1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, December 11, 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 ANNE OVERBY, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 RICH PACES, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Public Input. 6 4 *** Commissioner's Comments. 10 5 1.1 Presentation regarding District 10 4-H Fall 13 Roundup Results. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 7 action on request to approve the 2024 Joint Primary Election Services Contracts, the 8 Primary Election Services Contracts, as well as the Joint Resolution between the Republican 9 Party of Kerr County, the Democratic Party of Kerr County, and the County Elections Officer 10 of Kerr County. 11 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action to approve and adopt the District 12 Clerk's Civil Filing Fees effective January 1, 2024 to include Sheriff's Office increase fee 13 for Citation Service and Writs. 14 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to approve Interlocal Agreement 15 between Kerr County and the Texas Division of Emergency Management(TDEM) to provide 16 office space for TDEM staff. 17 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 action regarding the cash purchase option for 18 the Kerr County Hazard Mitigation Plan update. 19 1.6 Passed. 20 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action on request from the Texas Pork 21 Producers Association to use Flat Rock Park from February 8th at 10 a.m. - February 11th, 22 2024, until 10 p.m. for overflow livestock trailer parking during the Texas Elite 23 Showcase. 24 1.8 Presentation of FY 22-23 Hill Country Youth 38 Event Center annual report. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 action for awarding Qualitative Incentives 4 per the contract with Global Spectrum (Oak View Group) for FY 22-23. 5 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 6 action to investigate the possibilities and opportunities to participate in a matching 7 grant with Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) for Texas Department of Transportation 8 (TxDOT) services expansion project for public transportation in the area. 9 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 10 action for the Court to authorize the Veterans' Pathway sidewalk project to be 11 advertised for bids. 12 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 action regarding acceptance of Paloma Ranch 13 Road (0.683 miles long) out of the Paloma Ranch Subdivision for county maintenance, 14 and release Bond No. 1001193974 in the amount of $170,330.10 as financial guarantee for a 15 one-year maintenance period which began 12/22/2022, Plat File No. 21-10485. 16 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 17 action on a list of subdivisions that were vested by the Court on December 12, 2022 18 into the 2007 Kerr County Subdivision Rules and Regulations. 19 1.15 Passed for Executive Session. 73 20 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 73 21 action to select an engineering service provider(s) to complete project applications 22 and implementation for engineering and grant administration services for the Flood 23 Mitigation Assistance(FMA), Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities(BRIC), Hazard 24 Mitigation Grant Program(HMGP), and Flood Infrastructure Fund(FIF) Grant Programs. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 75 action to accept summary of the annual bids 4 received for road materials. 5 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 82 action to award the annual bids for road 6 materials. 7 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 83 action to accept quarterly report from the 8 Veteran Services Advisory Committee. 9 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 action to appoint Toby Appleton to fill 10 open position on the Veterans Service Advisory Committee. 11 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 93 12 action to address possibility of prohibiting the sale or use of restricted fireworks, i.e.: 13 "sky rockets with sticks" and "missiles with "fins", in any portion of the unincorporated 14 area of Kerr County pursuant to Local Government Code 352.051 for the December fireworks season. 15 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 94 16 action to approve Interlocal Agreement between Kerr County and the Greater Austin-Travis 17 County Regional Radio System(GATRRS)to connect the new radio system. 18 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 97 19 action to address possibility of prohibiting the sale or use of restricted fireworks, i.e.: 20 "sky rockets with sticks" and "missiles with "fins", in any portion of the unincorporated 21 area of Kerr County pursuant to Local Government Code 352.051 for the December fireworks season. 22 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 98 23 action to surplus IT items from the IT Department, and a couch from the County 24 Clerk's Office. 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 99 action to cast vote(s) for Kerr Central 4 Appraisal District(KCAD) Board Member(s) for the 2024-2025 terms. 5 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 102 6 action to approve seven revised job descriptions, including Chief Deputy Clerk, 7 Senior Deputy Clerk, Land Senior Deputy Clerk, CCAL Senior Deputy Clerk, Vitals Senior Deputy 8 Clerk, Civil Senior Deputy Clerk, Elections and Archive Specialist, as well as five new 9 job descriptions including Deputy Clerk Land, Deputy Clerk CCAL, Deputy Clerk Vitals, Deputy 10 Clerk Civil, and Deputy Clerk Elections, for the County Clerk's Office. 11 2.1 Budget Amendments. 111 12 2.2 Pay Bills. 111 13 2.3 Late Bills. 111 14 2.4 Auditor Reports. 112 15 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 112 16 2.6 Court Orders. 113 17 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 117 18 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 118 19 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 119 20 *** Adjournment. 120 21 *** Reporter's Certificate. 121 22 * * * * * * 23 24 25 6 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Monday, December the 11th, 2023, 9:00 o'clock in the 3 morning and the Kerr County Commissioners' Court is now 4 in session. Please stand for the prayer and the pledge, 5 which I will lead. 6 (Prayer and Pledge) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. First of 8 all our business is to turn these off. If you turn 9 them off or turn them to buzz so they don't interrupt 10 the proceedings. 11 The next part of our agenda on our regular 12 Commissioners' Court meetings is we have the opportunity 13 for public input. And this is an opportunity for the 14 public to provide input to this Court. We're not 15 allowed to respond, but we are required to listen. And 16 we ask that you limit your remarks to three minutes. If 17 the agenda item -- if there is an agenda item that is 18 about the topic that you want to address the Court, we 19 ask that you save that and wait to present that when 20 that agenda item is called. 21 So with that, let me see who I've got here. 22 First one is Terri Hall. 23 MS. HALL: Good morning, y'all. Terri Hall 24 on Independence Lane and I'm speaking on behalf of 25 We The People: Liberty in Action, as well as Texas 7 1 Turf. 2 I have a couple concerns this morning about 3 a couple of the agenda items, and really it's about the 4 way it's listed, to properly notice the public under the 5 Open Meetings Act. Unfortunately I have a little bit of 6 experience with this with some other governmental bodies 7 and we had to deal with lawsuits and other issues 8 because it wasn't specifically notifying the public well 9 enough. 10 And while I see an agenda item 1.11, it does 11 not even list the potential appointees of the appraisal 12 board. As you know, property taxes are a hot issue in 13 our County and I can't believe it's hiding in the backup 14 documents anywhere. It doesn't even list who the 15 appointees are for the appraisal district. So we're 16 just wanting to point out that this needs to be more 17 specific on the agenda. 18 And it's not going to something the public 19 should have to even go wade through a hundred or more 20 page packet to find information like this, something of 21 this importance. Especially should be listing the 22 appointees to the Board so that we can give you input. 23 If you're going to make a decision on who those 24 appointees are going to be, obviously this has a great 25 importance to the members of the public. 8 1 And just like on 1.12, on the Veterans 2 Pathway, you know, it doesn't even list the cost. So 3 things like that are some key points that really need to 4 be brought up under the Open Meetings Act. And I just 5 want to point out an opinion under Abbott back when he 6 was AG 0668, talked about whether certain sensitive 7 agenda items satisfied the Open Meetings Act. And when 8 you look at the end, let's see, mid-way through, it's 9 asking does it give adequate notice in the Open Meetings 10 Act? And it says, the Act provides that it should be 11 liberally construed in favor of open government. And 12 that if agenda notice does not sufficiently require a 13 reader as a member of the interested public of a subject 14 to be discussed at any particular meeting, that it's not 15 in compliance with the Act. 16 And it basically concludes that this 17 particular notice they asked about in the opinion did 18 not sufficiently notify a reader and, therefore, we're 19 just wanting to go bring up to y'all that this really, 20 especially on issues like this, as something as 21 important as our appraisal board members, needs to have 22 the names specified so that people can do a little 23 research and then give back some feedback on it before 24 you appoint the Board. That's all. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Next is Diana Alonzo Hanson. 9 1 MS. HANSON: Okay. I'm new at this. I'm 2 Diana Alonzo Hanson and one day -- many days, since 3 2004, I've been -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Let me interrupt. You told us 5 your identity and you didn't -- 6 MS. HANSON: Diana Alonzo Hanson. 7 JUDGE KELLY: -- tell us your address and 8 the precinct you live in. 9 MS. HANSON: Oh, my address too? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, please. 11 MS. HANSON: 1031 FM 479, Mountain Home, 12 Texas. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Thank you. 14 MS. HANSON: And that's my mother, who is 15 98, soon to be 99 years old, and she was with me the day 16 this happened. And we were at the animal shelter, and 17 reached out to them on the phone. And for ten minutes I 18 waited and she was in the car waiting. So I finally 19 asked the receptionist please, can I get some help 20 because my mom's in the car waiting, she's 98 years old. 21 Well, then my next visit I came to the 22 animal shelter and I was called by Mr. Reagan to not 23 come there anymore because I have been reported as being 24 rude. Falsely reported, I might say. Because I said 25 all I did was ask for some help because my mother was 10 1 there waiting. And my mother about that time came 2 stumbling in the room -- or in the building, and asked 3 if she could use the restroom, she couldn't hold it any 4 longer. Well, they said no, our restroom's private. 5 And that's a public place, we pay their salary. They 6 should be respectful of seniors, everybody really, it 7 doesn't matter how old you are, when you're in that kind 8 of condition and you need help. 9 But anyway, so my mother is -- was married 10 to my dad for many, many years. He fought in two wars. 11 He was a major in the Army. Two of her sons are 12 Marines. We're not trash. And we shouldn't be treated 13 like that. But they were very unkind and disrespectful 14 and Mr. Reagan was standing right there and allowed 15 those young people to treat us like that. 16 So I ended up rushing her out to the car, 17 taking her down to the gas station down on Highway 27. 18 And I am so disappointed that we got that kind of 19 treatment, and I hope they're kinder to the animals than 20 they were to my mother. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 22 Any other public comments? Then we'll move 23 on to Commissioners Comments. And you'll learn we 24 usually start with Precinct 1. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. Precinct 1. I 11 1 was lucky enough to spend a lot of time at the Road & 2 Engineering offices last week. Made two appearances. I 3 got a tour of the yard by Kelly, and was very impressed 4 with all of the employees that are out there. And then 5 Commissioner Paces and I were both there for the 6 Christmas brunch and got to enjoy the gift exchange 7 proceedings out there, so we had good time. A lot of 8 things going on in Precinct 1 and with the employees. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Precinct 2. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Well, burn ban 11 remains lifted for Precinct 2, so everyone please keep 12 in mind we're still in drought stage three. 13 At the last meeting I made some comments 14 about the Center Point sewer project for the wastewater 15 project, and it turns out I was wrong about not being 16 able to complete the road repairs due to colder weather. 17 So D Guerra has, in fact, mobilized their paving 18 contractor and they have completed road repairs at least 19 in Serenity Hills. I'm not sure if they did on Nicks 20 Road. So we're going to be talking about that in 21 Executive Session, but they are making progress. 22 And I believe that they're down to only 23 eight outstanding connections yet to be made, and then 24 maybe about 40 septic tanks that have to be drained and 25 demolished. So it's been painful, they are behind by 12 1 400 days on Phase 2 and 551 days on Phase 3, so we're 2 all anxious for final completion. 3 And, once again, I'll point out that if you 4 have a claim to make for damages or warranty issues, 5 contact GrantWorks, Rosie Daily at (512) 957-1465 6 between 8:00 and 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. 7 The only other comment is, you know, I also 8 mentioned we had an agenda item to talk about PIDS. And 9 there's -- you know, just a couple things to report. We 10 did receive a copy of Kerrville's public improvement 11 District policy which was quite helpful, and I 12 appreciate their paying attention to what we're talking 13 about and sharing some information. 14 And then Commissioner Harris is working so 15 that we can set up a meeting with one of the 16 commissioners in Medina County where they do an awful 17 lot of PID work, and that will -- I'm looking forward to 18 that so we can get better educated. That's all I got. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Three. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to reiterate what 21 Commissioner Paces said about the burn ban and weather. 22 So this time of year we start getting blustery north 23 winds, which are -- tend to be very dry from a humidity 24 standpoint or right after they come through. So please 25 be careful on any burning that you do. And it's lifted, 13 1 I think, in all precincts, the burn ban. And hopefully 2 this week we -- the forecast says we're going to get 3 some rain so -- towards the end of the week. Hopefully 4 they're right. That's it. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. Well, I'll 6 just say that it 'tis the season, not only the holidays 7 coming up, Christmas and everything, but also stock show 8 season. I know this Saturday -- Jake, you're going to 9 have to help me, I'm not wearing my ag teacher hat 10 anymore. But I know that the current show is Saturday 11 morning and I assume KIC will be Friday evening? 12 MR. WILLIAMSON: Correct. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And then Center Point 14 on Saturday afternoon? 15 MR. WILLIAMSON: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So if y'all want to 17 get out and see some animals and -- good kids showing 18 animals, I would recommend you head out to the show 19 barn. That's all I got. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 21 Then we'll go on to the Consideration 22 Agenda. Item 1.1, which is the presentation regarding 23 the District 10 4-H Fall Roundup Results. Jennifer 24 Smith. 25 MS. SMITH: Good morning. My name is 14 1 Jennifer Smith. I'm the Kerr County 4-H agent, and we 2 are here today to recognize our youth that participated 3 in the District 10 4-H Fall Roundup, which was the last 4 week of November. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me just a minute. Come 6 on in. Come on in. Don't stand out there in the 7 hallway. Come on up here. Come on up close to front. 8 Come up to where we can see you. This way. 9 MS. SMITH: Too many directions. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now, please proceed. 11 I'm sorry to interrupt. 12 MS. SMITH: Okay. No, you're fine. 13 So the youth that we have this morning were 14 able to come today so that they could introduce 15 themselves, and tell you what they participated in. The 16 Fall Roundup occurs every year in November, and it's for 17 all the counties in District 10 come to Kerrville and 18 participate in contests like educational presentations, 19 public speaking. There are three different types of 20 quiz bowls which includes, of course, livestock and FCH, 21 entomology, food show and food challenge. 22 Now some of these contests are team based 23 and some are individual based. So we always have a 24 great representation from Kerrville, from Kerr County, 25 at the Fall Roundup. And so, there's -- we had 27 youth 15 1 participate in six different contests. And so we are 2 very proud of them. They all worked really hard. They 3 practiced, especially like the food challenge and the 4 educational presentation, they always come and practice 5 at the office, so it's great to be able to watch them 6 grow, and how they are able to present and talk to 7 others. 8 And in this contest a lot of them, they have 9 to go before judges and answer questions, talk about 10 nutritional facts. They may have to answer questions on 11 their presentation. They never know what questions 12 they're going to get. So for them to be prepared to be 13 able to answer those questions, that is a great skill 14 for them to have. 15 And we have kids that are Junior -- they're 16 in elementary school, all the way up to high school. So 17 we are very proud of them and I would like for them to 18 come up and introduce themselves and tell what contest 19 they participated in and -- and then if we could get a 20 picture at the end, that would be great. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now for photograph 22 purposes what we're going to do, we'll bring them up 23 here in front of the bench and turn around and look that 24 way because we do have a camera that focuses towards the 25 Court and we'll get that on YouTube for the public. But 16 1 let's go ahead and get them individually, one by one, up 2 at the podium so everybody can see. 3 MISS FIEDLER: I'm Reelyn Fiedler and I got 4 second place in Food Challenge, and I was on the team 5 with Maddie. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. When you finish, come 7 up here. Just wait up here. 8 MISS HALL: I'm Madelyn Hall, and I did Food 9 Challenge, plus Food Bowl and educational presentation 10 with my brother, Samuel. We placed second with the 11 presentation on AI, in the category, and I got second in 12 the Food Challenge. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Come on up to the bench here. 14 MR. HALL: I'm Samuel Hall. I did the Food 15 Show. I placed second in that. And then education 16 presentation with Madelyn, we placed second. And then I 17 also did Horse Quiz Bowl. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Next. 19 MR. HALL: I'm Jonathan Hall. And I did 20 educational presentation and Food Challenge and I got 21 first in education. 22 MS. FIEDLER: I'm Reelyn Fiedler and I did 23 Food Show and Food Challenge and I didn't place. 24 MR. EDWARDS: So I was in education 25 presentation -- my name is Brandon Edwards. I was in 17 1 education presentation, entomology, food show and 2 educational presentation. And I got a first in food 3 show and educational presentation. 4 MS. SMITH: And you did food challenge -- 5 did you do food challenge? 6 MR. EDWARDS: Oh yes. And I did food 7 challenge, yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: He's going to be a 10 future lawyer with that briefcase. 11 (Laughter.) 12 MR. HALL: I did education presentation, 13 food challenge, and I got second. 14 MS. STARR: I'm Kinley Starr and I did food 15 challenge, and I got third place. 16 MR. BADEY: My name is Kieran Badey and I 17 did educational presentation. I got second place. 18 MS. FIEDLER: I'm Angela Fiedler, and I had 19 one older daughter that was sick this morning that had 20 planned to come. She did the educational presentation 21 and the agriculture and natural resources. It was her 22 first year to do it, and she won her category. 23 So we had several -- raise your hand if 24 you're going to state roundup in June. We have a 25 handful of seniors that get to go to state roundup in 18 1 June. So we will come back after that and report back 2 to you. Thank you. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now for photo 4 opportunities I'm going to ask the taller people to back 5 up against the table and just -- just stand beside 6 somebody and if you're taller than them -- okay. 7 (Photographs taken) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Congratulations. 10 (Applause) 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The next item on the 12 agenda is 1.2 consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action on a request to approve the 2024 Joint Primary 14 Election Services Contracts, with the Primary Election 15 Services Contracts, as well as the Joint Resolution 16 between the Republican Party of Kerr County, the 17 Democratic Party of Kerr County, and the County 18 Elections Officer of Kerr County. Mr. Collum. 19 MR. COLLUM: Good morning, Commissioners. 20 Hope y'all are doing well. What I have in front of you 21 is, as we just stated, the Joint Primary Election 22 Services Contract, the Primary Election Services 23 Contract, as well as the Joint Resolution between the 24 Republican Party, as well as the Democratic Party of 25 Kerr County. These are contracts that need to be signed 19 1 prior to every election, and this is essentially just 2 what's needed to keep everything running smoothly. 3 These have been looked over by our County 4 Attorney, said everything was just swell with them. 5 They are forms that are found on the Secretary of 6 State's website as well so it's nothing that we drew up. 7 It is all from the Secretary of State. Any questions or 8 anything like that. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Ian, I didn't see 10 Exhibit A, which is referred to in the contract. That's 11 a cost estimate. 12 MR. COLLUM: I -- there might not be one 13 present. I would have to -- I don't believe -- we 14 didn't have -- 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It is not ready. 16 MR. COLLUM: Yeah. It is not ready yet. I 17 apologize. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So that -- that will need to 19 be attached to the contract if we're going to execute 20 it, so whatever we do today will be subject to review of 21 Exhibit A. 22 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. Sounds about right. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Collum, I understand that 24 both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have 25 agreed to do this jointly and this is the contract that 20 1 they -- that y'all -- 2 MR. COLLUM: You are correct. 3 JUDGE KELLY: I'd heard early on that there 4 might be hand count in one and what have you, but 5 they've jointly agreed to do this. 6 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Any other 8 questions? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I just -- one 10 other question. How much money do we save by doing them 11 jointly as opposed to having separate primaries? 12 MR. COLLUM: I do not know that specific 13 figure off the top of my head. Bob, would you -- I 14 apologize for dragging you up here. 15 MR. REEVES: No, that's fine. The cost 16 difference is very minimal, if any, between separate 17 because in the past we have held them at the same 18 locations, just separate primaries. This year the two 19 party chairs have met with Mr. Collum and decided to do 20 a joint primary, so the cost difference is very minimal. 21 As far as the cost participation, that will 22 be left up to the State parties and working with the two 23 County chairs. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Any other comments? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A question or a comment 21 1 I guess. If the state parties figure up the cost 2 portion of it, we can't do Exhibit A right now, but can 3 we -- so if that is the full contract how do you execute 4 it? 5 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know that there is 6 an Exhibit A. I can't pull it up on my computer. I 7 haven't looked at it. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean it -- it just 9 says it's the cost estimate for the services, equipment 10 and supplies provided by the contracting officer. So 11 that would be the County. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Delete that language. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know. I don't have 14 the contract pulled up. My computer's taking some time 15 to even let me -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Is there a deadline? 18 MR. COLLUM: Well, there is not a specific 19 deadline, however, there's a recommended deadline that 20 was -- passed us about a week or two ago; however, there 21 is no concrete deadline that says we've missed something 22 if we don't get it in by then. However the sooner the 23 better. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: We should pass on it 25 for the next meeting. 22 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we just pass 2 right now and see if the County Attorney can look at it 3 between now and the end of the day. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we're going to pass 5 it for the time being and maybe get back to it later 6 today, and if not, then we'll put it on another agenda. 7 So we'll pass on that. 8 MR. COLLUM: Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: The next item is 1.3 consider, 10 discuss and take appropriate action to approve and adopt 11 the District Clerk's Civil Filing Fees effective January 12 1, 2024 to include Sheriff's Office increase fee for 13 Citation Service and Writs. Miss Lantz. 14 MRS. LANTZ: Good morning, Commissioners, 15 Judge. This is something that was brought back in 16 October by County Clerk that she received notice from 17 the Sheriff's Office that these fees will be going up 18 January 1st. So I just need to implement that into our 19 fee schedule so we can charge that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 23 approve the District Clerk's Civil Filing Fee Schedule 24 as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 25 Opposed? Unanimous. 23 1 MRS. LANTZ: Thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.4 consider, discuss and 4 take appropriate action to approve an Interlocal 5 Agreement between Kerr County and the Texas Division of 6 Emergency Management, or TDEM as we call them, to 7 provide office space for the TDEM staff. Mr. Thomas. 8 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 9 morning, Commissioners. Our County liaison officer or 10 the TDEM County liaison officer has moved over to a 11 training position with TDEM. He's still officed in the 12 annex in Ingram at the old school district headquarters. 13 And so we needed an office for another -- our new County 14 liaison officer, until TDEM gets that employee hired on. 15 So we have office space there for both TDEM employees. 16 They just wanted us to do an Interlocal Agreement with 17 MOU to house that employee. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sheriff Leitha, I 19 assume the extra space, you'll be giving up some that 20 we -- 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: Correct. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- initially earmarked 23 for you? 24 SHERIFF LEITHA: Correct. And I don't have 25 a problem with that. We have plenty out there. 24 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 2 MR. THOMAS: And Captain Prowl(phonetic) 3 went out there and looked at it -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 5 MR. THOMAS: -- and found space for it, and 6 Miss Stebbins has looked at the Interlocal Agreement, 7 she has no -- no problems with it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Has the County Attorney 11 reviewed? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 13 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion and a 14 second to approve the contract as presented with TDEM or 15 Interlocal Agreement or MOU, whichever. Any other 16 discussion? Those in favor say aye. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: Go ahead. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- just to throw it out 20 as a question, and it doesn't matter to me, but we also 21 have office space available right over here in the old 22 PDO office. So I don't if they looked at that. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're trying to work on 24 the plan on the PDO at 550 Earl Garrett. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, and -- and I'm 25 1 happy with -- 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And one of them is 3 already housed out there. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, that's fine. I'm 5 just saying -- and I'll -- if there's a reason. If he's 6 happy out there, great. 7 MR. THOMAS: We've already got one TDEM out 8 there, so it'll just be two of them. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 10 in favor say aye. Opposed. Unanimous. 11 Next item is 1.5 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action regarding the cash purchase option 13 for the Kerr County Hazard Mitigation Plan update. Mr. 14 Thomas. 15 MR. THOMAS: Again, so for over a year and a 16 half we've tried to get a grant to pay for our hazard 17 mitigation plan. We had a grant to pay for it back in 18 2015, and that plan expires -- or it actually expired 19 December the 10th. It expired yesterday. Like I said, 20 we've been waiting for over a year and a half to get a 21 grant from TDEM -- I mean from FEMA, and I think two of 22 the funding streams, one grant we were denied, the 23 second grant they quit funding it, and the third grant 24 the FEMA about a month ago decided they were going to 25 extend the deadline for applications for that grant 26 1 until February. Which means they probably won't make 2 decisions on grant funds for another couple of months. 3 So in our conversations with GrantWorks, who 4 filed all that paperwork for us, GrantWorks is actually 5 the only one that applied through our RFQ for the 6 mitigation plan. They gave us a grant option and a cash 7 option. Well, that grant option, of course, is pretty 8 much moot now, because it's just going to take too long, 9 because our plan's already expired. But the cash option 10 was $90,000, and there were ten -- ten participants in 11 that mitigation plan, and here's the mitigation plan 12 itself. 13 So in my conversations with GrantWorks last 14 week, the last two weeks, about the cash option for 15 this, basically there are three -- there are three 16 participants in the plan that are private non-profits. 17 And as long as the County has a plan, they do not have 18 to be a part of the mitigation plan. However, they may 19 decide that they want to be a part of the plan but 20 that's purely up to them. 21 So it's $90,000 cash, split up between all 22 ten jurisdictions or participants, that's $9,000.00 23 apiece. If you take out the three private non-profits, 24 that drops the price down to $80,000 and split up 25 between seven participants, it's $11,428.00. So I guess 27 1 what I'm trying to do is -- is go ahead and get approval 2 to start working on this process to find out who wants 3 to participate in the plan. We need a plan, period. 4 We've already got a VFD generator project that's sitting 5 on FEMA'S desk right now probably ready to be getting 6 funded. That's a million dollar project. I think the 7 City of Kerrville has some project that they were 8 looking at for a generator as well for their Lift 9 Stations and things like that. 10 So anyway, so that's what I'm here today is 11 to get approval to get started on this and see who wants 12 to participate in the plan. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we don't know 14 exactly the final amount until -- 15 MR. THOMAS: No, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- we get started? 17 MR. THOMAS: No. In fact, it could be that 18 if everybody decides they don't want to participate and 19 it's just left between the City of Kerrville and Kerr 20 County, you're looking at $45,000 apiece. But the City 21 of Ingram is also supposed to participate, so could be 22 30,000 apiece. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you need a motion to 24 proceed with what? 25 MR. THOMAS: The cash option and then let's 28 1 see who wants to participate in the plan. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 3 authorize Dub Thomas to proceed with the cash option to 4 determine which entities will participate. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Need a commitment. I 6 second that. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 8 approve the cash option for the hazard mitigation plan. 9 Any discussion? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's really to authorize 11 Dub to negotiate the cash option with the other 12 entities. We're not approving the cash option yet. We 13 don't know the amount. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 15 MR. THOMAS: I was hoping to get approval to 16 do the cash option and then negotiate those. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I thought -- I think 18 what I heard you ask us to do was to approve the cash 19 option. 20 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And that would be the $90,000 22 price tag. 23 MR. THOMAS: And then -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: And then yet we had yet to 25 negotiate with the other people on how we're going to 29 1 divvy that up. 2 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: And again, what's the 4 cost if we go other than cash? 5 MR. THOMAS: Well, it's going to be 6 $155,000 -- 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 8 MR. THOMAS: -- with the grant. If you do 9 the 75/25 split, the 25 percent that the County would be 10 responsible for was a third but that -- the other 11 participants were responsible for was 38,000, split ten 12 ways, is $3,800 apiece. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And that's more like we've 14 done it in the past. 15 MR. THOMAS: That's the way we did it last 16 time, yes, sir, 2015. 17 JUDGE KELLY: But the problem this year is 18 that the grant opportunities are not available? 19 MR. THOMAS: Yes. We've -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: At this time? 21 MR. THOMAS: Yes. We've been trying this 22 for a year and a half. 23 JUDGE KELLY: You and I have talked about it 24 many times. 25 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 30 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me rescind my motion 2 because it's not accurate. 3 JUDGE KELLY: You're amending it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'm going to 5 rescind it and start over. Do we know if the City of 6 Kerrville is going to participate? I mean, I hate for 7 us to approve $90,000 and then -- 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, it's not a very 9 good bargaining -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 11 MR. THOMAS: Well, you have to spend money 12 to get money, I guess, is the way I look at it but -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you're sitting in 14 another group -- 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: What if we make a 16 motion that we only commit to a maximum of 45,000 -- 17 MR. THOMAS: Well -- 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- on the assumption 19 that at least Kerrville -- 20 MR. THOMAS: Well -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, then the danger -- 22 I mean, it just seems that -- I understand what we're 23 trying to do and it's important. But I'm just trying to 24 -- I don't want us to be stuck with the whole thing if 25 we authorize 90,000. 31 1 MR. THOMAS: If we second the whole thing 2 we're stuck with it. Because we need -- we need a plan. 3 We've got a million dollar project waiting on this. 4 JUDGE KELLY: That's why I want to back the 5 train up a little bit and explain to the people that if 6 we don't have the plan, then we don't get to participate 7 in TDEM grants. 