1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, July 22, 2024 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 *** Commissioners' Comments. 6 4 1.1 Presentation regarding Battery Energy 12 Storage project in Commissioner Harris's 5 Precinct, Precinct 4, by KE Andrews and Black Mountain Energy Storage. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 50 7 action to allow Cody Taylor with Kerrville Independent School District, Tivy High 8 School, to add mulch to the cross country track course at Flat Rock Park, in the dog 9 park area, for their track meets scheduled for August 16th, September 28th, and 10 October 9th (use of park approved by Court Order 40596). Work will be done at no cost 11 to the County. 12 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 action to accept donations to Kerr County 13 Animal Services totaling $10.00 for the month of June 2024. 14 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 15 action to approve the contract with Rx Technology for the Firewall Refresh project. 16 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 53 17 action to approve nomination committee selection of a County employee to participate 18 in the Kerr County Leadership Class 2024-25 and submit application to the Kerrville 19 Chamber of Commerce. 20 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 action to approve payment of Directors & 21 Officer's Insurance for the Kerr County Bail Bond Board. 22 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 23 action to increase part-time position at Grade 22/Step 1 to a full-time position at 24 Grade 22/Step 4 in the County Auditor's Office as of 7/29/24 per LGC (Local Government 25 Code) Section 111.013. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 action to surplus IT items from the IT 4 Department. 5 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 action to authorize the County Judge to 6 sign the addendum to Exhibit A for Arbitrage Rebate Services with BLX Group LLC, Series 7 2024 Tax Notes. 8 1.10 Public hearing for a Revision of Plat for 63 Hidden Valley Ranch Section 2, Lot 94. 9 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 63 10 action for the Court to approve a development plan for the proposed Sun and Moon RV Park 11 Rental Community. 12 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 67 action to go out for annual bids for 13 delivered fuel. 14 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 action for Commissioners' Court approval of 15 a general contract with Schilling Overhead Door for door project at Center Point Yard 16 Road & Bridge Department property. 17 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 69 action to determine how to allocate remaining 18 ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. 19 1.15 Discussion regarding proposed budget and 74 tax rate. 20 1.16 Consider, discuss and approve the contract 86 21 change with Hart Intercivic to upgrade the election equipment from version 2.4.2 to 22 version 2.5.2 and the upgrade operating systems. 23 1.17 Consider and discuss ordering the 2024 106 General Election. 24 1.18 Update regarding the new Animal Control 113 25 facility. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 2.1 Budget Amendments. 119 4 2.2 Pay Bills. 120 5 2.3 Late Bills. 120 6 2.4 Auditor Reports. 121 7 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 121 8 2.6 Court Orders. 122 9 4.2(b) Consider, discuss and take appropriate 124 action to authorize extension of 10 protected Family Medical Leave Act for two employees. 11 4.3 Matters related to security at Kerr County 125 12 facilities. 13 *** Adjournment. 127 14 *** Reporter's Certificate. 128 15 * * * * * * 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Monday, July the 22nd, 2024. It's 9 o'clock in the 3 morning and the Kerr County Commissioners' Court is now 4 in session. If you would, please stand for the prayer 5 and pledge, which will be led by Commissioner Harris. 6 (Prayer and Pledge.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. We got 8 another one? 9 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a busy morning. 11 That's our 16th speaker. 12 As we begin this morning, I want to remind 13 everyone to please turn your cell phones off or to 14 vibrate so that it does not interrupt the proceedings. 15 I wanted to lay out the format for today. 16 We have a very busy day. We're going to take a recess 17 probably for lunch at either 12:15 or 12:30. And we're 18 going to run all the way through. We do have an 19 Executive Committee phone call we need to take at 1:15 20 with regard to attorney counsel. And then we have the 21 workshop at two o'clock, so we're going to be busy. 22 And we have 16 speakers on various topics. 23 And I want to remind everyone before I call for public 24 input that if you have signed up to speak, or if you 25 want to speak on any item that is on the agenda, please 6 1 wait to request to speak until that agenda item is 2 called. This is for the public input. 3 And so with that, is there anybody that 4 would like to provide public input to the Court? 5 Good. Everybody's planned out what they're 6 going to talk that. That's a good thing. So with that, 7 we'll move on to Commissioners' Comments. Precinct 1, 8 anything? 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I will go very quickly 10 since we've got a busy day. Quiet in Precinct 1. We've 11 had some rain. We ventured out to Precinct 2 for the 12 Center Point Volunteer Fire Department. We got a little 13 place over there. Supported them and ate one of the -- 14 was it more than 800 barbecue plates -- that were 15 awesome. They were awesome. That's all I got. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. Well, the 17 burn ban remains lifted. We got a fair bit of rain last 18 week and it looks like we're going to get some more this 19 week. Again, though, before you burn particularly a 20 large brush pile, please call the burn ban hotline, 21 (830) 792-4328. And it helps if you also call your 22 local VFD so that we don't get false alarms. 23 I do want to thank everybody, Anne, for 24 coming out to the Center Point -- both the reunion 25 parade which started at 10:00. That was great. One of 7 1 the best we've ever done. And the Center Point 2 Volunteer Fire Department barbecue and dance. It was 3 one of our most successful fundraisers. So everybody 4 who supported that, thank you very much. 5 I wanted to give credit to our maintenance 6 group. A request was made to me last week to remove the 7 overgrown brush at Lions Park dam. And I mentioned it 8 to Shane and he had a crew on it the next day. So it's 9 definitely better. And I very much appreciate that. 10 Reviewing the Tetra Tech engineering draft 11 report for the Eagle Ridge Road, particularly to see if 12 there was anything significant we needed in our budget. 13 There doesn't appear to be for this budget but there 14 might be for the next one. 15 A number of residents in the vicinity of the 16 proposed Megaacrete concrete facility off Peterson Farm 17 Road, near the Cowboy Church and Our Lady of the Hills 18 school, have called for a contested hearing with TCEQ 19 regarding an air quality standard permit. And there is, 20 of course, a requirement that the central bag house 21 exhaust be located at least 440 yards from the nearest 22 residence or place of worship. So we don't know yet 23 where on that 80 plus acre property they're going to put 24 their facility, but I've asked TCEQ to keep me informed 25 as to a public hearing date and location are determined. 8 1 And, of course, I've received a bunch of 2 calls about the possible battery energy storage system 3 being proposed in Center Point, that's different from 4 the one that's on the agenda today. That's a company 5 called Foresight Renewables, which is a subsidiary of 6 Highway Sustainable Capital, who are trying to lease 7 7-10 acres of land between Caldwell Lane and Willow Bend 8 Drive, adjacent to the LCRA substation. 9 I don't have any other details on the size 10 of the facility, but we'll definitely stay tuned for any 11 TCEQ permit applications at subsequent hearings. But 12 this is, again, different from what you're going to hear 13 as a first item on the agenda. That's all. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Three. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have been getting 16 some rain, which is a good thing, but really what I want 17 to talk about a little bit is the CIP, the Capital 18 Improvement Committee, that was put together awhile 19 back. And unfortunately, I guess I made comments 20 several times. I don't read local media so now I get 21 the articles e-mailed to me so I read them anyway. But 22 there are some things in there that really -- I think we 23 really need to clarify some things. 24 That committee was charged with a 20-year 25 plan. And only one of the things on that list was 9 1 approved, the animal control facility, and that facility 2 is going to be built. 3 And it was stated at the time a lot of the 4 other things will need to be addressed and, in my 5 opinion, is going to probably cost a lot more than a 6 bond would have cost. But that's neither here nor 7 there, the bond failed. 8 But to compare things that the CIP did with 9 repairs I'm going to say to the AG barn because one 10 article I read about that, it's apples and grapes. It's 11 not even close. One was a 20-year plan and one is basic 12 repairs and a couple of upgrades. They're not the same 13 thing. So for people to be complaining about the CIP 14 not doing their job, they did exactly what the Court 15 asked them to do. 16 And I will remind everybody that the members 17 of that were appointed by -- each Commissioner appointed 18 one person to that. And I think that they did a really 19 good job. You may not agree with some of their 20 findings. Some of the things could lack. But I suspect 21 storage needs, one thing that's been pushed off awhile, 22 within the next 20 years we're going to need storage 23 because we have problems now. 24 Some of the event things at the AG barn 25 could be addressed. The facility, annex for Ingram, we 10 1 changed course like we knew we would, but there's going 2 to be a lot of cost on that building out there that 3 we're going to be receiving, or we hope we receive 4 anyway. 5 So I just want to make it clear that just 6 because the CIP had a 20-year plan. Now, because of the 7 election we'll be doing things on an annual basis and 8 there are going to be repairs. And that was my, you 9 know, concern originally that we've been pushing off 10 repairs for years and years and years. I was part of 11 that. 12 At some point, this Court needs to start 13 addressing these and that's why I support the thing that 14 Commissioner Paces is for the AG barn, anyway. He and I 15 talked about it. I support what he's recommending. Is 16 it everything I'd like to see out there I think we need? 17 No, but it's a big step in that direction. But it's not 18 what the -- it's a different plan than the CIP plan. 19 And I think it needs to be really clear and 20 I see no reason for people to be disparaging the work of 21 the CIP because now we're going into repair phase. It 22 doesn't make sense to me. I just want to clarify that. 23 That's it. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. Well, I'm 25 not going to talk about rain. Everybody else did, so -- 11 1 JUDGE KELLY: We're all happy. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Think green. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Green but we need 5 it -- underneath the ground is where we need our rain. 6 To help our aquifers. 7 I want to give a shout out to Senator Pete 8 Flores. He came to first third community in Ingram last 9 week, and afterwards I twisted his arm, not very hard, 10 and he went with me to Road & Bridge. We've had an 11 ongoing problem with our county roads that go underneath 12 I-10. There's three of them in Precinct 3 and one in 13 Precinct 4. And Peter got involved and in less than a 14 week he fixed the problem and saved the Kerr County 15 residents a lot of taxpayer money and I want to give him 16 that shout out. Also got his local representative, 17 Maria Pruneda here. She runs his Kerr County office 18 here on Water Street. So she's here. And I have 19 suspicion to give a report on this battery storage deal. 20 As well, we've got Wes Virdell here. So that's 21 encouraging. So I think they're all looking -- we're 22 all looking forward to hearing this presentation and 23 hear from you citizens as well. So that's all. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And for those of you that 25 don't know, let's introduce them. 12 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Our State Representative, Wes 3 Virdell. Can you stand so everybody can recognize him. 4 (Applause.) 5 JUDGE KELLY: And if you'd stand for Senator 6 Flores. 7 (Applause.) 8 JUDGE KELLY: If you know about Senator 9 Flores, that's who you contact. 10 Okay. So with that, let's begin. First 11 item on the agenda is Item 1.1 presentation regarding 12 Battery Energy Storage project in Commissioner Harris's 13 Precinct by KE Andrews and Black Mountain Energy 14 Storage. Mr. Peters. 15 MR. FRY: Mr. Peters is not here. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Behind the podium. 17 MR. FRY: My name's Mike Fry. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Mike Fry? 19 MR. FRY: Yes, sir. And I'm with 20 KE Andrews. And this is Jasper Hughes. 21 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, what was that? 22 MR. HUGHES: Jasper Hughes. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You may proceed. 24 MR. HUGHES: Yeah. Yeah, came here to give 25 a quick introduction to the project. Where it is, what 13 1 the plan is, and why we're here is to potentially submit 2 an application for an abatement from the County. 3 So Black Mountain Energy Storage is a 4 subsidiary of Black Mountain, which is a family of 5 entrepreneurial companies headquartered out of Fort 6 Worth. Fort Worth, Texas, of course. Many 7 entrepreneurial arms of the company, including oil and 8 gas, lithium mining, it's -- sand tract mining. There's 9 about ten different arms of it. And the storage is 10 based out of Austin and so we develop utility scale 11 energy storage projects across the nation and mostly 12 across Texas. 13 So this project is based in northwestern 14 Kerr County, off of Highway 10, I believe. And you can 15 see that on page -- let's see, on page six. The project 16 location. A good example of the project is on page 17 five. I'll just do a -- just to keep it brief, the 18 point of the project is we're intersecting to the 19 utility grid and we store electricity when it's not 20 needed as much. We store when supply is high and demand 21 is low. And then we release the electricity back onto 22 the grid when supply goes up and demand goes down -- or 23 when supply goes down and demand goes up and people are 24 using electricity more, we leave the electricity back 25 onto the grid. And that's really the whole point of 14 1 these projects nationwide. 2 It's a tool for the utilities to enable more 3 efficient energy usage across the State and across the 4 local grid. This can actually reduce the electricity 5 prices over time. It can also respond to supply 6 shortages such as, you know, when the solar farm isn't 7 producing electricity and natural gas plant goes out. 8 These facilities are there to help prevent black outs or 9 brown outs or spike in electricity prices. 10 So I'll give it off to KE Andrews. They've 11 been helping us with this County abatement process and 12 they're our consultant in this and they've been helping 13 out for a long time. 14 MR. FRY: Thank you, Jasper. 15 MR. HUGHES: Yeah, of course. 