13 Okay. That's just -- that's just the way it 14 goes. And because it is a grant, it falls on the 15 Auditor also. And we -- we -- just so you know, we did 16 appoint Jody as the alternate behind Rosa. 17 MS. LAVENDER: Mary Krebs is the other 18 representative. She's an officer with the Police 19 Department. 20 JUDGE KELLY: But we tried -- Jody and I 21 have tried to do it. We've commandeered Callie Gargano 22 in Tanya's office to help us with it a little bit. She 23 did a great job. But this is not an Auditor function. 24 This is something separate. And we've just -- we've 25 been juggling this for years. And Rosa has helped us 43 1 out every time we've gotten in a jam, and I am very 2 appreciative that she stepped up, even though I did get 3 scolded for working on a Sunday afternoon. She's still 4 a teacher; don't think she's not. 5 But this grant position is something that we 6 really need to get filled, and we're going to see more 7 and more of our budget grant related, and so this is the 8 future. We need to do it now. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only comment I'll 10 make and she read that but I think it's important for 11 the public to understand, mentioned the Auditor, it's 12 not appropriate for the Auditor to do it because she's 13 auditing the grants. And she can't be overseeing and 14 auditing at the same time. 15 So I think that's the reason that the 16 Auditor's been a big help on this. But there's -- it 17 really needs to be separated from that department. And 18 you mentioned it so I just wanted to expand on that just 19 a little bit. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And quite frankly, after our 21 Commissioners' Court meeting last week, we met with 22 Laurie Gehlsen at GrantWorks. And Tanya, and Rosa, 23 Jody, and Laurie and myself, and this is a good team. A 24 good team effort. And they -- and we're going to go 25 through the different components of the plan that 44 1 they -- we all came up with that day. But trust me, 2 when that meeting was over, I went over to the next fire 3 and they've been running with it nonstop since. So 4 that's what all these items on the agenda are about. 5 So with that, Rosa, why don't you talk to us 6 about the American Rescue -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Don't we need to vote on 8 that one? 9 JUDGE KELLY: We did vote. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, we did vote? 11 JUDGE KELLY: You've hired her. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, okay. 13 JUDGE KELLY: I've called 1.25 -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: -- Which is discuss and take 16 appropriate action regarding the public input related to 17 the American Rescue Plan Act, that's ARPA. So when you 18 all hear us talk about ARPA, that's American Rescue Plan 19 Act. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, before Rosa 21 starts, can we -- this thing has been moving real fast 22 and the Court hasn't had much input into it, other than 23 a brief discussion. And you know, I -- I think that we 24 need to have a philosophical discussion up here before 25 we start moving too far as to how this money should be 45 1 used a little bit. 2 I'm primarily in favor of doing projects 3 that need to be done, that are on the radar, such as 4 internal communications in the County system, law 5 enforcement upgrades, you know, things of that nature. 6 And you know, before we start going out and 7 asking for public input and a whole lot of stuff, I 8 think we really need to get an idea as to what the key 9 things that we really -- at least, you know, if we can 10 agree anyway that we need to work on, how much that's 11 going to cost. 12 I think that there needs to be some 13 communication between the City and the County on the 14 communication system -- on the law enforcement 15 communications that we're using the same -- same 16 hopefully. And I think we just need to slow down a 17 little bit on some of the stuff until we figure out some 18 of these -- you know, and I haven't talked to anyone 19 else on the Court, I don't know what their opinions are. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I thought we 21 decided we were going to go in larger categories. And 22 the occasions for Sheriff's Department infrastructure, 23 whatever, in -- in big broad terms. So if people can 24 say I'd rather, you know, take care of this and this and 25 this in descending order and handle it that way rather 46 1 than a bunch of little small -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think that's 3 good. I just think that -- you know, I'd like to get an 4 idea of what the Sheriff's radar systems are going to 5 cost. I mean I just don't want to send -- go out and 6 get public input on something and then us just not be 7 able to follow up because we have a priority that's 8 different and we have additional information. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but let me just explain. 10 What all of these are intentioned to do is to initiate 11 the education system. We need to get the Court 12 educated. We need to get the public educated. 13 Everybody knows that we have over $5 million sitting in 14 our bank account that the Federal Government sent us for 15 these ARPA funds. And they're not really grants, 16 they're funds. 17 And we have a lot of people eager to submit 18 applications that we've put off. The public is anxious 19 and they want to be able to have their -- be able to 20 present their request. I know we've got one from the 21 Volunteer Fire Department that's just chomping at the 22 bit to the request on file. In order to do that, we 23 have to know how ARPA works. 24 We sat with Laur -- I guess we met, what, 25 two or three hours the other day? 47 1 MRS. LAVENDER: Two hours. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Two hours. And she's got a 3 great handout. And so what we're trying to do with this 4 part is bring the education to the Court so that you 5 have been briefed on how this works. I think there are 6 five major categories, and of those five, four must be 7 tied to COVID. One, the infrastructure one, does not. 8 And so you need to be -- you need to understand that, 9 and the way you learn that is to let them teach us. 10 That's what she's here today to do. And I don't know if 11 you're going to do the PowerPoint or not but -- 12 UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: No. But I'm going to 13 give you an overview today. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And so this is -- this is just 15 the overview. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I agree. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And at some point, you either 18 do it today or you do it next week, we've got to get 19 some -- some input from the public. I think we would be 20 remiss if we start -- if we start using this money 21 without the public having some say in what we do. That 22 would be not transparent. 23 MRS. LAVENDER: Not cool. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well then if we're going 25 to do that, I want to go into Executive Session and talk 48 1 to the County Attorney about contracts and how we do 2 things the public may ask us to do. Because that's my 3 biggest concern is how do we -- say Dietert Center asks 4 for a million dollars. How do we give money to a 5 non-profit? I don't understand how that works for us to 6 be able to do that and I'd like the County Attorney to 7 explain that in Executive Session so that I have -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, my proposal is 9 that we limit it to what you talked about earlier, 10 Commissioner Letz, and that would be necessities for the 11 County. Necessities. And not outside groups. We do 12 that every year at budget time. We give as much as we 13 can. 14 We're not here -- and this money didn't come 15 to this County to fund non-profit organizations. It's 16 to keep County government running and the things we are 17 responsible for, not taking on new stuff and new -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think we need to hear 19 what the Federal Government has said the money was sent 20 to us for. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: We don't have to agree. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- that's the important 24 thing. A lot more important than somebody submitting an 25 idea about us buying HEB gift cards to give if somebody 49 1 gets a shot or something, which we will get if it's just 2 thrown out there and, you know, here's -- here's the 3 other category. You're going to hear everything under 4 the sun. 5 So to stick with things -- it's up to us to 6 decide, this Court, to say we're going to stick within 7 these parameters, A, what the money is actually provided 8 for, so we don't have any fallback. B, that it's for 9 essentials for the County, and C, if there's anything 10 left after that, then figure out what you're going to do 11 with it or hold onto it. But not have some kind of a 12 Christmas wish list. I do not want to see us go down 13 that path. Absolutely do not want to see us go down 14 that way. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just think we need to 16 slow down a little bit on -- on the public input. I'm 17 all for public input. But sending out a survey without 18 us knowing -- having decided some of this -- having some 19 idea how the process of all this works, we've all said 20 is important, such as the emergency services 21 communications. I mean, that could potentially be -- 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A big chunk of it. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, sure. It's going 25 to go quick. 50 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. Yeah. So I 2 mean, I just think we need to slow down on that part of 3 it a little bit and -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, do you want -- do you 5 even want to hear what the plan was? You asked us to do 6 a plan. We came up with a plan. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. No. The agenda 8 item is -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: We'd like to tell you what -- 10 what we'd suggest. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not what the agenda 12 item is, Judge. The agenda item says funding. Or going 13 out to the public regarding public input. That's -- I 14 don't want to do that right now. I want to -- I want to 15 hear about the plan before I talk about going out to the 16 public. And I'd like to have the -- later on there's a 17 workshop, I think all these should be put on hold until 18 we have a workshop. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. You don't want 20 to hear from Rosa? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I want to hear 22 about it from Rosa at the workshop, but I don't want 23 to -- I don't want to make decisions on how we're going 24 to do a public policy. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We're not. We're not. 51 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, why is there a 2 survey that I've seen? 3 JUDGE KELLY: The survey was a suggestion to 4 put it out there to let the people tell us what they -- 5 what they think we ought to spend it on. We've got it 6 broken down in categories. What's the -- there's 7 probably what, 50 items on that two-page checklist that 8 Laurie gave us. And we filled out about ten which all 9 meet the parameters pretty much of what you're talking 10 about. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. But we -- you 12 know it. Rosa knows it. We don't know it. I don't 13 know that. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, then how about you sit 15 back and listen and let Rosa talk to us a little bit? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 18 MRS. LAVENDER: Okay. If you really want to 19 learn about it, this is -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll just stay on the 21 agenda items. We're talking about public input right 22 now. 23 MRS. LAVENDER: Right. Well, I'm talking 24 about 1.25 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 25 regarding public input related to the American Rescue 52 1 Plan Act. 2 This is the Public Assistance Program and 3 Policy Guide. It's on the web. It's 277 pages long. I 4 did not read the entire 277 pages, but I did scan 5 through it to protect us from any bad decisions early on 6 in the thing. 7 When we get the -- the e-mail set up, and 8 the site on the County website, I suggest that we 9 download this. I have it on my computer. We should 10 download it and that way people can read it and you can 11 read it too if you were interested in reading the full 12 thing. 13 The first part of it is the biggest part of 14 it that explains how the money can be used. What we had 15 talked about in way of public input was doing one of two 16 things, and we can do it at any point in time before you 17 actually decide what you're going to do. One of the 18 things we talked about doing was doing a Survey Monkey 19 survey. 20 People who do surveys know what Survey 21 Monkey is and AACOG uses Survey Money for a lot of 22 things. It's very simple to set up. Jody has gone to 23 the trouble of getting onto the system and knows enough 24 about it that we could do it that way. If you don't 25 want to do Survey Monkey, if you'd like to do it with 53 1 a -- just an ad in the paper or whatever, just to kind 2 of get an idea of how your community feels about certain 3 ideas that we come together and narrow down this two 4 page thing to be things that we feel like as a County 5 the money should go for. 6 The other thing that you need to understand 7 is you've got five -- about $5 million right now in the 8 bank. You're going to get take much money more next 9 May. So as you look at the proposal that people put in, 10 you want to separate the things that are needed right 11 now and the things that we could say to someone let's 12 reapply. This is a good idea, but let's reapply when we 13 have that other half of the money. You don't want to be 14 liable for anything more that that $5.1 million. 15 And the other thing that they suggest is 16 that you keep a little bit of it back, in case something 17 happens. We all know that we had one round of COVID-19, 18 and then we had the Delta variant come in and that's 19 increased our hospitals and our death rate significantly 20 with the Delta variant, and we know that there's a Delta 21 variant plus that's already in the United States. 22 Luckily it's not in Texas yet that they know of. They 23 do not know for sure whether the vaccinations that we've 24 all had hopefully will -- or the disease itself will 25 protect us from Delta variant plus. They think it will, 54 1 but they don't know. 2 So rather than spend this 5.1 million at 3 this point, I would suggest that you save back a little 4 bit of it, enough that if you have another critical 5 issue that it's available to the community or to -- to 6 you also. 7 And as the Judge said, there's a huge 8 category. There's a bunch of things that you can spend 9 the money or -- or secure the money to spend. And when 10 we use the term grant, grant is not really what this is. 11 It's just funding that's been made available through 12 this American Rescue Plan Act. It doesn't require a 13 match. It doesn't require, you know, that kind of 14 structure. But it does have strings attached. It's not 15 free money. 