8 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So -- and we've got a million 10 of TDEM grants on the books right now that, for all 11 practical purposes, look like they're going to be 12 approved. 13 MR. THOMAS: I think they're going to fund 14 it. Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And we don't want to lose 16 that. 17 MR. THOMAS: And I believe Road & -- I 18 believe the County Engineer has got some projects he 19 wants to fund as well. And they have to have a 20 mitigation plan for. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And the City of San Antonio is 22 in a similar position -- I mean not San Antonio, 23 Kerrville. 24 MR. THOMAS: Kerrville. 25 JUDGE KELLY: They've got projects -- 32 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They'll participate, I'm 2 sure. 3 JUDGE KELLY: So as -- as a local 4 government, if you don't participate for the -- in your 5 hazard mitigation plan, you don't get grants from the 6 State. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's their 8 incentive, right? 9 MR. THOMAS: Yes. They'll be -- 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. Gotcha. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The City of Kerrville 12 will. And the others, who knows. Where's the -- this 13 is not budgeted, I take it. So where -- what line 14 item -- if we're going to authorize $90,000 dollars, we 15 need to know what line item it's going to come out of. 16 As I look at the County Auditor. Professional -- it's 17 not really professional services. Contingency? 18 MRS. SHELTON: It would almost have to be 19 contingency at this point. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I make the motion 21 to authorize the -- to proceed with the cash option with 22 any funds required to come out of Kerr County 23 contingency funds. 24 JUDGE KELLY: There's a motion. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second the 33 1 motion. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And we've got a second. Any 3 discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I just hate this from 5 a negotiating standpoint. Here's -- here's our cards. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: But they have to have 7 it, too. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The City needs it. I'm 9 not worried about the -- the budget. But the other 10 ones -- 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The only other ones 12 that you thought might back out would be the 13 non-profits, right? 14 MR. THOMAS: Those three non-profits are 15 Schreiner University, Peterson Regional -- Peterson 16 Health, and UGRA. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That would back out of 18 it? 19 JUDGE KELLY: No. I don't think they -- 20 they may have a right to, but I don't think they will. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I don't -- yeah, okay. 22 MR. THOMAS: I have no idea until I talk to 23 them. We're trying to get a Zoom call with all of 24 those -- 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The total that could 34 1 go in on it are ten? 2 MR. THOMAS: There's ten, yes, ma'am. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Ten. So -- well, 4 amount 9,000 -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: And Dub, I guess the 6 reality is for each separate entity, there would be a 7 separate mitigation plan because they have different 8 hazards? 9 MR. THOMAS: Well, each -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Correct or not correct? 11 MR. THOMAS: -- each one of the participants 12 has to address all 15 hazards, the 15 natural hazards 13 that FEMA has, and they range from -- I mean hurricane 14 to fire to flood, erosion, all types of things. So some 15 of those might not need to address that particular 16 hazard. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I mean one big 18 generic countywide plan probably doesn't address 19 specific enough for, say, Kerrville or even Ingram -- 20 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- or Schreiner 22 University, I mean. 23 MR. THOMAS: That's correct. And we need to 24 identify mitigation projects that we can put in the 25 plan. And later on, if we decide that we need to get a 35 1 mitigation grant for, say, repair -- repairs on the dam 2 or something, if that's already identified in the plan, 3 then FEMA can see that and it puts a lot more weight 4 to -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, we need to do 7 it. I agree. And I think at the end certainly the 8 majority is going to participate. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I think you're right. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, please remember that 12 the -- if they don't participate in the plan, they don't 13 qualify for TDEM grants. 14 MR. THOMAS: Well, that's correct. The 15 issue is -- the thing is, though, if they want 16 mitigation grant and then we don't have -- they don't 17 have -- they're not participating in the plan, they can 18 ask the County to do it for them. But I can tell you, 19 we don't have the time or the human resources to -- 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I don't -- 21 MR. THOMAS: -- administer -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- think there's -- 23 MR. THOMAS: -- somebody else's -- 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- going to be -- 25 MR. THOMAS: -- grant. 36 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- to do that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Everybody heard enough? 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So those in favor say aye. 6 Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you, Dub. 7 MR. THOMAS: I got one more, Judge. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, you do. 9 1.6 is consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action to approve an Interlocal Agreement 11 between Kerr County and Kerrville Independent School 12 District regarding the Hazard Mitigation Action Plan. 13 Dub Thomas. 14 MR. THOMAS: Judge, I think that one 15 probably needs to be passed on, because that's -- that 16 Interlocal Agreement was for the $38,000 for the 17 mitigation plan if the grant went through. So 18 GrantWorks had already done all the ILAs or Interlocal 19 Agreements for those, and I guess somewhere along the 20 line between changing the superintendents that probably 21 got pushed to the back of the -- or the bottom of the 22 list, and they're just now getting to it. So -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: We'll pass on -- 24 MR. THOMAS: -- pass on that now, yes, sir. 25 JUDGE KELLY: -- that. Okay. Pass. 37 1 Moving on to Item 1.7 consider, discuss and 2 take appropriate action on a request from the Texas Pork 3 Producers Association to use Flat Rock Park from 4 February the 8th at 10:00 a.m. to February the 11th 5 until 10:00 p.m. for the overflow livestock trailer 6 parking during the Texas Elite Showcase. Jake 7 Williamson. 8 MR. WILLIAMSON: Good morning, Your Honor, 9 Commissioners Court. I'm here today for our annual 10 request to use Flat Rock Park for that overflow trailer 11 for those that are participating in the Texas Elite 12 Showcase, we don't have enough parking for trailers on 13 the campus at the event center, so this gives them 14 additional space for not only hosting those trailers but 15 a staging area so they can call people up to unload in a 16 safe manner. It's worked very great the last four or 17 five years and we'd like to keep that going, if 18 possible. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 20 It's something we do each year. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 23 second to approve the Texas Pork Producers Association 24 Texas Elite Showcase and use of Flat Rock Park like they 25 have before, from February the 8th to February 11th, 38 1 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Any other discussion? Those 2 in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 3 Item 1.8 presentation of FY 22-23 Hill 4 Country Youth Event Center annual report. Jake 5 Williamson. 6 MR. WILLIAMSON: You all see the packet in 7 front of you. I don't like to get too far in the 8 backside of that with the introduction of the 9 fairgrounds and all the camp, as you -- as most people 10 are aware of that, unless there are specific questions. 11 But would like to just discuss our year. We 12 had a very successful year. Welcomed some new groups as 13 well as kept most all of our historical events intact. 14 Some of the new adds was Gunny's Warriors in the Field 15 of Honor out in River Star Park. We had Motor Xtreme 16 Circus, which was a traveling motorcycle stunt show, as 17 well as our classic events of, you know, Kerr County 18 Stock Show, the Kerrville Renaissance Festival, the Hill 19 Country Gala, that performed out there in the grandstand 20 show as well. So a lot of great events still going on. 21 We ended up doing 422 event days this year. 22 So for those that aren't familiar, there's -- that's 23 more than days that are in a year because we have more 24 than one facility, so we can do more than one event a 25 day; therefore, that's how we get that number. 39 1 We did more revenue than we've ever done 2 before. A lot of that is due to the activation of the 3 mixed beverage liquor license. We came online last 4 January. That helped bring in that additional revenue 5 throughout the year to get to those levels. So you'll 6 see that in the packet, that's the highest that number 7 has ever been. 8 The expenses were the highest they've ever 9 been due to inflation. We just simply couldn't keep 10 those costs down anymore, as well as the building's age 11 and we just have more maintenance calls than before. 12 However, we still made our budgetary 13 variance by $823 this year, so there was no need for 14 additional ask for funds from the Court for any reason 15 so we call that a success in those regards. 16 So if you see your market segments sheet, 17 that's one of my favorites. I like to split up kind of, 18 you know, who's coming, you know, what do you have out 19 there. Do you have an event mixer or is it all just one 20 thing. So you will see that I do have quite a different 21 event mix based on the fact that we are largely that 22 community center for 4-H, for local non-profits, and 23 County functions. 24 So the highlight, you know, 33 percent of 25 our attendance was to those non-profit free events that 40 1 don't pay to use the facility, which we think is 2 phenomenal. So half of our revenue does come from 3 banquets, as you will see there. So that's big things 4 to note, where your money comes from and who is having 5 their events out there. 6 The next sheet, we just kind of like to look 7 at years past, you know, where we've been, where are we 8 going, so we can help better predict expenses, revenues, 9 just you know how we can manage the facility for y'all. 10 So you'll see there that we go back a couple years for 11 different types of events and spread those out to where 12 we're at. 13 Our event days, the fiscal year comparisons 14 are there. We definitely like the show, you know, after 15 post COVID we did have a bump in media areas. A lot of 16 people wanted to get out and do those events again, 17 where this last year we've seen just a little bit of 18 tail off from most folks, coming back to normal levels. 19 That's across the board. I've been dealing with 20 Convention and Visitor's Bureau as well as hotels paid, 21 and all of those are coming back to the different levels 22 than before. 23 To note, at the end the our first fiscal 24 year we have reached 207 percent income growth. So no 25 new facilities to rent. Nothing changed except we have 41 1 raised revenue 270 percent income growth. 2 And then the -- these are real data. They 3 did change vendors so it looks a little bit different 4 this year. So this is real numbers, from phone numbers. 5 So there's probably some discretions there. But 38 6 percent of the folks coming to the facility, and these 7 are just visitors, these don't pertain to local people, 8 so this is just tackling those that come there because 9 we like to focus on economic impact. 38 percent of the 10 people use a place or within 50 to a hundred miles, and 11 25 percent two hundred to three hundred. And 25 more 12 percent a hundred and two hundred. So that's your 13 biggest chunk of folks there. 14 92 percent of the people polled are from the 15 State of Texas. The next highest would be Oklahoma at 16 1.1 percent of those folks inbound to visit the Event 17 Center. 18 We did improve our position with how your 19 top -- the points of interest in town. We did come in 20 above the Prayer Garden this year and the baseball and 21 softball field. So that's -- I like to hang my hat on 22 that, that we've got just as many people coming to that 23 venue that go out to those other places. So that's a 24 good little chunk of the people, you know. I'll give a 25 shout out to Gibson's. They are the top point of 42 1 interest in town and there's no denying it. And that's 2 okay. So good for them. We're happy for that. 3 We do like to break down the numbers even 4 more. And to show that 25 percent of the people, you'll 5 note it from the 38 percent, do come from San Antonio. 6 So that's our biggest chunk. But the majors, Austin, 7 Dallas, and Houston are right behind them. And also 8 San Angelo. 9 So as we move into our 9th year of 10 management we are in a contract extension window. So we 11 are looking to work on that throughout the next fiscal 12 year, as well as we'll continue to identify what's to be 13 done with the indoor arena that has been on hold since 14 the bond did not pass, so that facility remains airless, 15 for no better term. 16 We are trying to work on more capital 17 improvement projects. We have earmarked the highway 18 marquee, a very important step for something that needs 19 renovation. River Star Park is due for some maintenance 20 projects. We are revamping the entrance due to 4-H 21 adding the chicken coop area and stuff so it'll all be 22 good and it's all going to work out great and look real 23 well. 24 And beyond that, we do have -- it was 25 brought up -- we have had quite a few calls that people 43 1 do miss the fair. And we don't know the level to which 2 they miss the fair, we've just gotten a good amount of 3 calls, enough to make it something that we need to look 4 into if we can find somebody to restart that non-profit 5 or find some alternative means of possibly bringing the 6 fair back in full capacity or some sort of augmented 7 capacity. So that's what we're looking at for this 8 year. 9 And just -- we're taking care of all the 10 groups that come out there. We just had a very large 11 holiday party that was very well attended. Had a great 12 time, and we're looking forward to stock show season. 13 It's hitting us in the mouth here this week and on from 14 there. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I have a question for 16 you. On this page right here, the -- when you say the 17 number of events was 422 this year, what's the 156 in 18 parenthesis? 19 MR. WILLAMSON: That's paid. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. Thank you. 21 MR. WILLIAMSON: That's how many clients we 22 had contracted with. 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And what is that 24 ballpark price of a rental out there, if it's a -- if 25 it's a paid rental? 44 1 MR. WILLIAMSON: Sure. Like everything -- 2 I think the lowest we've gone for a rental is $150. And 3 our highest paying group pays 12 five. That's base 4 rent. So it depends on what you're renting, a 5 classroom, the actual hall -- 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Like if you rent the 7 whole thing for the big gala -- 8 MR. WILLIAMSON: If somebody called me right 9 now and said I want to rent the whole place -- 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Uh-huh. Start at 12 11 five? 12 MR. WILLIAMSON: -- for some sort of 13 function, you know, $16,000 is -- 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 15 MR. WILLIAMSON: -- what we're looking at 16 for a Saturday. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Some of the people 19 have to realize, and historically, there's a reason this 20 starts out in the Kerr County Youth Exhibit Center. 21 People -- the land was donated for Kerr County youth and 22 it's a big priority. We asked Jake to make as much 23 money as we can, but we also tied one of his hands 24 behind his back because of our youth, like the 4-H group 25 that came in earlier, the FFA, the stock show that we 45 1 have annually. They have priority. And that's the way 2 it's been historically. And -- and we're proud of that. 3 And so you can't look at everything in dollars and cents 4 when you look at those, because we don't charge the 5 youth anything, you know. So -- 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Jake, just a question 7 on the market segments. The outdoor arena. How many 8 events did we have there? Was it just the two that 9 you're showing? 10 MR. WILLIAMSON: Just the two. The Oscar 11 Meyer rodeo in July. Our equine business is dead. We 12 had none. We have no barn. We have no stalls to stall 13 horses, so people have gone elsewhere. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. So did we have 15 events in the old AG barn, the indoor arena? Not the 16 show barn but the indoor arena? 17 MR. WILLIAMSON: Sure. It's mostly used for 18 community events, like 4-H ag day uses that area. 19 Historically, we've had -- have had a couple dog 20 agilities. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The circus? 22 MR. WILLIAMSON: Circus uses the concrete 23 barn. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Do they? 25 MR. WILLIAMSON: So quite frankly, it's not 46 1 even listed on there because it wasn't even qualifying. 2 But it was a parking garage for the Sheriff's Office for 3 about three months because of the hail damage. That's 4 the most use that place has had is as a parking lot. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean, had we had 6 equestrian events that contacted and expressed interest 7 that decided not to -- 8 MR. WILLIAMSON: Not in years. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- to use the 10 facilities? 11 MR. WILLIAMSON: Not in years. We used to 12 have a barrel racing group, but they've moved on and 13 they're in Utopia now. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And most of the equine has 15 gone to Dripping Springs. They've got an incredible 16 spot. 17 MR. WILLIAMSON: They all have. It's a 18 great group. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The equine group, 20 they're very close knit groups and they know we don't 21 have stalls; therefore, we can't have horses. So no one 22 even calls. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And we can't compete with what 24 Dripping Springs did. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 47 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't see it 2 happening, but if the plan -- the original plan was to 3 cover the outdoor arena and have stalls, and try to 4 increase that event, and then that was a -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Kind of thing that 6 never really pays out, it's so expensive to do it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And it 8 doesn't -- it doesn't have a whole lot of community use 9 so it's kind of -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. Especially when 11 we have the event center and show barn and both are 12 great facilities. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll just say that I 15 think Gibson's probably benefits from the Hill Country 16 Youth Event Center and that's buried in their 17 statistics. Everybody who comes to the Event Center, 18 they -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Go to Gibson's. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- go there at Gibson's 21 and you go there to get the missing bolts or boots or 22 whatever they need. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: My grand-daughters in 24 first and third grade, that's where they have to go when 25 they come to visit. So everybody enjoys it. 48 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's all good. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now, do we need to 3 accept this report? 4 MR. WILLIAMSON: It's just a presentation. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. So just 6 information. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We probably should 8 because I believe y'all are required to submit it. 9 MR. WILLIAMSON: We submit the next item. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, but we don't -- 12 you aren't required to submit annual reports because I 13 think you are. I would recommend that we -- 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, just -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 16 we accept the annual report as presented. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's a motion. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: And I'll second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 21 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 22 Moving on to the next item 1.9 consider, 23 discuss and take appropriate action for awarding 24 Qualitative Incentives per the contract with Global 25 Spectrum (Oak View Group) for FY 22-23. Jake 49 1 Williamson. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, Jake and I are 3 both on this. And this is incentives, there's five 4 different areas where we can give as much as $3,000.00 5 incentives here. And I've gone over it, and I -- this 6 is -- I went over it with Commissioner Letz as well, he 7 was the past liaison out here, and he invited me to sit 8 in last year when he went through this with Jake and I 9 asked him to go over it with me one more time and we 10 both came in agreement. 11 The first category is results of customer 12 service scores, and we both felt that Jake does an 13 outstanding job, and we wanted to give all $3,000.00 14 available in that category. 15 Second one is quality of food and beverage. 16 This is one that we think it's doing very good, but we 17 didn't start doing the beverage part, the drinks, until 18 January of this year, so we recommend half of it, 1500 19 incentive towards that. 20 Repairs and maintenance. The building is 21 getting older and what have you, and we're getting a few 22 more dings there that we need to keep on top of. Jake 23 does a good job of that, and we said 2500 in that 24 category. 25 Creative sales and marketing. Again, Jake 50 1 does a good job with that, and we said $2500 there out 2 of the 3,000. 3 And the last one was control of operating 4 expenses. And we think he does an excellent job there 5 and we recommended all three thousand. So out of the 6 15,000 available, that totals up 12 five. And so it's 7 my recommendation and I move that we give the incentives 8 as I laid out that come to a total of 12,500. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 11 approve the payment of the Qualitative Incentives as 12 presented, for a total of 12,500. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess my only 14 question is, that money goes to the Oak View Group and 15 then you guys distribute it however you want, or how 16 does that work? 17 MR. WILLIAMSON: Sure. So part of the 18 contract, you guys contracted us for a flat management 19 fee, so that's what you pay annually and then the 20 incentives are on top of that. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 22 MR. WILLIAMSON: You know, check and 23 balance. You know, keeps us on our game. That goes 24 right to the Oak View Group. And -- 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess I was trying to 51 1 understand whether it stays amongst the people that are 2 out there working like yourself and your team? 3 MR. WILLIAMSON: No. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: It doesn't. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But indirectly, if we 6 give a bad review, he may not get as much of a -- I mean 7 indirectly. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I'd prefer if 9 somehow, you know, all that -- I don't know if we can 10 address that in future contracts but -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a good point. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It will be coming up 13 though. You know, as he stated earlier, we have an 14 opportunity to extend the contract, and it'll be coming 15 up in due time. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And these funds are 17 already budgeted. They're already incorporated. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I'm okay with the 19 money end of it. Like I said, I just wanted to 20 understand if it stayed within our -- the people that 21 are out there working -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good question. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- day in and day out. 24 You know, I think it should. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Uh-huh. 52 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 2 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank 3 you, Jake. 4 The last item before the break is Item 1.10 5 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 6 investigate the possibilities and opportunities to 7 participate in a matching grant with the Alamo Area 8 Council of Government for Texas Department of 9 Transportation services expansion project for public 10 transportation in the area. 11 I put this on the agenda two weeks ago. 12 Mayor Eychner and I met with Sean Scott, who is the head 13 of transportation services at AACOG, of which we're a 14 member and 13 counties, and all rural transportation 15 expansion grants are handled through TxDOT. TxDOT gets 16 all the money. And then TxDOT decides how much money 17 they're going to give to various local COGs, the 18 councils of government. 19 And the COG, our COG, AACOG, the Alamo Area 20 COG, has done a very successful transportation expansion 21 program in Atascosa County, and in Wilson County, and 22 they have targeted this year Guadalupe County, whose 23 another fast-growing county, and Kerr County. They 24 actually underwrote the expansion that went into Comal 25 County. The Comal now has their own independent ability 53 1 to contract with TxDot for grants. Not -- not through 2 AACOG. They have to do their open transportation plan. 3 But this is an opportunity to have public 4 transportation in Kerr County, and what Sean talked to 5 us about, he made presentation, all I'm asking here is 6 that we have the opportunity to bring him back and talk 7 to everybody. Talk to the entire court and even the 8 public about what might be available. 9 These matching grants are 50/50 grants. 10 AACOG pays 50 percent, and then the participating local 11 government would pay 50 percent, which in our case would 12 be -- we'd split it with the City, so it would be 13 25/25/50. A lot of people don't know that AACOG has an 14 office here over at ART, the Alamo Rapid Transit office, 15 which is catty-corner across from Buzzy's. And believe 16 it or not, they run over 500 trips a month right now at 17 no expense to the County. It's all funded through 18 AACOG. 19 And what they're proposing is to come in and 20 expand that service to run five additional routes. Five 21 routes, regular routes, and two round-trips to San 22 Antonio a day. So that would be a massive increase in 23 what the public transportation is available to have five 24 established routes. These routes would include being 25 able to commute to Bandera and Fredericksburg, to bring 54 1 our workforce back and forth. And so this is just an 2 opportunity to have it presented. And they asked me if 3 we were interested to send a letter of interest, which I 4 did and it's attached in the information. 5 And the City is very excited about it. I 6 met with Dalton Rice, and they want to take a look at 7 it. And so this is just -- and I have the presentation 8 here, if anybody would like to see it, of what all 9 they're talking about doing that they want us to know. 10 But this is just an opportunity, this is not a 11 commitment to do anything yet. 12 But if we have the opportunity to bring 13 public transportation to Kerr County area, not just the 14 City but the area, and be able to have our employees and 15 local workers be able to commute from these neighboring 16 counties, that would be a huge boost, and one of the 17 reasons that they're not living here is because of the 18 affordable housing problem. But this would give them a 19 chance to commute and it's more affordable to live and 20 work here. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Is the drop off site 22 in Kerr County? Would it be their offices? Is that the 23 pickup place? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that would -- that would 25 be the terminal. 55 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: That would be the terminal. 3 But they're would be five set routes is what he 4 proposed. And, of course, when somebody makes a pitch 5 to you like this, you always want to know what's it 6 going to cost. And he says that he can do it for just a 7 little over $800,000. And so, the Mayor and I said, so 8 you're saying that for $200,000 from the City and 9 $200,000 from the County, we could have this public 10 transportation system? And he nodded his head and said 11 yes. And I want him to come talk to us about it and see 12 if that's something we really want to do or not. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, as long as 14 there's not any commitment then -- because I'd like to 15 find a lot more and look at that, what you have there, 16 you know, and it's -- it wouldn't be a City route. It 17 would be -- 18 JUDGE KELLY: No. It's an ART route. 19 A-R-T. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 21 JUDGE KELLY: The Alamo Rapid Transit -- or 22 Regional Transit. And just like you see the ART bus 23 around town. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'd like to know more 56 1 about how many people utilize that service. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, they're doing 500 trips 3 right now. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And what's their 5 capacity? Is the bus -- it's pretty large, right? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it would be a number of 7 busses. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Different busses. 10 I just think we ought to take the next step and see what 11 they have to offer -- 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I agree. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and what the cost is 14 and how often it's used. I know that it's used and it's 15 needed. There's a lot of the elderly population 16 especially who rely on it. But you know -- 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If we had an idea 18 about how many people would use it, I'd hate to see a 19 bus going up and down the road with three people in it. 20 You know. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I bet Gibson's is on the 22 route. 23 JUDGE KELLY: One of the things that I 24 thought was attractive about it is this would be working 25 with a local area council of government. We're not 57 1 having to go through the Office of the Governor, we're 2 not having to go through the Federal bureaucracy, this 3 is a local partnership to try to improve public 4 transportation in rural areas. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are there any surveys or 6 anything to determine the need? I mean -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: He's got some information on 8 that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm interested in that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: I will tell you, when we did 11 the I-10 corridor study for the central section of I-10, 12 which is from Seguin to Ozona, and when I worked on 13 that, this area is projected to be one of the most 14 rapidly growing areas in the state of Texas. This Hill 15 Country area. So what I was trying to do is to bring it 16 to y'all's attention and get approval to explore this 17 and have him set up a workshop, and be able to answer 18 the questions and see if this is something that we want 19 to do or not. So I make a motion that we explore this 20 possibility. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that 22 motion. I think we should explore it. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 24 favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 25 And with that, we are on time to take our 58 1 morning break. We'll take a morning break for five 2 minutes and then we'll come back and talk about 1.11. 3 (Recess) 4 JUDGE KELLY: 1.12 consider, discuss and 5 take appropriate action for the Court to authorize the 6 VA Pathway sidewalk project to be advertised for bids. 7 Mr. Hastings. 8 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. The 9 Veterans Pathway sidewalk project connects the Kerrville 10 Veterans Administration Medical Center located at the 11 intersection of Highway 27 and Tucker Street with both 12 Flat Rock Park and the Kerrville River Trail. The 13 construction plans and specifications have been 14 completed by Mendez Engineering and all necessary 15 easements have been identified and secured for 16 construction of the project. 17 The County Engineer requests the Court 18 authorize the VA Pathway sidewalk project to be 19 advertised for bids. This is Precinct 2. And we'd like 20 to open those bids on January the 8th. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Well, I move to 22 approve the authorization of the Veterans Pathway 23 sidewalk project to be advertised for bids. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 59 1 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second -- 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Either one. 3 JUDGE KELLY: -- to approve the Veterans 4 Pathway sidewalk project to be advertised for bids. Any 5 discussion? 6 This item was one that was complained about 7 as not being sufficiently identified because we didn't 8 put the cost in there. And we don't know the cost, 9 that's why we're getting the bids. Isn't that right, 10 Charlie? 11 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I thought so. Just 13 wanted to make sure. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, it has been 15 discussed numerous times here in Commissioners' Court. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And approved. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: And we have a budget 18 for $250,000 for this project. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's right. 20 JUDGE KELLY: So with that, any other 21 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 22 Unanimous. 23 Next item is 1.13 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action regarding acceptance of Paloma Ranch 25 Road out of the Paloma Ranch subdivision for county 60 1 maintenance, that's 0.683 miles long, and release Bond 2 No. 1001193974 in the amount of $170,330.10 as financial 3 guarantee for a one-year maintenance period which began 4 December 22 of last year, 2022. Plat File No. 21-10485 5 in Precinct 4. Mr. Hastings. 6 MR. HASTINGS: All right. Thank you, Judge. 7 This subdivision has been around now for 8 about two years. It was brought to the Court in 2021 as 9 a preliminary plat. It was brought to the Court again 10 last year on November 22nd, 2021. The Court approved a 11 final plat of the Paloma Ranch subdivision and accepted 12 Letter of Credit No. 400640200 in the amount of 13 $567,767.00 for the associated construction. 14 On November 10th, 2022, Engineering and 15 Road & Bridge staff conducted a final walk-through. 16 When noted deficiencies were addressed and as-built 17 record drawings were submitted, Paloma Ranch subdivision 18 was found to be in conformance with the Kerr County 19 Subdivision Rules and Regulations. And it has always 20 been proposed that this road be publicly maintained. 21 Since the developer was seeking county 22 maintenance, a financial guarantee for a one-year 23 maintenance period (in the amount of 30 percent of the 24 construction cost) was required to be provided. 25 On December 12th of 2022, the Court approved 61 1 reducing Letter of Credit No. 400640200 to $170,330.10 2 in order to provide a financial guarantee for a one-year 3 maintenance period. Then later, on April the 10th, 4 2023, the Court released Letter of Credit No. 400640200 5 and accepted Bond No. 1001193974 in the amount of 6 $170,330.10 for the remainder of the one-year 7 maintenance period. So it replaced a Letter of Credit 8 with the bond. 9 On November the 2nd, 2023, nearing the end 10 of the maintenance period, Engineering and Road & Bridge 11 staff conducted a walk-through and maintenance concerns 12 were noted. The maintenance concerns have since been 13 addressed by the developer. 