1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, August 14, 2023 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 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. 8 4 *** Commissioner's Comments. 12 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 action to approve recommended usage of the 6 Hill Country Youth Event Center(HCYEC) complex during the total solar eclipse in 7 April 2024. 8 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 action to approve and adopt the District 9 Clerk's Civil Filing Fees for October 1, 2023 through September 31, 2024 with changes 10 as amended by Family Code, Section 110.002(a) adding Subsection (d) filing fees that have 11 been raised from $15.00 to $80.00 effective 01-01-2024. 12 1.3 Information regarding the first annual Kerr 26 13 County Preparedness Expo on September 30, 2023 sponsored by the Kerr County Sheriff's 14 Department, Kerr County Office of Emergency Management, and the Hill Country Preppers. 15 1.4 Information regarding the Annual Flu Clinic 26 16 sponsored by HEB being held on September 6, 2023 at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 17 1.5 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 28 18 action to approve Letter of Agreement with the Inn of the Hills Hotel and Conference 19 Center to reserve up to 15 rooms to be used in the event of emergency evacuations due 20 to a hurricane. 21 1.6 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 30 action regarding the Subrecipient Agreement 22 for TDEM-Administered Grant Awards for DR-4705 application to be used as a backup 23 source of funding for the County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update. 24 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 31 action to accept donations totaling $270.00 4 for the month of June, 2023, and $200.00 for the month of July, 2023 to be added to the 5 Operating Expense line item 10-642-330. 6 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 32 action to accept donated equipment, two 7 (2) Stalker DSR 2X Radar Units, from Texas Department of Public Safety, and allow one 8 of the units to be transferred to Constable Precinct 4. 9 1.9 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 35 10 action to ratify and confirm bond renewal for Constable Paul Gonzales, Precinct 3. 11 1.20 Update regarding current and future grant 36 12 opportunities for Kerr County Sheriff's Office. 13 1.15 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 40 14 action to set the fees paid to jurors as per Chapter 61 Texas Government Code. House Bill 15 3474 was signed by Governor Abbott on June 13, 2023 and becomes law effective September 1, 16 2023. Legislative change is minimum of $20.00 for the first day and $58.00 for the second 17 and each additional day. Recommendation for court approval based on legislative change: 18 First day reported $20.00, and second and each additional day $60.00. 19 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 42 20 action to rescind Court Order #29348 and set new amount of cash on hand for jury funds at 21 $8,000.00 for the District Courts, $4,000.00 for County Court at Law, and $800.00 for 22 Justice of the Peace Courts. 23 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 43 action to approve Kerr County Jury Cash Pay 24 Procedures. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 43 action to approve Treasurer's Office Xerox 4 copy machine lease renewal, and have County Judge sign same. 5 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 6 action to approve expenses related to the relocation for the Treasurer's Office. 7 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 45 8 action to approve the contract and its attachments between the County Clerk's 9 office and the Department of State Health Services Bureau of Vital Statistics, and 10 authorize the County Judge to sign same, for the Clerk to continue issuing certified 11 copies of birth records to Texas-born persons. The term of the contract is for five years, 12 and the present contract expires 08-31-23. 13 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 46 action to approve Lease between Kerr County 14 and the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club(HCARC) to use the building located in the park 15 adjacent to the open air pavilion to the west of the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 16 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 17 action to approve contract between Kerr County and the Divide Volunteer Fire Department. 18 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 19 action on Implementation of the Burn Ban. 20 1.26 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 action to approve General Provisions for 21 FY 2023-2024. 22 23 24 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.27 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 49 action to obligate $117K of the ARPA $10M 4 Lost Revenue for the additional payroll costs incurred during the three-day ice storm, 5 January 31 through February 2, 2023, including the budget amendment to transfer $117K from 6 30-654-590 Lost Revenue to 30-654-594 Lost Revenue-2023 Ice Storm. 7 1.29 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 50 8 action to set Public Hearing on proposed Kerr County budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 9 at 9:45 a.m. on August 28, 2023, and authorize County Clerk to publish notice of Public 10 Hearing. 11 1.38 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 action to approve the revised DPS Driver 12 License Check MOU. 13 1.10 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 56 action regarding a reduction in Letter of 14 Credit No. 922001116952 issued by Cadence Bank, Tupelo, Mississippi from the amount 15 of $495,888.00 to $23,528.56 as a financial guarantee for the remaining construction 16 improvements associated with YO Ranch Headquarters Subdivision. 17 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 18 action regarding a request to reduce the financial guarantee from $1,828,024.00 to 19 $45,081.00 for the remaining construction associated with The Hideout Ranch. 20 1.12 Public Hearing for a revision of plat for 60 21 Hidden Valley Ranch Section 1 Lot 58, and Section 2 Lot 84, Volume 4, Page 39. 22 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 23 action regarding a revision of plat for Hidden Valley Ranch Section 1 Lot 58, and 24 Section 2 Lot 84, Volume 4, Page 39. 25 6 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.14 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 90 action to rescind Court Order No. 40117 dated 4 July 24, 2023, which approved Service Agreement with Service Uniform, which was to 5 be effective October 2, 2023. 6 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 93 action to accept quarterly report from the 7 Veteran Services Advisory Committee. 8 1.28 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 98 action regarding the proposed Kerr County 9 Budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2024. 10 1.30 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 107 action regarding the calculations of the 11 2023 Property Tax Rates for Kerr County and Lake Ingram Estates Road District. 12 1.40 Status of law enforcement services provided 120 13 by the City of Ingram. 14 1.31 Consider and discuss ordering the 138 Constitutional Amendment Election. 15 1.32 Consider, discuss and approve the 143 16 appointment of Election Judges and Alternates for the term of one(1) year to begin 17 September 1, 2023 in accordance with the Texas Election Code Section 32. 18 1.33 Consider, discuss and approve the 145 19 appointment of the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and Alternate Judge in accordance 20 with the Texas Election Code Section 87.002. Consider and set the number of members to be 21 appointed by the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge. 22 1.34 Consider, discuss and approve the polling 147 23 locations in accordance with Chapter 43 of the Texas Election Code for the November 24 2023 election. 25 7 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.35 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 149 action to approve the Central Counting 4 Station personnel pursuant to Chapter 127.005 TEC. 5 1.36 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 150 6 action on Salary Grievance Committee recommendation for salary grievance filed 7 by the Kerr County Treasurer. 8 1.37 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 170 action to approve "Proposed Salary Increases 9 for Elected County and Precinct Officials for Kerr County Fiscal Year 2023-2024", and 10 authorize County Clerk to publish same on August 16, 2023. 11 1.39 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 171 12 action to surplus 31 Apple iPhones to At&T First Net for a credit to the 13 Sheriff's Office account. 14 2.1 Budget Amendments. 172 15 2.2 Pay Bills. 172 16 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 173 17 2.6 Court Orders. 173 18 *** Adjournment. 174 19 *** Reporter's Certificate. 175 20 * * * * * * 21 22 23 24 25 8 1 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. It is Monday, 2 August the 14th, 2023. It's 9 o'clock in the morning 3 and the Kerr County Court is now -- Commissioners' Court 4 is now in session. If you would, please rise for the 5 prayer and pledge, which I will lead. 6 (Prayer and Pledge.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. 8 Okay. The next part of the agenda is public 9 input. I want to remind everyone to turn your phones 10 off or to silent so that they don't interrupt the 11 proceedings. The first people that I have, Michael and 12 Jan -- help me with your last name? 13 MS. PIERACCINI: Pieraccini. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Pieraccini. There you go. 15 MR. PIERACCINI: Good morning, Judge Kelly, 16 Commissioners. My name is Michael Pieraccini. This is 17 my wife, Jan. We're -- we reside in Kerr County and we 18 have a local non-profit, Gunny's Warriors, veterans 19 non-profit. This year we're honored to present the 20 First Annual Field of Honor on September 9th through 21 11th, where the community members can honor their heros 22 with an American flag. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I don't mean to interrupt. 24 But Jan, if you'll step over behind Mike, the people on 25 YouTube will be able to see the flag that you're 9 1 holding. 2 MS. PIERACCINI: Oh, okay. Thank you. 3 MR. PIERACCINI: This event will be held at 4 the River Star Event Park, adjacent to the Hill Country 5 Youth Event Center. This year's theme is Honor Your 6 Hero. We have 500 flags that we will be displaying for 7 public view. Flags can be purchased in honor or memory 8 of your hero. Examples of our service members, past and 9 present, first responders, teachers, family members, 10 anyone who has positively impacted your life could be 11 honored. 12 Our Field of Honor proceeds will benefit 13 various community organizations. So on September 9th 14 we're going to have opening ceremonies to open the field 15 up at 11:00. We're going to have music playing after 16 that. And we have a live band that will be there 17 playing in the afternoon for about three hours. So the 18 field will be open all three days for anybody to come 19 out. It's free to the public. On September 11th, the 20 VFW is going to do a memorial ceremony to commemorate 21 the 9-11 deaths. 22 This is the flag that we're selling, so if 23 people would like to purchase a flag, that will be like 24 that that we're flying. It's made in -- at Colonial 25 Flag in Utah, so it's an American-made flag. In the 10 1 event those who purchase the flag will get the flag, the 2 pole and the flag. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How do you get a flag? 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You send an order. 5 JUDGE KELLY: We've gotta give them back. 6 It's the only one. We'll make copies of them. 7 MR. PIERACCINI: There's several ways to 8 obtain a flag. You could go to our website, Gunny's 9 Warriors dot com, and I have a link there to the Field 10 of Honor, and there's steps to purchase a flag. You can 11 go to Healing Field dot org and look up the Kerrville 12 event and purchase a flag through there or you can 13 contact us through Gunny's Warriors and we have order 14 forms and we do it that way. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And for those of you that 16 don't know, Gunny's Warriors is a -- one of our local 17 veterans groups that I march with in the Veterans Parade 18 every year. 19 MR. PIERACCINI: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And they've been working on 21 this since the very first of the year so we're very 22 proud of what you're doing, Mike. 23 MR. PIERACCINI: Thank you, Judge. 24 MS. PIERACCINI: Thank you. 25 MR. PIERACCINI: Thank you all. 11 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll be getting one. 2 MS. PIERACCINI: Good. Glad to hear that. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Next is George Baroody. 4 MR. BAROODY: My name is George Baroody, 5 1615 Glenn Road. Not the same old topic, it's the one 6 that I talked about around six months ago, if not 7 longer, which is the AG barn upgrade/renovation, I don't 8 know, whatever, improvements, repairs even. 9 And my suggestion was back in November, and 10 then again in January, was to take that presentation 11 that was given to you from the bond committee or 12 whatever, and cross the street to EIC and present it to 13 them. 14 Since then, I mean you guys are dealing with 15 your budget right now and it obvious you're not going to 16 have money to do all the things that we need to do. 17 This is one that was claimed to be a need. I would 18 agree that certainly repairs are a need on that. And I 19 would urge you to try and utilize that funding source 20 before you try and utilize the taxpayer money or the -- 21 or potential bond demand of having to do down the road. 22 What you'd end up having to do at EIC is 23 sort of present it as an economic development project, 24 which the presentation did when it was being done for 25 the bond. They essentially pointed out the conventions 12 1 or groups that were coming, and we would potentially 2 lose, and I urge you to do it soon, because EIC is 3 tripping over themselves to give away their money to new 4 projects that I would argue aren't necessarily a good 5 investment for the community and it's a first come, 6 first serve situation. 7 So if we don't present it, it won't be 8 considered and it won't be, you know, even allowed. And 9 they don't even have to fund it fully up front in cash, 10 they can -- they can do a revenue bond. It saves on 11 sales tax dollars; not taxpayer dollars. So I would 12 urge you to move forward with that as soon as you can. 13 And not that they'll accept it, but I'd be willing to 14 help you lead it through the process. But -- but yeah, 15 I -- move quickly, please. Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thanks, George. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving on to 18 Commissioners' Comments. Precinct 1. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We need some rain. 20 That's all I know to tell you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Two. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll say a little bit 23 more about it. Burn ban remains in place for -- 24 certainly for Precinct 2. It's actually in there for 25 all of them. And we've had red flag warnings, nearly 13 1 everyday with 100 degree plus heat and strong winds, so 2 severe fire hazards. And I'll also mention, you know, 3 the fire departments are concerned about having water, 4 enough water to fight the fires if they break out. 5 Because we -- we certainly -- Headwaters Groundwater 6 Conservation District escalated to drought Stage 4 last 7 Wednesday, and that's now applicable to the entire 8 County. 9 We've got wells running dry certainly in 10 East Kerr County so. And Governor Abbott has issued a 11 disaster proclamation, certifying that exceptional 12 drought conditions pose a threat of imminent disaster in 13 37 counties, including all of our neighboring counties. 14 What's of interest to me is they've authorized the use 15 of all available state resources that are reasonably 16 necessary. So I guess we need to find out what that 17 means, if there actually are any resources that could be 18 brought to bear to help some people that need water. 19 We're still working on the Center Point 20 sewer project. That's -- we're making some progress. 21 It's still way behind. Phase 2 is 269 days behind 22 scheduled substantial completion, and Phase 3 is 420 23 days overdue. 24 Road & Bridge, they've completed the 25 reconstruction of Skyline Drive and also Robertson Road. 14 1 So roads are great. Lots of compliments. Thank you 2 very much. Job well done. 3 Had a second town hall meeting on August 1st 4 and we had 55 people turn out. So not quite as many as 5 the first one, but very successful. Covered a wide 6 range of topics. So I'll look to do another one of 7 those maybe towards the end of the year. 8 And otherwise, I'm working real hard on the 9 upcoming election integrity Town Hall Meeting that's 10 going to be held August 22nd at the Hill Country Youth 11 Event Center. And we've got an all star cast of 12 presenters lined up. Senator Bob Hall, Tina Peters, 13 Mark Cook, Dr. Walter Dougherty, Captain Seth Keshel, 14 Lori Gallagher, and Jarrett Woodward. And we'll also 15 give a demonstration of the Chapter 65 hand count 16 method. So I hope everybody can attend. 17 That's it. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 3. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Comfort lost two really 20 important citizens the past couple of weeks. One of 21 them is my mother-in-law, who was a tremendous volunteer 22 for the area. Citizen of the year by the Chamber. 23 And the other is Charles -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: Tell us her name. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh. JoEllen Biermann. 15 1 Sorry. I figured everyone knew my mother-in-law. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Some people might. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other is Charles 4 Flach. Charles is the -- I often give Buster credit for 5 getting me into politics, and Buster to get me into 6 being a Commissioner, but it was Charles that got me 7 into politics. 8 He -- when I moved back to Comfort in about 9 1990, he convinced me to run for the school board in 10 Comfort. He's a relative, neighbor, a very good friend. 11 They will both be missed. That's all I have. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 4. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I went to the 4-H 14 awards banquet Saturday evening and that's always a fun 15 thing, and recognized a lot of good youth, and 16 outstanding youth in our community as well as 17 volunteers. And always enjoy that each year. 18 In visiting with Dub Thomas this morning 19 just about the drought and everything, he brought up -- 20 reminded me of something that I want to share with 21 everybody else. I believe this last year we had a 22 couple big fires started just from mowing. A blade 23 hitting rocks and sparked and, boom, there we are. So 24 be cautious when you're out there mowing and what have 25 you. 16 1 JUDGE KELLY: Who was mowing? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What would they be 3 mowing? 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Well -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: You'd be surprised. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, exactly. It 7 happens. I can tell right now there's not much to mow 8 at my house other than where the septic is, you know, 9 the lateral lines. Bermuda grass is getting pretty 10 tall. 11 JUDGE KELLY: The only thing that I would 12 share is I did approach a couple of members at the EIC 13 about Mr. Baroody's suggestion. And I was told not to 14 waste my breath, that they're not going to do anything 15 for the County, I'm pretty sure. That's what I was 16 told. So no surprise. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Team players. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've been told 19 different. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we all -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: Word gets around. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm working on it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well good. Okay. Moving on 25 with the Consideration Agenda. Item 1.1 consider, 17 1 discuss and take appropriate action to approve the 2 recommended usage of the Hill Country Youth Event Center 3 complex during the total solar eclipse in April 2024. 4 Jake Williamson. 5 MR. WILLIAMSON: Good morning, Court. 6 Thanks for your time today. We've been following in 7 discussion with Emergency Management about use of the 8 grounds during the solar eclipse coming up in April, and 9 we want to make sure that we're being good stewards of 10 the community. And we've been asked to try to find a 11 way to not only provide the services to Emergency 12 Management for them to have space, but also to maybe 13 make some revenue for the County. 14 So in your packet we've gone over -- we've 15 designated a whole block including the show barn for 16 Emergency Management for the eclipse for personnel 17 management, storage, supplies, have dedicated restrooms, 18 dedicated entrance and exit for that time. And they've 19 all agreed that that's a big enough area for them to do 20 what they need to do. 21 So we have come up with a recommendation, 22 this is for the Court to either allow or to not allow. 23 It's just so we have the River Star Park that has its 24 open restrooms and we can help on the porta potty 25 problem, finding anything, we already have the 18 1 facilities there where they can rent out the tent 2 campers for the weekend. We have had calls and, of 3 course, we have a list. This is why this has come up. 4 And allow that area to be sold. 5 We do have RV spaces that are not in the EMS 6 area that we would like the ability to sell, rent out as 7 well for the weekend. We have been approached by the 8 Lions Camp to do a -- to do an event for the weekend 9 before the eclipse. I think that's a Monday. We feel 10 that the Exhibit Hall has value and could be rented out 11 for that use. We know it will be busy, that there will 12 be traffic, but we think these things are planable and 13 doable. 14 And then we would transition on Monday to a 15 parking-lot-only for any of the remaining space to try 16 to help with the traffic and congestion problem of those 17 people at the event. If we can get a few hundred cars 18 off the road, we think that would be a good idea. We 19 know downtown is having a festival. 20 We do have access to the River Trail, people 21 could walk or bike to downtown from the Event Center, 22 thus allowing some sort of parking and congestion 23 relief. We're free. So that's what we're here today 24 for, is to make sure the Court's aware of what we were 25 thinking and what we have planned, or what the Court 19 1 would like to see or not allow during this eclipse. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Jake, I've been through 3 your proposal. It looks pretty good to me. When would 4 you start making things available for people to reserve 5 so we have a better idea? 6 MR. WILLIAMSON: Directly after this meeting 7 is approved we will start calling our list. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Jake, I think it looks 9 very proactive and I like it. So I'm going to move for 10 approval. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm good with it. I'll 12 second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve using the Hill Country Youth Event Center 15 complex during the total solar ellipse in April of 2024. 16 Any discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. I want to add 18 something else. You know, awhile back we had Jake go 19 out for -- to get some bids. I don't know if it was him 20 or Shane on striping out there. Right now there's 21 nothing, and people just park randomly. I think that 22 would be a big asset if we could finally get that done. 23 I know we had some money earmarked for that 24 and then we had the gutter problems and that was moved 25 up the priority list real quick. And so the striping 20 1 never got done. So that's something we need to look at, 2 and I don't know who -- if it would be in Shane's budget 3 or your budget or what for getting that done. Any 4 thoughts on that? 5 MR. WILLIAMSON: I agree. I would love to 6 see it done. I do believe it's a safety issue as well. 7 It's just a normal thing to have for a large parking 8 lot. At the end of this year's budget I -- I'm out of 9 funds to fund something like that. So I'll give the 10 ball to Shane if he -- if he can get in here. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Shane. 12 MR. EVANS: I'm currently short of funds to 13 do that. But granted, we've been looking at trying to 14 do this for the last two years and it's -- we've always 15 fallen short of getting that project done and it's 16 something we really need to get done. Especially for 17 the eclipse and any other event that we have out there. 18 So any help would be -- or suggestion would be 19 appreciated. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the cost? 21 MR. EVANS: We've had that two-year old bid 22 right now that was eight thousand -- about 89 hundred 23 dollars and I -- the group that did this, we could also 24 get them to do it. Get a bid for out there and kind of 25 go from there. But at a minimum, probably about 89 21 1 hundred to do something like that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would get a bid and 3 bring it back. 4 MR. EVANS: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The old bid, I would 6 guess -- because he doesn't even have to come out and 7 look at it, he can just upgrade his bid from the cost 8 two years later, as well as your other person that did 9 the courthouse striping. 10 MR. EVANS: Okay. I'll get ahold of those 11 fellows and see where we go and get some bids. Thank 12 you. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: One other question for 14 Jake. What about the October eclipse? Have you had a 15 lot of requests for people to able to utilize the 16 facilities in October? 17 MR. WILLIAMSON: Sure. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Because I -- I know it 19 won't be near the demand that we'll see in April but -- 20 MR. WILLIAMSON: Absolutely. Good question. 