1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, November 8, 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 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Visitor's Input. 6 4 *** Commissioner's Comments. 35 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 action to amend the contract with J3 Co. 6 for the Ranchero Road Reconstruction Project (Court Order #39031.) 7 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 41 8 action on request to clean up property located on Storage Lane East in Center Point. 9 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 10 action on replacing the damaged linoleum flooring at entrance to County Clerk and 11 Tax office near the elevator. 12 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 action to clarify Court Order #38988 13 approving the use of Hazardous Mitigation Assistance funds to purchase on-demand 14 generators for Volunteer Fire Departments. 15 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 action to approve job description for the 16 Grant Administrator position. 17 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 60 action to approve the contract with Rosa 18 Lavender to perform the duties of the Interim Grant Administrator. 19 1.10 Update regarding the Informational Workshop 84 20 held on November 4, 2021 to discuss the American Rescue Planning Act(ARPA) funding. 21 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 22 action to set budget for anticipated expenditures for the American Rescue Plan 23 Act(ARPA) grant administration. 24 1.14 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 96 Montebello Estates Section 2, Lot 31, Volume 25 4, Page 101. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 96 action for the Court to approve a revision 4 of plat for Montebello Estates Section 2, Lot 31, Volume 4, Page 101. 5 1.16 Public hearing for a revision of plat for 98 6 Kerrville Hills Ranch Estates No. 1, Lot 27, Volume 3, Page 74. 7 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 99 8 action for the Court to approve a revision of plat for Kerrville Hills Ranch Estates 9 No. 1, Lot 27, Volume 3, Page 74. 10 1.18 Public hearing for revision of plat for 100 Greenwood Forest Section 7, Phase 2, Block 18, 11 Lots 20-21, Volume 5, Page 151. 12 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 100 action for the Court to approve a revision 13 of plat for Greenwood Forest Section 7, Phase 2, Block 18, Lots 20-21, Volume 5, 14 Page 151. 15 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 104 action for the Court to set a public hearing 16 for 10 a.m. on December 13, 2021 for a revision of plat for Center Point Estates 17 Unit 2, Lot 247, Volume 3, Page 103. 18 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 106 action for the Court to set a public hearing 19 for 10 a.m. on December 13, 2021 for a revision of plat for Vistas Escondidas de 20 Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 153, and Cypress Springs Estates Phase 2 Section 1, Lot 68, 21 Volume 7, Pages 363-364, and Volume 7, Pages 172-173. 22 1.22 Public hearing regarding the installation 109 23 of (2) Stop Signs on Holly Drive North and Box S Drive North, and Wood Duck Lane North 24 and Box S Drive North. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 109 action for the Commissioner's Court final 4 approval regarding the installation of two Stop Signs on Holly Drive North and Box S 5 Drive North, and Wood Duck Lane North and Box S Drive North. 6 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 110 7 action to go out for annual bids for road base, cold mix, aggregate, emulsion oil and 8 corrugated metal pipe. 9 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 113 action to approve and authorize County 10 Judge to sign contract with Morris Strategic Communications for web design services. 11 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 113 12 action to approve contracts with Hunt Volunteer Fire Department, Castle Lake 13 Volunteer Fire Department, and allow County Judge to sign same. 14 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 113 15 action to approve contracts with Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department and Comfort 16 Volunteer Fire Department, and allow County Judge to sign same. 17 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 114 18 action to approve Cooperative Agreement between Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service 19 and Kerr County. 20 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 114 action regarding contract with Scott Merriman, 21 Inc. for a book preservation project as proposed in the County Clerk's Archival Plan 22 and authorize County Judge to sign same. Plan was approved and adopted by the Court 23 on 7/12/2021 per Court Order #38809. Funds come from a dedicated, or special fund, used 24 only for projects like this one, #41-634-411. 25 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 115 action on implementation of the burn ban. 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 2.1 Pay Bills. 116 4 2.3 Late Bills. 116 5 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 118 6 2.6 Court Orders. 118 7 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 121 8 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 122 9 4.2a Consider, discuss and take appropriate 123 action on current employee supervisory role 10 of grant administrator. 11 *** Adjournment. 124 12 *** Reporter's Certificate. 125 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. It's Monday, 2 November the 9th -- 8th? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 8th. 4 JUDGE KELLY: 8th, 2011(sic). It's about 5 9:15, and I apologize for the delay to get everybody up 6 here. But I think people are more comfortable in this 7 environment than we were downstairs. 8 Commissioners' Court is now in session. And if you -- 9 I'm going to remind everyone to please turn your cell 10 phones off or to vibrate. If it goes off in the 11 courtroom, that's -- officially we can confiscate your 12 phone. I don't want to have to do that, so make sure 13 the sound is turned off. 14 So with that if you would, stand and 15 Commissioner Letz will lead us in the prayer and the 16 pledge. 17 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance) 18 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. We'll begin 19 this meeting as we begin all of our Commissioners Court 20 meetings with an invitation for public input. If 21 there's something that you want to address the Court on 22 that is not on the agenda -- can y'all hear me? Okay. 23 I had to press the button down for the microphone to 24 work. So this is the time for public input. And if 25 anybody wants to address the Court on items that are not 7 1 on the Agenda, this is your opportunity to do so. If 2 the item is on the Agenda, we ask that you wait until 3 that item is called. 4 So with that, is there anybody that would 5 like to address the Court? Okay. Ms. Guerriero and Ms. 6 Hughes. 7 MS. GUERRIERO: Good morning. I need to 8 make sure the microphone is working. I'd like to thank 9 the Court for accommodating this crowd. That's a big 10 effort. 11 My name is Karen Guerriero, I am the 12 President of Kerrville Pets Alive here in Kerr County. 13 As you may know, KPA is a non-profit animal charity 14 serving Kerr County. Our mission is to save Kerr County 15 pets, and our focus is helping Kerr County Animal 16 Services. Our County is the only open intake animal 17 services and control facility. 18 This month we celebrate our second 19 anniversary. Over the past two years, we have worked to 20 provide support and resources to KCAS in the form of 21 volunteers, medical funding, adoption and sentence, free 22 micro-chipping, education, rescue and transport support. 23 We've also developed key relationships with law 24 enforcement as well as local veterinarians. 25 Since our formation, we are proud to say 8 1 there has been a substantial decrease in the number of 2 euthanasias of cats and dogs annually. We have also 3 provided scores of free microchips at KCAS in hopes of 4 reuniting all pets with their owners. 5 Kerrville Pets Alive also holds free, and I 6 say free several times here, because we want to offer 7 these -- these opportunities for our community, public 8 microchip events, spay and neuter vouchers to Kerrville 9 residents, and this Saturday we would hold our first 10 free pet vaccination clinic. 11 We are fortunate to be a part of the County 12 CIP committee and support all of the proposed 2022 13 projects, including a new Animal Control and shelter 14 facility. We appreciate the continued support of the 15 Court and look forward to great things to come as we 16 strive to make sure Kerr County is a better and safer 17 place for people and their pets. Thank you. 18 Now I'll introduce Brenda Hughes, who will 19 talk about hopefully an agenda item we would like to 20 have. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Future agenda item? 22 MS. GUERRIERO: Yes. 23 MS. HUGHES: Future agenda item. Yes, sir. 24 Yes. We are -- in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are 25 wanting to hold a pet food drive and we would like to do 9 1 that in the courthouse parking lot on December the 4th 2 and the 5th. So I will be presenting it as an agenda 3 item for I guess the November 22nd Commissioners Court 4 meeting, but I would ask that you consider that. Thank 5 you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And as much as I would like to 7 be able to reply, I can't at this time. 8 MS. HUGHES: I know. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Deininger. 10 MS. DEININGER: Thank you all very much. I 11 would like -- I'm here because I really would like to 12 have somebody put the ARPA -- future discussion on the 13 ARPA on the agenda and I don't believe it's on for 14 today. But several questions came up the other day. 15 We need to continue the discussion. I 16 understand Judge Kelly already signed contract. He said 17 it was the only way he could access funds to hire the 18 GrantWorks company who will judge the RFP's that folks 19 submit for consideration for the grant money, which 20 brings up a question. 21 Judge Kelly, who emphasized the money is not 22 a grant but just money to be used as needed. Then Rosa 23 got up and presented a video describing how the grant 24 process would work. So I'd like to clarify. Some of 25 this $4.5 million may just be large enough for us to use 10 1 as we need or want to. And I thought of some of the 2 places this money might be asked to go without nothing 3 except your desires on it, or has the entire court voted 4 on use of free money? 5 For example, are monies being given to 6 associate -- doctor associations around town? You'll 7 get a thousand dollars off for each patient that gets a 8 shot. Friends of mine report getting pressure from 9 their doctors who in the past have not given -- who have 10 given them a choice and not put pressure on them. 11 The second one, schools may be receiving a 12 hundred thousand dollars for every class to get 13 vaccinated. Bring the National Guard in and escort a 14 class to be vaxed. Was that done here recently? 15 Somewhere nearby it was done. 16 Policeman willing to enforce the health 17 orders, which is part of this new COVID thing, or even 18 suggested orders, to not allow non-vaccinated people 19 into a store or an event. Whatever. These policeman 20 receive an extra hundred dollars in their pay packet. I 21 don't think that would have to go into a grant. That 22 could just been free monies. How much of this money 23 have we already spent? And is it accountable? Are you 24 accountable to anyone for how you spend it? Or is it a, 25 kind of, a reward and shows your support for this 11 1 particular program? 2 It's not free money. Being present as we 3 talk. How do we know this? Immediately. Unless you 4 want it on the COVID lies and vaccination pressure, you 5 have to send it back. Those are heavy strings. And 6 those are strings. 7 The deep state harangue and vilified 8 President Trump for calling COVID for what it was and 9 then suggest responses that were non-draconian, and then 10 when Biden took office, the leftist government took its 11 gloves off. It has lied and lied more about this 12 COVID -- about COVID. 13 Why would we trust a vaccine from a 14 government who secretly funded the very resource that 15 developed this lethal virus? Several hundreds of 16 thousands Fauci spent to the Wuhan place for vaccine 17 development. And the pressure to get the vaccination is 18 incredible as the cases go down. 19 Now we're seeing our friends having swelled 20 hearts and various thrombosis side affects of the 21 stroke. And even if you had had COVID recently, we 22 don't care. Okay. The temptation is great, you're 23 accountable, and we would like to know where your 24 allegiance is. Thank you very much. 25 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, what's your 12 1 name? 2 MS. DEININGER: Susan Deininger, 3 D-E-I-N-I-N-G-E-R. 4 COURT REPORTER: Thank you. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Would you like to address the 6 public on something not on the agenda? 7 MR. WADE: The same thing she just 8 addressed. To send the money back to DC. Is that on 9 the agenda today? 10 JUDGE KELLY: No, sir. State your name and 11 your address. 12 MR. WADE: My name is Frank Wade, 175 Beaver 13 Road, Ingram, Texas. And I'm here to ask this Court 14 today to send this money back to the Biden 15 administration, which I consider to be the most criminal 16 treasonous communist government ever to hold the White 17 House. And Kerr County should not be accepting anything 18 from these people. They're currently facilitating an 19 invasion of our border, and we're going to support these 20 people? So that's what I have to say. Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? 22 Mr. King. 23 (Applause.) 24 JUDGE KELLY: Please, no applause. We're 25 here to listen. You may proceed, Mr. King. 13 1 MR. KING: Thank you. Yeah, I'm here to -- 2 to talk about the money, too. And I read on Thursday, I 3 believe it was of last week, we had the Commissioner 4 meeting out at the ag barn. And I read -- can you hand 5 me that, please? I want to read this again for 6 everybody. If y'all would bear with me. 7 This is Section 35.9 of the Treasury -- the 8 Treasury Department of the United States. This is 9 compliance with applicable laws and everyone needs to 10 hear that. Compliance with applicable laws for this 11 money that we, or y'all signed a contract for. 12 A recipient must comply with all other 13 applicable, excuse me, Federal statutes, regulations and 14 executive orders. And a recipient shall provide for 15 compliance within the American Rescue Plan Act this 16 subpart, and any interpretive guidance by other parties 17 in any agreement it enters into with other parties 18 relating to these funds. 19 Now, this goes on and it says that this -- 20 they have -- in other words, they have the power that if 21 anybody screws this up, excuse my language, and messes 22 up the -- what do you say, the -- the -- 23 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: The conformance. 24 MR. KING: No. The distribution of this 25 money -- 14 1 JUDGE KELLY: No interruptions. 2 MR. KING: -- the distribution of these 3 monies, you make a mistake. Okay. Then what are they 4 going to -- what are they going to do if we make a 5 mistake and we're in non-compliance? Well, if they're 6 going by executive orders and any laws that they want to 7 make up, they can come in and take our homes. Is that 8 correct? They can do whatever they want to do. They 9 can make you take a vaccine. They can make you do this, 10 do that. This says anything, basically, in 11 non-compliance. And I want to ask you, Judge. And I'd 12 like a response, if you don't mind. 13 JUDGE KELLY: No, sir. This is the input 14 part of the meeting. Public input only. We are not 15 allowed to respond -- 16 MR. KING: Okay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: -- by law. 18 MR. KING: Then I'm going to make a 19 statement. On Thursday of last week at the 20 Commissioners meeting, you made a statement that 21 everything was a rumor on this compliance law 35.9. And 22 you made a statement that you called, I believe, Mayor 23 Bonnie White -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: No. 25 MR. KING: Maybe I got the name wrong. I 15 1 don't know. But anyway, my point is this is in black 2 and white. These are the laws from the Federal 3 Government that apply to this contract that you have 4 signed. So you're putting all of us under a federal 5 mandate until 2026 when this could not be paid back. 6 And I -- you know, it's at some point I want to put on 7 the agenda that we talk about this, too, because -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. King, your time is up. 9 MR. KING: Okay. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Please state your name and 11 address. 12 MS. CASEY: Good morning, Monday morning. 13 My name is Rita Casey, I live at 136 Upala Springs 14 Ranch. And I spent the weekend lining through the 15 guidelines and I'm only hear to ask questions. And I 16 know you can't answer them. But I'm going to just ask 17 questions, if that's okay. 18 I assume that you're all familiar with the 19 guidelines, and I assume that the County Attorney has 20 given advice on the guidelines and that you're 21 comfortable with it because you signed this. And since 22 I'm limited to three minutes, I have only three sections 23 but I'm going to have to skip to some -- what I think 24 are the most important. And what you signed -- this is 25 my understanding. That the Treasury IG and the GAO can 16 1 access records electronically or otherwise in order to 2 conduct audits or other investments. I don't know if 3 that is what the County and the State does. Allow the 4 Federal Government access to investigate you by 5 electronically accessing your records? I don't know. 6 But it's in this contract that you signed. 7 I have to scratch some things. 8 Okay. We were told that this won't be 9 invested in any way by any Biden Executive Order. 10 That's true. Because a contract is with the Treasury 11 Department, and Yellen, the secretary, has reserved 12 rights to add additional regulations when necessary. 13 You'll find that in here. I think that's important. 14 Because I wouldn't sign a contract that somebody could 15 add to. 16 And I'm not going to -- when I talk I'm not 17 going to refer to any of the 35.9 or any IRS 18 regulations, though I did go check them. Like 602 GI or 19 602(c)(2)(A), because that would just bore everybody. 20 It bored me. And this is how -- this is how I see it. 21 I'm not a contract lawyer, but in a contract there's an 22 exchange of values between two people. So the Federal 23 Government is giving us money. And what are we giving 24 them? I think this is important. No direct or indirect 25 decrease in taxes. We all hope and pray for tax relief. 