14 This subdivision includes one new public 15 road, Paloma Ranch Road, 3,604 linear feet, 0.683 miles 16 long, with roadside ditches, and a 40-foot span x 5-foot 17 tall bridge, consisting of four 10-foot x 5-foot tall 18 concrete box culverts, with 100 linear feet of guardrail 19 on either side of that bridge, proposed to be owned and 20 maintained by the County. 21 All roads and drainage have been constructed 22 in conformance with the Kerr County Subdivision Rules 23 and Regulations. The storm water drainage detention 24 ponds in this subdivision are privately owned and will 25 continue to be privately maintained. 62 1 County Engineer requests that the Court 2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 3 acceptance of Paloma Ranch Road (0.683 miles long) out 4 of the Paloma Ranch subdivision for county maintenance, 5 and release Bond No. 1001193974 in the amount of 6 $170,330.10 as financial guarantee for a one-year 7 maintenance period which began December the 22nd, 2022. 8 Plat File No. 21-10485, Precinct 4. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 12 approve acceptance of the Paloma Ranch Road for county 13 maintenance as presented and release the bond. Any 14 discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I'd just like to 16 better understand what was the context in which the 17 County has already more or less committed to taking on 18 the maintenance of this road? It's something in general 19 we're trying to get away from. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's something generally 22 that some Commissioners are trying to get rid of, but 23 this Commissioner is not. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Yeah. 25 MR. HASTINGS: I can address that also. The 63 1 Court did not start having discussions about not 2 accepting new roads until after this subdivision had 3 been -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Already been going on 5 for awhile. So this one falls into what we've been 6 doing. 7 MR. HASTINGS: This one kind of was in under 8 the wire as far as that -- 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Of course. 10 MR. HASTINGS: -- those kind of discussions 11 were had. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. And I've 13 been out there. 14 MR. HASTINGS: All this time we're thinking 15 that it's going to be publicly maintained. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I've been out 17 there a couple times with you, inspections and what have 18 you, and Charlie and Kelly's group have done a good job 19 of keeping their feet to the fire to make sure it's 20 going to be up to our standards. 21 MR. HASTINGS: The other thing is that when 22 the plat was filed, if we know a road is going to be 23 privately maintained or be special language on that 24 plat, and this one does not have it because they were 25 under the assumption since the preliminary plat was 64 1 approved and the final plat was approved, that the roads 2 would be publicly maintained. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think to your 4 point, I think we need to have a workshop to discuss the 5 issue. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I would very 7 much like that. Because I get hit all the time by 8 constituents asking for the County to maintain a road 9 and on what basis are we going to start saying yes 10 versus no? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's always been very -- 12 I mean our current policy is that if it's brought up to 13 County standards, we accept it. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've done several road 16 districts to do that. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's their option. 18 I mean we're getting off topic here a little bit. But 19 that's their option. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we need to have a 21 workshop. A discussion. Agenda item. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, but it -- if we 23 do a public road but these roads that are within 24 subdivisions -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: And just to clarify, Charlie, 65 1 this is only just a little over half a mile. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 3 JUDGE KELLY: It's 3000 feet. So we'll save 4 the other discussion for another day. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a motion and a 6 second, Judge. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 8 second. Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. 9 Opposed? Unanimous. 10 Moving on to Item 1.14 consider, discuss and 11 take appropriate action on a list of subdivisions that 12 were vested by the Court on December 12th, 2022 into the 13 2007 Kerr County Subdivision Rules and Regulations. Mr. 14 Hastings. 15 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. A year ago 16 I brought a list of subdivisions. That list is before 17 you again. I've marked through or lined through the 18 subdivisions that have been platted since then. They're 19 not on the list anymore now. You can see the date 20 associated with that. The latest one being Yellow Roses 21 Estates, which was done November the 13th, and the 22 earliest one, the 4L Estates was January the 9th so -- 23 and everything in between. 24 So the four that are left are Coltam Ridge, 25 that's about 1800 acres, seven lots, the smallest plot 66 1 is 160 acres. They're proposed private roads. That's 2 in Precinct 3. 3 Hirsch Ranch, 2500 acres, two lots, the 4 smallest lot is 948 acres. That's a proposed private 5 road. And that road has been built, we just need to do 6 a final walk-through on it. It's real close to being 7 finalized. That's Precinct 4. 8 Steel Creek Estates, 150 acres, 19 lots, the 9 smallest lot is seven acres. I put an asterisk next to 10 that seven acres. It was a proposed public road at the 11 time. It's in Precinct 2. That subdivision is just on 12 radio silence. We have approved construction plans. If 13 they were ready to have a pre-construction meeting and 14 go get started, they could; however, they haven't filed 15 their plat, and when they do, the new Headwaters 16 regulations is going to require ten acres per lot. So 17 that might be why they're sitting on it. I don't know. 18 And Twin Creeks Estates, 857 acres, 98 lots, 19 smallest lot is five acres. Proposed private roads. 20 Precinct 2. I put an asterisk next to the five acres 21 because they may run into that same issue. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And that is the subdivision 23 that has sued us and is on appeal. 24 MR. HASTINGS: That is correct. 25 County Engineer requests that the Court 67 1 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on the 2 remaining unplatted list of subdivisions that were 3 vested by the Court on December 12th, 2022, into the 4 2007 Kerr County Subdivision Rules and Regulations: 5 Coltam Ridge, Hirsch Ranch, Steel Creek Estates, Twin 6 Creek Estates. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Charlie, I guess my 8 question is specific to Steel Creek Estates, you know, 9 how long do we keep them on this list if they haven't 10 submitted even a plat? 11 MR. HASTINGS: I don't know. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: You know, at what point 13 do we just say, okay, you're subject to whatever the new 14 regulations are at the time that you submit a plat? 15 MR. HASTINGS: And they had submitted a 16 preliminary plat. They submitted a final plat. We have 17 review comments. We haven't -- they haven't sent 18 comments back on that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When was the last time 20 you had communication with them? 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, what was that 22 date? 23 MR. HASTINGS: I'll have to look that up. 24 It's been awhile. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Been awhile. 68 1 MR. HASTINGS: But I can give the Court a 2 report on that. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean it seems to me 4 based on what you said, Coltam Ridge has gone silent, as 5 far as I know, I haven't seen them doing -- or heard 6 anything from that one. Sounds like Steel Creek kind of 7 the same thing. And Twin Creeks is kind of in a 8 different category. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me, Hirsch Ranch is 11 the only one that we need to continue with. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, and it's almost 13 done, so -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. And it's -- 15 it's good. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's almost done. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Its smallest 18 lot is 948 acres. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And so we recognize that this 20 is the list and as you see, most of them have been 21 completed this past year, which is good. We just have a 22 few that haven't. What is it you're asking us to do 23 today? We know -- we already had this. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 25 JUDGE KELLY: So in addition to this, what 69 1 are you asking us to do? 2 MR. HASTINGS: The Court asked me to come 3 back in one year, right. And so that's what I'm here 4 for. If you look back at the minutes, which I looked at 5 them last week, part of the discussion was that you 6 wanted us to come back in a year, but I -- there was 7 also some discussion that if a developer should -- if 8 they want to continue to be vested, they should come and 9 request to be -- to continue to be vested. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 11 MR. HASTINGS: So that -- that was also 12 discussed. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And that's the process, the 14 procedure that I would recommend. If we take no further 15 action on this list, we don't ratify anything, we don't 16 say anything, we just leave it the way it is and see if 17 they come in. We've got one of them that sued us, and 18 we won at trial court level but we're still having to 19 deal with them on appeal. I don't know if they're 20 coming back or not. They'll have to do something. 21 We've got one that's not doing anything and I'd just 22 soon let them go. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I -- yeah, I mean 24 that's -- I think we're saying the same thing. 25 JUDGE KELLY: I think we are. 70 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: But what's the 2 mechanism to formally let them go? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Can we institute a 5 deadline? 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Something. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Is there -- is there a 8 legal precedent? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: If there were, ask them 10 both to come back to the Court and tell us what -- what 11 they're planning to do. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: I think if they filed their 13 application timely -- 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Correctly. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: -- and the Court took action 16 to allow them to stay in the old rules, I think that 17 they would have been under the old rules anyway. But if 18 they filed the application timely, they -- they would 19 have a good argument. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. Then they can 21 stay. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If their application -- 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Their plat application. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: If they filed it, 25 it's still good is what she's saying. 71 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But most -- but these, 2 Hirsch Ranch is the only one that's filed -- well, Twin 3 Creeks is kind of in a category by its own. It just 4 needs to be signed by the courts. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So Hirsch Ranch is the 7 only one that has a -- has submitted a final 8 application. Coltam Ridge and Steel Creek haven't ever 9 submitted a final plat either, correct? 10 MR. HASTINGS: I'd like to look at Steel 11 Creek and see exactly what I have in the file on that. 12 I do have -- I know I have a set of approved 13 construction plans, I -- I don't recall exactly what it 14 is we have for the plat. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, my position is, I would 16 like to just maintain the status quo of what we have. 17 No more. No less. If somebody --if one of these on 18 the list comes and talks to us, we know that they 19 started under the old rules and we -- we can work with 20 them that way. If they don't come talk to us, we want 21 this to just basically go along. 22 The two problems are we've got two of them 23 on there that will not be able to get well permits. Or 24 they don't meet the current requirements for well 25 permits. And they're probably going to have to be 72 1 replatted anyway. And as far as the replat, I want to 2 take the replat if we can under the new rules. But I 3 don't know if we'll be able to do that. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or we can do nothing for 5 right now. But at some point I think it -- you know, 6 like with Coltam Ridge, I mean I think they oughta be 7 told that, you know, given a time period, you know, but 8 that they're going to be under the new rules. Which 9 makes sense. I mean it makes it very difficult for you, 10 Charlie, and for the County to have two sets of rules 11 that we're having to be under. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And we're almost out of it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we're almost out 14 of it but there's maybe two out of this group that -- in 15 fact, I have no problem passing and doing nothing today, 16 but I think maybe we should reach out and say, hey, you 17 know, you have until January 30 to let us know that 18 you're continuing or something like that. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: I agree with that. 20 MR. HASTINGS: I can ask the developers to 21 let us know their -- where are you on this. Give us a 22 status update. What do you plan on doing? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. And that -- 24 obviously we intend on maybe having a cutoff date. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Since we've asked, sometimes 73 1 we've had stuff sit around and we've called the surveyor 2 or the applicant and said, what's going on here. And 3 they said we're going to withdraw our application. So 4 send us that in writing. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Okay. 6 MR. HASTINGS: And that may happen. If I 7 ask. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So we're taking no action 10 today. Status quo. 11 Moving on to Item 1.15 consider, discuss and 12 take appropriate action for the Court to receive an 13 update on the East Kerr County/Center Point Wastewater 14 Collection Project. And we're going to do that in 15 Executive Session? 16 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, please. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So then we'll hold that 18 over for Executive. 19 1.16 consider, discuss and take appropriate 20 action to select an engineering service provider to 21 complete project applications and implementation for 22 engineering and grant administration services for the 23 Flood Mitigation Assistance grant, the Building 24 Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant, and the 25 Hazard Mitigation grant program and the Flood 74 1 Infrastructure Fund. Those are all FMA, BRIC, HMGP, and 2 FIF. 3 MS. PUTNAM: Good morning. So we went out 4 for bid for the -- 5 MR. HASTINGS: Not bid. 6 MS. PUTNAM: Or not -- I'm sorry. 7 MR. HASTINGS: Qualification. 8 MS. PUTNAM: Went out for qualification for 9 the administration services and engineering to go out 10 and get -- get these particular grants as you mentioned. 11 We did receive quite a few proposals. We narrowed it 12 down to three, conducted interviews on November 29th, 13 and had some amazing proposals but the committee has 14 decided to go with one, and they have chosen Halff 15 Engineering from San Antonio. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Can you spell that 17 name? 18 MS. PUTNAM: H-A-L-F-F. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. Thank you. 20 MS. PUTNAM: And it was a universal 21 decision. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I make a motion 23 that we accept the recommendation of the committee and 24 enter into negotiations with Halff Engineering for a 25 contract. 75 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 3 second. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 4 Opposed? Okay. Unanimous. 5 Going on to Item 1.17 consider, discuss and 6 take appropriate action to accept a summary of the 7 annual bids for the road materials that we opened last 8 time, and we didn't have a chance to discuss it. 9 MS. HOFFER: Yes. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Ms. Hoffer. 11 MS. HOFFER: Yes. A couple things that I 12 wanted to go over with you and some of it is 13 information. Paving aggregates. Last year, if you 14 recall, we ran into a problem with bids and we rebid it. 15 One of the -- this is the very first page. One of the 16 bidders, first column, we're going to go over there on 17 Wednesday because the sizes that we indicated, it 18 doesn't line up with measurements of the size of the 19 rock. So we're going to see if there is something there 20 that will work for us. 21 The second column is the company that we 22 used several years ago. They produced that dark gray or 23 black rock, the trap rock. It's really great rock, but 24 it's really expensive. We've kept it on our bid list 25 because if we have a particular road that's going with 76 1 the black rock would be a better choice, a section of 2 it, we've kept it on there just for that. But to do a 3 whole seal coat year with that rock, we don't have 4 enough money in order to do that black rock. 5 So -- but we did find out some of our normal 6 bidders for aggregate, one of them in particular we 7 called and kind of asked, you know, why didn't you bid 8 it this year, and they said TxDOT had come in and placed 9 an order for 75,000 tons of rock, so kind of hard for us 10 to compete with that. So they didn't bid. 11 So hopefully -- I'm hoping that that first 12 column, that there is a sizable order for our paving. 