21 To answer that, it falls on a Saturday. We have 22 historically a revolving calendar at the Event Center at 23 this stage. So it falls on the swap meet weekend. We 24 have a wedding booked in the exhibit hall, and the radio 25 club has a full event in the park. So because of that, 22 1 we didn't really see additional stuff that was in the 2 way. But we're going to be busy. We're going to have 3 plenty of folks out there. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: I see Dub sitting behind you. 6 And put him up there. 7 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: My concern is, we know that 9 this total eclipse, the one in April of next year, is 10 going to be very, very congested. Are we going to have 11 enough room for staging emergency services if we're 12 bringing in all these people? 13 MR. THOMAS: I believe so. Yes, sir. We'll 14 use the -- basically the western half of that parking 15 lot from the front of the building over to the Extension 16 Office. We'll have the concrete show barn, there's 17 plenty of room in there for any number of emergencies, 18 whatever we want to put in there for staging. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and from my point of 20 view, the priority service is the Emergency Management 21 services for the public. And then what -- what we do 22 for Spectra, you know, we'll do what we can. But the 23 Sheriff's Office and -- will be in charge of any 24 conflicts that happen out there, any disputes about who 25 needs to be where, who's got the right to be where. 23 1 Because I'm concerned that we may have complete gridlock 2 at some point. And I don't know what's going to happen. 3 That's my concern. 4 MR. THOMAS: I think Monday we're going to 5 see a gridlock. Monday afternoon. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. If we want to talk 7 about gridlock, that means nobody goes anywhere. And 8 they trickle out one at a time. And if we have 150,000 9 people come into this County, it's going to be near 10 chaos. 11 SOTO VOICE: Stay home. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I heard somebody whisper, I 13 heard "Stay home." That is good advice. Anyway, I just 14 wanted to make sure, you know, when we do this that if 15 there's any conflict between private usage and Emergency 16 Management, the emergency services will be the priority. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 19 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 21 in favor say aye. Opposed? There being none, motion 22 carries. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, on that topic 24 still, and George left, and I'm not that involved 25 anymore, but the Little League fields across the road. 24 1 Have you visited at all with the Little League about 2 what they're doing or anything and -- 3 MR. WILLIAMSON: I have not. I will suggest 4 the County also has a plan for Flat Rock Park, emergency 5 management with that park. But we don't manage those. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Shane, do you have 7 contact information for them still? If not, I can get 8 it to you for Little League and find out since I don't 9 see George Baroody here. Because at a minimum, I think 10 we would want to really block off those entrances, 11 otherwise people are going to be destroying everything. 12 MR. WILLIAMSON: Sure. 13 MR. EVANS: As you all know, we had gates -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But they're not 15 very secure gates so -- anyway, we may want to look at 16 some permanent, more secure -- 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A chain with a lock 18 will work. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They have chains with 20 locks and I'm -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: I'm not even sure that will 22 work. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure a chain and 24 a lock is going to keep people out. Anyway, just 25 something to -- we need to coordinate as well. 25 1 JUDGE KELLY: Very well. Then moving on to 2 Item 1.2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 3 to approve and adopt the District Clerk's civil filing 4 fees for October 1, 2023 through September 31, 2024 with 5 changes as amended by Family Code Section 110.002, 6 adding a subsection (d) filing fees that have been 7 raised from $15.00 to $80.00 effective January 1, 2024. 8 Miss Lantz. 9 MRS. LANTZ: Good morning, Judge. 10 Commissioners. That's basically through the legislature 11 this year. They've changed one of our fees that we 12 collect. And it was at 15, now they're changing it to 13 80, which the County will keep $35.00 of that and the 14 State will get 45. So I'm just asking for approval so I 15 can get those posted. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval of the 17 revised or the new schedule. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 20 approve the new District Clerk's civil filing fee 21 schedule as presented. Any discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've just got a 23 question. Dawn, that's a huge increase. Any idea why 24 they went up so much? 25 MRS. LANTZ: Basically there's a lot of work 26 1 involved in that one, particular family case law that we 2 have to do. So I think a lot of the clerks complained. 3 So basically that's what happened. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 5 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? There being none, 6 motion carries. 7 Item 1.3 -- 8 MRS. LANTZ: Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: -- information regarding the 10 first annual Kerr County Preparedness Expo on 11 September 30, 2023 sponsored by the Kerr County 12 Sheriff's Department, Kerr County Office of Emergency 13 Management, and the Hill Country Preppers. Dub Thomas. 14 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. If you 15 don't mind, I would like to do 1.3 and 1.4 at the same 16 time. They're basically the -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 18 MR. THOMAS: -- just updated information. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Let me call 1.4 also. 1.4 is 20 Information regarding the Annual Flu Clinic sponsored by 21 HEB, being held on September 6th, 2023 at the Hill 22 Country Youth Event Center. Dub Thomas. 23 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 24 morning, Commissioners. So what we're having, this is 25 the first annual Kerr County Emergency Preparedness 27 1 Expo. It's on September the 30th at the Youth Event 2 Center. Basically, this is a time and opportunity for 3 members of the community to come out. We've got vendors 4 from private industry, also non-profit organizations, 5 volunteer organizations that have some type of action 6 when it comes to Emergency Management. Basically, the 7 preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. 8 So anybody from the public that wants to 9 come out and learn how to basically prepare themselves 10 for some type of emergency or disaster, we're going to 11 have it on at this expo. We'll have everything from 12 CPR, up to personal defense. We've got organizations 13 like C-Tech, KPUB, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, 14 Texas Baptist Men, Team Rubicon, these type of 15 organizations that work on disaster response to teach 16 the public how to prepare themselves for any disaster. 17 So that's going to be on September 30th at the Expo 18 Hall. It will be from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. And you 19 should start seeing some of these fliers around town. 20 We have already started out on Friday with 21 the social media releases, as well as the public 22 releases in the newspaper. So I'm looking forward to 23 that. This has been a long time coming. We've put a 24 lot of work into it. I think it will be an outstanding 25 time for the community to come out. 28 1 And the second item I have is 1.4, the 2 annual flu clinic. And I wanted to come before the 3 Court and remind y'all that on September the 6th at the 4 Hill Country Youth Event Center we'll have our annual 5 HEB flu clinic. The Kerr County Sheriff will be working 6 traffic there. HEB will be doing flu shots, there will 7 be a drive-thru event only. So about 9:00 a.m. we'll 8 start giving out flu shots. So y'all come out and bring 9 your insurance card or your Medicare card and you can 10 get your flu shot. Easy-peasy. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Any questions? You know, just 12 as a reminder, what's our capacity on being able to 13 administer flu vaccines when we set this up? 14 MR. THOMAS: Since I've been here, we've 15 done as many as nearly 1,200 a day. 16 JUDGE KELLY: 1,200 a day? 17 MR. THOMAS: 1,200 shots. Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: It's pretty impressive. Thank 19 you. 20 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving on to Item 22 1.5 -- don't go anywhere, Dub. Consider, discuss, and 23 take appropriate action to approve a letter of agreement 24 with the Inn of the Hills Hotel and Conference Center to 25 reserve up to 15 rooms to be used in the event of 29 1 emergency evacuations due to a hurricane. Dub. 2 MR. THOMAS: This is -- so y'all remember we 3 approved our point-to-point shelter agreement with 4 San Patricio County. In the event that San Patricio 5 County sends folks here that should not be or cannot be 6 in a congregated or a general population shelter, I need 7 a location to where we can put those folks. They are 8 basically a sex offender or that had some type of 9 serious felony, assaultive arrest, those types of 10 things. We cannot put them in a general population 11 shelter so I need someplace to put those folks, if they 12 should show up here. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And remind us where we put the 14 general population when they come up from San Patricio 15 if we have a hurricane. 16 MR. THOMAS: It's at the Edington Gym at the 17 Schreiner University campus. That's our general 18 population shelter for point-to-point shelter. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And we filled it up with 20 Harvey. 21 MR. THOMAS: We've filled it up before. 22 We'll probably fill it up again if we have a hurricane 23 again this year. But it's not just for those folks. I 24 also request two shelter management teams from the Texas 25 State Guard. I'll do a star request for those. And 30 1 I'll need someplace to house the shelter teams when the 2 State sends us three or four. So it's not just for 3 San Patricio County. It's for supporting those folks 4 that will actually be running the shelter. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other -- any 6 questions? Okay. We need to act on this? 7 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 12 approve reserving the rooms at the Inn of the Hills in 13 case there's a hurricane. Any discussion? Those in 14 favor say aye. Opposed? Approved. Unanimous. 15 MR. THOMAS: Thank you, sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Next is item 1.6 consider, 17 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the 18 Subrecipient Agreement for TDEM-Administered Grant 19 Awards DR-4705 application to be used as a backup source 20 of funding for the County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update. 21 Miss Putnam. 22 MS. PUTNAM: As you can recall, we just went 23 out for the DR-4705 as our backup for the Hazard 24 Mitigation Grant, Plan Grant. And since then, TDEM has 25 revised as of May 1st, 2023 it just came to our 31 1 attention the Subrecipient Agreement, so we just need to 2 sign that and send in the agreement. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the Subrecipient Agreement for TDEM as 7 presented. Any discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just that it was a 9 painful read. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's very thick. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's a long agreement. 12 MS. PUTNAM: 49 pages. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor say aye. 15 Opposed? Motion carries. 16 MS. PUTNAM: Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.7 consider, discuss and 18 take appropriate action to accept donations totaling 19 $270.00 for the month of June, 2023, and $200.00 for the 20 month of July, 2023 to be added to the operating expense 21 line item 10-642-330. Reagan Givens. 22 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. Just what you 23 said. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move to accept the 25 donations. 32 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second 3 to accept the donations to the Animal Control Facility. 4 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 5 Motion carries. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good way to be brief, 7 Reagan. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Teach some other people 9 to do that, will ya? 10 JUDGE KELLY: He's the valedictorian for 11 Gene Huffaker schools. And for those of y'all that 12 didn't know Gene, I'd ask him what was going on, and he 13 was Constable of Precinct 4, what's going on in Precinct 14 4, and the answer was the same nearly every time. 15 Nothing. 16 Item 1.8 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to accept donated equipment, two 18 Stalker DSR 2X Radar Units from the Texas Department of 19 Public Safety, and allow one of the units to be 20 transferred to Constable Precinct 4. Constable 21 Gonzales. 22 MR. GONZALES: Good morning, Judge, good 23 morning, Commissioners, members of the audience. Yes, 24 sir, back in December of last year in an effort to 25 assist Constable Precinct 4, he had an outdated radar 33 1 system, limited funds. I reached out to Texas DPS to 2 see if they had any surplus equipment that they would be 3 able to assist us with, and finally they responded. 4 It's been some time now. They finally responded back. 5 They set aside two radar equipment for us, used, but if 6 we had to go out and purchase them these are about 7 $4,500 apiece. 8 So at this time I'm just asking for the 9 Court's approval to accept those two radar units as used 10 equipment for both, one radar unit will go to Constable 11 Precinct 4 Brad Rider, and then the second one will stay 12 in my office, Precinct 3, as a backup unit in case the 13 one I have, you know, goes out. 14 So at this point, just for the Court's 15 tempo, is that these radar units at this point I've 16 tested to operate before they can even be put into use. 17 They will have to be certified by a licensed technician 18 before they can be used for enforcement purposes. So 19 just FYI. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we accept the two 21 radar units as presented. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 24 accept the two radar units as presented. Any 25 discussion? 34 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm just -- a question 2 for you Paul. 3 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: How are Precinct 1 and 5 Precinct 2 set up for radar, I mean? 6 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, sir. Their radars 7 are -- they're up to date radars. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: They are. 9 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Just the one I have 10 is -- just for some reason Precinct 4, their -- his 11 radar was never updated. I'm not sure what the reasons 12 were. 13 JUDGE KELLY: So now we've got -- 14 everybody's got one and we got one reserve? 15 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, sir. We have one 16 reserve. Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. That's good. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Now, is there any reason in 19 the world we would not want to do this? 20 CONSTABLE GONZALES: No, sir. I'm trying to 21 save the County some money if we can. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just had to ask. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 24 second. Any other discussion? Okay. Those in favor 25 say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 35 1 Moving on to Item 1.9 consider, discuss, and 2 take appropriate action to ratify and confirm the bond 3 renewal for Constable Paul Gonzales, Precinct 3. 4 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, sir. I will say 5 that I'm honored to continue to serve, and just need 6 your authorization to continue to do so by the renewal 7 of my bond and accepting that. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I think Jody and I already 9 helped you with this, didn't we? 10 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We're asking for forgiveness 12 because we just did it. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's a bit late, isn't 14 it? 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Kind of has to be done. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that was the issue. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 20 approve the renewal of Constable Gonzales' bond. Any 21 discussion? 22 MRS. DOWDY: Where is -- I'm sorry. I 23 apologize. Where is the bond, before I forget to ask? 24 CONSTABLE GONZALES: I -- I have the bond. 25 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. Thank you. 36 1 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, ma'am. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor say aye. 3 Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. 4 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Thank you. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.10 consider -- 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's a timed. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, it's timed. We got ahead 8 of ourselves. Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Let's keep going. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: There are several timed 11 items. They're Tracy's and I let her know that y'all 12 were running early on untimed items. I'm sorry. So 13 I'll let her know that y'all were -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: And she's not here yet. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: -- on untimed -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: So let me just kind of look 17 down. Let's go to 1.20. Scott, you're here. Update 18 regarding current and future grant opportunities for 19 Kerr County Sheriff's Office. Scott Gaige. 20 MR. GAIGE: Good morning, Judge and Court. 21 I just want to give an update on our current grants at 22 the Sheriff's Office is managing. Grant No. 1, which is 23 our Justice Assistance Grant, which is body worn camera. 24 We received original award of $74,660.00. We received 25 the body worn cameras. They've all been deployed out at 37 1 the Sheriff's Office, Animal Services, as well as the 2 four Constables. The status of that, we're just waiting 3 for an invoice from Watch Guard and then it will be 4 submitted to the Auditor, and then that grant will be 5 finalized. 6 The second grant on there is the Ballistic 7 Shield program. Received award of $152,360.00. We 8 finalized that grant. Reimbursement was submitted and 9 we received the amount of reimbursement of $152,359.90. 10 So it was a ten cent difference in that deal. That we 11 didn't to have pay anything. That came in under the 12 amount. 13 The third grant was Operation Lone Star, 14 which is still not in the project period. We've 15 received several items. They've been deployed. We 16 received a reimbursement already back from the 17 Governor's grant for a total of $456,349.08 on that 18 grant. I think we've seen reimbursement. Probably 19 about ten days from our submission, right? 10 to 14 20 days. 21 MRS. SHELTON: Somewhere around there. 22 MR. GAIGE: The grant four is Operation 23 Stonegarden, which we're currently utilizing. We did 24 a -- we did some operations, we've submitted some of the 25 time sheets and things like that. So that will get done 38 1 and get submitted to the -- to the government as well. 2 And the fifth grant, th Operation Lone Star, 3 we submitted the application, we're waiting to hear back 4 for -- it's under review for the OOG's office. 5 Submitted that and waiting to approve it. That was the 6 1.7 million in equipment and other things. 7 Operation Stonegarden 23 Fiscal Year, we 8 should probably be looking at that application here in 9 the fall to apply for that. And that's going to be the 10 joint combined campaign with Kimble County and other 11 counties as well. 12 And then I think the AACOG grant should 13 reopen here in the fall. When we see that announcement, 14 we'll go forward with that. And that's -- we usually 15 get about 75,000. 16 MS. PUTNAM: So it should open in December. 17 MR. GAIGE: Okay. And that's all we've got 18 on the grants. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry. We had body 20 cameras and we had ballistic shields. What was the 21 third one you discussed? 22 MR. GAIGE: Operation Lone Star was grant 23 three. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I guess there's a couple 25 Operation Lone Stars then, right? 39 1 MR. GAIGE: So the last Operation Lone Star 2 is for fiscal year 24. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 MR. GAIGE: All right. So we're currently 5 in '23, which we're -- now the project period, which 6 will actually just end the end of this month. So we're 7 in the application for '24. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I was trying to get it 9 clear in my mind. 10 MR. GAIGE: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And not all that money 12 is for equipment, right? It's for personnel? 13 MR. GAIGE: Yes, sir. So Operation 14 Stonegarden is for overtime for human smuggling and all 15 that type of stuff. Also in the fiscal year '24, we 16 asked for overtime funds as well and operating expenses 17 to help offset some of the County costs in '24. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Scott, question. 19 On Operation Lone Star of this year, the award was 20 $660,000 and we've been reimbursed 456,000. So my 21 question is, what about the other 200,000? Do you have 22 some other things you're going to be asking for and -- 23 MR. GAIGE: Yes, sir. So we have the 24 requests in. So we're waiting for the equipment to 25 arrive. Once the equipment arrival, we get the invoices 40 1 and we'll get it submitted. So we should be pretty 2 close to being on track for all that staff. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: So you're -- you're 4 hoping to spend all the money, I hope? 5 MR. GAIGE: Yeah. The -- one of the big of 6 that 200,000 is we're waiting on the invoice for our 7 license plate reader so that it can get submitted. 8 Which was a big amount of money. So -- 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Good job. Great 10 job. Thank you. 11 MR. GAIGE: All right. Great. Thank you. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's go back to Item 13 1.15 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 14 set the fee paid to jurors as per Chapter 61 of the 15 Texas Government Code. House Bill 3474, which was 16 signed by Governor Abbott on June 13, and becomes 17 effective law September 1, 2023. Legislative change is 18 a minimum of $20.00 for the first day and $58.00 for the 19 second and each additional day. Recommendation for the 20 Court's approval based on legislative change. First day 21 reported $20.00 and the second and each additional day 22 $60.00. Tracy Soldan. 23 MRS. SOLDAN: Good morning. Currently, the 24 statute requires to pay a minimum of $6.00 for the first 25 day and $40.00 for the second and each additional day. 41 1 The Court Order I'm requesting to rescind allows -- 2 actually that might be on the next one -- allows for $10 3 to be paid on the first day and $40 for the second and 4 each additional day. This makes it easy to pay with 5 tens and twenties and not have to pay in all 6 denominations. The Legislative change for juror pay is 7 a minimum of $20 for the first day and 58 for the second 8 day. 9 My recommendation as we stated, first day a 10 reported $20.00, and second and each additional day 11 $60.00. Just makes it easier. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 15 approve raising the jury fees as presented. And Miss 16 Soldan, a lot of those jury fees are given back to the 17 County, is that right? 18 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes. Actually with the new 19 fees, the State -- right now they don't reimburse us for 20 the first day, so all the jurors that come to report on 21 day one, we just pay them and we don't get any money 22 back. But with the new fees, the State will actually 23 reimburse the County 14 of the $20.00. And then after 24 the first day, they will do $52 of the 58 or 60, 25 whichever we -- but we'll get most of that back. 42 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. But it's also been my 2 personal observation that a lot of people that serve on 3 the juries donate the money back to the County, even 4 when they get paid. 5 MRS. SOLDAN: They did until last 6 legislative session when we couldn't offer the donation 7 form until the end of their service and then they just 8 wanted to get out of there. But they've changed that so 9 we can actually present the jury donation form to them 10 at the time they're paid and so they will donate that. 11 We'll get more money this time for that. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion and 13 a second to approve the raising of jury fees as 14 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 15 Opposed? Motion carries. 16 1.16 consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 action to rescind Court Order No. 29348 and set a new 18 amount of cash on hand for jury fund at $8,000.00 for 19 the District Courts, and $4,000.00 for the County Court 20 at Law, and $800.00 for Justice of the Peace Courts. 21 Miss Soldan. 22 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes, sir. The current Court 23 Order allows me to keep $6,000.00 for District Clerk, 24 $2,500 for County Court at Law, and $600 for J.P. Court. 25 With the increase in jury payments, I'm going to go 43 1 through that pretty quickly so I would like to have more 2 cash on hand. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the increase of cash on hand for jury funds as 7 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 Opposed? Motion carries. 9 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action to approve Kerr County jury cash pay 11 procedures. Miss Soldan. 12 MRS. SOLDAN: These procedures have been in 13 place, and the major change is what I did talk about as 14 far as when we could present the jurors with the 15 donation form. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 approve the cash pay procedures for the Kerr County 20 jurors as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor 21 say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 22 1.18 consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to approve the Treasurer's Office Xerox copy 24 machine lease renewal and have County Judge sign same. 25 Go ahead, Ms. Soldan. 44 1 MRS. SOLDAN: So my five-year current 2 contract is up in October. And this is a new one. I 3 believe it's maybe a dollar or two less per month than 4 the current contract. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 8 approve renewing the Xerox copy machine lease for the 9 Treasurer's Office. All those in favor say aye. 10 Opposed? Motion carries. 11 Item 1.19 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action to approve expenses related to the 13 relocation of the Treasurer's Office. Miss Soldan. 14 MRS. SOLDAN: I requested for Shane with 15 maintenance to take a look at some modifications I 16 wanted to make to the current office space, and he has 17 looked at that with the employees and came up with a 18 price of $2,500 to do some remodel inside the office. 19 And I currently have that amount in my budget to cover 20 the expenses. So it would not need to come out of his 21 department budget or contingency. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tracy, what are some 23 of the modifications? 24 MRS. SOLDAN: It's to remove one wall 25 between two offices to make a larger office for some 45 1 conference space. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the relocation expenses to the Treasurer's 7 Office as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor 8 say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 9 MRS. SOLDAN: Thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We're on a roll. Let's 11 keep going. Go down to 1.22 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action to approve the contract and its 13 attachments between the County Clerk's office and the 14 Department of State Health Services Bureau of Vital 15 Statistics and authorize the County Judge to sign same, 16 for the Clerk to continue issuing certified copies of 17 birth records to Texas-born persons. The term of the 18 contract is for five years, and the present contract 19 expires August 31 of this year. Ms. Dowdy. 20 MRS. DOWDY: Good morning. This is just the 21 standard contract renewal the County Attorney reviewed 22 and there were no necessary or recommended changes. So 23 I'm asking for approval for the Judge to sign. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll move to approve. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 46 1 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 2 approve renewing the contract with the Department of 3 State Health Services Bureau of Vital Statistics for the 4 County Clerk's Office as presented. Any discussion? 5 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 6 MRS. DOWDY: Thank you. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.23 consider, discuss 8 and take appropriate action to approve the lease between 9 Kerr County and the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club to 10 use the building located in the park adjacent to the 11 open air pavilion to the west of the Hill Country Youth 12 Event Center. Commissioner Harris. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: This is just a tweak 14 of the agreement we had for it and the County Attorney 15 looked it over and everything, and so I move for 16 approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What's -- what's 18 different about it though? 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We doubled the rent 20 from 100 to 200 a year -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- based on some of 23 the usage out there and what have you. Anyway, it's 24 small tweaks. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 47 1 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 2 approve renewing the lease with the Hill Country Amateur 3 Radio Club as presented. Any discussion? Those in 4 favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 5 Item 1.24 consider, discuss and take 6 appropriate action to approve the contract between Kerr 7 County and the Divide Volunteer Fire Department, which 8 is just routine. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 13 second to approve renewing the contract for the Divide 14 Volunteer Fire Department. Any discussion? Those in 15 favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 16 Item 1.25 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action on implementation of the burn ban. 18 This is our quarterly renewal. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for renewal. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second 22 to -- 23 COURT REPORTER: Who made the motion? 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Don did. I second it. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion on renewing the 48 1 burn ban? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 2 carries. 3 Okay. I don't see Miss Hernandez here right 4 now. 5 MRS. GRINSTEAD: She is. She's here. 6 JUDGE KELLY: She is? Okay. Then let me go 7 ahead and call Item 1.26 consider, discuss and take 8 appropriate action to approve the General Provisions for 9 FY 2023-2024. 10 This is the general provisions to the 11 budget, right? 12 MS. HERNANDEZ: Yes. Okay. So this was the 13 little -- there's a -- one final request, and it's on 14 page two. And you'll notice that it's in red. And it's 15 to accommodate the first responders and the Road & 16 Bridge starting at a different step other than a Step 1. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that change is due 18 to the pay increase. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is this going the 20 really solve it? 21 JUDGE KELLY: It's a band-aid. At least it 22 gets us to the next hemorrhage. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It gets us through 24 October 1st. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 49 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 3 second to approve the General Provisions to the budget 4 as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 5 Opposed? Motion carries. 6 Thank you, Miss Hernandez. 7 MS. HERNANDEZ: Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.27 consider, discuss, 9 and take appropriate action to obligate $117,000 of the 10 ARPA $10 million lost revenue for additional payroll 11 costs incurred during the three-day ice storm January 31 12 through February 2 of 2023 -- two -- three? 13 VOICE: '21. 14 MRS. SHELTON: This year. That was this 15 year's storm. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Including the budget 17 amendment to transfer $117,000 from the Fund 30-654-590 18 Lost Revenue to 30-654-594 Lost Revenue-2023 ice storm. 19 Ms. Shelton. 20 MS. SHELTON: Yes. This has been approved 21 by GrantWorks as an eligible use of the ARPA funds. And 22 basically the cost of the closure for the payroll that 23 we were closed. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion. 50 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And a second to approve the 3 use of the ARPA lost revenue fund as presented. Any 4 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 5 carries. 6 Item 1.28 consider, discuss and take 7 appropriate action regarding the proposed County Budget 8 for Fiscal Year 23-24. Miss Shelton. 9 MRS. SHELTON: Judge, I would recommend that 10 we put this off unless you want to go passed -- I don't 11 know how long this will take. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We could take a break 13 now. We need a break. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 15 MRS. SHELTON: I can do it. I'm ready. 16 JUDGE KELLY: No, no. I appreciate that. 17 Let me move on down to the next one, which 18 is 1.29 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 19 set a Public Hearing on the proposed Kerr County budget 20 for Fiscal Year 23-24 at 9:45 a.m. on March 28 (sic), 21 2023, and authorize the County Clerk to publish notice 22 of the Public Hearing. 23 MRS. SHELTON: I believe you said March not 24 August. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: August. 51 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: August. 2 JUDGE KELLY: August 28. Sorry. 3 MRS. SHELTON: This is following the budget 4 calendar. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 8 approve setting the public hearing on the budget. Any 9 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 10 carries. 11 Okay. Item 1.30 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action regarding the calculations -- well, 13 that's going to be a long one, too, so we're not going 14 to do that one yet. 15 I'm not going to start the voting ones. Do 16 we have any quick ones we can do? Let's go to item 1.36 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on the 18 Salary Grievance Committee recommendation for the Salary 19 Grievance filed by the Kerr County Treasurer. 20 MRS. SOLDAN: Judge, I'm not ready for this. 21 I ran up here for my other one. I didn't realize that 22 we would be getting through so fast. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We'll move on to Item 24 1.38 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 25 approve the revised DPS Driver License Check MOU. 52 1 Ms. Hernandez. 2 MS. HERNANDEZ: Yes. So this is to add 3 Sylvia Zapata on here as an alternate. I did not have 4 an alternate -- at the time I had an alternate, but it 5 was Miss Carmen and she's no longer here and so I have 6 put Sylvia Zapata as the alternate on this. 7 And I also needed to see our -- what was it 8 the lady said? What was it, CIO? It needed a signature 9 for the CIO as well, Chief Information Officer. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What was the second 11 part? 12 MS. HERNANDEZ: It needs a signature from 13 the Chief Information Officer. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who's the Chief 15 Information Officer? 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Who did they use in the 17 past? That was my question for you this morning when 18 you were already up here. 19 MS. HERNANDEZ: I don't think that they had 20 one in the past, but now they have added that to part of 21 this contract. So it's technically -- it's supposed to 22 be somebody that -- I think it's supposed to be somebody 23 that is in charge -- hold on, that's the other one -- 24 CIP -- there's two different officers, one of them is 25 going to be for the IT department. The Chief 53 1 Information Security Officer is going to be IT. 2 JUDGE KELLY: But this whole thing is just 3 to designate alternates for these needs and services 4 that are required? 5 MS. HERNANDEZ: That's correct. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But it sounds like we 7 don't have anybody in that office, so we don't have 8 anybody or an alternate. 9 MS. HERNANDEZ: Well, this one I was told 10 that we could actually use the entity authorizer as well 11 in that position. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: The County Judge, is that 13 what you mean? 14 MS. HERNANDEZ: Yes. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 MS. HERNANDEZ: So we can put IT -- and the 18 Chief Information Security Officer, that's the person 19 that does the security for our IT. 20 JUDGE KELLY: This is just to have somebody 21 that's authorized to sign these things as they come 22 around, and I do it all the time. 23 MS. HERNANDEZ: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So that's -- the IT 25 Director immune, is that what we're saying? 54 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. I just wanted to 3 be clear what I'm voting on. 4 MS. HERNANDEZ: Yeah. And so they would be 5 my alternate in case they can't get ahold of me. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we at some point 8 designate you that thing? 9 MS. HERNANDEZ: I mean, sure. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, it says, you 11 know, Chief Information Officer or the Chief Information 12 Security Officer must sign the agreement. Well, it 13 sounds like we should have one. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well by doing this, we 15 will. It's all in one. We don't have one now. If we 16 vote for it then we've designated one. 17 JUDGE KELLY: That's your motion? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. That's my 19 motion. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think we can do 21 that. But -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why isn't it all one 23 thing? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because it's not on the 25 agenda. 55 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, okay. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: But for purposes of this 3 MOU, he's the Chief Information Officer. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I mean, I'm fine 5 with it, it's just -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I get it. I get it. 7 So do we need to bring this back? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think so. I think 9 that he is -- he can be -- the County Judge can be 10 authorized to sign this MOU, and to be the Chief 11 Information Officer for the purposes of this MOU. And 12 if you want to create a Chief Information Officer 13 designation and bring that back at another agenda, that 14 is perfectly fine. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's just for this 16 one agreement? 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Exactly. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That's fine. 20 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion? 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. 22 JUDGE KELLY: I need a second. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 25 Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 56 1 Carries. 2 Okay. Let's take a five-minute break. 3 We'll be right back at 10 o'clock. 4 (Recess.) 5 JUDGE KELLY: Court come back to order. 6 Let's move on to our Item 1.10, which is consider, 7 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding a 8 reduction in the Letter of Credit No. 922001116952, 9 issued by Cadence Bank, Tupelo, Mississippi from the 10 amount of $495,888.00 to $23,528.56 as a financial 11 guarantee for the remaining construction improvements 12 associated with the YO Ranch Headquarters subdivision. 13 Charlie Hastings. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. The final 15 plat for YO Ranch Headquarters Subdivision was approved 16 February 13th, 2023. It contains 25 large tracts over 17 100 acres each, with two newly-constructed private 18 roads. Letter of credit No. 922001116952 in the amount 19 of $495,888.00 with Cadence Bank, Tupelo, Mississippi, 20 they also have a branch that's here in Texas that we 21 were working through in Lampasas, Texas, was submitted 22 as a financial guarantee for associated subdivision 23 construction. 24 Since construction of the subdivision is 25 nearly complete, they lack vegetation and we can all 57 1 understand that, the developer has requested a reduction 2 in the letter of credit as a financial guarantee for the 3 remaining associated construction, which is really just 4 reestablishing vegetation to satisfy EPA regulations 5 conserving disrupting soil. We've gotta get the grass 6 growing. 7 The County Engineer requests the Court 8 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 9 a reduction in Letter of Credit No. 92201116952, issued 10 by Cadence Bank, Tupelo, Mississippi from the amount of 11 $495,888 down to $23,528.56 as a financial guarantee for 12 the remaining construction improvements associated with 13 YO Ranch Headquarters Subdivision, Precinct 4. 14 We do have an engineer's estimate attached 15 as well that matches that amount. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 approve the reduction in credit as presented for the 20 YO Ranch Headquarters Subdivision. I'm not going to 21 read all those numbers again, I'll get fever blisters 22 for our Court Reporter if we do that. So any discussion 23 about this? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 24 carries. 25 1.11 consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 1 action regarding the request to reduce the financial 2 guarantee from $1,828,024.00 to $45,081.00 for the 3 remaining construction associated with The Hideout. 4 Charlie Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. The final 6 plat for the Hideout Ranch was approved January 10, 7 2022. It consists of property located in Kerr County 8 and Gillespie County, and it includes four 9 newly-constructed private roads. Bond Number 12 -- I'm 10 sorry, L256051-2131 in the amount of $1,828,024.00 was 11 submitted as a financial guarantee for associated 12 subdivision construction. 13 Since construction of the subdivision is 14 nearly complete, the developer has requested reducing 15 the amount of the financial guarantee to $45,081.00 for 16 the remaining associated construction, which not only is 17 it re-vegetation, there also are some -- a few drainage 18 structures I think that are still being worked on. Is 19 that right, Marshal. 20 MR. BREWER: I don't believe so. 21 MR. HASTINGS: Is it all vegetation? 22 MR. BREWER: It's all vegetation. 23 MR. HASTINGS: I'm sorry. I was -- 24 MR. BREWER: No, wait. You're right. 25 The -- 59 1 MR. HASTINGS: There was something. 2 MR. BREWER: Some cross bars on the pipe 3 runners. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Okay. So that's all. Okay. 5 If the Court approves this request, the developer will 6 submit a new bond in the amount of $45,081.00. Then a 7 request to accept the new bond for the amount of 8 $45,081.00 and the release of the current bond, Bond 9 Number L256051-2131 in the amount of $1,828,024.00 will 10 be presented to the Court in a -- at a future meeting. 11 It's a little bit different process than the 12 one we just did. The other one is a letter of credit. 13 This is a bond. So we've gotta release the bond and 14 accept a new one. But before we do that, they want 15 permission from the Court to do that. 16 The County Engineer requests the Court 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 18 a request to reduce the financial guarantee from 19 $1,828,024 to $45,081.00 for the remaining construction 20 associated with The Hideout Ranch, Precinct 4. 21 If you have questions, Marshal Brewer, the 22 design engineer, is here. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 60 1 approve the -- reducing the financial guarantee as 2 presented in The Hideout Ranch. Any discussion? Those 3 in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion caries. 4 At this time, I'm going to convene a public 5 hearing for a revision of plat for Hidden Valley Ranch, 6 Section 1, Lot 58, and Section 2, Lot 84. Is there 7 anyone who would like to address the Court? 8 Yes, sir. Please identify yourself. 9 MR. BOERNER: Jeff Boerner with MDS Land 10 Surveying. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 12 MR. BOERNER: I want to thank Charlie and I 13 know y'all -- I started this in February and I asked the 14 County of two things, help me with the application and 15 help me with -- and you have to have a drainage study. 16 And I had already had a previous client that had a 17 drainage study that he neither wanted or ended up never 18 needing it. 19 And so later in the -- this year, the County 20 had discretion to do away with -- maybe have drainage 21 studies or not have drainage studies. So it's 22 frustrating. That was one thing. 23 Same with flood studies. I think we should 24 have a little bit of discretion on what are we actually 25 doing? We're moving a lot line here that has nothing to 61 1 do with that. 2 But the second thing that happened was this 3 year I signed a plat I didn't want to sign. Had to sign 4 it because I thought the guy was going to stroke out in 5 my office, and because of the certifications that's in 6 the rules it cannot stand. They just can't. It's 7 unethical for us to even attempt to sign that. It needs 8 to be changed. And so I drug my feet and drug my feet. 9 And that's why I'm here today for this plat. 10 We began with two lots. And we had two 11 wells. We have two wells, two registered wells and we 12 still end up with two lots. One got moved from eight 13 acres to six acres and I think I'm about a couple of 14 days late on a ten-acre rule. But to me it makes sense. 15 Because I think this is going to happen quite a bit in 16 the future. That we are -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry. I'm confused. Who 18 are you? 19 MR. BOERNER: Jeff Boerner. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And what -- what do you do? 21 What's your involvement in this? 22 MR. BOERNER: I did the plat. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Whose property? 24 JUDGE KELLY: It's your property? 25 MR. BOERNER: No, sir. 62 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, it's not? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He did the plat. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: He's the surveyor. 4 MR. BOERNER: I'm the surveyor. I'm sorry. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. There you go. You're 6 the surveyor. 7 MR. BOERNER: I'm sorry. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. This is about the 9 surveyor certification, right? 10 MR. BOERNER: Yes, sir. And I think it's in 11 the works. But I don't know that it's been done. Is 12 that true? 13 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. I brought it to the 14 County Attorney's attention and it -- we're still 15 looking at it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: We're aware of the issue. 17 MR. BOERNER: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We've been made aware. We 19 haven't really discussed it or researched it yet. 20 MR. BOERNER: And I apologize. But I did 21 the same thing in Kimble County. The same guy wrote 22 these rules that wrote those rules. I went to Judge 23 Ritter and he said -- I told him, I'm not signing it and 24 he says to me well, we'll see about that. So I'm not -- 25 I got all -- I got all bent out of shape. And so that's 63 1 what's concerning is that I didn't want to sign 2 something again that's unethical. Now, the Board tells 3 me to follow your rules. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Now who says it's unethical? 5 MR. BOERNER: I do. Because I know for a 6 fact that you cannot sign the waiver. You cannot sign 7 it. You shouldn't sign it. I bet 40 years, you should 8 not sign that. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm missing something 10 here. What -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 12 MR. HASTINGS: He's talking about the 13 surveyor's certification, and the wording that is in our 14 new regulations. The surveyor community -- he's not the 15 only one -- it's been brought to our attention that 16 there's some particular words in there, that they're 17 very uncomfortable signing the certificate. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And I'm trying to remember, 19 what is the surveyor group, the State group? What do 20 they call themselves? 21 MR. BOERNER: The Board of Professional -- 22 MR. HASTINGS: Land Surveyors. 23 MR. BOERNER: -- Land Surveyors. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Land Surveyors? 25 MR. HASTINGS: Yeah. 64 1 MR. BOERNER: Engineers and land surveyors. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, why aren't they giving 3 us some authority as to what we should or shouldn't do? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: This is a public hearing for 5 this particular topic. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's a public hearing. 7 But I understand, you don't want to sign the 8 certification. I got that. You don't want to sign it. 9 MR. BOERNER: No, I'm not -- 10 MR. HASTINGS: Basically what he's trying to 11 say is that the reason that this is after August the 12 10th is that he was concerned about signing a 13 certificate on the plat. 14 JUDGE KELLY: August the 10th has nothing to 15 do with Kerr County. That has to do with Headwaters. 16 MR. BOERNER: I took it to Headwaters before 17 August 10th. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 19 MR. BOERNER: He said I'm not signing it. 20 If it's not approved, I'm not signing it. Well, and my 21 reaction to that is if you don't sign it, I can't even 22 try to get it in front of you. I'm not trying to argue, 23 I'm just trying to point out some points that happened 24 along the way. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 65 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it would be 2 better to move -- and you can talk again on the next 3 agenda item, which I think is the approval of this and 4 that way we could have a dialogue. 5 MR. BOERNER: Okay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Anybody else want to address 7 the Court on this topic before we go to the next agenda 8 item? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You'll come back -- you 10 can come back. Come back in a minute. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Just wait. 12 MR. BOERNER: Okay. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving to the next 14 agenda item, which involves this is consider, discuss 15 and take appropriate action regarding a revision of plat 16 for Hidden Valley Ranch, Section 1, Lot 58, and 17 Section 2, Lot 84. 18 Now, Charlie. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Okay. Let me give everyone 20 the background on this. The proposal revises the line, 21 the lot line, between two existing lots. Lot 58 is 14 22 acres as platted, Lot 58 of Section 1, and Lot 84 of 23 Section 2 is 8.3 acres as platted. 24 What they would like to do, what they 25 propose to do, is to have Lot 58A of Section 1 become 66 1 16.10 acres, fronting on Camino Real, and Lot 84A of 2 Section 2 would get smaller and become 6.24 acres 3 fronting on Lillian Drive. 4 Lot 58 (proposed Lot 58A) is in the 5 floodplain and must meet requirements for development in 6 the floodplain. Not an issue. This proposed plat has 7 not been signed by Headwaters Groundwater Conservation 8 District. It was brought to them about two weeks ago 9 and -- and Headwaters said whoa, this looks like this 10 plat is not going to be -- go to Commissioners' Court 11 and be able to be filed until after the August 10th 12 deadline; therefore, you've got a lot here that I know 13 they have an existing well, but if they ever have to 14 drill a new well, they won't be able to because it will 15 be a plat filed after August the 10th and the lot is 16 smaller than ten acres. That's the whole issue. That's 17 the concern. 