16 And if we do it right, it works well. If we 17 do it wrong, then you can be held responsible for it. 18 And if I, as an agency person, spend the money and then 19 it doesn't fall under the rescue plan, who's going to 20 have to pay for it? Not me, but you. So we want to be 21 sure that everything we do is under this ARPA umbrella 22 and it's structured the way it needs to be. 23 What we had talked about was having a 24 workshop for the public on November 4th, the afternoon 25 of November 4th, out at the Youth Event Center. We have 55 1 a PowerPoint presentation. And I want to compliment 2 Laurie. She has helped me so much this last week, kind 3 of put these things together to bring to you today 4 because we know time wise that we're looking at the 5 holidays, and we don't want to get these things involved 6 with Thanksgiving and Christmastime. So we thought we 7 would have a meeting for the public on the 4th of 8 November at 1:30 at the youth exhibit building. 9 And as people came in who are interested, we 10 would just have them fill out this little simple form, 11 and you have a copy of it, it's an intent to submit. 12 This is very common with Federal grants. You say you 13 would like to do it. And then we can send this to 14 GrantWorks. 15 And GrantWorks, what they're going to do for 16 us is they're going to screen these potential 17 applications and tell us whether it fits under the ARPA 18 umbrella. And that's so important that that's -- that's 19 their main role. They're not going to tell us which 20 ones to sign. So if the County departments want to 21 apply for this funding, then they need to fill out this 22 application. 23 And then there is an application that we -- 24 I think you all have a copy of it -- that we put 25 together, that looks something like this. The 2021 Kerr 56 1 County ARPA Project Application. And this is a little 2 more detailed. They, you know, have an opportunity to 3 put in here kind of -- and this will include the cost. 4 This also will include an estimated cost of the project. 5 So two times we'll have the opportunity to look at what 6 people are proposing to do with their money if they get 7 the money. 8 And then there is a project application 9 evaluation criteria, which has potential points with it, 10 which is a scoring tool for the grant applications. And 11 I don't think we want to put the numbers in this, but I 12 think you have the draft copy of it. The numbers -- we 13 don't want to put that out in the public. It would be 14 like the teacher passing out the test key to the kids 15 before they took the test. And we wouldn't want to do 16 it that way. 17 But it will clearly tell people what we're 18 going to look for in those applications before they 19 submit them. And this -- this -- all this can be put on 20 the County website. I think Bruce -- where is Bruce? 21 Right? 22 MR. MOTHERAL: Yes. 23 MRS. LAVENDER: We can scan it in and put it 24 in. And then once we have that meeting and we get an 25 idea of what we've got, then we can begin to narrow down 57 1 what we think we want to do with the money. And that's 2 something I can't tell you how to spend the money, 3 that's a decision you're going to have to make. 4 GrantWorks is also not going to tell us how to spend the 5 money. That's something that's your responsibility. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You said -- didn't you 7 say right now we should do -- plan for no more than 8 5 million or 5.2 million? 9 MRS. LAVENDER: Right. I would -- I would 10 not allocate anything more than what you have in the 11 bank and certainly I would -- if it were me personally, 12 I would leave a little bit of a cushion there in case 13 there is another COVID. Because most of this has to be 14 related to COVID. 15 Three of the five categories that we looked 16 at are -- you have to spell out in the application why 17 or how it applies to the COVID stuff. That's a part of 18 the ARPA rules. No question about it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's my concern, 20 Judge. My concern is that from my understanding what 21 the -- well, I won't say LCRA because I know what their 22 number is. The number from the Sheriff's Department, 23 the number from internal communications, we're already 24 over 5 million dollars, so I don't want to go out to the 25 public requesting -- we have no money to do it. 58 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, at least we make 2 the determination that that's the first -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Then it's done. But we 5 haven't made that determination. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's why I think we 7 need to get discuss that phase. We need to get those 8 numbers -- I mean, my opinion is law enforcement and the 9 internal communications are the number one and two. I'm 10 not sure which order. Probably law enforcement first. 11 And -- and I haven't heard the rest of the Court say 12 what their top two priorities are but -- 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, that's mine. 14 Because not only does it cover that, it -- the Sheriff's 15 office, communications, getting it up to speed, and also 16 the Volunteer Fire Departments and making sure that we 17 can communicate with other counties. 18 As we saw last winter, I mean, 19 communications is one of our biggest weaknesses and 20 there's the Sheriff up. I'm sure he'll back me up on 21 that. Communications was a problem. Go ahead, Sheriff. 22 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, I kind of agree with 23 Jonathan, if you go that direction. Now, we had a 24 meeting, did attend with LCRA, a very good meeting, just 25 preliminary. Preliminary, I'm looking at $3 million for 59 1 just me. That's just us and -- the Sheriff's Office. 2 That's not including we have the constables, we have 3 Animal Control, we have the fire department. There's a 4 whole bunch of stuff that needs to be checked into. Are 5 we going to provide radios or not. 6 But I can tell you, I mean, it kind of 7 shocked me. But that was three million right off the 8 bat. And -- and that's not even going into all the 9 other agencies. Are we going to supply those radios, 10 they're very expensive, to all the fire departments or 11 not. So this is something we really need to look into, 12 if we want to go that direction with the new 13 infrastructure. 14 Also, visiting with the Chief on a daily 15 basis, you know, that's kind of the direction they're 16 going. I've requested to be on the same radio system 17 they are. Only because the fire department dispatch is 18 out of the County. But the radio system will be very 19 expensive. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And -- but if we 21 upgrade, we will also be able to communicate with the 22 surrounding counties. 23 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. We will be. And it's 24 a very big project. You know, something that's going to 25 take some time. Very costly. And there's a lot of 60 1 questions, you know. We're opening a can of worms, you 2 know. We discussed we really need the volunteer fire 3 department input. We've already gotten some kickback -- 4 I mean some -- some -- you know, and that's why I didn't 5 open this can of worms. 6 It's going to be a long, drawn out process, 7 you know, to do this. It can be done. But like I said, 8 it's very costly. Something I can say like Don asked 9 me, I mean, in the long run in the five year we can save 10 money. We pay over $300,000 a year in tower leases. So 11 there is going to be some savings down the line, just to 12 let you know. 13 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Rosa, did I understand 14 you to say that this process of the workshop will be 15 November 4th was to -- 16 MRS. LAVENDER: Just information. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: -- invite the public, 18 but it's also an invite to each of our departments to 19 submit. 