16 MR. FRY: Judge. Commissioners. Thank you 17 very much. Again, my name is Mike Fry and I'm a senior 18 director at KE Andrews. Mr. Peters apologized he 19 couldn't be here today. But I guess you got the second 20 here. I think Mr. Peters has spoken with Commissioner 21 Harris before, and maybe also Judge Kelly. But anyway, 22 the project itself is a -- basically it's a potential 23 120 megawatts with 240 megawatt hours, so two hour 24 duration batteries. And the timeline potentially of the 25 thing will be 2-3 of 2025. Construction starting. And 15 1 then COD, 2-3 of 2026. Meaning that would be fully 2 taxable in -- well, see what's taxable in 2026, and then 3 fully taxable in 2027. As of January 1st. It would be 4 approximately -- the valuation would be approximately 5 $87 million for taxable value. That's -- you know, that 6 could turn into maybe, you know, a hundred million 7 dollar investment, 95 million dollar investment. 8 Tangible about -- which would be a little bit of that 9 included within the SEPA(phonetic) is not taxable in the 10 state of Texas. 11 And the way these appreciate, they pretty 12 much follow the way solar appreciated in the state, 13 which is around -- it would appreciate probably seven 14 and a half percent per year. And then in four, it would 15 be 25 percent. So you would be looking at the end of 16 the day, probably in year 11, 12, about 17.4 million 17 dollars in perpetude as far as taxable value on the 18 project, as long as there's something running there. 19 So the point of interconnect is the Mountain 20 Home substation. It's there at I-10 and 479, on 21 Reservation Road. The potential construction job is a 22 hundred and 200. Probably will be an aggregate number. 23 It wouldn't all be out there at the same time. So the 24 full-time job for the project, obviously on all these 25 projects, there's not really any one that's manned there 16 1 full-time. So there would be -- landscaping and stock 2 maintenance folks would be there, you know, to take care 3 of that. And obviously the Ingram ISD. Kerr County. 4 It would be probably, let's see, around -- you know, 5 potentially 7.7 million dollars of tax dollars for the 6 School District. I don't know exactly if they're recap 7 the district or not at this point. 8 Or so -- and what we have in the 9 presentation there, we have something that's 70 percent 10 abatement. We obviously know that's negotiable and it's 11 totally up to you all as a group there. 12 So what we're doing asking, we're asking 13 Commissioners to accept the abatement application here 14 pretty soon. And to review and possibly consider, you 15 know, granting an abatement here in the near future for 16 this potential project. 17 But the thing is on these projects, you 18 know, it's -- it's a good way to have less impact on a 19 county or a community because it can be done on a ten, 20 15, 20 acre project, unlike solar and wind, that it 21 expands quite a bit and has more impact on the air. Any 22 questions? 23 JUDGE KELLY: Any questions? 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. What's really 25 driving this? Is there a bunch of Federal money that's 17 1 been made available? Because we're -- we're seeing a 2 flurry of these proposed BESS facilities throughout our 3 County and through neighboring counties. So I'm 4 guessing that there's a Federal tax program that's just 5 part of the -- what was the -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Subsidy. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, there must be a 8 subsidy. I'm trying to remember the name of the act 9 that was passed by the current administration. Anyway, 10 go ahead and -- 11 MR. FRY: Yeah. That's the Inflation 12 Reduction Act. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, that's it. Thank 14 you. 15 MR. FRY: While, yes, that -- that does 16 apply to battery storage solar wind, etcetera. The 17 technology was around beforehand. It's going to be 18 around after. If that does, that would go away or 19 whatever, it does go away. The reason why it's 20 prevalent now is mostly because the cost has come down 21 rather dramatically. They're being manufactured across 22 the world. And the cost has come down pretty 23 significantly to where you can build these fully scaled 24 projects that have a ton of battery and connect to the 25 grid and you can recoup that cost over time and not pay 18 1 utilities or you would buy it or operate it. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean, I note from the 3 research that I've been doing here lately, there don't 4 seem to be any regulations on these kind of facilities. 5 So -- and that, of course, creates a lot of concerns 6 certainly among our constituents and myself included. 7 And technically, we don't have to approve anything for 8 your project, is my understanding. And I'm also very 9 under -- you know, very concerned about the long-term -- 10 what are you going to do with all these batteries when 11 they reach their end of life? 12 MR. FRY: Well, there's a regulation point. 13 They are regulated by the National Fire Protection 14 Agency Code. All the batteries are manufactured to the 15 FDA updated code and, you know, that -- that's been 16 updated consistently and there have been a ton of -- 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: We don't have too many 18 of their inspectors around this area. 19 MR. FRY: Well, at the manufacturing plant 20 they do. And so, they are regulated in that behalf. 21 The manufacturing is regulated. And the technology has 22 been getting better and better every single year. 23 And remind me the second half of your 24 question. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm sorry, what? 19 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The second part of 2 your question. 3 MR. FRY: The second half of your question 4 was? 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: What do you do with 6 them when they're -- 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh, yeah. What do we 8 do with these batteries when they reach the end of life? 9 MR. FRY: Oh, yeah. When they're retired. 10 Well, as with all lithium ion batteries, there's 11 recycling plants that are being developed throughout the 12 nation for these things. But you put them in a 13 hazardous waste facility. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: And whose obligation is 15 it to do that? Yours? 16 MR. FRY: That's the company. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: The landowners? I 18 mean -- 19 MR. FRY: The owner of the battery. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Where are these 21 batteries produced? 22 MR. FRY: The specific batteries in this 23 project haven't been decided yet. The construction is 24 not going to begin for another two years, right. I'd 25 say that most likely, China. Most of batteries in the 20 1 world are made in China right now. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: The real beneficiary. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question I have, is 4 that it kind of goes a little bit a step beyond 5 Commissioner Paces. It seems to be really popular right 6 now, but they -- they don't create energy, they level 7 out the grid. So I don't -- I mean, and I think you 8 said for a two-hour period? 9 MR. FRY: Yes. Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You know. It doesn't -- 11 that doesn't make sense to me. I mean, there -- when we 12 have power problems that lasts a lot more than two 13 hours. So I guess, you know, it seems -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Band-Aid. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, like it's a 16 Band-Aid and it seems like it would be a lot more 17 efficient to build additional power sources rather than 18 something like this. And I just don't understand the 19 drive for this unless there's a whole lot of Federal 20 money or State money pushing it. 21 Because with the amount of money these 22 things cost, I guess it's a lot cheaper than a new power 23 plant, but at the same time, it doesn't really help this 24 area. When we have outages, it's a week at a time or at 25 least a day at a time and two hours doesn't make much 21 1 difference. 2 MR. FRY: Yeah, the prices themselves 3 fluctuate significantly every day. So electricity 4 supply and demand is constantly changing. You may not 5 get an outage but the electricity prices go up when the 6 line goes down. So that -- that's one. And so these 7 two-hour batteries, yes, we want them to be longer. 8 There are like four-hour batteries that are popping up 9 as well. 10 But as other energy storage mechanisms -- 11 you can use hydrogen, the ground can pump water into the 12 ground and release it over time. We have those around 13 nuclear plants nationwide. 14 The reason -- it is still useful for two 15 hours. While it may -- it will not prevent a -- like a 16 CenterPoint down in Houston in a blackout situation. It 17 won't be able to do that. It can still respond to a 18 beneficial degree. So when everyone goes to work right 19 now, you turn your AC off, supply goes down 20 significant -- I mean demand goes down significantly 21 across the state. But these coal power plants and 22 natural gas power plants, many of them continue 23 producing power throughout the day. Solar is producing 24 power, it can't stop producing power. Wind can't stop 25 producing power. So sometimes there's way more 22 1 electricity on the grid than needs to be. And in fact, 2 that leads to congestion on the transmission line and 3 will need to increase transmission costs over time and 4 will require Center Point and other utilities to upgrade 5 those transmission lines over time. 6 So when batteries can do is take it off the 7 grid when it's not needed, during the day like right 8 now, and then it can put it back to the grid right 9 before everyone goes home for -- to turn on their ACs at 10 5:00 p.m., etcetera. That's when usually demand is 11 peaking. And that's when batteries will put it back on 12 the grid. So even if it's not an end all, be all 13 solution it still helps. You don't even need solar and 14 wind. I mean just a natural gas plant is a stable 15 supply of electricity. You can still use these 16 batteries to fluctuate and respond. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I take it the way 18 your company will make money is they buy the energy when 19 it's cheap and then sell it at a higher price two hours 20 later? 21 MR. FRY: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: How many times per day 23 are you likely to cycle these batteries? 24 MR. FRY: Yeah, we don't -- it really 25 depends. Some people will use it three times a day. It 23 1 depends on the market. So sometimes you'll store it. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: But I mean you had to 3 make some assumptions for your economic analysis, I 4 hope, so -- 5 MR. FRY: Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- what did you assume? 7 MR. FRY: I would have to get with the 8 analysts. They pick out places where there's high 9 congestion in the grid. So I'm pretty sure right here 10 there's a lot of imports coming from West Texas. A lot 11 of wind control that comes from West Texas being 12 imported east to where everyone lives. So because of 13 that, there's inefficiencies that happen midday when 14 people aren't using that. So if we can store that power 15 that's being transmitted over and then release it back 16 to the people when they need it. So -- so by that 17 logic, prices are low when people aren't using it 18 when -- when it's high and then being imported. So 19 that's when we would store it and buy it and then we'd 20 sell it back to the grid when people need it most. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Well, I'm glad 22 you made the statement earlier that wind and solar 23 aren't particularly reliable and Winter Storm Uri proved 24 that. So we all suffered through that. I was without 25 power for five days. 24 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You were one of the 2 lucky ones. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm sure I was. But, 4 you know, so let's -- let's talk about the reliability 5 of this system. You know. How well does it work when 6 temperatures are sub zero versus, you know, a hundred 7 and five degrees or something during the daytime? 8 MR. FRY: Very well. They're climate 9 controlled containers, so they'll -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Which requires power to 11 keep them climate controlled, right? 12 MR. FRY: Yeah. It'll be on-site power. 13 Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: So they probably don't 15 work real good if the grid is down? 16 MR. FRY: Well, if the grid is down, you 17 can't connect to it. But they're -- they're very 18 efficient. The efficiency is increasing over time. So 19 they work very well. And we have them all over the 20 nation now. They're operating with very high efficiency 21 rates. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Now tell me 23 about the safety of it. Because I've heard a lot of 24 concerns from various people about these batteries 25 catching fire. And as a volunteer fire fighter, I can 25 1 tell you we don't have enough foam to fight one of these 2 fires. Fortunately, you're close to Mountain Home. 3 They're the one VFD that can handle lithium batteries. 4 Like when a Tesla burns. But a facility like this, no 5 way. And, you know, we -- we hear -- I guess there was 6 one in California that burned for five days. So what -- 7 what are you going to do to mitigate any risk of a fire? 8 MR. FRY: There's a few points here. One, 9 every container has an engine management system on 10 board. They're monitoring the situation of every single 11 cell in the battery facility 24/7. So that's the first 12 line of defense. If anything abnormal is happening, 13 it's all -- it spikes. The temperature spikes. They 14 shutdown the whole facility. At least they shutdown 15 that container where it spiked. So that's Step 1. 16 Two, yes, that fire for instance in 17 California lasted five days. That's because they were 18 trying to put it out with water and that prolonged 19 extinguishing the fire. You're not going to be able to 20 put it out with water. And that's why the National Fire 21 Code has since been updated. The practice now is to let 22 the container burn, to let it burn away. And they're 23 designed now, where they are not -- 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Any concerns about air 25 quality and toxins being released when it's -- 26 1 MR. FRY: Well, sure. And the -- and there 2 have been studies on this as well. And you guys -- and 3 studies nationwide for this. When these burn off, the 4 toxic -- the very toxic fumes, they dissipate within a 5 few -- I forgot what it is, ten meters or something of 6 the -- of the container itself. And then, of course, 7 there's a smoke that happens with any fire, like a house 8 fire or car fire, that will -- 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. You see, around 10 here in the Hill Country, we're still under a severe 11 drought. And so we have so much fuel that could kick 12 off any time, and you having a container that's burning 13 is a good likely source of combustion to all of the 14 brush and trees and so forth. 15 And -- and that's my concern because that's 16 where, again, we don't have the water to fight a really 17 big fire. We'll do the best we can, but geez, you're 18 putting matches out there. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One more comment. I 20 know we have quite a few people that want to speak. But 21 my question is, you know, generally, you may get a 22 feeling that we're not real in favor of abatement around 23 here or maybe even the project. And I can tell you, you 24 know, you're welcome to submit an application but I 25 would have -- I don't see how this benefits Kerr County. 