1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, January 25, 2024 6 1:00 p.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 1.1a Consider, discuss and take appropriate 3 action to appoint and set salary for Interim 4 Human Resources Director. 5 *** Adjournment. 11 | 6 *** Reporter's Certificate. 12 7 * * * * * * 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Thursday, January the 25th, 2024. It is one o'clock 3 in the afternoon, and the Kerr County Court is now in 4 session in a special meeting. And are we going into 5 executive session first? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We probably could do the 7 first one in open session. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm going to go ahead 9 and call 1.1a, which is consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action to appoint and set salary for interim 11 Human Resources Director. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rich and I talked about 13 it. And we talked with -- 14 MR. LeMEILLEUR: Are we in executive session 15 right now? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: In this case it's a 18 stipend. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Anyway, we were 20 talking about it and talked with Sylvia about it, and 21 visited with Heather a little bit, she just happened to 22 be in the office when we were talking at one point. And 23 we think that Sylvia would be the sort of interim HR 24 Director, but at the same time she's doing her existing 25 job completely. So rather than making it really a 4 1 technical interim director; it's more to give her a 2 stipend to do additional duties of the HR Director. 3 JUDGE KELLY: More of a special assignment. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Special assignment. And 5 the number that we have come up with is 15 hundred 6 dollars a month for that additional work and 7 responsibility. But her additional salary will -- this 8 will be an hourly employee, and then for doing the 9 additional work, it will be a stipend. And that's what 10 we recommend. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And is that good for you? 12 MS. ZAPATA: That's fine. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, and there's some 14 reason -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I want you to be happy. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason is, it's 17 anticipated that this job may take more time than 18 Sylvia's. So she'll get overtime for those excess hours 19 that she'll be doing and the stipend for the 20 responsibility, and kind of overseeing things. 21 So if went from an interim director, it 22 would be salaried and not be able to get any overtime 23 and that was not a good option. So that's the reason we 24 structured it this way. 25 JUDGE KELLY: So we got two revenue 5 1 incentive paths that are -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So she's at -- 3 maintains her hourly position, same salary. And then 4 there's an additional stipend of 15 hundred dollars a 5 month for the additional responsibilities of being 6 interim HR person. And I'll make a motion to that 7 effect. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second it. I got 9 a motion and second. Very much support the motion. And 10 I'm very grateful that Sylvia is going to step up here, 11 and -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Sylvia, remind me what your 13 last name is. 14 MS. ZAPATA: Zapata. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Zapata. We got a motion and a 16 second to give Sylvia Zapata additional duties, which 17 will be compensated by a stipend to -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 15 hundred dollars per 19 month. 20 JUDGE KELLY: -- 15 hundred dollars per 21 month. The purpose of this is to assist with payroll 22 and other duties in HR? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Right. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 25 in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. That's good. 6 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And with that, Judge, 2 there are three documents that Sylvia asked for you to 3 sign that will be giving Sylvia authority to receive 4 documents, certain information from TAC, insurance 5 information. And one is to change one that was made by 6 TAC that we were not aware of until just recently that 7 removed Tanya as the contact and put Sylvia back, and 8 Tanya's agreed with that. She was -- wanted that done 9 previously, so -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Your arms aren't long enough 11 to put it here, so give it to Nuvia. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So these three need 13 to be signed, and they all need to be signed by the 14 County Judge. After that, we can go into, I think, 15 closed session on the next item. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: We will get those three 17 documents back on an agenda to just ratify, and get a 18 court order for them for each of the people who are the 19 recipients of those documents. So you'll see that back 20 again on the 12th. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Is there enough 22 latitude to do it under the current item 1.1? It's all 23 related to Sylvia's -- 24 MRS. STEBBINS: No. There's -- but she 25 needs the authority now, so the Judge can sign them now, 7 1 and then they'll be back before the Court as a 2 consideration item to ratify that signature and 3 authority. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Fair enough. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And give these 6 back. You can make copies and bring them back being 7 that Jody is not here. 8 MS. PUTNAM: I'll get them to Jody. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it'll be closed 10 session on the next item, Judge. 11 JUDGE KELLY: So it is 1:05, and we're going 12 into executive session. And anybody in here to talk 13 with us. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If Sylvia wants to say, 15 she's welcome to stay. It's her office. 16 (Executive Session.) 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's 1:19, we have come 18 out of executive session, and the next item on the 19 agenda 2.1 action as may be required on matters 20 discussed in executive session. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess the only action 22 would be -- maybe not action, but just a discussion. We 23 need a meeting posted for next Tuesday morning at 8:30. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Special Session. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A special meeting to pay 8 1 bills -- 2 MS. PUTNAM: 8:30? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 8:30. It's to pay 4 bills, and you might add item b on there as well, same 5 as on this agenda. 6 MS. PUTNAM: Item b. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we're going to 8 talk about that, but we can always pass on it. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: Do you need to that be an 10 executive session item, or are you just going to take 11 action on it? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that one it will 13 be just an action item. I think it could be in open 14 session. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Will you be ready to 16 take action on a consultant? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean 18 hopefully we'll have more information. I don't know -- 19 I mean the person's gonna have to come down and meet, 20 so basically it's to decide the next step. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Do we need to put on the scope 22 of that consultation. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, the scope of it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Noel. 25 MS. PUTNAM: Do we have enough time to post 9 1 for that? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 3 MS. PUTNAM: Okay. Today? We have to do it 4 today? 5 JUDGE KELLY: Noel, on that b paragraph that 6 you're going to add, be sure and add something in there 7 to discuss the scope of the -- 8 MS. PUTNAM: The scope of what? I'm sorry. 9 JUDGE KELLY: The assignment. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Consider, discuss and 11 take appropriate action to hire Human Resources 12 Consultant, and scope, or to hire -- or the scope and to 13 hire. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Same thing that's on 15 here already. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll be here. I'll look 17 at it. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We'll talk about how big or 19 narrow the assignment's going to be. 20 MS. PUTNAM: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Two different 22 consultants that we're possibly going to engage here, 23 okay? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think they have one -- 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: You think they have one 10 1 person. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one person. I 3 don't think we need anything else. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Going to try to have 5 anyone else come in, or just go ahead? Because we 6 oughta be posting it otherwise. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know that we 8 need another interim. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: But I'm talking about 10 the full-time HR Director. Is it already posted? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's not posted yet. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do we need authority 13 then from the Court to do that? 14 JUDGE KELLY: No, no, no. They don't 15 need -- that's a departmental issue thing. That's part 16 of their scope. But we may -- we may be morphing the 17 job descriptions, depending on the scope of this -- 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That study. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd say yeah. And he's 20 also going to give us some input, or may give us some 21 input on step and grade and where we're -- the direction 22 that is going. Another area that we'd like input. Find 23 out what other counties are doing. 24 JUDGE KELLY: So post that, and then we'll 25 meet Tuesday morning. And what we're probably going to 11 1 do, Noel, if I have commitments then I have to go do 2 those. We'll come back afterwards. And just recess and 3 come back and finish it up. We want to finish all this 4 bill pay stuff on Tuesday. 5 MS. PUTNAM: So pay bills, and item b, and 6 that's it. And no closed session. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Depending on what that 8 discussion is, they'll be an item on the next Monday the 9 12th, and we'll see where that needs to go. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else that we need to 11 address in this meeting? Then it is 1:23 and we stand 12 adjourned. 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 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 Special Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 25th day of January, A.D. 10 2024. 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