18 You have this on the -- we went to 19 Commissioners Court because it's a revision of plat. 20 There's two things that State Law says. It says that a 21 revision of plat has to -- you've got to have a public 22 hearing, you've got to advertise for that public hearing 23 so many days in advance, and it has to be at a regular 24 Commissioners' Court meeting. And I will tell you that 25 the day that we brought this, Bobby and I only knew of 67 1 regular court meetings that were every two weeks. We 2 were not -- we did not realize that the Court had 3 recently taken some action to allow for regular meetings 4 every week or we could have had this last week before 5 August 10th. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Charlie, I have a 7 clarification question. And I'm looking at Headwaters, 8 what's presented here, and they may or may not want 9 action. What Charlie said, Headwaters is not going to 10 allow anybody with a well on less than ten acres to 11 re-drill that well? Because I -- I mean, that's in my 12 mind -- 13 MR. JONES: The revisions of being less than 14 ten acres because they're creating a new plat. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They had two wells 16 already. 17 MR. JONES: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if their well goes 19 out, the fact that they're -- I mean they should be -- 20 they're not able to -- if they don't have ten acres, 21 they're not able to replace that well? 22 MR. JONES: Yeah, I'm not -- I'm not sure 23 where -- I don't have that same understanding completely 24 on that, but I'll visit with Gene. But apparently he -- 25 yeah, because if you've got a well -- but you can't 68 1 divide it. You can't divide it and create one of less 2 than ten acres at this point. 3 JUDGE KELLY: That's a subdivision issue. 4 MR. JONES: Yeah. And that's a whole -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: That's what we're involved 6 with. 7 MR. JONES: Right. But that's a whole -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Will you come up to the 9 mic, there, Tom? 10 MR. JONES: Well, yeah, but you're asking me 11 to talk about something that I haven't even looked at 12 yet, so I -- 13 MR. HASTINGS: Let me add one more piece of 14 information. Through conversations that Bobby was able 15 to have with Gene last week -- Gene Williams is the 16 general manager for Headwaters, he said, I'll tell you 17 what, what if the Court was able to give us some kind of 18 a letter that explained the situation. I can give it to 19 my board and maybe they can -- maybe they can help us 20 out on this. 21 But the Court, our Court right now, has the 22 option of, by law, of either approving, approving with 23 conditions, or disapproving this plat revision. Those 24 are your three options. If we disapprove it, we've got 25 to cite the reasons why and it's gotta be in the vote. 69 1 And the reason would be that it has not been signed by 2 everyone whose supposed to sign it. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's kind of a 4 catch 22. 5 MR. HASTINGS: And the other -- and I have 6 not signed it because it hasn't been signed by 7 everybody. So I cannot recommend approval. I can only 8 lead you down the path of a conditional approval, and -- 9 and perhaps we get some clarification from Headwaters. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, the idea that if 11 a well goes out, and that person runs into some kind 12 of -- that's a lawsuit right there. So if my well goes 13 out and I had it before my property was six acres and 14 they tell me I can't fix my well or drill one next to 15 it, we have a lawsuit. So that -- which is not the 16 County's problem. It's not our issue. So our issue is 17 whether or not this land can be -- this plat revision 18 can be approved based on our -- 19 MR. JONES: But does not have a six acre 20 lot. You're fixing to create one. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I understand that. But 22 there's a well on that six-acre lot that already exists. 23 And we're -- you're talking about hypotheticals where 24 somebody might in the future need another well or not. 25 MR. JONES: But for Headwaters to sign off 70 1 will be a discussion for the Board. Because right now 2 you do not have a six acre lot. You're going to create 3 one. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You have an 8 acre lot. 5 Still less than 10 acres. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. You have a 16 7 and a 10 and a 6. 8 MR. JONES: That's right. So revision -- 9 MR. HASTINGS: Revision changes it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is really an 11 important point. This means that we will have no -- 12 Headwaters is not going to allow, without board 13 approval, any revision of plats then, of less than 10 14 acres. 15 MR. JONES: That's what it has on there. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I say BS, 17 MR. JONES: Well, we didn't change our rules 18 for that; we changed our rules for a different reason. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I mean if it's -- 21 we've -- historically, we've had many situations where 22 you have three acre lots, and there's like three 3-acre 23 lots and we get rid of them, and we end up with -- or 24 say we have three 2-acre lots and we combine them and 25 end up with two 3-acre lots and we're better off and 71 1 we've done it and now we can no longer do that. I think 2 Headwaters needs to go back and look at the rules or we 3 need to go back to our rules and get Headwaters out of 4 the loop. One or the other. Because this is -- this is 5 a property rights issue to me. And Headwaters -- we 6 gave Headwaters the authority to sign our plat, we can 7 take that authority away. Headwaters can do what they 8 want. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if we go -- 10 Charlie, you have to have their signature before you can 11 sign something? 12 (Talking over) 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's up to -- that's 14 up to you and the property owners. It's just -- 15 MR. JONES: So you're going to create a 16 perfect storm between the County and Headwaters. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No, we're not. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Headwaters is doing 19 that. 20 MR. JONES: That's where he's headed. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, these are discussions 22 that are going to have to take place. But what we have 23 before us today is the subdivision issue; not a 24 Headwaters permit issue. 25 MR. JONES: Correct. Correct. 72 1 JUDGE KELLY: Just to remind everybody, 2 Headwaters does water well permits; we do subdivisions. 3 And as Charlie pointed out, I think the only choices we 4 have is to -- we can disapprove, approve, or approve 5 with conditions. And this looks like to me -- and the 6 flash point is, if we approve this subdivision, this 7 revision, it's a subdivision. And that -- Headwaters 8 has their own set of rules on that. I'm not meddling in 9 that. I'm just saying they're going to say that this 10 subdivision occurred after this date. And then they're 11 going to have to figure out how to apply their rules. 12 So the landowner -- and who's the landowner? 13 MR. BOERNER: A friend of mine. 14 JUDGE KELLY: A friend of yours? 15 MR. BOERNER: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 17 approve the revision of plat. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second that. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So we've got a motion to -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Approve it. 21 JUDGE KELLY: -- approve it? With no 22 conditions? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No conditions. 24 MRS. DOWDY: Who seconded it? I'm sorry. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Harley. 73 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I did. We -- we don't 2 have a lot of choice. This has to go forward to 3 Headwaters. We must do this so they can deal with it. 4 And this citizen, who in good faith is -- is moving 5 forward with a plat revision, can be serviced as a 6 taxpayer. So we have to do this. I don't see any 7 reason to have any stipulations on it. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I kinda disagree. I'm 9 thinking we oughta approve it on the condition that the 10 owner or his representative can work something out with 11 Headwaters. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's not our problem. 13 They have -- and we can't tell them -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, but do we -- 15 (Talking over) 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's calling it a 17 perfect storm. I mean -- 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the same as 19 entering into negotiations with Headwaters, which we 20 should not do. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: And you have to be able 22 to -- the point of one of our rules under State law if 23 you're going to disapprove it or approve it on a 24 condition, you have to point to a rule that -- that 25 isn't being complied with in order to do that. And so, 74 1 like Charlie said, the only reason would be that the 2 surveyor -- the surveyor, is that right? 3 MS. BOERNER: Yes, ma'am. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: -- hasn't signed it. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: But according to our 6 own rules that require Headwaters sign off, we can't 7 approve it. 8 MR. HASTINGS: The surveyor has signed it. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: Oh, okay. 10 MRS. DOWDY: I have a question for 11 Commissioner Letz. Will the plat have all of the 12 signatures when it comes to the County Clerk's office? 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: No. 14 MRS. DOWDY: Will it have Headwater's 15 signature on it? 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: No. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. 18 MRS. DOWDY: Do our rules allow for the 19 Clerk to record the plat without all the signatures? 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 22 MRS. DOWDY: Because it will not become 23 official public record, to my knowledge, if I'm 24 understanding that correctly, until it's actually as a 25 public record. 75 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If this is done, the 2 Headwaters board has an opportunity to review this 3 particular one. They can do as they wish. But we have 4 to do something, instead of just sitting here, twiddling 5 our thumbs over it. 6 MRS. DOWDY: And I agree with that. And 7 I -- I -- personally, I agree with the motion and the 8 second, without conditions for the property rights. 9 JUDGE KELLY: But that -- your question, I 10 think, is a legal question. 11 MRS. DOWDY: But my question is -- for me is 12 a legal question. 13 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. 14 MRS. DOWDY: Our current rules allow me to 15 record it without all of the signatures. So I would say 16 yes. Because it's the Commissioners' Court that's 17 recording it -- I mean approving it for the County and 18 then Headwaters is a separate entity; not under the 19 Commissioners' Court authority? 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. They're 21 separate entities. 22 MRS. DOWDY: So then I -- I don't think we 23 would need their signatures for this. But it's just 24 something that we need it to be addressed. And I will 25 hold it until I have an answer. Because I need to know 76 1 if it can go into public record. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Jackie. A 3 question for the County Attorney then. If we do 4 nothing, it gets approved anyway. Correct? 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Correct. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And is that -- Charlie, 7 how long has this been in your office? Or since you've 8 received the final application? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, the surveyor sent 10 it on August the 2nd. 11 MR. HASTINGS: It would be August the 2nd 12 whenever it was first signed. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But the point is not 14 that we're at war with Headwaters, the point is that we 15 do something so it gets passed along to the next entity 16 so that they may act or refuse to act or do it on 17 conditions or whatever. We don't tell them what to do. 18 They don't tell us what to do. We have a citizen here 19 that needs some kind of relief, and if we just sit here 20 and do nothing, sitting here on our hand, we're not 21 doing them a service. We pass it along to Headwaters, 22 they have a responsibility also to do like for any 23 taxpayer. So then, it's not us just kicking the can 24 down the road, we have to do something here for the 25 taxpayer's benefit. 77 1 MR. HASTINGS: If the Court wants to approve 2 it, would you also authorize the County Engineer to sign 3 it? I can sign the floodplain administrator's 4 certificate. That's good. But as the subdivision 5 administrator, I'm saying that -- I'm saying that it 6 meets all of our subdivision regulations, which -- it 7 meets every one of them except we need that signature 8 from Headwaters. So I either need authorization to sign 9 it or direction from you all to sign it or to sign it if 10 Headwaters signs it. And I don't know which way y'all 11 want to go. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that's the -- 13 that's what you guys want. You two want us to have 14 something attached to this, some stipulation. In other 15 words, if Headwaters does it we'll approve it. Is that 16 what I'm hearing? 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: I think the -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: I'm getting confused, quite 19 frankly. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: You all could approve it 21 like it is. But what Charlie's asking for, I think, is 22 reasonable to authorize him to sign it. Even though the 23 Headwaters signature may not be on it, because that's 24 what y'all require in the rules that y'all adopted. So 25 that's not required by State Law. Y'all have a 78 1 discretion to do that, so if you want to give him that 2 authorization today to sign it, then at least that gets 3 his signature on it without Headwaters. 4 JUDGE KELLY: I have to sign it, too. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But if nothing is done 7 then we just kick the can down the road, which is 8 Commissioner Belew's argument. September 2nd and then 9 y'all are going to sign it and then it becomes approved. 10 JUDGE KELLY: By default. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's best to do this 12 and then let these guys at Headwaters do what they're 13 going to do with it. They're reasonable. Let them 14 review it and decide what they want to do with it. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which I -- I agree with 16 that, because Headwaters needs to look at the situation. 17 Because we get more revision of plats than anything 18 else. And if this is going to be a road block on people 19 being able to change a lot line because they put a fence 20 in the wrong spot, you know, we need to know that. And 21 the public needs to know that. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: They need to know 23 because they might decide to move the fence back where 24 it belongs. I mean -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, you have garages 79 1 in the wrong -- I mean, we do this all the time. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it's been awhile. 3 When I was on Headwaters Board, we were more often 4 wanting to say yes than no and I think it still remains 5 that way. You can correct me if I'm wrong, Tom. But I 6 think -- 7 MR. JONES: I can't hear you. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I said when I was on 9 the Headwaters board, we -- we wanted to say yes. We 10 weren't -- we didn't think it was our job to say no. If 11 we could say yes, we said yes. 12 MR. JONES: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And still the same 14 attitude, right? 15 MR. JONES: Absolutely. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So -- 17 MRS. STEBBINS: And if you authorize Charlie 18 to -- if you approve it, authorize Charlie to sign it 19 and then an authorization to record it for Jackie would 20 be helpful to her, even without the Headwaters 21 signature. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And me? I'm usually the last 23 one to sign it and -- 24 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, then it's the Court's 25 Order also. 80 1 JUDGE KELLY: Candidly, and I -- you know, I 2 may be a recovering lawyer, but I -- it's still in my 3 blood. I'm nervous about approving it. Because if we 4 approve it without your board's back that it complies 5 with all of our subdivision rules and technically it 6 does not. That's my concern. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we knew we were 8 going to have these. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I think Jonathan's suggestion 10 of maybe just letting this be approved by operation of 11 law is the better route to go. And then at some point, 12 think about whether we -- we've got this mandamus 13 lawsuit that Twin Creeks has filed against us. 14 And at the end of that if we lose it, some 15 Judge is going to order us to go sign that plat. He's 16 going to order me to sign it. I'm the one sued in it. 17 Okay. This is an operation of law. If this thing gets 18 approved by operation of law, and that's one of Twin 19 Creeks arguments is theirs got approved by operation of 20 law, that plat would be legally approved. We're sitting 21 here today, we can't disapprove it, or can we? 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't think we can. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think so. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I don't think we really can. 25 And so can we really approve it? Or do we just take no 81 1 action and let it be approved by operation of law and 2 whatever signatures need to be on there, some Judge is 3 going to tell us some day. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: You could disapprove it 5 because it doesn't comply with our rules, which it 6 doesn't have all the appropriate signatures, which is 7 what Charlie said. So you could. 8 JUDGE KELLY: So Charlie, what's your 9 recommendation? 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No pressure, Charlie. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're all struggling 12 with this. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Conditional approval. 14 Condition that Headwaters sign. I think the Headwaters 15 board is going to listen to the surveyor and the 16 situation. You've got to remember, if we -- this is a 17 scheduling issue. That's really the root issue. We 18 could have done this last Monday. Bobby and I didn't 19 know that. 20 So, you know, at the time that things were 21 turned in, we're going through the normal process. This 22 is -- unfortunately, we let the applicant know, you 23 realize we're not going to be able to take this to 24 Commissioners' Court until today, the 14th of August. 25 And -- and Bobby and the motion got -- the wheels were 82 1 put into motion. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My point is, Headwaters 3 needs to let us know what we do with revisions of plats 4 from now on; otherwise, we're going to be doing -- 5 setting public hearings and then not doing anything, and 6 then waiting 30 days, and I mean Head -- this is a 7 Headwaters issue. 8 JUDGE KELLY: It is a Headwaters issue. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Headwaters needs to 10 decide how they're going to handle revisions of plat. 11 Is it a -- are they going to say if you're just moving a 12 lot line less than one percent of the total acreage or 13 are they going to come up with well if you're ten 14 percent? Are they going to say no, you can't have any 15 revision of plat? I mean -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: I understand. That's 17 Headwaters. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. 19 JUDGE KELLY: That's today. I like 20 Charlie's recommendation. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Conditional approval and give 23 it back the Headwaters and let them figure out what 24 they're going to do with it. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I think we might 83 1 find out where they go from there. 2 JUDGE KELLY: I don't want to get into a 3 fight with Headwaters. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Of course not. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So my motion is to 6 approve it. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I know. I know your motion's 8 to approve it. And you got a second. So -- 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: But I'll make a 10 motion -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: We've got to vote on this one 12 first. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you want my motion 15 again? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Can I -- 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Let me ask a question. 18 So the surveyor signed off on August 2nd. Why didn't 19 this going to Headwaters and why didn't they sign off on 20 it before it came to us? 21 MR. BOERNER: I took it -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He said he talked to 23 them. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: And they just -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: They declined to -- 84 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean you -- you 2 didn't do it before the 10th? 3 MR. BOERNER: The exact words were, if it's 4 not approved. He didn't say if it is ever approved, he 5 just said if it's not approved, I can't sign it. That 6 day. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Because I mean it's 8 kind of the cart before the horse or something here. I 9 mean who -- who needs to sign off first, the County or 10 Headwaters? 11 MR. BOERNER: I came in not knowing what I 12 was going to get. I'm -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: I'm pretty sure the law is 14 that the County Judge signs it last. And the clerk 15 certifies my -- my signature. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: So back to my question, 17 then Headwaters met last week. How come they didn't 18 sign it last week? 19 JUDGE KELLY: They're kicking the can. 20 MR. HASTINGS: Maybe the question might be 21 if this would have come to the Court last week, would 22 you have approved it? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. Yeah. I think we all 24 agree with that. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, but would 85 1 Headwaters have signed off? Because -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- technically we need 4 their sign off before we -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: I think Headwaters is looking 6 to us to tell them and we would have approved it. 7 MR. HASTINGS: He even said that. Something 8 similar. I don't want to put words in his mouth, he's 9 not here. But I think we take the steps to in good 10 faith kick it back so that they can look at this in good 11 conscious and know. And again, this is a scheduling 12 situation. 13 JUDGE KELLY: This is really kind of a 14 constructive conversation. We've got our new rules and 15 Headwaters has their new rules. And this is going to 16 open the door for discussion, ongoing discussion, to get 17 this worked out. And so where we are today is we can 18 either just flat approve it, which is the motion that's 19 pending right now, or -- and my recommendation would be 20 to put the conditions on it that Charlie's recommended 21 and it goes back and let -- let Headwaters have their 22 input and see what -- see if the conditions are met. I 23 mean, we ultimately have decided the conditions are met, 24 right Charlie? 25 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 86 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And just for the record, 2 I support Headwaters move to ten acres. My problem is 3 on revisions of plat what do we do. I think Headwaters 4 agrees with that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're finding out. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And we're learning. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the public is kind 9 of left in limbo and that's what bothers me. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I want the public to 11 know -- what I want the public to know is that we do 12 want these approved. And this would have been approved 13 last week if it had -- if it was on the agenda, so -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, there's always 15 the last one in the gate. And there's always unforeseen 16 consequences. And we work them out and we'll get it 17 worked out. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And this one is really good, 19 because there's two wells. Which is a good thing. And 20 we're not -- we're not worried about whether or not 21 they're going to get a well. They've got a well. And 22 so, I'm still -- I'm going to call for the vote and -- 23 but my recommendation is that we take Charlie's 24 recommendation and just approve it conditionally. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And just so you 87 1 know -- 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: I would side with you 3 on that. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The way I'm going to 5 vote, I agree with the Judge. I think it needs to be 6 conditional. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, then I'm going to 8 propose an amendment to your motion. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I thought you 10 have to vote on that motion first. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We can vote on it if he agrees 12 to the amendment. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No, he's right. And 14 he doesn't. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He doesn't like it. I 16 don't like it. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let's vote on it. Vote in 18 favor of the motion to approve as is, say aye. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Aye. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Aye. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Those opposed? Aye. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: Aye. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I make a motion that we 25 approve it conditionally as recommended by the County 88 1 Engineer. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second. 4 Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 5 Opposed. Abstain? Unanimous. Okay. Take a break. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: See, he got what he 7 wanted to begin with. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Maybe, maybe not. I 9 don't know. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: He did. 11 MRS. DOWDY: Judge, can you -- for the 12 record, for the Court, what were the conditions of the 13 motion? 14 JUDGE KELLY: That Headwaters signs it. 15 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. So Headwaters -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: Approve it. 17 MRS. DOWDY: Signs it. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Approves. 19 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if they don't, 21 Heather, it gets approved in 30 days? 22 MRS. STEBBINS: I'm sorry, I didn't hear the 23 question. What was it? 24 JUDGE KELLY: So if Headwaters does not 25 approve it, it gets -- 89 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It gets approved in 30 2 days. The only other condition is -- 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We -- we don't really 4 know that. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the condition is 6 questionable in my mind because I don't think it's a 7 real condition according to State Law. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: But it's our -- our rules. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're our rules but -- 10 MRS. STEBBINS: It's something that you 11 require. So it can be pointed to in writing. So no, I 12 don't think it gets approved in 30 days. You have a 13 conditional approval. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We have to acknowledge that 15 the conditions were satisfied. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Uh-huh. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We'll worry about that if we 18 have to. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: We can come back. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And according to 21 landowners, it's left out there, you know, we're not 22 looking after the property owners, the taxpayers. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We're trying to. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not doing a very good 25 job. 90 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think we'll get some 2 clarification. 3 JUDGE KELLY: I've got two more timed items 4 on the agenda. The next one is at 10:05, we're a little 5 passed that, and that's Item 1.14 consider, discuss, and 6 take appropriate action to rescind Court Order No. 7 40117, dated July 24, 2023, which approved Service 8 Agreement with Service Uniform, which was to be 9 effective October 2, 2023. Ms. Hoffer. 10 MS. HOFFER: On July 24th, 2023, 11 Commissioners' Court approved a Service Agreement with 12 Service Uniform for our uniforms. This agreement would 13 have been in effect October 2nd, 2023. Service Uniform 14 has some issues with changes/additions made to the 15 agreement, which we went through the County Attorney's 16 Office on all of that. To date, Service Uniform has not 17 signed the agreement. 18 We ask today that Commissioners' Court 19 rescind Court Order No. 40117, dated July 24th, 2023 so 20 that we may pursue other options for uniform service in 21 Fiscal Year 23/24. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So move. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 25 approve rescinding Court Order with Service Uniform. 91 1 Any discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Kelly, any reason why 3 they wouldn't sign? I mean what happened? 4 MS. HOFFER: Well, about the page -- let me 5 see, addition that is in your backup. It's the 6 addendum. It looks like that -- it basically kinda says 7 hey, if Commissioners' Court during the contract decides 8 that they're cutting way, way back, and they don't want 9 to fund uniforms, then the contract is basically null 10 and void. 11 Well, I think we all know that it probably 12 isn't going to happen. But I think in today's world, 13 it's probably a smart thing to have put in there. So 14 that was the reason why they didn't like that paragraph 15 in addition to the contract. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: We weren't guaranteeing 17 them a certain number of uniforms every month, were we? 18 MS. HOFFER: No. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: So we could have just 20 stopped using them and it would have accomplished the 21 same thing without that clause. 22 JUDGE KELLY: What was their problem with 23 that paragraph? 24 MS. HOFFER: They just -- they don't like 25 the idea that that's saying the fiscal year and the 92 1 Court kind of says, hey, all the Departments that have 2 uniforms, you know, we're not going to fund them when 3 it's tight. And they're afraid that all of a sudden the 4 contract would end, so -- 5 MRS. STEBBINS: A lot of times when folks 6 contract with the government entities, they know that 7 it's conditioned on that funding each year, and I guess 8 this company doesn't usually get a response that 9 requires a non-completion clause from the entity, and so 10 they don't like that. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And we do it fiscal year to 12 fiscal year because we can't obligate future courts. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: You can't obligate those 14 future dollars. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And you have other 17 options? 18 MS. HOFFER: We're meeting this week with 19 two other uniform companies. And they're bigger 20 companies. This is a fairly small company and so we may 21 not end up in that same predicament. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can we call for 23 questions? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. We've got a motion and 25 a second. Anymore discussion? Those in favor say aye. 93 1 Opposed? Okay. Rescinded. 2 The next timed item is the 10:30 item and 3 that's item 1.21, which is to consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action to accept the quarterly report from 5 the Veterans Services Advisory Committee. And I think 6 we've got everybody here. Gary Noller. 7 MR. NOLLER: Good morning. Gary Noller, 140 8 Ray Drive, Center Point, Precinct 3. Very happy to be 9 here today. I'd like to extend our thanks again for the 10 Commissioners' Court for the support of the veterans in 11 Kerr County, and the employment of a Veterans County 12 Service Officer and Assistant Veterans County Service 13 Officer. 14 We met with Jenna several times. Jenna is 15 very good at contacting us when she has questions. She 16 always sends us her monthly reports on performance. 17 They always look very good. She is always busy. She 18 always goes home at night wishing she could have done 19 more things. 20 And so some of the numbers we got from her 21 or she submits, we asked her about, is since January 1 22 of 2023, she has submitted 560 claims to the VA for 23 veterans seeking Federal benefits. That breaks down to 24 75 claims a month. Then in that same period, you've got 25 352 of them came back -- 352 claims came back approved. 94 1 Now those may have been submitted way before 2023, but 2 kind of shows a little bit of the activity going on. 3 About the middle of July, I got a report 4 from her that she had 63 claims that were with the VA 5 that were pending decision. The VA says they can do a 6 claim in 30 days. Well, it's got to be a very easy 7 claim for them to do. They have a backlog out there. 8 The backlog starts at 125 days and last I looked, they 9 had like 600 -- 400,000 backlog claims. 10 She also had 86 claims where she's waiting 11 for the veteran to bring her more information to be able 12 to process the claim. And then she also had 83 claims 13 where she was needing to do something with. They're 14 laying on her desk and -- and needed her action to do 15 something to push this on down the road. So that comes 16 up with 232 claims that she -- that's active right now 17 and I about fell out of the chair when I found out. I 18 would -- no one would ever dream that she had that much 19 stuff going on in that office. 20 And I did a little bit of calculations. 21 There's 22 working days in a month, that's about 176 22 hours. And if she worked on every claim that she has 23 out there in one month, she'd have about 45 minutes on 24 each claim. Well, we know she's in a meeting today. 25 She goes to training sessions. She goes to community 95 1 meetings and stuff. She's not going to work eight hours 2 a day. So all of those claims out there may come down 3 to 20 or 30 minutes a month if she worked on every claim 4 that's active. 5 But thankfully she doesn't have to work on 6 every claim that's active, but also on the other side of 7 that is there are a lot of veterans out there, that are 8 wishing things could go faster. But it's the volume, 9 it's a demand out there. We know there's a demand out 10 there. And we know that Jenna is doing much to meet 11 that demand. Some of that comes from the PACT Act, 12 which went into effect last year in August. A lot of 13 veterans immediately became eligible for VA benefits so 14 they needed all the veteran service officers. There's 15 no veteran service officer in the United States that 16 didn't get backed up on -- backed up on claims. And 17 it's still going to go on for a while. 18 When claims are approved, veterans should 19 receive benefits from the Federal government. A cost of 20 living allowance has already been announced for next 21 year. So all the veterans in Kerr County that are 22 receiving disability pay or pension pay, are going to 23 get something, whether it's enough to cover the cost of 24 inflation or not, we'll have to wait and see if that's 25 been approved. 96 1 Texas has now become the State in the United 2 States that has the most veterans of any state in the 3 United States. And it used to be California. And the 4 big three states have always been Texas, California, and 5 Florida. And usually California, Texas and Florida in 6 that order. But for some reason or another, California 7 kind of fell off a little bit on the list this year, I'm 8 not sure why. 9 But in all seriousness, it's bringing a lot 10 of veterans into Texas and the Governor's opening the 11 door. He says anybody can come. But it's bringing a 12 lot of veterans in because Texas is a veterans friendly 13 state. And San Antonio has a huge veterans community 14 over there, with what's Fort Sam Houston and the Air 15 Force bases. Audie Murphy. 16 And we're also seeing that South Texas 17 veterans healthcare system, which is Audie Murphy, VA 18 Memorial Hospital, and all the clinics in Kerrville out 19 here is increasing in demand. We're told that there's 20 like 830 new veterans every month that go to Audie 21 Murphy for their health care, which is another totally 22 unbelievable number. So this area is huge for veterans. 23 And today we have all of our committee 24 members here. Vicki Marsh, Jeff Harris, Mark Del Toro. 25 Toby Appleton is here as an observer. He's going to 97 1 learn more about what the veterans advisory committee is 2 all about. 3 And finally, I'd like to announce that there 4 was a hiring made late Friday for an Assistant Veterans 5 County Service Officer, Chase Allsup. He's sitting 6 right here in front of me. Chase is a ten-year veteran 7 of the United States Marine Corps. He was born in 8 Corpus Christi so he's Texan. 9 Had a very interesting career in the Marine 10 Corps. He was an MP, military policeman, overseas 11 stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and is also a recruiter. 12 So between his military police experience and his 13 recruiter experience, he's dealt with a large number of 14 people in diverse situations. And so we want to welcome 15 Chase into the office here. And Jenna has already got 16 him in there studying. 17 So the big thing, of course, with that is 18 get that VA accreditation. And so Jenna will probably 19 be reporting some of her activity into Chase getting up 20 and getting his accreditation with the VA. And that's 21 my report. Any questions? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Any questions? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. And welcome, 24 Chase. 25 MR. ALLSUP: Thank you. 98 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I make a motion that we 2 accept their quarterly report. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 5 favor say aye. Unanimous. Thank you, Gary. Thank all 6 of you. 7 Okay. Moving over to the untimed docket 8 now. The next item on the agenda, go back to 1.28, 9 which is consider, discuss and take appropriate action 10 regarding the proposed Kerr County budget for Fiscal 11 Year 23-24. Miss Shelton. 12 MRS. SHELTON: Before I begin, if I could 13 just give a shout out to my staff. They've worked 14 really hard keeping people away from me so that I can 15 concentrate on the budget, and I really appreciate what 16 they've done. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And they've been really, 18 really good at that. 19 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Yes. So for the 20 Commissioners' Court budget that I'm fixing to present 21 today, the goal was to have 25 percent of expenditures 22 in the 9-30-24 fund balance. The property tax rate of 23 42.5 cents is projected to create this fund balance. At 24 the property tax rate expenditures still exceed revenues 25 by about 8.5 million. The new Animal Control shelter 99 1 and other capital projects account for about six million 2 of this 8.5 million. General fund expenditures still 3 exceed revenue by approximately $500,000. And two 4 million of savings built up over the years will be 5 transferred for Road & Bridge operations and flood 6 control. 7 So one cent of property taxes is 8 approximately $500,000 and $500,000 changes the fund 9 balance by about one percent. The proposed budget must 10 be filed with the County Clerk by tomorrow per the Local 11 Government Code. And this budget can be updated until 12 it's actually passed by Commissioners' Court on August 13 the 28th. We posted an agenda for a budget workshop on 14 the 16th of August, if it's necessary. 15 Just in general, kinda looking it over, 16 you've got total revenue for general fund went up about 17 3.8 percent. Total expenditures went up basically 18 6 percent. It was kind of interesting looking at it. I 19 kind went back and did a review over the differences 20 between the current year's budget and next year's 21 proposed budget, and it was kind of interesting what 22 came about. 23 So the majority of the increase within the 24 409, which is where we place everything that doesn't 25 really have a category that has to be done, so the 100 1 largest one was -- that went up was the payroll 2 contingency, and that's the effect of moving from one 3 year to three -- or Step 1 to Step 3 on the pay grade 4 and step is why that was put in there. Again, it is a 5 contingency line item. 6 The next highest was the first call 7 transport, but again, they went up $5,600, it just looks 8 like a lot percentage wise. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Say that again. 10 MRS. SHELTON: The others, as far as larger 11 line items, the contingency, it's kind of a misnomer 12 where we're at now is about 500,000 based on everything 13 we pulled out so far this year. And we boosted that 14 back up to 750,000, which is our normal amount for that 15 line item. And the PDO transfer went up about a hundred 16 thousand. So that kind of categorically is what went 17 up. 18 You also had two of the one -- these are all 19 ones that were over 10 percent of an increase. There 20 were two, but they're both staff related. We had public 21 relations that went up and the Veteran Service officer. 22 But both of those were -- were based on staff. And then 23 one of the others, election services went up about 16 24 percent, but again 58,000, I believe it was, is for the 25 staff for the election days and then the rest of that 101 1 was postage that we're going to need. 2 And then also the youth exhibition center, 3 of course, went up, and that was basically if I recall, 4 it was utilities, and then the Spectrum contract, and 5 that went up. 6 So shot out kind of just mental health, I 7 did look at a decrease. So those that decreased more 8 than ten percent. Mental health court more base. It 9 went down, but again, that's a reflection of the Hill 10 Country Regional Public Defender's Office. So it went 11 up, but we did see the corresponding drop in the 12 court-appointed attorney, which is why we did that 13 program or that grant. 14 IT went down, but they went down only 15 because we moved -- what we were paying for out of 16 savings, we moved that to debt for this coming year. 17 Now what's interesting that you didn't hear 18 me say was the Sheriff's office. So the Sheriff's 19 office, so although there was a million dollar increase 20 in what they're spending is between the two -- the jail 21 and the Sheriff's Department together, but those 22 increases are less than ten percent. 23 On the Road & Bridge, their revenues are 24 basically flat, and they're expenditures -- they 25 actually decreased. But again, it was because we moved 102 1 the majority of the equipment that we paid for this year 2 out of fund balance. We moved that to debt for the 3 upcoming year. 4 And then the other part of that is the 5 County Engineer went up, but it was the Eagle Ridge 6 Road. So I kinda looked at that just because of y'all's 7 comments at the last workshop kind of said what would we 8 cut. So it's kind of more of what are we funding. Any 9 questions? Comments? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. Going back to -- you 11 initially said revenues and expenses. Expenses were up 12 six percent, is that what you said? 13 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. In general funds. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And revenues were up how much? 15 MRS. SHELTON: About four percent. 16 JUDGE KELLY: 3.8? 17 MRS. SHELTON: 3.8. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And then you talked 19 about the payroll contingency right after that. And 20 then you said something and I didn't get it written 21 down. I -- I missed it. 22 MRS. SHELTON: Uhm -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: Right after payroll 24 contingency. 25 MRS. SHELTON: It would have been the first 103 1 call transport. But it was only -- it looks like it's 2 an 87 percent increase. But again, it's only $5,600. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: And what was the tax 5 rate you mentioned? 6 MRS. SHELTON: 425. Currently we're at 7 4051. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other questions? 9 And that gets us to a 25 percent -- 25 percent of our 10 fund balance table at the end of the year, which is 11 three-month's operation, which is the guideline. 12 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's really even 14 better than that. 15 JUDGE KELLY: I know. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: From the standpoint that 17 our general fund is 30 -- would be under 7 percent and 18 most of the stuff at the bottom, a lot of that's 19 dedicated funds of one sort or another -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- that can't be used 22 for anything else anyway. 23 MRS. SHELTON: It puts us somewhere between 24 three and four month's of operation of expenditures. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tanya, I appreciate 104 1 what y'all have done. I know you all were under the 2 gun. You know, all hands on deck. And so, throwing 3 y'all a lot of curve balls and what have you. So I 4 appreciate your hard work. 5 MRS. SHELTON: Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. There's no action for 7 us to take on that? 8 MRS. SHELTON: You can. I believe it's -- 9 MRS. DOWDY: To be filed with the clerk. 10 But it needs to be -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've gotta file it. 12 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. To take appropriate 13 action. 14 JUDGE KELLY: So we authorize you to file 15 this budget with the clerk. 16 MRS. SHELTON: You could. It's law. I mean 17 Local Government Code says we have to anyway. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to do it anyway. 19 MRS. SHELTON: And if you wanted -- you 20 know, you need to reduce some money out of the revenue 21 at this point, use fund balance, this is when -- you 22 know, I need to talk about it a little bit. Because if 23 there's not anything to say right now, there's probably 24 not a need for a workshop on Wednesday either. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess we need to hear 105 1 from Bob on the tax rate. 2 MRS. SHELTON: And again, this -- it may 3 change by the time the 28th of August, when you actually 4 vote on the proposed budget. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we don't -- you will 6 file it whether we vote on it or not? 7 MRS. SHELTON: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: And that would reflect 9 the five percent increase in tax rates for the County? 10 MRS. SHELTON: Five percent increase -- on 11 what? Can you say that again? 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, you know, if 13 we're going from .4051 to .425, that's a five percent 14 increase. 15 MRS. SHELTON: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Correct? 17 MRS. SHELTON: That is what it would show 18 based on these numbers. 19 JUDGE KELLY: What's the existing tax rate? 20 MRS. SHELTON: It was 4051. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What part of that is the 22 Animal Control facility, of that increase? 23 MRS. SHELTON: Zero. Because the Animal 24 Control facility is -- oh, it would be about one cent. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One cent? 106 1 MRS. SHELTON: One cent. The -- I actually 2 gave y'all my copy. Was there an extra? 3 MRS. DOWDY: Yeah. 4 MRS. SHELTON: So the Animal Control is 64 5 under the debt. So fund balance 2023 limited tax bond. 6 That's about 447,000, that's why I'm saying it's about 7 one cent. Five hundred thousand is one cent. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 9 MRS. SHELTON: The new debt is another cent. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: So that's about half of 11 it. Two and a half percent of the five percent. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The voters voted 13 on it. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Voters voted. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Had the other bonds 17 passed, it would be a lot worse. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or better. Depends on 19 how you look at it. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Depends on how 21 you look at it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. It would be better. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, but y'all are going 24 to pay for it after I'm gone somewhere. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, maybe not. 107 1 JUDGE KELLY: All right. We'll file the 2 budget tomorrow. 3 MRS. SHELTON: If not later today. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Or later today. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we -- so there's no 6 reason for the workshop on the 16th? 7 JUDGE KELLY: That's your pleasure. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean -- 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Does Bob have anything 10 different? He's the next one, does he have anything 11 different to tell us? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know. 13 MRS. SHELTON: He has the truth in tax 14 agency information. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Maybe we should hear 16 that before we -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The consensus seems to 19 be they want to hear from Bob first. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So let me go ahead and call 22 item 1.30 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 23 regarding the calculations of the 2023 property tax 24 rates for Kerr County and Lake Ingram Estates road 25 district. Bob Reeves. 108 1 MR. REEVES: Good morning, gentlemen. I 2 believe it's a good morning. According to 26.04(c) of 3 the Texas Property Code, I calculated the no new revenue 4 and voter approval rates for Kerr County, which includes 5 the lateral road fund. Additionally I calculated the 6 rates for the Lake Ingram Estates Road District. 7 The combined no new revenue rate for Kerr 8 County and the lateral road fund is .3636 per $100 9 valuation. The rate would be divided between the Kerr 10 County general fund of .3410 and the lateral road fund 11 of .0226. The debt rate has been calculated at .0518. 12 The combined voter approval rate is .4892, which 13 includes a total of .0879 -- let me repeat that, .0879 14 per $100 valuation, and that's our unused increment 15 rate, which the Court was able to bank for the preceding 16 three years because of the rates which you adopted. Any 17 rate that you would adopt would include the lateral 18 roads at the aforementioned .0226 and the debt at .0518. 19 The balance then would be available for the maintenance 20 and operations. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Could you repeat that again? 22 MR. REEVES: Any adopted rate that you would 23 choose should include the lateral road fund of .0266 for 24 $100 valuation and .0518, which is the calculated debt 25 rate. As a reminder, the rate for last year was .3373 109 1 for maintenance and operations. Interest and sinking 2 fund or the debt was .0425, and the lateral roads was 3 .0253, which combined for the rate that Mrs. Shelton 4 previously spoke of .4051. 5 Now, I will point out that while, yes, the 6 math indicates 5 percent, we are going higher than that. 7 If you use the 4250, because I have to go off the new -- 8 no new revenue rate; not last year's rate. Not Bob's 9 rules. Talk to people up there in Congress, Red River, 10 wherever you want to call it. 11 As far as Lake Ingram Estates, which is 12 entirely debt service, and it's only for those property 13 taxpayers that live in that road district, the -- the 14 debts -- let me see, the debt service is calculated at 15 .1151 per hundred dollars valuation. The adopted rate 16 for the previous year was .1335 per hundred dollars 17 valuation. So this shows you rate drops. 18 Property values went up for Lake Ingram 19 Estates, but it's going to produce roughly the same 20 amount of revenues to make the debt payment. 