1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, April 24, 2023 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Tuesday, April 25, 2023 8 11:00 a.m. 9 Commissioners' Courtroom 10 Kerr County Courthouse 11 Kerrville, Texas 78028 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 RICH PACES, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Public Input. 6 4 *** Commissioners' Comments. 19 5 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 action to approve collaboration between the 6 Kerr County Sheriff's Office and Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental 7 Disabilities(MHDD) Center for grant application through the Bureau of Justice 8 Assistance. 9 1.1 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 30 action regarding request to use courthouse 10 parking lot on July 4, 2023 for a patriotic display of classic/antique cars/trucks. 11 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 33 12 action regarding request from National Alliance on Mental Illness Kerrville to 13 display Mental Health Awareness signs on the courthouse grounds from May 1, 2023- 14 May 29, 2023. 15 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 34 action to approve the lease agreement 16 between Xerox Corporation and Kerr County for a copier/scanner/printer in the Tax Office. 17 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 18 action on request to use Flat Rock Park to host high school cross country meets on 19 Friday August 18, 2023 and Saturday, September 23, 2023. 20 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 21 action regarding Kerr County support of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority's 22 Habitat Conservation Plan(HCP) to address the proposed listing of freshwater mussels 23 found in the Guadalupe River in Kerr County and the designation of critical habitat 24 pursuant to the Federal Endangered Species Act. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.11 Public hearing, pursuant to Chapter 312, 55 Texas Tax Code and other authority, 4 regarding the proposed Kerr County, Texas Economic Development Program, including 5 Guidelines and Criteria for Tax Abatement ("Program"). 6 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 7 action regarding the approval of the proposed Kerr County, Texas Economic Development 8 Program, Including Guidelines and Criteria for Tax Abatement, and all related matters. 9 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 66 10 action regarding a final plat for Kendrick Commercial Park. 11 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 12 action regarding a final plat for Picarosa South. 13 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 14 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on June 12, 2023 for a 15 revision of plat for Soledad Springs Estates Lots 39 and 44, Volume 3, Page 112. 16 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 17 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on June 12, 2023 for a 18 revision of plat for Hall Ranch Lot 3. 19 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 70 action to accept quarterly report from the 20 Veterans Services Advisory Committee. 21 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 72 action on request from the Veteran Services 22 Advisory Committee for the County to fill a second position in the Veterans Service Office. 23 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 78 24 action to approve job description for the Assistant County Veterans Service Officer. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 80 action to approve a $25.00 donation from a 4 citizen for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund, 72-370-531. 5 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 81 6 action to ratify and confirm authorization for the submittal of the Sutton-2022 Operation 7 Stonegarden project grant number 4899301 to the Office of the Governor for the HS-Homeland 8 Security Grant Program on behalf of the Kerr County Sheriff's Office. 9 1.9 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 94 10 action to approve Resolution regarding the Sutton-2022 Operation Stonegarden project 11 grant number 4899301 to the Office of the Governor for the HS-Homeland Security Grant 12 Program on behalf of the KC Sheriff's Office. 13 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 95 action regarding refunds for Hill Country 14 Regional Public Defenders Office (HCRPDO) contributions back to participating counties. 15 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 103 16 action regarding the proposed job descriptions for the County Clerk's Office for Deputy Clerk 17 (grade/step in pay unchanged), Chief Deputy Clerk (grade/step in pay unchanged), Senior 18 Deputy Clerk, for each civil, vital, CCAL, and OPR, and the retitle of two current positions 19 from Administrative Deputy Clerk to Senior Deputy Clerk Civil and Senior Deputy Clerk 20 Vitals (grade/step in pay unchanged); and the retitle of two current positions from Deputy 21 County Clerk to Senior Deputy Clerk-CCAL, and Senior Deputy Clerk-OPR, and that the 22 salaries of all Senior Deputy Clerks be set at the same base which is currently a grade 17, 23 step 1, per Court Order 38162. 24 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 115 action to acknowledge the receipt of budget 25 adjustments made by the Kerrville-Kerr County Joint Airport Board. 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.22 Update on results of the Texas First ballot 116 hand count simulation. 4 1.23 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 129 5 action to approve Resolution supporting Texas State Legislation for accurate, 6 transparent, auditable elections. 7 2.1 Budget Amendments. 149 8 2.2 Pay Bills. 149 9 2.3 Late Bills. 150 10 2.4 Auditor Reports. 150 11 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 151 12 2.6 Court Orders. 151 13 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 152 14 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 157 15 5.1 Action as may be required on matters 159 discussed in Executive Session. 16 *** Adjournment. 163 17 *** Reporter's Certificate. 164 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Monday, April the 24th, 2023. It is exactly 9:00 3 o'clock in the morning and the Kerr County 4 Commissioners' Court is now in session. If you would, 5 please, stand for the pledge, which will be led by 6 Commissioner Letz. 7 (Prayer and Pledge.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. You have to 9 take the cap off again. We don't do that in the 10 courtroom. 11 I ask everybody to turn your cell phones off 12 or to vibrate, so you don't interrupt the proceedings. 13 And with that, the first item on the agenda is always 14 public input. I don't know how many people we have this 15 morning for public input, but we ask that you limit your 16 remarks to three minutes and it will be timed by the 17 County Clerk. And remind you also that this is input 18 for us to receive. We don't get to give you output, 19 what we think about it. 20 So with that I'll call for, is there anyone 21 that would like to address the Court on public input? 22 MR. DEMONTE: Yes, sir. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Please state your name and 24 address. 25 MR. DEMONTE: Good morning. My name is Jim 7 1 DeMonte. I'm a resident on Eagle Ridge Road. Today was 2 the day for the final vote on the plat of Twin Creeks 3 development. It is extremely disappointing that it is 4 not on the agenda. Based on advice from your outside 5 legal counsel, you are fully aware the plat will be 6 approved through your inaction, which is the same as 7 approving it. 8 We think it's important the public 9 understands what underhanded games are being played by 10 this Court. The County Engineer signed off on this 11 development knowing Eagle Ridge Road was a County paved 12 lane, and all Commissioners admitted the road was 13 inadequate and unsafe. At that point, Kerr County 14 engineer should have said this road is a County paved 15 lane and can safely accommodate up to eight lots. The 16 road will have to be upgraded for this development to 17 take place. 18 The out-of-state developer should have been 19 made aware of this deficiency, period, end of story. 20 The residents of Eagle Ridge Road have provided you with 21 plenty of evidence and the traffic engineering study to 22 support the county road specifications as stated in the 23 2007 Kerr County subdivision rules. You're holding the 24 subdivision accountable to develop the roads within 25 their subdivision, but you really could care less about 8 1 the road we live on and have to drive on every day. 2 By your lack of action, you are now setting 3 a precedent for other developers to come in and do 4 whatever they want in Kerr County. You are better than 5 this. We hope. Playing games with our lives when you 6 know there's a blatant safety problem on Eagle Ridge 7 Road. Do the right thing. Improve the development with 8 conditions. Upgrade the road to the standards it should 9 be at at the developer's expense; not at the taxpayers. 10 And just a couple other comments. You are 11 elected officials. Now it's easy to understand why the 12 American people have such a disregard for elected 13 officials. You say one thing, you do something else 14 when you get in office. I will be reminded every day 15 when I get on that road of what you guys didn't do. And 16 it's not a case of when -- it's a case of when, it's not 17 if something's going to happen on the road. But 18 apparently, through your inaction, you guys can just do 19 this and say hey, it's not on us. Sorry about that. 20 And -- 21 (Timer.) 22 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me. Your time is up. 23 MR. DEMONTE: No, it's not three minutes 24 yet. 25 JUDGE KELLY: It just went off. 9 1 MR. DEMONTE: Okay. Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Yes, sir. 3 Mr. McGuire. 4 MR. McGUIRE: Good morning, Commissioners. 5 Jack McGuire, 680 Eagle Ridge Road. So again, how did 6 we all get here? It's been nine months since the Court 7 has become aware of this issue. That Eagle Ridge Road 8 has been a contentious subject because an out-of-state 9 developer arrived creating serious safety issues to 10 everyone traveling on Eagle Ridge Road. In August, 11 everyone in the court, Judge Kelly, commissioners, 12 agreed Eagle Ridge Road was a challenge and serious 13 danger -- dangerous conditions existed. 14 October of 2022, two Twin Creek engineering 15 firms determined the road was too narrow, 18 feet, not 16 24 feet. And that the subsurface base material was 17 deficient by up to 40 percent in certain areas. In 18 February, the neighbors retained an outside TxDOT 19 engineer to do an independent report. The engineer 20 confirmed Eagle Ridge will become a collector road, yet 21 accordingly is not up to County standards. 22 We, the neighbors, and citizens of Kerr 23 County are here once again to appeal to the Court to do 24 your duty. You all took an oath to protect and uphold 25 the safety of the citizens of Kerr County. So what's 10 1 your plan? Apparently TxDOT has a plan for 173. The 2 developer has a plan for Twin Creeks. Does the County 3 have a plan for the Eagle Ridge Road and the safety of 4 the neighborhood? 5 There have been very many private meetings 6 with the developer and several Executive Sessions by the 7 Commissioners. But very little communication, if any, 8 to the neighbors. You've left us in the dark. Some 9 have suggested that not to have a plan at this point, 10 which protects the safety of Eagle Ridge Road 11 neighborhood, borders on negligence. I'm here, along 12 with our neighbors, to plead to the Court not to approve 13 the Twin Creek development until there has been a 14 written plan to update Eagle Ridge and bring it into 15 compliance with County standards as a collector road. 16 Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Did you have your hand up, 18 ma'am? Ma'am? 19 MS. JENSCHKE: Me? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, ma'am. 21 MS. JENSCHKE: Yes. Oh. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Please state your name and 23 address. 24 MS. JENSCHKE: Good morning. My name is 25 Sharon Jenschke. I am a resident of Eagle Ridge Road. 11 1 I'm very passionate about this situation and hope that 2 my passion doesn't carry over on my comment because my 3 daughter keeps reminding me, it's all about your 4 delivery. So I'm going to try to calm down and if I 5 go -- get a little passionate, it's just -- I apologize. 6 I have nothing new to add to this plea for a 7 no vote on final decisions on the plat for Twin Creeks. 8 But go back to what is the safest for our residents and 9 possible residents in the future. If you are leaning 10 towards an approval of final plat, I think you owe us, 11 the residents, an explanation of your thoughts and 12 feelings as to what to do about the safety issue. If 13 you're just going to abstain from voting and let the 14 State give approval, that is unfair. Because, in my 15 opinion, I have a question. Does the State -- is the 16 State aware of the dangers and questionable safety of 17 Eagle Ridge Road? 18 I feel you owe the residents and taxpayers 19 an explanation as to why you vote approval or abstain 20 from voting at all. I can only imagine the 21 deterioration of the road when we have water well 22 drilling equipment, concrete trucks, lumber trucks, 23 contractors and their help continually using the road. 24 Not to mention delivery trucks. 25 And again, some visitors to my house within 12 1 the last two weeks have been run off the road onto the 2 grass shoulder to avoid dump trucks in the middle of the 3 road. Maybe we should think about adding some 4 provisions to the approval and -- that say approval of 5 your plat developers if you do this or that. Like 6 another way in and out or putting money in to help 7 improve the road. 8 But I can also guess that they will not be 9 making future land buyers aware of the problems and 10 safety of Eagle Ridge Road. Maybe that's where we, the 11 residents, have to take over. Thank you for your time 12 and attention on this matter. I realize it's never easy 13 to please everybody. But again, safety comes first. 14 Vote. One way or the other. Don't let the State be the 15 scapegoat due to your inaction as a Commissioners' 16 Court. You campaigned on faithfully serving your 17 constituents in Kerr County. So stand up for us now. 18 If someone doesn't stand up for us, we all lose. Thank 19 you. 20 COURT REPORTER: What is your name again? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Jenschke. 22 MS. JENSCHKE: Sharon Jenschke. 23 COURT REPORTER: Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Next. Yes, ma'am. 25 MS. McCULLOUGH. Good morning. My name is 13 1 Shelly McCullough and I, too, live on Eagle Ridge Road 2 at 715 Eagle Ridge Road. My ranch is directly across 3 the street from the development, across Eagle Ridge Road 4 from the development. 5 I want to add two personal stories or one an 6 observation. On the Thursday before Easter, two women 7 from my ranch were run off the road by a truck pulling a 8 large piece of what I guess is a grading equipment, and 9 came around the corner fast in the middle of the road 10 and they were forced off, fortunately onto a shoulder 11 and not into a ditch. These are people who drive to my 12 ranch every day. And this is the first time that this 13 has happened to them. 14 In addition, the quality of the road has 15 deteriorated significantly in the last three months, 16 since the predevelopment work prior to approval of the 17 plat that's been going on on the property. My gate is 18 past the development. If you come out my gate, the road 19 between there and where the development is is in very 20 good condition. From the development all the way down 21 to 173, it is noticeably deteriorated literally in the 22 last couple of months and the sheer number and magnitude 23 of large vehicles. So even if this development goes 24 through, which it looks like it's going to, at the very 25 least you're going to have to deal with the road with 14 1 big potholes and other deterioration that the County is 2 going to be responsible for having to fix at some point. 3 I'm an attorney. I understand that you 4 can't do some of the things that our neighbors have 5 asked. You can't approve with conditions. You can't, 6 you know, require them to do certain things. But you 7 can do the hard thing. You can go on record as saying 8 we have problems with this development because of the 9 safety concerns. And while we might get sued, we just 10 feel that this is not in the best interest of our 11 residents on this area, and of the County as a whole. 12 And I understand that that's -- that's not 13 an easy thing to do, but it is sometimes what an elected 14 official has to do, which is take -- make the hard 15 decisions and go on record. I don't think at this point 16 failing to vote is going to leave anybody with the idea 17 that you just forgot because this has been discussed at 18 meeting after meeting. So you're sending a message 19 either way. But why not -- why not do what you can to 20 try to prevent what I think will be an ultimate tragedy 21 on that road. Thank you for your time. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Next. 23 Ms. McDonald. 24 MS. McDONALD: Good morning. Amanda 25 McDonald, Precinct two. Eagle Ridge Road resident. You 15 1 have heard multiple recounts of residents being driven 2 off the road and have seen actual pictures of road 3 deterioration and the tracks of large trucks. 4 Discussions about this plat approval have been going on 5 since last fall, and now at the last minute you may not 6 even vote on the plat after voting on multiple other 7 issues and development within the County. 8 There have been communications recently on 9 what date the plat was filed and when the 30 days would 10 run. It's been changed multiple times. Now, 11 apparently, the last day for action is April 29th. The 12 last regular Commissioners' Court date is today, April 13 24th, unless the Commissioners call a special meeting 14 for this week. The only evidence before the Court is 15 that Eagle Ridge was not safe before, is not safe now 16 with the construction, and will only get worse with 17 development. Not one person has said Eagle Ridge is 18 safe, to include the residents, the engineers, and you 19 yourselves, Your Honor and Commissioners. 20 Each one of you have campaigned that you 21 should be elected as the best representative of the 22 citizens, and each of you has taken an oath to serve 23 faithfully. Letting this plat be approved by inaction 24 is simply ignoring the issues and the end result will be 25 a more dangerous road. The residents of Eagle Ridge 16 1 Road and any future residents of Twin Creeks and their 2 families and guests will be the ones most in danger. If 3 the County undertakes making Eagle Ridge Road safe, it 4 will have to borrow the money and all taxpayers of Kerr 5 County will foot the bill at the profit of an 6 out-of-state developer. The least the court should do 7 is to have the courage to let the voters know how they 8 stand on dangerous conditions in the County. 9 From the beginning, I've wondered if there 10 was a snake or two in the woodpile and I sure hope I'm 11 wrong. We have repeatedly asked for the support of our 12 County leaders. The least you can do is make a decision 13 one way or the other. If you let this decision default, 14 the State Regulation House Bill 3167, which is 15 unprecedented and has never happened before, and fail to 16 uphold the safety and wellbeing of the residents of 17 Eagle Ridge Road, you will have completely lost my trust 18 and respect, and should be ashamed of yourselves for 19 being cowards. It will be very disappointing. 20 My father came to town this weekend. He 21 lives three hours away. He's been a truck driver his 22 entire life. He was a wide over-size load hauler. He 23 retired from that and now he drives dump trucks and 24 works for ultimately the company that works for 25 developers. Time is money. They don't care about 17 1 anything but money. So the quicker they get those 2 trucks in there, the more money they make. Which puts 3 us at danger. He wanted to come and speak this morning 4 because he does have concerns about his family, his 5 grandchildren, me, my husband, and the other residents 6 on the road. But I told him I was afraid that I don't 7 know that it would make any difference. But I hope what 8 we've said today does. Thank you for your time. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Next. Richard. 10 MR. MOSTY: Richard Mosty. I office at -- 11 here in Kerrville. I represent the Eagle Ridge people. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I know well where you office. 13 MR. MOSTY: I think you all well know. And 14 I also represent governmental entities and private 15 entities. And I think there's always a concern about 16 being sued. And sometimes you just have to say I'm 17 going to do what's right. I'm going to do what's right, 18 and if I get sued, I get sued. And if the Court tells 19 me I'm wrong, then so be it. 20 But I think that this is a chance -- this is 21 a place where the Court faces two major risks. One is 22 getting sued. And that's not good. But the other is 23 far worse. And that is the risk of death, serious 24 injury. And there's not been one person, one piece of 25 evidence that I know of, that said that road is safe. 18 1 So I think this is the point where the Court has to say 2 this is our sworn duty to protect. First and foremost, 3 to protect the citizens of Kerr County Texas. And if 4 that means you face a lawsuit, then so be it. 5 The other is the County undertakes to pay 6 for what may be three million dollars. That means that 7 the County takes out a loan, unless you can budget it 8 into the next year, which I don't think you can do. And 9 then the whole -- everybody, the entire County, gets to 10 pay for that loan and for the improvements. And the 11 developer in the meantime will be gone. Long gone. 12 There will no longer be an entity held accountable in 13 this County. 14 So -- and quite frankly, I was astonished 15 when I didn't see this on the agenda today. There is 16 time to post a notice today. You can post a notice 17 today for a special meeting. And let your voices be 18 heard. And if your voice is to approve it, then so be 19 it. But I think the County, particularly the residents 20 of Eagle Ridge, have a right to know how you feel. And 21 you can face -- you can choose which risk you think is 22 most detrimental to the welfare of Kerr County. 23 So I urge you to today post notice for a 24 meeting on Friday or Saturday to put this before the 25 Court for a vote up or down. Thank you. 19 1 JUDGE KELLY: Any other public input? Any 2 other public input? There being none, we'll move on to 3 the next agenda item, which are Commissioners' Comments. 4 And we'll start with Precinct 1. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I want to say 6 something about what the people have been asking me 7 about. Since I've taken office, I've been the subject 8 of politically motivated attacks from day one. The 9 latest attack goes back 50 plus years to when I was 16 10 years old. Because of this latest attack, I have 11 retained legal counsel and I'm going to make no further 12 comment on this matter for now. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 2. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Well, we did get 15 a little bit of rain. So for that we're very grateful. 16 The burn ban remains in effect in Precinct 2. I want to 17 inform the public. I did get some feedback that I've 18 probably given too much -- spent too much time and 19 comment on general things so I'll try to speak more to 20 liaison comments where appropriate, but I do have some 21 important things to communicate that have nothing to do 22 with one of the liaison assignments. 23 So I want the public to know, particularly 24 down in the Center Point area, we're coming to the end 25 of the EDAP Wastewater Project. In fact, last Friday, 20 1 we had a walkthrough final inspection of that project 2 that was under the Qro-Mex contract and it was closed 3 out as of Saturday. So we're now in the one-year 4 warranty for that contract. The other contract with 5 D Guerra is also rapidly approaching the end of its 6 scope of work and, hopefully, they'll be complete by the 7 end of May. 8 So it's very important for any residents in 9 the area, if you're not happy with the way your sewer 10 system is performing or with the way your yard or 11 driveway looks after they tore it up to install the 12 sewer tie-in or the septic tank, call GrantWorks, Rosie 13 Daily, at 512-957-1465. GrantWorks will then identify 14 the relative contract, then work with the project team 15 contractor and inspectors to coordinate repairs. A 16 press release went out on Friday with further details on 17 that. 18 Okay. Also, for the folks in Center Point, 19 we have approval to reconstruct Skyline Drive. That's 20 expected to start, I think, this week. And during that 21 road work, the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department 22 will have to use the Kelly Street east access to get -- 23 to get out, basically. And this is unfortunately a very 24 narrow street and it's got buildings right on both 25 sides. And all too often, because of all the new 21 1 commerce that we have in Center Point, people are 2 parking along the street, which could obstruct getting 3 fire trucks out to respond to emergency. So I ask the 4 public, please don't park close to San Antonio Street 5 and obstruct any traffic. 