20 MRS. LAVENDER: Exactly. Just that. 21 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: It's just that. 22 MRS. LAVENDER: It's just an informational 23 workshop would be all it would be. And we would have 24 the PowerPoint. And we'd be able to answer questions 25 for anyone that's not watching the computer or in the 61 1 courtroom today. 2 GrantWorks suggested in all of the documents 3 that we've got, that you get public input. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't mind public 5 input. Just when we do it. 6 MRS. LAVENDER: Yeah. So we need to 7 establish a way to do that. And if you don't want to do 8 the written survey, then that -- that public meeting is 9 a way to do that because if they fill out that form, 10 then we have an idea of what they want or what they want 11 to do, and you may have 500 people show up to the 12 Volunteer Fire Department to the meeting. I can't 13 guarantee that. But the only way you're going to find 14 out public input is to have a public meeting. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can we have a workshop 16 for us since we're the ones making the decision? 17 MRS. LAVENDER: You want it before then? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Preferably. 19 MRS. LAVENDER: Okay. We can do -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or -- I don't -- it can 21 be after. It just -- I mean I think that we need to -- 22 I need to understand what we're doing. 23 MRS. LAVENDER: Right. Well, and we -- we 24 need to understand the procurement policies, which is 25 something Laurie is going to have to come back and -- 62 1 and talk about to be sure that we get it correctly. And 2 the procurement is -- is how we actually spend the 3 money. We're not going to be anywhere near ready to do 4 that right now. What we've got to do is gather the 5 information that we need to make the decision. So -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: And if I might, I'd love to 7 get in a helicopter and go up about 10,000 feet and look 8 down at the big picture. And if you take a look at this 9 agenda, item 1.25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 are the big 10 picture. And what that outlines, we may not take action 11 on any of those today. I don't know. But it was to 12 come to this Court with the big picture plan that the 13 committee put together last week. That's what -- that's 14 what each one of these steps are. And rather than 15 everybody jumping down into the weeds and advocating for 16 their proposed project. 17 And the big picture was, and I'll just read 18 them off. In 25 we talk about getting input. 26 we 19 talk about an intent to submit, so we get some warning 20 about whose coming to us with a request. Then we talk 21 about the actual application process in 27. 28, which 22 we've got to do at some point, we've got to go ahead and 23 enact these procurement policies and procedures and I've 24 got a letter signed to send in if that's -- if we're 25 ready to do that or not. But that's part of the 63 1 process. 2 So you can see we go from input to intent, 3 application, to establishing what the policies are, and 4 then we -- we're suggesting that we have a workshop. 5 Now the order in what we do these in, that's -- that's 6 up to the Court. Y'all can decide what order you want 7 to do them in. But you wanted the plan, here's the 8 plan. 9 And then finally, we conclude with what kind 10 of budget we're going to have for this. So -- and we 11 don't -- we don't have to take action today. It's time 12 for a break. So why don't we take a five minute break 13 and come back and see where we're going to go with this 14 part of it. 15 (Break.) 16 JUDGE KELLY: Come back to order. I'm going 17 to briefly recall one timed item. I'll recall 1.5, 18 which is to consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action to apply for a grant for new vehicle equipment. 20 Brad Rider. 21 MR. RIDER: Yes, sir. Thank you all for 22 letting me respeak. This has nothing to do with 23 communication systems that earlier was discussed in 24 Court. What I'm looking at is equipment as far as the 25 new camera system. Radar, lights, that kind of thing 64 1 for a new vehicle. I have one estimate right now. I 2 got two more supposedly coming, you know how that works, 3 but it's basically just under $20,000. 4 Asking around from some of the Sheriff's 5 staff too, the Sheriff passed about what it cost to 6 equip most of his vehicles. 7 But I got two different areas to look into 8 for grants, and one is local and one is not, and one's 9 through the Constable Association, one is through the 10 Cailloux. I've not submitted anything. I did ask 11 basically like you're doing earlier, educate me on how 12 it works. And so submit it by December and if they 13 choose to assist and we'll get some real hard numbers in 14 there and go forward from there. 15 The other one's through the Constable 16 Association. I'm not sure of all of their requirements 17 today but I can get that. But I just wanted permission 18 from the Court to proceed with that and try to get some 19 of those funding coming this way so when the new truck 20 does ever get here and ordered then we could equip it 21 with new stuff and not the old stuff. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem with 23 that. I was -- I misunderstood that earlier -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I did, too. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- request. So I'll 65 1 make a motion -- or do you want to? He's in your 2 Precinct. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. I move for 4 approval. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion and second to 7 approve what? 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Item 1.5. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess to approve to go 10 out for grant -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- to apply for grant for 13 equipment. 14 JUDGE KELLY: To approve the grant 15 application? Okay. Any discussion? Those in favor 16 raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 17 MR. RIDER: Thank you, gentlemen. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got some timed 19 items. I think where we are with the ARPA, we talked 20 over the break, and we still have Rosa here. We think 21 it would be beneficial to schedule a ARPA workshop for 22 the Court, 9 o'clock Friday morning, where this can be 23 dealt with in more detail and get everybody a little bit 24 better foundation on understanding of how this -- how 25 we're going to approach this thing. And so that would 66 1 alleviate not having to go through 1.25 through 1.30. 2 And we would put those off until after the workshop. If 3 that's okay with everybody, then we'll go ahead and -- I 4 see questions. 5 MRS. SHELTON: Well, I just want to make 6 sure if we have a workshop then can I schedule a meeting 7 right after that because some of these we'll want 8 actually -- at least with the intent to submit. Because 9 if we're still going forward with the informational 10 workshop on the 4th for the public, we're going to ask 11 them to -- if it's approved by the Court, file that 12 intent to submit. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Well, why don't we schedule a 14 workshop and put these same items as action items that 15 we can follow up with if we need to. Because we do have 16 the public workshop the following day. Okay? 17 MRS. SHELTON: If -- the budget would 18 encompass GrantWorks that we've already got a contract 19 with, and so waiting until Friday will probably be fine, 20 but we do have a contract with a set sum of what they 21 did. And so that was part of the budget that I was 22 asking to be passed. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And we'll handle that on 24 Friday. Along with whatever incidentals and all this 25 stuff that we have to have to get Rosa up to speed. 67 1 So with that, thank you for coming in, Ms. 2 Lavender. We appreciate it. And we'll see you on 3 Friday. 4 MS. LAVENDER: You got it. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And I'll go ahead call the 6 first ten o'clock item, which is item 1.18, a public 7 hearing for a revision of plat for Kerrville South 8 Ranches No. 2, Lot 41A. 9 I call the public meeting to order. Is 10 there anyone here who would like to speak with regard to 11 the revision of plat for Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, 12 Lot 41A. 13 There being no one, then we will adjourn the 14 public meeting and move on to Item 1.19 consider, 15 discuss and take appropriate action for the Court to 16 approve a revision of plat for Kerrville South Ranches 17 No. 2, Lot 41A. Charlie Hastings. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 19 proposal divides Lot 41A, 13.87 acres, into two lots and 20 dedicates a right-of-way along Mountain Drive. Lot 21 41-A1 will be 5.1 acres. Lot 41-A2 will be 8.24 acres. 22 Both lots will front Mountain Drive. Lot 41B, as shown 23 on the plat, is not part of this proposed revision. 24 The County Engineer requests the Court 25 approve a revision of plat for Kerrville South Ranches 68 1 No. 2, Lot 41A, Volume 3, Page 62, Precinct 1. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 5 second to approve the revision of plat for Kerrville 6 Ranches South No. 2 -- Kerrville South Ranches No. 2, 7 Lot 41A. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your 8 hand. Unanimous. 9 Item 1.20 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action for the Court to conditionally 11 approve the final plat for Depot Subdivision pending 12 approval from the Kerr County Environmental Department. 13 Precinct 2. Charlie Hastings. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 15 proposal divides an 11.52 acre tract at the end of Depot 16 Alley into two lots. Lot 1, 5.1 acres, has 23.28 feet 17 of frontage on Depot Alley. Lot 2, 6.42 acres, has 18 48.96 feet of frontage on Depot Alley. 19 The owner's request for lots with -- the 20 owner is requesting for lots with less than 150 foot of 21 road frontage was approved July 26th of 2021. We 22 already came to the Court for that. 23 Since this property was in the floodplain, a 24 flood study was submitted with this proposal. Any 25 improvements must meet requirements for development 69 1 within the floodplain. 2 The owner is working and has worked with the 3 Environmental Health Department to bring an existing 4 OSSF issue into compliance. I had notification on -- I 5 don't remember if it was Thursday or Friday -- I don't 6 recall if it was Thursday or if it was Friday, it's been 7 a long week, but that issue did get resolved. 8 So we are at a point now where everything is 9 in compliance with our regulations. County Engineer 10 requests that the Court approve the final plat for Depot 11 Subdivision, Precinct 2. 12 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 15 second to approve the final plat -- or the conditional 16 approval for final plat for Depot Subdivision. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: It's not a condition 18 anymore. 19 JUDGE KELLY: It's not a condition anymore? 20 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: No. 21 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: The condition has been 23 resolved. 24 MR. HASTINGS: It did get resolved. 25 JUDGE KELLY: So this is final approval. 70 1 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does there need to be a 3 variance approved for the road frontages or is -- 4 MR. HASTINGS: No, sir. That is not through 5 the variance process. There is specific language in our 6 regulations that allow for a lesser road frontage if 7 approved by the Court. And we brought that to you guys 8 on July 26th, 2021. Earlier this summer. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I remember talking 10 about it. I just want to make sure that we're doing it 11 appropriately. 12 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. And this is in 13 compliance with that. There -- if -- you might recall 14 during that process there was a tree and they were going 15 to -- they asked for even less and we said no, you've 16 got to make it work with what was approved on the 26th. 17 And so they did. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One more question. 20 Depot Alley. Are they going to give us additional 21 easement on -- 22 MR. HASTINGS: No, sir. It's -- it's the 23 end of the road right there. It goes right into the 24 property. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So Depot Alley ends 71 1 where the 60 foot starts? 2 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. That's where it 3 starts. And you'll recall just a few weeks ago we had 4 got a bunch of right-of-way dedicated along that road 5 for the Peoples State Bank. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So Depot Alley 7 doesn't -- it's hard to describe it. It looks like a 8 road going all the way up to Lot 1. That's not a road? 9 MR. HASTINGS: No, sir. No. It ends right 10 even with the back line of that Family Dollar Store 11 that's there. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I need to look at this 13 closer. So then how does Lot 1 -- if there's no road 14 there, how does Lot 1 have access? 15 MR. HASTINGS: Their access is the end of 16 the road. Let's look at this right quick to make sure. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This was a private road 18 as I recall. 19 MR. HASTINGS: So Lot 1 has access to the 20 end of Depot Alley. Lot 2 has access that -- you can 21 see -- see the shape of it, at the -- also at the end of 22 Depot Alley but not at the very, very end. They're on 23 the side at the end. Everybody's got a piece of pie 24 there. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's the plat line? 72 1 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So do we have a motion and a 3 second yet? Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 4 your hand. Opposed? Abstain? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll abstain. I don't 6 know that I get this one. To me we're doing something 7 that's contrary to our policy. 8 JUDGE KELLY: 4-0-1. 9 Item 1.21 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action on bids received for the Ranchero 11 Road Reconstruction Project, Phase 1, Precincts 1 and 2. 12 Charlie Hastings. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. On October 14 12, 2021, two bids were received for the Ranchero Road 15 Reconstruction Project, Phase 1 as follows: 16 J3 Company, LLC, $662,392.00. 17 Texas Materials Group, Inc., $774,652.00. 18 The lowest qualified bid was over our 19 budgeted amount. We've looked at this very closely. 20 I've looked at this with the Road & Bridge Department, 21 with their Administrator, with our County Auditor. 22 We've looked at the funds. We've come back and forth on 23 it. And we ultimately believe that the best thing to do 24 is to award this project. 25 I know I wrote my agenda bill a little bit 73 1 different from that. But everyday I've been looking 2 into it, talking to contractors, talking to this 3 contractor, trying to get a feel for if we re -- we try 4 to rebid this same project five months from now what's 5 going to happen. 6 And I will tell you from my experience, and 7 this is dating back to 1995, every project that's ever 8 rebid has always been more expensive. Every time. It's 9 never gone down. We've got a bird in our hand. I think 10 we need to go to work on this project. 