17 1 And Bandera County just lowered their tax rate. We're 2 hoping the same thing to happen to us, but it won't 3 under this. And who determines what's indirect? 4 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Casey, your time is up. 5 MS. CASEY: Can I just finish this one 6 thought? 7 JUDGE KELLY: We've got enough people here 8 to speak. I think somebody else will cover it. 9 MS. CASEY: Can I -- where can I ask my 10 questions? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Not in the public input part. 12 MS. CASEY: Okay. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? 14 MS. KING: My name is Marcia King. I live 15 here in Kerrville. And I'm going to talk about the 16 American Rescue Plan Act. I want to read. When the 17 States and Counties and Cities accept the monies from 18 the American Rescue Plan Act, it comes with serious 19 strings attached. Whomever takes this money, they're 20 contractually obliged to adhere to mandatory 21 vaccinations of all their employees and also all 22 subcontractors and their employees. 23 Since these states and counties and cities 24 have signed the contract with the devil, it supersedes 25 an unconstitutional mandate. It is a contractual 18 1 agreement. If the recipient doesn't follow these 2 mandates, they must give the money back and there also 3 may be some penalties. 4 And we've all read that in compliance with 5 applicable law and regulations. Recipients agrees to 6 comply with the requirements of Section 603 of the Act. 7 Regulations adopted by the Treasury pursuant to Texas 8 603 of the Act and guidance issued by the Treasury 9 regarding any of the foregoing, agrees and complies with 10 all the with all other applicable Federal statutes, 11 regulations and executive orders. It enters into with 12 other parties relating to this bribe, award, whatever 13 you want to call it. 14 Okay. The money can also be used to buy out 15 small businesses, which then becomes part of the State 16 owned takeover of our economy. Communist style. And as 17 they kill all the mom and pop businesses and supply 18 chain businesses, they can then mandate anything they 19 want because of the contractual terms of the funds 20 taken. 21 This replaces the free market with the 22 federal stimulus money. The Federal contractual 23 takeover of the private sector of all across America is 24 then combined with the mass vaccination mandates in all 25 sectors of society. The enormity of this evil is beyond 19 1 belief. And it is only exceeded by our public officials 2 all too eager to take any money, no matter what the 3 consequence is. 4 It is clearly imperative that we tell our 5 county commissioners to get this dark money back and not 6 tie ourselves to endless rounds of forced testing, 7 contact tracing, quarantine and forced vaccinations. 8 This is clearly unconstitutional but uses this overlay 9 of the fact of contract law to push this agenda which 10 would not succeed with simple -- with simply a mandate. 11 This is clearly not in the best interest of the people. 12 Our local government and these -- if you 13 push back on -- in the strongest way. I ask you to send 14 the money back. Refund it. We don't need it here. 15 Thank you. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I see a hand in the back. 17 MS. CARSON: Hello. My name is Tamara 18 Carson, 241 Rock Bottom Road, Hunt, Texas. 19 I'm very concerned about the direction that 20 this could take us as a County. And I'm just asking 21 that you please use your wisdom and your knowledge and 22 understanding of the laws and please apply it to this. 23 I'm begging you. 24 We're landowners here. I was born and 25 raised in Texas. I went to high school in Ingram. And 20 1 I'm currently running a ranch right now and all of this 2 will fall down on all of us. Tax is a heavy thing and I 3 know that there's strings attached to this. And I know 4 y'all know that too. And I'm just begging you, please, 5 don't accept this. 6 I understand if you've already went through 7 the process, but please just -- just take a second look, 8 please. That's all I want to say. Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Yes, ma'am? 10 MS. KING: My name is Nickie King and I live 11 here in Kerrville. I'm also a Marine Corps veteran. 12 And I know that this -- we moved here from Virginia 13 because Kerrville was so pro veteran. And I know and I 14 remember the oath of office that I took when I entered 15 the Marine Corps. And it breaks my heart that we have 16 our State Governor and our State Attorney General is 17 fighting for us against the very mandates that may fall 18 within ARPA. 19 And I ask that you consider the fact that if 20 this goes through, and you handout so-called free money, 21 which my momma always told me nothing is free, that you 22 will then be, according to the government, you will then 23 be asking our local law enforcement to enforce those 24 mandates, and that I know at least Sheriff Leitha ran as 25 a constitutional Sheriff. 21 1 So I ask that you reconsider accepting this 2 money, like all the previous speakers have said, and 3 send it back and let Kerrville take care of Kerrville. 4 There are numerous other counties that have rejected it. 5 And I honestly don't understand why Kerrville cannot do 6 the same. Thank you. 7 MS. HARSTON: Good morning. My name is 8 Suzanne Harston, I live at 531 Saddlewood Boulevard in 9 Kerrville. I am recently, in the last 13 years, come to 10 the great State of Texas. I left the People's Republic 11 of California back in 2005. I do not want to see 12 this -- this great state or this great county that I 13 live in move in that direction. So I'm begging you, 14 like the other speakers, please do not take this money. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, ma'am? 16 MS. LEITNER: Hi. My name is Anke Leitner, 17 and I live in Ingram. And basically I would also ask 18 you not to accept that money since there are so many 19 strings attached to it. 20 Also, as you can see, a lot of your 21 residents do not support this choice. And in my 22 opinion, maybe you should have a public vote on that to 23 actually get the true statement of your voters on that 24 issue, and maybe reconsider what your actually voters 25 want and not a panel of four people or five people. 22 1 Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? Go 3 ahead. 4 MR. REXACH: Good morning. I'm Joe Rexach, 5 I live at 277 Willow Bend Drive. I have more if you 6 need that. I've only been able to -- I've only 7 addressed you folks once before. But I believe you to 8 be good men. I don't believe you're our enemy. But I 9 do believe you're making a big mistake. I believe 10 you've missed what's being presented. 11 I actually last night did some reading. 12 This is hard to find, this material. This is -- this is 13 not -- and it's not surprising by the Brandon 14 administration -- and they've earned that name -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: Come to order. 16 MR. REXACH: -- that there is not just lack 17 of transparency, but they're pulling the wool over our 18 eyes. If we see what's actually written, we make a 19 clear decision. This is wrong. Texas has been going in 20 the right direction. I moved from Washington State a 21 year ago. Washington is just falling lock step with 22 whatever this administration wants to do. And we're 23 watching with clarity the damage. 24 As far as COVID and the recovery money, the 25 majority of the damage has been caused by the 23 1 government. We're doing well. I'm a retired 2 firefighter, EMS, love law enforcement. Do no harm is 3 going by the wayside from -- we're all familiar with 4 that. And it's heartfelt. But it's going by the 5 wayside for now what would be money that would go 6 against everything that we believe. Whatever good is in 7 it, I don't want it. 8 I -- I'm in agreement with my fellow 9 citizens. And I just thank you. But please reconsider 10 and look at the details of this. I know you're -- 11 you're smart men. You've got -- you're good men. 12 Please look at this and reevaluate it. And I believe 13 when you look at it, as I'm now seeing much of this for 14 the first time, having sought it out, couldn't find it, 15 you're going to be in agreement. I think we're on the 16 same side. Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir? 18 MR. PIPER: Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks 19 for hearing us out, Judge and Commissioners. I'm 20 Michael Piper. Kerrville resident all my life. Two 21 businesses I run in this City. 22 At the beginning of COVID they came out with 23 all these plans to help the business owner out and my 24 brother came to me and said, Michael, aren't you 25 applying for these loans? And I said well, there's 24 1 three things. I said, there's always strings attached 2 with the government. I don't want to look my grandkids 3 in the face and say I spent your money. And -- excuse 4 me. It -- it was tough. I didn't take the money. 5 I didn't want to have to be answering to 6 anybody, you know. I've been a self-made guy. I don't 7 want to answer to anybody to run my businesses. I don't 8 want to pay nothing back. I -- I'm in a circumstance 9 right now where I'm debt free and I didn't want to do 10 it. It was tough. 11 But my businesses absolutely went broke. 12 I'll be honest with you about that. But I took it on 13 the chin of my thought, I worked my own kitchen by 14 myself for eight months. Let's stand up and do that 15 stuff. I'm not trying to pass anymore judgment on 16 anybody else. You can do what you want. If businesses 17 took the money, that's fine. They -- some of them 18 probably needed it. They probably had mortgages to pay, 19 but I didn't. I was in a unique circumstance. But we 20 can do it. We can do it without the Federal Government 21 patting us on the back going hey, good job, guys. You 22 took our money and now we've got our thumb on ya. 23 So reconsider, guys. I -- I know a lot of 24 you guys. I've spoke before you before and I know you 25 make really good judgment calls. And I -- I have all 25 1 the faith in the world in y'all. Thank you very much. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. I see a hand in 3 the back. 4 MR. BOLES: My name is Rick Boles, 161 T Bar 5 Ranch Road, Mountain Home, Texas. I'm a third 6 generation farmer and rancher. I spent my life teaching 7 kids about agriculture and anybody who's spent any time 8 farming and ranching knows it's a hard row to hoe to 9 make ends meet. 10 And we -- I made a commitment to my 11 father-in-law, a ranch that's been in our family a 12 hundred years, and I made a commitment to him that I 13 would carry on a heritage. When we accept this 14 government money, what happens, I will not stand by and 15 let them take the ranch that we've worked a hundred 16 years for. And if that be the case, I plead with you do 17 not take this money. Thank you for hearing me. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Anyone else from the public? 19 Yes, sir? 20 MR. OAKS: Good morning. My name is Howard 21 Oaks(phonetic), I live at 714 Jackson Road, over by 22 Trinity Baptist Church. I've only been here a year. I 23 moved here a year ago from California. Thank God. And 24 it is right. People's Republic of California. This is 25 what happens to a state or a community when you 26 1 constantly are in cahoots with the powers that be. With 2 the government. 3 California was the best state in the world 4 to live in 40 years ago. Low taxes. Great schools. It 5 was outstanding. I lived there since 1954. I want to 6 tell you that if you go the way California is, we're all 7 going to move to Florida. 8 So I just ask you respectfully, and this is 9 the first time I've ever spoken to a group like this, 10 but I have fought some fights in California for several 11 years trying to keep government at a minimum and keep 12 freedom alive. I appreciate your time. Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, ma'am? 14 MS. HANNAH: Hello. My name is Katy Chapman 15 Hannah. I'm a registered nurse, and I live at 1343 16 Bandera Highway in Kerrville, Texas. 17 I happen to know that there is no such thing 18 as free money. It's never government-funded; it's 19 tax-payer funded. So they're taking our money and 20 they're putting strings attached to it and then they're 21 giving it back to us. And they're going to get their 22 foot in the door in this county. We don't want their 23 money. I feel like the people have spoken and I stand 24 with the people. Thank you for your time. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? 27 1 Yes, ma'am? 2 MS. DEWELL: My name is Barbara Dewell. I 3 live in Kerrville. I think this is a great commission. 4 I think you guys have done -- made really, really good 5 decisions. And like one of the other speakers 6 mentioned, I do believe that this was a mistake. 7 Like some of the others, I moved here from 8 Colorado. Not California, but Colorado. But for the 9 exact same reason. I watched my state deteriorate. And 10 it continues to give in to Federal authority. Over all 11 kinds of aspects of our lives. We moved here and just 12 thank God for Texas. And I'd like to see it stay that 13 way. 14 I had never been involved in local politics 15 until I came here. But when we left Colorado I said, I 16 will get involved locally. I will not watch it happen 17 in another state without my having some input and saying 18 stop. This is where we draw the line. This is where we 19 hold the line. And I think all of you gentlemen here 20 want that, too. And I'm asking you to reconsider your 21 decision and send back the money. Keep Kerr County 22 free. Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? Yes, 24 sir? 25 MR. MOTLONG: My name is Josh Motlong. I 28 1 reside at 1701 Quinlan Creek Drive. Thank you for -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: I'm -- I'm sorry. I was 3 distracted by the clerk. 4 MRS. DOWDY: I apologize. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Could you please state your 6 name again? 7 MR. MOTLONG: Yeah, Josh Motlong. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 9 MR. MOTLONG: Thank you gentlemen for 10 serving for what you do. I just want to add my voice to 11 my brothers and sisters here. And I feel that this 12 money has an open-ended unclear level of attachment to 13 the government. Strings they could pull. Changes they 14 could take on us if we were to take this money. I don't 15 think it's a safe or wise decision. I'd appreciate your 16 considering sending that money back and breaking our 17 ties with them. Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Any other input from the 19 public? Yes, ma'am? 20 MS. BEARD: I am Lillian Beard. I live at 21 120 Via Vista Drive in Kerrville. We have been in 22 Kerrville about four years this month. And we moved 23 here because Kerrville was a nice, conservative town 24 that didn't have strings with the Federal Government 25 that would stop us from keeping our homes, keeping our 29 1 ranches, keeping our businesses. 2 I am an Army veteran. And from being in the 3 government, in the military, I know for sure that there 4 are strings attached to anything the government gives 5 you for free. Whether it appears so in the beginning, 6 it will come at you when you're least expecting it and 7 there will be nothing we can do about it. And please 8 send this money back. 9 We were on a trip in August. And we were 10 driving through Nebraska. And I was talking to a 11 gentleman at the convenience store and he asked me where 12 we were from. And I told him Texas. And he said, oh 13 good, that you guys will probably be the first state to 14 succeed from the union. And I said we just might do 15 that. And he said well, if you do, we're hoping that 16 you'll take Nebraska with us. 17 But if we keep this money and we have all 18 these strings attached, there won't be anybody to come 19 help us. There won't be anybody on our side. And like 20 I said, I told this gentleman, you know, you're more 21 than welcome to try Texas. We'll be glad to have you. 22 But not if things like this are happening. I feel like 23 I could call this gentleman and say stop. Don't ever 24 advocate for your state to go along with Texas. Thank 25 you, gentlemen. 30 1 MRS. DOWDY: I have Terri Hall. Can we 2 start calling names on the list? 3 JUDGE KELLY: No, we cannot. Because those 4 are agenda items. These are not agenda items. 5 Yes, sir? 6 MR. FITCH: Good morning. My name is Bill 7 Fitch, I'm at 403 Forest Ridge Drive. And I just have 8 two things to say. And I'm quoting. And I know y'all 9 know who this is. The most terrifying words in the 10 English language are, I'm from the government and I'm 11 here to help you. Ronald Reagan. He also said 12 something that I don't remember him saying. If I put my 13 glasses on I'll be able to read it. 14 As government expands, liberty contracts. 15 And that's what's going to happen with this thing. 16 We're going to lose our liberties. I beg you, send this 17 money back. Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Yes? 19 MS. HAMMERLEIN: Good morning. My name is 20 Maria Hammerlein and I am a Kerrville resident. I also 21 came from -- well, I hate to say but refer to as the 22 socialist county, Harris County. We got -- I got to 23 Harris County about 12 years ago. And it was still 24 being run by conservatives at the County level. And I 25 just want to let you know what's happened. Since -- 31 1 it's been -- well, since the Beto -- when he ran for 2 Governor -- I mean Senator, we totally -- it totally 3 went blue. Every -- almost every judge. All but two 4 County Commissioners. Now there's just one left. And 5 it's totally been taken over. 6 We went through Hurricane Harvey. We were 7 there all by ourselves like an island in the middle of 8 water. Since we left, they have had so many floods and 9 catastrophes and who's at the helm? Well, it's -- it's 10 a socialist Marxist Regime. 11 They have -- I can't really tell you how I 12 know this, but the regime that's there running elections 13 has been in collusion with the White House, taking the 14 people from the border into the areas where they know 15 they need the buffer. They need more votes. 16 What I'm telling you is that -- don't trust 17 them. Don't allow them to take one inch of space 18 because if they do, we will never get it back. Just 19 trying to tell what you happened there in my experience. 20 So thank God we're here. I'm a native Texan. I am 21 almost 40 percent Native American. And the rest is 22 Spanish. 23 I got here -- my family got here before 24 many, many that are here. My great-grandfather came 25 here to kill Indians. But he married one. So that's my 32 1 heritage. I bleed Texas -- this is -- this is in my 2 blood. I can't even help it. I mean I cry. I weep 3 over this land. Don't just -- so I just want to 4 encourage you. You have our prayers. And we hope, you 5 know, that you'll do the right thing. Thank you. God 6 bless you. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? Yes, 8 sir? 9 MR. KARP: I too am from Colorado. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Identify yourself, please. 11 MR. KARP: Pardon? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Identify yourself. State your 13 name. 14 MR. KARP: I'm David Karp(phonetic) from 15 Kerrville. And as you can see how Colorado has turned 16 out. Now the Governor has made an Executive Order that 17 the hospitals don't even have to take ya, if you haven't 18 been vaccinated. I left that state. I loved it. I 19 lived there for a lot of years. But then it went over 20 the hill. And so now I'm in Texas. 21 And you know, Texas is not a state; it's a 22 way of life. And there's no reason to take this money. 23 I would urge you to give it back. Very seriously. 24 Thank you. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Any other public 33 1 input? Yes, ma'am? 2 MS. RADIAN: I recently moved -- my name is 3 Shandra Radian(phonetic), and I live at 220 Ranch Road 4 Drive in Hunt, Texas. And I moved here a week ago, 5 taking asylum from the State of Hawaii. They've been 6 totally bought out. And it's very fascist. 7 And like I'm a native Texan, and I love this 8 state with all my heart and soul. And I don't see how 9 you can accept this money with everyone -- I have seen 10 these people at the last two meetings. The one where it 11 was at the Youth Center, and after that, Liberty in 12 Action. 13 I don't see how in good conscious you can 14 take it with this level of public clarity and 15 confidence. It's a matter of conscience. This is what 16 our forefather's fought for. My father was a Marine in 17 Guadalcanal and he would flip out if he thought that 18 Kerrville was going to take this money. It is 19 definitely a trap. 20 If you read the fine print, there is no 21 doubt in my mind we're going to be forced to do things 22 we don't want to do. So whatever you paid out to hire a 23 few people to administer it, you can find some way to 24 refund it and change your mind like the other counties 25 have. Thank you. 34 1 JUDGE KELLY: We've been very patient. Is 2 there any other public input? 3 Thank you. Now, I want to personally thank 4 you for the way we've conducted this -- this input so 5 that everybody had a chance to say what they wanted to 6 say. And you brought your input to us and we've 7 listened. And we've done it in a -- 8 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Turn your speaker on. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, I'm sorry. Can you hear 10 me better now? 11 AUDIENCE: Yes. Much. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I was thanking you for the way 13 that you have comported yourself in this public input 14 portion of our meeting today. This is the way business 15 should be run. This is the way the courthouse and local 16 government should be run. So that everybody has the 17 opportunity to give input to your elected officials. 18 And we have sat here patiently and attentively listened. 19 And with that, we're going to move on to the 20 regular part of the agenda. I -- I really appreciate 21 the -- the way this meeting was handled. The one ended 22 on Thursday, that shouldn't happen. We need to be more 23 respectful of one another than that. 24 So with that, we're going to move on to the 25 next part of the agenda. If people want to leave at 35 1 this point, you're welcome to. We can take a short 2 break if people are going to be leaving. If you're 3 going to be staying, you're welcome to stay. You're 4 always welcome to come to come to Commissioners' Court. 5 (Break.) 6 JUDGE KELLY: Come back to order. Okay. 7 The next item on the agenda are Commissioner Comments. 8 Do we have any comments from -- well, I lost one 9 Commissioner. We still have a quorum though. Any 10 comments, Beck? 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: No. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Comments? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. I want to thank 14 everyone for their comments today. Appreciate it. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Very well. Then we'll go on 16 to the Consideration Agenda, Item 1.1 -- it's going to 17 be passed. Is that right? Item 1.1 is going to be 18 passed, is that right, Charlie, for ten o'clock? 19 MR. HASTINGS: We can. We can pass it until 20 later in the agenda if you like. 21 JUDGE KELLY: It is 11 o'clock. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or could we do it now? 24 MR. HASTINGS: We can do it now also. 25 Either way. 36 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, let's just go -- 2 stay with the agenda. Item 1.1 consider, discuss and 3 take appropriate action to amend the contract with 4 J3 Company for the Ranchero Road Reconstruction Project. 5 Charlie Hastings. 6 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. There's 7 two parts to this. As you know, a couple weeks ago we 8 awarded the project to J3 Construction Company to 9 reconstruct Ranchero Road. Phase 1 is from Highway 16 10 to Fallow Run -- is that right? I've forgotten the name 11 of the road. But it's 1.3 miles and it gets you past 12 the schools, so there's some concerns about being able 13 to reconstruct while school is in session. 14 We've got Thanksgiving coming up and we have 15 an opportunity with the students being out for a whole 16 week of Thanksgiving to make some things happen. The 17 main reason we have this item on the agenda is that we 18 want to make sure that this contract that we awarded 19 will be eligible for reimbursement through FEMA, should 20 FEMA make this this project eligible for reimbursement. 21 And so there was some language that we 22 talked about adding to it and we have run that through 23 the County Attorney and -- I don't know where she is. 24 There we go. I've got to get oriented in this new room 25 where everyone is. And I think she's got that ready to 37 1 go. I think we have an addendum in front of the Judge 2 that could -- so we're asking the Court to authorize the 3 Judge to sign that addendum. 4 But additionally, now I want to talk about 5 the means and methods of how this contract is going to 6 work and how the reconstruction can be done. The 7 contractor has come back and said look, I think if you 8 will allow me to change the means and methods, I can for 9 the same price give you a little bit different product 10 that is going to increase the work schedule -- or reduce 11 the work schedule by probably as much as three weeks, 12 two to three weeks, so that we can get in and get out. 13 What he'd like to do is to use the melding 14 machine like he was before and mill through that top two 15 inches of hot mix asphalt, the old asphalt. He'd like 16 to go three inches deep, okay, to take out some of the 17 base. And then because before what we were going to do 18 is mill two inches and then we were going to go six 19 inches. We were going to roto mix and rework the base. 20 And if you've seen base construction, you 21 know it's great when there's no traffic. But this is -- 22 and I'll say something that Mike Tower used to always 23 say. He goes this is basically serving the Thanksgiving 24 dinner in your house and everyone's there while your 25 house is being renovated. Same thing for Ranchero Road. 38 1 There's a lot of traffic on there. The traffic has to 2 keep going, they have to have a way for the traffic to 3 go. 4 So if they mill three inches and they take 5 out some of the base, if there's a soft spot, which we 6 know there's a certain percentage of the road that's 7 soft spot, that's why we're doing this project. It'll 8 find those soft spots and it'll mill a little more right 9 there. They believe that there should be about a 10 hundred tons of overrun. I think there will be about 11 two hundred tons of overrun. 12 So what we'd like to do is do a change order 13 that would allow them to use this different methodology, 14 and I'm still negotiating with them on how much overrun 15 I think there would be. There would be a charge if 16 there was more than a hundred tons of overrun of $151 17 per ton. I think it's going to be closer to somewhere 18 around 200 just from my geotech report. I could be 19 wrong, but I want to feel comfortable about this. 20 If they were to use this different 21 methodology, they would start work next Wednesday and 22 they would work all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, all 23 day Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday, and then 24 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that following week, 25 which the kids will be out of school on Saturday, 39 1 Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. They would stop 2 work the day before Thanksgiving. They would take off 3 Thanksgiving Day, day after Thanksgiving and that whole 4 weekend, Saturday and Sunday. They'd come back on that 5 following Monday and finish up whatever needs to be 6 done. 7 But this would allow for hot mix to be 8 placed almost immediately after the top layer of base 9 has been removed, which means you can put traffic back 10 on it at the end of the same day and you don't have to 11 dust, you don't have -- you're not re-watering the base, 12 you're not doing all these things that are very 13 disruptive, very time consuming. 14 And if the weather cooperates, they can get 15 in and out in -- maybe in two to three weeks instead of 16 three to six weeks and then we're knocking on the door 17 of Christmas. Instead, maybe we'll be done a lot 18 sooner. 19 With all that being said, I'm asking for the 20 Court to authorize the Judge to sign the amendment to 21 the contract, which is no cost at all. It just adds in 22 additional language that FEMA likes in contract so that 23 they can reimburse you if they select you to be 24 reimbursed, as like wage rate requirements and so forth, 25 which this contractor is completely familiar with doing 40 1 that. They're a big contractor. They do a lot of State 2 jobs. That doesn't bother them at all. 3 I would also like for the Court to authorize 4 the Judge to sign a change order that includes a that 5 $20,000 contingent fee, just in case more than a hundred 6 tons needs to come out when they're in there milling. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When we added the 8 20,000, are they still the low bidder? 9 MR. HASTINGS: Oh, yes. By far. 10 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I recommend the change 11 order. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. There's a motion. Is 13 there a second? 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second. 15 MR. HASTINGS: There's also the addendum 16 too. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: And the addendum, yes. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second that. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So we've got a motion and a 20 second to approve the modification of the contract with 21 J3 Company to include this different methodology. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 23 JUDGE KELLY: As well as a contingency -- 24 change order for contingency of $20,000.00. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 41 1 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. Can you point to 3 a road that has had this done here in Kerr County that 4 we can look at? 5 MR. HASTINGS: I -- I can tell you that when 6 the Guadalupe Lowry project was done when I worked for 7 the City, they used asphalt as the base on that -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Guadalupe Road? 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. Guadalupe Street. 10 And that road is in great shape today. That was almost 11 20 years ago. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. There's an 13 example of it. 14 MR. HASTINGS: There's an example of it. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And we have the money 16 for this, and we might get reimbursed for it with some 17 of the winter storm funds. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. We're very hopeful 19 for that. And we won't, if we don't do the addendum 20 that changes the language, FEMA won't reimburse it. But 21 our -- if we do get reimbursed, that language is in 22 there, we're covered. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 24 Those in favor raise your hand. Four zero. 25 Item 1.2 consider, discuss and take 42 1 appropriate action on a request to clean up property 2 located at Storage Lane East in Center Point. 3 Mr. Muslin. 4 MR. MUSLIN: Good morning. My name is Greg 5 Muslin, I live at 310 Colvin Ranch Road. What I'd like 6 to address is the property at the corner of Bowlin Lane 7 East and Storage -- excuse me, Bowlin Lane and Storage 8 Lane East. I've got pictures that I'd like to 9 distribute, if that's okay. I have several sets of 10 them. Because to kind of explain -- I'm trying to 11 explain what that looks like over there and the 12 violations that this place is under. It would do me no 13 good. I think those pictures will clearly -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: I've seen them. 15 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I've seen them. 16 MR. MUSLIN: -- explain what it looks like. 17 It could be in violation of every health code that there 18 is. It's not only on the property at that location, 19 it's spilled out into the street. They've got junk and 20 trash and vehicles out in the road now, on the sides of 21 the road. 22 At this location there's also children that 23 play there, ride their bicycles there. And bordering 24 that is a storage building that is -- there's many 25 businesses that are run out of there. People sell goods 43 1 and products out of there. Myself being one of them. 2 I have a -- I don't actually sell out of 3 there. But I have a welding shop in one of those -- one 4 of those units. And its worked well for me with the 5 exception of -- of this -- this property behind it. 6 I've worked there late at night and I know that there 7 are people coming and going at all hours, 2, 3 o'clock 8 in the morning. I feel certain there's drugs being 9 dealt out of that place. 10 I don't know if EPA has been contacted or 11 gotten involved with that, but they -- they work on lawn 12 mowers and stuff like that. I personally witnessed them 13 pouring oil, antifreeze and other stuff right out on the 14 ground. It's my understanding -- I've talked to 15 Commissioner Gipson about it, Officer Gore and Officer 16 Givens. I know that they all support me on this. 17 It's my understanding that the owner of this 18 property passed several years ago and the man that has 19 been renting it now for a couple years is paying taxes 20 on it. So consequently, they can't give him any 21 citations and make him show up in Court or -- or make 22 him do anything about it. 23 At the same time, there's renters -- what he 24 refers to as renters, what we know to be vagrants 25 basically, moving in and out of there. And I don't mean 44 1 one or two. But over the years, there have been 2 probably five that I can identify. He can't -- he can't 3 kick these people out due to the laws. He's attempted 4 to. 5 The last one that I know was there is either 6 in jail or prison now because he took a baseball bat to 7 someone and so we don't have to deal with him anymore. 8 But there's a couple other people in that location now. 9 It's been explained to me that there's 10 nothing, as I say, that -- that they can do because of 11 that. However, I don't think that we can allow this to 12 go on until this man has finished the term of paying the 13 taxes where he becomes owner of this property, which is 14 what is currently the plan. 15 Like I say, there's children that play on 16 this street. It's -- that is so -- so detrimental for 17 those kids. It's detrimental for the businesses as 18 well. It's been brought to my attention that the County 19 has a very small amount of money, amount of funds for 20 revocation of these properties. However, the City has a 21 large budget on that. 22 I'm wondering if there's any way that we can 23 reallocate those funds or when the next cycle is up, 24 that we can -- we can have more money put in that 25 County, because the County fund -- because the amount 45 1 that's in there, if we did have the authority to go in 2 and clean that up, it is not near what is necessary to 3 clean this property up. That's even seeing these 4 pictures. 5 It is -- it would take -- it would take more 6 than we have that would -- it would take the entire 7 month that's in the County's revocation fund for that 8 and probably five times what is in there right now. I 9 don't know where we can go with that, but I think the 10 public awareness and bringing it to everybody's 11 attention can't be a bad thing here. That's what I'm 12 here for today. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I visited with Reagan 14 Givens a little earlier today and Sean. And something 15 does need to be done, I agree totally with what you're 16 saying, Mr. Muslin. I think the next step is probably 17 to refer to the County Attorney to look -- track down 18 the owner. The owner of the property is the one we have 19 to go after as I understand it. And we can go and clean 20 the property up and file a lien on the property. We 21 have done that in the past. 22 MR. MUSLIN: The -- the owner is deceased. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, but there's -- 24 it's in the -- somewhere it's in an estate. Someone got 25 title to that property. And I mean I'm -- it's up to 46 1 the County Attorney. It's not up to us to decide that 2 here. But we can go in there and clean it up, as long 3 as the County Attorney is, you know, doing the proper 4 procedure and we can file a lien against the property to 5 recoup our value and then foreclose on it. 6 And we have done it in the past. It's a 7 lengthy procedure. And I think that's the direction we 8 need to go on this and there may be some others. As to 9 the funding, I think that we could do a -- if we get to 10 the point of being able to clean it up, I think we could 11 do a budget amendment this year to do it. Because I 12 think it's about, based on Reagan's estimate it's about 13 $35,000 for us to clean and haul the trash off. 14 MR. MUSLIN: Yes, sir. That sounds great. 15 I would sure like to get the ball rolling on that. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. And there are 17 other properties in the County that have -- are in the 18 same situation. So I think you are correct that we need 19 to relook at our annual funding for this type of work. 20 Because if people aren't going to do it, we'll just have 21 to do it ourselves. 22 MR. MUSLIN: I'll volunteer. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's Reagan. 