27 1 You should be going to Houston for the abatement, not 2 Kerr County. Because we get -- we may get a tax benefit 3 down the road, but I mean this doesn't help jobs. It 4 doesn't help local industry. It doesn't really help 5 anything locally. And for that reason, you know, I 6 see -- like I said, you're welcome to submit an 7 application, but I can't see it going anywhere because 8 it doesn't help Kerr County. 9 And that doesn't even mention the whole 10 issue of the type of project and the issues that we've 11 been talking about. But anyway, that's just my final 12 comment. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, we already 14 established that y'all don't need our blessing or -- to 15 do any of this. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: No. Only if they want 17 the abatement. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Asking for 19 abatement -- because I think you're going to find out 20 from the people that speak, you're not real popular. 21 This idea is not real popular. And then to ask for an 22 abatement is kinda beating your head against the wall, I 23 think, so -- 24 MR. FRY: I appreciate that. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. Let's hear 28 1 from the people. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Before we start, I want 3 some ground rules. Y'all need to stay close to the 4 microphone if you're going to answer any questions, 5 okay. And we've got one there and one here. And for 6 those of you that are going to come up and speak, I 7 think we're going to hear the same -- some of the same 8 things over and over. And if you're willing to just say 9 me too, I agree with that, you know, and -- or do a 10 bullet point in your comments so that we can do this a 11 little bit more efficiently, instead of everybody 12 groaning on and saying the same thing over and over 13 again, which happens sometimes. 14 So with that, we've got I think about eight 15 speakers on this topic. And the first one is Jeff 16 Boerner. 17 MR. BOERNER: Yes. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Did I say that right? 19 MR. BOERNER: Yes, sir. Here or here? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Whatever. Just stand 21 close. 22 MR. BOERNER: Okay. I'm Jeff Boerner. I 23 live here, but we also own in Kendall County so we've 24 been dealing with this since November. It's the same 25 issues. And I'm just going to go over some little 29 1 points that y'all really, really need to ask. And this 2 is about Flat Rock Creek. I think you know. 3 So what we -- we have a 31-page report. 4 I've given it to Charlie Hastings. I don't know where 5 it went from there. I was hoping that it would be 6 passed to y'all. But we have a 31 -- written by 7 doctors, lawyers, and our information that we have come 8 up with. So 90 percent of the batteries are made in 9 China. Ten percent are made in South Korea. Our 10 Governor went to South Korea in 2019 to. Three times we 11 went. 12 So one of the gentlemen over here said it 13 would not be manned. So that means we have an unmanned 14 facility with Chinese batteries, and what's going to 15 happen later is -- and they just -- Black Mountain just 16 did this in Harlingen. They're going to sell it to 17 Equinor. Equinor is a Norway company. So now we have 18 in Kendall County -- or in Kerr County we'll have 19 Chinese batteries, unmanned, monitored by who knows 20 where, foreign companies, and none of that makes sense 21 to us. These are just bullet points. I'll try to be 22 quick. 23 We think that the overall cost of the 24 construction is mainly in the battery. Almost zero 25 construction cost for -- I mean, like they're going to 30 1 set some pads out there. But really the cost of this 87 2 million is just batteries. Most of it. Commissioner 3 Letz said when it's unmanned, we have no economic 4 benefit. None. 5 So let's see. So has Black Mountain 6 considered any fire prevention, because we're in a 7 severe drought. So they mentioned an FDA. I'd like to 8 know what year they're following. Are they following 9 the 2024 rules? 2021 rules? It makes a difference. 10 Because NFPA is constantly changing the rules. 11 So I would submit that the tax benefit that 12 Ingram may get, that the whole County, all the 13 surrounding properties, are that their value is going to 14 be reduced. We know it because we have a video and we 15 have people in Mason that now have an un-saleable piece 16 of property next to theirs. Furthermore, there's no 17 guarantee Kerr County benefits any -- he said east. 18 Well, we don't all live east. 19 Black Mountain gains millions and millions. 20 Equinor will gain -- and Equinor is a trillion dollar 21 company. They do all our gas all over the world. 22 They're going to make trillions. So it makes no sense 23 to do it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Three minutes. I'm sorry. 25 MR. BOERNER: Oh, three minutes? 31 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 2 MR. BOERNER: Ask the people in Chandler, 3 Arizona and San Diego how they feel. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 5 And that's to remind everyone, we allot 6 three minutes per person. Sorry. 7 Next one is Bubba Walters. 8 MR. WALTERS: Bubba Walters. 130 Shalako 9 Estates. I've been the head football coach at Ingram, 10 baseball coach at Ingram, Center Point, 13 years. I 11 understand both sets of kids and both sets of families. 12 We don't want this. I'll tell you right now. I can go 13 get a thousand signatures right now and stop this. 14 My mom lives right down the road from this 15 plant. One of my best friends in the world lives right 16 down the road from this plant. And like Mr. Paces said, 17 goes on fire, boom, it's gone. 18 Equinor, I've done a little research. Not 19 as much as I probably should have. But they are 20 planning on 830 of these facilities in Texas. 830. 21 Okay. That's not mine, but that's airport or the -- and 22 the chemical fires. You talk about the chemical fires. 23 And it goes up ten feet in the air and then the hazards 24 are gone. They said the vaccine worked, people. I'm 25 sorry. 32 1 (Laughter.) 2 MR. BOERNER: When are we going to stop 3 trusting the government? They're made in China. 4 They're made in South Korea. I'm sorry. We don't want 5 this. Plus, this is a beautiful place to live. Why are 6 we living here? It's gorgeous. I don't want some 7 facility like that in our neighborhood. I -- that's the 8 way I feel. I've been here a long time. And I'm going 9 to stand up for what I believe in and how I think. 10 JUDGE KELLY: No applause. This is fact 11 finding. Next one is Becky Belew. 12 MS. BELEW: Good morning. I'm Becky Belew. 13 I live in Precinct 1, Upper Turtle Creek Road. I 14 appreciate your questions for the Black Mountain 15 salesman and system. Just for us to see all of this, 16 meeting today over and over again to repeat to all the 17 citizens that argue that we represent, we are against 18 the battery storage wherever. 19 No matter where it is, I'm against it and we 20 all know that it's not good. Whether all the moving, 21 breathing people in Kerr County, Gillespie County, 22 Kendall County, every County in Texas. These batteries 23 are dangerous. The wind blows and the water flows and 24 it affects everyone. And I am against it. Thank you 25 very much. 33 1 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. We're not going 2 to -- we're not going to applaud or boo. We're just 3 going to maintain regular court order. 4 Okay. The next one is Cathy Rising. 5 MRS. RISING: Yes. My name is Cathy Rising. 6 I live on Nimitz Drive in Precinct 4. And I am against 7 this thing. Having a background, I am a Californian. 8 Moved here four years ago. And we're very happy to be 9 here. And they may want to see Californians rot here. 10 And one of the things is we always have to 11 keep -- and be aware of. I work for a title company and 12 an estate company for many years. And because of that, 13 worked with insurance companies. And insurance 14 companies are getting more and more particular about who 15 they're going to insure. What's going on? 16 I wanted to lower my personal homeowners 17 insurance policy last year. And for the first time 18 ever, I've been a homeowner since 1974, worked for 19 Diamond Insurance and Trust Company and a couple 20 different escrow companies. I have never been asked 21 this question. They said, do you have chickens? I said 22 yes. How many do you have? I've never been asked that. 23 Nobody else. I've talked to retired fire insurance 24 agents. I don't know. So why are these things coming 25 up? Why are they being more picky? If they're going to 34 1 ask how many chickens you have, they're going to want to 2 know how close you are to a plant like that. I 3 guarantee it. And you're going to have trouble getting 4 insurance. 5 In California, trying to get a fire 6 insurance policy is almost impossible. The only reason 7 I got one, and this is the back country in San Diego, is 8 because I owned a rental house in Santee in the City. 9 And because I had property -- an insurance policy there, 10 they allowed me to have insurance on my property in 11 Ramona, which was very much like the Hill Country here. 12 The other neighbors, they all had to go to 13 the State of California to get insurance. And that's 14 how it's -- and you think -- you're going to have a lot 15 of problems and you're going to pay a lot more money. 16 In addition to that, you're looking at 17 pollution. Years ago, in the late 1980s, there was a 18 gypsy moth in the San Diego County area. They decided 19 they would do a very safe spray. And it would be at 20 night. You'll be fine. Like they told you, bring your 21 cars in because it might damage the paint. But don't 22 worry, you're going to be fine. It's okay. It's all 23 for your health and safety. So they sprayed. Okay. 24 And at that time, we were very involved with 25 Project Wildlife, where you take an injured orphaned 35 1 animal, get them better and put them back out. 2 Hopefully where you got them. And it was just a short 3 time after that area was sprayed, they did it at night. 4 Perfectly safe. We saw a lot of animals that were out 5 at night. Especially -- we were more involved with 6 possums. And I had to reteach these possums with 7 Project Wildlife and we get -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: That's your three minutes. 9 MS. RISEN: -- no eyes. One was deaf. Two 10 with no eye sockets. That's the results. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 12 Next is Carrie Schmerbeck. 13 MRS. SCHMERBECK: My name is Carrie 14 Schmerbeck. I live in Precinct 2, right off of Coldwell 15 Lane. And I know this particular one is not on the 16 agenda for today. But I think we're all in agreement 17 that -- most of us here in this room, are in agreement 18 that we don't want this here. You are not welcome here 19 and we will fight. We will fight. We are fighters. 20 This is generally a mostly conservative town. 21 And Kendall County and Kerr County, we don't 22 want you here. And we will -- I agree with Bubba 23 Walters. We'll get the names and we'll petition this 24 and we'll fight until there's no fight left within us. 25 For the Precinct 2, as I spoke in Acapulco 36 1 last week, I said we've got to go to the person that 2 can -- we can actually stop this now before it goes to 3 TCEQ and Headwaters and having to get petitions and town 4 hall meetings. We can go to Craig Thompson. 5 He -- that contract hasn't been signed, to 6 my knowledge. It's in hand with the attorney. And so 7 we can -- we can stop that right there. I do have his 8 phone number if any of you are interested. You can call 9 me or get in touch with me and I will give you Craig 10 Thomas's number. We've gotta stop it there. Before it 11 gets to any -- in -- any further advanced. 12 And I will tell you that I opened up a 13 package day before yesterday of a lithium battery that 14 was less than half an inch by half an inch, and it says 15 that if a child or -- or that lithium battery was 16 swallowed, that baby would be dead within less than two 17 hours. So they're very toxic. 18 I live, like I said, right off of Coldwell 19 Lane, and I want no part of that lithium battery next to 20 my home. And my question to these people is, if it were 21 coming to your place, would you want that right next 22 door to your home? Knowing the toxicity to your 23 children and your loved ones, would you want a battery 24 storage right next to your home? That's my question. 25 You know, we don't want it here in Kerr 37 1 County. And I agree with most people who are sitting in 2 this room, that we will fight it until there's not a 3 fight left within us. Thank you. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Next is Tom Moser. 5 Welcome back. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. Tom 7 Moser, Kerrville, Texas, Precinct 3. I'm not going to 8 repeat any of the concerns about the technical aspects 9 of this. But I do want to bring up the fact that I 10 think the need for facilities like this is going to 11 decrease, okay, it's not going to increase. 12 I think this country is waking up to the 13 identification, all this green energy stuff is -- is a 14 hoax, okay, and needing that. I think we need all forms 15 of energy, okay. But my question would be if the need 16 to store energy from solar and wind decreases, what's a 17 facility like this from a business standpoint mean? 18 Okay. Is it a viable business? I don't know the answer 19 to that. I think that's a question to ask. I think 20 that it's critical. I think the taxpayers are being 21 asked to support something that from a business 22 standpoint, because of the need, and I'll emphasize the 23 need for facilities like this is going to decrease over 24 the years to come. I truly believe that. 25 Along with a lot of my former NASA 38 1 colleagues, we've looked at this over the last 12 years. 2 The need for this type of energy and energy storage 3 thing is looked at, and let it play a place, but it's 4 not going to replace natural gas and solar and nuclear 5 things. 6 So from a business standpoint, I don't think 7 the taxpayers need to be at risk for abating taxes on 8 something like this. Thank you very much. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. And thank you for 10 your brevity. Kari Potter. 11 MS. POTTER: Good morning everyone. Kari 12 Potter, 428 China Street in Center Point, Precinct 2. 13 So this is so disturbing to me. This isn't even being 14 discussed in our County or anywhere for that matter. A 15 little bit of research I did just very quickly. This is 16 supposed to be a 15 billion dollar market by '27 and I'm 17 sure they're pacing ahead of that right now. That data 18 is a few years old now. 19 But this -- it looks like these entities are 20 receiving grants from USDA, and when you look at the map 21 available online for USDA, the areas targeted are only 22 our rural areas. If it says -- if you type in Center 23 Point, Texas, available. If you type in Austin, not 24 available. Dallas, not available. San Antonio, not 25 available. So it's really concerning that they're 39 1 wanting to put this on the back of rural Texans. And 2 California and Texas are the leaders in these battery 3 storage farms right now. 4 So in the event of what Carrie was talking 5 about in Center Point, I know that's not the agenda 6 item, but it probably will be soon. Our area right next 7 to the LCRA substation, that property that's adjacent, 8 will drain right into the Guadalupe in the event of one 9 of these emergencies. The -- you know, our ground water 10 shortage right now and surface water shortage is a huge 11 thing. Even though water isn't used solely to put them 12 out, I'm sure at some point it will come into play. 13 And then the stress on our VFDs and our 14 neighbors that will be right next door. So I would 15 strongly urge you to seek other areas. And I know 16 you're in business to make money, but it also affects 17 rural Texas greatly. Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And we had one other sign up 19 for this topic, and that's Christine Pugh. Check 20 outside. Oh, excuse me. 21 MS. PUGH: Good morning. My name is 22 Christine Pugh. I'm a Center Point resident in the 202 23 District. Bear with me. I was unable to print off my 24 documents. But I'm here to address the BESS, the 25 B-E-S-S, the Battery Emergency Storage System. 40 1 My concerns are many, but I will start with 2 thermal runaway. Anybody know what that means? Thermal 3 runaway. Thermal runaway. We have a hot summer here in 4 Texas. You heat up lithium then you got a problem. The 5 storage. 6 I have not read any information about how 7 the protocols will be in the event of emergency. It 8 takes one cell to overheat, which will compromise the 9 other cells in the batteries of the lithium. That 10 lithium is mined out of Bolivia, sent over to India to 11 be produced, and then shipped back to the United States. 12 That is not very green, if this is supposed to be a 13 renewable resource. 14 Another thing, this is a residential 15 community. We might be rural, but we have people, 16 livestock, natural resources. We have well water. If 17 you have a situation where water is to make contact with 18 that lithium, that is also going to cause toxic gases. 19 Those gases are carbon gases. There are many, many 20 variables in this situation that it's not appropriate 21 for the residents of Center Point, Kerrville, anybody in 22 Kerr County is not one to like what's going to happen. 23 People talk about the noise. That is not a 24 concern for me. When I open my back door. I will always 25 wonder if there's a hot cell, a leaky cell. This is a 41 1 concern for us because we have acreage. We have 2 residents. We have neighbors. We have -- some of us are 3 hunters. This would affect not only us human beings, 4 but it will affect the livestock, the water resources, 5 the land, the soil, everything around it, for many, many 6 miles. 7 Nobody has done enough research to see how 8 this be contained if there is an emergency. They don't 9 know. According to FEMA, they don't know. All they 10 know is that this could be disastrous. I can quote it, 11 but I don't -- I only have three minutes. So with my 12 documents, no glasses, I'm just giving you everything 13 just right off the cuff. Okay. So I apologize. 14 But, this is a major concern for humanity 15 and natural resources, which is our water supply. This 16 is not a good idea. I don't know who's making the bottom 17 line profit, but I do know that investors want their 18 return quick. And that return, at the cost of human 19 lives and wildlife, and our land, this could be 20 devastating for all of us and I really appreciate your 21 time. Thank you very much. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. And Miss Hall. 23 I'm sorry. 24 MRS. HALL: Good morning. Terri Hall. I 25 live on 118 Independence in the precinct in West Kerr 42 1 where this would be impacting us. I'm here on behalf of 2 "We the People, Liberty in Action." 3 Kerr County and the Hill Country is under a 4 total assault by these foreign interests buying up our 5 land for dangerous lithium battery storage plants at the 6 peril of our safety, the beauty of the hill country, and 7 our way of life. Over-reliance on renewables is the net 8 result of what we're seeing here. That's what's pushing 9 us. If we return to reliable, safe energy sources, we 10 wouldn't even be discussing this right now. 11 The danger of fire wiping out our land and 12 it's a danger to our residents can't be understated. We 13 rely on volunteer fire departments out where -- 14 especially out in west Kerr. We don't have the 15 resources to contain a lithium battery fire. This will 16 destroy the Hill Country and it's not going to solve any 17 of our energy problems, as Commissioner Letz was 18 mentioning. 19 How would these fires affect our drinking 20 water? How far will the toxic plume go? I have eight 21 kids with asthma. Four with severe asthma. Any of this 22 stuff can set them off into severe respiratory distress 23 and possible death. What if we're within ten meters of 24 this plume or wherever this fire would happen? And I 25 want to alert everybody. TCEQ does have a public 43 1 process for this. And that is our Texas Commission on 2 Environmental Quality. 3 And it is encumbent on you and the 4 Commissioners to have a Resolution opposing all of these 5 battery storage plants in Kerr County. You tell them 6 none here. You are not welcome here. And what you can 7 do besides just passing a Resolution, y'all need to be 8 involved and present at the TCEQ meetings. 9 They also have someone called a public 10 representative there. They are supposed to represent, 11 based on what they hear the public say, and make an 12 official recommendation to the TCEQ of whether or not 13 this should be approved in our area. So we all need to 14 be paying attention to all of that. 15 And the other thing the Commissioner -- the 16 Commissioners can do is form a 391 commission. There's 17 been a lot more talk about that lately because of what's 18 been going on with the 30 by 30 land grab. And if 19 you've been following the Muleshoe issue that's 20 happening up in the Lubbock area, it's actually making 21 national news. But Margaret Byfield of American 22 Stewards of Liberty is an expert on this. Literally the 23 world's most foremost expert on how to stop these types 24 of things in your county. You should run and not walk 25 to beat her door down to get her expertise on everything 44 1 that we can do to stop this in our county. And it can 2 be stopped. You haven't even begun to see the fight of 3 Kerr County residents. You have not begun to see it. 4 So we don't want you to sit there and say 5 you're helpless, that there's nothing we can do at the 6 county level. I just gave you two things you can do at 7 the county level. We're not going to accept this wimpy, 8 mansy pansy response that we can't do anything. When we 9 have government breathing down our neck about virtually 10 every aspect of our lives right now. We can't get 11 Government's boot off our necks and you're telling us 12 you can't do anything? Unacceptable. Please don't sit 13 here and say that. Do everything to stop this. Thank 14 you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I understand that our 16 State Representative, Wes Virdell, would like to speak? 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: He hasn't actually been 18 elected yet. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Oh. 20 MR. VIRDELL: Elect. Representative Elect. 21 I think everybody's calling me that so it's okay. I'm 22 just going to cover a couple of notes here from my 23 experience with this. So some of y'all know I had a 24 trucking company for about ten years. One point we had 25 picked up some containers from the Houston port and it 45 1 was pick up and delivered at -- the delivery at -- the 2 guy that met was a Russian engineer that was in the 3 port, and I asked him -- I said where did these come 4 from? And he said China. And they opened the doors up 5 and these are the same containers that the environmental 6 control quality and all of that in it. A hundred 7 percent from China is where they came from. 8 The week before that, a friend of mine 9 that's in intelligence for a certain agency had 10 expressed to me concern about our infrastructure as 11 having tons of Chinese components put into its process 12 that they have been able to hack into it at any point. 13 So there's also concern for national security. 14 My friend, Chris Dyer, that owns that 15 property next to that. He had his house up for sale for 16 a year in Mason. And people love Mason. People pay a 17 lot of money to move to Mason. He cannot sell that 18 house. He still has that house right now. I spent a 19 lot of dinners over there at his house. 20 As far as Federal subsidies, these 21 industries that are being propped up right now that are 22 discussed, these are not profitable companies. These 23 are investors in a chance to get the -- up on tax 24 dollars. So I hundred percent disagree with -- with 25 that situation. 46 1 I think I'm covering everything there. But 2 I think all of our residents -- and we have 16 counties 3 and I'm seeing this pop up all over 16 counties where 4 people are coming in, foreign companies, need an 5 opportunity. 6 There's a foreign company right now trying 7 to invest in methanol production over in Schleicher 8 County. And their opportunity -- they don't care about 9 our -- our country, our people, but they see a chance to 10 make a profit. We should be keeping our money here and 11 not give it to foreign countries. 12 But these are stuff that you've asked for. 13 Appreciate everybody in here also saying that they're 14 going to fight for that. So thank y'all. Appreciate 15 it. I've gotta step out. But thank y'all very much. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you. I hope, 17 Mr. Virdell, when you get to Austin you'll take up some 18 legislation that might help us in this fight. 19 MR. VIRDELL: There is a bill drafted at the 20 moment, so -- 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Excellent. Thank you. 22 And I'll only say I, for one, would be more 23 than happy to sign a resolution to TCEQ stating that 24 this County is against it. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We'll try everything 47 1 we can. I have one final question for our people from 2 Black Mountain. Y'all obviously came to plant a seed 3 for tax abatement. 4 MR. FRY: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If you don't get one, 6 will you leave? 7 MR. FRY: No. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, that's what I 9 thought. It's not a deal breaker. 10 MR. FRY: No. And neither -- and neither 11 are the Federal subsidies. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Most of the renewables 14 aren't economic. They're not viable without some form 15 of tax subsidy or abatement, but if you say it is then 16 good luck to you. But I think you'll appreciate that 17 you're really not welcome here in Kerr County. 18 MR. FRY: I appreciate the enthusiasm. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: But I will say thank 20 you for coming. 21 MR. FRY: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: I do appreciate the 23 fact that you came and -- and were willing to take 24 shots, if you will, and tell us a little bit about what 25 you're thinking. Because we haven't seen that from 48 1 anybody else. At least not in the Kerr County project. 2 So I do appreciate your -- 3 MR. FRY: Yeah. I'm due to -- 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- the transparency. 5 MR. FRY: Yeah. I'm not like -- I'm not 6 like a die hard renewable energy developer or a battery 7 storage developer. I don't -- I -- if anything, I wish 8 the Federal subsidies had nothing to do with it because 9 then I wouldn't have to stand here and answer all these 10 questions at public hearing. 11 What I do appreciate is that the utilities 12 use these battery storage systems. And I believe that 13 the bottom line safety concern is over-hyped. And that 14 there's countless of studies that are brought into 15 place. And they've exploded things up on purpose, 16 they've been studied of into the past. There's a reason 17 why they're going up all over the nation. And so with 18 that bottom line being over-hyped and with the utility 19 use of them and the fact that they are useful for our 20 electric being responsive, I still believe that they are 21 beneficial for our nation. And, therefore, I believe 22 that it's worthwhile for me to seek development. I 23 don't need to develop. Whatever, I could go into a 24 different industry, is what I'm saying. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have one other 49 1 question. There's been a number of comments about the 2 value of property near these facilities. Is there any 3 consideration -- I mean, one, we don't want you. Okay. 4 But, you know, that's first. But second, is there 5 consideration to buy a buffer around them? Because many 6 people know I drive to Alpine quite a bit. There's one 7 of these facilities between Fort Stockton and Alpine. 8 It's ugly. And it's big. 9 And, you know, I agree with -- I mean, it 10 seems to me, that even if these facilities go through, 11 which we hope they don't, there should at least be a 12 large enough buffer around them that it doesn't destroy 13 property values near them. Because that's something 14 that -- you know, that's just not fair to the property 15 owners. It's just something that I wish that all these 16 facilities -- this type of facilities and other 17 facilities would consider when they're being proposed. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I think the 19 landowners, you know, when they're approached by these 20 types of facilities, have to consider what are they 21 going to do to the property values, maybe their own. I 22 know Mr. Thomason down in Center Point owns a lot of 23 land adjacent to the property that's being considered 24 for this facility. He's going to shoot himself in the 25 foot with his property values. But what is he doing to 50 1 his friends and neighbors that live adjacent to him? So 2 I hope you take that into consideration. 3 MR FRY: It's off the corner of a highway 4 and the one landowner that we bought from -- 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, we know where it's 6 at. 7 MR. FRY: -- owns a lot of property around 8 that too. So we'll work with him. And I appreciate the 9 comments that we can put vegetation around it. And we 10 don't want it to be too close. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Y'all have rallied the 12 troops, I'll tell you that though. 13 MR. FRY: I hear you. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we do appreciate you 15 coming and being open about what you're trying to do. 16 MR. FRY: Thank you for having us. 17 MR. HUGHES: Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else? Okay. Then 19 we'll take a five-minute recess and reconvene five after 20 10:00. 21 (Break) 22 JUDGE KELLY: (Gavel bang.) I'm going to do 23 it one more time. (Gavel bang.) Okay. Court will come 24 back to order. 25 Next item on the agenda is Item 1.2 51 1 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to allow 2 Cody Taylor with Kerrville Independent School District, 3 Tivy High School, to add mulch to the cross country 4 track course at Flat Rock Park, in the dog park area, 5 for their track meets scheduled for August 16th, 6 September 28th, and October 9th (use of park approved by 7 Court Order 40596), and work will be done at no cost to 8 the County. Shane Evans. 9 MR. EVANS: Yes, sir. This is kind of 10 self-explanatory. He approached me last week. He 11 already -- and they found somebody that would donate 12 mulch and stuff, and labor would be provided by 13 volunteers and track students. It's just basically a 14 running pad for the -- in the back part of the Dog Park 15 area for the runners. And also cut a track for them and 16 the folks in the Dog Park actually use the track area 17 when it's not -- you know, for walking their dogs and 18 whatnot and they're just actually wanting to kind of 19 keep the dust down, providing a little bit softer 20 running area for the -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem with 22 that. I'll move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 52 1 approve the cross country track accepting the mulch at 2 Flat Rock Park. Any discussion? Those in favor say 3 aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 4 Quickly, 1.3 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to accept donations to Kerr County 6 Animal Services totaling $10.00 for the month of June 7 2024. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Move for approval. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: And a second. Those in favor 13 say aye. Unanimous. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Good job, Reagan. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Way to show up. 16 JUDGE KELLY: 1.4 consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to approve the contract with 18 Rx Technology for the Firewall Refresh project. Cory 19 Thoennes. And for the public that hasn't met Cory 20 Thoennes, this is our new IT Director. 21 MR. THOENNES: Good morning. Yes, this is a 22 request for approval for some equipment that has reached 23 end of life. Rx will come in and set up the new 24 equipment for us. Install it. 25 JUDGE KELLY: So this is -- you're going out 53 1 for -- 2 MR. THOENNES: It will be a contract with Rx 3 to upgrade the equipment that's already in place. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: County Attorney has 5 reviewed it? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's within budget 8 items? 9 MR. THOENNES: Yes, sir. It will actually 10 be funded through the Fund 16 line. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll make a motion 13 that we approve it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We got a motion from 15 Commissioner Overby and a second from Commissioner Letz. 16 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 17 1.5, and again, I'm moving quickly, Tracy. 18 MRS. SOLDAN: All right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action to approve the nomination committee 21 section of a County employee to participate in the Kerr 22 County Leadership Class 2024-25 and submit an 23 application to the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce. Tracy 24 Soldan. 25 MRS. SOLDAN: The committee met last week 54 1 and we would like to present Amber Logenbaugh as our 2 nominee. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Amber Logenbaugh. Got a 6 motion and a second to approve Amber Logenbaugh as the 7 Kerr County Leadership Class nominee. Any discussion? 8 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 9 1.6 consider, discuss and take appropriate 10 action to approve payment of the D&O Insurance for the 11 Kerr County Bail Bond Board. 12 MRS. SOLDAN: This is our third renewal. 13 Same rate as before. So I'm just bringing it to the 14 Court. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry. Miss Hall, did you 18 want to speak on this one? 19 MRS. HALL: No. Not this one. 20 JUDGE KELLY: All right. So we have a 21 motion and a second. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No, we don't -- 23 MRS. SOLDAN: No. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- not yet. I'll make 25 a motion that we approve payment for that. 55 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 4 approve the Directors and Officer's Liability Insurance 5 for the Kerr County Bail Bond Board. Any discussion? 6 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 7 1.7 consider, discuss and take appropriate 8 action to increase a part-time position at Grade 22 Step 9 1 to a full-time position at Grade 22 Step 4 in the 10 County Attorney's(sic) office as of July 29 of this 11 year -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: County Auditor's Office. 13 JUDGE KELLY: County Auditor's Office. What 14 did I say? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: County Attorneys. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, they're close enough. The 17 County Auditor's Office. Ms. Shelton. 18 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. I'm respectfully 19 requesting to change the Assistant Auditor from a 20 part-time Grade 22 Step 1 position to a full-time 21 position, Grade 22 Step 4. And on July 7th, 2022 22 Commissioners' Court approved this filled position to be 23 paid at a Step 7 based on the experience of the person 24 at that time for 25 hours a week, which is about 38,000 25 per year. 56 1 The next person that was hired was a college 2 student and that pay dropped down to about 32,000 a 3 year. And so at this time, I'm asking for the pay to be 4 moved up to the Step 4, which is still in line and it's 5 based on the experience of the person that's coming in. 6 I'm also requesting the full -- it to be 7 moved to a full-time position. There's been a growth in 8 the grant and even more grants are being requested, as 9 we heard during the budget process. And then there's 10 also the complexity of the grant. Each grant -- each 11 grant that we receive, most of them have their own 12 website, they have their own rules. And they also have 13 different fiscal years. So this -- grants do take a lot 14 of time on the backside in order to fulfill all of the 15 reporting requirements. 16 We have passed in tentatively approved by 17 the District Judges, the salaries of the employees in 18 the Auditor's Office but per Local Government Code, any 19 increase from one year to the next in the amount 20 budgeted for the expenses of the County Auditor must be 21 approved by the Commissioners' Court or any expense for 22 the salary of an Assistant Auditor, it shall not exceed 23 five percent without the approval of Commissioners' 24 Court. 25 The requested salary increases for the 57 1 current year are about 4,300 dollars, which I do have in 2 my budget. This position has been open all year long. 3 And then the second part of that for next 4 year, it would be about a $25,000 increase for the 5 salary, based on the full-time position though. And on 6 this, the five percent of my current budget is about 7 $28,000, which is what five percent would be. 8 The increase in the salary for next year is 9 about 25,000. But there are payroll taxes that go along 10 with that. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me make sure. First 12 of all, does this bring your office up to being fully 13 staffed? 14 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So you're converting a 16 part-time to full-time and now it's -- for the first 17 time in years, your office is fully staffed? 18 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And you've already run this by 20 the District Judges and they've approved this? 21 MRS. SHELTON: They have tentatively 22 approved it. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Subject to our action? 24 MRS. SHELTON: Subject to -- and the hearing 25 that will be held. 58 1 JUDGE KELLY: And the hearing. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the budget. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: So how many total staff 5 will you have? 6 MRS. SHELTON: I will have -- I will have 7 five. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Including yourself? 9 MRS. SHELTON: Six including myself. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll make a motion 11 that we go from a part-time position to a full-time 12 position at that step and grade. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 16 approve taking this employee from a part-time to a 17 full-time and up to a Grade 22 Step 4 as presented. Any 18 discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A comment. This is 20 really more for the public a little bit. The Auditor's 21 Office is a little bit of a strange animal. It's 22 governed by the District Judges, not by the 23 Commissioners' Court. We have some oversight on budget, 24 but we really don't have any oversight on budget because 25 if they want to tell us to do it, we have to do it. So 59 1 they're -- and we get along with the district judges, so 2 I'm not throwing rocks upstairs. But they decide the 3 staffing of that office and the salaries of that office 4 really. 5 But the question I have to the Auditor, 6 though, because of the five percent of your budget's 7 28,000 and this increases -- is less than that, you 8 really don't have to come to us. You can just -- it's 9 kind of a -- it's -- or is it a gray area you have to 10 come to us? 11 MRS. SHELTON: Thank you. To me it's a gray 12 area. Because y'all have tentatively already approved 13 what insurance would be -- would be given, and so that's 14 kind of set. And inadvertently, you already approved 15 that part. You know, as far as the retirement amount, 16 as far as FICA, all of that is set. So by the time you 17 add all of that, that would take me over the five 18 percent. So it's just kind of disclosure for my entire 19 part, my entire expenses for my office. 20 The other part is the five percent. This is 21 a 7.5 percent increase from the -- from a Step 1 to a 22 Step 4. It's about a 7.5 percent increase. According 23 to Kerr County policy, I could increase to a Step 3 with 24 the HR Director's approval. And so I'm asking to go 25 one -- 2.5 percent before that roughly speaking. 60 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's because of 2 the experience of the individual, which is something 3 that's been our policy. 4 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 5 JUDGE KELLY: So underpinning the gray area, 6 we're just reaffirming everything we've already agreed 7 to. And so just to top it off, this leaves us without 8 being gray at all? 9 MRS. SHELTON: This leaves us what? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Without being gray at all? 11 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: My concern is just same 14 concern I have with the whole budget. You know, our -- 15 our County government keeps growing. I realize that 16 grants are an important part, and they do take a lot of 17 time and effort. But man, I -- I really struggle with 18 adding more positions to what's already a budget that's 19 already way too high. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I feel the same 21 way. Other than just, like, when we graded a position 22 for Noel, or not for, what she got hired for, they're 23 making -- they're saving us money, these grants. She's 24 working with these grants and stuff. So because of that 25 it's a need. It's a need. 61 1 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Wish you'd have told me 3 that the District Judges are going to overrule it and 4 I'm happy for them to make this -- take it out of our 5 hands. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I guess I do too. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, this is a part-time to 8 full-time position that we've been anticipating all 9 along. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tanya, is this person 11 working part-time now with us or -- 12 MRS. SHELTON: No, they're set to come in 13 part-time on the 29th. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Gotcha. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And a second. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, and a second? 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 22 Those in favor say aye. Those opposed? 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: Aye. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And any abstentions? Okay. 25 So it's a 4-1 vote. Approved. 62 1 Next agenda item is 1.8 consider, discuss 2 and take appropriate action to surplus IT items from the 3 IT Department. 4 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We have a list of items 5 that the IT would like to surplus. I believe a lot of 6 these have been in storage for awhile and they're trying 7 to get some of that cleared out. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 11 approve the surplussing of the IT items as presented. 12 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 13 Motion carries. 14 Item 1.9 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action to authorize the County Judge to sign 16 the addendum to Exhibit A for Arbitrage Rebate Services 17 with BLX Group LLC, Series 2024 Tax Notes. Miss 18 Shelton. 19 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. This company takes care 20 of all of our -- looking and making sure that we're 21 following the arbitrage laws. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 25 approve the addendum to the Exhibit A for the Arbitrage 63 1 Rebate Services with BLX Group as presented. Any 2 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 3 carries. 4 Okay. Catching my breath. We'll take the 5 ten o'clock items now. Item 1.10 a public hearing for a 6 Revision of Plat for Hidden Valley Ranch, Section 2, Lot 7 94. Charlie Hastings. 8 COMMISSION LETZ: Bobby is here. 9 JUDGE KELLY: This is a public hearing. 10 Anybody here to speak to that? Public hearing has been 11 convened. There being no one wishing to speak, the 12 public hearing is adjourned. 13 We'll move on to Item 1.11 consider, discuss 14 and take appropriate action for the Court to approve a 15 development plan for the proposed Sun and Moon RV Park 16 rental community. Mr. Gore. 17 MR. GORE: This proposed development or 18 development plan for an RV park consists of just over 23 19 acres, and it will be a total of 60 spaces, 60 RV slots, 20 done in two phases. Thirty spaces in the first phase 21 and 30 in the second. 22 There will be inspections required during 23 construction and a Certificate of Compliance will be 24 required after construction is complete. 25 In the memo it mentions in accordance with 64 1 Section 232.007 of the Texas Local Government Code and 2 Exhibit R of the Kerrville County -- or Kerr County 3 Subdivision and Manufactured Home Rental Rules and 4 Regulations to accept for approval construction and a 5 certificate of compliance are the following: There will 6 be no preliminary construction. Construction of the 7 proposed manufactured housing rental community may not 8 begin before the date the County Engineer approves the 9 development plan. 10 The County Engineer or Commissioners' Court 11 may require inspection of the infrastructure during its 12 construction and shall require a final inspection. The 13 final inspection must be completed not later than the 14 second business day after the date the County Engineer 15 receives an affidavit from the developer that 16 construction of the infrastructure has been completed in 17 accordance with the approved plan. 18 If the County Engineer determines that the 19 infrastructure complies with the plan, the 20 Commissioners' Court shall issue a certificate of 21 compliance not later than the 5th business date after 22 the date of the final inspection is completed. 23 The County Engineer is in receipt of a 24 complete development plan application for Sun and Moon 25 RV Park Rental Community that is in compliance with Kerr 65 1 County regulations and requests that the Court approve 2 said development plans for the proposed Sun and Moon RV 3 Park Rental Community. Precinct 2. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this in the ETJ or 5 just passed the ETJ? 6 MR. GORE: There is a small sliver of it 7 that is in Kerrville ETJ. But nothing in Phase 1. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Is this on public water 9 supply? 10 MR. GORE: Yes. It is Aqua Texas water 11 supply. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: And OSSF? 13 MR. GORE: And OSSF, yeah. They'll have one 14 master meter, so essentially will be one meter to the RV 15 slots. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. Just so I 17 understand. With the new water availability 18 requirements and all that, this isn't considered adding 19 lots? 20 MR. GORE: I had that question, too. 21 There's -- we original had a concept plan, a voluntary 22 concept plan last year before that rule went into 23 effect. So those rules are a little bit different with 24 RV plans anyway. But even if so, we, in effect, had an 25 application in before that. 66 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Headwaters has 2 signed off on this already? 