13 We'll find out. So we may be back to the court. I had 14 kind of briefly let the County Attorney know on Friday 15 kind of about this. And if these sizes don't work, she 16 may tell us that we need to try to go out for bid again. 17 So hopefully it'll work. But that -- that first page is 18 kind of a little bit of a problem for us. 19 The next page is pretty straightforward. 20 These are our emulsions and our oils in that first 21 column. They won the bid on the CRS2, CRS2P, AEP, the 22 CSS1H and the MS2 medium set. That one is very, very 23 straightforward. 24 The next page, corrugated metal pipe. Since 25 we no longer install driveways, we don't usually buy a 77 1 whole lot of corrugated metal pipe but we still bid it 2 just in case if we have something come up that we're 3 going to need. Wilson Culverts was the only company 4 that bid on it. 5 Also, I just wanted to share with you on the 6 far left, it will show you last year's prices. So you 7 can kind of see where things have gone. 8 On the next page -- 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: One went down. 10 MS. HOFFER: The next page is for the base 11 material. It's various. Edmund Jenschke, the one and 12 three-quarters down, they won on that. And -- and for 13 their delivery. Martin Marietta, the catch with Martin 14 Marietta is if you're going to pick it up it's out of 15 their San Antonio pit, so there is a distance involved 16 in that as opposed to the local companies. And 17 Wheatcraft, the three-quarter down, their price was the 18 winner on that. And one and three-quarter down. If you 19 look at the bottom of these, they have different 20 deliveries and it depends what truck is going to deliver 21 it of where your prices are going to be on it. So it's 22 pretty involved on that. I know in all the years we've 23 always kind of said depending on where that project is 24 located, if you're down on the east end of Kerr County, 25 you know, it probably would be Wheatcraft because 78 1 they're a little bit closer to where the project, and 2 then Jenschke and used to -- Allen Keller used to bid on 3 our stuff. If it was more in Precinct 4 area, you know, 4 it might be more cost effective on purchasing from them. 5 So just kind of depends where your project is and what 6 you're going to buy on that -- that base. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kelly, so if they don't 8 bid because of the quantity of some of these, are we 9 over 50,000 on -- like on base material for a year? 10 MS. HOFFER: We're probably somewhere in 11 there. Around that amount. I think -- actually, I 12 think it's a little bit above the 50. But you're 13 correct if it's under 50 -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we don't have to bid 15 it. But under -- 16 MS. HOFFER: No. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the 20 or so because 18 of quantity of the base material, we have to go with one 19 of these bids, we can't go with, say, Allen Keller was 20 cheaper, we can't go with them because they didn't bid. 21 Correct? 22 MS. HOFFER: Correct. Right. But if -- if, 23 you know, I mean I don't really have an answer. We try 24 to stay on the bid. But if something happens like we 25 had with one of the local companies, I really don't want 79 1 to name names, but their rock crusher went down and so 2 it was like August and they're like, no, we're not going 3 to produce anymore rock this year. And we're like, we 4 have the whole month of August and September still to 5 chipseal. And they were like, well, don't know what to 6 tell you. And so we went out and we got the additional 7 rock that we needed for that, but we tried to stick as 8 close to this as we can, but I do have to say this is 9 the second year for the crushed rock. The gravel that 10 we use for the sealcoat that there's problems. And it's 11 kinda hard to compete, you know, with the State, you 12 know, that's going to order really, really large 13 quantities. Our quantities are nothing, really, for 14 them. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, looking at the 16 County Attorney, going back to -- which was probably 17 buying more than $50,000.00 worth of that as well -- 18 MS. HOFFER: Yeah, definitely. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we bid it and the one 20 bid we receive is not sufficient, do you have to rebid, 21 or can we just go buy it? 22 MRS. STEBBINS: No. You have to rebid it. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have to keep on 24 rebidding it every time. So we -- you know, so if we 25 run into a problem we have to rebid it during the year. 80 1 MS. HOFFER: Uh-huh. And that takes -- I 2 mean, it takes -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That takes time. 4 MS. HOFFER: -- some time because you gotta 5 space things out when you put the advertisement in the 6 paper and all of that. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 MS. HOFFER: So, you know, the paving rock 9 right now, we're finding locations to put, you know, 10 rock and that which I have to pick a material and I 11 think we're going to have the situation with paving rock 12 probably, because the other materials we need to get 13 roads prepped and things, and that's what we're doing 14 right now. But I just -- like I said, it's getting 15 harder and harder on the crushed rock. 16 And I don't know, you know, with people 17 coming in this area and building and it's not just Kerr 18 County, I would imagine that other counties are probably 19 having similar issues. Because I see -- I see Gillespie 20 County dump trucks here in Kerr County getting materials 21 from our local vendors, so -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On any of those items 23 that we're going to go over 50,000 for the rest of the 24 year, we might want to rebid just those items, if we 25 only have like one supplier. 81 1 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So that we have an 3 alternative. And do that maybe like in April before 4 we -- you know, because I hate to get caught in a 5 situation where we can't do our paving program because 6 we can't find the rock. 7 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or we can find the rock 9 but we can't buy it because we don't -- didn't bid it. 10 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or they didn't bid. 12 Okay. Thank you. 13 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. Let's see what else have 14 I got here? Oh, the last one is the hot mix-cold laid 15 that we use for patching, level ups, road edging. It's 16 that black, kind of, sticky material. And Brauntex 17 Materials got the bid on that. So everything really is 18 pretty straightforward other than the paving aggregates, 19 and I'm hoping that the visit Wednesday, and they go and 20 look what is available, if there are two sizes that will 21 work for us, we'll find out. If not, we're going to 22 have to rebid the aggregates. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 24 we accept all bids and recommend we go with the low 25 bidder as appropriate. 82 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second -- 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: As presented. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. As presented. 5 JUDGE KELLY: To accept the summary of the 6 annual bids as presented, for road materials. 7 Any other discussion? Those in favor say 8 aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The good news is a lot 10 of the prices are down. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Came down a little bit. 12 That's encouraging. 13 JUDGE KELLY: We're moving right along to 14 1.18, which is to consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action to award the annual bids for road materials. 16 MS. HOFFER: And update the -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: No, we just -- we approved the 18 summary, now we have to award the bids. 19 MS. HOFFER: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, I'm sorry. My 21 motion was wrong. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: I think the motion that 23 was made basically did just that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 25 MS. HOFFER: It did. We had -- we had a 83 1 situation, and we sent two different agenda items when 2 we got -- when we opened up the bids and -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me pick at it this 4 way. I'm inviting a motion to accept the summaries, and 5 a separate motion to award the bids. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move on both of those 7 points. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Motion and second, one 10 to receive the summaries and one to award the bids as 11 presented. Any other discussion? Those in favor say 12 aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 13 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now we have our 10:30 15 items. And we're not really all that late today, Gary. 16 Sometimes we're really late. 17 Let me go ahead and call 1.19 consider, 18 discuss and take appropriate action to accept the 19 quarterly report from the Veterans Services Advisory 20 Committee. Gary Noller. 21 MR. NOLLER: Good morning. My name is Gary 22 Noller, 140 Ray Drive, Center Point, Texas, Precinct 2. 23 And the Veterans Service Advisor Committee, we fell a 24 bit short. We've got a couple members that were not 25 able to come today, which are Jeff Harris and Mark Del 84 1 Toro, but Vicki Marsh is here and nominee Toby Appleton 2 is here, and Chase Allsup is here. He's the newly 3 certified and accredited Assistant Veterans County 4 Service Officer. 5 Jenna is supposedly in New York City. That 6 was her plan to be on vacation this week, so we don't 7 have quite the turnout that we normally have. But at 8 any rate we did have a meeting with Jenna last week, 9 December 1, a little over two weeks ago, I guess. And 10 she presented us with the November numbers. And the 11 November numbers came out kind of outstanding in a way, 12 because we typically understand about what will happen 13 in a month and that usually revolves around what kind of 14 decisions come back from the VA. Because when Jenna and 15 Chase submit things to the VA, the VA may have a 16 decision in 30 days or they may not have a decision for 17 three years, we never know when it's going to come back. 18 But anyway, 25 decisions came back. And out 19 of those 25 decisions, you get the retro pay which goes 20 back to the first day that that claim was filed, and 21 that was almost $200,000 in retro pay. And then the -- 22 the annual pay that's going to come back through monthly 23 payments to those veterans was like $300,000. And it 24 affected 25 claims, so they got 25 approvals back. And 25 at that rate, that's about $1500 per veteran. And try 85 1 to say, well, what is 1500 a month? Well, if you were 2 out here working and you gotta pay raise from you 3 employer to match $1500, that would be about ten bucks 4 an hour. And so if you got ten bucks an hour you'd 5 probably be pretty happy with that. 6 As I mentioned before, Chase has got 7 accreditation with the Veterans Administration. We 8 always recommend that veterans use accredited service 9 officers that get their accreditation from the VA. And 10 then the VA releases their names out there, that these 11 are our accredited people and we want you to go to 12 accredited people. 13 And I don't know, the only other thing may 14 be out there is they have to get an identification card 15 that lets them get into the VA's data base. That's a 16 Federal data base and the Federal government doesn't let 17 everybody get in and look at the data base. So that 18 sometimes can be delayed because that's the Federal 19 Government doing things when they get to it. 20 But anyway, people need to know and 21 understand that the Veterans County Service Officers 22 work at no fee to the veterans. Any accredited Veteran 23 Service officer works at no fee to the veterans. So we 24 always encourage veterans to go to accredited service 25 officers. 86 1 But there's some people out there, and most 2 of them are veterans, that will recruit other veterans 3 and say I'll help you with your claim. And then what 4 they do is they want to take a percentage, so they're 5 basically a for-profit enterprise. And they may take as 6 much as 50 percent of the first six months or ten 7 percent of the first year or something. But they 8 usually work something out and they say if you don't 9 make -- if your claim is not approved, then you don't 10 have to pay me any money. 11 But we've heard reports of some veterans 12 paying $5,000, $8,000, $15,000 to somebody and there's 13 some Federal legislation out there to try to put an end 14 to that because we really think that's kind of a poor 15 practice. And in the meantime, veterans don't know they 16 can get help from the County or help from the State or 17 help from volunteers. 18 Veterans Day, we had a parade downtown. 19 That was handled by Sarah Kocurek at Hill Country 20 Veterans Center, and Brad Wilson over at the VFW. They 21 both show an interest in doing that again in 2024. They 22 did get some cooperation from the City that they waived 23 the fees, but the City always seems to think that fee 24 oughta be paid and we're not quite sure why. So we told 25 the City that and we'll see what happens next year. 87 1 But also on Veterans Day, Commissioner Paces 2 was at the VA. They made the announcement there on the 3 veterans pathway. Very glad to see that development 4 move forward because that's a great improvement on that 5 side of town. And we appreciate the fact it was called 6 Veterans Pathway, but I don't think anybody's going to 7 check paperwork so if you're not a veteran and you want 8 to walk on the veterans pathway, you probably can. 9 Watch out for those guys on those power wheelchairs 10 because we can't guarantee how fast they may be going 11 down there. 12 But one of things, I think it's subtle but I 13 think it needs to be said. You know, a lot of people 14 look at the VA as being, you know, that's really Center 15 Point. And it isn't. I mean there's a lot of City that 16 goes past the VA. The airport and the manufacturing 17 plants that are out there. But something as little as 18 this, I think, is kind of symbolic in a way to help tie 19 those things together and it always distresses us to see 20 the separation. The VA does what the VA wants and 21 everybody else does what they want. Well, sometimes 22 they oughta do things together. The VA is a hundred 23 years out there now under Federal government. It was 24 actually started a few years before and went through a 25 change of hands. And the VA keeps saying they're going 88 1 to do a 100th anniversary celebration but they're 2 running out of time. So now they say April next year. 3 So it's 101st. 4 Another thing we want to make sure you 5 understand is the veterans always benefit from having 6 some outreach. Jenna and Chase can sit in the office 7 here all day long and answer e-mails and telephone calls 8 and feel boxed in, but you'll always find if you go out 9 looking for veterans, you'll find some veterans. They 10 won't call you, they won't send you an email, they won't 11 come and see you. 12 So back in October there was a veterans 13 outreach by the VA put on over at the Dietert Center and 14 Chase and Jenna went down there and I think they picked 15 up four or five clients or made two or three clients. 16 So September, 2024, Jenna has pretty much locked in a 17 date, I think it's September 5th, to do a veterans 18 benefit there at the Hill Country Event Center, which 19 will probably be open to the public from maybe 10:00 20 o'clock to 3:00 o'clock. And sometimes those can pull 21 in a couple hundred veterans. But there's been a long 22 time since one of those has been held here by a service 23 officer and so she's got to round up a bunch of people 24 to come and hopefully a veteran will walk in there and 25 anything in the world of record, and anybody there that 89 1 can help a veteran, they're going to be there at the 2 entrance. 3 And that's the end of my report. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any questions? 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I -- as somebody who 6 used to do this in Federal office, helped veterans file 7 for their bills, I'm very appreciative that we have 8 somebody in the courthouse for them to go to. It is a 9 lot. Sometimes people just finding their original 10 records to get the documents that they can even file. 11 And so I appreciate having you here. Those 25 claims 12 that were approved last year, were those just Kerr 13 County claims? 14 MR. NOLLER: That's -- no, that's one 15 stacked in by the Kerr County Veteran Service officers. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. So it could 17 be -- 18 MR. NOLLER: So there could be other claims 19 or other recipients -- 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So somebody from 21 Bandera can -- can come in and use -- 22 MR. ALLSUP: We prioritize Kerr County, but 23 we can help other counties. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Right. Sure. Bandera 25 doesn't have a VSO, do they? 90 1 MR. ALLSUP: Bandera just got one. 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Just got one. Okay. 3 They used to not have one. That's awesome. So thank 4 you for what you do and I agree, it's hard sometimes to 5 get them in so we do need to go out to them as well, so 6 thank you. 7 MS. MARSH: Gary, you want to say something 8 about the World War II veterans? 9 MR. NOLLER: Vicki suggested -- the Federal 10 Government -- really, the VA can't do anything that the 11 Federal Government hasn't passed a law that says you can 12 do it. So recently, the Federal Government passed a 13 law, and I think it's got Bob Dole's name on it, and oh, 14 the Vietnam vet that was head of the VA for awhile. I 15 forget his name. 16 But they came out and said that if you're a 17 World War II vet, you can now get -- without any other 18 eligibility requirements demanded, you can get free 19 healthcare from VA. And not every veteran can get free 20 healthcare from the VA. So they said if you're a World 21 War II vet you can. And I guess the only thing I got to 22 say about that is there was 16.1 million World War II 23 vets and now there's like 119,000 so if you haven't been 24 getting free healthcare, you can get it now. There's 25 like -- they're now 96 years or older. And so it's -- 91 1 it's nice they wanted to read it in the paper, but how 2 many people does it affect? I suppose these 96-year-old 3 veterans already got some healthcare here somewhere. 