1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Tuesday, December 27, 2022 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 T. BECK GIPSON, Commissioner Precinct 2 24 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 25 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Public Input. 4 4 *** Commissioners' Comments. 7 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 9 action to approve documents related to the 6 Kerr County 457 Plan to change the 3rd Party Administrator on the account. 7 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 8 action to approve contract with Motorola for Communications System, and to authorize 9 the County Judge to sign the same. 10 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action to obligate a portion of the American 11 Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds designated for the Veterans' Pathway to acquire Engineering 12 Services for the project design when issuing the Request for Qualifications (RFQ). 13 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 14 action for the Court to authorize issuing a Request for Qualifications(RFQ's) for 15 Engineering Services for the design of the Veterans' Pathway Project. 16 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 27 17 action to accept OOG Grant Number 4595801, FY-23 Bullet-Resistant Shield Grant Program. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 28 19 action to award the 2023 Annual Material Bids for the Road & Bridge Department. 20 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 34 21 action on an order expressing official intent to reimburse with tax-exempt 22 obligation proceeds for costs associated with designing, acquiring, constructing, 23 improving, purchasing, upgrading, updating and equipping a new Animal Control Shelter. 24 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 25 action to surplus items for various departments. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action to approve Kerr County Attorney's 4 bond. 5 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 38 action to approve job description for Deputy 6 Treasurer. 7 2.1 Budget Amendments. 39 8 2.2 Pay Bills. 39 9 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 40 10 2.6 Court Orders. 40 11 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 41 12 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 41 13 *** Adjournment. 47 14 *** Reporter's Certificate. 48 15 * * * * * * 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Tuesday, December the 27th, 9 o'clock in the morning 3 and the Kerr County Commissioners' Court is now in 4 session. If you would rise for the pledge and the 5 prayer. 6 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Be seated. First of all, I to 8 want remind everyone to turn your phones to silence or 9 off so you don't interrupt the proceedings. 10 First part of our agenda is always the 11 public input. We have one person that wants to address 12 the Court. And that is Blanca Garcia. We ask that you 13 keep your remarks to three minutes, and identify 14 yourself. From the podium. Thank you. 15 MS. GARCIA: Hi y'all. Good morning. I'm 16 Blanca Garcia for those who don't know me. I am an 17 account manager for LCRA. So first of all. I hope 18 y'all had a good Christmas and a happy holiday. I have 19 four quick items to go over. Just overall things that 20 LCRA is working on in the 2023 calendar year, and things 21 that different agencies in y'all's county can benefit 22 from, such as grants and free money. So I thought that 23 would be important for y'all to know, especially the 24 free money part. That's as everybody likes free money. 25 So first off, we're currently working with 5 1 AT&T to bring additional cellular capacity to Kerrville. 2 So that's something really big considering the eclipse 3 is come up pretty soon. A lot of people are going to be 4 here. Y'all are going to need a lot more cellular 5 capacity. So that's one of the things that is going to 6 benefit Kerr County in 2023. 7 The second thing is we're always scoping out 8 to bring additional broadband services to y'all's 9 county. So our engineering teams are scoping out how to 10 best bring a hundred gigabit per second piped into the 11 region. We hope that we can keep these conversations 12 going so that everybody has what they need in the 2023 13 calendar year. 14 So if y'all have any questions on those, 15 please let me know. I'm not the expert on those two, 16 but I can get you experts to talk about it, because 17 that's a whole other language to me. 18 But the third thing, which is the free money 19 part. So LCRA does community grants at the beginning of 20 the year. So they open up on January first and they 21 close on January 31st. Y'all have applied for these in 22 the past and a lot of your VFD's have received these 23 grants in the past. So we just really encourage y'all 24 to reapply. It's really open to any agencies in Kerr 25 County, as long as there's special projects. It's real 6 1 easy to apply. It's one page of like ten questions. 2 And y'all have done it in the past, so I'm sure you 3 could get more money from it this year. It opens up 4 again January first, closes January 31st. There's a 5 second round of it in the summer. Which -- summer and 6 fall, which y'all are more than welcome to apply for and 7 I really encourage y'all to apply. It's free money. So 8 I hope y'all will do it. 9 Last but not least, Kerrville -- since 10 Kerrville is in Kerr County, Kerrville joined the LCRA 11 system starting on November 30th. They actually went 12 live. We've been testing their coverage and they have 13 pretty good coverage so far out until like -- they're 14 getting coverage like in Hunt, up to Mountain Home at 15 some point. 16 We strongly encourage that your SO's, your 17 VFD's, they try to test out what they have currently 18 before making any decisions, and if what we have to 19 offer y'all is worth y'all pursuing currently and that 20 is joining the LCRA system. So we are looking into 21 adding another site in Hunt in 2023, like November 2023. 22 Which y'all can jump on. 23 (Timer ringing.) 24 MS. GARCIA: So that's pretty much it. I 25 hope y'all have a great New Year, and if y'all need 7 1 anything from me, please feel free to let me know. I'm 2 here all the time. I'm practically living in Kerrville 3 now. So it's a great place. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And we would like to initiate 6 a conversation, but we can't do so at this time because 7 this is for input from the public only. So any other 8 public input? 9 With that, we'll go on to Commissioner's 10 comments. So Precinct 2. Your last report. 11 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I have nothing to 12 report. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Three. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing. Nice relaxing 15 cold weekend. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Four. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Not a whole lot. Just 18 hope everybody got through the holidays safely. And 19 have a great New Year's. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I try not to report, but 21 as my as my jurisdiction is countywide, I got a surprise 22 this morning. And for those of you at the County, you 23 know I don't like surprises. I want to her about it. I 24 don't care how bad it is. 25 And I was getting out of the shower and my 8 1 wife asked me what I knew about the boiled water notices 2 in Kerr County. Yeah. Nobody else knows about them 3 either. Right? 4 Well, I'm trying to dry off, and what are 5 you talking about? Well, there was a report on KSAT, 6 she got it off their website on Facebook. I see some 7 people nodding, and y'all have seen it. Since I don't 8 do Facebook and I don't do internet well, I didn't 9 realize that we had issues in Kerr County. But we had 10 three subdivisions, which included Verde Park Estates, 11 Westwood Oaks, and Oak Ridge Estates. All of which are 12 in Kerr County. Who had -- TCEQ issued boiled water 13 notices. 14 And as the State is want to do, did not 15 notify Kerr County. I've talked with our Emergency 16 Management Dub, and he didn't know about it. Our 17 engineer didn't know about it. The Commissioners didn't 18 know about it. I didn't know about it. I'm not happy 19 when I don't know about problems. 20 So we'll take that up with TCEQ. And I'm 21 not going to throw a screaming fit, but I am going to 22 put my foot down firmly that if we have a problem in 23 Kerr County, the County needs to be notified. But 24 that's just for the record. 25 Okay. Moving on. Moving on to 9 1 consideration agenda, first item is item 1.1, another 2 surprise issue. We'll talk about that. But it is 3 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 4 documents related to the Kerr County 457 Plan to change 5 the 3rd Party Administrator on the account. Guy Overby. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And before he gets up there, 7 this is all solved, this is a thumbs up. 8 MR. OVERBY: Judge Kelly and Commissioners. 9 Again, thank you for the opportunity to be here. And 10 I'm hopeful all you have had a Merry Christmas and also 11 want to hope that you have a great 2023 year. 12 Again, my name is Guy Overby. I'm the 13 financial advisor with Edward Jones. I am here today 14 regarding the Kerr County 457 Plan, that the plan 15 sponsor is with John Hancock. The plan has been in 16 affect with Kerr County since 2016. 17 And then the third party administrator is of 18 course at the time when we started the Plan was a 19 company by the name of Scholz & Friends. Scholz & 20 Friends again, they served as the TPA, which basically 21 oversights the plan to make sure it's underneath the 22 government regulations and it's following all those 23 procedures that it needs to do as a third party 24 administrator. 25 As you recall I was here a month ago. I 10 1 wish we could have taken care of it all at one time. 2 That would have made the most sense. But if you recall 3 in November, we came back and we had some provisions 4 with regard to the COVID regulations and issues that 5 came with that. We did a presentation to the County 6 Commissioners on that for TRA, which is the current 7 third party administrator right now; not Scholz & 8 Friends. TRA has acquired Scholz & Friends so there's a 9 new TPA that's on the plan. 10 So we came in November. We were actually 11 getting the amendments approved at that time to the plan 12 for TRA. We completed that, Commissioners Court 13 approved that amendment to the plan that was submitted 14 back in. As Judge Kelly just mentioned ago, he had a 15 surprise came to him. Last week on the 22nd, I received 16 the same surprise as he did at the same time in an 17 e-mail. I don't know in those situations. 18 But basically TRA had requested at the same 19 time since we completed the amendment update that they 20 also requested that all of the record agreement of the 21 457 Plan be updated as well showing TRA as the third 22 party administrator. So that e-mail was sent to Judge 23 Kelly. 24 Again, I know that that was kind of caught 25 him offhand, it caught me offhand. I did have a 11 1 conversation with TRA about a little bit more 2 appropriate communication would be appropriate for all 3 players involved here on this. 4 Basically, there's nothing changing in the 5 Plan. It is just strictly an update. Judge Kelly 6 serves as, of course, as the trustee of the Plan for 7 Kerr County Judge, and his signatures are required on 8 that. 9 But again those adoptions are laid out in 10 the agreement, and that would be just an update of the 11 agreement for the 457 Plan. So my request today is to 12 ask for Judge Kelly and Commissioner Court to approve 13 Judge Kelly signing those documents to update the TPA 14 agreement with The Retirement Advantage, which is the 15 third party agreement. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I think I went ahead and 17 signed it, didn't I? 18 MRS. GRINSTEAD: No, I don't think so. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Why don't you tell us what it 20 was. And thank you for offering to come down and 21 explain it to us. But for those of you that think that 22 these things come across my desk and I don't read them, 23 believe it or not, I really do. And when I see somebody 24 put my full given name, I know they don't know me. And 25 that's what triggered it. But thanks for everything. 12 1 So we just need to go ahead and approve the 2 TRA would be the third party administrator. 3 MR. OVERBY: That's correct. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And the amendments that they 5 approve. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 9 Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. 10 (All ayes.) 11 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. Thank you, Guy. 12 MR. OVERBY: Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And for those of you who don't 14 know, he used to sit in this chair right here. 15 1.2 consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 action to approve the contract with Motorola for 17 communications system, and to authorize the County Judge 18 to sign same. Sheriff Leitha. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. Court, I'm looking 20 for y'all's approval for the Judge to be able to sign 21 the Motorola Communication Systems contract. I just 22 want to say, Judge as you know and Heather, we've worked 23 tirelessly, you know, a lot of hours on this. I really 24 have to thank you, Heather, worked up to the holidays 25 with Motorola to come to a final agreement on this 13 1 contract. 2 Court, I do have Motorola here if you have 3 any questions. But that's basically what I'm looking 4 for today is for the Judge to be able to sign the 5 contract. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Is this the topic you wanted 7 to talk about, Blanca? 8 MS. GARCIA: I can. 9 JUDGE KELLY: You didn't identify which 10 agenda item, so that's -- 11 MS. GARCIA: No. It was just my input, but 12 I mean I could say more. 13 JUDGE KELLY: No, no, that's all good. 14 And to be clear here, I've got two contracts 15 here. One is a Kerr County P-25 Radio Communication and 16 services, supplies, installation and/or equipment 17 contract. And then I have a communication system and 18 services agreement. Is that right? 