21 So in general for the Kerr County and 22 lateral roads, the rate that Miss Shelton spoke to you a 23 minute ago, and she and I have conferred on this, would 24 be within our calculated rates. Would not require any 25 mandatory election. It would be above the no new 110 1 revenue rate, but within the voter approval rate as I 2 gave you. 3 My calculations will be filed on the website 4 later today or first thing in the morning. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do you have a handout 6 that has all those numbers, Bob? 7 MR. REEVES: Sure. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you. 9 MR. REEVES: I will get it. I will give 10 you -- I will send a copy to all of you when I file it. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I thought I was going 13 to have to watch the video again. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let's try to recapture 15 the high points so that the public knows what we're 16 looking at here. We're talking about proposed tax rate 17 for next year of .425. Right? 18 MR. REEVES: That is the way it was 19 presented to you, that would get you to your -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Our goal. 21 MR. REEVES: -- your goal. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And get us to the 25 percent 23 of the fund balance. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What the Auditor 25 presented to us? 111 1 MR. REEVES: That is correct. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Now the no new tax revenue 3 rate is .3636, right? 4 MR. REEVES: That is correct. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Why is that lower than 6 the .4051? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Because the revenues went up 8 because the appraisals went up. And then to keep this 9 in perspective, when Don and I came on the court in 10 January of 2019, the tax rate was 51 and a half percent. 11 That was the tax rate. And that tax rate has gone down 12 consistently each year for the past four years. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Values have gone up 14 too. 15 JUDGE KELLY: True. That's right. But the 16 no new tax rate means that we lowered the rate to take 17 in the same amount of money. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I understand. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And so this year, for the 20 first time since we've been on the court, Don and I, the 21 tax rate is going to actually increase. But the voter 22 approval rate, and that is the rate that we have to have 23 an election to get the voters approval because it 24 exceeds the legislative guidelines that have been laid 25 out for us, that's actually 4892. Right? 112 1 MR. REEVES: That is correct. That 2 includes -- that's because of the actions of previous 3 court by not -- they basically were saving some of the 4 tax rate in each -- each year. And we get to bank that 5 for our rolling three years. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Right. And so we actually -- 7 not that we want to do this, but that is almost six and 8 a half cents more than the tax rate that is being 9 proposed right now. For the voter approval rate where 10 we would have to have a vote. 11 MR. REEVES: It could go up that high. That 12 is correct. Yeah. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Now the difference between 14 where we were last year and where we are this year is a 15 little over six cents per hundred. Does that sound 16 right? 17 MR. REEVES: That is correct. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And we're using some of the 19 credit that we banked in the years -- 20 MR. REEVES: Well, could I back up there? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Please. 22 MR. REEVES: The six cents is above this 23 year's no new revenue rate -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 25 MR. REEVES: -- which -- 113 1 JUDGE KELLY: Not the old rate. 2 MR. REEVES: Not the old rate. 3 JUDGE KELLY: I stand corrected. Keep 4 reminding me of that. I know we have to do it. But 5 we're actually six cents above the no new tax rate. And 6 the three and a half -- 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No new revenue. 8 JUDGE KELLY: No new revenue. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 10 JUDGE KELLY: I'm losing my thought here. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I know. 12 JUDGE KELLY: But it gets -- it gets kinda 13 complicated. But the legislature imposed a three and a 14 half percent cap on it when they passed the law several 15 years ago, right, Bob? 16 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE KELLY: A year. Three and a half 18 percent a year. And so the last three years we have 19 banked that three and a half percent for a total of 20 about 10.5 percent. 21 MR. REEVES: In theory. 22 JUDGE KELLY: In theory. In theory. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good catch. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it -- but it's all 25 there. And we're using -- 114 1 MR. REEVES: As I tell -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: -- we're using some of that 3 that we banked right here. 4 MR. REEVES: As I tell Commissioner Paces, 5 it's not normal math. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I know. 7 MR. REEVES: And -- 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: On average, what is the 9 taxpayer going to see in terms of their taxes going up? 10 What percent? If -- if we approve this .425 rate? 11 MR. REEVES: If you approve the 425 rate -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: That's going to go up about 13 six -- 14 MR. REEVES: Well, one cent is going to 15 be -- to the average tax payer, the average home this 16 year is $322,292 -- 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I'm just looking 18 on a percentage basis. 19 MR. REEVES: I'm trying to get there, 20 Commissioner. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 22 MR. REEVES: Last year it was 288142. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Say that number again? 24 MR. REEVES: Last year the average taxable 25 value of a homestead, if you did not have a tax ceiling 115 1 or what's commonly referred to as frozen taxes. So for 2 every penny that you go above the no new revenue rate, 3 you're going to look at about $32 to the average 4 homeowner. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And we're increasing that six 6 cents, right? 7 MR. REEVES: (Shaking head yes.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: A little over six cents? 9 MR. REEVES: But the no new revenue rate, in 10 theory, and it's within a couple dollars when you 11 calculate it out between the average homeowner last year 12 and his value, to the average homeowner this year and 13 the value times the two tax rates, they're approximately 14 the same. So for every penny, you go above the no new 15 revenue rate of .3636, you go looking at about $32.00. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And so that six cents is about 17 $192.00. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yep. Almost $200.00. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, almost $200.00. For the 20 average valued home. 21 MR. REEVES: For the average valued home. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: I think, if I'm not 23 mistaken, that's over 16 percent increase if your taxes 24 aren't frozen. And for people whose taxes are frozen, 25 what will they see? 116 1 MR. REEVES: If the home and the land 2 associated with the homestead have no improvements made 3 to it, no enlargement or anything like that, they will 4 see none. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'm sorry, repeat 6 that? 7 MR. REEVES: None. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: There's none. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No increase. 10 MR. REEVES: But let me -- since we're on 11 YouTube, zero increase for this entity, for Kerr County. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 13 MR. REEVES: If you were UGRA, if you're 14 Headwaters, they do not have tax ceilings. Lake Ingram 15 Estates, as we just talked about, does not have a tax 16 ceiling. The ESD's do not. The ones that do are the 17 school districts mandated by law, and then with local 18 option City of Kerrville, Kerr County, lateral roads. 19 So I want to say this. So on October 5th or 20 whenever when the tax bills come out and they're higher, 21 it's -- and we get the calls, it's not because of Kerr 22 County going up. Or y'all get the calls and they said 23 our taxes wouldn't go up, it's not Kerr County taxes 24 that go up. It's up to each of the other entities to -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: The taxing entities. 117 1 MR. REEVES: -- taxing entities to decide 2 what they want to adopt. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 4 MR. REEVES: If you will. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: But, of course, anybody 6 whose taxes haven't been frozen, they're going to go up. 7 MR. REEVES: Repeat that, please? 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean anybody whose 9 taxes aren't frozen, you know the youngsters, they're 10 taxes are going to go up. 11 MR. REEVES: My taxes will go up, that's 12 correct. I'll put it that way. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Youngster. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Youngster. 15 MR. REEVES: For three more -- four more 16 taxes. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else from Bob? And 18 you'll give us a handout? 19 MR. REEVES: I will e-mail you all of the 20 calculations when I file it this afternoon. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And I appreciate you being 22 able to explain it to us so that we understand it 23 instead of having to do what you do. 24 Anything else? Thank you. 25 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. 118 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He's still up, isn't 3 he? 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: So do we need the 5 workshop or are we going to -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- finding 7 any -- to change the numbers you have to find something 8 big. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think there's 11 anything big left to find. Rather than the salaries. 12 That's the only thing that's an item. I'm happy where 13 the salaries are. I don't like the tax rate where it's 14 going, but I like the salaries. I think that's 15 necessary. 16 Judge, I'm sure you heard when you were -- 17 you and Harley were both gone last week, Road & Bridge 18 came up with another 500,000 -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Right. On their contract. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- which helped a lot. 21 And a few other minor things. So, I mean, we -- we made 22 some pretty big adjustments in the past couple meetings. 23 We've stayed off of the salaries and I hope we continue 24 to stay off the salary changes. That's just my feeling. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: So there's a consensus, 119 1 workshop or no workshop? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I -- I agree with 3 Commissioner Letz. I don't know -- I've gone over it 4 and over it in my mind how do you change it, how do you 5 come up with something significant enough that it will 6 really make a difference. I -- I don't see it. I'm 7 also concerned about what we did this year with using 8 grant money and other things to subsidize payroll, so 9 that's going to come back around and bite us pretty soon 10 like a steel bear trap. So this is not a happy year. 11 JUDGE KELLY: No. And next year's not going 12 to be any better. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And -- and part of that 14 is the continued inflation we're dealing with. Prices 15 of everything have gone up. 16 JUDGE KELLY: That's true. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And it's not -- it 18 isn't coming down regardless of what they tell you on 19 the news. When you go to the grocery store, you know 20 that prices are not coming down. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Harley, I agree with 22 you and I agree with the Judge as well. You know, he 23 brought up -- just since him and I have been on the 24 Court, we have not raised the rate. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And we've lowered the rate 120 1 three years in a row. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, yeah. Exactly. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And it's catching up with us. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I don't think 5 anybody out there would think that we can continue to do 6 that with inflation the way it is. And I keep saying 7 that we're the bottom rung on this -- on the ladder. 8 The top rung is Washington. And everything trickles 9 downhill to us, so -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Anybody want to make a motion 11 about the workshop or do we have -- Rich has kind of 12 indicated he's interested in a workshop. Anybody else? 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, always willing to 14 try. I tend to agree there's not a lot other than 15 salaries that you can do now. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's time to hold our 17 noses to it. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think so. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Then we'll move on to the next 20 agenda item and start a series of The Bob Reeves Show 21 here. And Nadene. 22 MR. REEVES: Are there timed items, Judge? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Pardon? Oh, 11:00. Okay. 24 Oh, yeah. We've got a timed item, which is item 1.40 25 Status of law enforcement services provided by the City 121 1 of Ingram. 2 MS. NIX: Hello. My name is Ruby Nix. I'm 3 the City Secretary for the City of Ingram. And it's 4 become a pattern whenever a new Mayor comes in that the 5 Chief of Police that we have tells all the officers that 6 they're going to get defunded so they all quit and 7 leave. So here we are again. 8 This time we terminated someone for not 9 doing their job appropriately, but again we lost several 10 officers, and we're trying to rebuild again. Our 11 agencies have had a long history of working together to 12 serve and protect the citizens of Ingram for many years. 13 The City of Ingram is a Type A general law city so part 14 of the Texas State Statute, Local Government Code, Title 15 11, Public Safety, Subtitle A, Municipal Public Safety, 16 Chapter 341, Municipal Law Enforcement, Subchapter (A), 17 Regular Police Force, Section 341.001, Police Force of 18 Type A General Law Municipality: (A) The governing body 19 of a Type A general law municipality may establish and 20 regulate and use municipal police force; (B) The 21 governing body may -- by ordinance may provide for the 22 appointment of police officers the governing body 23 considers necessary and for the terms of office and 24 qualifications of the officers; (C) The governing body 25 by ordinance may provide that the police officers serve 122 1 at the pleasure of the governing body. 2 The statute advises that we may establish 3 and regulate a municipal police force, but it does not 4 state that we have to have a municipal police force. 5 The City of Ingram first established a Marshals office 6 when we -- I believe it was back in 1982, in an effort 7 to assist Kerr County Sheriff's Office with upholding 8 law and order in our City. When our law enforcement was 9 initially created, there was never 24/7 coverage by our 10 department for the citizens of Ingram. 11 Therefore, the Sheriff's Office covered our 12 City while our Marshals left and when they came off of 13 serving or were off duty, and in turn our marshals and 14 officers have assisted the KCSO deputy in to responding 15 to some of those calls that were in their jurisdiction 16 when they had no one available to respond. 17 However, now that we are again attempting to 18 rebuild our law enforcement department, rather than 19 working with the only officer that we currently have by 20 responding to calls when he is off, but by following up 21 on those calls, KCSO is basically pawning these 22 follow-up calls that deputies responded to that aren't 23 newspaper headline worthy onto this one officer that we 24 have for him to do when he is on duty. So instead of 25 being able to control our City, he's stuck in the office 123 1 writing up follow-up reports for calls that he didn't 2 even respond to. It's like extra work. It's purposely 3 being pushed off on him so he completely burns out and 4 quit. 5 It has been very vocal by certain people 6 saying that the City of Ingram is the reason for KCO's 7 budgeting issues and has implied that the County should 8 be able to have the funds that are budgeted for our 9 Ingram police department. Since our citizens pay Kerr 10 County taxes which goes more to the budget funding for 11 the KCSO, they are already paying for law enforcement 12 services from KCSO. 13 The definition for double taxation is a 14 disparity that exists either when residents of 15 municipalities pay county and city taxes and receive 16 benefits or services only from the City, or when the 17 City/County agreement provides for joint financing of 18 services, with the City residents also financing part of 19 the County share. 20 That being said, I believe double taxation 21 has already been occurring with the Interlocal Agreement 22 to pay 12,000 a year for dispatch services, and the 23 21,000 that was formerly being paid for Kerr County 24 Animal Control Services. We will not double tax our 25 citizens by giving more money to the County for services 124 1 that their taxes already pay for. 2 The City of Ingram is part of west Kerr 3 County that KCSO and Kerr County Animal Control is 4 obligated to patrol. The City of Kerrville continues to 5 increase our waste water rates annually. A large 6 percentage of our citizens live below the poverty line; 7 therefore, they cannot afford for us to keep increasing 8 their wastewater bill which links it up to the City of 9 Ingram to cover the price difference. 10 We increased our rate of pay for police 11 officers to be comparable with other local agencies in 12 an effort to help retain employees, but now we're 13 hearing rumors that KCSO has increased their pay rate by 14 25 percent. The City of Ingram cannot compete with 15 this. Should the City of Ingram council ever decide 16 that we can no longer fund a police department, then 17 whatever funds that would have gone to one will be 18 redirected into improving our infrastructure. 19 That being said, they are not wanting to 20 defund the police. They are wanting to cut back on the 21 number. Instead of having nine, I think they were 22 looking at the -- having a chief and three, possibly 23 four officers on duty, so that we can put more money 24 into our infrastructure, meaning the roads, which are 25 horrible that Kerr County deputies, every time they go 125 1 down there they can see how horrible that is. 2 But we have several that the backgrounds 3 have been completed for our chief as well as for 4 officers. So we are actively trying to rebuild our 5 department. I think a miscommunication came from the 6 interim chief, and that was regarding the follow-up 7 that, again, we have one officer. He's not able to 8 patrol because he's doing follow-up calls that were 9 responded to by the Sheriff's Office while he was off. 10 So that's all that we're asking for 11 assistance, is that the Sheriff's Department follows up 12 on all of their calls that they respond to while he is 13 off so that he can patrol the street instead of being 14 stuck in the office following up on these calls that he 15 never responded to in the first place. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else? 17 MS. NIX: No, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sheriff, do you have 20 anything? 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. I have several 22 things. Secretary Nix, since you opened that door and 23 several of these items concern the Kerr County Sheriff's 24 office, I'd like to address some of them. I had a 25 chance to break some of these responses to your e-mail. 126 1 Secretary Nix, the Statute advises we may establish and 2 regulate a municipal police force. It does not say we 3 have to have a municipal police force. That is correct. 4 That's been established. That's a dead subject. But 5 you do have a Police Department. 6 MS. NIX: And we're trying to keep one. 7 SHERIFF LEITHA: Secretary Nix, now that we 8 are attempting to rebuild law enforcement, since I've 9 been Sheriff going on three years, in the last two years 10 I know y'all have been trying to rebuild it. I've seen 11 five chiefs in two and a half years. 12 Secretary Nix, KCSO is pawning the follow-up 13 calls your deputies respond to that are not headline 14 worthy. I kind of take a little offense to that. The 15 comment did bother me. How is KCSO pawning off calls if 16 they belong to the City to start with? 17 Sheriff, to be clear, KCSO is forwarding all 18 calls to IPD that require a follow-up investigation. My 19 discussion with chief number three, Joe Hamilton -- 20 Chief Hamilton asked me to help handle calls for the 21 City of Ingram and we will follow-up on those 22 investigations. That hadn't been changed yet. 23 Sheriff, I appreciate the comment about 24 headlines. KCSO does get a lot of media attention and 25 headlines in the media for our proactiveness. If people 127 1 need to go to jail, they go to jail. There's two items 2 as Sheriff I won't tolerate. It's crimes against 3 children and narcotic trafficking. 4 Secretary Nix, it's like extra work 5 purposely being pushed off on him. Wow. I've been 6 trying to figure this one out. How is KCSO pawning off 7 extra work to IPD when it's their work to begin with; 8 not KCSO's? 9 Secretary Nix, Judge Kelly has been vocal 10 with saying the City of Ingram is the reason for KCSO's 11 budgeting issues and implied the County should be able 12 to have funds that belong to the Ingram Police 13 Department. 14 I don't remember the Judge saying the City 15 of Ingram is the reason for KCSO's budget issues. My 16 budget is just fine. At the end of this year, we'll be 17 able to return back some money. 18 MS. NIX: That was in the first Thursday 19 meeting. 20 SHERIFF LEITHA: I do remember the Judge 21 saying that the City of Ingram is some of KCSO's 22 staffing issues because KCSO is short-handed right now. 23 In addition to that being short-handed, our mental 24 health transports increase. 25 I don't ever remember the Judge asking about 128 1 funds from the City of Ingram. Maybe I wasn't present. 2 As a matter of fact, I know when I have been present the 3 Judge is against getting into that kind of business as 4 he referred to and contracting with the City. I know 5 that for a fact. 6 The comment on contracted services with the 7 City of Ingram was brought up by me and some of the 8 Commissioners. 9 Secretary Nix, since our citizens pay taxes 10 which goes towards the budget funding of KCSO, they are 11 already paying law enforcement services for KCSO. I'm 12 going to defer that. I want to get to another section 13 I'll cover that on. 14 Secretary Nix, the City of Ingram is part of 15 west Kerr County, the Kerr County -- and Kerr County 16 Animal Control is obligated to patrol. I'm not sure 17 about this one, as far as KCSO being obligated to patrol 18 the City of Ingram. 19 What is a Sheriff? Sheriff acts as the 20 conservative executive officer in the County and 21 District Courts, serves writs and process of the Courts, 22 seizes property after judgments, and enforce traffic 23 laws on the county roads and supervision of the County 24 jail and prisoners. 25 What is the Sheriff obligated to do? By 129 1 Statute, the Sheriff is obligated to serve as a licensed 2 peace officer responsible for enforcing criminal laws in 3 the state, manage and operate the county jail, provide 4 security for the courts, serve warrants and civil 5 papers. That's what the Sheriff is obligated to do and 6 that's on the TAC website if you'd like to look at it. 7 Should the City of Ingram ever decide they 8 will no longer fund a Police Department then whatever 9 funds that would have gone to will be redirected to 10 improving infrastructure. No longer funding the police 11 department sounds like to me de-funding, but we'll see 12 what happens there. 13 Double taxation. I don't believe the County 14 can contract in services with the City of Ingram is 15 double taxation. If that was the case, I know several 16 smaller agencies throughout the state of Texas that 17 contract with their local Sheriff's office. 18 The $12,000.00 for dispatch services, the 19 $50.00 per inmate for the first day of jail is an 20 Interlocal Agreement. This does not have to happen to 21 be in place. 22 My entire career as a DPS officer I had 23 people tell me, well, we pay your salary. As Sheriff, 24 I've had people tell me, well, I pay taxes so I pay your 25 salary. Well, if I really want the public to know what 130 1 these taxes go towards that we're talking about that 2 they've been talking about all morning. There's 30 3 items. I'm going to ahead and read them out so 4 everybody understands. 5 The taxes you pay go towards adult 6 probation, AG barn, Extension Office, airport, Animal 7 Services, Auditor, Commissioners' Court, four 8 constables, County Clerk's office, County Attorney's 9 Office, County Court at Law, crime victim services, 10 indigent health, 198th District Attorney's office and 11 its staff, 216th District Attorney's office and its 12 staff, District Clerk's office, District Courts' office, 13 engineering, Environmental Services, human services, 14 indigent health, Information Technology, four Justices 15 of the Peace and its staff, maintenance, public 16 defenders program, public relations, Road & Bridge, tax 17 assessor, Treasurer, Veterans Services, and the Kerr 18 County Sheriff's Office. 