6 Then I just want to just inform the public, 7 we're working closely with TxDOT on a number -- and, in 8 fact, nine different projects that are TxDOT projects. 9 There's a couple new ones. I won't go into the details. 10 But there is a complete list with the TxDOT status on my 11 website at richpaces.com. 12 Lastly, I've been involved in several 13 discussions with our legal counsel regarding the 14 hazardous road conditions associated with the Twin 15 Creeks development on Eagle Ridge Road, which we have 16 heard quite a bit about this morning. This has become a 17 major project with respect to the funding of the cost to 18 address the safety issues associated with Eagle Ridge 19 Road and the intersection with State Highway 173, which 20 we now have an estimated cost of approximately $2.5 21 million to take care of it all. And sadly, the 22 developer has refused to entertain funding the road 23 improvements under a public improvement district or bid, 24 which would put the main burden for funding and safety 25 improvements on those who -- a bid, which would remain a 22 1 burden for funding on those who buy properties in that 2 development and any other new subdivision that may come 3 up on Eagle Ridge Road. 4 So we're in a heck of a dilemma on whether 5 to approve this development and its plat, with or 6 without conditions, or deny it due to the unsafe 7 conditions its already creating as we are obligated to 8 protect the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens. 9 Now, we'll see how that plays out this week. 10 We clearly need to go ahead and revise our 11 subdivision regulations that just went into effect on 12 January 1st to require bids when such infrastructure 13 improvements are required for future developments and 14 update the requirement for collector road standards for 15 the roads that these subdivision pour out onto. 16 Well, I've also heard from some of the 17 residents who already spoke this morning, who initially 18 paid for the road to be installed and then asked the 19 County to take over its maintenance. It's fair to say 20 that they now regret turning the road over to the 21 County. In fact, we, the County, regret to taking over 22 its maintenance. So when the dust is settled, we'll 23 look at returning the road beyond Twin Creeks entrance 24 to the residents of Eagle Ridge. So right now all I can 25 say is that the Twin Creeks development is not a welcome 23 1 addition to Kerr County. I was already concerned about 2 the impact of our precious groundwater resources and now 3 we have the added problems of upgrading Eagle Ridge Road 4 and finding the funds to pay for it. 5 That's all I have. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I'll go back and 8 emphasize one of the points Commissioner Paces made 9 relating to the work relating to the East Kerr County 10 wastewater and sewer project. It is important that if 11 you do have any issues with the construction, most of 12 the reconstruction is in Mr. Paces area. There has been 13 a little bit in my precinct as well. So I do encourage 14 everyone to, you know, contact GrantWorks if there is a 15 problem. We need to once try to fix it. And its just 16 important that we get that done as soon as possible. 17 That's all I have. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Four. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, lots of wind, 21 lightning and thunder. Very little rain. Be careful 22 out there if you do any burning or what have you. Use 23 common sense. That's all I've got to say. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So it calls me to speak 25 on behalf of all four precincts. Eagle Ridge Road 24 1 development is wrong. It's just wrong. When I 2 graduated from law school when I was a briefing attorney 3 at the Court of Criminal Appeals and when I passed the 4 bar they had a special swearing-in ceremony for all the 5 briefing attorneys. Seeing what good people we were and 6 what smart kids we were. 7 My folks came up. And after the swearing-in 8 ceremony, I'm standing out in front of the Supreme Court 9 building. My mom was running around taking photographs 10 and my dad was standing next to me. He was an engineer. 11 He leaned over and he whispered in my ear. He said, Now 12 that you've got the license to steal, son -- that's my 13 dad, he said I just want you to remember one thing. 14 Sometimes there's the difference between what's legal 15 and what's right. And if you ever have to choose, you 16 choose what's right. 17 I think everybody's gotten the gist that 18 we've been told there are certain things that we legally 19 cannot do. But in honor of my deceased father, I'm 20 going to do what's right. And we'll see where the chips 21 fall. So that's all I have to say. 22 With that, we'll move on to the 23 Consideration Agenda. We've got people -- we have timed 24 items. And I want to make sure that everybody 25 understands. I see -- I see Tod Citron and Chuck 25 1 Rittenhouse up here. They have a timed item for 9:30. 2 So we'll start with the Consideration Agenda and then 3 at -- well, it is 9:30. So we'll go ahead and take the 4 9:30 items first because it is a timed item. 5 That's item 1.6, if you turn to your agenda 6 there, that's consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action to approve collaboration between the Kerr County 8 Sheriff's Office and Hill Country Mental Health and 9 Developmental Disabilities Center for grant application 10 through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Tod Citron. 11 MR. CITRON: Okay. Good morning. Again, 12 I'm Tod Citron, the CEO of Hill Country Mental Health 13 and Development Disabilities Centers. I'm here with 14 Chuck Rittenhouse, he's our Chief Financial Officer, and 15 with Sheriff Leitha. 16 We're here to talk to you today about a 17 potential project. Hill Country is a local mental 18 health authority for this -- for a 19 county catchment 19 area. Runs from I-35 in Comal and Hays County, and 20 extends all the way west to Val Verde County. We are a 21 safety net provider organization. 22 We're headquartered here in Kerrville. We 23 have an outpatient clinic that sits on Water Street. We 24 also run a 16-bed adult crisis stabilization unit that 25 sits on the campus of Kerrville State Hospital. For 26 1 several years, the Mental Health Coalition has existed 2 in the community. Meets monthly at Peterson Medical 3 Center. 4 Consists of non-profit agencies, law 5 enforcement agencies, fire department, my organization. 6 County Judge is on it. The Mayor and various other 7 folks. We have, for a number of years, been interested 8 in a potential way to fund some operational dollars for 9 what tends to be our population of people. Folks who 10 have a mental illness who will end up in crisis and then 11 will end up in the hands of the local law enforcement 12 agencies. 13 We have identified a three-year grant under 14 the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance program under 15 their Connect and Protect Initiative for law enforcement 16 and behavioral health response programs. Our Hill 17 Country would be the lead organization. We would be the 18 applicant, and our collaborative partner would be the 19 Sheriff's Office. The plan is that we would hire a 20 mental health clinician who would be housed within the 21 Sheriff's Office or embedded. 22 This clinician, a qualified mental health 23 professional, would assist with existing inmates in 24 regard to some of their mental health needs, and 25 assessment and some support of counseling services would 27 1 be available to dispatch with law enforcement to the 2 community for crisis response. So kind of a 3 co-responder model. And then also help with situation 4 de-escalation. 5 This clinician embedded in the Sheriff's 6 Office would be like the equivalent of the Sheriff's 7 Office having an in-house subject matter expert specific 8 to community mental healthcare. This is a three-year 9 project. It's one year of planning, followed by two 10 years of implementation. 11 Presently, the budget for this initiative, 12 if -- we sit at $392,000. There is a match expectation. 13 The match can be either in kind or cash. The match for 14 the first two years are 20 percent year one, 20 percent 15 year two, 40 percent year three. We believe that we've 16 got in kind match to cover the first two years and there 17 may be some exposure in the third year, which Hill 18 Country is prepared to cover the cash match. We do not 19 seek any cash match from the County. And I want to be 20 clear on that. 21 And why I'm here today, we seek a letter of 22 intent to collaborate. The application is due on May 23 1st. If we get funded, we go live on October 1st, and 24 then it's a three-year period. The planning phase does 25 not have to be a full year. It can be shorter. But 28 1 anyway, so that's -- that's why I'm here and that's what 2 I want to present to you for your consideration. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm going to weigh in on 4 this one. This is what we call the MDT, the 5 multi-disciplinary team. And what we have found -- and 6 I -- and by the way, I'm the past chair of MHDD. And 7 was actually one of the persons that hired Citron to 8 come manage our facilities and services. 9 But you may remember Sheriff Hierholzer at 10 one point in time did not want to do an MDT. And 11 somewhere along about the time of COVID or so, he had an 12 epiphany and realized that this was really a good thing. 13 And what it is, it's a three person team. There's a 14 mental health person, there is a law enforcement person, 15 and there is an emergency services, like EMS person. 16 And what they do is they handle all of the 17 emergencies, mental health emergencies, plus in their 18 down time they make sure that people take their meds. 19 They follow up on, are you taking your meds. Because as 20 they will tell you, I've learned the hard way, over 90 21 percent of the people we see in the mental health arena, 22 they quit taking their meds. They either got better and 23 think they didn't need to take them or they like the way 24 they felt when they didn't take them. And I don't want 25 to over-simplify it, but that's pretty much what it is. 29 1 And so Sheriff Hierholzer's reservation 2 always was he didn't want to take a law enforcement, 3 certified law enforcement officer off duty to handle 4 mental health. But we have learned that the mental 5 health problem is big enough, more than big enough to 6 justify doing this. And there's something about a 7 person with a badge. If you got a badge, they'll take 8 their meds. 9 And so, it's something we've been working on 10 now for at least four and a half years that I've been 11 here. And it's finally come to fruition and it is grant 12 funded to begin with. And so we've got a great 13 opportunity here. And we would be derelict of our 14 duties if we did not try to implement this as soon as 15 possible. In my opinion. But that's my opinion. 16 So I -- I enjoy what you're doing and I'll 17 make a motion that we approve filing a letter of intent 18 to apply for this grant. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 21 favor say aye. Opposed? There being none, unanimous. 22 MR. RITTENHOUSE: Thank you all. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Thanks, gentlemen. 24 MR. RITTENHOUSE: You bet. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And Sheriff, thank you -- 30 1 SHERIFF LEITHA: Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: -- for your support. Okay. 3 Now, back to Consideration Agenda. And I apologize for 4 the delay. Item 1.1 consider, discuss, and take 5 appropriate action regarding the request to use the 6 courthouse parking lot on July 4th of this year for a 7 patriotic display of classic/antique cars and trucks. 8 Mr. Keener. Oh, both of you. 9 MS. KEENER: Good morning. I'm Henrietta 10 Keener. This is my husband, Donald Keener. And we live 11 at 1108 Barbara Ann Street, here in Kerrville. We want 12 to thank you, the Commissioners and Judge Kelly, for 13 allowing us to present this morning. 14 We are requesting consent to have a display 15 of classic and antique cars and trucks with their 16 patriotic flags and banners at the courthouse parking 17 lot on July 4th. Many of our kids today couldn't even 18 tell you why we celebrate the 4th of July and there are 19 probably a good many adults that can't tell you either. 20 So that's why my husband started this over four years 21 ago in Mason, Texas, where we lived at the time. It was 22 a way for families to come out and see some old vehicles 23 and see the American flag flown by people proud to 24 display it. 25 So last year we did have it here in 31 1 Kerrville and the kids got to sit in a retired Air Force 2 patrol car and a Desert Storm troop carrier with a .50 3 caliber machine gun. And they really had a lot of fun. 4 So these are just two of the many different vehicles 5 that plan to attend. 6 So, therefore, we're just asking that the 7 Court would approve our application to do this on July 8 4th in the courthouse parking lot. Are there any 9 questions? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Are there any questions? 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: The question was did we 12 schedule any other events? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Not that I know of. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Then I make a motion 15 that we approve the request to use the courthouse 16 parking lot on July 4th for a patriotic display of 17 classic antique cars and trucks. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 20 Any other discussion? Those in favor -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a comment. And 22 I'm in favor of it but at the same time, we probably 23 ought to go back and look at our policy because we have 24 previously said that we're not going to do this. So if 25 we're going to start doing it, we should go back and 32 1 change our policy. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I realize we have a 3 policy but this feels too good. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, the policy had to 5 do with commercial activities, as I recall. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. But we need to 7 look at the policy. Because, you know, a lot of them 8 are non-profit things that -- anyway. I'm in favor of 9 it but it's just -- we need to be consistent. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. I agree. 11 We'll need to look at it. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: But we're not going to 13 be charging tickets or a price or anything for 14 admission? 15 MS. KEENER: No. It's free. It's for 16 people to come out and -- 17 MRS. STEBBINS: You're right. 18 MS. KEENER: -- bring their cars if they 19 want to and display the flags. And that's it. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I appreciate you all. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: On the other 22 question are we going to display Texas flags, too? 23 MR. KEENER: Yes, sir. Absolutely. 24 JUDGE KELLY: All right. Okay. All those 25 in favor say aye. Opposed? There being no opposition. 33 1 Thank you. 2 MS. KEENER: Thank you so much. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion carries. 1.2 consider, 4 discuss and take appropriate action regarding a request 5 from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Kerrville 6 to display mental health awareness signs on the 7 courthouse grounds from May 1 to May 29. Mr. Morales. 8 MR. MORALES: Good morning, gentlemen. My 9 name is Guillermo Morales, Jr. I reside at 486 Coyote 10 Rim Drive, Kerrville, Texas. I am in Precinct 4. I'm 11 here today as a sitting Board Member, along with Pam 12 Ken, also a Board Member of NAMI Kerrville. And NAMI is 13 the National Alliance on Mental Illness. And it's the 14 nation's largest grass roots mental health organization 15 dedicated to building better lives for the millions of 16 Americans affected by mental illness. 17 It's headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, 18 and it's an alliance of more than 600 local affiliates 19 and 49 state organizations who work in communities to 20 raise awareness, provide support and education to those 21 in need. 22 This next month, during Mental Health 23 Awareness Month in May 2023, NAMI joins the mental 24 health community to reaffirm our commitment to building 25 our understanding of mental illness, increasing access 34 1 to treatment and ensuring those who are struggling know 2 that they are not alone. 3 With all this in mind, the NAMI Kerrville 4 affiliates request permission to display signs on the 5 Kerr County Courthouse grounds to reach out to the Kerr 6 County residents, and bring attention to this national 7 effort. And this is the sign we plan to display. We 8 plan to place approximately ten signs on the wire stands 9 facing Main Street and also facing Sidney Baker. And 10 that is our request. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve the National Alliance of Mental Health Illness 15 to Kerrville and display the mental health awareness 16 signs on the courthouse grounds from May 1 through May 17 29. Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. 18 Opposed? There being none, unanimous. Thank you. 19 MR. MORALES: Thank you. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.3 consider, discuss and 21 take appropriate action to approve the lease agreement 22 between Xerox Corporation and Kerr County for a 23 copier/scanner/printer in the tax office. Bob Reeves. 24 MR. REEVES: Good morning, gentlemen. My 25 office currently has a Xerox copier/scanner/printer 35 1 that's under lease. The lease will expire May 18th of 2 this year. The local Xerox representative has submitted 3 a proposal for a new lease. The rate quoted under the 4 new proposal is $203.69 per month for a lease term of 5 five years. This is an increase of $34.63 per month. 6 The monthly lease payment is allocated 7 between the two funds that I have in my office, 402 and 8 499. I anticipated this increase in the current budget. 9 Xerox is an approved vendor with the Texas Department of 10 Information Resources or DIR. They provide government 11 approved contracts which have been pre-approved through 12 a competitive bidding process. 13 In addition, the Xerox representative that 14 represents Kerrville is a long-time business owner and 15 currently resides in Kerr County. The County Attorney 16 has reviewed and approved the lease agreement and at 17 this time I respectfully ask the Court to approve the 18 agreement, authorize the County Judge to sign the same. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 22 approve the contract with Xerox for the tax office. Any 23 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There 24 being none, unanimous. Thank you. 25 MR. REEVES: Thank you. 36 1 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.4 consider, discuss and 2 take appropriate action on a request to use Flat Rock 3 Park to host high school cross country meets on Friday, 4 August the 18th, and Saturday, September 23. Mr. 5 Taylor. 6 MR. TAYLOR: Cody Taylor. Teacher/coach 7 Tivy High School. I was just wanting to request that, 8 just like last year, to use the Flat Rock Park for two 9 dates. Friday, August 18th, for a high-school-only 10 cross country meet, and then Saturday, September 23rd, 11 we'd be adding Junior High then. So a little more 12 traffic in that area. But in and out, usually before 13 2:00 p.m. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second 17 to approve the use of Flat Rock Park for the high school 18 cross country meets on the dates designated. Any 19 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There 20 being none, unanimous. Thank you. 21 MR. TAYLOR: Thank you, Judge. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Next item is 1.5 consider, 23 discuss and take appropriate action regarding Kerr 24 County's support of the Guadalupe-Blanco River 25 Authority's Habitat Conservation Plan, which we call the 37 1 HCP, to address the proposed listing of freshwater 2 mussels found in the Guadalupe River in Kerr County and 3 the designation of critical habitat pursuant to the 4 federal Endangered Species Act. Yes, sir. 5 MR. SMITH: And good morning, gentlemen. I 6 am actually Blake Smith. I'm filling in for Tara 7 Bushnoe, who was called to Austin to testify as the 8 close up of UGRA's sunset hearing. I'm here today very 9 briefly to introduce our friends from Guadalupe-Blanco 10 River Authority. As you know, UGRA has been monitoring 11 this endangered species process for multiple years now. 12 It's beginning to come to a head. It's about to become 13 a designated endangered species. 14 We worked with Commissioners' Court and 15 Judge Kelly to possibly protect our County on our own, 16 and have decided in our research, it's probably in our 17 best interest and your best interest because of your 18 dams, especially, and your low water crossings to, at 19 least for now, introductively participate with GBRA's 20 plan to develop a habitat conservation plan which will 21 allow the County, especially, and our other constituents 22 to continue to do what they do on the river without 23 interference from the declaration of an Endangered 24 Species Act. 25 So without saying anything further, I'll 38 1 introduce Mr. Nathan Pence from Guadalupe-Blanco River 2 Authority. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Pence. 4 MR. PENCE: Judge. Commissioners. Good 5 morning. I hope everyone's doing all right today. I 6 did have a power point to be cued up. If it was ready. 7 I'll go ahead and get started while they're bringing 8 that up. But my name is Nathan Pence. I'm the 9 Executive Manager of Environmental Science for the 10 Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, and I have a history 11 of working with endangered species, their habitats. 12 But I'll even take it a step further to let 13 you know that it's a tool, the Endangered Species Act. 14 And if used correctly, it can allow folks here in the 15 County to continue doing what they're used to doing, 16 whatever those normal activities are, while also 17 protecting the river and the resources that are so 18 important to Kerr County and all of us that live in the 19 Guadalupe River basin. 20 A lot of folks are familiar with the 21 Endangered Species Act. It was passed in the early 22 1970's. I think everybody knows inherently what it means 23 is that you can't kill species that have been protected 24 by the Federal government as endangered. And there's 25 also a second designation that's called threatened. I 39 1 think that's pretty straightforward. 2 Next slide, please, sir. 3 What may be a little bit more of a nuance or 4 a little bit more hidden down in the details of the law, 5 if you will, you can see the pictures on the left. 6 Those are whooping cranes from the Texas coast. Not 7 necessarily perfect for a Kerr County example. But I 8 think everyone here would know if you shot a whooping 9 crane intentionally, that would be illegal. They're 10 protected under the Endangered Species Act. There's 11 very few of them left. Inherently, I think we all know 12 that. 13 However, that picture on the bottom right is 14 a little bit different. That's the picture of some 15 trees being cut, whether that's somewhere else in Texas, 16 whether that's Kerr County or wherever that might be, 17 under the Endangered Species Act, if there are 18 endangered species that depend on those trees to build 19 their nest in or maybe that's their favorite food 20 sources eating the bark of that tree or even the insects 21 under the bark of that tree. Maybe that group of trees 22 is where they fly to every year or where they run to 23 every year and they breed and they reproduce. If you do 24 something that changes the life history, the habits of 25 those species, not just killing them directly with a 40 1 shotgun or something along those lines, but if you 2 impact their lives to the point that it will make it 3 tougher on them, that's illegal under the Endangered 4 Species Act and that's called "take" of an endangered 5 species. 6 Next slide, please, sir. 7 I'm going to tell you that's okay. We 8 started off by talking about one of the things that is 9 the goal of the process that GBRA is leading right now 10 is to not limit activities that an entity is 11 undertaking, whether that's an individual, a 12 municipality or an industry. But it's to find a way to 13 facilitate those activities under the Endangered Species 14 Act so that those activities can continue, but you're 15 also minimizing the impact of the species, and maybe 16 even going further and helping the species or the 17 habitat or the resource of that species. 18 So within the Endangered Species Act, there 19 are tools. One of them is called a habitat conservation 20 plan. Habitat conservation plan is a document that lays 21 out activities that could have an impact to that 22 species. Then lays out what the plan is to minimize 23 those impacts or if they go that far, to mitigate for 24 and make up for those impacts. Common terms. HCP tells 25 what you're doing that might harm the species and then 41 1 it lays out those things you intend to do on the other 2 side of the equation to help the species. All of that 3 is the goal to get an incidental take permit from the 4 federal government. That incidental take permit, a lot 5 of people calls it an environmental insurance policy. 