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: The communication and 21 services agreement is Exhibit J of the main contract. 22 Yes, Sir. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now just for the 24 record, I've already mentioned this to the Motorola 25 representatives. I mentioned it to the County Attorney. 14 1 I did read the contract. Contracts, believe it or not. 2 And the only question I had is in the Dispute Resolution 3 part -- as you probably know I've practiced law for 48 4 years and a lot of that time was -- yeah, I know. And a 5 lot of that time as a mediator and arbitrator. 6 And we have those provisions in the contract 7 to dispute resolution provisions. But it also provides 8 that lawsuits can be filed by a party in a court of 9 competent jurisdiction. And the only thing I mentioned 10 to both Ben and to Heather is that if they would, if 11 they would let the attorneys talk about whether or not 12 we can put in a provision that those suits would be 13 brought in Kerr County, or if it's in Federal Court that 14 the Federal Court that covers Kerr County. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So that was my only comment on 17 the whole thing. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: I'll get with their attorney 19 right after Court this morning, she's very responsive, 20 and we can get that worked out before you sign the 21 document. If the Court approves it today. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have two questions 23 because I have not seen the documents. And I've had two 24 questions all along. One, what is the remedy if the 25 coverage is not as reported to be during all of the 15 1 discussions we've had, which was a hundred percent, or 2 99.9 percent coverage in the County. 3 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. 4 MR. ZOTYKA: Yes, Sir. The -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Please identify yourself. 6 MR. ZOTYKA: Yes. Ben Zotyka, area sales 7 manager with Motorola Solutions. The coverage is 95 8 percent liability, based off of the existing sites as 9 they are. We will test the coverage in those areas as 10 we committed to in the contract, and any -- any areas 11 that we show that are not covered, Motorola will fix 12 those issues in that area. 13 A lot of times if it's something small, 14 which usually as the case would be, it had to do with an 15 antenna. It has to do with the down tilt of the 16 antenna. The way the antennas were placed. We will 17 address that at that site. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's in the contract. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: And we have to accept -- we 20 have to accept the work that's done by Motorola before 21 the final payment, and so we have an opportunity to make 22 sure that it's accomplished. 23 MR. ZOTYKA: Correct. There is a percentage 24 of the contract that the County does not have to pay 25 until system acceptance. Meaning the County is happy 16 1 with everything that we've done and they're signing on 2 the line saying that we're good with everything. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, what if it -- you 4 know, this is a, you know -- three years from now, all 5 of a sudden coverage drops. That's what I'm concerned 6 about. I mean is there any provision that y'all are 7 obligated to, you know, I mean -- 8 MR. ZOTYKA: Well, we maintain and support. 9 Part of this agreement will be the maintenance and 10 support of the system, right. So if there's something 11 that fails as part of our work, okay, then it would be 12 covered under the maintenance and the service agreement, 13 okay? But if it's like -- if it's a force majeure or 14 act of nature, or something like that, then we have got 15 to figure out what caused it and how to address it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And they're going to maintain 17 it. If there's problems they're going to fix it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just want to make sure 19 that the coverage. Because coverage has been a problem 20 in my area and Don's area. It always has been. And 21 primarily our two areas. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And need to make -- you 24 know, that's the most important to me and the reason we 25 went with Motorola, in my opinion. 17 1 MR. ZOTYKA: Correct. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other question is, 3 can somebody explain why there's a rush to get this done 4 before the end of the year? 5 MR. ZOTYKA: So we have -- we deal with our 6 subcontractors and our suppliers, and we faced, just 7 like we're all facing the financial burden of price 8 increases of everything, right? Every year on January 1 9 all of our vendors send us new pricing. And all that 10 new pricing guaranteed this time will definitely have 11 price increases in it. Okay. 12 So we we do our pricing based off of we know 13 that long term, you know, some of the stuff that we're 14 going to be purchasing for this project and other 15 projects that we're doing have 6 month, 8 month, 9 month 16 lead time. Because of the supply chain, and the 17 financial issues that have been going on, we're seeing 18 our vendors increased prices, you know, three months, 19 six months into it. So we kind of have to hedge our 20 bets when we start putting pricing together, knowing 21 some of the stuff we're not even buying for 6 months or 22 9 months from now. 23 JUDGE KELLY: In my conversations with the 24 Sheriff, there's a significant economic incentive for us 25 to be able to enter this contract before the year end 18 1 with these prices before the inflationary increase. 2 MR. ZOTYKA: That's correct. We built in a 3 price incentive book to have for the -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Half a million dollars or 5 something? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: $614,000.00. 7 JUDGE KELLY: $614,000.00. Well that's a 8 savings I want to get. So -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. I just 10 wanted that on the record as to why we're doing it in 11 such a rush. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 16 Any discussion? I think we've cussed and discussed this 17 one enough. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: About a year. 19 JUDGE KELLY: About a year. 20 Okay. Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 21 Unanimous. 22 SHERIFF LEITHA: Thank the Court. Thank 23 you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And what I want to do so 25 everybody knows, I want to have Jody, our Court 19 1 Coordinator, and give them to the -- and have everybody 2 review them. I have represented to them I'm going to 3 try to sign this by close of business today. So we're 4 going to get you copies, so -- 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Just note there will be a 6 change in 11.2 for the Kerr County or the appropriate 7 Federal Court. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, item 1.3 consider, 9 discuss and take appropriate action to obligate a 10 portion of the American Rescue Plan Act fund designated 11 for the Veterans' Pathway to acquire engineering 12 services for project design when issuing the Request for 13 Qualifications. Miss Putnam. 14 MS. PUTNAM: Good morning. I'm here for the 15 next two agenda items regarding the Veterans' Pathway 16 Project. And we met as a -- the team met on December 17 20th, and we are now ready to move forth to get a scope 18 of work and engineering services and to figure out each 19 portion of the proposed plan for the Veteran Pathway 20 Project. And it is necessary to go ahead and get the 21 engineer involved to give us the scope of work because 22 there are numerous entities that are all going to be 23 working together to accomplish this pathway project. 24 And so what I am here today to ask is for us 25 to designate a portion of the earmarked ARPA funding for 20 1 this project. Just to go out for the engineering 2 services for the request for qualifications for 3 engineering services. 4 At this time we're not asking to designate 5 the full amount for the whole scope of the project; just 6 to go out for the engineering services. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Let me make sure that I 8 understand. We budgeted $250,000.00, and allocated 9 those funds. 10 MS. PUTNAM: We have not obligated those 11 funds. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but in the budget. 13 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. In the budget, yes. 14 JUDGE KELLY: In the budget. And then last 15 time we talked about we need to spend money to get the 16 engineers to write an RFQ to start getting these plans 17 and specs put together? 18 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And that's going to cost 30, 20 40 thousand dollars, or something like that. 21 MS. PUTNAM: Right. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And if I recall correctly, the 23 motion that I think it was Commissioner Belew made, that 24 we approved, was obligate up to -- not to exceed 25 $100,000.00 as kind of seed money to get this project 21 1 going, isn't that what we did? And you're asking us to 2 obligate those funds out of the 100 that we said we're 3 not going to exceed? 4 MS. PUTNAM: I guess that would be what it 5 is. My understanding was we had a -- hadn't obligated 6 really any of it. But this is to make sure that we can 7 go ahead and get the -- go out for request for 8 qualifications from an engineer and pay the engineer in 9 order to bring this forth to have the other entities to 10 have the full scope of work. So yes. If we could 11 obligate a portion of those ARPA funding specifically 12 for this. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Maybe Jody can -- 14 MRS. GRINSTEAD: My recollection is on our 15 last meeting we had an item on there to obligate up -- 16 or the 250,000. But I believe Commissioner Letz brought 17 up -- we don't know what the project's going to be. I 18 think Commissioner Belew agreed. So they don't want to 19 obligate 250 thousand not knowing anything. 20 So now we're asking to obligate a portion 21 for the RFQ because according to GrantWorks we can't 22 spend any of the ARPA money until that is obligated. So 23 instead of the 250 thousand, we're asking for whatever, 24 up to 40 thousand just to do the RFQ. Even though 250 25 thousand is earmarked in the budget, it's not been 22 1 obligated. Those are the words we have to obligate 2 those funds. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Now, the public couldn't hear 4 that. 5 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Sorry. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and let me just kinda 7 summarize it. Everybody's concerned about the strings 8 that the Federal Government attaches to ARPA. 9 Everybody. Okay. And so what we're trying to do is use 10 belts and suspenders to keep our britches up here. We 11 put it in the budget, that should have been enough. We 12 came here a couple weeks ago, and we said not to exceed 13 a hundred thousand dollars. That should be enough. 14 And what you're here today saying we're 15 probably only going to spend 40. Make sure that's what 16 we're obligating to do. So we now have the suspenders 17 and the belt. 18 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. I guess that would do it. 19 Do it all. I wasn't really understanding the hundred 20 thousand that had been obligated. 21 JUDGE KELLY: It wasn't clear. And so what 22 we're doing we're clearly obligating this 40 so we can 23 pay the professional fees to get the plans to see what 24 it's going to cost. 25 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. I request the Court to 23 1 please order to do so. 2 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: In your packet on item 3 1.3 and 1.4. We had a very good meeting, and one of the 4 objections are that everything falls within budget. But 5 to get any kind of proceeding we've got to have an 6 engineer to get it started. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Right. And that's what we 8 were talking about two weeks ago. Now we're talking 9 about obligating the funds to pay for it. 10 MS. PUTNAM: And in the future, I'll be 11 coming forth once we get a little bit further along for 12 the remainder of the amount once we have -- once we have 13 the reports from the engineer and have -- the next 14 agenda item is to actually go out for the RFQ. So once 15 we finish doing all of that then we will slowly go 16 through the next phases. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And I appreciate to the 18 public, some of these things are a little confusing, but 19 I think the extra caution that our grant administrator's 20 taking and her supervisor are appreciated. Keep us 21 coloring between the lines, that's where we want to be. 22 So do we have a motion to obligate the funds 23 for the engineering RFQ? 24 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I so move. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And a second? 24 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second. 3 MRS. DOWDY: How much are we obligating? 4 50? 5 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I don't know. 6 JUDGE KELLY: For the actual engineering 7 fees, which we anticipate to be less than 40 thousand 8 dollars. 9 MRS. DOWDY: So I don't need to put an 10 amount? 11 JUDGE KELLY: It's for engineering services 12 and project design and issuing the RFQ. 13 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. 14 JUDGE KELLY: That's what it for. 15 MS. PUTNAM: No, I don't think we need to 16 say the actual amount. That's a catch 22. 17 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: We've been cautioned 18 by the engineer not to do that. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So we're doing it up to 40? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, leave it the way 21 it is. Don't do a number. 