4 But we do appreciate that because there are 5 going to be some veterans, some World War II veterans 6 out there that maybe have been struggling to get that 7 healthcare they need and so now they can get that. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So they're adding an 9 additional enrollment code under that just for the World 10 War II? Because I know there's like eight enrollment 11 codes that they use. So they're adding a code for these 12 people to come in? 13 MR. NOLLER: Well, it's -- it gives them 14 automatic eligibility, I guess is what I'll say. 15 Automatic eligibility. No other eligibility requirement 16 has to be met. Well, who wouldn't get it? Well, 17 somebody -- one of the big barriers that people get in 18 VA healthcare is if they make too much money then -- 19 COMMISSIONER OVEREBY: Income, yeah. 20 MR. NOLLER: -- they don't have any other 21 reason to get VA healthcare. That's what they call 22 party debate. So if they don't have a disability and 23 they don't have any other eligibility and they're making 24 more than about $35,000 a year, they'll say you can't 25 come here. You've got enough money, go someplace else. 92 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have a motion to 2 approve the report. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So move. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the Veterans Services Advisory Committee report 7 as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 Opposed? None. Unanimous. 9 Moving on to the next timed item is 1.20 10 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to appoint 11 Toby Appleton to fill the open position on the Veterans 12 Service Advisory Committee. Gary Noller. 13 MR. NOLLER: This is Toby Appleton. I think 14 he's pretty well known by most people around here. He 15 is a veteran. The Veterans Service advisory committee 16 has authorized five members. We've been running on four 17 members for a long time and Toby has been this last year 18 kind of in a probationary period, I guess we'll call it 19 that, because we want the people who come into the 20 committee and contribute to it have a like interest, not 21 be window dressing, and not be -- it's not honorary. 22 It's, you know, it's not something that tell people that 23 you do, but you don't do anything. So Toby has worked 24 with us and we wish to propose him to be appointed by 25 the Commissioners' Court to serve on this committee. 93 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: I move we appoint Toby 2 Appleton, if he's willing, to fill the open position on 3 the Veteran Services Advisory Committee. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the appointment of Toby Appleton onto the 7 Veterans Services Advisory Committee. Any discussion? 8 He's already been working for us for about a half a 9 year. So with that, those in favor say aye. Opposed? 10 Unanimous. Thank you. 11 MR. APPLETON: Thank you, Your Honor. 12 MR. NOLLER: Thank you very much. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Next item on the agenda is 14 1.21 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 15 address the possibility of prohibiting the sale or use 16 of restricted fireworks, i.e.: Sky rockets with sticks 17 and missiles with fins, in any portion of the 18 unincorporated area of Kerr County pursuant to Local 19 Government Code for the December fireworks season. 20 Time for us to talk about it. And the good 21 news is we've had a little rain and probably get a 22 little bit more but we're talking about the season's 23 coming and we don't know what it's going to look like. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We don't know, but as 25 of right now, you know, I'm not for restricting it this 94 1 time, personally. Talking to some out there and 2 sometimes I feel like maybe we jump the gun a little 3 bit, so -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Did you check the 5 Keetch-Byram index? 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's good. I didn't 7 check it this morning like I normally do but -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because if it's not over 9 a certain point, we can't. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We can't. Yeah. 11 You're exactly right. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the western 13 part of the County is probably -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If you want to pass on 15 this right now, we'll take a break in a little bit I'll 16 hope. I'll check it real quick. It won't take me but a 17 minute to do that. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Let's do that. Okay. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: Judge, did y'all miss 1.11? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. We're coming back to it. 21 We're almost there. 22 Item 1.22 consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action to approve Interlocal Agreement 24 between Kerr County and the Greater Austin-Travis County 25 Regional Radio System, known as GATRRS. And when I 95 1 started hearing GATRRS, I had no idea what that acronym 2 stood for. But that's to connect to the new radio 3 system. Sheriff Leitha. 4 SHERIFF LEITHA: It's a quick update. The 5 radio project is still going good. It's expected to be 6 completed in June of this next year. Just so y'all 7 know, we've got about 80 percent of our equipment in. 8 They're starting to work on the towers and at sheriff's 9 office. Everything's going real good. 10 So this right here, 1.22, is an Interlocal 11 Agreement for us to be available to work with GATRRS and 12 program our radios. And it requires the Judge's 13 signature. The County Attorney has reviewed this and 14 doesn't have any problems with it and we just need to 15 run this through y'all for approval so we can get our 16 radios -- start getting them programmed. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 20 approve the Interlocal Agreement with GATRRS, 21 G-A-T-R-R-S, for the radio system. Remind me exactly. 22 How does that work with them? 23 SHERIFF LEITHA: GATRRS is who runs the 24 programming and the system we'll be hooked up to, which 25 is Trunking. So that will give us the ability to be 96 1 able to talk to other counties throughout the State of 2 Texas and, you know, be able to communicate. And, you 3 know, you have GATRRS and then you have the LCRA system. 4 We're using GATRRS. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: When is the new system 6 going to go live? 7 SHERIFF LEITHA: It's -- we're looking like 8 June. I'll keep y'all updated. Everything looks good. 9 And while we're talking about this subject, 10 Rich, from the radios that we kind of scrapped last 11 time, Chief Deputy did check with Chief Alexander and 12 they didn't want them. There is a cost -- they're not 13 going to be any good in June. They can be used on their 14 local repeater. There's a cost for what they call flash 15 them and then reprogram them and I don't believe they're 16 interested in paying that cost. So we did check. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. As long as 18 we asked. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Sure. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you again. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion and a 22 second on the Interlocal Agreement with the GATRRS. Any 23 other discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 24 Unanimous. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can go back to 1.21. 97 1 JUDGE KELLY: 1.21? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We're not allowed 3 to go -- we -- under the law, we cannot impose that ban. 4 We're not in the drought area we need to be in. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We need to be -- we're 6 in the blue. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We're in the blue. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So that means we 9 can't -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Read it off so the public 11 knows what we're talking about. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's Keetch-Byram index, 13 K-E-E-T-C-H, Byram index. It's done by the Forest 14 Service and Texas A&M. And they keep track of the 15 drought conditions statewide. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And the Legislature has placed 17 restrictions on us that if we are in an area that is not 18 hazardous, then we cannot impose these restrictions for 19 fireworks. And if we do nothing, then they can. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I knew the last time I 21 checked it was like that and it hadn't changed. And 22 that's updated daily. I mean -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: Right. So your recommendation 24 is we do nothing? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing. 98 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Nothing. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So we'll -- and then we do 3 nothing but -- we're not passing it, we're just doing 4 nothing. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 7 Moving on to Item 1.23 consider, discuss and 8 take appropriate action to surplus the IT items from the 9 IT Department, and a couch from the County Clerk's 10 Office. Ms. Mendoza. 11 MS. MENDOZA: Hi, good morning. So IT has 12 several parts. There's monitors, bags, different 13 switches, and the County Clerk had a couch that was -- 14 had its life. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move that we surplus 16 the item as mentioned. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 surplus the items as presented. Any discussion? Those 20 in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 21 Before we get to the job descriptions, let 22 me go ahead and pick up the one that we missed at the 23 break, which is Item 1.11 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to cast votes for the Kerr Central 25 Appraisal District Board members for the 24-25 terms. 99 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You know, Judge, we 2 get a lot of calls and stuff about appraisals going up 3 and stuff, which people think we have something to do 4 with, which we really don't. And -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: We absolutely don't. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: This is the one thing 8 that we can have some -- 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We can influence it. 10 And I've been in contact with several of these entities 11 that vote for these different candidates that, you know, 12 we -- we put some up, and in reviewing some of the 13 others that have been nominated, and as far as helping 14 the people out there, maybe asking more inquiring 15 questions and stuff and going that far with our 16 constituents is -- it's my recommendation and I move 17 that we -- Kerr County puts 253 votes towards Jack 18 Burch, Wesley Holekamp would get 227 of ours, and then 19 Lary Priour would get 750. And that, again, some of the 20 other issues that give me what they intend to do or have 21 already done and I think that would give us -- our 22 constituents a pretty good group in there. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm not familiar with 24 Wesley. Are you okay with that? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Wesley's good. 100 1 Wesley's a former Commissioner. Glenn Holekamp's son. 2 Very involved in the eastern part of the County. Their 3 farm/ranch has been in existence for, gosh, at this 4 point probably about 120 years in the same family. Long 5 time Kerr County residents. Bright young man. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Did we know anything 7 about the Comfort ISD putting their votes behind them so 8 it's not going to waste our votes? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My understanding that's 10 what they plan to do. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It's what we've heard. 12 And I've heard from another group that is doing like so. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, it depends on 14 how everybody -- it's the top five. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just the top five. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And this is how many 17 votes everybody gets down here at the bottom? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's how it's 20 allocated. And your proposal was what? 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: 253 towards Jack 22 Burch, 227 towards Wesley Holekamp, and 750 towards Lary 23 Priour, and that would add up to -- 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 1230. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- our 1230 votes. 101 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Lary's the representative 2 that we put most the votes to last time. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, but half and a 4 quarter and a quarter basically. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm just saying, I mean, 6 I think Jack's a good candidate. He was formerly the 7 chairman of the ARB. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I know. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I went before him once 10 and I was impressed by his knowledge. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I've heard strong 12 recommendations about Jack and Lary, in particular. 13 Just the others not so much. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. I think they'd 15 work well together. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well then, I'll second. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 cast our votes for -- in the -- for the -- on the 20 Central -- Kerr Central Appraisal District Board, Jack 21 Burch, 253 votes, Wesley Holekamp, 227 votes, and Lary 22 Priour, 750 votes. Any discussion? We got a motion and 23 a second. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 25 JUDGE KELLY: No other discussion. Those in 102 1 favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 2 Now, moving over to the last item on the 3 consideration agenda is 1.24, which is consider, discuss 4 and take appropriate action to approve seven revised job 5 descriptions, including Chief Deputy Clerk -- this is in 6 the County Clerk, Chief Deputy County Clerk, Senior 7 Deputy County Clerk, Land Senior Deputy County Clerk, 8 CCAL Senior Deputy County Clerk, a Vitals Senior Deputy 9 County Clerk, a Civil Senior Deputy County Clerk, 10 Elections and Archive Specialist, as well as five new 11 job descriptions, including Deputy Clerk - Land, Deputy 12 Clerk - CCAL, Deputy Clerk - Vitals, Deputy Clerk - 13 Civil, and Deputy Clerk - Elections, for the County 14 Clerk's Office. Ian Collum. 15 MR. COLLUM: So just to clarify there, with 16 these revised and new job descriptions, there is no 17 budgetary change, no adjustment in any way other than 18 simply clarifying for each department that my office has 19 what those members of that department will be doing. 20 Previously, my office had a two -- only two 21 job descriptions, one for a Deputy Clerk and one for a 22 Chief Deputy Clerk. Now that we have taken over 23 elections, it seems beneficial, in my opinion, to make 24 sure that all of our job descriptions include 25 appropriate language about what would be expected of 103 1 those -- those people as pertains to, like I said, the 2 inclusion of elections, but also something specific to 3 their department. 4 Most of these, at least for the senior 5 positions, they are very similar to what Miss Dowdy had 6 approved on the 25th of September. But the -- the new 7 positions are essentially what our old -- our previous 8 Deputy Clerk position was, just expanded to meet 9 specifics what that department would do. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Ian, is there anything 11 pressing where you need to get this done today? 12 MR. COLLUM: So my -- and I understand why 13 you're asking and I apologize. My goal is -- 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm just going to say, 15 I have nothing against it. I think you're probably 16 doing all the right things here, and I'm not opposed to 17 it at all it's just in general I kinda like to read 18 things before I agree to them. 19 MR. COLLUM: You're absolutely correct. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: And I haven't had the 21 opportunity to read any of these yet. 22 MR. COLLUM: You surely have not. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: And they may be all 24 spot on a hundred percent and I'll gladly approve 25 them -- I'll probably approve them anyway, but -- 104 1 JUDGE KELLY: But for clarification purposes 2 for Mr. Collum, the previous County Clerk had all the 3 Deputy County Clerks, virtually all the Deputy County 4 Clerks with the same job description. 5 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And they did everything. 7 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: You decided to take this and 9 individualize the positions so that they're going to do 10 land records or they're going to do County Court at Law 11 or they're going to do -- working these different 12 positions. 13 MR. COLLUM: Yes and no. So while we did 14 have -- prior to this while we did have the Deputy Clerk 15 position, essentially having language that he would do 16 everything in the office, folks who are hired for one 17 single department generally work one single department. 18 And we just cross-train our office to make sure that we 19 can meet all the demands the public has, whether or not 20 someone on our front counter is truly available so we 21 can have somebody else come in and help with something 22 like that. 23 So what I've done here is just make sure 24 that when we hire someone for a specific department, 25 they know exactly what they're being hired for. And 105 1 that is why I was hoping to get this done. I know this 2 was on the previous -- our previous agenda and I wasn't 3 able to get confirmation that what I had was 4 appropriate, which the ones I've presented for you today 5 have been approved by HR. Rosa gave them a good look 6 over and said that everything's appropriate. 