6 Some call it a get out of jail free card. But the idea 7 is if you're following what's in your habitat 8 conservation plan, and those activities otherwise 9 legally cause an impact to the species, then you're 10 covered as long as you're following the HCP. 11 I heard some conversation this morning about 12 lawsuits. This isn't that much different of a 13 conversation. It's about risk analysis and liability. 14 Some of it is about doing the right thing and protecting 15 the resource. But legally, the question is do those 16 activities, those impacts, rise to the level where you 17 think you could be at risk of a lawsuit, generally yes, 18 suit is by a third party, an environmental NGO, someone 19 of that nature. Environmental non-profit. If you have 20 participated in this HCP and that lawsuit was to occur, 21 I can't promise you you wouldn't get sued, but what I 22 can tell you is when you get to court, you pull out that 23 incidental take permit and you show it to the judge and 24 he's going to dismiss that case very quickly so long as 25 you're following what's in your habitat conservation 42 1 plan and you're implementing or conducting those 2 activities. 3 Next slide, please, sir. 4 GBRA. We know that in the Guadalupe River 5 system and it's not that different up here, there are 6 some species that either are already listed under the 7 Endangered Species Act, or they will be listed under the 8 Endangered Species Act here in the very near future, and 9 there are activities that we all conduct in the river 10 that cause impacts to those species. When I went to the 11 GBRA door in 2019, they were very supportive of an 12 effort to proactively get a habitat conservation plan in 13 place before any lawsuits were actually filed. Do the 14 right thing for the species. But for GBRA, it was also 15 about protecting the ability to provide water to people 16 in the counties and the basin. And then also provide 17 wastewater services to those who need it. It would be 18 done in a structured way under the HCP to help protect 19 the resource and the species. But we know that's one of 20 the things we need to do is continue to be able to 21 provide those services. We don't want a court in the 22 future to tell us that we couldn't. And an HCP is the 23 way to go about that. 24 I will tell you one thing that my board 25 caught me a little off guard with and that I was 43 1 surprised about. They were very adamant and supportive 2 about GBRA offering us opportunity, voluntary 3 opportunity, to other entities to participate with us if 4 they wanted to. 5 My Chairman, Dennis Patillo, was very clear 6 that there are some in the basin that either may not 7 have the knowledge about what's going on with endangered 8 species or even if they have the knowledge, may not have 9 the resources to do something. And so GBRA is making an 10 offer to other entities in the basin, Kerr County being 11 an example, to join us voluntarily and participate with 12 us as partners in the process, if they would like to. 13 Next slide, please, sir. 14 And so we are making some rounds around the 15 basin asking other entities if they would like to 16 collaborate and participate with us in this process. I 17 do want to point out something very clearly and make a 18 couple statements. GBRA has no jurisdictional authority 19 in Kerr County. We know that. We're not here to try to 20 regulate somebody into something or force someone into 21 it. 22 In fact, my first stop was to go talk to, 23 then it was Ray Buck at UGRA, and now Tara, and try to 24 work with UGRA and see if there was an interest. I'm 25 very happy to say we work great with UGRA. They were 44 1 interested in a collaborative discussion. We did 2 explore several different ways for UGRA and/or other 3 county entities to participate. And ultimately, where 4 we had landed is UGRA is helping me go around, educate 5 and explain this to entities who may have a need, and 6 then they're sitting there at the table with me while we 7 talk about potential future options and what a 8 partnership actually looks like. 9 I'm almost done, sir. Just a little bit 10 more. 11 The species of interest up here in Kerr 12 County that I think y'all should be interested in or 13 concerned about are fresh water mussels. There are 14 three freshwater mussels in the Guadalupe River basin 15 that have been on the candidate list to be considered 16 for listing for the last several years. All word I hear 17 coming out of Albuquerque, which is the regional office 18 for U.S. fish in Washington, DC, is that those three 19 mussels will probably be listed by the end of the 20 calendar year. We're being proactive and we're getting 21 out in front of it and we're working on a plan to help 22 preserve those mussels. As someone mentioned to me 23 earlier, well, what about the fish and what about this 24 and what about other species? What I can tell you is 25 the Endangered Species Act is only to species that have 45 1 already been listed under the Endangered Species Act. 2 However, freshwater mussels, many folks 3 consider them to be the canary in the coal mine. They 4 filter water is how they live. How they feed. So if 5 there's something bad in the water, they're the first 6 ones that experience that impact and it affects them. 7 So by protecting mussels and making sure that they live, 8 we're by default protecting the entire eco system and 9 helping everything that lives there. So there's 10 benefits to the entire Eco system. 11 Next slide, sir. 12 This is the last slide that I have and then 13 I have a couple of anecdotal comments to make. But the 14 Blue Start Up -- I'm sorry, what you're seeing is the 15 area of Kerr County in general that's on the map. The 16 blue stars represent where the -- one of those three 17 species have been found. So just to say it, they are 18 found pretty uniformly through Kerr County, found in the 19 South Fork, North Fork, several of the creeks as well. 20 So they're in the area. But that's a good thing, though 21 too, because that shows how good a condition the river 22 is still in up here and we need to work to preserve and 23 keep it that way. 24 A couple of comments that I know, 25 Commissioners, y'all would be interested in as we move 46 1 toward. Timeline for this. I want to tell you, it is 2 not a sprint. It's a marathon. We have been working 3 with other entities in the County. We have been working 4 with UGRA for the last several years to get to the point 5 where we're at now. We are not going to hit the ground 6 tomorrow and finalize in the next month. My hope is 7 that over 2023 and 2024 we form some partnerships which 8 ends in a formal contract at some point between Kerr 9 County and GBRA, if we wish to get that far. 10 I did want to mention, we're talking to 11 other entities and there's other species involved in my 12 plan that do not concern Kerr County. The whooping 13 crane that we talked about earlier is a great example. 14 I want to make sure and assure you, we're not here to 15 try to get you to join so we get you to pay for a bunch 16 of activities of other folks or to pay to protect 17 species that you all have no interest in or that are not 18 in your County. 19 Your participation equals your contribution 20 equals your impact. So we would be talking about Kerr 21 County, Kerr County's impact, and then your 22 participation, whatever that looks like, would match the 23 impact that you have. Would not be tied to, say, an 24 industry on the coast that has an impact somewhere else 25 in the basis on a different species. I get asked that 47 1 question all the time. 2 A lot of plans like this take the number of 3 participants, take the total cost, divide it by that 4 number and that's how you dole out. That's not what 5 we're doing. We're talking about what happens in Kerr 6 County, what happens by Kerr County, and then we have 7 the conversation later on about what that participation 8 looks like and what that equals, a lot of which can be 9 in kind participation, doesn't have to be monetarily for 10 the who bit. So I wanted to make sure and throw that 11 out there. 12 For you guys here in Kerr County, for the 13 County specifically, not necessarily other residents and 14 entities but Kerr County specifically, the activities we 15 have talked about and identified with your staff and 16 with UGRA is the operation of the dams and the potential 17 draining of the dams and the impact that has on the 18 species in those lakes, above those lakes, and below 19 those lakes. And then also the recreation that takes 20 place within Kerr County on the waterways. So fully 21 put, foot trampling does equal take and can harm the 22 species. Doesn't mean there's not ways to facilitate 23 recreation, doesn't mean it hasn't been done other 24 places, but it could have an impact on the species and 25 so those are the two main things that we have identified 48 1 here that you may want to be -- have interest in. 2 And then the last thing I want to say, I 3 think today's action item is actually consideration of a 4 Resolution of support or a Resolution of participation, 5 directing your staff to engage with us, talk to us and 6 figure out what that looks like. I wanted to make sure 7 and say, that's a resolution of participation. It is 8 not a guarantee of signing on a dotted line for either 9 entity, meaning you're not trapped into something two 10 years from now if you explore what those opportunities 11 and that collaboration looks like right now. 12 Judge, Commissioners, that's what I had 13 prepared for you this morning. I'll be glad to answer 14 any questions. I ran through that probably the fastest 15 I've ever done. But hopefully I got the main point 16 across to you and y'all have an idea of what we're 17 talking about. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Nathan, I was at the 19 UGRA meeting when you first presented this, you know, a 20 year or two ago, whenever it was. And you're right, 21 this is a lot shorter presentation. You went into a 22 little bit more risk involved at that meeting and I 23 understand why we need to participate, wholeheartedly. 24 What bugs me is we don't know how many 25 mussels were in the river or creeks a hundred years ago 49 1 or whether they're at an all time high, but we're -- we 2 still need to participate in this. And that kind of 3 bugs me, the UGRA in general. And -- you know, that 4 bothers me. But I -- I know we're kind of back in a 5 corner and need to participate. 6 MR. PENCE: The only thing I -- I understand 7 your concern, sir. I'm not going to try and tell you 8 they're not -- not your real concern. The only thing I 9 can tell you about that is U.S. Fish and Wildlife 10 defines baseline from today. So if things were better a 11 hundred years ago, you're not going to be asked to 12 makeup for a hundred years worth of activity all in one 13 year to come back to that point. That is not the goal. 14 That is not the legal definition. So I want to make 15 sure I mention that. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They don't know how 17 many there were a hundred years ago. 18 MR. PENCE: No, sir. No one does. I can 19 tell you when we record, we will have a really good 20 grasp of what's going on with mussel population -- 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 22 MR. PENCE: -- because we have additional 23 sampling and monitoring plans so we can start building 24 that data set. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 50 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Help me with -- I mean, 2 does anybody take mussels out of the rivers or creeks? 3 I mean what's the value? What happens if we lose them? 4 MR. PENCE: Okay. Well, first, you can get 5 permits and licenses from Texas Parks and Wildlife to 6 use some select type of musseling, but not for the 7 species that we're talking about because they're so 8 rare. So I just wanted to make sure of that. Over 9 history, mussels have been collected for anything and 10 everything you can imagine. They were collected 11 actually as a food source by people. They were 12 collected to make tools and things out of their shells. 13 One of the most famous things people probably heard 14 about plucking them to make the pearl snaps that went on 15 shirts because the inside of -- 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: We can't go into that 17 right now. I'm just curious. 18 MR. PENCE: I'm sorry. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Is that taking place 20 now? Are people harvesting mussels? 21 MR. PENCE: No. No, that -- that is not 22 now, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: So the only -- it's 24 because of the recreational use and foot traffic or, you 25 know, people swimming in the lakes. Is that right or -- 51 1 MR. PENCE: One of the things that we saw as 2 UGRA is a concern because there are some private 3 individuals that are participating, some of the camps 4 and big property owners up on the north and south fork. 5 The concern is the way the Endangered Species Act is 6 written. If you all were to drain Ingram Lake, whether 7 for emergency or for routine maintenance, and you're not 8 part of the HCP and you don't have a plan, somebody from 9 an environmental group can drive by and see that, sue 10 the County for not valuing the Endangered Species Act, 11 and you would have to deal with that. Whether you harm 12 the animal or not, you'd still have to deal with the 13 civil suit. Our plan is to try to get folks to be able 14 to plan for that draining, have something written in the 15 take permit so you never have to worry about. That's 16 the concern. Nobody's got proof that they're taking 17 them or they're endangered right now by activity. 18 MR. SMITH: Our potential is if we can do it 19 low cost now, we can -- 20 MR. PENCE: An insurance policy concept. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And I'm glad I've attended 22 some of these meetings. And the importance here is the 23 plan, to have a plan. Because if you got the plan and 24 there's an incidental taking, there's no liability. And 25 that's your "get out of jail free" card. 52 1 And I will tell you that UGRA has looked at 2 this from all angles and basically come to the 3 conclusion that this is the most cost effective way for 4 us to have a plan. But if we don't have a plan, then 5 we're subject to criticism, and liability. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, my -- my concern 7 is this incrementalism that we continue to see with all 8 of these rules. So if today, if they were protecting 9 the mussels then tomorrow it could be protecting the 10 little microbes that they filter or whatever. So adding 11 this layer for lawsuit protection, I get. It's still -- 12 we're still subject to what the Federal laws are and any 13 other kinds of rules that come along. What you're 14 talking about here is an insurance policy. 15 You made the case for protecting a species, 16 but you're talking about an insurance policy. So my 17 concern is that we have something we're doing right now 18 that we need to discontinue or that we have to get 19 permission to do something that we have always done. So 20 please address that. 21 MR. PENCE: Very well. Good question, sir. 22 My intent is not to come here and tell you what you can 23 or can't do. My intent is to find a way to help you 24 continuing what you've always done under the umbrella of 25 the Endangered Species Act. 53 1 One of the things that was mentioned earlier 2 was draining of dams or draining of lakes. It sounds 3 pretty detrimental to the environment when you talk 4 about it. But if you can come up with a list of Best 5 Management Practices for how you drain those lakes, when 6 you drain those lake, how long they stay drained, etc., 7 etc., there are ways you can actually do that without 8 harming the mussels. And that's what we're here to put 9 in place, is to find a way to do that so you can 10 continue doing the operations you've always done. I am 11 not here to limit what you're doing. In fact, my job is 12 actually the opposite. The Federal courts, if you don't 13 do something at the end, they could step in and limit 14 what you do. But that is not my job. 15 The one last thing I want to mention. There 16 is a clause in habitat conservation plans in the 17 Endangered Species Act and in the take permits, it's 18 called the No Surprises clause. Essentially what that 19 means. We want to go get a 50-year incidental take 20 permit. Whatever we agree to in that 50-year permit 21 with the Federal Government, they cannot come back and 22 require more or change that deal over the 50 years. If 23 a different species is limited, sir -- or pardon me, if 24 a different species was listed and it was not in our 25 plan, that is a different subject. But for what is 54 1 within our plan that we write down and sign a permit 2 with the Federal Government for, they cannot change that 3 for the permit term that we agree to. After that 50 4 years, we may have to do more or something different. 5 But for that term, you know what to plan for, you know 6 what to budget for, and you know what you're going to 7 get to use. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A couple of comments. 9 And I guess I was on the committee years ago it seems 10 like, four or five years ago. Supporting this is not -- 11 has been abused in many areas of the country. But it 12 does protect County and citizens under the current 13 listing or potential listing. 14 The other thing is that this is not unique 15 just to the Guadalupe Basin. I believe in Colorado and 16 the Brazos Basin, and possibly others, are also in the 17 same thing, doing habitat conservation plans for the 18 same type reason. So it something that's a necessary 19 evil in my mind. I mean it's -- we do all support, I 20 think, keeping the Guadalupe River clean. This just, 21 kind of, insures that we will. Shows the heavy hand of 22 Washington is not welcome but kind of necessary. I make 23 a motion to approve the -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: The designation -- the 25 resolution to designate -- 55 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. To approve the 2 Resolution as presented. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve the designation for a resolution for the habitat 6 conservation plan with the Guadalupe-Blanco River 7 Authority. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 Opposed? There being none, unanimous. Thank you. 9 MR. PENCE: Thank you, Judge. Thank you 10 Court. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Thanks, Blake. 12 MR. SMITH: Thank you, guys. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's take a five 14 minute break. We'll come back at 10:15. 15 (Recess) 16 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 17 Next item on the agenda is our timed items at 10 o'clock 18 and we'll start with 1.11, which is a public hearing. 19 This is regarding the proposed Kerr County Economic 20 Development Program, Including Guidelines and Criteria 21 for Tax Abatement. 22 I put this on the agenda because this is 23 our -- our time to renew it or not. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What would be the 25 reason we wouldn't? 56 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're in the public 2 hearing part now. 3 JUDGE KELLY: This is just a public hearing. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm just curious 5 though. I've never -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: The next item -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: -- we can talk a little bit 9 about that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And Mr. Baroody is 11 here. He wants to -- you want to speak on the 11 or you 12 want to speak on the 12? 13 MR. BAROODY: I mean, I -- the public 14 hearing is fine. It doesn't really matter. It's all 15 the same basically, right? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Please identify yourself and 17 state your address. 18 MR. BAROODY: George Baroody, 1616 Glen 19 Road. So the -- I didn't realize you had -- this is 20 already in place. Is that the situation? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 22 MR. BAROODY: Okay. Well anyways, some 23 modifications you might consider. The -- it's basically 24 talking about economic development. There is no 25 discussion of housing -- giving tax abatements for 57 1 housing and I would encourage you to consider 2 prohibiting tax abatement for housing, only because they 3 aren't really economic drivers. They are consequences 4 of economic development. You should focus it more 5 towards the actual businesses that are driving the 6 economic development. 7 I hear the argument about, oh, you can't get 8 employees hired if you can't have housing for them. 9 Well, if -- if the job that's coming here is needing to 10 bring employees to come here as well, that's bringing 11 expense to the area, not economic revenue. I mean it's 12 bringing that but if it's bringing that expense, the 13 expense should pay for its taxes. It's essentially an 14 unman -- unfunded mandate if you give a tax abatement to 15 a housing project. So consider that I would hope. 16 I would eliminate any so-called quality of 17 life tax abatement. Those are, again, not investments 18 in to the community, they are unquantifiable spending. 19 The -- there's some specifics in there, it talks about 20 taxable value as a marker or factor to look at and it 21 throws out the number 300,000 as if you -- if you at 22 least have 300,000 of taxable value being added that you 23 would consider a tax abatement. That seems awful low to 24 be considering it. 25 The other is -- I guess it's Section 4.6. 58 1 It says that the applicant can be the owner of a 2 property or a lessee of the property. If a tax 3 abatement is going with the land, why on earth would you 4 give a tax abatement to a lessee? Why would you let 5 them apply? If they're going to come forward for that 6 development, I would think they would get the property 7 owner's sponsorship on the application and so I would 8 just require it, to be the owner only. 9 And what was the last -- there was one last 10 thing. The -- oh, yes. It extensively discusses the 11 factors that you would look at, but it puts no 12 qualifications on them. So it would -- I would urge you 13 to, rather than do this as a one all thing where you're 14 picking winners and losers down the lime, why don't you 15 just -- with the factors, if it's jobs that you're 16 looking for, then put we're going to give "X" number of 17 dollars if you have this many jobs that you're bringing. 18 You can document and bring in this many jobs, or "X" 19 number of dollars, if you're documenting you're bringing 20 "X" number of taxable values. Instead of just saying 21 what we're going to look at once you put qualifications 22 on it. So that would be my suggestion. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Anyone else at the public 24 meeting -- public hearing? Okay. There being no one 25 else, we'll adjourn the public hearing and move on to 59 1 the item 1.12, which is consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action regarding the approval of the 3 proposed Kerr County, Texas Economic Development 4 Program, Including Guidelines and Criteria for Tax 5 Abatement and all related matters. Miss Stebbins. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: This is the Economic 7 Development and Tax Abatement Agreement that 8 Mr. Kimbrough drafted a couple years ago, back in 2020 9 was the first time you all adopted it. You adopted it 10 again in 2022. There was two spots in there that 11 weren't signed, and so we wanted to bring it back to you 12 to readopt so that it can be properly executed. 13 This time you'll have to do it every two 14 years from here on out. And it needs a majority vote to 15 pass and a record vote as well. 16 JUDGE KELLY: A record vote? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we rewrote -- redid 19 it a couple years ago and pretty much just followed the 20 State law, and gave us the authority and the State law 21 grants us. It's to be worth noting that we have not 22 done any economic improvement agreement, tax abatement 23 or otherwise, since this Judge has been here, four and a 24 half years. And the two we did prior to that, one, the 25 person didn't do it, and the other one we found out we 60 1 couldn't -- we couldn't legally do it. 2 So as long as I've been a Commissioner, I 3 think they have been three that we have actually 4 approved. And they've been -- they've worked. I mean, 5 they've been successful. 6 But anyway, this is something that we rarely 7 use, as opposed to what Mr. Baroody said in answer to 8 that. I agree with him. I mean, in fact, I'm not in 9 favor of tax abatements anymore. But we can choose to 10 if the court chooses to, and it gives us the flexibility 11 to do it. There are other forms of economic development 12 if we were to choose those to support over a tax 13 abatement. But anyway, that's my comment. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The last one -- the 15 last one I remember was The Landing. And we shot it 16 down in a 3-2 vote. There's one thing in here that's 17 kinda peculiar to me. Page two and page seven. And I 18 don't know why it has this -- why we have to have this 19 in our deal. But unless otherwise designated, the past, 20 present or future tense shall each include the other, 21 the masculine, feminine or neutered gender shall each 22 include the other. That's a little peculiar to me. 23 (Laughter.) 