22 JUDGE KELLY: No number. Well let me read 23 it again and make sure we get this -- so the County 24 Clerk can get it in the order. 25 This is a motion to obligate a portion of 25 1 the American Rescue Plan Act funds designated for the 2 Veteran Pathway to acquire engineering services for the 3 project design when issuing the RFQ. That's how we'll 4 word it. Okay, so that's the motion and a second. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: That's a motion and second. 7 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 (All Commissioners said aye.) 9 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? None. 10 We want to move on to 1.4, which is 11 consider, discuss and take appropriate action for the 12 Court to authorize issuing a Request for Qualifications 13 for the engineering services for the design of the 14 Veteran Pathway Project. We talked about it. 15 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. This is just permission 16 to actually start advertising and go out and request the 17 qualifications to go out for bid for -- for an engineer. 18 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I move for approved of 19 item 1.4. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second, with a question. 21 Is there a time limit? How long do we have -- usually 22 we put a deadline when we're going to have the requests 23 back due to Court. 24 MS. PUTNAM: Well, what we need to do first 25 is go ahead and write the request for qualifications. 26 1 So GrantWorks is assisting with that, in order to write 2 down the scope of work with what we're going to put out. 3 And then we will advertise it in the newspaper and go 4 through the proper protocols the Federal guidelines for 5 advertising for the RFQ. That would take a minimum of 6 like two weeks to accomplish. 7 So there's not really a deadline for 8 responses, that would be up to the team as to choose how 9 long they want to give the engineers time to submit 10 their proposals. It will be a sealed bid. 11 JUDGE KELLY: 30 days. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we need to have a 13 deadline to get it back to us. Once it's written you 14 can come back to us and then we can figure out. And 15 probably input from Charlie how long it would take, but 16 we need to have -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: We can say 30, 60 or 90 days. 18 Just depends on the scope of project. 19 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Well, we can bring it back 20 to the Court once the RFP's -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: I'm fine with baby steps, I'm 22 not criticizing. But we're getting all the details 23 nailed down. 24 MS. PUTNAM: Now that we do have the funding 25 obligated and we can -- and we can get permission to go 27 1 out for RFQ. If you want to wait until they've had a 2 chance to write it, I can bring this back to you. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Once the RFQ is written 4 and you can come back and we'll set the time period. 5 MS. PUTNAM: So just pass that one for now? 6 JUDGE KELLY: No. Any other discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just to authorize 8 the RFQ. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then those in favor say 10 aye. 11 (All Commissioners saying aye.) 12 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? Unanimous. 13 And again, you got one more, don't you? 14 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. 15 JUDGE KELLY: 1.5 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to accept OOG Grant Number 4595801, 17 FY-23 Bullet Resistant Shield Grant Program. 18 MS. PUTNAM: This is just to accept the 19 funding from the Office of the Governor for the Bullet 20 Resistant Shield Grant Program that Scott Gaige has 21 requested from the Office of the Governor. It has been 22 awarded and we need permission for the Judge to sign to 23 authorize and certify to the funding. Which is if 24 you're interested, not to exceed $157,784.00. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 28 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second to 3 approve accepting the Bullet Resistant Shield Grant from 4 the Governor's Office. Any other discussion? Those in 5 favor say aye. 6 (All said aye.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? None. Unanimous. 8 Miss Putnam, thank you for your thoroughness. Even if 9 we have to take a few extra steps to get this right, 10 it's worth it. 11 MS. PUTNAM: Thank you. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Item 1.6 consider, 13 discuss and take appropriate action to award the 2023 14 Annual Material Bids for the Road & Bridge Department. 15 And this is the one we don't get to at the last 16 Commissioners' Court meeting. 17 MS. HOFFER: Correct. And you should have 18 in your packet, your backup, of what the final bids 19 were. And we can just kind of start at the very 20 beginning. You know, on your -- we don't get the trap 21 rock anymore just because of the increased cost. We put 22 it on there if we've got a situation where we've just 23 got a small section of road, and the whole road is that 24 black trap rock, that you can see the expense in that 25 trap rock. 29 1 So Wheatcraft on the crushed paving rock is 2 the one who won the bid. It kind of depends what size 3 truck they're going to use and for how far, you see that 4 delivery underneath. So it varies depending on that. 5 We also can go and pick up the rock ourselves if we're 6 close by. So that one was Wheatcraft on the winner on 7 that one. 8 Go to the next page, you've got our 9 emulsions. The two emulsions that we use the most on is 10 the CRS-2P. It was -- last year it was $2.65 a gallon. 11 It went up to 272 a gallon, from Wright Asphalt 12 Products. The CSS-1H is what we use for doing edge 13 patching and potholes to get a binder for the material 14 to stick. It was $2.23, is the current price, and the 15 price went up to $2.48. And Wright Asphalt also won the 16 bid on that. Those are the two that we use. 17 The CRS-2, we bid it but we have had 18 problems with that emulsion. We don't use the MS-2. 19 AEP, we used to use and we substituted the CSS-1H 20 because it's a little bit cleaner. So Wright Asphalt 21 won the bid on that. 22 Go to the next page, the third page, which 23 is the one that kinda baffled me. This is for culvert 24 pipes and bands, coupling bands. We used to do the 25 install of driveways but we have cut that out to put 30 1 more of the cost towards the sealcoat program. But I 2 found it really interesting it was between 10 and 11 3 percent cheaper than the current bid on pipes. 4 JUDGE KELLY: On every item. 5 MS. HOFFER: Yeah, it was real consistent. 6 So I found that to be interesting. I'm not really 7 really sure what all that means. One of the guys this 8 morning in our Monday morning meeting said that some of 9 those costs are coming down on the metals and stuff. I 10 wish all -- I wish all the other bids were like that. 11 This is the one we probably use the least amount, now 12 that we don't do the driveway installs anymore. But we 13 do bid it just in case there is a project that we need 14 to buy pipe and buy quite a bit of it. So that page was 15 very interesting to me. 16 Go to next page. This is your base material 17 that's up underneath the sealed surface. You look at 18 Wheatcraft and Jenschke. You've gotta add in their 19 delivery costs. We use both of those. They're local. 