11 So County Engineer requests that the Court 12 award the contract to J3 Company, LLC in the amount of 13 $662,392.00. We do have $830,000 budgeted for the 14 reconstruction of Ranchero Road, both phases, and 15 Sheppard Rees Road and some other roads. 16 The Road & Bridge Department plans to 17 reconstruct the portion of Sheppard Rees in-house. 18 Won't need to be hired by a contractor. As a matter of 19 fact, they darn near almost got a chance to do it this 20 summer but they just kind of ran out of time. And since 21 it has to be chip sealed, it can't be done in the fall. 22 But again, this Phase 1 is hot mix, it can 23 be done in the fall. If this is awarded, the contractor 24 would realistically start two weeks from today, and work 25 through beyond Thanksgiving. We would not allow any 74 1 work to be done on Thanksgiving Day or the day before or 2 that weekend. But have the work done before Christmas. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What was the -- you 4 mentioned 830,000 for this and some other projects. How 5 much was -- out of that 830 was originally allocated for 6 this project? 7 MR. HASTINGS: For this? 450. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 450? 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So we're up to what, 11 now, Charlie? 12 MR. HASTINGS: I'm sorry, what was the 13 question? 14 JUDGE KELLY: We went over $200,000? 15 MR. HASTINGS: This is 662. Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now you -- you've 17 rethought this then -- 18 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. I -- I know I -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- since the last time 20 we talked about it? 21 MR. HASTINGS: That's right. Been -- every 22 day back and forth on it. But again, this is a project 23 that we cannot do in-house. We don't have the man 24 power. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know -- I know that. 75 1 Yeah. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Okay. I believe that there 3 is much to risk by not awarding it. I think the risk is 4 just too high. The risk is that this winter we get 5 something that completely destroys that road to where 6 we -- now we're going to have to haul all the base 7 that's underneath out and just start over. Which that 8 would make this project astronomical. 9 Now, if that doesn't happen, then you're 10 just going to be paying whatever fuel goes up between 11 now and March, April, May. Fuel, material, labor. And 12 labor is up 30 percent, is what I'm hearing right now. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the shortfall is 14 going to come from doing Sheppard Rees in-house and 15 where else? 16 MR. HASTINGS: So -- and then here's -- 17 here's the other -- where you can makeup for the 18 shortfall. You have, I believe, at $330,000, is that 19 right? Is James in here? We talked about it this 20 morning, in the Road & Bridge budget, four -- 21 MS. HOFFER: 311. 22 MR. HASTINGS: 311? 23 MS. HOFFER: 310. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Something like that. About 25 $300,000 for road reconstruction for hiring a contractor 76 1 for road reconstruction. We've been doing that every 2 year for the last three or four years now. And so that 3 can be combined with the balance of the 830 minus 662 or 4 we'll get all of Ranchero Road done. No doubt. No 5 doubt. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So in a nutshell, it's 7 not going to get cheaper and the road is not going to 8 get any better, so it's time to do it? 9 MR. HASTINGS: It's time to do it. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We just had hoped we 11 would get it cheaper. Lower bids. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, as a risk manager, I 13 look at the risk of if we don't do this and we don't get 14 it done before the winner storms come, we could lose the 15 whole road. 16 JUDGE KELLY: That scares me. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we need to do it, 18 just find out where the money comes from. I'm fine with 19 that. 20 MR. HASTINGS: We weighed this very heavily. 21 We are very in tune with the public funds. This is the 22 best recommendation. 23 JUDGE KELLY: This is a risk management 24 situation. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll make the motion. 77 1 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second it. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 3 second to accept the bid from J3 for Ranchero Road. Any 4 other discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: In the meantime, direct 6 all your calls to Commissioner Gipson here about 7 Ranchero Road. 8 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll show you where 9 the line is. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Unless you're in 11 Precinct 1 -- 12 (Laughter.) 13 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 14 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 15 Item 1.22 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to release the Letter of Credit No. 17 400620400, in the amount of $162,500.00 issued by 18 Guadalupe Bank of Kerrville, Texas, as a financial 19 guarantee for the construction of privately maintained 20 road and drainage improvements in the Las Brisas 21 subdivision, and acknowledge completion of construction 22 of the privately maintained road and drainage in Las 23 Brisas. Charlie Hastings. 24 MR. HASTINGS: The Las Brisas final plat was 25 approved on May 24th, 2021, along with the Letter of 78 1 Credit No. 400620400 in the amount of $162,500.00 issued 2 by Guadalupe Bank of Kerrville, Texas, as a financial 3 guarantee for the construction of a privately maintained 4 road, Las Brisas Drive. It's a little over half a mile 5 long, 0.56 miles, and the associated drainage that goes 6 with it. 7 The said Letter of Credit expires November 8 6, 2021. A final inspection was conducted on October 9 5th, 2021, and the Engineering Department is in receipt 10 of record construction drawings. All the construction 11 deficiencies have been corrected. The roads and 12 drainage meet or exceed Kerr County construction 13 standards. 14 County Engineer requests that the Court 15 release Letter of Credit No. 400620400, in the amount of 16 $162,500.00 issued by Guadalupe Bank of Kerrville, 17 Texas, as a financial guarantee for the construction of 18 privately maintained road and drainage improvements in 19 the Las Brisas Subdivision, and acknowledge completion 20 of the construction of the privately maintained road and 21 associated drainage in Las Brisas Subdivision. 22 Precinct 1. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: A motion and a second to 79 1 approve the release of the letter of credit and 2 acknowledge the completion of construction of the 3 privately maintained road and drainage in Las Brisas. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this the one off of 5 Sheppard Rees? 6 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 9 favor raise your hand. Five zero. 10 Next one is 1.23 consider, discuss and take 11 appropriate action to accept -- 12 MR. HASTINGS: It should say 0.11. I 13 believe there must have been a typo there. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 0.11 acres of road 15 right-of-way for the Encino Drive turn-around project, 16 and to abandon and discontinue road maintenance for 17 approximately 495 feet at the end of Encino Drive. 18 Charlie Hastings. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. On 20 November 23, 2020, so almost a year ago, a public 21 hearing was held to consider a petition to abandon and 22 discontinue road maintenance for approximately 490 feet 23 of the end of Encino Drive. 