24 MR. GIVENS: Yeah. We can answer any 25 questions that y'all may have. I brought Deputy Gore 47 1 with me and he's actually been working on that for quite 2 awhile. So I don't know if you have any questions or 3 not? 4 DEPUTY GORE: Sean Gore, Deputy Constable 5 Precinct 2. I have a copy of photos as well. And a 6 copy of an estimate that I got from IWS. Would you like 7 those? 8 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 9 DEPUTY GORE: So I spoke with Harry Holt 10 about it just last week. And he went out and looked at 11 the property in detail. And -- and just to haul the 12 stuff off, not including the dump fees, it's the very 13 last page, it's about 18,000 and some change. And he 14 estimated the dump fees to be about 12 to 15 on this 15 particular property that's been an issue for many, many 16 years in Kerr County. Our records go back in the 17 program that we used in 2008, and there's been cases on 18 this place since 2009. 19 JUDGE KELLY: How big a property is it? 20 Approximately? 21 DEPUTY GORRE: I brought that. Hold this, 22 please. .45 acres. 23 JUDGE KELLY: .45? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The property, I'm trying 25 to understand where it is, as far as you can go into 48 1 Center Point from Kerrville on the right side of the 2 road there's some storage buildings that little shops 3 are in, like Mr. Muslin says, it's the property right 4 behind that building. Between that building and the 5 river. Kind of right there. It's -- it's a problem. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is it a public health 7 problem? 8 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. 9 MR. GORE: There's solid waste issues. 10 Gumaro Ramirez with OSSF has been out there for septic 11 violations. If you would like -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I want everybody 13 to understand this is -- because all of us get calls 14 about this, so and so has junk pile up over here. This 15 guy's place looks terrible. If it's not a public health 16 risk, if there's not rats coming over the fence, or 17 there's mosquitos -- it's mosquito infested or you've 18 got septic backup, those are public health issues. 19 We don't just go around looking at 20 somebody's property to make sure that they don't have, 21 you know, a car on blocks or something. We'd all like 22 to not see that, but you don't -- 23 DEPUTY GORE: There -- there is a public 24 health risk there. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what I'm saying. 49 1 I want to make sure -- 2 DEPUTY GORE: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- everybody 4 understands that. 5 DEPUTY GORE: There -- and, of course, it's 6 always violations, but public health risk and nuisance 7 violations. This morning when I was taking photos, 8 there's an awful odor coming from that property. 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: One other question. 10 And I -- I went and looked at this property but I didn't 11 realize it until I went back. Is Storage Lane East 12 actually a street? 13 MR. GORE: Yes, it is. 14 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: It is, Okay. So it's 15 off private property that's backed up to Storage. Okay. 16 MR. GORE: It's 102 through 110 -- 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Okay. Good. 18 MR. GORE: -- is the numerical address. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Okay, Harley. Just to give 20 y'all a better idea, we've ran several search warrants 21 there, made several arrests. Arrest warrants, search 22 warrants. To kind of give you the physical aspects of 23 the place, it's a single-wide trailer. It literally 24 just has huge holes in it. It just rains in there. 25 There's -- there's needles all over the 50 1 place. Animals going to the restroom all over the 2 place. It just, you know, truly needs to be bulldozed 3 out. It's a regular place, we go over there a lot. And 4 it's been patrolled for a long time. 5 Like he said, there is kids that play over 6 there and there's a lot of drug activity over there. We 7 just keep putting them in jail. But like I say, it's a 8 very nasty place and it needs to be cleaned up. 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Thank you. 10 MR. MUSLIN: Where do we start legally on 11 something like this? At your office? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, Reagan and Sean can 13 work to get a report done and there's State Law that we 14 have to follow in order to go through and give them the 15 notice, and clean it up and in order to get the liens on 16 the property appropriately. I mean, it's a lot of money 17 for that clean up. 18 MR. GIVENS: Well, just -- that's the 19 abatement process and -- is what she's referring to and 20 that's been our issue is just the amount of money. 21 Right now we're budgeted, I believe, about 69 hundred 22 dollars per year. Which in the past has been enough to 23 get certain things done. But we do have places like 24 this where we can't seem to get anything accomplished 25 and it's just -- it's pretty far beyond our budgeted 51 1 amount per year. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it seems like to me we 3 need to refer it to somebody to follow up on this. And 4 then we're going to have budgetary issues on how we're 5 going to fund the clean up. The abatement? 6 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: So does it to go to 8 Environmental Health? Does it go to the County 9 Attorney, or the Sheriff's Office? Where do we go? 10 MRS. STEBBINS: Environmental Health and my 11 department, probably Jason, can work together to do -- 12 to comply with that abatement statute. 13 MR. GIVENS: Yeah, I think we can get all 14 that rolling, it's just the money was just the issue. 15 It's -- we can take -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: But your department would take 17 point on it? 18 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Now, if notice 20 is given, whoever owns the property, and do we even know 21 who owns the property? It be an heir or is part of an 22 estate? 23 MR. GORE: Right. So the -- the gentleman 24 that's been paying the taxes, him and I had a 25 conversation about it. The lady that owned it died and 52 1 didn't have any next of kin. They had a verbal 2 agreement that the property would go to him, but that's 3 not the way it works. So he's been paying the taxes on 4 it ever since she passed. 5 JUDGE KELLY: How long ago what that? 6 MR. GORE: I believe it's seven years ago. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, there are ways that 8 legally he has some right if he's been paying the taxes. 9 MR. GORE: And that's -- that's the 10 direction he was going. He did the research on that. 11 And he said -- I don't know what the exact year may be 12 but -- 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, my -- my concern 14 is that rather than taxpayers paying for this, that 15 whoever owns it or wants to own it, they're going to 16 have to be given notice and given the opportunity to 17 clean it up or have the lien on it and perhaps lose it. 18 MR. GORE: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't want the 20 taxpayers having to pay for this if they don't have to. 21 Okay. So that everybody understand that. It's gotta 22 be -- our County Attorney left. There's gotta be -- 23 there's timelines involved. You give notice. This many 24 days passes and then this thing happens and then the 25 next shoe drops and so on. 53 1 MR. GORE: So outside the gentleman that has 2 to pay the taxes that got him to Court and came up with 3 a game plan and he's -- from what he said he's tried to 4 evict people, but like it's been stated in the past, 5 every time you go through there, there's different 6 people. So one eviction that he tried to have served 7 was -- named certain people that were no longer there. 8 There was a new group that had moved in. 9 So he -- I talked to him October the 1st and 10 he said that him and the attorney had discussed a 11 blanket eviction to where any and all parties would be 12 evicted, but I haven't heard anything since. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean I'm not -- if the 14 worse case for the County does have to pay it, I don't 15 want the county to pay for it. We can get the money 16 back when the property is sold. It's not like the 17 taxpayers are just paying for the clean up. We do get 18 reimbursed. But it's not the ideal way to go. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If the property sells 20 for that amount. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe it would in 22 that location, I think. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Pretty close to the river. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a pretty nice 25 lot -- or it could be a nice lot. 54 1 MR. GORE: Any other questions? Thank you, 2 guys. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. This an action item? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I think it was just 5 direction. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So we're going to refer this 7 to the Environmental Health Department. 8 Moving on to Item 1.3 consider, discuss and 9 take appropriate action on replacing the damaged 10 linoleum flooring at the entrance to County Clerk and 11 tax office near the elevator. Commissioner Belew. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This has become a 13 hazard. It looks pretty bad, and I don't care how it 14 looks, but I don't want somebody falling in there. So 15 whether we get -- whether maintenance can do that or 16 whether we have to get somebody contracted to do it, we 17 need to -- we need to do something with that before 18 somebody gets hurt on it. 19 So I didn't -- I did not ask Shane or 20 anybody in the maintenance department if they want to 21 try to tackle that. I'm sure they probably could. 22 They've done other projects that are as involved as 23 that. 24 Probably have to work at night to do it. Or 25 we're going to have to do it after hours anyway, 55 1 regardless of who does it. But I move that we get that 2 floor replaced. I know it's not going to be above the 3 $50,000.00 mark so we don't have to take -- we don't 4 have to take bids. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you want to do a 6 court order or do you just want to tell maintenance to 7 do it? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think we tell 9 maintenance to take care of it. But it does need to be 10 done. So I move that we have Maintenance look into it 11 and get back to us on it. 12 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second that. 13 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 14 second to refer the flooring for -- the linoleum 15 flooring problem at the entrance of the County Clerk and 16 the Tax Office to be referred to maintenance. Any other 17 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Four zero. 18 1.4 consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action to clarify Court Order 38988 approving the use of 20 Hazardous Mitigation Assistance funds to purchase 21 on-demand generators for the Volunteer Fire Departments. 22 Dub Thomas. 23 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 24 morning, Commissioners. Yes, sir. So what we want to 25 do is modify the wording in our hazard mitigation grant 56 1 form for the generators for the Volunteer Fire 2 Departments. Hunt Volunteer Fire Department originally, 3 when I met with y'all last time, we had talked about 4 putting an on-demand generator at the Felix Fisher 5 station. We had since decided that's not going to be -- 6 they would serve better use if they had the Volunteer 7 Fire Department in Guadalupe Ranch Estates that would 8 get that generator at the McKinney station rather than 9 Felix Fisher. 10 And the other change or the other 11 modification is Center Point Volunteer Fire Department, 12 believe it or not, is in the floodplain. So in order to 13 put an on-demand generator there, GrantWorks had 14 explained to us that they were going to need to elevate 15 that generator eight feet off the ground. I mean, 16 that's not really practical at this point. 17 So in order to modify that, we were going to 18 get Center Point Volunteer Fire Department a 48 KW 19 generator that's portable, that they can move. Because 20 they're going to have to keep it away from the station. 21 So those are the two modifications we wanted 22 to make to the grant paperwork. I just wanted -- I just 23 felt like it was appropriate to come before the Court 24 and let y'all know that because last time I had told you 25 we were going to put one at Felix Fisher and the 57 1 on-demand generator at Center Point was going to be just 2 like everybody else's, but we made that little change. 3 And the deadline for that mitigation grant has been 4 extended to January the 15th as of Friday. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval of 7 your agenda idem to modify the request. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 10 approve the modifications to the Hazardous Mitigation 11 Assistance grant application. Any discussion? Those in 12 favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 13 At this time we have several timed items 14 that we need to go to. I've tried to get past the 15 people that were in -- in the courtroom waiting for them 16 to dispense so we can go to these specific timed items. 17 We had items at 9:30 and then we have another slew of 18 items at 10:00 a.m. and we'll take those items after a 19 five-minute break. We'll be back at 10:35 and we'll 20 start at Item 1.8. We're in recess. 21 (Recess.) 22 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 23 We're going to move on to the timed items. The first 24 one is 1.8 at 9:30. We're running about an hour late on 25 that one. I apologize. That is to consider, discuss 58 1 and take appropriate action to approve the job 2 description for the Grant Administrator position. Miss 3 Doss. 4 MRS. DOSS: Yes, sir. I have made several 5 revisions since the original version. Commissioner Letz 6 requested those. You'll see the markouts. It's just -- 7 the changes were just made in the general description 8 section. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The main change, one, to 10 me this should be a -- we're talking about the permanent 11 position and not the contract -- should be a non-exempt 12 spot, not an exempt. That's just my opinion of it. It 13 ought to be on the step and grade rather than -- I mean 14 it's easier. But Jennifer was going to look into that, 15 whether that's appropriate or not. 16 MRS. DOSS: It is. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It is. 18 MRS. DOSS: And if you want to put it on the 19 grade and step, the closest would be a step -- a grade 20 24. The salary for that is 54,920.32, that's a Step 1. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. The other kind of 22 major change I made is literally a clarification and 23 it's in the second to the last line. It says, This 24 position is actually to assist department heads and 25 elected officials throughout Kerr County identify and 59 1 prioritize opportunities to leverage, create, match, 2 expand grant funds in Kerr County. 3 I put that "assist" in there because to me 4 this is a position that's going to work with other 5 department heads and elected officials. They really 6 can't -- and I think the Sheriff, more than anybody 7 else, he has a lot of grants that they enter into. And 8 the intent in my mind is not for this position to tell 9 the Sheriff how he runs his grant program, it's to 10 assist him when asked. 11 So with that comment, I'll make a motion to 12 approve the job description for the grant administrator 13 as modified today. 14 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second 16 to approve the job description as presented today and 17 modified today. Any discussion? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make one comment 19 because of the large crowd in public. This has nothing 20 to do with ARPA. The ARPA person -- this person would 21 possibly work with that, but this was in our budget way 22 before any of this stuff happened, and it's been 23 something we've been discussing for a couple of years 24 that needs to have it. So that's -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: So those in favor raise your 60 1 hand. Okay. Moving on to Item 1.9. 2 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 5 action to approve the contract with Rosa Lavender to 6 perform the duties of the Interim Grant Administrator. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On this one there was a 8 change that I recommended. Originally there was an -- 9 Exhibit A was a job description, it was basically the 10 same one we just approved. To me that was confusing and 11 also unnecessary. We have a contract with an 12 independent contractor. We'll work with Rosa Lavender 13 until a grant administrator is hired. And the -- I 14 visited with the County Attorney. And if we take the 15 general description that we just approved in the 16 previous grant and insert it into this independent 17 contractor agreement that will suffice. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Where? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where it says Exhibit A, 20 correct? 21 MRS. STEBBINS: I modified the contract. 22 That's the one I just handed to you guys right before 23 the break. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So this is the end 25 product? 61 1 MRS. STEBBINS: That's finished product. 2 Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. All right. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And it's actually included in 5 the scope of services. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: I sent the modified contract 7 first, it's ready for signature that doesn't have my 8 handwriting on it, to Jody. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And with that 10 modification, I'll move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 13 second to approve -- 14 MRS. HALL: There's public comment on that. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Just a second. Procedurally 16 what we do is we receive a motion. And unless that 17 motion is seconded, we don't talk about it because it 18 fails for lack of a second. Once we get a motion and a 19 second, we then recognize that. Then we open the floor 20 for discussion. That's the proper procedure. 21 So we have a motion and a second. Is there 22 any discussion? Now I do believe we have some people 23 lined up that wanted to speak on Item 1.9. 24 And first one is Terri Hall. 25 MS. HALL: Good morning. And I'm Terri 62 1 Hall. I'm on Independence Lane in Ingram area. And 2 speaking on behalf of We The People: Liberty in Action. 