7 But I do not want to -- I've got -- I 8 currently have five open positions in my office. And I 9 do not want to hire somebody without having an 10 appropriate job description for them. I want -- I want 11 that new hire to know exactly what they're going to be 12 getting into. As well as what we previously had for our 13 elections deputy clerks. It might -- it did not have 14 enough language that truly pertained to what they would 15 be doing as deputy clerks working in the elections 16 department. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So you're still going 18 to cross-train people to cover other people, if you hire 19 somebody in one department? 20 MR. COLLUM: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So there still would 22 be some overlap, but you're just defining the role. 23 MR. COLLUM: Yes. And there's, of course, 24 in each one that does indicate that you'll be needed in 25 other departments as necessary. 106 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. Gotcha. Okay. 2 MR. COLLUM: Yes. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Well, in just browsing this, 4 these job descriptions are much more detailed than the 5 job descriptions that I'm accustomed to seeing out of 6 that office. 7 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. And that was my 8 goal. I -- again, I wanted to make sure that there was 9 no room for -- room for error as far as pertains to 10 what's expected of anyone, as well as what -- truly 11 what's expected of them. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And in terms of posting these 13 positions and filling these positions, and I understand 14 you've got, what, how many open positions? 15 MR. COLLUM: Five. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Five. So you've gotta post 17 the job descriptions to get people to apply, and then 18 you gotta fill the positions. And what this really 19 does, and again, I'm fine with everybody sitting down 20 and reading this thing and doing it at a later date, but 21 what it really does is puts the specialization that 22 various clerks are going to have, so that if they're 23 going to be in vitals or if they're doing land, that job 24 description in particular that then they would 25 cross-train with the others. And before, it was just 107 1 one broad general job description and they did 2 everything. 3 MR. COLLUM: So for the most part, we'll 4 still be doing -- if you're needed somewhere, there's 5 language in here that says you're going to help where we 6 need it. But it was -- when applied for the job, you 7 had no -- there was no specifics of what you would be 8 doing for what you would be applying for. 9 JUDGE KELLY: But these new proposed job 10 descriptions that you've submitted to us will educate 11 the person that is reviewing it and deciding whether or 12 not to apply for it and knows really pretty much exactly 13 what they're going to be doing to begin with. But there 14 will be cross-training and it provide for that. 15 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And you've worked with 17 Rosa in HR and everything to come up with all this? 18 MR. COLLUM: Yes, sir. And I specifically 19 touched base with my Senior Deputy Clerks, as well as my 20 regular Deputy Clerks in each department to make sure 21 that what I've put in there is truly an accurate 22 representation of what they really do every day. 23 There's -- of course, there's language in there that 24 could be something that's a one off task. But I wanted 25 to make sure that what I put in there was what is 108 1 actually expected of that person, what they would truly 2 be doing on a day-to-day basis. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And Rosa, you gave it 4 your stamp of approval? 5 MRS. HERNANDEZ: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll move for 7 approval. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I applaud the direction 9 you're going and I think it's the right approach and I'm 10 glad to see you do this. So I think in principal it's 11 great and -- and I hope you'll just have the flexibility 12 that -- I mean, ideally people should move around within 13 the clerk's department to get experience in some of 14 these other areas. So maybe your -- your one Deputy 15 Clerk for, whether it's elections or whatever, and then, 16 you know, two, three years down the road, you move to a 17 different and take on those. 18 MR. COLLUM: Oh, absolutely. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: And that's great. I 20 just wish I'd had time to read it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second yours but I 22 have a comment also. But I'd recommend maybe put it on 23 the next agenda after we've had time -- I didn't really 24 know there was that many openings right now and I know 25 you need to get this posted and filled. And put them 109 1 up, just as an informational item on the next agenda, if 2 we have any questions we can put it up then. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm okay if he wants to 4 use these to post. I mean, I think -- we're not going 5 to make the final decision until they are formally 6 approved and they're probably just going to be tweaked 7 at best. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think his motion was 9 to approve them. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I made the motion. 11 And I did it because Rosa is right here and she's gone 12 over it and I've got confidence in her. 13 JUDGE KELLY: She's whispering over your 14 shoulder, isn't she? 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's right. No, 16 she's starting the same look as our County Attorney 17 gives us every now and then. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think, you know, 19 we -- and with elected officials it's a little bit -- 20 you know, they get to run their offices the way they 21 want. We don't have a whole lot -- 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. That's true. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, we approve the 24 job descriptions but, you know, they write them and they 25 really want to make sure they conform to our County 110 1 policies. 2 JUDGE KELLY: But I think where Commissioner 3 Paces is coming from is these really are, in your mind, 4 tentative until we finalize them. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: If you're asking me to 6 approve something, I'd like to actually read it before I 7 do so. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think we all agree 9 with that. So -- we all agree with that. But we 10 understand the exigent circumstances. He's got these 11 openings and he needs to post these job descriptions in 12 order to get applicants. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I'm okay if he 14 uses those to post. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So approve them on the 16 27 -- do you think we need to make a motion to approve 17 them for posting and then we'll approve them at our next 18 meeting? 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's fine. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And finalize them. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And finalize. And you 22 secoond that? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I second that. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Y'all agree to your amendment 25 and second? 111 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Deb, you got it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 4 in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. 5 MR. COLLUM: Thank you all. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving on to the 7 approval agenda. Item 2.1 budget amendments. 8 MRS. SHELTON: We have one budget amendment 9 for today. This is basically moving money around for 10 the hail damaged vehicles from last summer's hailstorm. 11 SHERIFF LEITHA: Uh-huh. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approvel. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 15 approve budget amendment as presented. Any discussion? 16 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 17 2.2 pay bills. 18 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We had $375,933.78 of 19 invoices for your approval today. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 23 approve paying the bills as presented. Any discussion? 24 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 25 2.3 late bills. 112 1 MRS. SHELTON: Late bills $2,795.00. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve paying the late bills as presented. Any 6 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Those opposed? 7 Unanimous. 8 2.4. Auditor reports. 9 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. You received two 10 internal audit reports from us for Justice of the Peace 11 Precinct 1, and Animal Control Services, and we ask that 12 you accept the report. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I make a motion that 14 we accept the report as submitted. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 17 accept the Auditor reports as presented. Any 18 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Those opposed? 19 Unanimous. 20 2.5 monthly reports. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For October 22 2023, Treasurer's report, County Treasurer, Tracy 23 Soldan. November 2023, payroll report, County Treasurer 24 Tracy Soldan. Auditor's office, County Auditor Tanya 25 Shelton. Justice of the Peace, J. R. Hoyne, Precinct 2. 113 1 Kathy Mitchell, Precinct 3. Constables, Tommy 2 Rodriguez, Precinct 1, Kyle Schneider, Precinct 2, Paul 3 A. Gonzales, Precinct 3. Veteran Services Office, 4 Director Jennifer Sanchez. Environmental Health 5 Services, Director Ashli Badders, and District Clerk's 6 Office, District Clerk, Dawn Lantz. Miscellaneous. 7 Continuing education transcript. Tax 8 Assessor/Collector, Bob Reeves. Revised Investment 9 Portfolio 4-1-23 to 6-30-23, County Treasurer, Tracy 10 Soldan. I move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 13 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 14 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 15 Unanimous. 16 2.6 Court Orders. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have our Court Orders 18 from our November 27th meeting 40331 through 40352. I 19 need to pull from that 40339. That's related to Tucker 20 Street and that one is being revised to get all the 21 legal descriptions attached to that. And I don't have 22 that one yet. I've not seen that one. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: The County Attorney? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The County Attorney is 25 working on that one. And on 40341, which was a job 114 1 description and funding for Operation Lone Star 2 temporary crime analyst, digital forensic examiner. 3 There was a section of this, it's really not a temporary 4 position. And the Sheriff came in -- and Sheriff, make 5 sure I got this right. It currently reads, Approve 6 funding and job description for Operation Lone Star 7 temporary crime analyst, digital forensic examiner. And 8 I think it should read approve funding and job 9 description for Operation Lone Star crime analyst, 10 digital forensic examiner. This is an existing position 11 that has a revised job description and title. 12 SHERIFF LEITHA: Correct. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: You're basically 14 dropping the temporary? 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Temporary. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dropping the temporary 17 and adding that clarification. With that change, I move 18 we approve. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 21 approve Court Orders as presented with the two 22 revisions. 23 MRS. SHELTON: Can I ask a question? So the 24 temporary positions do not have to have all of the 25 benefits that the other positions have to have, so like 115 1 do we find money for the benefits if we're removing the 2 temporary? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not a new position 4 as I understand it. It's a new position; not a new 5 person. Or -- 6 SHERIFF LEITHA: This is the one I believe 7 we reclassified from a jail position over to the 8 full-time crime analyst. 9 MRS. SHELTON: Does it have to do with 10 Operation Lone Star? 11 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure -- this was 13 confusing when we were going through it as I recall. 14 It's still confusing evidently. 15 SHERIFF LEITHA: We did that one and then we 16 have the part-time that's coming out of Operation Lone 17 Star that one has no benefits. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a -- and it's an 19 overall position -- you know, he has a position for this 20 but he's changing it from a -- 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: Jail. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- a jail position to a 23 Sheriff position. But the money is -- well, I guess it 24 needs to be funded out of Operation Lone Star. But 25 we're not adding a position, we're reclassifying the 116 1 position. 2 MRS. SHELTON: Okay. So if somebody will 3 get me a budget amendment that shows all of this so we 4 can track it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. 6 MRS. SHELTON: If we're just moving a 7 position from one place to another, there should be a 8 budget amendment that would follow that, because I'm 9 just kinda confused. Because generally your grants have 10 a separate funding source. So maybe we said both 11 positions from the Operation Lone Star were going to be 12 temporary, now only one of them -- 13 SHERIFF LEITHA: No. The other one's 14 temporary. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: When you're saying 16 temporary, you're saying part-time. Is that what you 17 mean? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There's a window. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Oh, it's -- there's a 20 beginning and an end. I understand. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Full time employee. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As long as the Operation 23 Lone Star is a full-time employee. And my understanding 24 is -- 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Gotcha. 117 1 MRS. STEBBINS: It sounds like they need to 2 visit, and so maybe the -- not changing that Court Order 3 just yet. Bring it back at the next agenda, so you can 4 get it right? 5 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, let's do that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do that. We can 7 pull Court Orders 40341 and 40339 until the next 8 meeting. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We'll take it up next 10 meeting. So the motion has now been amended and 11 accepted, and accepted to approve all the Court Orders 12 except for the last -- the 339 and 341 -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 14 JUDGE KELLY: -- and hold them until next 15 time. So with that clarification, those in favor say 16 aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 17 Moving on to the information agenda. Status 18 reports from department heads. Reagan. 19 MR. GIVENS: Yes, sir. Hi, I just wanted to 20 let y'all know that I'm more than happy to meet with you 21 individually to discuss the comments that were made this 22 morning at the beginning of court if you'd like. So if 23 you just want to reach out to me, however you want to do 24 that. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sounds good. 118 1 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 2 Any other department heads? 3 Okay. Move on to 3.2 status reports from 4 Elected Officials. Any elected? 5 MR. COLLUM: So within the Clerk's Office, 6 we are changing our hours of availability to the public 7 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. We will still be open 8 between 8:00 and 5:00; however, we -- it's going to be 9 beneficial to our office to use the last 30 minutes of 10 that day in order to get everything set up for the next 11 day, such as get the tills ready for in the morning and 12 things of that nature. 13 At this point when we open up right at 8:00 14 a.m., we end up -- our early birds have to give us a 15 moment while we finish setting up the till and 16 everything like that. This will give us the opportunity 17 to do that the day prior, so that way we can be fresh 18 and ready with everyone coming in in the morning. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What was the morning 20 start? 21 MR. COLLUM: Same. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The same. 23 MR. COLLUM: It'll be 8:00 a.m. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean 8:00 a.m. they're 25 waiting and that's good, and then they open at 8:00 and 119 1 closing at 4:30 is fine. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other liaison 3 commissioner reports? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have one. I presume 5 most of you probably know it or may know it, but the 6 City of Kerrville approved the preliminary plat revision 7 for the Animal Control facility. That was the 8 preliminary one. And the final went through quickly. 9 No problems at all. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Easy peasy. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Anything else from 12 Liaison Commissioners? 13 There being none, then we will -- we have 14 matters to take up in Executive Session. So we will 15 adjourn for a five-minute break and we'll resume in 16 Executive Session. 17 (Break.) 18 (Executive Session.) 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It is 12:48 and we are 20 out of Executive Session. And there being no action, 21 then we're going to adjourn. And we're going to repost 22 one item on the agenda. We'll repost it for a special 23 meeting next Monday. So we are adjourned. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Heather will give 25 you that item and the language. 120 1 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Wait, did you say a special 2 meeting next Monday, or the one on the 27th? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Monday. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Monday. Special meeting. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Could it be on the 27th? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, possible. I'll 7 let you know. Because if we can postpone it, we will. 8 Are we adjourned, Judge? 9 JUDGE KELLY: We're adjourned. We are 10 adjourned. 11 * * * * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 121 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 29th day of December, 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