19 In closing, it's one thing to back up Ingram 20 Police Department. It's another thing to cover Ingram 21 Police Department 12 hours. It's another thing to cover 22 them for 24 hours. And it's another thing to cover 23 Ingram Police Department for several days. Okay. And 24 it's another thing to follow-up on investigations that 25 come from those calls. The Commissioners' Court does 131 1 not supervise me. I'm elected by the public. But the 2 Commissioners' Court does provide the funds to operate 3 the Kerr County Sheriff's office and they've done a 4 great job doing that. So if the Commissioners' Court 5 wants KCSO to continue to answer calls and follow-up on 6 Ingram Police Department criminal investigations, just 7 let me know. 8 Remember, KCSO only has one deputy for that 9 entire west district. My issue isn't that that's not 10 fair to the rest of the western district and the rest of 11 the county. We're not going to talk about being 12 short-handed and the mental health transport continue to 13 increase. Depending on the call volume in criminal 14 cases we have to investigate, I will be coming to the 15 Commissioner's Court for additional manpower and 16 overtime funds. I say that, because IPD has a budget of 17 $680,000 and funded for up to eight officers, last I 18 knew, including a chief. I certainly don't think the 19 public would expect Kerr County Sheriff's office to do 20 this with one deputy that will be responsible for 21 covering the entire west part of the County. I'm open 22 for questions. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: My question is about 24 filling out the reports. If something happens in the 25 City of Ingram, do you have access to their computer to 132 1 file a report? 2 SHERIFF LEITHA: No. We catch and we clean. 3 I mean so if we answer a call there, you know, it's on 4 the Kerr County Sheriff's office, we're answering the 5 call. Okay. So previously with Chief Hamilton, he 6 asked me, hey, can you help us out and cover our calls, 7 and we'll do the follow-up investigation on these calls. 8 So we basically write it up and we forward it to them to 9 investigate. 10 And I'm sure, you know, those numbers are 11 getting bigger and bigger. That was the original 12 agreement. Well, I'm telling y'all, if y'all want me to 13 do it let me know, I'm going to come back to y'all for 14 some more manpower and money for overtime issues. I 15 mean, you know, when does this stop. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So you do write a 17 report, which you forward to the City of Ingram? 18 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, and that can -- you 19 know, we'll -- there's one thing for checking a 20 suspicious vehicle and, you know, maybe a disturbance. 21 But anything to follow-up a burglary, a homicide, which 22 has happened. But there's several things from this 23 issue that require additional investigation. The way we 24 operate the Sheriff's office, our guy on the road, the 25 deputy out there answers the call. You know, takes the 133 1 reigns, but we went out there covering the county as 2 much as possible. 3 And we get -- certain calls gets forwarded 4 to our CID division, which -- so those guys probably 5 carry a caseload of 20, 30 cases and then they follow-up 6 on those cases in the county. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'd forgotten about 8 Chief Hamilton. I can't -- I can't keep on who's on 9 first. 10 MS. NIX: He was an interim -- hired as a 11 temporary interim chief while we tried to rebuild again. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. It just seems 13 like back when Byron Griffin was here, things were 14 pretty stable, hiring people and retaining officers. 15 And then under new leadership, we've had problems. Not 16 only with police officers, chiefs, but secretaries as 17 well. No offense, but there's been a revolving door. 18 The only thing steady has been the leadership over 19 there. 20 SHERIFF LEITHA: Well, one of the problems I 21 see -- you know, I was Sheriff when Chief Twist was 22 there. And it was amazing, I saw that city run by two 23 people. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Seems like they 25 couldn't wait to get them in and then couldn't wait for 134 1 them to get them out a few months later. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So I heard the 3 complaints. I don't hear a request. 4 MS. NIX: I was just told that y'all were 5 wanting to know the status on what's going on with 6 Ingram Police Department and that's -- 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Ruby, you probably 8 need to get back up there so we can hear you. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But what we heard, 10 Miss Nix, was a list of complaints basically. I mean, 11 do you have any answers or requests of the County? 12 MS. NIX: I was just told that y'all wanted 13 an update on the Ingram Police Department so that's what 14 our update is. That's what's going on right now. The 15 only request we would have is to assist with the 16 follow-up of the calls, just the regular calls. Because 17 we have one guy and an interim that -- he's just the 18 interim temporary. So he's not running -- he's not 19 going out in the streets. 20 We only have the one officer. So that would 21 be my only request is that the Sheriff's Department, if 22 they had to respond to something in our area while that 23 officer was off, if they could follow-up on those calls, 24 too, because the one we have is not able to patrol, when 25 he is on duty because he's having to do follow-ups on 135 1 all these other calls. Yes, they were in the City of 2 Ingram's area, but he's only one guy. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But that's not the real 4 issue. That's not the issue for the Sheriff's 5 department; that's the issue for the City of Ingram. 6 MS. NIX: Okay. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I want to be crystal clear to 8 the public. The Kerr County Sheriff's Office provides 9 the same coverage countywide, with the exception of the 10 City of Kerrville. Kerrville wants additional law 11 enforcement, and they have their own Police Department 12 to do that. And once upon a time, Ingram had their own 13 Police Department because they wanted better protection. 14 You'll get the same protection as the people in Center 15 Point, Divide, Mountain Home, everywhere. It's the same 16 for everyone. 17 And I'm very proud of what our Sheriff's 18 office has been able to do under these very stressful 19 circumstances. And I can assure you, I have never 20 wanted to contract law enforcement services with the 21 City of Ingram. Ever. Talk to anybody in this 22 courthouse. 23 MS. NIX: Okay. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else? Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment. I 136 1 mean, it seems like there's -- and I'm the east part of 2 the County, so I'm -- you know, don't know a whole lot 3 about the details in Ingram. But it seems to me that 4 citizens of Ingram, if they want a change, they need to 5 make a change. I mean, if they want, you know, the law 6 enforcement they used to have, they've got the ability 7 to do that. 8 And it's not -- you know, the Sheriff is 9 doing like the Judge just said. You get the same law 10 enforcement countywide. And the City of Ingram, that's 11 what they want, so be it. But it means -- there's going 12 to be -- you know, it may not be the service and the 13 level of service that they have had in the past, it's 14 just not possible. I mean if that one deputy or several 15 deputies -- we have very few deputies on countywide and 16 if they're not available, they're not available. And 17 it's just that simple. 18 And that's, like you said, like the City of 19 Kerrville, they have their own Police Department because 20 they wanted much -- I guess enhanced law enforcement. 21 And if the City of Ingram wants that, they're going to 22 have to have a Police Department. It's that simple. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sheriff, correct me if 24 I'm wrong. But it seems like maybe right now or just a 25 matter of months ago, Ingram's starting pay was higher 137 1 than the SO, wasn't it? 2 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. It currently is. 3 And that was one of the things frustrating. You know, I 4 have 120 people to oversee and supervise. You know, as 5 far as morale issues when those things are coming, it's 6 awful hard on the working deputy when you go answer 7 calls. And I mean the officer primarily works days on 8 the schedules I get. 9 So for my guys to go in there and cover, you 10 know, the evenings and nights and weekends and get paid 11 less, it's very disheartening for them. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I guess the 13 reason for the question is, is because with their salary 14 starting out higher than the SO, you know, with us 15 increasing the starting pay for the SO, you were still 16 having problems recruiting and retaining people when 17 y'all were hired. So it's not really our fault. I 18 mean, we're all competing for people wanting to go in 19 law enforcement and what have you. So we're doing 20 what's best for the County overall, trying to keep and 21 recruit and retain people. So -- 22 SHERIFF LEITHA: One other thing, Secretary 23 Nix, I would like to know, I mean, it was brought to my 24 attention that the one officer you have is on FMLA until 25 further notice. So I believe he hasn't been there since 138 1 Wednesday. 2 MS. NIX: He is back now on light duty due 3 to cardiac issues. 4 SHERIFF LEITHA: So he can cover calls? 5 Probably not. 6 MS. NIX: Not right now. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving on. We'll go 8 back to Item 1.31, which is to consider and discuss 9 ordering the Constitutional Amendment Election. Bob. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, sir. At this 11 time, I request that the Court order the Constitutional 12 Amendment Election which will consist of 14 propositions 13 which came out of the general session of the 14 legislature, and the two special sessions. 15 Early voting by personal appearance would be 16 at the Youth Event Center, and the west Kerr Courthouse 17 Annex at 510 College Street. In your backup material, 18 you have the days of early voting, the last day to 19 register to vote, the systems that will be used, where 20 to obtain applications for ballot by mail, and 21 therefore, I respectfully ask the Court to approve the 22 order of election for the November 2023 special -- well, 23 it's not a special election, the Constitutional 24 Amendment Election. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 139 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 3 approve the Constitutional Amendment Election as 4 presented. Any discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question, Judge. 6 It seems at one point there was a question on language. 7 All of the language that's dictated by the legislature 8 -- I mean who -- where does the wording, the actual 9 wording of this come from? 10 MR. REEVES: From the order? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 12 MR. REEVES: Comes from the Secretary of 13 State's website, of what needs to be in it. And we do 14 the best of our ability to put everything that's 15 required. Could I have missed something? I'm not 16 perfect, Commissioner. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. It's from the 18 Secretary of State. Okay. Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Bob, the HART 20 InterCivic Verity system, is it -- I thought we had 2.0. 21 Your -- your -- 22 MR. REEVES: The latest update, I believe, 23 was offered is 2.4. 24 MS. ALFORD: That is correct. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: When was it updated? 140 1 MR. REEVES: It was offered in -- 2 MS. ALFORD: In '18. 3 MR. REEVES: When the system -- when we 4 bought the system in '18. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: In '18. 6 MR. REEVES: Is that right? 7 MS. ALFORD: Yes. That is correct. 8 MR. REEVES: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I had a copy of 10 that agreement. It showed it was 2.0. I'm just curious 11 whether you had recently updated or not. 12 And are we confident that this system that 13 you're proposing to use has been tested by an accredited 14 lab? 15 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. If you'll recall an 16 e-mail chain between myself and the members of the 17 Court, individually, Madam Attorney -- 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 19 MR. REEVES: -- of a March 10th providing 20 answers to Mr. Woodward's questions regarding 21 accreditation. I will stand by what they give. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Well, I'm aware 23 that there are a number of lawsuits that are challenging 24 this issue and they are being heard right now. So -- 25 it's not quite so straightforward at this point. 141 1 MR. REEVES: Very well. To the best of my 2 knowledge or the information we have available, I am 3 giving it to the Court as it is. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Understood. Well, I'll 5 just say, I'm -- I'm opposed to using the HART machines. 6 I think they are subject to manipulation and fraud. 7 That was admitted by the Vice President of HART that was 8 here in April I think or maybe it was March. And, of 9 course, the -- we had the issue of there's a black box. 10 We can't look in -- our IT people can't inspect it. 11 They are questions about how they are being inspected 12 and the mother boards and circuitry are all made in 13 China, so -- 14 MR. REEVES: I will take exception to that 15 with what I provided to you that they are not. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: They're not what? 17 MR. REEVES: Made in China. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: The mother boards? 19 That's what the Senior Vice President stated. 20 MR. REEVES: No, sir. He did not. You can 21 watch it again. I brought this up once before, Your 22 Honor. I don't want to go back there. You might find 23 me in contempt this time. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, the question is 25 whether we're going to authorize an election. So let's 142 1 just vote on that. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, but it's because 3 he stated it's part of this system. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know but we're going 5 to have an election either way if we have to do it. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: You're right. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So we have a motion 8 and a second. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 11 in favor say aye. Opposed? 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Four to one. 14 MRS. DOWDY: Who opposed? 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm opposed. 16 MRS. DOWDY: Okay. Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But we have to have an 18 election either way. 19 MR. REEVES: Is that ordered -- 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I know. But you 21 don't have to adopt that system. 22 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, if you read the 24 supporting information that he wants us to sign off on, 25 it's right there. 143 1 (Talking over.) 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's part of the order. 3 (Talking over.) 4 (Court Reporter raising hands.) 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's part of the 6 order that we're going to be asked to sign and that's 7 what I'm objecting to. 8 JUDGE KELLY: All right. Item 1.32 9 consider, discuss and approve the appointment of 10 election judges and alternates for the term of one year 11 to begin September 1, 2023 in accordance with the Texas 12 Election Code Section 32. Mr. Reeves. 13 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. The backup material 14 I included is a list of judges that were named by the 15 chair of the Republican Party, alternate judges as named 16 by the chair -- the acting chair of the Democratic Part 17 of Kerr County. 18 I would call your attention to Precinct 314. 19 Since the handout was presented to Miss Grinstead for 20 putting in the agenda, the -- there is now a vacancy in 21 Precinct 314. I'd like the record to reflect -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: For which party? 23 MR. REEVES: Republican, as far as the 24 Judge. My apologies. And if you'll note, the Judge for 25 Precinct 406 has not been named yet, but the chair of 144 1 the Republican party still has the ability to supplement 2 the names. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Do we know the reason 4 for the change in 314? 5 MR. REEVES: I do not. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There's a lot of 7 squabbling. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. That's not a 9 good thing. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: To put it mildly. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 12 MR. REEVES: This will be for a term of one 13 year. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 18 approve the election judges and alternates as presented. 19 Any discussion? 20 Miss Bell, did you want to address any of 21 these things? 22 MS. BELL: Well, I -- I did before you were 23 going to vote on the previous agenda item. Could we 24 know who these judges are -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: They're listed. 145 1 MS. BELL: -- that are -- 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: She doesn't have the 3 list. 4 MS. BELL: I don't have the names. What are 5 the names? 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's on the website. 7 JUDGE KELLY: It's all posted. Any other 8 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 9 Item 1.33 consider, discuss and approve the 10 appointment of the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and 11 Alternate Judge. 12 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. At this time I'd 13 like the Court to approve the appointment of Early 14 Voting Ballot Board Presiding Judge as Nikki Caines, and 15 the Alternate Judge Bunny Bond. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 19 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 20 Motion carries. 21 Item 1.3 -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Could I open up 1.31 23 real quickly? Just -- I got a question for Bob, while 24 he's here. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 146 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: So Bob, I'm just 2 curious, why the change of the election day voting 3 location instead of the precinct -- previous precinct 4 locations to I guess -- 5 MR. REEVES: Which number are we on? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.31. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: 1.31. 8 MR. REEVES: 1.31? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. You -- you had 10 given us some new election locations for election date. 11 And I'm not arguing it. I'm just curious why. 12 MR. REEVES: I thought that's what we were 13 calling it 1.34. What are you referring to? 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, do I have the 15 wrong item? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh, I'm sorry. 18 JUDGE KELLY: It's 1.34. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh. Then you're about 20 to cover it anyway. Never mind. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So we -- we just approved 22 the -- 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: That was 1.33. 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- the 1.33 was the Board 25 Judge and Alternate. 147 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Now we'll move on to 1.34. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, my mistake. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and approve 5 the polling locations in accordance with Chapter 43 of 6 the Texas Elections Code for the November '23 election. 7 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. And now to answer 8 your question on that, there are two new locations. For 9 the precincts of Commissioner Precinct 1 being voting 10 Precincts 101, 107, 109, 113, 118 and 119. A new 11 location when we consolidate precincts have been at the 12 River Hills Mall on -- which we all know where it is. 13 Space was no longer available. Last year when we were 14 looking for another voting site, I believe Commissioner 15 Belew suggested this one and it's worked out good, it's 16 the Riverside Church of Christ at 625 Harper Road. That 17 was discussed and space was not available. 18 The precincts with the two -- the leading 19 number of 2, 202, 211, 215, 220, we're moving from the 20 Union Church to Hill Country Youth Event Center for the 21 specific reason of area parking places to locate. The 22 other two have been the Cailloux Theater and the West 23 Kerr Annex would remain the same. 24 MS. ALFORD: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm okay with it. 148 1 Would you likely use those locations during the primary 2 elections as well? Let me ask that. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I can say for sure the 4 Riverside Church of Christ, subject to something 5 changing. They've been very agreeable, and we're kindly 6 taking it one election at a time for the Youth Event 7 Center. Depending on what Jake may have booked on a 8 specific date. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, you gotta book 10 early. 11 MR. REEVES: We're trying to, Commissioner. 12 We're trying to. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 16 approve polling locations as presented. 17 MR. REEVES: Ms. Alford, did you have 18 something? 19 MS. ALFORD: No. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I think she was up to answer 21 your question. 22 MR. REEVES: Oh, okay. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's your backup, you 24 know. 25 MR. REEVES: No, you've gotta -- she's told 149 1 me to get up here. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. All those in favor say 3 aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 4 1.35 consider, discuss and take appropriate 5 action to approve the Central Counting Station 6 personnel. 7 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. At this time, I 8 request the Court to approve the personnel as listed in 9 your backup, the Presiding Manager, Nadene Alford. The 10 Judge of the Central Count, Linda Bowman. Alternate 11 Judge, Bunny Bond. Tabulating Supervisor, Cintia 12 Tejeda. Assistant Supervisor for tabulation, Natalie 13 Hansen. Assistant Tabulating Supervisor, Melanie 14 Wahrmund. 15 Clerks, Mimi Valverde, Cindy Hernandez, 16 Teresa Walker, Penny Smith. Clerk for the Secretary of 17 State Data Entry, Missy Andres -- and please correct 18 that, A-N-D-E-R-S, Jamie McClintock. And in charge of 19 the website publication will be IT Director, Bruce 20 Motheral. I request to approve the names. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Bob, I've got a 22 question. The Judge listed here is different than the 23 one for early voting on -- on 1.33? 24 MR. REEVES: What -- 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: On 1.33 it says 150 1 presiding judge for early voting. 2 MR. REEVES: That's the early voting. This 3 is the presiding judge of the counting facility. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. All right. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 8 MR. REEVES: And could we -- Scott Lambert 9 was -- 10 MS. ALFORD: Yes. He's asked to -- 11 MR. REEVES: -- left off the list and -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Include him in with Bruce? 13 MS. ALFORD: Yes. He asked us to ask that. 14 MR. REEVES: My apologies for leaving that 15 off. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So the motion includes Scott 17 Lambert also? 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, sure. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So those in favor say 21 aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 22 MR. REEVES: Thank you, gentlemen. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.36 is to consider, 25 discuss and take appropriate action on the Salary 151 1 Grievance Committee recommendation for the salary 2 grievance filed by the Kerr County Treasurer. 3 We met, what was it, last -- 4 MRS. SOLDAN: Thursday. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- Thursday? 6 MRS. SOLDAN: Uh-huh. 7 JUDGE KELLY: There were nine of us -- there 8 were ten of us. I was there with the other nine. And 9 we reviewed everything and it was handled in a very 10 orderly fashion and the final vote was eight to one to 11 recommend that the County Clerk receive the proposed 12 salary that was in the budget. 13 MRS. SOLDAN: County Treasurer. 14 JUDGE KELLY: County Treasurer. I stand 15 corrected. 16 MRS. SOLDAN: Okay. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And it was 3,001? 18 MRS. SOLDAN: $3,656.00. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. The recommendation from 20 the committee is for the Court to approve that. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The increase? 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to 24 approve the salary increase as recommended of $3,656.00. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Is that a motion? 152 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: (Indicating.) 2 JUDGE KELLY: I'll second it. So we've got 3 a motion to approve the increase as recommended by the 4 salary grievance committee. Any discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I think it sets a 6 bad precedent that when an elected -- and I've told 7 Tracy this, when an elected official requests something, 8 this can have a domino affect. If I really wanted to -- 9 as an elected official, if I'm going to give myself a 10 raise I'd find more stuff for me to do. So I'm not 11 suggesting you did that, but I'm stating this on 12 principal and policy issues, not increased workload. 13 Increased workload, to me, is incidental. 14 What we're setting as a policy going forward 15 is important. And so, I disagree with it. You got -- 16 as far as I was concerned, you already got three of what 17 you wanted. And now you're getting four of what you 18 wanted. You wanted to change the payroll to your 19 office. You wanted to get another person. Then you 20 wanted to change your office. And now on top of that 21 then you're going to get the extra money. And 22 regardless of what your reasons are, and I have the 23 upmost respect for your abilities and what you do all 24 the time, this goes back to setting a bad precedent. 25 And it's not a good policy and I -- I think it's a bad 153 1 idea. And that's just some of the reasons. There are 2 other reasons, too. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I sat in, and I had no 4 input on the grievance committee the other day, and I 5 will tell you, listening to it, it is well thought out, 6 it's well done, I can see why the vote was lopsided like 7 it was, but I was involved in the initial conversation 8 of all this. And it was all -- this argument was 9 predicated on you stated that you were asked to take 10 over that, and that's not you asked us for it. And we 11 finally said yes. So that's a big difference. You 12 asked us, and so that's -- I remember that very 13 distinctly. So my vote will remain the same. 14 MRS. SOLDAN: So, Judge, can I speak? 