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 4 MR. GORE: And Headwaters -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's an RV park. 6 MR. GORE: Correct. And they have the 7 calculations, the water calculations that -- Headwaters 8 was not at that concept plan but the developer was in 9 contact with them previously and Headwaters responded to 10 Charlie and I about the usage and that it was in 11 compliance. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 13 MR. GORE: And they did sign it ultimately. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I'm not thrilled 15 about it, though. But I don't think we can deny it. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second the 17 motion. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: You're welcome. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 21 second to approve the development plan as presented for 22 the Sun and Moon RV Park Rental Community. Any 23 discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just make a 25 comment. You know, these RV parks do meet housing needs 67 1 in the community and we do need them. So we need -- I 2 mean, housing is an important issue so that's kind of -- 3 you know, not overly fond of them. But at the same 4 time, they do serve a need and people need a place to 5 live so. And they're complying with all the rules, 6 so -- 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: And that's the main 8 thing for me. They're in compliance with our 9 subdivision manufactured home rules, so -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It follow the rules and 11 it gets approved. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We have a motion and a 14 second. Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. 15 Those opposed? Motion carries. 16 Item 1.12 -- you don't look like Donne. 17 MS. HOFFER: No, I was supposed to be off 18 Tuesday and I forgot about all the other things. 19 JUDGE KELLY: 1.12 is consider, discuss and 20 take appropriate action to go out for annual bids for 21 delivered fuel. And this is Kelly Hoffer instead of 22 Donne Houghton. 23 MS. HOFFER: Yes. We are asking the Court 24 to give authorization for us to go out for delivered 25 fuel bids. Once we put out the bids, we will come back 68 1 to the Court to open the bids on September 9th, 2024, 2 and also award the bids in Court at that time. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve going out for annual bids for delivered fuel as 7 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 Opposed? Motion carries. 9 Item 1.13 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action for Commissioners' Court approval of 11 a general contract with Schilling Overhead Door for door 12 project at Center Point Yard, Road and Bridge 13 Department. 14 MS. HOFFER: This project is for the 15 installation of two 10 foot by 8 foot roll-up doors. 16 These new doors will provide upgraded security of the 17 building of the Center Point Yard that's on Kelly 18 Street. 19 The County Attorney has reviewed this 20 contract. I don't know how many of you have been to the 21 Center Point Yard, but the little doors are ones that 22 you pull up from the bottom and you pull the whole door 23 up. And then you've got to try to find a stick to jimmy 24 up underneath that big heavy door -- 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: You're making a good 69 1 explanation of that. 2 MS. HOFFER: -- so that it doesn't fall on 3 you. I know. When I worked the field, I had to pull 4 those doors up one time and they are really -- 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You don't need just a 6 new stick? 7 MS. HOFFER: You just hope that that stick 8 is somewhere where you can reach it. But at this time I 9 ask the Commissioners' Court to get approval of this 10 general contract. And thank you for your consideration. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve Schilling Overhead Door for the door project at 15 Center Point yard. Any more discussion? Those in favor 16 say aye. Opposed? The motion carries. 17 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Moving on to item 1.14 19 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 20 determine how to allocate remaining ARPA funds. Noel 21 Putnam. 22 MS. PUTNAM: I just put this on the agenda 23 again. I don't know if you guys are ready yet to make 24 any further recommendations at this point in time. I 25 just want it to be on the agenda in case there were 70 1 decisions to be made. So I could just pass on it until 2 a later date. We still have a proposed project there 3 and the Judge has allocated for pretty much all of them 4 within his budget. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me it's really 6 more -- probably more appropriate to talk about this 7 during the budget workshop. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that's the way we've 9 been doing it but she has to put it on and -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: She's running out of 12 time. 13 MS. PUTNAM: Just in case if any of y'all 14 are ready to go forward on any of these, great, it's 15 here. If not, it will be here the next time again, 16 so -- I could pass everyone and -- I'd be more than 17 happy for y'all to pass it. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We can talk about it 19 this afternoon at two o'clock. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we'll come back to 21 it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We'll pass on it. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: But I guess I would 24 just ask this one question. 25 MS. PUTNAM: Okay. 71 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Maybe you could 2 elaborate, once again for my benefit but perhaps for the 3 public, what's left of the ARPA funds to -- that we need 4 to commit? Because there was confusion between the 300 5 and whatever, 23 thousand dollars versus some of the 6 documents showed over 800 thousand dollars. So is that 7 just the difference of interest or is it some other 8 things that we thought other projects would spend but 9 now it looks like they won't? 10 MS. PUTNAM: I would not be able to address 11 that question correctly. I do know that we have about 12 380 some-odd thousand left to commit. Because Ashley 13 says we have an overflow which is I would assume similar 14 to what the Judge spoke about as far as the deficit 15 budget. We do have interest left. That could be 16 something that is considered. 17 But those -- those projects are all 18 recommended, they're all ARPA approved, good projects. 19 And so it's up to the Court to decide which ones of 20 those they would like to use for ARPA money or if they 21 would like to allocate other money from somewhere else. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. 23 MS. PUTNAM: But any one of those would 24 qualify for ARPA spending. However you choose to fund 25 them. 72 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess I'm just asking 2 for clarification. Are we needing to commit $323,000 3 worth or a bigger number? 4 MS. PUTNAM: You would need -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: Let's get Miss Shelton to 6 answer that question. 7 MS. PUTNAM: Okay. Great. 8 MRS. SHELTON: Okay. Strictly speaking, 9 right now currently we have obligated all but about the 10 324,000 -- 11 MS. PUTNAM: 320. 12 MRS. SHELTON: 320. However, we have looked 13 into what the spending has been through June and we are 14 projecting out how much will be leftover when we finish. 15 And we've got that amount to be somewhere around 16 $136,000. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 18 MRS. SHELTON: We also have -- through June 19 we have interest of $803,000 roughly from the inception 20 that has not been spent. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. 22 MRS. SHELTON: So the project that had been 23 approved will all be spent using either the ARPA money 24 or the ARPA fund. We need to obligate more than the 25 320,000, though, because of just -- there will be some 73 1 differences by the end of the year. So we need to make 2 sure that we fully obligate 100 percent of the ARPA 3 funds. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: And that's fine. I was 5 just kind of looking for greater clarification around 6 what that number is. 7 MS. PUTNAM: Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Does the interest have 9 to be obligated before -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: No. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No? 12 MRS. SHELTON: The interest does not. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No. Okay. 14 MRS. SHELTON: It can be spent on a much 15 wider array of projects. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: And I believe you 18 clarified the last time we talked about this that the 19 interest is already factored into the budget. 20 MRS. SHELTON: A portion of the interest in 21 Judge Kelly's budget, he proposed it being -- give me a 22 second, I'll get the number, $926,503. So in that, he 23 is projecting on spending a portion of the interest. 24 Yes. And I've used the term -- it should be better, I 25 should probably be saying using Fund 30 because all of 74 1 the interest for ARPA is in Fund 30 and so I probably 2 made it more confusing by just calling the whole thing 3 ARPA. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 5 JUDGE KELLY: And the way I would describe 6 it is, I don't want to get so close to any line that's 7 going to subject us to a potential claw back. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Exactly. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And so we -- if we overcommit 11 with the ARPA funds to cover our backside, I'd rather do 12 that than to lose them. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. And I'm okay 14 with that. I just wanted to understand what -- what's 15 our target number. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And I ask her weekly. And she 17 tells me. And I say well, let's tip it a little bit 18 closer to it. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. 20 JUDGE KELLY: So that's what we're doing. 21 Okay. With that, we'll move on to Item 22 1.15, which is a discussion regarding the proposed 23 budget and tax rate. 24 And I think we've got Mr. Bubba Walters, has 25 let. I see Mr. Baroody is here. Did you want to 75 1 address that? 2 MR. BAROODY: Yeah. I thought you guys were 3 going to talk first so I don't know what he's saying but 4 here we go. 5 George Baroody, 1616 Glenn Road. Really, 6 these are just general statements, I assume that's sort 7 of what this topic is, I'm not real sure. Because I'm 8 not going to be able to be at the workshop and my 9 questions aren't -- really aren't about the details of 10 the budget. 11 It's kind of some quotes that I was reading 12 in the paper, one is that -- the City does this, too, 13 but this notion that somehow Kerr CAD controls the 14 budget revenue is just backwards. You guys create the 15 budget. You create the spending. And with your gap 16 that you have from your service revenues to what you're 17 actually trying to spend, you back your way into a tax 18 rate. And so Kerr CAD doesn't drive the revenue. You 19 all do in whatever you determine is your budget. 20 The other thing is, the statement was quoted 21 as being the budget just cannot be balanced. Well, yes 22 it can. Obviously, you've got to make tough choices but 23 you gotta make them now instead of as the year 24 progresses. I've asked this question before of the Court 25 about deficit budget. It's really -- it's kind of -- I 76 1 classify it as latent budgeting because all you're doing 2 is deferring decision and then you're eventually going 3 to defer and spend. Because you are approving a budget 4 for department heads that says you can spend this much, 5 knowing full well you'll never have that much. So 6 you're going to have to make cuts as the year 7 progresses. 8 I don't know any department head that would 9 like to have to do -- make those decisions as the year 10 is progressing. It's just not really a good way to 11 plan. And you can make these choices now. 12 The other thing is, when you are budgeting 13 this way with a deficit, and you're also on the other 14 side giving away some of your tax dollars to developers 15 to bring on more expense to your County, you're 16 basically double whamming a hole in your budget as 17 you're going to be doing with this housing development 18 you guys are -- I guess, are going to be approving. 19 But the other thing is just in general 20 terms. When you're looking -- this is really hard to -- 21 for the public to understand as well as I'm guessing you 22 guys. When you're making your comparisons from last 23 year to this year and you're showing last year's budget 24 to this year's budget, you're missing a very important 25 part, which is last year or current year's actual 77 1 spending. Because that's really what you're basing your 2 budget -- you should be basing your budget on. What did 3 you really spend currently. And you might give each 4 department, you know, a raise of -- and their changes, 5 you're going to base it on that baseline. (Ringing 6 sound.) Is that my time? Which is fine because I was 7 done. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, it's not. 9 MR. BAROODY: All right. Well, thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Miss Hall, did you want to 11 speak on this one? 12 MRS. HALL: Yes. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 14 MRS. HALL: Terri Hall again, 118 15 Independence, speaking on behalf of Liberty in Action 16 about the budget. It does help to hear your comments on 17 what you're going to do before we comment, but I'll just 18 give you my thoughts. 19 Let's start with President Trump. I found 20 it notable on his very excellent two hour speech last 21 Thursday that he's telling voters tax relief is on the 22 way. That his job is going to be make America 23 affordable again. But Kerr County Commissioners 24 apparently aren't getting that message because that's 25 not what we're getting at the local level. Yet every 78 1 one of you claims to be a Republican. What are you 2 doing? You're making America less affordable. 3 Particularly Kerr County. You're making housing less 4 affordable. Especially for young people, young workers 5 and growing families. 6 Four percent across the Board pay raises in 7 the Biden economy after two years in a row of five 8 percent increases? Your constituents aren't getting 9 that. And even if they get a tiny, tiny raise one year, 10 inflation has erased it all. This absolutely drives 11 voters crazy about government. Because it operates in 12 its own little silo like it doesn't affect anybody else 13 around them. 14 The County is not the only employees you 15 need to worry about. We elected you to take care of the 16 taxpayers and the residents as a whole. Not just your 17 County workers. 18 And the way we did the across the Board 19 thing is nothing based on actual merit or performance, 20 it's just everybody gets it. Regardless of work 21 performance. This is how government has grown out of 22 control. We cannot handout willy-nilly pay raises to 23 everybody anymore. We can't afford this much 24 government. We are the ones who hired you. And we're 25 telling you we can't afford this budget. There's 79 1 nothing worse than having tone deaf elected officials. 2 Especially with what we've seen happen in the last week. 3 You work for us and we can't afford this. 4 And particularly, a move for public transit. 