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't know when 25 neutered gender would come up. 61 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: It comes up all the 2 time anymore. 3 (Laughter.) 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Anybody know why we 5 have that in there? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, Commissioner 7 Letz, I want to make clear in my mind what you're 8 saying. You're saying that we -- we really don't need 9 to be doing this one way or the other because we 10 haven't -- it's been used twice. One time somebody 11 had -- one time I remember somebody came back and didn't 12 fulfill the terms, as best I recall. So I don't 13 remember anything else. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and they -- and they 15 voluntarily reported it to us. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think we need to 18 have the agreement. I'm very in favor of having the 19 agreement. I just -- and I -- well, that particular 20 language -- get over that. But, yeah, the agreement we 21 need. And also, this provides a guideline for us to 22 work with the Economic Development Corporation. As to 23 that language, I suspect it was just in the State Law 24 for the recommendation. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I mean, do we need it 62 1 in there? 2 MRS. STEBBINS: It's -- I think that it was 3 probably just included to include everyone. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Everyone. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: And it's standard language 6 that I imagine a lot of attorneys include in contracts. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: My head's going to 8 explode. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And in direct comment to 10 George, the only time we've talked about any sort of tax 11 abatement here, we do not count residential housing 12 rooftops. That's not -- that's not part of the 13 consideration. Just so you know. The few times that we 14 have talked about it, specifically, make sure that we 15 did not talk about county rooftops. We're not giving 16 these developers tax abatements just to come in and 17 build low cost housing. 18 MR. BAROODY: Okay. I wasn't referring to 19 that either. The Landing is the one in particular that 20 you did consider. It had nothing to do with rooftops. 21 It was a housing development. But -- anyway. My part's 22 done. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: They asked, but they 24 didn't get it, George. 25 MR. BAROODY: Yeah, I know. 63 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And as far as 2 addressing human needs that I don't understand what they 3 are, I'd just as soon have the words individuals or 4 something like that. Corporation and individuals and 5 dispense with the other stuff I don't even understand 6 what it is and I don't think most people in this room 7 understand what that stuff is. I'd just as soon not 8 be -- you know, have my name attached to it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I don't understand 10 what that Number 2 says. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. So why don't we 12 change that language a little bit and come back to us. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Tell -- well you -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So maybe we can 15 understand it. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Can -- can we clean it 17 up? 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Which pages? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Six and two. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Two and seven. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: And you would like which 22 language removed? 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Just neutered gender. 24 I mean I don't -- you can put in -- that whole paragraph 25 really. And then page 7. And the -- it was several 64 1 pages. It was under 2.2(a) that there's -- yeah, it's 2 numbered several different ways. And I would -- you 3 know, it's basically the same language again. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And so who are we excluding 5 when we do that? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Nobody. If you say 7 people or person or human being. You don't have to get 8 into all the -- 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We don't have to get 10 into pronouns and stuff. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: But if somebody wants 12 to be neutered -- 13 (Laughter.) 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Don't have to ask -- 15 they can still apply. It's a shame we have to talk 16 about this kind of stuff. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: So would you like for me to 18 remove "or neutered gender" from anywhere that it is in 19 in the document? 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think so. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: And then you -- so do you -- 22 are you making a motion to approve this with those 23 modifications? 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: With the revisions, 25 yes. 65 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. I can make those 2 modifications and y'all can go ahead and take action on 3 it today. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. I made a 6 motion. He'll second it. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion and a second. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: With those conditions. 9 JUDGE KELLY: As revised. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Good catch. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 14 Opposed? There being none -- it's a record vote though, 15 right? 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So Precinct 1. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 2. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 4. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 66 1 JUDGE KELLY: And I vote yes. Unanimous. 2 Moving on to Item 1.13, this is to consider, 3 discuss and take appropriate action regarding a final 4 plat for Kendrick Commercial Park. Mr. Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 6 proposal divides a 10.09 acre tract creating Lots 1 and 7 2 (5.043 acres each). Access to both lots will be from 8 Goat Creek Road, that's FM 1338, and it will require 9 driveway permitting from TxDOT. These lots are in the 10 floodplain and must meet requirements for development in 11 the floodplain. 12 County Engineer requests the Court consider, 13 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding final 14 plat for Kendrick Commercial Park. Precinct 4. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 18 approve the final plat for Kendrick Commercial Park. 19 Any discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Charlie, I mean, does 21 this require a water study or anything like that? 22 MR. HASTINGS: They have -- 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: Have they already done 24 it? 25 MR. HASTINGS: -- prepared one already. 67 1 Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES. They have. 3 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. And they have -- it's 4 been signed and sealed by their professional engineer as 5 well, the plat. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Has Headwaters 7 Groundwater Conservation District signed off? 8 MR. HASTINGS: I believe everyone signed off 9 on the plat. I don't think -- let me see if Headwaters 10 is on there. I can't remember if they were subject to 11 the old -- no, they're subject to the new rules. So 12 this is signed by Headwaters. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Okay. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. So Gene Williams has 15 signed it. Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 17 Those in favor -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. Or 19 clarification. Just quick. If it's commercial, the 20 model rules don't apply, correct? 21 MR. HASTINGS: And both of these lots are 22 over five acres anyway. So the model rules don't apply. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 24 MR. HASTINGS: And -- and it is commercial. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 68 1 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Okay. 2 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There being none, it 3 passes. 4 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action regarding a final plat for Picarosa 6 South. Mr. Hastings. 7 MR. HASTINGS: This tract is part of an 8 unofficial subdivision known as Harper Valley, and it 9 was previously divided without platting. This proposed 10 subdivision will correct matters for this tract. Lot 1 11 will be 6.52 acres, fronting on Harper Valley Run and 12 Pipeline Road. 13 County Engineer requests the Court consider, 14 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the final 15 plat for Picarosa South. Precinct 4. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 approve final plat for Picarosa South. Any discussion? 20 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There being none, it 21 passes. 22 Item 1.15 consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action for the Court to set a public hearing 24 for 10:00 a.m. on June the 12th for a revision of plat 25 for Soledad Springs Estates. 69 1 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal revises Lot 39 2 (9.05 acres as platted) and Lot 44 (10.2 acres as 3 platted). Lot 39R will 6.32 acres and Lot 44R will be 4 13.0 acres. Both lots will continue to front Sierra 5 Road. Lot 44R is partially in the floodplain. It must 6 meet requirements for development in the floodplain. 7 County Engineer requests the Court set a 8 public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on June 12th, 2023, for a 9 revision of plat for Soledad Springs Estates, Lots 39 10 and 44, Volume 3, Page 112. Precinct 1. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion and a second 14 to approve setting the public hearing for Soledad 15 Springs Estates on June the 12th at 10:00 a.m. Any 16 other discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 17 There being none, it passes. 18 Item 1.16 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action for the Court to set a public hearing 20 for 10:00 a.m. on June 12th, 2023, for a revision of 21 plat for Hall Ranch Lot 3. Mr. Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal divides Lot 3 23 (currently 503.67 acres) into two lots. Lot 3A will be 24 237.05 acres and Lot 3B will be 266.62 acres. Both lots 25 will front on the newly constructed Guilanshah Road. 70 1 The road and drainage has been constructed, erosion 2 control through establishment of vegetation still 3 remains. Access to the subdivision is from Guilanshah 4 Road. It's a 20-foot wide approximately 3200 foot long 5 private access easement. Because of the narrow 6 easement, the Court permitted no more than three lots as 7 stated on the plat. Said restriction and note is 8 proposed to be changed by the developer to allow for no 9 more than four lots in the subdivision. 10 County Engineer requests the Court set a 11 public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on June 12th, 2023 for a 12 revision of plat for Hall Ranch Lot 3, Plat File 13 22-07892, Precinct 3. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is the one where 15 there was that stipulation. These are large, large 16 lots. I have no problem with this. So the access road 17 is not great, but they've done everything they could to 18 meet with our requirement. So I move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion and a second 21 to approve setting a public hearing for Hall Ranch Lot 22 3. Is there any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 23 Opposed? There being none, it passes. 24 Okay. We have timed items at 10:30. First 25 one is 1.17 consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 1 action to accept the quarterly report from the Veterans 2 Services Advisory Committee. Gary Noller. 3 MR. NOLLER: Good morning. My name is Gary 4 Noller. I live at 140 Ray Drive in Center Point. The 5 Veterans Services Advisory Committee would like to make 6 a quarterly report. I'll try to be brief on this this 7 morning. We have received monthly reports from Jenna on 8 her performance. We used to get those quarterly but 9 that's been changed to monthly. 10 She continues to do superb work and we're 11 very appreciative of what she does. One of the things 12 that I note on there is that she had nine new clients 13 come in in a month. This adds on to the people that 14 she's already been working on to -- to help them with 15 their benefits. 16 Also during the last month, you may recall 17 we had March 29th the Viet Nam War Veterans Recognition 18 Day, which was a ceremony held out here on the 19 courthouse grounds. We'd certainly like to thank the 20 County for the cooperation on getting that done. Those 21 of you that were here, it was a very good crowd. Many 22 Viet Nam veterans showed up. The program went off very 23 well. We'd like to thank Shane and his crew for all the 24 help they do in setting this thing up, helping gentlemen 25 get it done, and also with the staff in getting out the 72 1 publicity on this event. 2 The next thing coming up, it's almost 3 planned -- completed and planned out is Memorial Day. 4 That's in about another month. It'll be very similar to 5 the past ceremonies and observances. Always try to 6 bring a few new people in. Some new phases. So we may 7 be introducing some people that you haven't seen before. 8 And again, we appreciate the use of the courthouse 9 grounds for that and for the staff. Any questions? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not from me. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve the Veteran Services advisory quarterly report. 15 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 16 Unanimous. 17 Let's move on to item 1.18 consider, discuss 18 and take appropriate action on the request from the 19 Veteran Services Advisory Committee for the County to 20 fill a second position in the Veterans Services Office. 21 Mr. Noller. 22 MR. NOLLER: Right now, the Veterans Service 23 officer is staffed by Jenna and it has been approved in 24 the past for that to have two employees. And in the 25 past history, Marty Mistretta was hired full-time and 73 1 then Jenna came on as part-time, then Marty was called 2 away now for several months on active duty of the United 3 States Air Force, so Jenna moved back up to full-time. 4 But there is a demand out there for more 5 services and we feel like it's time to go ahead and 6 staff that second position. Its been written up as a 7 temporary because as long as Marty has protection under 8 Federal law, she can come back and ask for her job back 9 and she would have to be allowed to take her job back. 10 So anybody coming in would either have to be retained, 11 let's say, as a third employee or -- or just know that 12 it's time limited and could be determined by if Marty 13 comes back to her job. 14 But we see that there's still unmet demand 15 out there. Kerr County has excess of 5000 veterans. 16 Earlier this year, Jenna said she had a working list of 17 about two hundred. She probably could have a working 18 list of 500. I don't know if she can do 500 by herself. 19 There's always things changing. 20 Some of the veterans who have gone through 21 worked as service officers in the past. New things come 22 up. The biggest thing that's come up recently is what's 23 called a pack back, which opened up certain Federal 24 benefits to a whole bunch of veterans that didn't have 25 these benefits in the past, and they include this all 74 1 the way back to Viet Nam veterans, could be veterans 2 prior to that. Most of it has to do with toxic 3 exposures, such as Korean war veterans that were exposed 4 to eye radiation because they were sent out in the 5 desert to watch an atomic bomb explode in there. 6 So you know, the work load is -- is not 7 really decreasing, it's continually increasing and I 8 think Jenna's established a reputation and Kerr County 9 has established a reputation as being a place to go. 10 And that's what we want. We want people to know they 11 can come with confidence. And so we're asking that 12 additional staff be put on in the Veterans Services. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The choice for Marty. 14 I mean, is there a way to maybe do it as contract labor 15 or something? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we've looked into that. 17 But I'm -- and by the way, the liaison with the Veterans 18 Services, we've talked about this. There is 19 unequivocally a need for two people to work that office. 20 And that was our intent when we brought Jenna on board. 21 That was or our intent when we made Jenna full time. 22 That was our intent when we recruited Jenna as the 23 temporary director. The need is still there. We have 24 the money in the budget. And this has been going on now 25 for several years. What, two and a half, three? 75 1 Something like that. 2 So we don't spend the money and it goes back 3 into the general fund every year. We need a position. 4 We need to fill that position. And veterans are asking 5 for it, they deserve it. They bring in a whole lot of 6 money in this community. This is something that's 7 important for the County. And so what we're really 8 asking to do is to create a temporary position while 9 holding Marty's position, as required by Federal law. 10 So if she comes back, I will tell you that 11 we have discussed this several times among ourselves in 12 the advisory council. We're not sure she will come 13 back. 14 VOICE: Very unlikely. 15 JUDGE KELLY: But if she does, we'll welcome 16 her with open arms. But meanwhile, we need to have 17 somebody helping these veterans. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that goes back to 19 Commissioner Harris's question, is it going to be 20 contract or is it going to be hourly? What do you need, 21 Jenna? 22 MRS. STEBBINS: You can identify it as a 23 temporary position with the County in the posting and in 24 the agreement with the person who comes on board. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Be worked out. 76 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Uh-huh. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But what would you 3 like? 4 MRS. SANCHEZ: Anybody. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Eight hours a day? Six 6 hours a day? Lunchtime when you can go and eat, or 7 what -- what are you telling us? 8 MRS. SANCHEZ: I mean eight hours a day 9 would be great, but I would be happy with anything, to 10 be honest. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're way too easy 12 going. 13 MRS. SANCHEZ: I mean the need is there. I 14 would like to have somebody full-time. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We've gotten behind with Marty 16 being gone. And what we really need to do is spread the 17 catch up. And so I would recommend we go ahead and put 18 the temporary full-time and then reassess where we are 19 after we get caught up. But right now we are not being 20 responsive to our veterans and that's not the right 21 thing to do. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't know that we'll 23 get caught up because word is out that we have somebody 24 that really knows what they're doing and -- and it 25 increases exponentially. Am I right? 77 1 MRS. SANCHEZ: True. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They keep coming 3 because the word is out that somebody here knows how to 4 take care of them. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And that's a good 6 problem. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, that's a good 8 problem. But I don't think it's going to be caught up 9 and then -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, then if it's not caught 11 up, we have to come back and revisit whether or not this 12 is a temporary position or a permanent position. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. And the -- during 14 the budget process is when we look at this. And I think 15 we, you know, go with a full-time position. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: I just want to know is 17 there any provision of the Federal law, I mean, is there 18 a time limit to hold this position open? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Four years. 20 MRS. SANCHEZ: It's five years. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Five? Five years? 22 MRS. SANCHEZ: Yeah, so we'll hold her 23 position until February of 2026. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 2026. And this is no 25 reflection on Marty because I would -- I would have her 78 1 back. I think everyone has found out that she's doing 2 her job. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the agenda item, 4 which one do we act on, this one or the next one, or 5 both? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think we act on this 7 one and the next one. This one opens the position and 8 the next one does the job description. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then I'll make a motion 10 that we authorize the hiring of a temporary Veteran 11 Service officer. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 hire a second position in the Veteran Service office. 15 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 16 There being none, unanimous. 17 Moving on to item 1.19. Gary, you get to 18 sit down and Jenna gets to come up. Consider, discuss 19 and take appropriate action to approve the job 20 description for the assistant County Veterans Service 21 officer. Mrs. Sanchez. 22 MRS. SANCHEZ: Good morning. So with the 23 help of the Advisory Council and Rosa, we have a -- I 24 gave everyone a job description. It doesn't cover 25 everything but it covers a lot. Basically whoever we're 79 1 going to attempt to hire, we will let them know it is a 2 temporary position. Could turn into a permanent 3 position. Just don't know. We'll be very up front with 4 the situation. 5 It's very important that whoever gets hired 6 must go able to get their training completed and 7 accredited by a certain timeline. If they can't, they 8 really don't need to be in the position. And they need 9 to be comfortable with hearing, to do home visits. 10 We do a lot of home visits for a lot of 11 veterans and/or surviving spouses who are homebound. So 12 we do need to do home visits and then they just need to 13 be prepared to maybe hearing some traumatizing stuff as 14 we help with PTSD claims and other things like that. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: I move that we approve 16 the job description for Assistant County Veterans 17 Service Officer. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 20 second to approve the job description as presented. Any 21 discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. I guess to the 23 County Attorney. Should it say temporary assistant in 24 the job description? 25 MRS. STEBBINS: It should. 80 1 MS. SANCHEZ: It's right under general 2 description. This job is a temporary position with a 3 possibility of it becoming permanent. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. I just thought 5 maybe in the title at the top. 6 MS. SANCHEZ: Oh, I see. Do we need to put 7 it in the -- do we need to move it up here? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: You can put it in both 9 places if you'd like to. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 11 MS. SANCHEZ: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Any other discussion? 14 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? It passes. Thank 15 you. 16 MS. SANCHEZ: Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let's go back on our agenda to 18 Item 1.7. We have to catch up now that we're out of our 19 timed items. This is consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action to approve a $25.00 donation from a 21 citizen for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund. Sheriff. 22 SHERIFF LEITHA: I'm just looking for the 23 Court's approval to accept $25.00 for the Sheriff's 24 Equipment Fund. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move. 81 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 3 second to accept the donation as presented. Any 4 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There 5 being none, it passes. 6 Item 1.8 consider, discuss and take 7 appropriate action to ratify and confirm authorization 8 for the submittal of the Sutton-2022 Operation 9 Stonegarden project, Grant No. 4899301 to the Office of 10 the Governor for the Homeland Security Grant program on 11 behalf of the Kerr County Sheriff's Office. Jason. 12 OFFICER WALDRIP: Okay. What this is is an 13 overtime project for our deputies/investigators. Sutton 14 County was the head of writing this operational 15 campaign. What this operational campaign is for is 16 to -- for enhanced patrol for any crime committed at 17 border activities. We are listed under there, 18 operational campaign is a friendly force. 