3 This -- I -- I'm kind of confused about what's happening 4 right now because Rosa Lavender was the one who ran the 5 workshop last week for specifically GrantWorks for the 6 ARPA fund. So that's what my comments are surrounding 7 this morning. Probably several of the public comments 8 are going to be about that. 9 But sounds like you're hiring a permanent 10 grant administrator for more than just the ARPA here. 11 So I want you to know that that's what our comments are 12 focused on this morning because of that. 13 I wanted to speak about the ARPA fund for a 14 reason. Because we feel that this is about deserting 15 Texas sovereignty. Because whenever we take those 16 Federal monies -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me. We -- we've had 18 the discussion on ARPA. That's what we did on public 19 input. 20 MS. HALL: I understand. But we thought 21 this was regarding Rosa Lavender and moving forward with 22 a specific grant for ARPA. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it is. 24 MS. HALL: There's not a -- there's not 25 sufficient specificity on the agenda to really clarify 63 1 that one way or the other. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well then, let me clarify. 3 Because I can respond now. We've had the need for a 4 grant administrator for the last several years. 5 MS. HALL: I understand. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And it became acute as a 7 result of this ARPA process. I mean acute. To the 8 point of I'm having to make some phone calls on Saturday 9 and Sunday afternoons to try to get a handle on these 10 issues. 11 And we brought -- and I've known -- Rosa and 12 I, we go back 30 years. But -- and she did the grant 13 administration as an adjunct of her position with the 14 County some years back. And so I personally picked up 15 the phone and called Rosa and got her out of the -- to 16 get her to come in on a Monday morning so we could start 17 getting some help with administering grants. 18 And some of these are FEMA grants, the 19 hazard mitigation grants that we've seen. We have crime 20 victims grants that we -- we also have. We've got $60 21 million worth of grants on the wastewater line in East 22 Kerr County. We just have a huge need for a grant 23 administrator. 24 So what we brought her in, in this specific 25 situation, the contract that we're asking to do is an 64 1 interim grant administrator until we can interview the 2 applicants. We've got four applicants and I think we're 3 scheduled to interview them next -- 4 MRS. LAVENDER: Monday. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- Monday? Monday afternoon? 6 And so, what we're trying to do is to have somebody that 7 can cover the grants. Because historically, grants 8 would come in, and we work with the -- we work with our 9 Auditor that does some of the grant administration 10 itself. Actually administering grants. 11 We worked with our Court Coordinator -- our 12 Court Coordinator is Jody Grinstead. And then I was 13 kind of the third member of the ad hoc group that was 14 working on these grants. And we're just to deep to do 15 it. We've got to have somebody to help us with these 16 things. And that's irrespective of ARPA. But ARPA is 17 the one that really triggered the acute necessity to get 18 somebody on board right now. 19 MS. HALL: Okay. I think I understand that. 20 But I would love it if I could make my comments about 21 the grant money being extended for ARPA. Does that make 22 sense? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 24 MS. HALL: Okay. And so we feel this is 25 about preserving Texas sovereignty because as soon as 65 1 you take anything with Federal strings attached, that 2 now means we have to change in some cases our values or 3 what's important to us based on what the Federal 4 Government is now dictating to us as Kerr County 5 citizens. And they're doing this through the Treasury 6 Department. 7 While there's nothing directly saying, you 8 have to follow an Executive Order. Well, the Treasury 9 Department adopts the rules which is a regulation which 10 becomes in effect administrative law that says 11 specifically on their document, this is what you heard 12 some people reading about earlier today, on page three. 13 This is from the U.S. Department of the Treasury on 14 Coronavirus, state and local fiscal recovery fund. 15 On Page 3, Section 9, compliance with 16 applicable laws and regulations. Recipient agrees to 17 comply with all other applicable Federal statutes, 18 regulations, and executive orders. That's what people 19 are referring to, and that's why we're very concerned. 20 I think we have cause to be concerned. 21 In the meantime, it appears that anytime 22 we -- we take these types of funds, it's like what 23 happened with Obama when they dumped the stimulus money 24 on everybody back in 2008, 2009. This is the way to 25 push up spending overall. As soon as we push up 66 1 spending, then they came back, literally, when that 2 stimulus money was expended, and Democrats were accusing 3 Republicans of making cuts to public education, because 4 now that stimulus has artificially raised the levels of 5 funding and that's one of the biggest risks, I fear, of 6 accepting this kind of money from the -- from the 7 Federal Government. 8 Not to mention the fact that here's the next 9 part. March 11, 2021, Joe Biden said, I signed into law 10 the American Rescue Plan, a law that will help vaccinate 11 America. That's the plan. We are on a path to 12 vaccinating the nation. 13 He also says down here, The recipient also 14 agrees to comply with those Executive Orders and Biden 15 recently issued a Federal executive order directing the 16 Department and agencies to begin including the clause in 17 Federal contracts and contract-like instruments, 18 specifying that contractors must comply with workplace 19 safety protocols and would apply to all covered 20 contractor employees, including contractor and 21 subcontractors. These protocols will now include the 22 requirement that covered employees receive a COVID-19 23 vaccination. 24 So I'm just trying to kind of thread the 25 needle there. And then we have our own State Attorney 67 1 General Ken Paxton, who has already done a lawsuit 2 against this and -- and literally quotes what I just 3 said to you in his lawsuit challenging this and 4 compelling people to take this vaccine. 5 So at the end of the day, this is very real. 6 And it's very real to us as citizens. And we do not 7 want this imposition on our rights. We've had enough 8 with the COVID overreach. We've had enough. We're 9 begging, please, send this money back. 10 So what do we want? We want you to take -- 11 well, the grant administrator position is a different 12 thing now. We don't want you to move forward with 13 spending anymore ARPA funds and we want you to send them 14 back. So we'd like to see on your next agenda one of 15 you to have the courage to put it on the agenda and to 16 please send back this money. Hold the line and keep 17 Texas Texas. 18 (Ringer sounding.) 19 MRS. HALL: Is that what I am? I'm just 20 squawking now? 21 (Laughter.) 22 MRS. HALL: Believe me, my husband shares 23 the sentiment on that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. The 25 question I have is the things that you're citing have 68 1 all been challenged in Court and -- 2 MS. HALL: Are being challenged. They're in 3 the process. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, most of them have 5 been enjoined by various -- several courts. And nothing 6 is happening until it's -- and it's probably going to go 7 to the Supreme Court who has the authority to do it. If 8 the Supreme Court was to rule that the President does 9 not have the Executive Order, does not have this 10 authority, would you then be in favor of taking this 11 money? 12 MS. HALL: Well -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you may not have to 14 answer that. But it's -- 15 MS. HALL: But it's a fair question and I 16 understand that completely. So what I would say to that 17 is, okay, that's today's biggest issue. But we already 18 know that just this morning on the way here on the radio 19 they said that even though the Court enjoined them, they 20 said that they can still proceed. Proceed. They're 21 still proceeding with the vaccine mandate until the 22 Courts rule. That's the report I heard this morning. 23 So you know what I'm saying. 24 So I mean these things are just constantly 25 in flux. They're always in flow. And who knows what 69 1 the next executive order is going to be, right? Today 2 it's vaccines. Who knows what it's going to be 3 tomorrow. And that's ultimately why we want y'all in 4 charge. Because we can come here, much closer to home, 5 and we can say hey, there's an issue. We come to y'all. 6 But we can't do that in DC. I mean, all of us trying to 7 steer that ship, it's like the Titanic. I mean it's -- 8 we can't do it. So that's why we want to keep the 9 sovereignty here. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Fair enough. 11 MS. HALL: That's what we're worried about. 12 Yeah. Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Maria Hammerlein. 14 MS. HAMMERLEIN: My name is Maria 15 Hammerlein. I live in Kerrville. Just briefly, I 16 wanted to let you know first that you really rate with 17 me because the documents that I thought you should see I 18 put in red folders, so you can easily refer to it. In 19 fact, the document that Ken Paxton, the letter, I have a 20 copy of that. Would that be helpful to you? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 22 MS. HAMMERLEIN: Okay. So just real 23 quickly. It is obvious from Joe Biden's letter to 24 America, because he says, My Fellow Americans, his 25 intention is to vaccinate the nation. I mean let's face 70 1 it. So -- and we can see he's going to stop at nothing 2 to do it. So I would just present this to you. If you 3 were wondering how that is going to go about in handling 4 of anything in America, all you have to do is look at 5 what he did to Afghanistan, if you have any questions. 6 Basically this resident of the White House 7 wants to change the entire makeup of this nation. No 8 matter what, what laws get placed, what gets overturned. 9 You -- you, Commissioner, were talking about what would 10 happen in the event that it was mandated by the Supreme 11 Court it was unconstitutional. Well, what about the 12 fact that he was told -- Biden was told that he needed 13 to go back to the original order under Trump to have 14 those illegal aliens stay in Mexico? Well he's not 15 abiding by that. So you've got to realize the man does 16 not play fair. He has one intention. It's to change 17 the makeup of the very fabric of our nation. This is 18 contrary to our Constitution. But the man does not 19 care. It's contrary to the founding of this nation. 20 So my point is, any and all contracts that 21 we come into agreement with, we sign, we -- you know, 22 they have to -- they're invalid in my opinion, because 23 they do not pass the Constitutional stiff -- sniff test. 24 We should not be coming into agreement with the devil. 25 And that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. And 71 1 I'll leave these. How many do I need to leave? 2 JUDGE KELLY: There are five of us. 3 MS. HAMMERLEIN: Five? I have one more I 4 can leave with you. Yeah. Thank you for your time. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Rita Casey. 6 MS. CASEY: All the questions I can't ask. 7 I'm just wondering one thing. The grant money -- has 8 the money from the Federal government already been 9 released to -- what is it? 10 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: GrantWorks? 11 MS. CASEY: GrantWorks. Has the money 12 already been released to them? I can't ask. I'm just 13 wondering. From funds? From Federal funds? 14 JUDGE KELLY: A little over five million 15 dollars was transferred to Kerr County last May. And 16 that money remains untouched. 17 MS. CASEY: Okay. So there's no retainer 18 been paid to GrantWorks? 19 JUDGE KELLY: No. We had -- we -- we agreed 20 to enter into a contract with GrantWorks. And we did 21 enter into that contract. It was a unanimous decision. 22 But as far as the payment of funds, I don't know of any 23 funds that have been paid to GrantWorks at this time. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But see, we already had 25 a contract with GrantWorks. They were already handling 72 1 grant money for Kerr County. 2 MS. CASEY: Perfect. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is just another 4 thing for them to take care of. That was the idea. 5 MS. CASEY: Perfect. Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Alicia Bell. 7 MS. BELL: I'm Alicia Bell and I live in 8 Center Point. And I'm asking you to vote against this. 9 Your family and your children and your grandchildren are 10 going to be stuck with the consequences of this. And 11 I'll give back the rest of my time to Terri Hall. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Does everybody understand? 13 We're just hiring a grant administrator. We're not 14 doing anything more than that. And an interim grant 15 administrator because we need the help. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And she'll -- she'll 17 deal with whatever grants are current, whatever 18 changes -- word changes there might be or any other 19 stuff, it just goes through that office. She'll be 20 told, you know, what -- what she has to deal with. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Under 22 1.9, I've got Barbara Dewell. 23 MS. DEWELL: In searching out this future 24 employee to do the grants, will any of that salary be 25 covered by the grant money? 73 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is. 2 MS. DEWELL: Okay. Then I'm asking you to 3 say no to this. Because that's spending the grant money 4 that has all the strings attached. This has to be a no 5 vote. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ma'am, it's only if she 7 works on this grant. 8 MS. DEWELL: You have already -- 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A percentage of it 10 would come out of -- let's say -- okay. So you've 11 got -- here's -- here's the ARPA. And here's the 12 Wastewater Program. All right? Spend all day long on 13 that and nothing on this, or a percentage of your time 14 on this, it would come out of this fund. 15 MS. DEWELL: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and -- and let me 17 clarify. We have in our budget I think it's up to 18 $59,000 budget line item for this employee. We are 19 filling a vacancy that we put in our budget last summer. 20 MS. DEWELL: Will there be an action item in 21 the future as to how she will be paid and whether that 22 grant money will be spent? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we don't accept the 24 money, she would not get any ARPA funds. 25 MS. DEWELL: But currently where are you in 74 1 the acceptance of the money or not? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We haven't done 3 anything. Well, we -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's sitting in the 5 bank. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- have a contract. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We've entered into a contract 8 with GrantWorks. That's what we've done. 9 MS. DEWELL: But GrantWorks -- what about 10 the contract with the Federal Government? 11 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think we have a 12 contract with the Federal Government. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have money in the 14 bank, $5.1 million, that was sent to Kerr County. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We didn't ask for it. They 16 sent it. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They sent it. 18 MS. DEWELL: Exactly. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The money is in the 20 bank right now. Hasn't been spent. In the event that 21 you don't spend it, you send it back. That's part of 22 the Treasury's rules on it. If you do spend it, 23 whatever percentage, there would be no expense to the 24 taxpayers in Kerr County. It would all come out of that 25 account, no matter what you do with it. 75 1 So in other words, the employee that 2 adminis -- that helps to do all the paperwork on it, 3 we're going to have a grant administrator. But we've 4 got -- the first item today on the agenda was Charlie 5 Hastings with the Engineering Department talking about a 6 possible FEMA grant. That would also be handled by the 7 same office. It's just an office for that, for 8 directing traffic for any kind of grant. It could be 9 state grants, it could be community grants, it could be 10 Federal grants. 11 MS. DEWELL: But if you approve going 12 forward with this, then you've got a place now to 13 spend -- to start spending that five million dollars. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We already have a place. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We already have that. 16 JUDGE KELLY: We already have that. That's 17 the contract with GrantWorks. 18 MS. DEWELL: Okay. Well, I think the whole 19 point of everyone whose been seen here, if you're 20 calling this a contract with GrantWorks, is that you 21 don't have a contract with GrantWorks and that you need 22 to turn around and head back in a different direction. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a contract with 24 GrantWorks. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We've had a contract with 76 1 GrantWorks for seven or eight years. 2 MS. DEWELL: Okay. What's the difference 3 between GrantWorks and the ARPA money? 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the scope of -- of what 5 GrantWorks does for us would include ARPA, if we go that 6 route. 7 MS. DEWELL: Okay. When are -- when -- is 8 that an agenda item that's coming up? A decision? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At some point, yes. 10 There will be a decision, a vote on what that money -- 11 it gets spent on. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 13 JUDGE KELLY: But right now we need to be 14 advised on the pros and cons of these different 15 programs. 16 MS. DEWELL: By a grant company? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Well, they'll give 18 us some input. That's not the only one. You're giving 19 us input. 20 MS. DEWELL: Right. Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The grant company is 22 outsourced. We have a contract with them to -- when you 23 apply for a grant, you want to make sure that all your 24 T's are crossed and your I's are dotted. And so they 25 review it and make sure everything's proper and in 77 1 order, so that you get the grant we're pursuing. 2 And you have somebody here that -- the 3 office that we're talking about right now is basically a 4 liaison. You've got to have a contact person or, as the 5 Judge said earlier, one time you talk to Jody, another 6 time you talk to Tanya, another time maybe Rosa. She's 7 the interim, and then a full time person. 