24 After the public hearing, the Court directed 25 the County Engineer to establish a land survey of the 80 1 road right-of-way needed for the Road & Bridge 2 Department to install a turn-around near the end of 3 Encino Drive in exchange for the dedication of said road 4 right-of-way, and to allow for the abandonment and 5 discontinuance of road maintenance for approximately 495 6 feet of the end of Encino Drive. 7 And I'll note there's a big difference. 8 It's just abandon and discontinue road maintenance. 9 There's no vacation. The right-of-way will still be 10 there; it just will no longer be open to the public. 11 And it will no longer have the ability to be maintained 12 by Kerr County. 13 The County Engineer requests the Court 14 accept 0.11 acres of road right-of-way for the Encino 15 Drive turn-around project and to abandon and discontinue 16 road maintenance for approximately 495 feet of the end 17 of Encino Drive, Precinct 1. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, I went and looked 19 at that recently, and how you can turn around there and 20 you can't. Especially if you have a trailer or 21 something. So this -- this turn-around that's going to 22 be provided, it's going to be -- do we have dimensions 23 in here? 24 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. It's approximately 25 60 by 80, I think, is the actual right-of-way. 81 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And everybody signed 2 off on it? 3 MR. HASTINGS: They signed it. Yes, sir. 4 Nancy McGraw and Warren McGraw are the donors. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that's an expense 6 to the County? Putting the -- putting the -- well -- 7 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. To install the 8 turn-around? Yes. That's -- that's what we've been 9 doing. Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. But we're 11 giving up maintenance of the road beyond that? 12 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So it's a trade off? 14 MR. HASTINGS: There is a trade off. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I want people to 16 understand that. Okay. I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 19 second to approve the -- to accept the 0.11 acres of 20 road right-of-way for Encino Drive turn-around project. 21 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 22 Unanimous. 23 Okay. That brings us to -- we've already 24 acted on item 1.24, so we're going to pass items 1.25, 25 26, 27, 28, 29 -- 82 1 MRS. LAVENDER: Wait. 2 JUDGE KELLY: -- 30. 3 MRS. LAVENDER: 29. We need to go ahead and 4 do so we'll be able to do it -- put it in the newspaper 5 and -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: Oh yeah. I'm sorry. We'll 7 pass 25, 26, 27, 28, and 30. And I will now call Item 8 1.29, which is to consider, discuss and take appropriate 9 action to set an American Rescue Act informational 10 workshop for Thursday, November 4, 2021, at 1:30 in the 11 afternoon, at Hill Country Youth Event Center. 12 Now we have also set a workshop for this 13 Court for the Thursday morning -- for Friday morning. 14 This coming Friday morning, the 29th, at 9 o'clock. And 15 the items that we passed will be at least on the agenda 16 as action items, whether we take action on them or not. 17 MRS. LAVENDER: And we called Laurie with 18 GrantWorks and she will be here Friday morning. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Excellent. 20 MRS. LAVENDER: So we're in good shape. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So what we've really got is a 22 board -- a Commissioners' Court workshop this coming 23 Friday and then this workshop will be a public workshop 24 which will be the next Thursday afternoon. 25 MRS. LAVENDER: And we will use the word 83 1 public in it. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 3 MRS. LAVENDER: It's not in that deal but it 4 needs to be in there. And you were concerned about 5 doing things too fast. We would like to go ahead and do 6 it on the 4th because we have the Youth Exhibit Center 7 scheduled for that day, but we need to get this in the 8 newspapers, on the radio, on the website, in all this 9 stuff and if we wait until Friday to announce something 10 for next Thursday, we can't do that. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine. 12 MRS. LAVENDER: Lisa needs to be able to get 13 a news release out. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Harley, you know 15 anybody that can do a PSA or anything? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Probably. 17 MRS. LAVENDER: Yeah, I -- I was kind of 18 thinking of that too. We have connections at least. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second 23 to approve the workshop for this Friday morning at 24 9 o'clock for the Court and the public next Thursday, 25 November the 4th at 1:30 in the Youth Event Center. Any 84 1 other discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: One thing. I won't be 3 able to get to the November 4th one. 4 JUDGE KELLY: But you will be at the one on 5 Friday? 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You bet I will. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we've got a motion 8 and a second. Any other discussion? Those in favor 9 raise your hand. Unanimous. 10 Let's move on to Item 1.31 consider, discuss 11 and take appropriate action to update the grant 12 administrator contact information for various grants. 13 Ms. Shelton. 14 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. With the appointment of 15 Rosa, we will need to amend, I believe is the word, 16 Court Order 38632 for the FEMA, for the ice storm. We 17 currently have Callie as the primary agent. So we will 18 move Rosa into that position. 19 Court Order 38987 was the recipient agent 20 for the primary contact, and Dub will remain that. This 21 is for the HMA grant and we'll put Rosa as the secondary 22 agent on that one. 23 The third place that we'll need to look at, 24 I didn't see a court order was for ARPA and I believe 25 it's because the only two that the U.S. Treasury has 85 1 asked for so far is your District or your County Judge 2 and then the County Auditor. So, so far we're the only 3 two that officially were -- are holding that 4 questionnaire that was done. But we'll need to get Rosa 5 on there. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I move that we do it. 7 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? We've got a 9 motion and a second. Those in favor raise your hand. 10 Five zero. 11 1.32 consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action to approve partial payment to D. Guerra 13 Construction toward the initial invoice pending with the 14 Texas Water Development Board. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe this is okay 16 because that money has been sent, or is being sent 17 today? 18 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. I've -- we've got it 19 set as a late bill. So if y'all want to pass on this we 20 can approve it with the late bills. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Pass. 22 Okay, we'll move on to the Approval Agenda. 23 2.1 pay the bills. 24 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Today's invoices 25 $1,300,981.94. It's a big number. 86 1 JUDGE KELLY: I move we pay the bills as 2 presented. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 5 favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 6 2.2. Budget amendments. 7 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have six today. One 8 for the public defender, a couple of minor payroll 9 items, and one for Road & Bridge. And also crime 10 victims. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion and second to 14 approve the budget amendments as presented. Any 15 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 16 2.3 late bills. 17 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Bills for today, 18 $2,676,147.31. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the lion's share of 20 that is to D. Guerra, correct? 21 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second 25 to pay the late bills as presented. Any discussion? 87 1 Other than apologies to D. Guerra for having to wait so 2 long. And you have my apologies. So with that, those 3 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 4 2.4 Auditor reports. 5 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 6 JUDGE KELLY: 2.5 monthly reports. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Treasurer's quarterly 8 investment report for the period July 1, 2021 through 9 September 30th, 2021. September 2021 monthly reports. 10 Treasurer's monthly report, Tracy Soldan. Animal 11 Control Services Director, Reagan Givens. I move for 12 approval. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. A motion and second to 15 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 16 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero. 17 Court orders, 2.6. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Court Orders from our 19 October 12th meeting 38987 through 39010. They seem to 20 be in order. I make a motion to approve. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 23 second to approve the Court Orders as presented. Any 24 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 25 Information agenda. 3.1 status reports from 88 1 Department Heads. Mr. Motheral. 2 MR. MOTHERAL: Good morning, guys. I want 3 to bring you all up to date a little bit and say that we 4 have begun our server replacements. So you'll start 5 seeing some of that come through. And that's really all 6 that -- that's all budget. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Any questions? 8 Thank you, Bruce. 9 MR. MOTHERAL: You bet. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Any other Department Heads? 11 Item 3.2 status reports from Elected 12 Officials. Sheriff? 13 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. Yeah, I just 14 kind of wanted to update y'all from the incident from 15 this weekend. As I know, Harley, I agree with you on 16 rumors. I don't like rumors. That's why immediately 17 when I took office after my election I had everybody 18 sign a new policy, you'll be subject to discipline or -- 19 or discharge if that continues. 20 But I know there's all kind of rumors going 21 on, like I said. I spoke to the chief at 7:30, asked 22 him if it was okay if I briefed y'all on where we're at 23 on everything. 24 First of all, this is an incident and not an 25 accident because it was on private property. Kerrville 89 1 Police Department is the lead on this agency. DPS is 2 not helping with this investigation or incident. And 3 KCSO, we assisted them on that day. 4 I know there's some question about Federal 5 agencies. There are no federal agencies assisting on 6 this because it was not an aviation incident. Okay. 7 So what I can tell you right now, where 8 we're at as of this morning, they are not releasing 9 names because it's still an ongoing investigation. The 10 chief said maybe this evening or tomorrow names will be 11 out. My understanding is there's nobody local from the 12 Kerr County area that were involved in this. I'm going 13 to try to give you a list of what happened, where we're 14 at on that. 15 As of right now, there's a six-year-old male 16 deceased. Eight-year-old male deceased. 28-year-old is 17 at Dell Seton Hospital in Austin, still in serious but 18 stable condition. 46-year-old female, University 19 Medical Center, critical condition. 27-year-old female, 20 University Medical Center, critical condition. 21 34-year-old male, driver, in stable condition. There's 22 a three-month-old and four-year-old who were transported 23 for precautionary purposes to the medical center here in 24 Kerrville. 25 So that's kind of what I know right now. 90 1 And that's where we're at. And so Kerrville PD is doing 2 a good job and they should be releasing the names this 3 afternoon or evening. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Sheriff. 6 Any other elected officials reports? 7 Okay. 3.3 liaison commissioners reports? 8 Anything to report? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No, I don't have 10 anything. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Well, yeah, I do 12 have one thing. On our next agenda we'll have our 13 annual review of the services out at the Hill Country 14 Youth Event Center or contract with Spectrum. And I'll 15 be meeting with Jake and going over the various 16 percentages that we can award that are already budgeted 17 items, they're incentives. Anyway, I'll be coming to 18 the Court with that on Monday -- or I mean next time. 19 The 8th. It's our evaluation. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't remember this. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's an evaluation of 22 the services as to, you know, how they're doing, 23 customer input. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We've actually done this every 25 year. 91 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We do it every 2 year. And the -- it's -- the full amount is budgeted 3 every year. We usually don't allocate the full amount 4 back to them each year. But I'll be bringing that to 5 the Court the next meeting. So if anyone has any strong 6 opinions, you know, you can't tell me. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm looking at the 9 County Attorney before I said anything. Get it to Jody. 10 If you have any strong opinions, get that information to 11 Jody. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And with that, I think we've 13 concluded the regular agenda. We will be going into 14 Executive Session on three items. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Four. That one down 16 here, too. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Four? Four. The first one is 18 going to be 4.1, which is consultation with the 19 attorney. 4.2 is personnel matters. 4.3 is 20 deliberation regarding security assessments or 21 deployments related to information resources technology. 22 And then 4.4, which is to consult with and seek advice 23 from the attorney regarding the County's use of the 24 American Rescue Plan Act funds, including the terms of 25 the grant and funding for public purposes. And that's 92 1 what we will go into when we come back. Let's take a 2 five minute break and we'll start. 3 (Recess.) 4 (Executive Session.) 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's 11:42, coming out 6 of Executive Session. The next item on the agenda is 7 5.1, which is action that may be required on matters 8 discussed in Executive Session. 9 And I'm going to make a motion that we 10 accept the settlement settlement offer from Johnson & 11 Johnson in the opioid litigation as presented by our 12 outside counsel, as well as our County Attorney, subject 13 to the clarification of some specific questions that 14 we've submitted to counsel. But we wanted to go ahead 15 and get this approval on the record because there's a 16 deadline of November 9. So we're going to -- I move 17 that we approve it today, so that will be my motion. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second. Any 20 discussion? Okay. There being none, those in favor? 21 Unanimous, five zero. 22 Any other business before the County? Then 23 we are adjourned. 24 * * * * * * 25 93 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Court Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify 6 that the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise 7 a true and correct transcription of the proceedings had 8 in the above-entitled Regular Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 5th day of November, 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