20 Some of the other ones that you see are not local. The 21 Brauntex is out of New Braunfels, the other one is out 22 of San Antonio. 23 We'll use both of these. We do have a 24 little note at the very top. It kind of depends where 25 the project is. So if we're on one end of the County 31 1 that's closer to the Wheatcraft pit, we may -- we may 2 get the material for the base there just because those 3 tend to be multiple loads. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kelly, I notice that 5 when a company that bids -- that usually bids, was Reeh 6 Quarry. And their prices are lower than Jenschke's and 7 Wheatcraft. 8 MS. HOFFER: Which one are you talking 9 about? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not on the chart. 11 I just know Reeh Quarry, and the only reason I know that 12 is because I happen to buy a whole bunch of that 13 recently. And it was 695 for me to buy, which is not a 14 big quantity. Are we precluded -- I mean we bid them, 15 but we can still go to lower suppliers. 16 MS. HOFFER: Yes, you can. You want to keep 17 it under, you want to be careful, because that 18 $50,000.00 is the mark. You don't want to go exceed 19 that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 MS. HOFFER: Because then you come into if 22 you're in violation of the material. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 24 MS. HOFFER: But yeah, you're absolutely 25 right. And we send out -- we get people who call and 32 1 want to get on our bidder list. I'm not sure on Reeh if 2 they have asked us to no longer send them a bid packet. 3 But we send out, and some people don't -- some people 4 don't bid on it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was just curious, 6 because they're very competitive usually and usually 7 they do bid. 8 MS. HOFFER: Yes. And we had a couple 9 people that the date to get your bid packet in, they 10 missed it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 MS. HOFFER: So -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 MS. HOFFER: On your next page, we've got -- 15 the very last page is your hot mix-cold laid material, 16 which is what we use to patch the edges. This is what 17 we use to patch potholes. It is most expensive material 18 that we use. 19 If you look at, you know, the far left and 20 the current prices, up until this upcoming January 1. 21 You look at these materials and they just keep creeping 22 up and creeping up. So on the Type AA, and this is all 23 different rock size. Brauntex is the one who got the 24 bid on that. And we've got their delivery is 25 dollars 25 a ton. So from New Braunfels that adds quite a bit onto 33 1 that. But they still -- they were the lowest on that. 2 This Texas Materials Group, over to the far 3 right, they bid on the type D, and they're $73.00 a ton. 4 Their delivery is $20.80, they're in Cedar Park. 5 Malbec Materials, they're up in Johnson 6 City. We've bought their material from them, and also 7 have bought their rock for paving. This year on the 8 paving, they dropped the ball. They forgot when the 9 cut-off date was. They didn't get on in the paving 10 rock. But they won the type CC and the CC Plus. 11 They're $78.00 a ton for both CC and CC Plus. And then 12 their delivery charge is $19.00 a ton. So that one had 13 some pretty good increases. You just -- you've gotta 14 make sure that you put the delivery in on that, so -- 15 The highlighted ones that you have on your 16 list are the ones that won the bid. So at this time, I 17 ask the Commissioners' Court to accept the bid tally, 18 and these will go into effect on January 1, and then 19 they end on December 31st of next year. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move to accept the 21 annual material bid for Road & Bridge Department. 22 JUDGE KELLY: As presented. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As presented. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay a motion and second to 34 1 approve the annual material bid for the Road & Bridge 2 Department as presented. Any discussion? All those in 3 favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 4 Thank you, Kelly. 5 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.7 consider, discuss and 7 take appropriate action on an order expressing official 8 intent to reimburse with tax-exempt obligation proceeds 9 for costs associated with designing, acquiring, 10 constructing, improving, purchasing, upgrading, updating 11 and equipping a new Animal Control Shelter. Miss 12 Shelton. 13 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. This is our normal 14 order that gets passed whenever we're looking at going 15 out for bond. And it just covers any expenses we may 16 have until that bond gets funded. And so if there's any 17 pre-expenses that we have, we can go back and reimburse 18 the County for those amounts and it still will use the 19 bond funds eventually. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And to clarify so the public 21 understands, the bond issue passed on the animal 22 shelter. 23 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And those bonds will go to 25 market sometime probably after the first of the year. 35 1 But there may be expenses that will be incurred prior to 2 those bonds actually funding. And so this is to 3 reimbursement what the County advances against the 4 bonds. 5 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does this cover 8 reimbursement or include reimbursing for purchasing the 9 property? 10 MRS. SHELTON: It's all based on the amount 11 of time before that was spent. Like there's an 18-month 12 limitation that you can't go back so far. So I'd have 13 to double check with the exact dates on it. In this 14 order it does say no tax exempt obligation will be 15 issued by the County in furtherance of this order after 16 a date, which is later than 18 months after the latter 17 of the date the expenditures are paid, or the date on 18 which the property with respect to which such 19 expenditures were made is placed in service. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm pretty sure -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: We're past 18 months. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and just to complicate 24 that, a question for reimbursement for the property 25 purchase. We bought a 16-acre tract to put the animal 36 1 shelter and intended that for many uses. They're only 2 going to use, I think, probably three or four or five 3 maybe. So we haven't allocated even -- 4 MRS. SHELTON: And we're getting a really 5 good interest rate. So you know interest rate may come 6 into play on what that decision would have been anyway. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm still pretty proud 8 of the interest rate that we got on that. 9 MRS. SHELTON: We all are. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So we've got a motion and a 11 second? Do we have a motion and a second? 12 MRS. DOWDY: No. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 14 approve -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: Reimbursement with tax-exempt 16 obligation proceeds? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. Approve the agenda 18 item as presented. 19 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? All 21 those in favor say aye. 22 (All said aye.) 23 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? Unanimous. 24 Item 1.8 consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action to surplus items for various 37 1 departments. 2 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We had three requests 3 for surplusing items, and we ask that you accept that. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and second to 7 surplusing items as presented. Any discussion? All in 8 favor say aye. 9 (All said aye.) 10 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? Unanimous. 11 Item 1.9 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action to approve the Kerr County Attorney's 13 bond. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: My bond is kind of wonky 15 compared to everyone else's. I'm on the presidential 16 election cycle, but I came into fulfill an unexpired 17 term, it comes sort of out of order. So I need to ask 18 y'all to approve my bond, please. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second. 22 Discussion? I had had a question from one of the 23 elected officials why we weren't approving their bonds 24 today. We do all that on Sunday the first at one 25 o'clock here at the courthouse. And if you haven't come 38 1 to the swearing in ceremony, it's exciting. 2 So approval approving a motion to the County 3 Attorney's bond at this time. We got a motion and 4 seconded. Any other discussion? Those in favor say 5 aye. 6 (All saying aye.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Unanimous. 10 And item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 11 appropriate action to approve the job description for 12 the Deputy Treasurer. Miss Sanchez. Miss Hernandez, 13 really. 14 MS. HERNANDEZ SANCHEZ: I come before you 15 for a job description approval for the Deputy Treasurer. 16 This position was approved during the budget season, 17 this last budget season, for the Treasurer's Office for 18 a full-time position. It was a part-time position. 19 There was some changes going on. We just request your 20 blessing for the position, for the job description. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second to 24 approve the job description for the Deputy Treasurer. 25 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 39 1 (All said aye.) 2 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? Unanimous. 3 Approval agenda. Miss Shelton. 2.1 budget 4 amendments? 5 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. You have before you two 6 budget amendments. These are just line item changes. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 10 approve the budget amendments as presented. Any 11 discussion? Those in favor say aye. 12 (All said aye.) 13 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? Unanimous. 14 2.2 pay bills. 15 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Today's invoices for 16 your consideration amount to $865,556.78. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We got a motion and 20 second to approve the bills as presented. Pay the bills 21 as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 22 (All said aye.) 23 JUDGE KELLY: Opposed? Unanimous. 24 Item 2.3 late bills. 25 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 40 1 JUDGE KELLY: 2.4 Auditor reports. 2 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 4 Item 2.5 accept the monthly reports. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For October, 6 2022. Treasurer's report, Tracy Soldan. For November, 7 2022, Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 Bill Ragsdale, 8 Animal Control Services Director Reagan Givens. And 9 additional comments included is the Tax Assessor 10 Collectors Certificate of Completion of Education for a 11 term December 21st, 2021 through November 30th 2022. I 12 move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 15 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 16 discussion? Those in favor say aye. 17 (All said aye.) 18 JUDGE KELLY: Those opposed? Unanimous. 19 2.6 court orders. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Court orders from our 21 December 12th meeting, regular meeting, number 39703 22 through 39730. They all look to be in order. I move 23 for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 41 1 approve court orders as presented. Any discussion? 2 Those in favor say aye. Unanimous, four zero. 3 Information agenda 3.1 status reports from 4 department heads. Good. 5 3.2 status reports from elected officials. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: I just have a brief one. 7 I just wanted to thank you, Commissioner 8 Gipson, for your thoughtfulness and reasonableness in 9 all the County business that you have conducted while 10 you've been here, and your kindness toward County staff. 11 It has not gone unnoticed. Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Thank you very much. 13 Been a privilege. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Any status reports from other 15 elected officials? 16 3.3 status reports from Liaison 17 Commissioners. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Something related to the 19 airport on a couple of things. One, TxDOT in their 20 usual way of deciding projects without a lot of people 21 knowing much in advance, but the good news they are 22 going to do a runway rehabilitation. 1.378 million 23 dollars on the main run runway, and that will start 24 shortly, and this will be on our agenda the first 25 meeting in January to approve it, because of the amount. 42 1 We have to -- it takes both City and County approval. 2 Another thing is Kerrville Aviation is 3 working on building a new terminal, or a new hangar. 4 They've been talking about it. They're hoping to do it. 5 They're looking at funding and things of that nature. 6 But that's good news, because there is a need for that. 7 And the T-hangars and row hangars are kind of under 8 construction. At least the site work's started on them. 9 So those are the projects that are on their 10 current budget. A few goings on out there. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 12 Well, I'm going to stand up. This is Beck 13 Gipson's last meeting as County Commissioner Precinct 2. 14 And a lot of time we prepare a resolution and we tell 15 people whereas you did this and that, and you did this 16 and you did that, and list off 10 or 15 things, and then 17 say therefore be it resolved. Well, we didn't do that. 18 What we're going to do is we have a plaque 19 that we want to give Beck to take with him. And we'll 20 do the photo op here in just a minute, so I'll let you 21 know when. But I want to talk about Beck for a minute. 