8 So the point was that since this is -- since 9 we've had a lot of grant dealings with the East Kerr 10 County Wastewater Project, for example, it's helpful to 11 have one person that deals with that because then they 12 remember, you know, just like anything else, they 13 remember what was done last time, all the notations are 14 there, you know, it's just good business. That was why 15 we finally decided we've reached the point we need a -- 16 an office for that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But to answer -- I think 18 to answer your question and follow up on what 19 Commissioner Belew said. Grant -- under this agreement, 20 on the ARPA fund with GrantWorks, they get a percentage. 21 If we spend zero money, they get zero dollars. 22 MS. DEWELL: So what do you think their 23 advice to you might be? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we're not -- the 25 advice we're getting is from -- we have the -- as of the 78 1 31st people that want the funds are going to have a 2 deadline to send it in. We -- it's going to be sometime 3 next year before there's ever a vote to do anything, to 4 spend any money. So there's a lot of time for the 5 public to let us know what they think. 6 And there will also be initial time to let 7 some things happen in the courts. Let our Attorney 8 General of the State, the County Attorney, a lot of 9 people to give us input. And we'll -- you know, I 10 intend to look at that. I don't have the information 11 right now to make a definite decision. I hear what 12 y'all are saying and I agree with a lot of what you're 13 saying, most of what y'all are saying. 14 MS. DEWELL: So at this point there are -- 15 it would take a vote, it would take a public notice of a 16 meeting that there is going to be an agenda item, there 17 will be a vote on whether to spend a single dime of the 18 ARPA money. Is that correct? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 20 JUDGE KELLY: There has been no decision to 21 date, Ms. Dewell. That's all I can tell you. All we're 22 trying to do today is to put an interim employee in 23 place to help us get a grant administrator. We're 24 interviewing four people Monday afternoon. That's what 25 we're trying to do with this. 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing to do with ARPA. 2 MS. DEWELL: But I'm asking -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Now, asking her to look at the 4 ARPA thing and advise us on it and help us training 5 people if -- if we go forward with ARPA. 6 MS. DEWELL: But her salary will come out 7 of -- until you make it -- until there is a vote to 8 spend ARPA money, her salary will come out of the 9 budget? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. Out of Kerr County 11 funds. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 13 MS. DEWELL: Okay. That -- that's what I 14 think the citizens want to know. We want to make sure 15 that first and foremost that you don't accept this 16 money. 17 JUDGE KELLY: I can promise the public 18 before we start spending it, ARPA money, after all what 19 we've listened to the last -- this past week, you will 20 know when we're going to spend the money. We're not 21 going to spend this money without the public knowing. 22 MS. DEWELL: Without a vote to do so? 23 COMMISSIONER LETS: Yeah, we have to vote. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We have to vote. 80 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have to vote on it. 2 JUDGE KELLY: That's how the government 3 works. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But if we -- if we sent 5 all that money back today, say here it is, State. We 6 still need a grant administrator. So this is not -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: And that -- and so that you 8 know, we have until December the 31 of 2024 to obligate 9 those funds. And if we don't obligate them, we have to 10 send them back. Right? 11 MRS. LAVENDER: Right. 12 JUDGE KELLY: So there's no urgency here. 13 We've got plenty of time. And frankly, I just 14 thought -- I'd like to see some of this stuff settle 15 down in the court to see where we are with all of it. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And so like today, 17 when -- again, back to the first agenda item today was 18 about Ranchero Road. It needs to be repaired. I get 19 calls about it all the time. I'm sure Commissioner 20 Gipson does, too. We need that. We have the money in 21 the budget. We're going to apply to FEMA because a lot 22 of the damage came during the snowmageddon and so we 23 might get that money reimbursed to the County. 24 MS. DEWELL: Sure. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because that's the 81 1 process. Somebody in the grant administrator's office 2 would handle all that. 3 MS. DEWELL: Yes. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And the same thing with the 5 generators that you heard from Dub Thomas. That's -- 6 that's the FEMA hazard mitigation grant that we're 7 working on. 8 MS. DEWELL: Right. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Trying to get them fully 10 staffed. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: We couldn't get the 12 money from FEMA without the language that we put in it 13 this morning. 14 MS. DEWELL: All right. Yeah. Okay. I 15 understand. And I really appreciate you gentlemen 16 clarifying some of this and letting us know the steps 17 that will be taken before any of this money is spent. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is -- this is as 19 transparent -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: We need to -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- as you get. This 22 court. Everything has to happen here. We can't even 23 more then two of us talk to each other. Which on some 24 days is really good. 25 (Laughter.) 82 1 MS. DEWELL: Thank you for your 2 clarification. 3 JUDGE KELLY: The next up on the list for 4 1.9 is Bill Fitch. He spoke and told us to go ahead and 5 take him off the list. Susan Deininger. 6 MS. DEININGER: I made a mistake putting it 7 on this but I will speak to this. And that is 65 8 counties have sent back the money and we can wait until 9 '24, but I just really would be salivating to have that 10 waiting there and all these people lining up, put in 11 their grant requests and all. 12 And we would just really -- it'll be much 13 cleaner if you're able to send it back sooner and figure 14 out how we can afford our grants and our services here. 15 For example, if we want a no kill dog and 16 cats, as far as I'm concerned since we are not a -- we 17 support non-abortion, as far as I'm concerned that could 18 be a privately funded thing too. No killing of cats and 19 dogs. That really is going to be kind of a private 20 thing that people want. Not wanting the county to pay 21 for it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: No, but it has to be tied to 23 COVID. 24 MS. DEININGER: Yeah. It does have to be 25 tied to COVID. They couldn't apply for that one. But 83 1 anyway -- thank you very, very much. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And Mr. Paces. 3 MR. PACES: Yeah, Richard Paces from Center 4 Point. Look, I'm a volunteer fire fighter. And we 5 apply for grants all the time. So I don't have any 6 concern about applying for grants in general. But I 7 would urge the Court to ensure that your interim grant 8 administrator does not work on ARPA. Because ARPA is 9 Federal overreach. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me. I want her to work 11 on ARPA. I want GrantWorks to work on it. I want them 12 to come talk to us. I want them to come talk to you. I 13 want to hear what they have to say about how this is 14 going to work. And the only way you get those answers 15 is by going to them and saying tell us. 16 MR. PACES: Fair enough, Judge. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We want to learn. 18 MR. PACES: Yes. But there's already plenty 19 of documents that say exactly how this is going to work. 20 And once you accept that money and you spend it -- and 21 obviously you've already accepted it, it's in the 22 account. But when you start spending it, you're on the 23 hook. And the people of Kerr County do not want to 24 entertain the risk of having to pay back money that's 25 already been spent because we didn't adequately comply. 84 1 So I think you've got to look at the holistic picture 2 here -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: I agree. 4 MR. PACES: -- and not accept the risk. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And that's -- 6 MR. PACES: You've got time. So you don't 7 have to make that decision immediately, but the sooner 8 you make it, the better. I think you've heard an 9 overwhelming response from your constituents. And I 10 assure you, if I was sitting on that court, I would be 11 sending it back. So please don't spend the money. 12 Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 14 We've got a motion and a second to hire Rosa as our 15 interim grant administrator. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Approve the contract. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And approve the contract. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: As amended. 19 JUDGE KELLY: As amended. Those in favor 20 raise your hand. Unanimous. 21 Moving on to 1.10 update regarding 22 Informational Workshop held on November 4 to discuss the 23 American Rescue Planning Act. Miss Lavender. Boy, 24 you're popular today. 25 MRS. LAVENDER: I know. I didn't realize I 85 1 could create so many discussions. 2 The only thing I would say about the 3 workshop, I'm not going to spend a lot of time. These 4 people have said plenty. I was going to update you on 5 some of the people that were there, other than the group 6 up that has already spoken. 7 The representatives of MHDD, which is the 8 mental health group, Habitat for Humanity, Dietert 9 Center, Salvation Army, Hill Country Crisis Council, and 10 Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department were all 11 present. 12 I've already received one intent to submit, 13 and I've received 30, maybe 35 surveys that have been 14 e-mailed into the grant position. I think there were 11 15 that were turned in that day. So hopefully two weeks 16 from today we'll have some results on that. 17 And I would like to speak for just another 18 second about FEMA. We do have this FEMA grant pending. 19 And I haven't spent a lot of time. They had a rather 20 detailed Excel spreadsheet that I have to get in 21 actually today. 22 And there's some other things brewing in 23 looking for grants for the County. So my time with ARPA 24 will not be the majority of the time. The majority of 25 the time is going to be with the FEMA grant and with the 86 1 other things that are going on. So if that makes you 2 feel a little bit better. Do you have any questions? 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, Rosa, what are 4 you talking about when you're talking about your time 5 with ARPA? What exactly do you mean? 6 MRS. LAVENDER: Well, most of the stuff I've 7 done with ARPA is done. And now it's just a matter of 8 getting those surveys in and reporting back to you. And 9 of course, GrantWorks provided a lot of the stuff that 10 we used last Thursday. The PowerPoint and some of the 11 other documentation for us, so really I haven't done 12 anything with it other than just to take what they did 13 and modify it to meet our needs. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, I said from the 15 beginning when this grant came up that I don't trust the 16 Federal Government and I'm -- every day I have less 17 reason to trust the Federal Government. I think we all 18 do. But my concern is the claw back. That was the 19 original with the claw back, okay. We spent it on this. 20 If you look at the wording in the ARPA agreement, if 21 there was some malfeasance that say a Volunteer Fire 22 Department, whatever money went away, and just 23 disappeared in the night, Kerr County would be on the 24 hook to either retrieve that or to pay it back. 25 MRS. LAVENDER: Correct. 87 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And so while that might 2 make us think we don't want to give money to private 3 organizations or 501(c)3's, for fear of that. It turns 4 you into the policeman, or the sugar daddy, whichever 5 way you want to look at it. You've got to do one or the 6 other. You've got to pay it back or you've got to track 7 the people down and get the money. 8 And in the case of the County, it would 9 probably be both because the Sheriff's Office would be 10 tracking somebody down or the detectives would be, 11 trying to find out where the money went and we'd have to 12 pay it in the interim and we might then later get 13 reimbursed. But -- and that was my main concern was 14 that there would be some kind of a claw back on misuse 15 of money. And if it was a large expenditure, we 16 wouldn't be able to pay it. 17 The second part of it was the Executive 18 Order part, which people have expressed their concern 19 here today, and that is that a future Executive Order, 20 okay, encumbers us further than the original. So anyone 21 that wants to say that would never happen has to show me 22 how they came to that conclusion. Because we have seen 23 so much in this last 24 months that we would have never 24 imagined could happen. So everybody shares that 25 concern. 88 1 I think everybody on the court shares that 2 concern. The grant administrator understands the 3 concern. And all of you guys would be on the hook for 4 paying for it and maybe even have somebody knocking on 5 your door telling you you have to do something you don't 6 want to do. We -- everybody gets that. Everybody 7 understands that. 8 As far as I'm concerned, if we -- if we do 9 anything with the ARPA money, my position today is that 10 you're between the dog and the fire plug, something bad 11 is going to happen. 12 But as Commissioner Letz alluded to, and the 13 Judge, there's another couple of years hear to look at 14 this. If that money just stays put and we don't do 15 anything with it right away, and that would be the 16 prudent step. You leave it alone. The Attorney General 17 might win the case. And we may have a whole other view 18 of this in two more years. So I don't know if -- if -- 19 I think a lot of people would feel safer if we just sent 20 it back. That way you're not worried about it. It's 21 not there to bite you if anything happens. And it might 22 be -- it might be best to make a clean break of it. 23 But then if -- if Ken Paxton prevails and we 24 don't have the mandates to worry about, we might wish we 25 had the money. 89 1 So for the time being, I would say we leave 2 it alone. But I wouldn't spend -- if I was in the grant 3 administrator's office, I wouldn't spend a whole bunch 4 of time on that. That's my -- 5 MRS. LAVENDER: Well, and I might point out 6 just a couple of things. Almost all grants, whether 7 they're State or Federal grants, have that requirement, 8 that if you don't spend it, you send it back. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 10 MRS. LAVENDER: And we've -- that's been 11 true with the wastewater grants that we had in Ingram 12 and East Kerr County and Kerrville South. You go back 13 that far and it's true with our Victims Services grant. 14 It's true with the grants that have come to the 15 Sheriff's office. We've had juvenile grants over the 16 years that were Federal. A lot of it is block grants 17 that come to the Governor and then the Governor doles it 18 out. But all of those grants have that clause, that if 19 you don't spend it then you have to send it back. 20 And I think there's one other thing and I 21 appreciate what you said, too, is I think the other 22 thing that might clinch some of this, too, is we have 23 another election coming up in 2022. And when the 24 Congress hopefully shifts back to a more conservative 25 link, then some of this could also be taken care of at 90 1 that point in time. So any other questions? That's my 2 report. 3 JUDGE KELLY: We appreciate your report. 4 But I want to make sure that the people that are here 5 understand. The reason we went to GrantWorks is because 6 we were concerned about the claw back. That was the 7 first -- the first red light that went off. And we 8 don't want to do anything that is going to put us in a 9 position of having to pay the money back. 10 MRS. LAVENDER: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And GrantWorks has been very 12 helpful in -- in getting us focused on what colors 13 between the lines and what doesn't. As of last 14 Thursday, when I got a call from Bonnie White telling me 15 about this -- the problem that y'all were going to 16 present at the meeting, I went and got on the telephone 17 to their Senior Vice President from GrantWorks. And 18 there -- there are discussions that they want to have 19 with us and so we want to sit down and listen to them. 20 And we want -- we want you to hear them, too. Because 21 you're the public. But we -- we need to know and get 22 very comfortable with where we are with this grant 23 before we start taking that money. And the claw back 24 was the first thing. 25 As far as where that money sits for the next 91 1 year or two, my old law partner John Cornyn tells me 2 that if we send it back it's going to New Jersey or it's 3 going to New York or it's going to -- 4 MRS. LAVENDER: Or California. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- or California. And so I 6 don't know if I'd rather be the custodian of the money 7 until we decide what we have to do with it rather than 8 giving it back to the government to spend it on values 9 that we in Kerr County don't agree with. So -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And any spending of it 11 would have to be done in Commissioners' Court so you'll 12 be able to see it and know it. 13 MRS. LAVENDER: And all decisions related to 14 any of these grants have to go through Commissioners' 15 Court. You can't just apply for a grant. You have to 16 have the approval of the Commissioners' Court before you 17 apply for anything. 18 I did grants for 16 years for the Victims 19 Services and every year I had to come back to the Court 20 with the budget and with the Resolution before I could 21 ever submit the grant. And that's true with all of 22 these grants. Whether you're talking about sewer 23 projects or roads or whatever. 24 And we're hopeful with this FEMA grant that 25 some of the damage that was done to Kerr County by 92 1 Winter Storm Uri will be able to reimburse to the County 2 some of the costs of that. And that's the big 3 concentration I have right now, is to work with that 4 grant. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 6 MRS. LAVENDER: Sure. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The next item is Item 8 1.11, it's a 9:30 item, which is to consider, discuss 9 and take appropriate action to set a budget for the 10 anticipated expenditures of the American Rescue Plan Act 11 grant administration. 