19 With being listed the friendly force gives 20 us an opportunity for overtime funding. The overtime 21 funding is a voluntary project for our 22 deputies/investigators to work on their off duty time to 23 earn additional monies at a rate of overtime. So at 24 this point, we're just asking that you approve that we 25 be part of this operational campaign. 82 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion. Do we have a 3 second? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 6 second. Go ahead. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: So Jason, what's the 8 source of these funds? 9 OFFICER WALDRIP: They're FEMA funds granted 10 through the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. It mentions the 12 Office of the Governor and Homeland Security? 13 OFFICER WALDRIP: So -- yeah. Well, I guess 14 when we get to the next one we can explain how the 15 Office of the Governor falls in it. So basically what 16 it is, it's a FEMA grant that is funneled through the 17 U.S. Customs border. As far as when it gets funneled 18 down to the State, County, or local level the use of 19 E-grant system is kind of their financial tool to 20 monitor the spending of the funds. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Distribution goes 22 through the State. 23 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yeah. Distribution goes 24 through the state grants. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Are there strings 83 1 attached? 2 OFFICER WALDRIP: No, sir. We run 3 operational campaign. We put out our typical outfit 4 measures, what we expect to get as far as -- and then, 5 as you know, Kerr County is an established corridor for 6 crimes related to the border. We are already doing 7 them. I've got statistics up to this point. Stuff that 8 we're already handling under our routine patrol. 9 What this will give us is an additional 10 patrol out on these known highways or corridors that 11 will work these crimes, where obviously it will help 12 relieve some of our regular routine patrol guys. This 13 is -- like I said, this is a voluntary program. They 14 work either at the end of a shift, they work extended 15 hours or on their off duty time to earn additional pay 16 at a rate of time and a half. Just gives us more 17 coverage out on the western side of the County. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: When they do that, they 19 mount up with the other guys? Or do we use County -- 20 OFFICER WALDRIP: So we will be using a 21 County vehicle at this point. We do have funding. 22 There will be funding available for the operational part 23 of our funding. So gas, any -- any maintenance cost 24 related to the use of our vehicles. There will be funds 25 available in that grant. 84 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sutton County originally 2 applied for it, right? 3 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes. Sutton County is the 4 -- they're the off duty operational campaign. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What other counties did 6 they include? 7 OFFICER WALDRIP: Right now, that is Sonora 8 PD and us. So basically we were identified about a year 9 or so ago as possible participant in this. So I've been 10 in contact with border patrol for a while. Typically 11 they usually have one agency that is the campaign 12 writer. We were put into Sutton County's this year. We 13 are probably going to get moved into Kimble County's 14 next year. 15 Some counties, like Kinney County, can have 16 up to 15 different friendly forces included in their 17 campaign. So it's nothing really where we're related to 18 Sutton County in a way, but we do support the same type 19 of activities because Sutton County is also a known 20 smuggling drug trafficking corridor. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is Sutton County 22 responsible for the grant reporting and records keeping 23 or do we have to -- 24 OFFICER WALDRIP: We -- we will be 25 responsible for the financial reporting of the funds 85 1 that y'all accept. For our portion. 2 JUDGE KELLY: That's -- that's what really 3 triggered this. I do the key grants. And in order to 4 get paid, I have to do it and that's why we're doing the 5 ratification and confirmation on it. 6 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes, sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And then the next one is we'll 8 go ahead and apply with the program for that grant. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: How much money are we 10 talking about here? 11 OFFICER WALDRIP: So this year, usually in 12 your first year campaign they kind of give you what's 13 called seed money. So it's not a lot. So this year we 14 have approximately $34,613.00 to use as overtime funding 15 to pay our deputies and investigators that participate. 16 That also includes monies to cover not all 17 the fringe, but most of the fringe that comes with that. 18 And then also an additional $4,000 that we can use for 19 operational cost for a vehicle. 20 So the first year's border patrol liaison, I 21 can tell you that's seed money to see how y'all 22 participate. Next year's funding, once -- if we get 23 approved to participate next year also, it will increase 24 significantly. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Like how much? 86 1 OFFICER WALDRIP: Next year? 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 3 OFFICER WALDRIP: Next year we're including 4 equipment costs. We're actually looking at the purchase 5 of another Tahoe patrol vehicle to use specifically for 6 this program. That way it saves some of the wear and 7 tear off the normal fleet. 8 So next year we've -- we've upped it to 9 $475,000, which includes doubling of the overtime money 10 available to our deputies/investigators. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So we have trial period 12 to see if everybody gets along -- 13 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- and then we go 15 forward? 16 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes, sir. And then next 17 year we'll be included in the campaign, the operational 18 campaign router will be in Kimble County Sheriff's 19 Department, which will be us, Edwards County -- there's 20 one other County. I don't remember. I think it's 21 four -- four entities will be involved in the Kimble 22 County routing campaign. We'll be a friendly force with 23 them. It only makes sense because we border Edwards, 24 Kimble and us. And I think -- oh, I'm sorry. It was 25 Gillespie County is involved in that one. 87 1 MR. GAIGE: And Menard County. 2 OFFICER WALDRIP: And Menard County. You're 3 right. Yeah. So that will be next year's campaign. It 4 will be -- Kimble will be the routing and then those 5 other four counties will be the friendly forces under 6 their campaign. 7 JUDGE KELLY: But the bottom line is we're 8 putting more boots in vehicles -- 9 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes, sir. 10 JUDGE KELLY: -- in the western part of the 11 County. 12 OFFICER WALDRIP: And as you know, the 13 western part of the County is very large. So it takes a 14 lot to get from one side of the precinct to the other. 15 So this puts somebody out there on those known 16 corridors, that way our western units can focus more on 17 their regular routine patrol activities. It just gives 18 us more -- more visibility out there. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: What I'd like to say is, 20 and Don can vouch for is, man, we're getting a lot of 21 requests from the western part of Kerr County residents 22 for more coverage and stuff like that, so we're seeing 23 what we can do on that. 24 OFFICER WALDRIP: And also with the -- I 25 don't know if y'all watched the news, Title 42 is going 88 1 away. So I think the last kind of numbers they're 2 saying there's about 40,000 people sitting in -- on the 3 other side of the border and I guarantee, most of them 4 will sit through processing. We're already seeing an 5 uptick in our smuggling cases in the last couple of 6 weeks. 7 So as the desert temperatures start 8 increasing, they're going to start moving their loads 9 east instead of trying to navigate through the heat out 10 there in the desert. So we expect our activities to 11 jump up this summer. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And more than one of the side 13 affects of this is it actually helps our existing 14 officers, it gives them an opportunity to make the 15 overtime and meet some of the compensation needs that 16 they have. So it's been a very well-received program. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So to understand the 18 program, with $35,000 -- is that what you said, Jason, 19 around that? 20 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- for this year, that 22 won't -- that won't last a long time. 23 OFFICER WALDRIP: No, it won't -- it won't 24 last. We'll have to -- we'll either have to try to 25 spread it out or we could run out. Other counties, 89 1 there's usually leftover funds from previous campaigns. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Uh-huh. 3 OFFICER WALDRIP: So if -- and I have seen 4 them do this, if they run through the money quickly they 5 do what's called a fraggle(phonetic) and they'll 6 actually input more money into your program. So say 7 over the next few months we are very successful, we're 8 making a lot of cases, we're supporting the activities 9 under this campaign. I have seen border patrol input 10 more funds into the program. So there could be a 11 possibility, if we run out of this real quick, they 12 could input more money into it. So -- 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. That -- that 14 answers that because I saw it running out and then 15 there's no coverage. 16 OFFICER WALDRIP: So when the money runs 17 out, the money runs out. That's just the -- kind of the 18 way that works. So -- so I'll have to kind of monitor 19 and -- try to make that monitor. They're late on their 20 funding this year, so the campaign periods end in 21 February '24, so we're already into this campaign year 22 anyway. They were late on their funding. So whatever 23 we have -- whatever months are left between here and 24 February. So it'll start over again, March '24. 25 JUDGE KELLY: This is the Federal Government 90 1 actually trying to help us enforce the law. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's why I asked if 3 there were strings attached. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So did we get a second? 5 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion and a 7 second. 8 MS. BELL: I submitted a paper to discuss 9 this. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Miss Bell. 11 MS. BELL: Alicia Bell in Precinct 4. And I 12 do support, you know, our County officials to be able to 13 take care of this. But we all know who should be taking 14 care of the border and it's not the County. But there 15 is something I want to bring attention to that may not 16 be -- have been considered. 17 Tucson police to quit taking funds from 18 federal border security grant. The same grant. Back 19 in -- this article was from January 18th of 2020. 20 Updated in June 15 of 2020. They took these funds for 21 ten years. And here's what they found. The board of 22 supervising voted last year to accept the grant with a 23 condition of 200,000 be used to overcome costs incurred 24 by this shelter for the migrants seeking as asylum; 25 however, the request was denied by Federal officials who 91 1 said the modification provided no border security 2 operational benefits for rendering the void -- rendering 3 void the supervisor's decision. 4 One current example of this is the 5 unwillingness of the Federal government to allow even a 6 small portion of OPSG grant funds to be used to assist 7 county and municipal governments in addressing the costs 8 associated with the asylum seekers coming through our 9 committee. Because the entirety of the money was being 10 used for overtime for the officers and what that 11 ultimately did was that increased -- so Pima County 12 Administrator, Chuck -- whoever this guy is, who 13 previously said he cannot and will not recommend the 14 acceptance of the Stonegarden without modification after 15 the County announcement revealed a hefty taxpayer burden 16 for the pension fund of the deputies who received the 17 Stonegarden overtime. So recommend -- because they were 18 getting the overtime, that affected the retirement pay 19 for the County. So that's something to consider. It's 20 something to consider among that because that will 21 increase taxpayer -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think that goes 23 through the -- through our paycheck retirement. It's 24 included in it. 25 OFFICER WALDRIP: Actually, I'd like to 92 1 address this. Yeah, so this -- so when we set this 2 funding up into our income system which manages our pay, 3 it will be set up as a separate line item. This funding 4 does not go into our regular paycheck. It is paid on -- 5 it will be paid on a separate line item. That's how we 6 can pay it at overtime rate. Be kind of like -- it'll 7 be kind of paid like a specialty event. So when we -- 8 when officers input their hours, it'll input it as 9 Stonegarden hours so it'll pay separately from our 10 typical payroll. 11 So it does not -- it does not affect 12 overtime that would be included in your regular pay. So 13 it's paid totally separate. Any costs associated with 14 the County for those hours, that's what the fringe 15 amount is for, is to cover those excess funds. So 16 that's why there's fringe and also overtime pay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: When they came to me with 18 this, both Scott and Jason, we confirmed correctly that 19 this will be a separate account that's funded that it's 20 paid out of. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The fringe portion of 22 this retirement is included in the grant? 23 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes. So the fringe covers 24 what the County typically pays associated with regular 25 payroll. That's those funds. 93 1 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 2 favor say aye. Opposed? Abstain? Everybody good? 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No, I -- I'm good. I 4 think what we were hearing about maybe was -- would that 5 have been sloppy bookkeeping or something? 6 MS. BELL: It was -- I guess it was how the 7 contract was written. But I have the article here. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. It was -- that 9 sounds like -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: That was about asylum, not 11 interdiction. 12 MS. BELL: Well, it was funds that were -- 13 they were not allowed to use for asylum which we need 14 help doing that. 15 OFFICER WALDRIP: So you know, you see a lot 16 of grants that supplement overtime for counties and 17 stuff like that. I could see if there's a major input 18 of funds that would be used as part of the regular 19 payroll overtime. That that could be abused. And it 20 would reach an amount of overtime that the County pays 21 out, which would associate those extended fringe costs. 22 But this is funded separately out of payroll. Also 23 includes the fringe to cover the costs to the County. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So what we just did was 25 ratify and confirm -- 94 1 OFFICER WALDRIP: Yes. 2 JUDGE KELLY: -- what we've been doing. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 4 JUDGE KELLY: So now we go on to item 1.9, 5 which is to consider, discuss, and take appropriate 6 action to approve a Resolution regarding the Sutton 2022 7 Operation Stonegarden project grant number 4899301 to 8 the Office of the Governor for the Homeland Security 9 Grant program on behalf of the KC Sheriff's Office. 10 This is the going forward part. 11 OFFICER WALDRIP: This will be the going 12 forward and acceptance of those funds for the overtime 13 project. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 17 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Oh, go ahead. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Just -- it's 19 Whereas, the Kerr County Commissioners' Court agrees 20 that in the event of loss or misuse of the Office of the 21 Governor's funds then the Kerr County Commissioners' 22 Court assures the funds will be returned to the Office 23 of the Governor in full. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It just means we're 25 going to be responsible and follow the rules of that. 95 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. Yeah. 2 OFFICER WALDRIP: No, it's -- that's just 3 every grant we take. You have to follow certain 4 guidelines. So whoever the grant person who provides 5 the money, they're going to want their money back. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you don't do what you 7 say you're going to do, you've got to pay it back. 8 JUDGE KELLY: And we've got this motion and 9 second on the floor. Any other discussion? Those in 10 favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 11 Thank you, Jason. 12 OFFICER WALDRIP: Thanks y'all. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Next item is 1.10 consider, 14 discuss and take appropriate action regarding refunds 15 for Hill Country Regional Public Defenders Office 16 contributions back to participating counties. 17 Ms. Shelton. 18 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. As you're all aware, 19 Kerr County was the fiscal agent for the Hill Country 20 Public Defenders Office for the two years that ended 21 9-30 of 2022. The schedule presented shows the amount 22 of matched contributions received from participating 23 counties based on the budget first as the actual 24 expenses which were less than budgeted. These amounts 25 were audited by Armstrong, Vaughan & Associates as part 96 1 of the Kerr County's external audit. It is their 2 recommendation that these excess funds be given back to 3 the participating counties. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 5 we return the excess funds to the counties in the 6 amounts as stated in the attachment and authorize the 7 auditor's office to send checks as soon as possible. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: A motion and a second to 10 approve refunding the contributions that were overpaid 11 to the public defenders office. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Comment. There's two 13 groups or two sets of funds that we're kind of looking 14 at of the Hill Country Regional Public Defender Office. 15 This is real simple. This is the -- you know, the 16 budget was this amount, we spent this amount, this is 17 the difference we've got to refund. 18 There's another amount that's still being 19 looked at by the advisory board and by Medina County, I 20 guess, as to how you -- what you do with allocations 21 that are adjusted every year. That's that ongoing issue 22 as to exactly how those funds are handled. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But there's a formula. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the problem. I 97 1 thought we -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the problem. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- we talked about -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: No. No. Let me clarify. 5 Everything you said is exactly true. When we started 6 the PDO, we went to the office of court administration, 7 the OCA, and we took the actual case counts per county 8 of the year before. And we used that to determine the 9 allocations of each county. How much. And our 10 allocation was 38 percent. And the other counties were 11 proportionally less. 12 And so when we had to match for the grant, 13 we had to put the money up. Our matching part of it. 14 We put up 38 percent. Okay. Well, and that -- and we 15 went through, I think, two grant funds. It gets -- it 16 gets kind of confusing because there's different grant 17 funds and different dates. But the bottom line is the 18 allocation issue was addressed in the end of May of '23. 19 MRS. SHELTON: '22. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: '22. 21 JUDGE KELLY: '22. End of May of '22. And 22 that's -- we do have the formula of how we go back and 23 reallocate. And when we reallocated, we went from 38 24 percent down to 30 -- 25 MRS. SHELTON: Roughly 30, 32. 98 1 JUDGE KELLY: -- 31 percent, something like 2 that. And what that meant is some of the other counties 3 who had contributed less in prior years had to 4 contribute more on the new allocation. The allocation 5 takes effect, and that's determined at the end of May. 6 The other ones were at the beginning of the grant cycle, 7 which is the fiscal year. 8 So what we're doing -- what we're talking 9 about here, is this is where we paid our matching 10 portion of the grant, first year was 80/20. And then we 11 went to one-third/two-thirds. We paid 38 percent in. 12 Okay. And we didn't spend all the money. We weren't 13 fully staffed. And -- and for that reason, there's been 14 money left over. So there's a big pool of money sitting 15 there that we need to refund. That's what it comes down 16 to. The allocation issue goes on, it's an ongoing 17 issue. That's what he's talking about. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: As to how to do the case 20 counts. And Medina County is doing that. What this is 21 right here is this is the final accounting for Kerr 22 County's fiscal agency from the time that we managed the 23 PDO. And during that period of time, we had these 24 excess funds that need to be redistributed to the 25 parties that contributed them. Accordingly. That's 99 1 what it comes down to. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It wouldn't hurt to 3 tell the watchers out here how much Kerr County's is, 4 which is over $139,000. 5 JUDGE KELLY: That we over paid. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they then refund. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And this is the first 9 full year, right? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. We're in the 11 second. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought the first 13 year we didn't start when it was supposed to start so it 14 was kind of -- it did start when it was supposed to? 15 MRS. SHELTON: It did not. You are correct. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No, it was prorated and 17 the percentage was over-calculated. We didn't have a 18 full year. 19 JUDGE KELLY: It's just a percentage. It 20 was just calculated. That's not that over-calculation. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Okay. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And that grant started in 23 October 1 of 2021. 24 MRS. SHELTON: In '20. 25 JUDGE KELLY: '20. 100 1 MRS. SHELTON: The actual -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: And we did not open the 3 office. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So it went for a whole quarter 6 without any -- us spending any money whatsoever. But we 7 paid our contributions in. No? Not then? 8 MRS. SHELTON: (Shaking head no.) 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Good girl. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We opened the office 11 January 1. And our grant expired at the end of 12 September of that year. Then we got another grant -- 13 they extended the grant for another three months. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I remember that. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And so then, when we got the 16 second grant, instead of it starting October 1 it 17 started January 1 and -- and went through September. 18 And now, we're in the -- this is our third grant. 19 MRS. SHELTON: This -- at Medina. We no 20 longer have the grant. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Right. But this is our final 22 accounting of the money that's in our possession. And 23 it gets -- all the rest of the counties give them their 24 refund checks. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So really no one year 101 1 has been like the last. 2 JUDGE KELLY: No, they haven't. We had a 3 mix up on the grant period. That was very confusing for 4 everyone. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. I remember 6 that. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And then we've got a separate 8 date that states in the Interlocal Agreement that says 9 we square up, we come back and reallocate at the end of 10 May. But we didn't to it the first year because we 11 wanted it to go -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So you started off late 13 and you got a slow start. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And this is really a true up. 15 We're trying to finally get trued up. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Sure. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And this is the final thing we 18 have to do as a fiduciary is to account to the counties 19 for the money that they paid in that were not used for 20 the PDO so we're refunding it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other issue is 22 Medina County. So it's complicated. And it comes 23 because we have fiscal year time periods and we have 24 grant time periods and we have when we do the account 25 internally. So it's how you do all that versus the -- 102 1 but this is pretty simple. 2 MRS. SHELTON: And the reallocations are 3 based on the actual expenditures and what we're trying 4 to refund is the difference between what was budgeted 5 and what was actually spent. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, why doesn't it 7 just stay there and then pay it in -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we were taking about 9 that. It's not proportioned. We get a much bigger 10 refund for the overpayment. Some of the other counties 11 get smaller refunds. But everybody gets a refund on 12 this one. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But, in the future, 14 hopefully it will be refined and we'll know what our 15 percentage would be if there's a difference, you just 16 leave it to go forward. 17 JUDGE KELLY: The PDO is talking about 18 having a reserve account and having us contribute in. 19 And so to do that, we're making sure all these funds get 20 distributed now because we're at different allocations. 21 The new allocations would be contributing on the new 22 allocated amount rather than the old allocated amount. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: But even that's subject 24 to change based on use, right? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Year to year. 103 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Every year. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So what we -- 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's never going to be 4 that simple. 5 JUDGE KELLY: What we've learned is Kerr 6 County carried the finances for the PDO at the tune of 7 almost half a million dollars. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And we learned from that and 10 Medina County doesn't want to do that and I don't blame 11 them. And we -- we'll contribute our fair share of 12 whatever the reserve fund needs to be. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's good to get 14 this piece taken care of. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So with that, anymore 17 discussion? We have a motion and a second, don't we? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's correct. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 20 Opposed? There being none, it carries. Okay. 21 That takes us -- we'll jump down the agenda 22 to Item 1.20. 23 MRS. DOWDY: Judge, we had an amendment on 24 that item. Do you have the amended version in front of 25 you to read from? 104 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 1.20 is consider, 2 discuss and take appropriate action regarding the 3 proposed job descriptions for the County Clerk's office 4 for Deputy Clerk (grade/step in pay unchanged), Chief 5 Deputy Clerk (grade/step in pay unchanged), and Senior 6 Deputy Clerk for each civil, vital, CCAL, and OPR; and 7 retitle of two current positions from Administrative 8 Deputy Clerk to Senior Deputy Clerk Civil and Senior 9 Deputy Clerk Vitals (grade/step in pay unchanged); and 10 the retitle of two current positions from Deputy County 11 Clerk to Senior Deputy Clerk-CCAL, and Senior Deputy 12 Clerk-OPR. And the salaries of all Senior Deputy Clerks 13 be set at the same base which is currently a grade 17 14 and Step 1 per Court Order 38162. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's a mouthful. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I read it. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: One person in this room 18 knows what it means. 19 MRS. DOWDY: So I've also submitted a letter 20 for my recommendation and request. I'll just read that 21 out to the Court. 22 "Thank you for your time today. I'm asking 23 for a retitle of certain positions in my office which 24 will not only create incentive for my staff to move up 25 the ladder, but this change will alleviate pressure on 105 1 the upcoming new budget of the FY 23-24 general fund; 2 specifically, by the beginning the new budget year, 3 these retitles will transfer certain salary items into 4 the County Clerk's special fund 41, thereby creating a 5 surplus in the County's General Fund, fund ten." 6 The County Auditor assisted me with this 7 proposal. She found that my present budgeted salaries 8 will allow for these increases in pay for the two 9 positions that would ultimately be affected. 10 In summation, I'm respectfully requesting 11 that the Court: 12 1. Approve the job description for Deputy 13 Clerk and Chief Deputy Clerk; 14 2. Authorize the retitles of the two Admin 15 Deputy Clerks, the present admin, from Administrative 16 Deputy Clerk to Senior Civil and Senior Vital, and 17 includes the approving both job descriptions; 18 3. Authorize a retitle of the two Deputy 19 County Clerks to Senior County Court at Law and Senior 20 Official Public Records, to include approving the job 21 descriptions for those and increase in pay; and 22 4. Lastly, that these changes be effective 23 at the beginning of the next full pay period, which I 24 believe is today. 25 I'm open to questions. 106 1 JUDGE KELLY: And that letter was from whom? 2 MRS. DOWDY: That was from me. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 MRS. DOWDY: And it also fits the model of 5 the District Clerk's Office, where they don't have 6 admins, they have senior clerks. And so this matches 7 that model. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure I totally 9 understand. 10 JUDGE KELLY: I don't understand. 11 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't either. 13 MRS. DOWDY: Well, where would you like me 14 to start? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think what would be 16 helpful to me, is if it was set out on the schedule that 17 we have in our budget that has all the classification. 18 Kind of what we use in budget -- in our budget hearings 19 a lot. It would say the title, step/grade and -- or, 20 you know, and then -- or grade and step currently and 21 then what you're doing. More of a chart form so we can 22 see exactly what's going on. 23 MRS. DOWDY: Do we have that in the backup? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't see it. 25 MRS. DOWDY: Page 3, 4, and 5 perhaps? And 107 1 it will not increase my current budget. I won't go over 2 it. 3 MRS. DOWDY: It should look like this. I'm 4 basically just trying to create incentive for my staff 5 to know that there is a way to move up, and to alleviate 6 pressure on the general fund. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you're -- you're 8 going from -- your employees that are a 15 you're 9 putting them at 17? 10 MRS. DOWDY: Correct. Because I've had some 11 open spots, and vary to surplus and salaries to cover 12 those changes. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean my preference 14 is -- we have a -- I don't know if it's a countywide 15 problem. As soon as we do this in your office, your 15s 16 go to 17s and every 15 across the board is going to want 17 to go to a 17. And I understand that you're paying for 18 some of these out of dedicated funds, is that -- from 19 what I -- 20 MRS. DOWDY: Well, there is a difference in 21 job duties, which is why I put in the job descriptions. 22 So I'm coming to the Court with information as to why I 23 can justify this increase. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But your total number of 25 employees is not -- budgeted employees has not changed? 108 1 MRS. DOWDY: Correct. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- I mean I 3 understand your job functions, it's -- I just am very 4 concerned of what, you know, this will lead to in other 5 department. And I think they have -- we need to discuss 6 as a court hiring in a lot of departments. And I know a 7 lot of departments are having issues right now. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We found out, and very 9 important ones. You know, now one of them being the 10 Sheriff's Department, another is Road & Bridge. I mean, 11 you know -- 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, we're going to 13 have to do something. But I agree that this -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'm not saying we 15 don't need to do it, I'm just -- I think we need to do 16 it all at once. Not department by department. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I don't know. I 18 think we're going to have to take action pretty quickly. 19 JUDGE KELLY: We're about to start. Within 20 the next week we're going to start the budget season. 21 Okay. Something like this, to me, I think ought to be 22 handled in a workshop so we can discuss it and make sure 23 that we're -- what we're doing. I don't really 24 understand what we're doing or why we're doing it. And 25 I agree with you, it's going to cause ripples and 109 1 they're going to go completely through this courthouse 2 and I don't know what we've started. I don't know where 3 it's going to end. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree with you, 5 Commissioner. I think -- I mean, we're going to have to 6 do something this budget year and it's going to be a 7 painful process. But we're going to have to do it, in 8 my mind that's look at our salaries across the board. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I think we need 10 to start in the areas where, you know, we're 11 short-handed already and we're losing people left and 12 right and try to stem that flow before it's too late. 13 And so I would at least -- I'm certainly in favor of 14 having that discussion sooner rather than later with 15 respect to the Sheriff's Office and -- and Road & Bridge 16 as well. I think it's important that we do it for all 17 the departments, but that's where we're having huge 18 problems right now. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I understand the concern. And 20 I agree with the concern. But the problem here is, it's 21 going to be a countywide issue. And taking one office 22 now, before we even start the budget season, to 23 restructure how they're doing that without knowing how 24 it's going to affect everybody else -- 25 MRS. DOWDY: And I'm sorry. I just 110 1 thought -- I was trying to get this in ahead, that way 2 you could have a better picture of the general fund to 3 know that there's going to be a surplus. If we did 4 this, there would be a surplus for the Court to have 5 ahead of time. But if you'd like for me to bring it 6 back another day, I can certainly do that. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, we're aware of 8 it, Jacky. I mean, you know, it's not going unnoticed 9 and it's something we gotta deal with. 10 MRS. DOWDY: Well, and I'm trying to -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You know, this is a 12 nationwide problem. You know, people are having a hard 13 time retaining and attracting employees. That's why you 14 see -- you know, the cost of inflation. Labor costs are 15 going up. The cost for everybody's going up. And we 16 have to deal with it. And it's a nationwide problem. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that the -- you 18 know, I'm in agreement with the Judge that a workshop to 19 just focus on this. And I would encourage all elected 20 officials and department heads to think of, you know, 21 use the term outside the box a little bit. And I told 22 Kelly, I said, you know, is there a way to restructure 23 your work week? Whatever, we need to look at a lot of 24 different things because it's about to get worse. 25 Because -- I had dinner the other night with some people 111 1 that I was -- that are State employees, or head of state 2 agency, and the State's getting ready to give, I 3 believe, a ten percent across the board pay increase. 4 MRS. DOWDY: They already have. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you shouldn't go 6 apologize for getting ahead of this for your staff. You 7 did the right thing. Don't apologize for that. 8 MRS. DOWDY: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Don't think that we 10 think, you know, you shouldn't have come here. You're 11 getting ahead of it. You're standing up for your 12 people. That's always good. 13 MRS. DOWDY: Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And -- but we can't do 15 anything yet -- or shouldn't. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, every -- all of them are 17 going to do something in May. We have to see the 18 budget. But I put together when they come back with 19 their calendars, it'll be in there. I'm sure that we're 20 going to see a lot of requests from different 21 departments and different offices. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Jackie, I appreciate 23 the fact that you're using -- thinking outside the box, 24 basically. And using some dedicated funds to try to -- 25 MRS. DOWDY: Yeah. 112 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- to pay for the 2 increases. And that's excellent. It's just I hate to 3 do one department only. 4 MRS. DOWDY: So can we in the least approve 5 the job descriptions for the Chief Deputy Clerk and the 6 Deputy Clerk as presented? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That has no budget 8 impact? 9 MRS. DOWDY: Correct. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you go over -- can 11 you summarize what those two changes are? 12 MRS. DOWDY: It simplifies duplicate 13 language that I felt was unnecessary. So it just 14 simplifies the Deputy Clerk position. And then the 15 Chief was more of an administrative because I was 16 combining the current admin and put that on the Chief, 17 where they should be, those duties should be, and so 18 that was the only change with the Chief. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So basically -- you're 20 basically clarifying the language in the two job 21 descriptions? 22 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. Making it very clear what 23 those duties are for the Chiefs and then for the Deputy 24 Clerks, simplifying it, to eliminate some duplicate 25 language. 113 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So how do we make that 2 motion? What are you asking? 3 MRS. DOWDY: I would recommend -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 5 approve the revised job descriptions for the Deputy 6 Chief Clerk and the Deputy Clerk. Is that right? 7 MRS. DOWDY: The Deputy Clerk and Chief 8 Deputies. Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: What's a Senior Deputy 10 Clerk? 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. The -- 12 MRS. DOWDY: We're not doing that. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Is that right or is 14 that an error? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're just doing the 16 two -- we're just doing the Chief Deputy Clerk and the 17 Deputy Clerks. Correct? 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: I thought it was more 19 than that. 20 MRS. DOWDY: That's what I'm -- yes, that's 21 for today. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So I second the motion. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second 24 to approve the job description changes for the Chief 25 Deputy Clerk and the Deputy Clerk. 114 1 MRS. DOWDY: Yes, sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I just want to 4 say something and I may get the evil eye from the County 5 Attorney, but -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: No. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- we touched on it 8 already. So we just spoke that the State is looking at 9 giving a ten percent raise across the board. Well, we 10 just had TxDOT grab a couple of our employees that we 11 had a year and a half invested in them. So I don't -- 12 and then they jumped ship to go to TxDOT. And we have a 13 lot of departments like that. We get them trained and 14 then, you know, so -- and we gotta have people out doing 15 and filling these positions. And so the State's jumping 16 theirs up ten percent, we're going to have to do 17 something to try to retain people and not just train 18 them for them. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, you know, what 20 needs to be on the table, and I think it's unfortunate, 21 is that a lot of our new hires are looking at their 22 immediate paycheck, not the benefits. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we have been very 25 reluctant to modify or decrease our benefits. That's 115 1 something I think we need to look at. And, you know, I 2 think everything has to be looked at. Because we gotta 3 figure out how to pay for it. And, you know, we have a 4 great benefits package. But if it's not working to 5 attract employees, it's not working the way it's 6 supposed to. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Attract and retain. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Exactly. I think we 9 need to put everything on the table. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Which will be on the table -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In a workshop. 12 JUDGE KELLY: -- next month. But my 13 proposed budget is coming out and we'll have budget 14 workshops and we're going to be able to work through 15 these issues. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: So have we voted on the job 18 descriptions yet? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 22 Opposed? The job descriptions are approved. 23 MRS. DOWDY: Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Quickly, 1.21, which is 25 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 116 1 acknowledge the receipt of budget adjustments made by 2 the Kerrville-Kerr County Joint Airport Board. Ms. 3 Shelton. 4 MRS. SHELTON: This is more of a formality. 5 In the Interlocal Agreement between the Airport, City 6 and County allowed the Airport Board to rely on the 7 budget adjustment for up to ten percent of their budget. 8 For the first six months of the year, these transfers 9 have amounted to $43,581.00, mainly for professional 10 services and insurance. These have all been line item 11 adjustments. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 13 approve the budget adjustments as presented. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 16 approve the Airport Board budget adjustments as 17 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 18 Opposed? It carries. 19 Let's take a five-minute break and we'll 20 come back for 1.22, 1.23. Plus the approval and 21 information agenda. 22 (Five-minute break.) 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Court will come back to 24 order. The next item on the agenda is 1.22 update on 25 the results of the Texas First ballot hand count 117 1 simulation. Commissioner Paces. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. Basically I've 3 already informed the Court that a group, Texas First, 4 will be doing a simulation on ballot hand count. So I'm 5 pleased to inform the Court that it was carried out 6 successfully last weekend in Dallas. And they tried a 7 few different methods and -- but they have kind of 8 arrived at what they consider to be the most effective 9 hand count method, as well as then how many stations and 10 how many people it would take to have the election 11 results in four hours or less. And, of course, there 12 are a lot of different ways that you can hand count 13 paper ballots. 14 They've come up with a hand count 15 methodology which they found to be the most effective 16 and most transparent. And what they're proposing to do 17 in multiple counting stations, each with two recording 18 cameras and three digital calculators for a highly 19 visible screen. So there's just a very short video. I 20 think it's three or four minutes. And it just will give 21 you an idea about the kind of setup that they're 22 proposing. 23 So go ahead and hit play. 24 (Playing video.) 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Again, this is what 118 1 they did last weekend. 2 (Playing video.) 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: This is five counting 4 stations. They're trying to demonstrate that anybody 5 could be monitoring it really from any location. And 6 that's a final tally as they count back. 7 Now, just in case you wanted to see it in 8 regular speed, you can go to the website that they have 9 set up for this. It's "Mock County PF", 10 mockcountypf.us. And you'll see a lot more. This is 11 basically the end of it here. So you can close that 12 down, Charles. Thank you very much. 13 So basically, and again, that's just a very 14 brief video to give you a feel for what this -- this 15 methodology looks like. Okay. So for anyone who is 16 concerned that this system would require certification, 17 it would not. This is strictly hand counting. People 18 make all the decisions in the most transparent way 19 possible. It is not an electronic voting system. It 20 does not require any form of certification and it is 21 fully within the authority of our Commissioners' Court 22 to approve its use. 23 Currently, seven counties in Texas already 24 hand count their paper ballots. But they use a little 25 bit different technique to do so. This, I believe, is 119 1 far more transparent. So for comments like "If it isn't 2 broke, don't fix it," I'll offer my favorite quote. 3 "You know, the trouble with ignorance is you don't know 4 when you have it." And that summarizes the entire 5 problem with electronic voting systems. 6 The voting machines we've been using are 7 expensive, black boxes, and we have no idea whether 8 they're giving us the correct results or not. In our 9 election integrity workshop, Hart InterCivic's 10 representative said, and I quote, "Anybody who says that 11 something is not hackable is a fool." So anything can 12 be hacked, right? But it takes access to the thing, 13 knowledge, and mostly time to be able to do that. And 14 then one question he also admitted that Hart imports the 15 mother boards from China. And, of course, the mother 16 boards are the most critical component of those 17 machines, yet we're unable to inspect them to know 18 whether there's a modem embedded in the boards. Well, 19 anyway, I -- if you trust Hart, great. I don't. 20 So who knows whether our voting machines 21 have ever been hacked here in Kerr County. I'm not 22 suggesting they they have been, but they could have been 23 and no one would ever know. That's the real point. 24 That's why we propose going to hand counting ballots. 25 You have Mr. Jared Woodward, who presented to the Court 120 1 in our last session that the equipment we're using may 2 not be properly certified. Which raises concerns about 3 the validity of all the elections in which it's been 4 used in the past. 5 Now considering the enormous amount of money 6 that is spent on state and national elections and the 7 interest foreign enemies have on the outcome of our 8 elections, there are plenty of potential bad actors with 9 the necessary IT skills which could be used to penetrate 10 and manipulate voting machines. Computers are hacked 11 every day. Even our DOD servers have been hacked, why 12 would anybody think that a voting machine can't be 13 hacked? 14 Now, hand counting is sequentially numbered 15 paper ballots. In each of our 20 precincts under video 16 camera that's streamed so anybody can watch live, as has 17 been proposed and you've seen an example, it would 18 actually lower our cost significantly, would add 19 complete transparency and resourceful confidence in the 20 outcome of our elections. It also gives you a robust 21 audit trail should any discrepancies appear in any of 22 the counts. Those videos become part of the permanent 23 record. Now hand counting might delay reporting results 24 by a few hours, but that's a small price to pay to 25 ensure accuracy, transparency and trusting results. 121 1 So I went back and looked at the 2022 2 primary and general elections using this methodology, 3 and what would it do? In 2022, during the primary, a 4 total of 14,060 ballots were cast. We had races -- 5 between 38 and 39 races with choices from one to eight 6 per race. And with this technique, basically it's -- 7 it's two people going through a pair of choices. So, 8 for example, in the Governor's race if there's eight 9 candidates, they would have to pass through four times 10 to identify the correct choice. So basically, it takes 11 48 ballot passes and that would require 93 stations and 12 186 people to count the ballots. 13 The general election is a little bit worse. 14 In some ways. We have 22,580 ballots that were cast in 15 2022. There were 20 to 22 races with two to six choices 16 per race, so that requires 28 ballot passes. And that 17 would take 167 stations and 334 people to count the 18 ballots if we want it done within four hours. That's 19 the magic number, by four hours seems like a reasonable 20 amount of time to put in at the end of the election day. 21 And these can be entirely different people. The amount 22 of training that's required to be able to do the little 23 exercise you just saw is about five minutes. So it 24 could be done the day of. I think it would be better to 25 get people together ahead of time to go through a little 122 1 example, but there you go. 2 So, you know, if -- if the Court decides to 3 adopt this sort of methodology, well, the total cost 4 would be around a hundred thousand dollars for all the 5 cameras and all those digital counters. Now, that does 6 not assume any kind of economy of scale. You kind of 7 order a bunch of this stuff. 8 And of course, the benefits though, it can 9 be further optimized as we go. This system is being 10 used. They're going to take it off to Shasta County, 11 California and do a recount audit of one of the 12 elections that recently occurred out there. And I'm 13 sure as they -- as they use it, they'll find other ways 14 to improve it and hopefully make it more cost effective. 