15 JUDGE KELLY: Why don't you listen to me 16 speak first. 17 MRS. SOLDAN: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Went I first came on 19 the court and payroll was being done by HR, and the 20 history that I learned is that when that function was 21 moved from the Treasurer's Office to HR, there was 22 additional compensation for the HR director. 23 Probably within the first year or so that I 24 was on the court, Tracy approached me and discussed the 25 history of payroll being done by the Treasurer, County 154 1 Treasurer. And she's been very active in the County 2 Treasurers Association statewide, and we have discussed 3 that most counties do have a Treasurer that handles the 4 payroll. And she certainly offered to do it. There was 5 no -- no question about that. We were not in a position 6 to make that change at that point. 7 When we finally got in a position to make 8 the change, and it was a change that we basically had to 9 do, she again volunteered to do it. Did she ask, yeah. 10 She did. Was it clear that there were going to be more 11 responsibilities? Yes, it was. And is there a lot of 12 responsibility for handling our payroll? There is. 13 Now, when this whole thing came up last 14 year, as you'll recall, that's when it really first 15 surfaced. And she came to me, and again told me that 16 she thought she ought to get an increase. And we sat in 17 my office. When you see that door closed, I'm usually 18 talking about something sensitive like that. And I 19 personally asked Tracy if she would drop the request 20 last year and not file the grievance. She was prepared 21 to file the grievance last year. And I represented to 22 her, and I kept my word, that I would proposed that 23 increase in my proposed budget this year. And so the 24 reason that it was in the budget initially was based 25 upon my understanding of Tracy from the year before. 155 1 And I saw your e-mail, which was basically 2 proposing the same thing that I did with her last year. 3 And so she's taken this responsibility. She's done a 4 good job with it. I didn't have a vote in the 5 committee. But I will have a vote today. And I will 6 vote to give her this raise because I think she's doing 7 a good job, it's an improvement for the County, and this 8 is consistent with what I asked her to do last year. 9 And so I respect the fact that she was 10 patient. She's been very professional about it. It's 11 kind of hard to get up and ask for a raise. Especially 12 when you're an elected official and you have to do it 13 publicly on YouTube. So I'm not trying -- I'm trying to 14 keep you from having to be on the spot. I just think 15 this is the right thing to do. And if we don't do it, 16 we don't do it. But it's not because we didn't try. So 17 that's -- 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's not a question of 19 her performance. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. Not at all. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: She's stellar. And 22 that's not the question. So when -- when HR received an 23 increase, because payroll was in HR Department, and then 24 HR left, was that money taken away from the HR 25 Department? 156 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's reduced. The 2 current HR is less than it used to be. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Does that just -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know if dollar 5 for dollar. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If that -- if that 7 money can transfer over and follow the job, then it 8 doesn't create an issue with me. But if the pay is 9 increased -- if the pay increase does not follow the 10 task, then we have a problem. Because if it moves 11 again, and I said this in my e-mail, we don't know this 12 is going work. Two years, three years from now, it 13 didn't work. Do we get a decrease in pay? 14 JUDGE KELLY: I think anybody that takes on 15 more responsibilities ought to get an increase in pay. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I do not. Not if you 17 ask for it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Historically, I will say 19 that we have adjusted -- in the however long I've been 20 around, salaries of elected officials up and down 21 numerous times. And they -- when I first became a 22 commissioner, the Treasurer, District Clerk, County 23 Clerk, tax assessor were all paid the exact same. And 24 it stayed that way for a long time because the Court 25 didn't want to ruffle feathers. And then at some point, 157 1 I don't know one of them or the Court -- someone decided 2 that no, we should look at really responsibilities, the 3 number of employees they're having, and look at other 4 tasks. 5 And at that point, the Treasurer's -- I 6 don't know how it came but it was less than some of the 7 others. I'm not sure exactly how it all went. So we've 8 changed salaries of elected officials up and down based 9 on things like that. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And to support that, I 12 remember when I sat in the blue seats, the discussions 13 and permitted to be part and sit in with the Court when 14 it was hiring for the last HR director. She made 15 significantly less than what her predecessor did because 16 of experience and not having been in the HR before. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That was not what I was 18 getting at. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What I'm getting at is, 21 if this moves again, does the Treasurer -- whether it's 22 Tracy or somebody else, get a decrease in pay, because 23 now they've lost a responsibility, and if the answer to 24 that is that it happened with HR, then I'm satisfied. 25 That satisfies what I'm talking about. 158 1 MRS. STEBBINS: That question was asked 2 during the grievance committee meeting, whether the 3 previous HR director when the responsibility was taken 4 out of that office if that person reduced their salary. 5 And their salary was not reduced at the time that the 6 responsibilities were given to the Treasurer's Office. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know that. Because 8 we didn't hear a bunch of hell raising. That's how I 9 know that it didn't happen. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: It only tends to go one 11 direction. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Because we -- we would 13 have heard fireworks if that had happened and that is 14 kinda my point. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Harley, along your 16 lines, when we made this change we actually had three 17 people in HR handling it. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And then it went to 20 the Treasurer's office and we had -- we increased the 21 people, personnel in there. And still -- with even 22 taking duties away from HR, we're still stuck with three 23 people. So we threw -- 24 MS. HOFFER: This probably won't work for 25 this. But it works pretty well for us. We do stipends 159 1 for certain duties. And once that person either wants 2 to do another job and they no longer do it, the stipend 3 goes away and goes to the next person. I don't know if 4 it would work on this. But it works really well for us 5 for a few things. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that is the 7 point, isn't it? Added duty, more money. But I go back 8 to what I said, as a policy issue that any -- if this is 9 how it's going to work from now on, any elected official 10 that decides they need to do more or should do more or 11 it's not being done right in that department and should 12 be moved over to mine to be more efficient, if they can 13 make the case for that. It's going to happen again 14 and -- 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: It opens the door. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- and then you have, 17 you know, mid budget increases and all kinds of other 18 things. I just don't think it's good policy. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, that would still 20 have to come to the Court for a decision on that. 21 Regardless. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Tracy, would you like to 23 address the Court? 24 MRS. SOLDAN: Yes, sir. So first of all, 25 I'd like to clear up the timeline of when I made the 160 1 request to have payroll transferred to my office to the 2 time that I was asked to take over payroll in my office. 3 In September of 2018, I made the request to have payroll 4 transferred from the HR Department to the Treasurer's 5 Office, starting in January of 2019. I chose that time 6 because the request -- I chose that time for the request 7 because the HR director at the time was to become 8 District Clerk and would be leaving that position at the 9 end of 2018. There would be a new HR director hired, 10 but I thought this was the best time to request the 11 function be moved because I was not requesting it being 12 taken away from anybody in particular. 13 The reason that I gave for payroll, along 14 with what the Judge has said, was because I believe that 15 payroll is an accounting function and, therefore, it 16 should be in a financial office. HR is a personnel 17 office and there are no requirements for accounting 18 knowledge to work in HR. 19 The Court decided to move payroll to my 20 office and there was no further discussion on the 21 matter. In 2021, payroll processing began to have 22 problems. The Auditor and I worked with the HR 23 Department for approximately six to eight months to 24 develop and implement processes and procedures to help 25 prepare payroll. By February 2022, Commissioner Letz 161 1 approached me to ask if I would be interested in taking 2 over payroll. 3 It wasn't until April when the County's 4 External Auditor was presenting the annual audit to this 5 Court that I found out that the External Auditor 6 suggested that the County come up with a plan to move 7 payroll out of HR. If they did that, the County would 8 not be written up in our annual audit for the issues 9 they found in payroll because their suggestion had been 10 to move payroll to the Treasurer's office. 11 The next point that I would like to 12 addresses is the history of county payroll. Up until 13 2006, payroll had been processed in the Treasurer's 14 Office. It was at this time the Commissioners' Court 15 created the County Human Resource department, moved 16 payroll and HR duties out of the Treasurer's office. At 17 that time, the Treasurer's salary was reduced. An 18 employee was moved over to the newly created HR 19 department to process payroll. 20 When payroll was moved out of HR and back 21 into the Treasurer's Office last year, in April 2022, 22 the salary and staff remained the same in HR. I was 23 able to make my part-time employee a full time in order 24 to take on the additional duties; however, a salary 25 increase was not discussed for me or couldn't be 162 1 discussed due to the fact that elected official salaries 2 cannot change above the published salary for that budget 3 year. 4 You know the rest of that. I asked for it 5 last year and didn't get it. I think the fact that the 6 salary had been removed in 2006 when removing payroll 7 from the Treasurer's Office, it should be put back when 8 putting the function back in the office. 9 I would also like to point out that a 10 precedent has already been set for Kerr County giving 11 additional pay for additional duty. In addition to the 12 examples that I gave in my grievance testimony of 13 employees receiving additional pay, I would like to call 14 attention to the elected officials that have also 15 received additional pay for extra duty. 16 The law library provides a salary supplement 17 to the elected District Clerk. The four Justice of the 18 Peace elected officials have received two salary 19 increases in the last decade with no legislature 20 increase in the J.P. jurisdiction. The most recent of 21 which was voted on and approved by this Court, minus 22 Commissioner Paces, as he wasn't in office yet. The 23 J.P.'s also get extra pay of $50.00 for each mental 24 health probable cause hearing they hear, which was 25 increased in 2011. 163 1 Finally, and I would like to preface this by 2 stating I'm not opposed to anyone receiving increases in 3 their pay and my grievance has never been about what 4 anyone else is receiving. But I would be remiss if I 5 didn't point out that while the Sheriff may not have 6 specifically requested a raise for himself this year, he 7 is receiving an increase of $9,843.00, which is a nine 8 percent increase in his salary. So an elected official 9 will be receiving a raise, even though it's been stated 10 that that's not good in the public eye. 11 In closing, I would like to reiterate that I 12 believe the amount of increase I requested last year and 13 was offered this year in the budget is a fair amount, 14 $3,656.00. I humbly ask you that you consider the 15 majority vote of five elected's and all three members of 16 the public from the grievance committee as a 17 recommendation for you to vote in favor of my grievance 18 and increase my salary. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And thanks for reminding me 20 about the Auditor thing. I forgot about that one. That 21 one didn't come up in the committee. 22 Anymore discussion? Okay. We've got a 23 motion to -- 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Before we vote on it. 25 I could be wrong here and maybe the vote needs to be 164 1 held, but I'm sensing it's kind of two, four? Two 2 against and I'm stuck with the swing vote. And I wasn't 3 part of this discussion -- or I wasn't part of the 4 history. And I can see both sides of this equation. 5 I mean I've spent all my time in the private 6 sector. I can't tell you how many times I took on 7 additional responsibility, asked for it and certainly 8 didn't get any compensation for it, but it certainly 9 gave me broader experience and helped me to progress my 10 career. 11 So just because a person takes on greater 12 responsibility, I don't necessarily see an automatic 13 need to increase the salary; however, you know, I can 14 see the other side, too. So I'm going to thank Kelly 15 for saving me once again. Because I liked her 16 suggestion. And based on what I heard, there were some 17 concerns about the longevity of this assignment of 18 responsibilities. So if we could make it a stipend, I'd 19 vote in favor of that. 20 JUDGE KELLY: The only agenda item we have 21 is to the recommendation of the salary grievance 22 committee. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does the -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: I'm looking at my County 25 Attorney. 165 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does the recommendation 2 say how else she is to get paid? 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There you go. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: It's -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If -- we can vote for 6 or against it, but it doesn't say that we cannot 7 determine how it's going to be. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: The State law that speaks 9 about the grievance committee says that -- so you 10 weren't here last week. I'm sorry. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Should it be brought 12 back? 13 MRS. STEBBINS: It -- it -- yes, it can be 14 brought back after today. I don't think y'all have 15 time. I think you have to publish the salary, so I 16 don't think you have time to do that. But the rules 17 that relate to the grievance committee, any -- anything 18 over -- there were nine members of the committee. Three 19 of them were members of the grand jury over the past 20 year, and then the rest of us were all elected officials 21 in the building. Me, the Sheriff, tax 22 assessor/collector, the Treasurer, the County Clerk, and 23 the District Clerk. And that called for anything -- six 24 or over that wasn't unanimous, that agreed for the 25 increase in the salary, would come back to the 166 1 Commissioners' Court, and the rule requires you to 2 consider it. Had it been 9-0, the Commissioners' Court 3 wouldn't have had any input into it at all. It just 4 would have been adopted. 5 So if the Commissioners' Court -- the 6 Commissioners' Court has to take action on the 7 recommendation or at least has to consider it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it you -- but to go 9 in on the schedule as a stipend as opposed to a salary? 10 MRS. STEBBINS: As a supplement? 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. Well, that -- 12 that was my question. It's not a question of whether or 13 not they voted for it and whether or not we have to vote 14 for it, but how it's implemented. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: You just have to consider 16 it. That's all. But I would identify it as a 17 supplement if -- if that's the route you choose. If you 18 don't include it in the salary and you choose -- the 19 effect is different down the road. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If it was a stipend, I 21 could be for it where it follows payroll, you know, down 22 the road or something. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll amend my motion to 24 make it a stipend. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: A supplement? 167 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean a supplement. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I'll second that 3 motion. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, you can't. He has 5 to -- 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh, okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Judge has to go 8 along with it first. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We do have these kinds 11 of changes periodically. And we could have it again. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I'm a procedure guy. Okay. 13 And I want to make sure we're following the right 14 procedure. The grievance procedure was new to me. I 15 don't -- there's not many things that I see for the 16 first time, but this was the first time that I 17 participated in that. And the power is given to the 18 committee to make recommendation or not. Okay. The 19 power is given to the committee that if it is unanimous, 20 and it was not, but if it were unanimous, we have no 21 discretion. Even if we say all the things that have 22 been said today, we have no discretion. It would be 23 mandatory. And it automatically goes in the budget. 24 Without us doing a thing. 25 And so here, we got a recommendation that's 168 1 less than unanimous. Okay. And what we want to do is 2 we want to tinker with that recommendation and I'm not 3 sure -- it's kind of a jurisdiction thing. Do we have 4 jurisdiction to do that? Are we allowed to do that? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We certainly do. We 6 have the power to determine how somebody can get paid 7 for something. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Your actions say to consider 9 the recommendation from -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: We've considered it. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: And now we're going to 13 take appropriate action. 14 JUDGE KELLY: We're accepting the 15 recommendation. That would be what we're doing. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, we're just taking 17 appropriate -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're supplementing how 19 it gets paid. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's correct. So 21 there's -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm not going to -- 23 because if this continues to, you know, hop -- things 24 hop around the County. Somebody gets a pay increase and 25 then that moves to someplace else. They ain't going to 169 1 get a pay decrease. So the -- it should be exactly what 2 Kelly's talking about, her practice at Road & Bridge. 3 That should be -- that should probably be a countywide 4 policy. 5 MS. HOFFER: And we've had changes. And 6 that follows whoever is going to take it over. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I'm okay with the amendment. 8 I'm not going to beat a dead horse. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Are you all right with 10 that? 11 MRS. STEBBINS: I think that your -- your 12 actions today complies with the task of considering the 13 recommendation from the committee. Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 16 MRS. SOLDAN: Can I say one more thing? 17 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 18 MRS. SOLDAN: Just addressing the -- if 19 payroll were to move somewhere else and not be in the 20 Treasurer's Office, I would imagine that would be 21 because either I don't run for election again and maybe 22 you have somebody else you want to do it, maybe not the 23 next Treasurer, or because I have done something so 24 totally wrong that you have to remove it from my office. 25 At which point, I would think that you would reduce the 170 1 salary as it was in 2006. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Unfortunately, we don't 4 have money that's following it from the last person 5 doing it. It's new money, any way you look at it. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Ready to vote? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 10 Opposed? Motion carries. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now you got all four 12 things you wanted. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We got a conference 14 call, it's going to be a Zoom call. We're going to put 15 him on with our lawyer at 12:30. 16 So the -- two more items on the agenda. 17 Item 1.37, which is consider, discuss and take 18 appropriate action to approve the proposed salary 19 increases for elected County and Precinct officials for 20 Kerr County Fiscal Year 2023-2024, and authorize the 21 County Clerk to publish same on August 16th. 22 Ms. Shelton. 23 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We will adjust the 24 proposal that we gave you earlier, the newspaper, and 25 this went out to show the rate that you just approved 171 1 for the County Treasurer. And there was also a raise 2 because of the proposed longevity had been inadvertently 3 omitted from the Commissioners' Court -- sorry about 4 that, County Commissioner Precinct 4. So that 240 was 5 added back into the schedule also. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So we approve the revised 7 list. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 9 approve the revised salary increases for elected County 10 and Precinct officials. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 13 approve the public notice for these elected officials' 14 salaries. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 15 Opposed? Motion carries. 16 Item 1.39 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to surplus 31 Apple iPhones to At&T 18 First Net for a credit to the Sheriff's Office account. 19 Sheriff. 20 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah. Basically we have 21 leftover equipment from western to wireless. And I got 22 a quote from First Net. We have to surplus these phones 23 and I'll ship them to First Net and once they're 24 examined they'll give us up to $700 per phone bill 25 credit. So it's going to be a hefty advantage to that 172 1 line item for the budget here. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve surplusing the Apple phones as presented. Any 6 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 7 carries. 8 Approval Agenda. Budget amendments. 9 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. You have 15 amendments 10 in front of you. Most of these are just line item 11 adjustments. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 15 approve the budget amendments as presented. Any 16 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 17 carries. 18 2.2 pay bills. 19 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 20 consideration, $1,448,348.49. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 24 approve the bills as presented. Any discussion? Those 25 in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 173 1 Late bills. 2 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Auditor reports. 4 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 6 Monthly reports. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For June, 2023. 8 Veteran Service Office, Jennifer Sanchez. Treasurer's 9 monthly report, Tracy Soldan. 10 For July 2023. Environmental Health, OSSF, 11 Director Ashli Badders. Auditor's monthly report, Tanya 12 Shelton. County Clerk, Jackie Dowdy. District Clerk, 13 Dawn Lantz. Veteran Services Office, Jennifer Sanchez. 14 Constable Precinct 1, Tommy Rodriguez. Precinct 2, Kyle 15 Schneider. Precinct 3, Paul Gonzales. Precinct 4, Brad 16 Rider. Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Mitzi French. 17 Precinct 2, J.R. Hoyne. Precinct 3, Kathy Mitchell. 18 And Treasurer's payroll approval report, Tracy Soldan. 19 I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 22 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 23 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 24 carries. 25 2.6 court orders. 174 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have our Court Orders 2 number 4O096 through 40123 from July 24th, and Court 3 Orders 40124 and 40125 from July 31st, and then Court 4 Orders 40126 through 40129 on the second. Make a motion 5 to approve all those submitted. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 8 approve the Court Orders as presented. Any discussion? 9 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? It carries. 10 3.1 status reports from department heads. 11 Okay. There being none. 12 3.2 status reports from elected officials. 13 Okay. 14 3.3 status reports from Liaison 15 Commissioners. 16 Okay. We're going to take a break and then 17 we're going to reconvene in Executive Session and talk 18 to our lawyers. We're going to have three of them on 19 the line to talk about lawsuits. 20 (Recess). 21 (Executive Session.) 22 JUDGE KELLY: It is 1:46 and we're coming 23 out of Executive Session. There is no action to be 24 taken, so we are adjourned. 25 * * * * * * 175 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 27th day of August, A.D. 10 2023. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2025 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25