12 I don't know if we need to take any action 13 on that today or not. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I would say no. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, why don't we pass that 16 for today? 17 VOICE: I have a question. Can I ask a 18 question? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Which agenda item are you 20 talking about? 21 VOICE: It's about the ARPA. I remember at 22 the Friday meeting Rosa was saying ARPA was not a grant 23 money, it's not free money, but it sounds like you guys 24 are referring to it as grant money. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And that's a misnomer. 93 1 VOICE: I don't understand that. 2 JUDGE KELLY: It is funded. It is truly 3 ARPA funding. It is not a traditional grant. But it 4 has to be applied for like a grant. 5 MRS. LAVENDER: You have to comply with 6 the -- 7 VOICE: It sounds like if it quacks like a 8 duck -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 10 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me. 11 VOICE: -- so do we go back to grants? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We would spend the money 13 the same. We would spend it the same way. It still 14 takes a vote though. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Wait. We gotta stop. We've 16 got to stop. The Court Reporter can't take everybody 17 down like this. 18 VOICE: I'm sorry. 19 JUDGE KELLY: If you speak, you have to go 20 to the podium. So I apologize. 21 VOICE: Can I go for one minute? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 23 VOICE: I just want to say, it doesn't 24 matter what you call it. They call it an award. It has 25 to be in compliance, so it doesn't matter. It's a duck. 94 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and that's why we're 2 using grant administration terms. Because that's the 3 format we have to use. 4 VOICE: I think I have a minute left from my 5 other one. No never mind. 6 JUDGE KELLY: No, go ahead. 7 VOICE: I think this is going to end up in 8 Court for other reasons. The Supreme Court has a 9 doctrine of anti-commandeering. Although Congress can 10 give you money with strings attached, there are four 11 cases related to this, which I didn't have time to read 12 this weekend. 13 So the Paxton case, there's going to be many 14 reasons why this is going to end up in Court. The 15 doctrine that prohibits Congress from using Federal 16 funds to coerce States to do something that they 17 wouldn't normally do. And I think that will take it to 18 Court. But I'm not an attorney. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The next set of items 20 we need to take up on the agenda are the 10 o'clock 21 items. 22 VOICE: Judge, she wanted to speak. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, ma'am? 24 MS. KING: May I speak? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, ma'am. 95 1 MS. KING: I'm Marcia King. As far as all 2 these court cases are going. So far, the mandate has 3 never been made official. So it's unconstitutional and 4 it's illegal and therefore, it cannot be taken up in 5 Court as far as I have been reading. 6 So also, I wanted to bring up you're talking 7 about your FEMA grant and everything else. Are you 8 familiar with MGT 433? That's the FEMA camps? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Not exactly, no. 10 MS. KING: And Operation Shield, where they 11 take anyone who's not vaccinated, or they can, take 12 anyone who's not vaccinated or -- or not complying with 13 that into these camps. Those are -- those are sitting 14 on the back burner. FEMA is its own entity and is 15 unanswerable to any legal -- it's under the -- I think 16 the Marshal Act. That I'm concerned about monitoring 17 the monitors on this storm thing. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can't talk about 19 things that aren't on the agenda. 20 MS. KING: Okay. But this does have to do 21 with ARPA. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You're talking about -- 23 MS. KING: Yes. Because if -- if we do not 24 comply with their rules, then they can hold -- they can 25 mandate all these COVID vaccinations and things like 96 1 that. So please look into the in depths of it and -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think -- 3 MS. KING: -- a lot of the things that -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think any of us -- 5 (Talking over). 6 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a long way to go. 7 MS. KING: Okay. All right. Just please 8 send it back. Now. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.14 public hearing for a 10 revision of plat for Montebello Estates Section 2, Lot 11 31. You've waited a long time, Charlie. I'm sorry. 12 But it's kind of -- 13 I convene a public meeting for revision of 14 plat for Montebello Estates Section 2, Lot 31. Is there 15 anyone here that would like to speak at this public 16 meeting? 17 There being none then we will adjourn the 18 public meeting and we'll move on to 1.15, which is to 19 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for the 20 Court to approve a revision of plat for Montebello 21 Estates, Section 2, Lot 31. Charlie Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 23 proposal divides Lot 31, 6.51 acres, into two lots. Lot 24 31R1 will be 2.02 acres with frontage on Katy Lane and 25 Hidden Acres Road. Lot 31R2 will be 4.49 acres with 97 1 frontage on Katy Lane. 2 A flood study has been conducted for this 3 subdivision. Both proposed lots are in the floodplain. 4 Future improvements must meet requirements for 5 development within the floodplain and obtain proper 6 permits. 7 And if you'll look, there are locations on 8 those lots where houses can be built and they're not in 9 the floodplain. So they were -- they were very diligent 10 about how they designed these lots after they did a 11 legitimate flood study. If you were to look at the base 12 level engineering that we've been talking about over the 13 past few months. Again, that's just an estimate. Gives 14 you an idea of what it might be. But when we do an 15 economic study you'll get a little bit different result. 16 JUDGE KELLY: What are they doing here? I'm 17 trying to figure out what this is. 18 MR. HASTINGS: It is one lot that's been 19 turned into two. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And then -- but what about 21 all -- I look up here and I see here's Lots 1 through 22 11. And then I look over here and there's -- 23 MR. HASTINGS: Right. The only one they're 24 revising is Lot 31. It's a part of a -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: I couldn't figure out what all 98 1 these dotted lines are. 2 MR. HASTINGS: That's the neighboring -- our 3 subdivision regulations require if there's a neighboring 4 subdivision next to what you're doing, you have to show 5 it. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And all we're doing is taking 7 that Lot 31 and making it into two lots? 8 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I don't have a problem 10 with that. I didn't know about all this other stuff. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Do you want to move for 12 approval? 13 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll move for approval 14 by the number 1.15. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion and 17 a second to approve the revision of plat for Montebello 18 Estates Section 2, Lot 31. Any discussion? Those in 19 favor raise your hand. Four zero. 20 I'll convene a public meeting for Item 1.16. 21 This is a public hearing for a revision of plat for 22 Kerrville Hills Ranch Estates No. 1, Lot 27. 23 Is there anyone here who would like to 24 address the Court on this issue? There being none, then 25 the public meeting will be adjourned. 99 1 And we'll move on to Item 1.17, which is to 2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for the 3 Court to approve a revision of plat for Kerrville Hills 4 Ranch Estates No. 1, Lot 27. Charlie Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Now this proposal divides 6 Lot 27, a little over five acres by the existing plat, 7 into two lots and dedicates right-of-way along Loma 8 Vuelta Road. Lot 27A will be 2.27 acres and Lot 27B 9 will be 2.4 acres. Both lots will front Loma Vuelta 10 Road. It is in Kerrville's ETJ, and it is being platted 11 through both the City of Kerrville and Kerr County at 12 the same time, and the City of Kerrville is the water 13 provider for this. It's already got water there. 14 And the County Engineer requests the Court 15 approve a revision of plat for Kerrville Hills Ranch 16 Estates No. 1, Lot 27, Volume 3, Page 74. Precinct 2. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Charlie, just as a 18 question. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Yes? 20 JUDGE KELLY: When the City plats -- they're 21 doing the platting process and we're doing the platting 22 process at the same time, what happens at the end of 23 this process? 24 MR. HASTINGS: It'll -- it should have 25 signature blocks for both on the plat. So ultimately 100 1 once everyone has signed it, then it gets filed. And 2 the reason that we're involved in this -- normally we 3 could have deferred. But there's right-of-way 4 dedication that's necessary on this. And it's in the 5 County, not in the City, so the right-of-way would be 6 dedicated to us and City can't sign for us. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Gotcha. Okay. Good. You 8 have a motion? 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I move for approval of 10 Item 1.17. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 13 second to approve the revision of plat for Kerrville 14 Hills Ranch Estates No. 1, Lot 27. Any discussion? 15 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 16 I convene another -- call another public 17 meeting. This one is a public -- Item 1.18 Public 18 hearing for revision of plat for Greenwood Forest 19 Section 7, Phase 2, Block 18, Lots 20-21. Charlie 20 Hastings. 21 No. First of all, anybody here for -- to 22 speak on that topic? This is the public meeting 23 portion. There being no one, then I will adjourn the 24 public meeting and move on to Item 1.19, which is to 25 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for the 101 1 Court to approve the revision of plat for Greenwood 2 Forest Section 7, Phase 2, Block 18, Lots 20-21. 3 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 4 proposal adjusts the lot line between Lot 20, which is 5 currently 0.45 acres, and Lot 21, currently 0.53 acres. 6 So Lot 21(sic) will get a little bit smaller, it will be 7 0.43 acres, and Lot 21R will get a little bit bigger, 8 0.55 acres. 9 Both lots will front Sherwood Lane. These 10 lots existed before the current regulations. That's why 11 one of them is smaller than half an acre, which State 12 Law on being able to have a septic system on a lot, you 13 need at least half an acre. But it -- it's been that 14 way forever. It's still going to be that way at the end 15 of the day. The surveyor and the owner, they've done 16 their very best to try to minimize how much the lots 17 changed. 18 And so if you'll look at your plat there, 19 the only signature really that's missing is the Judge, 20 the County Clerk. But also Environmental Health cannot 21 sign it unless the Court directs them so because of this 22 half acre issue, the lot again is -- right now it's 23 under half an acre, it will remain under half an acre 24 and just a slight revision to it. 25 All that means is the County Engineer 102 1 requests the Court to consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action to approve a revision of plat for 3 Greenwood Forest Section 7, Phase 2, Block 18, Lots 4 20-21, Volume 5, Page 151, Precinct 4. 5 And I might also add that this doesn't have 6 anything to do with any deed restrictions that are on 7 the lot. What you do today won't change that. I 8 realize there are deed restrictions in that subdivision. 9 I think we had someone that indicated they would have 10 spoke at the public hearing. They didn't. But those 11 were their concerns. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And thank you for bringing 13 that up, Charlie, because I was going to bring it up. 14 That -- that we don't enforce these restrictive 15 covenants. 16 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But what brought this 18 up to begin with? 19 JUDGE KELLY: We got a call from a citizen 20 in the public. Not opposing the approval of this plat, 21 but concerned that all the restrictive covenants were 22 going to be enforced. And Jody came to me and I said 23 well, you just tell them that we don't enforce 24 covenants. That's not our job. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I mean what 103 1 changed the property line? What brought that on? Was 2 it the sale of property? 3 MR. HASTINGS: The genesis of this, I 4 believe, is a driveway. The owner owned both lots. And 5 when they put their driveway in, the driveway crossed 6 some of the lot line and rather than cut out a bunch of 7 concrete and move everything, they said just adjust the 8 lot line that we own right now between these two lots. 9 So we did that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Charlie, on this a 11 process question. We have approved things like this 12 before that are less than our current rules and State 13 Law allows. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we do a variance on 16 that or do we just note it in the record? How do we -- 17 because this is -- 18 MR. HASTINGS: In the past on the ones I've 19 been will -- been involved with it was in the same 20 subdivision. There's several lots out there that -- 21 that are just less than half an acre to begin with. 22 Nothing anyone can do about that. It wasn't a variance. 23 It was -- we have in our regulations the Court may, on a 24 case by case basis, consider lots smaller then what our 25 regulations say they have to be. 104 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'll move for 2 approval and direct the Environmental Health Department 3 to sign the plat. 4 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 6 second to approve the revision of plat for Greenwood 7 Forest Section 7, Phase 2, Block 18, Lots 20 and 21. 8 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 9 Unanimous. 10 Item 1.20 consider, discuss and take 11 appropriate action for the Court to set a public hearing 12 for 10 a.m. on December the 13th, 2021 for a revision of 13 plat for Center Point Estates, Unit 2, Lot 247. Charlie 14 Hastings. 15 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal divides a 16 portion of Lot 247 into two lots. As proposed, Lot 247A 17 would be 5.1 acres, and Lot 247B would be 10.74 acres. 18 Access to both lots will be from Center Point Drive. 19 County Engineer requests the Court set a 20 public hearing for 10 a.m. on December 13th, 2021 for a 21 revision of plat for Center Point Estates Unit 2, 22 Lot 247, Volume 3, Page 103. Precinct 2. 23 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Charlie, I have a 24 question on this one. I'm missing something or don't 25 understand. In your slotting of it on the upper 105 1 left-hand corner it shows the original 2.47 as 11.273 2 acres. How'd we grow? 3 MR. HASTINGS: Let's see. I don't see that. 4 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'm talking about your 5 upper left-hand corner where it shows the original 6 tract. 7 MR. HASTINGS: That's the same tract? I 8 wish I had a magnifying glass. 9 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Well, that's my -- 10 MR. HASTINGS: We're going to have to have 11 them clean that up. 12 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: It -- it -- 13 MR. HASTINGS: You really can't read this. 14 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: My microscope says 15 it's 247, which is the subject, but it's a different set 16 of numbers that don't -- they don't jive. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Right. We will have to check 18 into that. We're setting the public hearing, but 19 that's -- I'll get answers for you. I don't have them 20 for you right now. 21 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'm sure there is one, 22 it's just not clear when you look at this. 23 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And so 24 the Court knows, when we receive a request to revise a 25 plat, because it takes so long to set that public 106 1 hearing without even reviewing these -- I haven't 2 reviewed this yet -- we immediately put it on an agenda 3 to set that public hearing and then the review period 4 happens. 5 You know, if I'm lucky it happens before we 6 put this on the agenda. But sometimes I'm so stacked up 7 with other things -- so I haven't reviewed it yet. But 8 I will make sure and review that and make sure that's 9 understood. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Do we have a motion to set a 11 public hearing? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Want to make the motion? 13 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Sure. I'll move to 14 set the item 1.2, yes. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion and 17 a second to approve setting a public hearing for 10 a.m. 18 on December 13, 2021 for a revision of plat for Center 19 Point Estates Unit 2, Lot 247. Any discussion? Those 20 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 21 Item 1.21 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action for the Court to set a public hearing 23 for 10 a.m. on December 13, 2021 for revision of plat 24 for Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 25 153, and Cypress Springs Estates Phase 2, Section 1, Lot 107 1 58. Charlie Hastings. 2 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal combines two 3 lots from two different subdivisions into one lot. Lot 4 153 of Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, 5 currently 1.53 acres, and Lot 68 of Cypress Springs 6 Estates Phase 2, Section 1, currently 1.83 acres. 7 They will be combined and known as Lot 153R 8 of Vistas Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, 3.36 9 acres. Access to the lot will be from Cypress Estates 10 Parkway. And it is on a public water system. 11 The County Engineer requests the Court set a 12 public hearing for 10 a.m. on December 13, 2021 for a 13 revision of plat for Vistas Escondidas de Cypress 14 Springs Estates, Lot 153, and Cypress Springs Estates 15 Phase 2 Section 1, Lot 68, Volume 7, Page 363-364, and 16 Volume 7, Pages 172-173. Precinct 4. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a public 18 hearing? 19 MR. HASTINGS: We're setting a public 20 hearing, yes. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second 24 to approve setting a public hearing for 10 a.m. on 25 December the 13th, 2021 for revision of plat for Vistas 108 1 Escondidas de Cypress Springs Estates, Lot 153, and 2 Cypress Springs Estates Phase 2, Section 1, Lot 68. Is 3 there any discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So this is in two 5 different subdivisions? 6 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Explain what they're 8 doing again? 9 MR. HASTINGS: They want to combine the two 10 lots into one. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: They're adjacent, they 12 just have to be -- cross each other in two phases. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Now, if we had something 14 going the other direction with this not long ago where 15 someone had one lot and wanted to divide it into two. 16 It used to be two lots, they put it into one and then 17 they wanted to go back to two. And the -- there's some 18 deed restriction there, again, that don't apply to us. 19 But that owner decided to just leave things alone 20 because this subdivision discourages -- their deed 21 restrictions discourage any dividing of the lot. This 22 is combining. And then don't seem to have a problem 23 with combining them. But should these people change 24 their mind later and want to divide it again -- 25 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: They may have a 109 1 problem. 2 MR. HASTINGS: -- they'll have a problem. 3 But they -- that's the risk they take. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the public hearing is 5 all we're doing? 6 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 9 second. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 10 your hand. Unanimous. 11 Item 1.22, this is a public hearing I'm 12 convening regarding the installation of two Stop Signs 13 on Holly Drive North and Box South Drive North, and Wood 14 Duck Lane North and Box S -- Box South Drive North, 15 Precinct 1. 16 MR. HASTINGS: It's just Box S. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Box S, okay, got it. Ms. 18 Hoffer. 19 MS. HOFFER: It's a public hearing. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Anybody appearing for 21 this? 22 There being none, then we'll go ahead and 23 adjourn the public hearing and we'll move on to Item 24 1.23, which is consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 action for the Commissioner's Court final approval 110 1 regarding installation of two Stop Signs on Holly Drive 2 North and Box S Drive North, and Wood Duck Lane North 3 and Box S Drive North, Precinct 1. 4 MS. HOFFER: A traffic study was conducted 5 on 8/9 of 2021 through 8/16 of 2021 at the intersection 6 of Box S Drive North, Holly Drive North, and Wood Duck 7 Lane North. These are all in Precinct 1 where traffic 8 counter boxes where placed at these intersections. The 9 results are in the backup data that was submitted to the 10 Court. 11 The County Engineer reviewed the data and 12 has made recommendations for a Stop Sign at Holly Drive 13 North, Box S Drive North, and Wood Duck Lane North at 14 Box S Drive North. Box S Drive North is County 15 maintained from FM 73 to the intersection of Holly Hill 16 Drive North. Box S Drive North and Holly Drive North 17 are County maintained roads. Wood Duck Lane is a 18 privately maintained road. And Box S Drive North from 19 this intersection to the back of the road is privately 20 maintained. 21 The proposed signs will be installed in the 22 County's right-of-way. Since the Stop Sign is a 23 regulatory sign and punishable by a fine, a public 24 hearing is required and was just held today in 25 Commissioners' Court. 111 1 At this time, I ask the Commissioners' Court 2 for their final approval regarding the installation of 3 two Stop Signs on Holly Drive North and Box S Drive 4 North, and Wood Duck Lane North at Box S Drive North in 5 Precinct 1. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 9 second to approve the installation of Stop Signs as 10 presented. Is there any other discussion? 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just want to thank 12 Kelly and Charlie because that was an odd little 13 intersection there to look at and you guys figured it 14 out, like you always do. Thank you. 15 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You'll make a lot of 17 people happy. 18 MR. HASTINGS: And safe. 19 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, safe. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 22 your hand. Unanimous. 23 10:05 timed item. A little bit late but 24 here we are. 1.24 is consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action to go out for annual bids for road 112 1 base, cold mix, aggregate, emulsion oil and corrugated 2 metal pipe. Ms. Hoffer. 3 MS. HOFFER: We are asking the Court to give 4 authorization for us to go out for our annual bids on 5 road base, cold mix, aggregate, emulsion oil, and 6 corrugated metal pipe. Once we put out the bids, we 7 will come back to the Court to open the bids on December 8 the 13th, 2021 at 10:05 a.m. and also award the bids in 9 Court at that time if it's feasible. 10 Last year we received a lot of bids, so I 11 came back to the following Commissioners' Court meeting. 12 So this is just an annual thing that we do every year. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 17 second to approve the annual bids for road base, cold 18 mix, aggregate, emulsion oil, and corrugated metal pipe. 19 Any discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 20 Unanimous. 21 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Sorry to make you 23 wait so long. 24 Okay. Going back to the first part of our 25 agenda that we've had to skip over because of timed 113 1 items. Let's go back to Item 1.5 consider, discuss and 2 take appropriate action to approve and authorize the 3 County Judge to sign a contract with Morris Strategic 4 Communications for web design services. And he was here 5 this morning, I know. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: I've reviewed the contract. 8 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 10 second to approve the contract with Morris Strategic 11 Communications for web design services. Any discussion? 12 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 13 Item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to approve contracts with Hunt 15 Volunteer Fire Department, Castle Lake Volunteer Fire 16 Department, and allow the County Judge to sign same. 17 And quite frankly, I'm going to go ahead and 18 call 1.25 at the same time, which is to consider, 19 discuss and take appropriate action to approve contracts 20 with Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department and Comfort 21 Volunteer Fire Department and allow the County Judge to 22 sign same. 23 These are all just routine VFD contracts. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 114 1 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 3 second to approve these VFD contracts. Any other 4 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 5 Item 1.7 consider, discuss and take 6 appropriate action to approve the Cooperative Agreement 7 between Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Kerr 8 County. 9 And this is routinely done every five or six 10 years or so. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 14 second to approve the Cooperative Agreement with Texas 15 A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Kerr County. Any 16 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 17 Moving down to Item 1.12 consider, discuss 18 and take appropriate action regarding contract with 19 Scott Merriman, Inc. for a book preservation project as 20 proposed in the County Clerk's Archival Plan and 21 authorize the County Judge to sign same. The plan was 22 approved and adopted by the Court on July 12, 2021 per 23 Court Order No. 38809. Funds come from a dedicated or 24 special fund used only for projects like this one. 25 No. 41-634-411. Ms. Dowdy. 115 1 MS. DOWDY: Contract has been reviewed by 2 the County Attorney. No suggested changes. And it's 3 pretty much standard procedure. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Is 5 there a motion? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 9 approve the contract with Scott Merriman, Inc. pursuant 10 to the preservation project through the County Clerk's 11 archival plan. Any discussion? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think we should study 13 that last speech for being concise and brief and all 14 apply that in the future. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have a motion and a 16 second, right? 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's correct. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And those in favor raise your 19 hand. Unanimous. 20 Okay. Item 1.13 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action on implementation of the burn ban. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 25 second. Is there any discussion? Those in favor raise 116 1 your hand. 2 Okay. Now we'll go to the approval agenda. 3 2.1 pay bills. 4 MS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 5 consideration are $893,026.40. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. Pay 7 the bills. 8 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 10 second to approve the bills -- paying the bills as 11 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your 12 hand. Unanimous. 13 2.2 budget amendments. 14 MS. SHELTON: There are not any. 15 JUDGE KELLY: 2.3 Late bills. 16 MS. SHELTON: Yes. We had two late bills 17 presented, $342,688.54. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And that was TAC? 19 MS. SHELTON: I'm sorry? 20 JUDGE KELLY: That was TAC? 21 MS. SHELTON: Yeah, it's our normal 22 insurance, health insurance, dental insurance for the 23 month of November. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there a motion? 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well then why was that 117 1 late? That's a normal -- 2 MS. SHELTON: It was just late getting to 3 our office and we need to go ahead and get it paid 4 before the next one. 5 MRS. DOSS: Yeah, due to open enrollment TAC 6 was very late getting out their invoices. So they had a 7 bunch of changes on the very end that we didn't get the 8 two or three weeks we normally do. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Normally, I wouldn't think the 11 TAC bill's late. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Yeah. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Do we have a motion and 14 a second? I need a motion and a second. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 18 second to approve the late bills as presented. Those in 19 favor raise your hand. Unanimous. Monthly reports. 20 MRS. DOWDY: Oh, yes. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Auditor's reports. You 22 skipped them? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Oh. Auditor's reports. 24 Sorry. 25 MRS. SHELTON: Oh yes. There aren't -- 118 1 there's not any. 2 MRS. DOWDY: Monthly reports. Commissioner 3 Harris is not here, but we have -- would one of you like 4 to read it? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can read it. 6 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. For October 2021, we 7 have Constable monthly reports. Constable 1, Tommy 8 Rodriguez. Constable 2, Kyle Schneider. Constable 4, 9 Brad Ryder. And we have fines, judgments, and jury fees 10 collected for J.P. 1, Mitzi French. J.P. 2, J. R. 11 Hoyne. J.P. 3, Kathy Mitchell. And we have District 12 Clerk Dawn Lantz, County Clerk Jackie Dowdy, 13 Environmental Health OSSF Director Ashli Badders. 14 That's all we have for the month of October 2021. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion to accept 16 the monthly reports as presented? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make the motion. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And a second? 19 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I'll second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 21 second to accept the monthly reports as presented. 22 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous. 23 Court orders. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a bunch of court 25 orders. We have court orders from our Wednesday, 119 1 November 3rd meeting, 39047, that's related to our 2 redistricting order. Court orders from our Friday, 3 October 29th meeting. That's court orders 39042 and 4 39046. 5 The only question I had is on 39046. It 6 currently reads, approve and accept the application and 7 survey in the way that is formatted upon the condition 8 that survey be redone to include criteria as discussed 9 by Commissioners' Court before it is presented to the 10 public. I think we ought to put in there after -- or 11 what the survey is even about. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because this is kind 14 of -- so it would be, application and survey regarding 15 use of ARPA funds? I mean -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe if we just insert 18 that one into that one. And then on court orders from 19 October 25th, 2021, 39011 through 39041, I had two 20 questions. One, something the Judge said that I -- I 21 want to make sure we have it right because I only made a 22 point of it. For Rosa Lavender, is it M-S or M-R-S? 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: She's back there. 24 MS. LAVENDAR: It's still M-R-S. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That's what I 120 1 thought. So it should read M-R-S Lavender. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Old school. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just remember that 4 being -- someone mentioned that at the last meeting 5 so -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm sure your husband 7 will be happy to hear that. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think he was worried 9 about it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That is on court order 11 39027. And then on 39031, approve and award the 12 Ranchero Road reconstruction project, Phase 1 contract 13 to J3 Construction, I think we should add, which was the 14 low bid. I think it's good to put on these the low bid. 15 JUDGE KELLY: I'm good with that. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And with those 17 modifications and those amendments, I move for approval 18 on all three of those meetings. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 21 second to approve the court orders -- be approved as 22 modified. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your 23 hand. Unanimous. 24 Okay. Information agenda. Do we have a 25 department head in the room? Yeah, we do. Any reports? 121 1 MRS. DOSS: No. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Elected officials? 3 Reports? 4 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, just real quick. I 5 know this is a long day. Just want to make sure 6 everybody knew that we're having a Sheriff's Office 7 luncheon on the 18th. Everybody -- all County officials 8 and workers are invited. Be at Calvary Church from 9 11:30 to 1:30. We did put out e-mails but for some 10 reason a lot of people didn't receive them. 11 Also just real quick, I just want to let you 12 know we did an operation last week, a three-day 13 operation. The Sheriff's Office, Kerrville Police 14 Department, and the Department of Public Safety. It was 15 a prostitution sting where we yielding 20 arrests. 16 Agents from San Antonio and here locally reaching out to 17 us, so it was very successful. 18 And along with that we had several weapon 19 violations and possession of controlled substance and 20 some parole violations but it was a real successful 21 effort. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can you give us a 23 little plug about tomorrow night? 24 SHERIFF LEITHA: Oh yeah, okay. Since you 25 asked, yeah. Tomorrow night we're -- the Kerrville 122 1 Sheriff's Foundation is having a fundraiser at Arcadia, 2 I believe from 6:00 to 8:00. This is -- the foundation 3 has been real good to us. Trying to raise monies for 4 our special response team. So tomorrow is our first 5 kickoff event. Everybody's invited. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Who's the keynote 7 speaker? 8 SHERIFF LEITHA: That's a good question. I 9 believe Val Ricoh(phonetic) was going to start it off is 10 what I heard there. But the foundation -- I believe 11 Hunter -- Hunter will be doing the rest of it. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we'll hear from 13 you, right? 14 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're 15 going to do about a 15 minute presentation. The 16 Sheriff's office is. We're trying to keep more time. 17 There's also going to be a live auction. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're a tough 19 interview, you know? 20 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. You still working on 21 that? 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Pry it out of him. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Liaison Commissioner 24 reports. Well, I'd like -- I'll report. I'd like to 25 thank this Court and the way -- the professional way 123 1 that we handled the public today. I was impressed with 2 once we got things settled down, it was done in a very 3 orderly way. And -- and actually last Thursday went 4 pretty well until the very end. And then it just kind 5 of went chaotic. But this -- this was -- this was -- 6 this is a good way for us -- for local government to do 7 business. I appreciate you. 8 So with that, we go to Executive Session. I 9 believe we've got a couple items. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Pending litigation and 12 employee supervisory role. So let's take a short break, 13 and come back in Executive Session. 14 (Recess.) 15 (Executive Session.) 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, it is 12:29, we're out 17 of executive session, and I believe we got one item of 18 business, which is on 4.2(a) consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action on the current employee supervisory 20 role of grant administrator. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 22 we, I guess, appoint Jody Grinstead to be the -- under 23 the supervisory role of the new grant administrator that 24 we'll be hiring, effective immediately. And a revised 25 job description will be presented at our next 124 1 Commissioners' Court meeting. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Got a motion and a 4 second. Any discussion? Those in favor raise your 5 hand. Unanimous, four zero. 6 There being nothing else before the Court, 7 we are adjourned. 8 * * * * * * 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 125 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 December, 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