15 But the beauty is it's a one-time cost. We don't have 16 software updates. We don't have service fees and the 17 County can print its own ballots. We don't have to buy 18 expensive ballots from a particular vendor. 19 Now, you know throughout my career I often 20 asked a very several question: Why do we do it that 21 way? And the worst possible answer to that question 22 that I ever heard was, that's the way we always do it. 23 Then I would simply ask, Is there a better way? And 24 you'd be amazed once people are willing that you're open 25 to hearing other ideas, the outpouring that comes as a 123 1 result of it and the improvements that the unit 2 receives. So to anybody who says it can't be done, I 3 just say get out of the way of those who are already 4 doing it. And, you know, if they're worried about the 5 number of people that would be required to count 6 ballots, you know, I -- I can't tell you. 7 I've had countless people already come to me 8 and tell me that they are more than willing to volunteer 9 and count ballots on election night for four hours. And 10 I haven't asked, that's just people reaching out to me. 11 It's well over 30. So I'm sure we have plenty of civic 12 minded volunteers who would like to restore trust in our 13 elections and that they will step up. And we have 14 plenty of time before the next election in which this 15 equipment could be used. We have an election in 16 November, but the goal would be to have it in place to 17 use it for the '24 elections. 18 And, oh, I think Bob Reeves had suggested 19 that the Court should participate in a hand-counting 20 exercise using ballots from one of our precincts and I 21 fully agree with that. From this end, I'd like to 22 organization a demonstration of this methodology at some 23 point in June when they get back from California and 24 include anybody who would like to see how it works and 25 how much time it takes. But basically, they counted 250 124 1 ballots in an hour. And there were 20 races on those 2 ballots. So that's, again, the basis for the kind of 3 numbers that I threw out there earlier. 4 So that's your update on the hand -- paper 5 ballot hand-counting simulation. It's very doable. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What counties hand 7 count? I mean, you know, I keep hearing seven counties 8 hand count. What are they? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I don't have the 10 list with me. But I can get you that later. They are 11 relatively small counties. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 13 MR. REEVES: I have them, Commissioner. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. We're going to 15 get you up there sooner or later anyway probably. 16 MR. REEVES: Taking the counties that you 17 indicated, Commissioner Paces, was Armstrong, Castro, 18 Ford, Glasscock, Hansford, Haskell, and Sterling. I 19 took it upon my office to call each one. My staff did. 20 We -- only two of them said they hand counted. That 21 would be Glasscock, which is Garden City, I believe is 22 the -- and then I had to actually looked at the map to 23 locate Hansford County. If you go too far north, you're 24 not in Texas anymore. It's in the far part of the 25 panhandle. Hansford County has 2900 registered voters. 125 1 November election they had 1,522 which voted. We 2 actually have four precincts with more registered voters 3 and more that voted. Glasscock County, 815 registered 4 voters. 572 voted in November. 5 We have 18 precincts that are larger than 6 the entire County at this time. I also took it upon 7 myself to have my staff e-mail Secretary of States. I'm 8 assuming the machines are similar to what Mr. Cook 9 demonstrated on his video. Secretary of State said 10 under current law, and there may be some things in 11 Austin right now. Under current law, you must use tally 12 sheets and pencil or paper. No electronic type of 13 equipment at all may be used. 14 And Sheriff, would you take this up to the 15 Court? 16 If any type of machine was used in a hand 17 count it must be certified. So that's what I've learned 18 on it. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Would you say that 20 again, please, Bob. You're saying that if it's a 21 hand-count you can't use any electronics? 22 MR. REEVES: That's the way I interpret the 23 e-mail that the Sheriff just passed out. You'll see the 24 e-mail that I had Miss Alford send. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Can't they use a 126 1 calculator? Because that's -- that's the same kind of 2 thing. 3 MR. REEVES: I'm just going by what the 4 Secretary of State tells us or said, Commissioner. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because if you're going 6 to go back in time, they didn't have those things. 7 (Laughter.) 8 MR. REEVES: We also conducted two simulated 9 hand counts just as soon how long I'd have to keep y'all 10 after hours. I took one Precinct that would be 11 approximately the same in the upcoming primary. My 12 staff did that. Took about five hours for 158 ballots. 13 I did a second count with two other 14 employees who have asked to be anonymous. But two from 15 this courthouse came in to do 40 ballots. Took 92 16 minutes. Those are my findings on that. So the only 17 reason I did 40 ballots, I didn't figure y'all wanted to 18 stay five hours to do a full hand count. I don't know 19 if y'all want to stay an hour and a half. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm interested in 21 seeing it, but you're talking about people that know 22 what they're doing versus us who don't, and that could 23 take a long time. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Harley and I tapped 25 out with one another about a week and a half ago, I 127 1 guess, on this subject and then I even relayed that to 2 you that before we went forward with anything, we'd like 3 to put us to the challenge of doing it. 4 MR. REEVES: And I'd still like to -- 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Hands on. 6 MR. REEVES: -- to invite y'all, too. If 7 we're going to have a demonstration. There's better 8 mouse traps. I'm just going by what I know with the law 9 right now as the e-mail. You can tell the e-mail that I 10 drafted and had my Chief Deputy send, was meat and 11 potatoes. And I asked for the responses. And that's 12 what -- what I've got from the Secretary of State's 13 legal division. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: I appreciate that, Bob. 15 MR. REEVES: Thank you, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll certainly reach 17 out to the Secretary of State myself and seek some 18 clarification with them and a better description of 19 exactly what this system would -- or methodology would 20 propose. 21 MR. REEVES: What -- what would you like me 22 to ask, Commissioner? 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's all right. 24 MR. REEVES: I referred -- 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean, this has far 128 1 reaching implications. So I'm sure that Texas First 2 will also be looking at getting with the Secretary of 3 State to have clarifications. I mean, it's kinda 4 fundamental. But they've come up with a methodology 5 that's very time effective. And they've proven it 6 works. And they're willing to come here and give a 7 demonstration to us and our people and sit and man the 8 little calculators. If we're allowed to use 9 calculators. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My -- my question is, 11 you know, I'm not opposed to it. I just want to make 12 sure that it's a better system. And I haven't been -- 13 I'm not convinced yet. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: The time that we just 15 heard from Bob versus this, it's gotta be better but -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'm just saying 17 that you didn't use a machine. Machines -- I have a 18 calculator that makes errors. Or they can make errors 19 if you don't hit the button all the way. So, I mean, if 20 you're using a machine, there's a -- it increases the 21 risk of an error. I don't know if it increases it. I 22 mean doing hand counting is pretty risky, too. So, you 23 know, I'm in favor of a better system, I'm just not sure 24 what the better system is. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Again, when you've got 129 1 a big read out screen so it's very obvious what was just 2 counted and somebody's sitting directly next to you, it 3 would be very hard to miss it and then it's going to be 4 video recorded. And that camera is directly overhead. 5 So that becomes part of an audit trail. It'll be picked 6 up on. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And cost efficiency. 8 I -- I like that part of it. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's the best part. 10 And we can save the taxpayers and Kerr County a heck of 11 a lot of money. So we'll jump through the legal hoops 12 and see what can be done to address the certification 13 issue, if there is one. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I feel like Bob put us 15 through the ringers but hands on. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Again, I'm all in favor 17 of it too. It's just a matter of -- you know, I don't 18 want to waste time on -- on just a old-fashioned 19 tabulation sheet if -- if we don't have to. If we can 20 follow this approach, then we oughta do that. Because 21 it would be far more time effective. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Move on 23 to the next agenda item, which is 1.23 consider, 24 discuss, and take appropriate action to approve the 25 Resolution supporting Texas State Legislation for 130 1 accurate, transparent, and auditable elections. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, the resolution 3 was attached to the agenda. It's been tweaked a little 4 bit from the one you saw a couple weeks ago. And I did 5 ask Commissioner Letz to look at it, provide some 6 comments. He did. But he got his comments in a little 7 late and it had to go out with the agenda. And he bled 8 all over the original version so I didn't have an 9 opportunity to have any discussion with him as to how 10 flexible he might be. 11 I would certainly like to see something go 12 out though, just because this is such an important issue 13 and so many people have lost trust and faith in our 14 election system. So anything we can do to encourage our 15 state legislators to pick their -- and they are 16 considering a number of different bills and laws and 17 there's -- the real problem is the legislative session 18 is already late in the game. So I'd like to get 19 something out. 20 I was hoping that we could include getting 21 rid of ERIC, because that's become very, very costly and 22 proven to be ineffective. So why should -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: First let me make a 24 comment. Commissioner Paces called me at 6:30 Thursday 25 evening, and I did not even -- 131 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: It was -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was Wednesday then 3 right before I was leaving town. And I got it back to 4 him about one o'clock the next day. So I had 18 hours. 5 I think it was a pretty quick turnaround on my part 6 because I had meetings that morning. So I took out 7 things I didn't know myself. I took three things and 8 bullet -- I mean the verbiage. I tried to keep it to 9 the things that I think were -- that I know are true on 10 the report and the Court has a copy. I gave it to him 11 this morning after I prepared this one. 12 I think I have three bullet points. One, 13 precinct neighborhood level voting. No countywide 14 polling place. The reason I did that is that I don't 15 understand how you -- if you don't have countywide, how 16 do you do absentee ballots? I mean, you've gotta have 17 it countywide for absentee ballots, unless you take them 18 out to -- let me finish -- out to the Precinct. So I 19 took that out because I didn't understand that. 20 I took out the tabulation of ballots by hand 21 count at the Precinct level with cameras live streaming 22 the results for complete transparency. I haven't seen a 23 system that I know works for that that is efficient. 24 And I took out eliminating the costly and 25 ineffective ERIC system. I don't know what ERIC -- I 132 1 don't really understand the ERIC system. It's just -- 2 you know, I don't like voting on things that I don't 3 understand what it is. 4 So those are the three things I took out of 5 the resolution. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: The ERIC registration 7 information center, it basically is a system that 8 compares poll votes. Basically our registered voter 9 lists with other states. And the experiences that it 10 has not worked and it tends to be a little bias and it's 11 very expensive. So the -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I -- 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: They're pushing to stop 14 using it. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- I'm probably not 16 opposed to that, I just don't really know what it is. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. And you also 18 took out rank choice voting. The prohibition of rank 19 choice voting. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know what rank 21 choice voting is. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, that's how they 23 screwed up the election in Alaska. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well -- oh. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's not a good thing. 133 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'm in favor of 2 that. That's -- okay, I didn't know what you were -- 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, that's what it 4 is. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm okay with that. 6 Well, the Alaska thing -- that last election was 7 terrible, I agree. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll accept all your 9 changes if you'll leave rank choice voting in and 10 eliminating the costly and ineffective ERIC system. And 11 the others, we'll get there. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. And this is -- 13 this resolution going -- pushing the State to make some 14 changes. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I mean -- and who 17 knows what they're going to do. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. It's probably 19 not worth the paper that it's going on, but it's -- 20 we're doing what we can. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. We're trying 22 to encourage them to do the right thing. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's an important 24 issue. All of our constituents have spoken. Well, not 25 all of them. A large number of them. 134 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- I know what I was 2 going to ask. I mean, I would like to get what Bob's 3 feeling of ERIC is. Because it -- I mean -- you know, 4 the rank choice, I'm good with that. 5 MR. REEVES: My personal opinion on ERIC is, 6 if we have it, I'm bound to use it. If we don't have 7 it, so be it. I mean, I'll be honest. I'm not trying 8 to fight everything the Commissioner is saying. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 10 MR. REEVES: It does have its good points. 11 As far as catching duplicates. But does it catch every 12 one? No, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's -- 14 MR. REEVES: I mean, the cost of it, I'll 15 have to leave to the State on that. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Yeah. So this is 17 basically mandating how you get to -- it's another -- 18 supposed to be a cross-check system. 19 MR. REEVES: It's a -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Supposed to be a 21 cross-check of our voting polls or records. 22 MR. REEVES: In the general sense, yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, I read recently, 24 Mr. Reeves, that we have to get new voting machines by 25 2026 that installs technology we don't really have 135 1 perfected yet. Have you read any -- can you fill me in 2 on that? 3 MR. REEVES: There is one bill that was 4 passed, I believe it was part of SB1, SB2, one of those 5 two, in the last session. Supposedly, it is being 6 debated to correct some information there. I don't know 7 what the status in Austin is as of today on all of that. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Would that be a 9 software update or buy a new machine? 10 MR. REEVES: Yes. Probably both. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So then that's a big 12 expense coming up ahead? 13 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. Not denying that. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Okay. 15 MR. REEVES: As I've said before, we applied 16 for a grant when some of this came out. But we were 17 told since we already had paper ballots, we couldn't get 18 the grant. And you know what I can -- think of that. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that -- that grant 20 was to incentivize full electronic voting? 21 MR. REEVES: Both. Audible. With 22 everything given paper. Right now, if you vote on the 23 computer, you don't get -- receive anything that shows 24 how you voted. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 136 1 MR. REEVES: Or you can vote on paper. Fill 2 in the bubble. Just like we -- they're requiring now 3 that the electronic would spit out a ballot -- 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 5 MR. REEVES: -- and take it over after 6 you've proofed it and made sure you really voted for 7 Donald or Nicki or whoever was running, you take it over 8 and put it in the scanner, just like I do when I do the 9 paper ballot, and put it in the scanner. That's why we 10 have to definitely be upgraded to -- by September 1 of 11 '26 or the -- as I referred to in the workshop six weeks 12 ago, by the November '26 election. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That won't be cheap. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Y'all bounced the 15 bullet points around. What about the whereases? 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, here again, 17 there's a lot of them. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, I know. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: I don't really know on 20 that. So, to me, they're not as important. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, you indicated 22 that to me once before. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm pretty much in 24 agreement. I mean, I agree -- I agree totally with 25 Commissioner Paces that I'd like to have something to go 137 1 off to Austin. And I'm fine with making those two 2 changes that I said in there and, you know, the other 3 parts or the other changes are -- I think are pretty 4 minor. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Detail without 6 verbosity is the hardest. It really is an art. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, if y'all go with 8 those changes I'll move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I'll second it. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second 11 to approve the Resolution as presented. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, as amended. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: As amended. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As mine -- 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: What we just agreed. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's mine as amended. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, it's -- you -- 18 you -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just the two 20 changes. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. You're changing 22 my rank choice voting and eliminating the costly and 23 ineffective ERIC. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: ERIC. Right. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Clear as mud. No, I 138 1 understand. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We have -- we're going to vote 3 before the people talk to us? 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: I don't know. Does 5 somebody want -- anybody sign up to speak? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, four people. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Bell, you're the first 9 one. 10 MS. BELL: I'm Alicia Bell, Precinct 1. I 11 recommend that the Court accept the new amended 12 Resolution. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Ertell. 14 MS. ERTEL: My name is Stephanie Ertel. I 15 live in Mountain Home. And I'm fourth generation Kerr 16 County resident. Some of you may have known my father, 17 Darrell Lochte, who was an attorney in Kerrville for 50 18 years. And I'm very disappointed in this Resolution. 19 Having worked in the poll, I've been a poll 20 worker here since 2008, and no one's ever raised a 21 question about the outcome of any elections that I've 22 worked in. And I've worked -- the only ones I didn't 23 work in were the ones where I was a candidate for 24 office. And as a candidate, I didn't object to 25 elections either. I think we have -- the systems have 139 1 improved. In fact, in '22, I worked both at the Divide 2 in the primary, and in Mountain Home in the general. 3 And that was the best, most secure, and the best run 4 election that I've ever participated in. 5 And I'd like to note on this counting hand 6 count ballots that Bob Hall, who is the State Senator 7 whose behind a lot of this action, in the bill that he 8 submitted, he calls for using scanners to count the 9 votes. So I think some of the statements in the 10 whereases are actually choosing people committing 11 crimes. 12 I don't think you should say, oh, it's just 13 whereas and it doesn't matter, that you have approved a 14 Resolution based on false accusations. And I don't 15 think that the things that you're putting the most 16 emphasis on are the things that are going to improve our 17 elections. What would improve our elections is people 18 following the rules at the polling place, and making 19 sure that everyone has a free and fair opportunity to 20 vote. So I'm very opposed to this Resolution. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Ms. Ertel. 22 MS. ERTEL: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, before you do any 24 more, can I read the Resolution the way it's been 25 amended? And so the people -- I mean, because -- 140 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- it's different than 3 the backup. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes, it is. Quite a 5 bit different. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Quite a bit different. 7 The Resolution Supporting Texas State Legislation For 8 Accurate, Transparent, and Auditable Elections. 9 Whereas, We the People of Kerr County, 10 Texas, need to be certain that all Texans and Americans 11 have secure, accurate, transparent and auditable 12 elections with full accountability for those who violate 13 our election laws; 14 Whereas, the electronic -- the current 15 electronic voting system that is approved for use may 16 create an unnecessary security risk with opportunities 17 for undetectable error and nefarious activities; 18 Whereas, our voter rolls may be inaccurate 19 and emphasis must be placed to ensure accuracy; 20 Whereas, maintaining three separate voting 21 processes of mail-in, early, and election day voting 22 creates risk and opportunities for abuse, error and 23 broken chain of custody; 24 Whereas, it may be uncertain for the elected 25 to know whether the declared winner reflects the intent 141 1 of the majority of the people who legally cast their 2 votes in a race and the recent polls show that a large 3 percentage of the population across party line has lost 4 faith in our elections. 5 Be it resolved, that the Kerr County 6 Commissioners' Court formally requests the 88th Texas 7 Legislature pass legislation to minimize election 8 mismanagement and vote manipulation by requiring: 9 Hand-marked, sequentially numbered paper 10 ballots preprinted on counterfeit-resistant paper, 11 signed by an election judge; 12 Paper poll books, fixed 30 days before the 13 election period; 14 Verifying vote results with random hand 15 counts and robust audits; 16 Elimination of the gap between election day 17 and end of early voting; 18 Limiting mail-in voting to only those who 19 legitimately need it; 20 Cleaning and securing our voting rolls 21 ensuring that they contain only qualified and eligible 22 citizens; 23 Restoration of felony penalties for 24 fraudulent voting; 25 Reinstatement of Texas Attorney General's 142 1 prosecutorial authority to investigate and prosecute, 2 election and voter fraud; 3 Prohibition of rank choice voting and any 4 foreign ownership of election process, data storage, or 5 components; 6 Eliminating the costly and ineffective ERIC 7 system (Electronic Registration Information Center); and 8 County-to-precinct and state-to-county 9 election results verification, 10 Which will result in an election process 11 that is transparent, accurate, verifiable, and holds 12 officials and voters accountable. This will make Texas 13 the nation's leader in election integrity, as it should 14 be. 15 So that's what we're actually discussing at 16 this point. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And again, and I'll 18 say I -- I think Kerr County does an outstanding job. 19 And my -- do I think anything has been fraudulent? No. 20 But we have all heard of some of our large counties in 21 the state being very suspicious in their outcomes in 22 handling elections. And this is encouraging our state 23 leaders to make some changes across the board to where 24 Kerr County's votes count. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Judge, sorry 143 1 to interrupt you. I think there's two more. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Ertel. 3 MR. ERTEL: Thank you. I'm Rick Ertel. I 4 also live in Mountain Home, Texas. And I'm opposed to 5 the Resolution as proposed. Just to give you an idea of 6 how I come to this. In my background in this area, I've 7 worked in the elections in Kerr County for over the last 8 15 years. 9 And four of those years I was the County 10 chair for one of the parties and had the responsibility 11 to recruit 80 election workers to work at the polls. 12 And as a County chair, I was also able to go to the 13 two-day training that the Secretary of State gives in 14 Austin every election cycle to teach us how to run the 15 elections locally, in coordination with the elections 16 administrator. 17 And, of course, I benefitted from the 18 frequent advisory opinions that they send out from 19 Austin, as well as the online training for poll workers. 20 The -- also the in-person poll training that the 21 elections administrator gives us. 22 And I think that my opinion is that Kerr 23 County, as it's presently conducting its elections, is 24 extremely accurate and secure. And I think by passing 25 this resolution, you are giving up some of your power to 144 1 run the elections in this very secure fashion to the 2 State to come back and tell you how you have to change, 3 how you run your local elections. So I think it's a 4 dangerous road to go down. 5 I believe that with our paper ballots that 6 are used by almost all the voters and the optical 7 scanning that we do, that we come up with a very 8 accurate count of the results, and I've participated in 9 the pre-election testing of the optical scanners and 10 comparing it to the paper ballot, and I think that I've 11 never seen a discrepancy come up. So I believe we have 12 had as close as possible to the hundred percent accuracy 13 as one could have. 14 Now, I have been concerned about some of the 15 recitals in this that haven't been able to review and 16 look carefully with Commissioner Letz's proposed 17 changes. I would just point out a couple additional 18 things in the resolution clause where they're going to 19 be telling you what to do. 20 For example, I think eliminating the gap 21 between the election date and the rest of the end of 22 early voting would be a big burden on the County because 23 the elections administrator overnight would have to set 24 up, go from early voting at the Cailloux or the AG barn, 25 and out in Ingram, and set up the voting at 20 145 1 precincts. So there are -- there are administrative 2 problems with the list of resolutions that you're 3 agreeing to, even with the changes. 4 You have eliminated one of the most 5 troublesome ones, which is the hand count. The hand 6 count that you just saw in the video, I don't know where 7 I'd find the number of election people to do that hand 8 count. I could barely get the 80 that I needed to staff 9 half of the polling places. I certainly couldn't set up 10 that equipment in Mountain Home. We don't have a big 11 enough room in the fire station to put that stuff in. 12 And I've worked the polling places at other places that 13 couldn't do that. 14 So anyway, I would be more in favor of the 15 resolution and just thank Bob Reeves and Nadene and 16 offer the rest of the election workers the great job 17 that they've done for the Kerr County voters. Thank 18 you. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Fred Henneke. 20 MR. HENNEKE: Fred Henneke, 2595 Bandera 21 Highway, Precinct 2. I live in the County; not in the 22 City. And I am the ignoramus who said if it ain't 23 broke, don't fix it. No one has brought before this 24 body or any body any evidence, any innuendo, any 25 suggestion that the elections are anything but fair and 146 1 accurate. Nobody. This is all supposition. 2 This is all "what if". This is all maybe. 3 This is "they could". There's no -- that's no place to 4 be, as you say in the commercial. There's no here, 5 here. The Resolutions and the whereases are full of 6 misrepresentations and innuendos and "what ifs". 7 There's no facts there. There's no meat there. There's 8 no substance there. And you're going to put Kerr County 9 on this Resolution and send it to Austin? 10 For those of you who are old timers, you 11 know what this is? This is a Bill Stacy reference. It 12 has no basis whatsoever. I see Commissioner Letz who 13 knows what I -- to which I refer and the Judge. Why? 14 Why? I mean, if you really want to go to paper ballots, 15 hand counting, which I think is just, you know, a 16 solution in search of a problem. The practical result, 17 the practical consequences are immense. 18 The suggestion is you're going to count 19 ballots at the Precinct. Now, okay, does the Precinct 20 location and ballot location of Lane Valley going to 21 want us to help them for another four hours after 22 balloting is complete? Are you going to be able to find 23 20, 30 people who will go to that location and stay 24 there until midnight, hand counting the ballots? I've 25 been election judge three times. And I agree with Ms. 147 1 Ertel, and Bob would probably agree with me, and Nadene, 2 it's hard to find poll workers. You gotta have poll 3 workers for the poll. 4 Then are you going to get people to do the 5 count? Do they have to be poll workers? Does the Court 6 have to approve them? Do they get paid, as all poll 7 workers do? Someone suggested that the equipment, the 8 cameras and everything is going to cost a hundred 9 thousand dollars. Guess what? You have to 10 competitively bid that. And it's suggested from what 11 Mr. Reeves heard, the Secretary of State is any machine 12 has to be certified. How are you going to certify those 13 things which are beaming the signal out? Are you going 14 to -- are you going to give out calculators to each of 15 the polling areas? They all have to be the same then. 16 Or else you're setting up a problem right there. They 17 can't be an individual personal person's calculator. So 18 you're going to go out and buy how many hundreds, 160 19 calculators to use in the hand counting? Think about 20 it, my friend. 21 You know. If you want to do this, let's set 22 up a commission. Not a commission from somewhere else 23 which has an ax to grind. Let's take local people and 24 figure this out among ourselves. It also has 25 repercussions. You know, what about City elections? 148 1 What about school district elections? You know. We're 2 talking about countywide elections for national 3 organizations. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Sir, times up. 5 MR. HENNEKE: Okay. Well, all right. If it 6 ain't fixed -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me tell you, there's 8 nothing in this Resolution mandating hand counting. 9 Commissioner Paces may have wanted it, did want it -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Absolutely. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- but it's not in there. 12 So this is -- what we're saying is, to me -- and 13 Ms. Ertel's comment, I would defer to Bob about that. 14 But the rest of it I think it was just suggestions on 15 how to improve the things that we do and I think 16 everybody should want. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: They're already being 18 contemplated as we speak. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And this is statewide. 20 You know, we're not pointing our finger at Bob and 21 Nadene or anybody here. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: I never said that. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: But boy, I would sure 24 point my finger at Harris County, Travis County, and a 25 few others. 149 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. Well, and the 2 cameras, we already use cameras. We can get those 3 certified. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 6 in favor of the resolution say aye. Opposed? Aye. It 7 passes, four to one. 8 Moving on to the approval agenda 2.1 budget 9 amendments. 10 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. You have six budget 11 adjustments before you. They are all line item 12 transfers. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 16 approve the budget amendments as presented. Any 17 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There 18 being none, it's unanimous. 19 2.2 pay bills. 20 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 21 consideration amount to $1,362,892.95. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 25 approve the -- paying the bills as presented. Any 150 1 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 2 Unanimous. 3 JUDGE KELLY: 2.3 Late bills. 4 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Let me add late bill 5 Number 2. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Even more. 7 MRS. SHELTON: Late bills for today. The 8 first packet, $176,564.51. And then late bill number 2, 9 $327,795.32.00. The second packet is mainly the PDO 10 refunds that we talked about earlier. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve the late bills as presented. Any discussion? 15 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 16 2.4 Auditor reports. 17 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We performed one 18 internal audit for Justice of the Peace Precinct 4. And 19 we're asking that you accept the report. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 23 approve the Auditor Reports as presented. Any 24 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There 25 being none, unanimous. 151 1 2.5 Accept monthly reports. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For March 2023, 3 County Clerk, Jackie Dowdy. Justice of the Peace 4 Precinct 1, Mitzi French. Precinct 2, J. R. Hoyne. 5 Precinct 4, Bill Ragsdale. Animal Control Services, 6 Director Reagan Givens. And VSO Jenna Sanchez. I move 7 for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 10 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 11 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There 12 being none, unanimous. 13 2.6 court orders. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we have court 15 orders from our May 10th meeting -- May 10th. April 16 10th meeting. Court Orders 39911 to 39932. Jackie, you 17 did make that -- the corrections you made have already 18 been made, correct? 19 MRS. DOWDY: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's one correction 21 made that Jackie has already put in the Court Orders so 22 I move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 25 approve the Court Orders as presented. Any discussion? 152 1 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There being none, 2 unanimous. 3 Information Agenda. Status reports from 4 department heads. 5 MS. HOFFER: I have one. 6 MR. EVANS: I'll make it quick. I just 7 wanted to give an update on the flag poles and the light 8 poles that were painted last weekend. We got that all 9 that done. Took quite a few years of paint off the 10 light poles. They were very multi-colored. Light 11 green, gray, brown, green again. So we got it done. 12 Looks nice. And so that's all I've got to say about 13 that. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Road & Bridge. 15 Ms. Hoffer. 16 MS. HOFFER: We had an issue -- we've had an 17 issue at a crossing on Dowling Road. Somebody keeps 18 putting stuff in the pipe, the upstream side, so it 19 reduces the flow which, you know, is not something you 20 want to do. It's against the law to do it. And 21 Commissioner Harris and I and Charlie have done -- tried 22 to do all sorts of stuff. 23 So I've contacted Commissioner Harris and 24 just said, I don't know what else to do on this. He had 25 suggested possibly looking into Crime Stoppers, which 153 1 since when our office immediately got on it and worked 2 with Clint Massengill and Chris Lalonde from the 3 Sheriff's Department, and I was out all week last week 4 and came back to work and the line's already up, already 5 got it all taken care of. So I was really pleased when 6 Commissioner Harris said, you know, maybe we should try 7 this. 8 So I'm kind of excited to see if it might 9 change something. I don't know. So I've given a little 10 bit of backup information. We've done all sorts of 11 stuff. And we've cleared that pipe out many times. So 12 we'll -- we'll see where this -- where this goes. And 13 Commissioner Harris had asked if I would come and speak 14 on this topic. So I took some pictures of the signs 15 installed on -- we also have pictures, but they're not 16 in this packet, of what was pulled out of the pipes. 17 And it was some logs. Sometimes it's big rocks. It's 18 all sorts of stuff. 19 But we're so short-staffed at Road & Bridge 20 that every time that we have to stop what we're doing 21 and go out and pull some stuff out of a pipe, you know, 22 it really takes away on stuff. And, you know, Charlie 23 and my big concern is someday there may be stuff in the 24 pipe and we're not aware of it because we can't go there 25 every day and if we get a big enough rise, you know, 154 1 it's a concrete low water crossing that's pretty old. 2 You know, it -- it could be enough to take it out. And 3 then everybody's wondering when is the County going to 4 rebuild it. 5 And so I don't know if anybody has any 6 questions or if Commissioner Harris has anything that 7 he'd like to add. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, it becomes a cat 9 and mouse game and it's -- it's hard to catch anybody. 10 And we want to try something. We could ask the Sheriff 11 to have deputies patrol it but, you know, it's a shot in 12 the dark catching anybody. And so it's one way we 13 thought maybe we might get some help. And just putting 14 those signs up, well, we need to get it out in the media 15 why the signs are there and, you know, what the crime 16 is, and it is against the law to plug those things. And 17 people are doing it so it rises where they have a better 18 swimming hole or what have you. 19 But it's going to cost the County money and 20 it has cost money already. Just sending the crews out 21 there to clean out the -- whatever they stuff in the 22 pipes and what have you. So it's been an ongoing 23 problem that we've been dealing with ever since I've 24 been in office and probably longer. 25 MS. HOFFER: But I really appreciate on the 155 1 Sheriff's Department, they got right on it and it was 2 just nice to work with another department that, you 3 know, saw that there was a problem and -- and worked 4 quickly for us to get some stuff in place. So I 5 appreciate that. Thank you, Sheriff. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Can you put up a game camera? 7 MS. HOFFER: We did. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Did it work? 9 MS. HOFFER: Well, we didn't get anything on 10 it. It didn't last very long. We thought that we were 11 within the right-of-way boundaries. And a lot of that 12 is prescriptive easement. We don't actually have a good 13 line. And we put it on somebody's property. And he 14 didn't say who, but other people who live on there 15 thought it was him filming them and they got pretty 16 nasty with him. And he called us to ask if we would 17 please remove our camera, so we did try that. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Maybe get with Lisa and 19 let's put a press release out there to bring it more 20 into the public's attention. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's exactly why I 22 wanted her to speak on this topic so people would know 23 why it's out there and hopefully they'll be a PR release 24 and -- in fact, there will be, I'm sure. And go forward 25 and see what happens. 156 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the press release 2 should be -- talking about dowelling, but talk about 3 countywide that it's against the law to plug up these 4 holes. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. Can we offer a 6 reward that makes that -- 7 MS. HOFFER: Crime Stoppers, yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Crime Stoppers. That's 9 how you get rednecks to report each other. 10 (Laughter.) 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thanks. 12 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Any other department heads? 14 MS. SANCHEZ: I would like to introduce 15 someone that I have hired for the position as a human 16 resource generalist. Her name is Sylvia. Can you come 17 on up? You'll be seeing her in my old office. So when 18 you come in, this is who you will see. 19 MS. ZAPATA: Hi. 20 MS. SANCHEZ: I -- I snatched her from 21 Kendall County. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. 23 MS. SANCHEZ: She's had 14 years of 24 experience with HR and payroll. So she knows the ins 25 and outs. She is -- has experience, so that's a big 157 1 plus and she knows a lot of that stuff, which we're 2 going to go to. So she's -- you know, y'all welcome 3 her, she is a great, great find. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Welcome, Sylvia. 5 Welcome aboard. 6 MS. ZAPATA: I'm excited to be here. I've 7 learned a lot I'm sure from Rosa and hope I can bring 8 some good stuff to the table. 9 MS. SANCHEZ: Yes, sir. She already has. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Welcome. 11 MS. ZAPATA: Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I believe she's 13 already a Kerr County resident. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Any other -- 15 MS. ZAPATA: Yes. 16 JUDGE KELLY: -- department heads? Good. 17 Moving on to 3.2 status reports from elected 18 officials. Sheriff. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, I'd just like to get 20 on the record. We've been receiving some additional 21 complaints from people in Precinct 4 in reference to 22 human smuggling and property damage. As a matter of 23 fact, we had two pursuits this weekend. I think one 24 went for like five fences. So what they want us to do 25 is a better job of notifying the public, which isn't 158 1 easy, you know, when they get out there and bail. But 2 I'm working with Commissioner Harris. We're looking for 3 a time/date location to do kind of a town hall meeting. 4 You know, you always get what can I do, what 5 can't I do. But, you know, I'd like to at least 6 advertise that for about 30 days so we get a good 7 turnout. So -- just so -- just so the public knows 8 we'll be looking at maybe the end of May or beginning of 9 June. And Don, would you like to make any comments. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. It needs to be 11 educational as well. As y'all well know, there's legal 12 ramifications if you start pursuing somebody on your 13 property. 14 SHERIFF LEITHA: In addition, I'll try to 15 get one of the district attorneys. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It changes from you're 17 the good guy to you're the bad guy. You know, that kind 18 of stuff. So I think it would be welcome. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. I'll make sure one 20 of the assistant district attorneys is there. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good. 22 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Any other elected officials? 24 Okay. Then moving on to Liaison Reports. Any liaison 25 reports? 159 1 Okay. Then we'll go to Executive -- take a 2 brief break and go into Executive Session. 3 (Break.) 4 (Executive Session.) 5 JUDGE KELLY: It is 1:25. We are coming out 6 of Executive Session and we're going to recess until 7 tomorrow at 11 o'clock and continue working on the 8 matters in Executive Session. So with that, we are -- 9 we stand in recess. 10 (Over-nite recess.) 11 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. For 12 now leave it open. It is Tuesday, April the 25th, 2023. 13 It is 11 o'clock in the morning, and we're continuing 14 our Executive Session from yesterday, but we open in 15 open court first, and we're going to go into Executive 16 Session at this time. And now we close the door. 17 (Executive Session.) 18 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 19 We're back in Open Session after Executive Session, and 20 Court will call item 5.1, action as may be required on 21 matters discussed in Executive Session. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. I want to 23 make a motion to pay $250.00 plus -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: Before you make the motion, 25 can I make a statement? 160 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 2 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Judge, sorry, hold on just 3 a second. Did we put anything on YouTube today? 4 JUDGE KELLY: No. We didn't have any. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: But we have a court 6 reporter, so -- 7 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Works for me. Sorry. 8 JUDGE KELLY: A lot of people don't know 9 what we talked about in Executive Session, but we have 10 an emergency. And this is a good news and bad news. 11 The emergency is that we have -- we're not competitive 12 with our salaries in the Sheriff's Office right now, and 13 we're having trouble keeping staff. And this is an in 14 direct consequence of COVID. But for COVID and what it 15 did to the economy and what the economy did for 16 inflation and where we are, and the neighboring 17 community have raised what their pay is for the 18 Sheriff's Officers, and we have to respond to that or 19 we're going to lose our ability to provide law and order 20 for the County. It's that simple. It's an emergency. 21 And we have talked it over with our Auditor, 22 and we think the ARPA funds that we had received earlier 23 will help us defer this cost. But we're making sure 24 that everybody understands that this is an emergency for 25 first responders. 161 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Simply recruitment and 2 retainment. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And so with that -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: And it's a short-term 6 fix until we get to the next fiscal year. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's in this. 8 JUDGE KELLY: The Auditor and I will work on 9 the budget as soon as we leave this room, so -- 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now you've been 11 forewarned. 12 MRS. SHELTON: (Shaking head in affirmative 13 manner.) 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Escape while you can. 15 All right. With that, I move that we take $250.00, plus 16 roll-ups, per pay period for the 11 remaining pay 17 periods of the fiscal year to first responders in the 18 Kerr County Sheriff's Office. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Discussion? And that will 21 include roll-ups. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, it will. 23 MRS. DOWDY: Is this motion, is it written 24 down for the Clerk to have access to immediately as it 25 is an emergency? Thank you. 162 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. What else do we have on 2 this? 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We need to vote. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, let me just make 6 one statement. I think everybody knows I'm very much 7 opposed to spending ARPA funds, but in this case, I 8 agree. I'll go along with it because this is a matter 9 of public safety, and I put ahead of any other concerns. 10 That's it. Go ahead. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And it is in the form of a 12 stipend, it is temporary. 13 MRS. DOWDY: What I have written here, it 14 does not include to use ARPA funds. Was that stated in 15 the motion? 16 JUDGE KELLY: It wasn't in the motion. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I didn't say it. 18 MRS. DOWDY: Do we need it? I'm sorry. I 19 want to make sure. 20 JUDGE KELLY: It's your motion. If you 21 agree to it. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. That's fine. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 24 MRS. SHELTON: Can I add one more thing? 25 The roll-ups are more for budget. The only part that's 163 1 really going to employees is the $250.00 stipend. But 2 the roll-ups are so we can do the budget also. Right. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Just through the end of this 4 fiscal year, which is the end of September. Five 5 months. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Are you going to redo 9 the motion? 10 MRS. STEBBINS: No. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I got it on the 12 record. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 14 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There are none. It 15 carries. 16 Any other business before the Court today? 17 There being none, we are adjourned. 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 164 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 16th day of May, A.D. 2023. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2025 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25