22 This is not about -- I don't want to talk about what 23 Beck's done. I've known Beck now, I'm looking back on 24 when I came to Kerrville in 1989, and trying to save 25 Charles Schreiner Bank and I met this man. And I have 43 1 found him to be one of the most reasonable people I have 2 ever known, and considerate and thoughtful to people. 3 I'm going to talk about who Beck Gipson is; 4 not what he is. We could go on and on about who he is 5 now. But I this man and I know him personally. I lived 6 through the crisis of trying to save the bank and not 7 being able to save the bank. I lived through watching 8 many local borrowers go through extremely financial hard 9 times. And we got through all that. 10 I've worked with Beck when he was President 11 of the UGRA. And we had some trying times with the dam 12 over there, and did some litigation on that, and I got 13 to know him even at a different level. 14 And when my late wife passed away and I 15 needed to sell the old historic house up here. I was in 16 a pretty bad place, you know, it's hard to lose a spouse 17 like that. And she was 54 at the time if you remember. 18 I didn't know what to do with the house and so I hired 19 Beck to tell me, give me an appraisal on the house, just 20 tell me what it's worth. I don't have time to go 21 through the realtors and deal with the motions of all of 22 it, and I told him give me what is the fair market value 23 of that house. And that's what I'm going to sell it 24 for, not a penny more, not a penny less. And you can go 25 talk to Jay and Ria Henderson and they can tell you 44 1 that's exactly what I did. And I put my financial 2 future in his hands because he's that trustworthy. 3 And when County Commissioner Moser decided 4 to retire, and we needed to put somebody in his spot as 5 a placeholder because there was a very pitch political 6 climate at the time. I can't remember how many 7 candidates we had running back at that time. I think we 8 started with 8 and ended up with 5, something like that. 9 And the idea was let the people decide who 10 they want their Commissioner to be, and pick somebody 11 who you know you can go to sleep at night and know 12 you're safe and you can trust, and that's Beck Gipson. 13 Now a little bit about what you probably 14 don't know about him, he is an honest to goodness 15 legend. You may have heard of the movie Old Yeller. 16 Anybody see the movie Old Yeller? Well, your dad wrote 17 it. Okay. Long time family of Kimble County. 18 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Mason. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Mason County. And for those 20 of you that don't remember the Viet Nam era, and Beck 21 and I both have the gray hair to show you that we 22 remember that ere. Young males didn't have a choice 23 about what they were going to do for military service. 24 You either got drafted or joined, or you took your 25 chances. Well, I had a four year deferment if you went 45 1 to college, so I thought that seemed like the best way 2 to go for me. And I think you started that process. 3 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Yes. Didn't finish 4 it. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And actually went and joined 6 the Army, and was a combat helicopter pilot. And for 7 those of you that know -- and I can't give you all the 8 stats on the missions and what all he did, but it just 9 incredible, and talking about a true war hero here. 10 But he crashed one of those helicopters. 11 And what was it, 72 hours you were back in the air? 12 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: I was young. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Back in the air. You know, 14 put me in, coach, put me in. I didn't want to go in; he 15 went back. And knowing Beck reminds me of my father who 16 is my personal hero, who was a World War II Marine. 17 Landing strip out at Bougainville under fire to put the 18 Marines on the ground. 19 And as a boy, he always told me how he -- 20 what kind of man he wanted me to be. And I think 21 everybody has a parent that tells you how they want you 22 to be. And he used to from memory recite the poem "If" 23 by Rudyard Kipling. And his mother gave him book of 24 poems before he went to the South Pacific that he 25 carried all over, including the occupation of Normandy 46 1 and China after the war. And he read these poems, and 2 my father could quote from memory, I'm going to tell you 3 five or six dozen poems, because that's all he had to do 4 when they weren't fighting. 5 But the poem "If", and I know this is 6 somewhat unorthodox because we don't normally read a 7 poem. But I want to read the poem to you, because it 8 means something to me. But when I read this poem, this 9 is the man that I know, and knew, and appointed to this 10 position. 11 So this is poetry moment for Commissioners' 12 Court. Think about this. "If." If you can keep your 13 head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it 14 on you; 15 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt 16 you, but make allowance for their doubting too;. 17 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 18 or, being lied about don't, don't deal in lies, or being 19 hated, don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too 20 good, nor talk too wise; 21 If you can dream, and not make dreams your 22 master; if you can think, and not make thoughts your 23 aim; if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat 24 those two imposters just the same;. 25 If you can bear to hear the truth you've 47 1 spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or 2 watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop 3 and build'em up with worn out tools;. 4 If you can make one heap of all your 5 winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, and 6 lose, and start again at your beginnings and never 7 breath a word about your loss;. 8 If you can force your heart and nerve and 9 sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and 10 so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will 11 which says to them: "Hold on";. 12 If you can walk with crowds and keep your 13 virtue, or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch; 14 if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; if all 15 men count with you, but none too much;. 16 If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 17 60 seconds worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and 18 everything that's in it, and which is more, you'll be a 19 Man, my son! My friend, Beck Gipson. 20 (Applause.) 21 COMMISSIONER GIPSON: Thank you. I 22 appreciate it. Thank you for that. 23 MS. HOFFER: Thank you, Beck. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have no other 25 business, we stand adjourned. 48 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 4th day of January, A.D. 10 2023. 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