5 There is nothing more of a sink hole to these city 6 budgets than public transit. And that's something I 7 know quite a bit about. I have sat in transportation 8 committee hearings and TxDOT commission hearings and 9 public hearings all across the State for nearly 20 10 years. There's not one public transit system that is 11 not heavily subsidized by government. And it is a 12 complete sink hole. That nobody rides. Nobody uses. 13 It's not nimble enough. Ride share took care of it. 14 Why are we still even talking about it? It is not going 15 to make Kerr County a better place. We already have ART 16 and other forms of transportation for those that really 17 need that. 18 And then, sales tax and property tax. New 19 property taxes coming online have continued to increase 20 in this County. So you're continuing to get more money 21 without having to raise anybody's taxes, yet you blow 22 through all that and still want to raise our taxes. So 23 what do we want? We want a no new revenue budget and 24 for you to stop making existing residents pay for 25 cheaper housing for new residents. 80 1 VOICE: Amen. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Anybody else on item 1.15? 3 Jerry? 4 MR. WOLFF: Jerry Wolff. I live at 5 509 North Buckboard. I'm not real -- really well 6 prepared this morning but I'll tell y'all what's on my 7 mind and I wanted to speak it. 8 How are y'all proposing to make up this 9 deficit of, what, about ten million dollars in the 10 proposed budget? Is it through tax increase or is it 11 through taking money out of the rainy day fund? 12 There's no answer to how you're going to 13 make up the deficit? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Jerry, I explained that my 15 experience with the deficit budget at the County is we 16 have not had one in the eight years that I've been 17 involved. Although we adopt one. But there never is a 18 deficit. What happens is, we over-budget. And that's 19 what happens with the Department Heads and the Elected 20 Officials. They all put a little something in, a little 21 something extra for the rainy day. 22 We have a contingency fund at the County 23 level, and at the end of the fiscal year, we have more 24 money that is unspent because of the over budgeting, 25 that we've never had a deficit. That's -- that's the 81 1 way I've explained it. I've tried to balance the 2 budget. And nobody would let -- would agree with me. 3 Because they all had their own -- their own way of doing 4 their budget. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, let me -- another 6 thing, because I've been doing this a long, long time. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It'll be bad when I'm 9 done doing it. But the County government is odd from 10 the standpoint is that we cannot change our budget 11 during the year. So Road & Bridge, for example, say 12 they want to -- Kelly plans on resurfacing 50 miles of 13 road. Well, say she gets -- you know, so we have to 14 budget that. She may not get the 50 but we have to 15 budget that, otherwise she won't have the materials to 16 do it. And we hope that -- and she may be able to get 17 there. We hope she does. Because we need to keep our 18 roads up. 19 But we have bad weather and things like 20 that, you know, that do come up. So we have to budget 21 for certain things. We can't add -- you know, we can do 22 a budget amendments during the year. But we can't add 23 or change our budget much during the year. So we do 24 over budget. And it's been that way pretty much for, I 25 think -- and I think maybe one year since the 28 years 82 1 I've been a Commissioner that we didn't have an excess 2 and there it was about even. 3 But part of it is -- and the other part of 4 it is employees. We never know where there's going to 5 be employee openings. So we can budget for all the 6 employees. And that's by far the biggest part of our 7 budget. So I mean that's the reason we have -- in my 8 opinion anyway, the reason we have a deficit budget 9 because we -- you know, as soon as one person doesn't -- 10 you know, leaves or whatever, and we always have 11 openings. We have, what, 360 employees? 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We're never fully 13 employed. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 15 JUDGE KELLY: He makes a good point. We 16 budget for 100 percent employment. And we never have 17 100 percent employment. And that's where that 18 over-budgeting comes in. But we have to budget for that 19 position because if we have them, we have to pay them. 20 If we don't have it in the budget, we can't bring them 21 on. 22 MR. WOLFF: But the percentage of this gap, 23 this large gap, the ten million dollars, it seems like 24 that's a lot more than depending on future conditions 25 are going to fall right and we can back the budget up. 83 1 Now I understand why you don't go back to the 2 departments and say, everybody has to cut -- I don't 3 know what the magic number is, but if it's 20 percent, 4 15 percent? Submit a new budget to me. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you look at most 6 departments individually -- I don't know, I hadn't 7 looked at all of them -- there are very few that 8 increased their budget. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I have. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And a number of them 11 have decreased their budget from last year or stayed 12 constant. Most of them I'll probably say -- I'll bet 13 there's no more than, what, maybe a five percent 14 variance in the departments. And probably less than 15 that if you take them altogether so. You know -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: But the biggest variable that 17 we've struggled with for the last two fiscal years has 18 been ARPA and the bond proceeds for the animal shelter. 19 And we have to put those in the budget even though we 20 haven't spent them. Because if we don't have it in the 21 budget, we can't write the check to pay for it. And the 22 ARPA -- or this is the last -- we have to have it all 23 obligated by the end of this year. Not spent but 24 obligated by the end of this year. And so that's why 25 you see it balloon for the last two years, but the total 84 1 budget amount jumped up because we've got over five 2 million dollars in bond proceeds, and ten million 3 dollars in ARPA funds of which, you know, we still 4 haven't spent the vast majority of that. 5 Now we're going to get -- we're going to 6 spend a bunch of it in fiscal year 24-25. That's the 7 hope. Get that communication system up and running. 8 And the special projects that we talked about earlier. 9 But that -- that's what the real aberration is about the 10 budget is we've got funds in there that we can't spend 11 or haven't been able to spend and we're trying to spend. 12 And we're doing it, you know, as prudently as we can. 13 MR. WOLFF: I still think, with this large 14 gap that you're facing there has to be a change in 15 spending and I think what was just said by Ms. Hall, 16 what are you doing subsidizing housing in Kerrville? 17 What -- why are you paying people to come move here? I 18 wasn't paid to go live anyplace I ever lived at. And 19 that makes no sense whatsoever. 20 Then you get involved in public 21 transportation or the bus system. For a City of 25,000 22 people? We have, what, two or three charitable 23 organizations that are providing transportation to 24 people in great need. It doesn't make any sense. And 25 then you have a budget deficit and you want to throw 85 1 money at it. You want to throw money at an apartment 2 complex. Why? If a housing complex, whether it's 3 apartments or individual housing, and the builder, 4 developer can't come in and show he can -- and its on 5 his paper, on his calculation show that he can't make a 6 profit on just what he does himself, he can't make money 7 unless he goes to government entities to get a handout, 8 that project isn't viable. Period. 9 And then I've heard now that there's a 10 million dollars overrun on the animal shelter. That's 11 ridiculous. And that is, what, close to 20 percent 12 overrun? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know where you 14 got that number. That number's not what we said. At 15 the last Commissioners' Court we cut some things out or 16 put them as alternates and we expect it to come in 17 within budget. 18 MR. WOLFF: Oh, okay. So you're going to be 19 within budget. All right. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So those are things that 21 we're -- that we'd hoped to put in there that we now 22 have as alternates. And we've made some adjustments. It 23 may come in over budget. I'm not sure. It depends 24 on -- 25 MR. WOLFF: But how much over budget? 86 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When we get the bids 2 back we'll know if it's over budget or not. 3 JUDGE KELLY: It's just been put out for 4 bid. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It hasn't been put out 6 yet. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will be put out in 9 the next month though. 10 MR. WOLFF: Well, there's another thing 11 that's normally hanging over your head about money that 12 you are going to have to have next year. I know that 13 you gotta get this deficit down from the ten million 14 dollars. There's just no way around it. Thank you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Anyone else on Item 1.15? 16 Then moving on to Item 1.16 consider, 17 discuss and approve the contract change with Hart 18 Intercivic to upgrade the election equipment from 19 version 2.4.2 to version 2.5.2 and the upgrade operating 20 systems. Ms. Alford. 21 MS. ALFORD: Good morning, Commissioners and 22 Judge. And Denise, if you will hand them out the 23 contract change that was required for the upgrade from 24 2.4 to 2.5. 25 We've been using 2.4, and I just found this 87 1 information in my predecessor's e-mail this weekend. 2 The 2.5 is the final version for the support, the DRE 3 system. It also will speed up the scanning when the 4 ballot is being scanned. And the 2.4 runs on the 5 Window 7 base. And the 2.5 runs on the Windows 10, 6 which is a more -- a better system than that. 7 And since this is going to be such a big and 8 busy election, I'd like to have the equipment with the 9 most current version on it to run it on. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: You're wanting to do 11 that for the November election? 12 MS. ALFORD: For the November election. 13 Yes, ma'am. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: But where is the 16 contract that you're referring to? 17 MS. ALFORD: I believe it was the very first 18 sheet. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's the contract? 20 MS. ALFORD: Yeah. The letter from -- that 21 has Hart. The letter is to inform the Secretary of 22 State of the change in -- the contract change. That 23 Hart is upgrading the Texas from the -- to the 2.5. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Nadene, you and I met 25 last week on Tuesday, and we talked about this and you 88 1 said this wasn't coming this year. 2 MS. ALFORD: I was talking about where we 3 were -- where we have to upgrade -- this doesn't change 4 the equipment from a paper for the DRE to know -- to run 5 a paper. And this is the same system as we have now. 6 It's the operating system and version is a newer system 7 on it. It's not the -- 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: So is there a cost 9 associated with this upgrade? 10 MS. ALFORD: It's in my budget. That -- the 11 cost of it is $11,000. In that -- but it's already in 12 my budget in the maintenance expense that I have. 13 JUDGE KELLY: This is really just a routine 14 upgrade? 15 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: A software upgrade. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And it's $11,000? 19 MS. ALFORD: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And it's in your budget? 21 MS. ALFORD: It's 11,532.00. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the backup that you 23 handed out basically says that the Secretary of State 24 verifies that it's a certified upgrade? 25 MS. ALFORD: Yes, this is correct. 89 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do you actually have a 2 copy of the certificate of conformance that's been 3 signed by the Chairman of the EIC? 4 MS. ALFORD: I do not have that with me. 5 No, I do not have that. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'd sure like to see 7 that. Because there are lawsuits across this state 8 contesting the November Constitutional amendments, and 9 in fact, it's got people concerned enough that SB6, what 10 was passed in the last legislative session, it hasn't 11 passed the House yet, but that -- that's trying to 12 accelerate the amount of time that the judges have to 13 hear and settle the -- this case or -- it's multiple 14 cases. 15 And of course, you know, you've got the 16 Constitutional amendments that apparently the Governor 17 has, you know, said it was a valid election. And so 18 people are getting tax breaks and retired teachers are 19 getting additional income, yet the election itself is 20 contested, and it has not yet been resolved. 21 And it all goes back to this issue of 22 whether these machines have been properly certified or 23 at least the VSTOs that are used to test and prove that 24 the equipment gives us reliable, trustworthy results and 25 meets all of the criteria. 90 1 So I just don't see how we can do it without 2 seeing a valid certificate of conformance that's signed 3 by the Chairman of the EAC, which is what's required and 4 that's what these lawsuits are all about. Because we 5 never had one before. Why I didn't approve this -- the 6 adoption of the Hart Intercivic Verity last year. I 7 won't do it again until we see a valid certificate. 8 MR. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: But I mean, I -- I 10 don't see any evidence that 2.5.2 has been certified by 11 the EAC. And the Secretary of State keeps telling us, 12 but the onus for ensuring that we have valid 13 certificates is on this Commissioners' Court. Not on 14 the Secretary of State. Not on the Governor. And if we 15 approve something that's not legal then all of us can 16 and should be removed from office. So how do we resolve 17 it? And I know you don't know the answer because they 18 don't know the answer up in Austin. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you just don't want 20 to have an election? 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: No. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm trying to get to a 23 solution. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, if you -- you 25 have an election and you don't use the machines. 91 1 Because, there is a solution, that's hand counting, and 2 Chapter 65 is approved and you don't need any machines 3 to hand count and tabulate. You use a hundred percent 4 paper ballots. So there is a solution. Yes, sir. I'd 5 be happy to do that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 7 we approve the agenda item. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 9 MS. BELL: Is there a discussion? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're not -- 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: We'll discuss it after 12 we do the presentation. Yeah. 13 JUDGE KELLY: There will be a discussion 14 after we have the motion. 15 MS. BELL: Okay. 16 JUDGE KELLY: We have to put the subject to 17 the floor. So we've got a motion and a second. And who 18 all wants to address this? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment. 20 You know, nobody in the two years we've been talking 21 about this has yet to show me anything that shows that 22 the elections in Kerr County have not been done legally 23 and correct. And I'm -- you know, I've been -- you 24 know, so that's my reason for going forward with it. 25 You know, I mean, it's been looked at and 92 1 looked at and I know there's been countless open records 2 request. But still, nobody has come to me with anything 3 actually that shows that our elections in this County 4 have not been run properly. So that's my -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: The floor is open for 6 discussion. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess I will remind 8 you that we had a gentleman that came and informed the 9 Court of this very issue over a year ago. So -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Uh-huh. And nothing -- 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: In terms of the 12 legality -- well, it's pending in the courts. And -- 13 and that's unfortunate. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I've got Jacob -- is it 15 Wellnitz? 16 MR. WELLNITZ: Wellnitz. Jake Wellnitz. 17 I'm in Precinct 2, Jeffrey Scott Road. I bring the 18 Court almost two decades of experience in IT and cyber 19 security where I currently specialize in protecting 20 critical national infrastructure against significant 21 threats. I've responded to incidents involving oil and 22 natural gas refineries targeted by state actors and 23 institutions like hospitals, schools and financial 24 institutions afflicted by cyber attacks such as 25 extortion and ransomware. 93 1 Today, I wish to bring to your attention 2 several concerns that I have. First, I've observed that 3 my e-mails to the Court have been systematically blocked 4 this Court have been systematically blocked by the 5 County e-mail system. One of those e-mails was actually 6 about this issue, which is why it's relevant to this 7 agenda item. 8 It's concerning not just for myself but 9 raises the question how many other constituents haven't 10 had their voices heard by their elected representatives. 11 I have provided message trace records, item 1.1 in the 12 handout that I handed the Court, proving that e-mails 13 were delivered to the County system. As you can see, 14 Microsoft says e-mails were in fact delivered. This is 15 a critical communication flaw that needs to be 16 immediately addressed by County IT and the Court to fix 17 the line of communication between constituents and the 18 Government. 19 I've also provided both the e-mails that I 20 sent on Friday that were not delivered, and I have 21 confirmed with Commissioner Paces that he did not 22 receive those e-mails. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: I didn't get them. 24 MR. WELLNITZ: Second, I would like to 25 discuss a recent incident involving CrowdStrike updates 94 1 that disrupted the Maricopa County's voting system. 2 While we are not in Arizona and while we may not use the 3 same voting system as Maricopa County, it's pertinent 4 that we consider this as we discuss a breach to our own 5 system. 6 I provided a letter that was sent to the 7 Maricopa County Recorder about the incident, as well as 8 the official notice from Maricopa County Elections about 9 the disruption. They are currently having their 10 Republican primary, which I know is kind of defunct 11 considering the RNC had already happened; however, they 12 still have to go through the process. 13 To mitigate such risks as a countywide 14 outage, I propose that we move to paper poll books 15 because that was what was impacted in Maricopa County, 16 thus preventing people from voting because the e-poll 17 books were not functional. That ensures confidence in 18 our elections. I also am an advocate for paper -- 19 handmarked paper ballots. 20 Third, regarding 1.16, it's concerning that 21 the contract amendment with Hart Intercivic is not in 22 the Court's materials. I looked for it. It is not 23 there. Transparency is paramount, especially when it 24 involves the election infrastructure. Amending a 25 contract without public or Commissioner oversight 95 1 appears to bypass the very essence of this Court's duty. 2 This is evidenced by the lack of the contract being 3 placed somewhere around pages 91 and 92 of the Court's 4 material. It is simply not there. And, of course, you 5 know where the agenda was posted. 6 The public and the Court should not approve 7 any changes to the contract with Hart Intercivic without 8 seeing the contract that is to be amended first and then 9 the amendments to that contract. That way, there's a 10 full understanding of any changes that are done on my 11 behalf as a citizen of this County by y'all. 12 Lastly, it's crucial that we address the 13 upgrades to Hart Intercivic version 2.5.2 as proposed. 14 It is not certified by the Election Assistance 15 Commission per their website. If you look at the EAC 16 website only version 2.5, not 2.5.2, has been certified. 17 And so none of the subsequent point releases, such as 18 2.5.1 or 2.5.2, have a certificate of compliance on the 19 website. That contravenes Texas Election Code, which 20 requires a valid EAC certification. We can have a 21 discussion about the signing of the certification, but 22 I'm not here to discuss that. 23 I've included a screenshot from the EAC 24 website under item 4.1. As you can see, it was the 25 practice for the EAC to certify each point release up 96 1 until 2.4. It was practice to certify every point 2 release up to 2.4. This has not been done for 2.4 or 3 2.5. Therefore, 2.5.2 is not certified. It says the 4 certificate only applies to the initial release of the 5 software platform. 6 In conclusion, these issues are not just 7 technical but strike the heart of our Democratic 8 processes. It is our responsibility to ensure our 9 elections infrastructure is transparent and secure. I 10 urge the Court to consider these points carefully to 11 uphold the integrity of our election system. 12 I'm happy to answer any questions the Court 13 should desire. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Rich, he said he asked 16 you if you got a certain e-mail. Did you run it by IT? 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: I haven't had the 18 chance to but -- 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- because he sent it 21 Friday evening. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: We need to look. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: You tell me, did you 97 1 get this? 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. So -- nor did I. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Alicia Bell. 5 MS. BELL: Alicia Bell, Precinct 1. I'm 6 here to like -- I'm not even quite sure what I'm going 7 to say, but there is so much question about these 8 machines all across the country. It's not just in Kerr 9 County. I don't know why you seem to think that if -- 10 it's happening in other counties but it's not happening 11 here. If you're not looking for something, you're not 12 going to find it. So the writing is on the wall. 13 And I do have to tell you that 2020 was 14 stolen. It was stolen. And every single one of you on 15 this Court know it. And if anyone wants to use 16 machines, you want to cheat. I'm sorry. You want to 17 cheat. We need to get the machines out. We need to go 18 to paper poll books, hand count paper ballots. We need 19 to get the machines out. Because the writing is on the 20 wall. Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Jarrett Woodward. 22 MR. WOODWARD: Good morning. Jarrett 23 Woodward, 16511 Stone Ridge Drive in San Antonio. 24 Commissioner Paces already touched on the 25 legality of the voting systems. They have not been 98 1 tested by certified -- or accredited voting system test 2 laboratory so they don't meet the standards of Texas to 3 be used. 4 Now, it is not illegal for you guys to 5 purchase an illegal system. Okay. It is not illegal 6 for you to adopt an illegal system. It only becomes 7 illegal for a -- it only becomes illegal when it's used. 8 So that very first day of early voting, as soon as that 9 system is used, boom, the crime has been committed. And 10 I say crime, because there are criminal penalties 11 associated, not just civil. 12 So the civil side is that you can be removed 13 from office for either incompetence or official 14 misconduct under Chapter 87, Local Government Code. But 15 the criminal side of it is in the Texas Election Code 16 under Election Fraud, I think it's 276.013(A) maybe (3). 17 And what it says is if you knowingly prevent a voter 18 from casting a legal ballot that they are entitled to 19 cast in that election, then that's a crime, okay. 20 And because we're -- you've been provided 21 information that the voting systems are not legal to 22 use, and then you decide -- whether you believe it or 23 not, without doing your due diligence to double-check 24 and the only way that you can prove it is to provide a 25 certificate for SLI compliance or Pro-VB(phonetic) that 99 1 is signed by the chair of the Commission. That's the 2 only way that you'll be able to prove it on the civil 3 side in Court. Because civil, right, you're guilty 4 until proven innocent. Criminal you're innocent until 5 proven guilty. 6 JUDGE KELLY: No. Absolutely not. 7 MR. WOODWARD: Well, I can say anything that 8 I want in a civil lawsuit, right. And then you have to 9 come in and rebut it. Okay. So that's why I'm saying 10 guilty until proven innocent. 11 JUDGE KELLY: In a civil lawsuit, whoever 12 brings the lawsuit has the burden of proof to prove by a 13 preponderance of the evidence their allegation. 14 MR. WOODWARD: Correct. And then the Court 15 has to take everything that I've said or that a 16 Plaintiff says initially as true. 17 JUDGE KELLY: No. 18 MR. WOODWARD: Yes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, sorry, I've been 20 practicing law 50 years. You're wrong. 21 MR. WOODWARD: All right. I'll take that 22 wrong one, okay. But there is still a criminal side of 23 it and that's you guys preventing a voter from casting a 24 legal ballot. Because if you use an illegal machine, 25 then that vote that's cast and counted using that system 100 1 is illegal. They're not intended to be counted. Okay. 2 And that is the premise of the election contest for the 3 November election. 4 If you remember, and I think it was August 5 in my last e-mail to you guys, I told you that that was 6 going to be happening. And so now where we're at with 7 that is that the Governor was prohibited from certifying 8 the election. And he just did it anyways. Okay. 9 And Rich brought up the SB6 hearing, which 10 means that all of your Senators know about that as well, 11 and they've stayed completely silent. Okay. Your House 12 Representatives know about it. Your District Attorney 13 is here -- both of them -- here in this County know 14 about it and no one is talking about it. 15 And so, as citizens of Texas, okay, this 16 isn't a political issue. This isn't right or left. 17 This is the unconstitutional amending of our 18 Constitution by our State Officials. And so I was 19 trying to convey last year that they're lying to you. 20 And so this should be a good example. You guys can -- I 21 mean, look up Texas Constitution Article 8, 1 dash B. 22 Okay. So that's Prop 4 for your property tax homestead 23 exemptions going up to $100,000.00. It says pending in 24 the Constitution. So how are we getting a tax break? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 101 1 MR. WOODWARD: Thank you, sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Terri Hall. 3 MRS. HALL: Terri Hall with Liberty in 4 Action, 118 Independence. I want to bring up something 5 about CrowdStrike. Because I'm not sure that a lot of 6 people have put these things together. It is actually 7 owned by an Ukranian company and it's the same Ukranian 8 company that initially accused and was involved in the 9 accusations against President Trump of the Russia hoax. 10 Same company. Who do you think is in the crosshairs 11 with Ukraine more than any other American on the planet 12 or really any person on the planet or as Donald Trump 13 since he has pledged to end the war. 14 So I find it very curious that CrowdStrike 15 brings down half of America's digital system on the 16 night of his acceptance speech. I don't think that's an 17 accident. I think that was a shot across the bow. And 18 it also helped us get insight into what can happen to a 19 digital election machine. Our voting machines. Because 20 we now know that can happen on election day or even 21 during early voting. Whatever. By a nefarious foreign 22 entity that wants to mess with U.S. elections, which we 23 know full well Ukraine wants the money to keep flowing. 24 And they know that the man that's going to stop that is 25 Donald Trump. 102 1 So to sit here and act like we're not 2 vulnerable to any of this is to have your head in the 3 sand. This absolutely could affect the Presidential 4 election in November. So we would like to maybe propose 5 a compromise. We do need hand marked paper ballots. 6 There's no question. But if hand counting is not deemed 7 feasible by the majority of the Court, then use them by 8 scanning down machines that cannot be connected to the 9 Internet and are literally just a tally machine. 10 But you cannot use these Hart Intercivic 11 machines. And you sure -- certainly shouldn't be voting 12 to upgrade them right now given the Court case, SB6. 13 And what we know about CrowdStrike alone should give you 14 enough pause to wait on them. I would encourage you to 15 come hear Senator Bob Hall tonight. He's going to be at 16 the YO. He's going to be talking about election 17 integrity and where we're at with that as a state. 18 So we're asking you to table this for now. 19 And if nothing else, we're sure we have to get back to 20 paper poll books. None of this stuff should be all -- 21 we cannot rely on digital anymore. We've got to 22 understand that. Half -- none of the delegates could 23 get home from the RNC convention. We had hospital 24 systems go down. We had payment systems go down. Like 25 half of America was down for, what, like two or three 103 1 days. All our -- you know, were our needs from a 2 foreign country which is a bad actor coming in with this 3 kind of a -- and this was just a software update. It 4 wasn't even a cyber attack. A madness it was. Which, 5 one, it did happen exactly a month prior in June. There 6 was a cyber attack. 7 So I think that we're literally needing to 8 shore up our very vulnerable system before we even think 9 about trying to upgrade this Hart Intercivic on an 10 uncertified machine and all the questions that are 11 floating around about this. So I hope that you guys 12 shine the light. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Feel free to place that on the 14 agenda. 15 So any other discussion? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just have a question, 17 Nadene. Timing-wise, we are going forward with the 18 election using the Hart machines. That's been decided 19 already. What's the timing for the upgrade? 20 MS. ALFORD: The upgrade can happen this 21 week. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know, but what's the 23 latest? 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Is there a deadline? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a deadline for 104 1 this? 2 MS. ALFORD: No, there's not a deadline. I 3 mean, it's not a deadline for it in that, I was just 4 trying to do it in this budget -- budget cycle, yes. 5 And in regards to Mrs. Hall's comment about the Hart 6 system, it is not connected to the Internet. The 7 machines are not connected to the Internet nor is the 8 tabulating computer. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: The electronic poll 10 pads, though, are. 11 MS. ALFORD: Only on -- only during early 12 voting are they connected so that Ingram and Kerrville 13 can talk to each other. So a person cannot go from 14 Kerrville and Ingram and vote twice. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Plus you -- you're 16 using them to report to the Secretary of State everyday, 17 correct? 18 MS. ALFORD: That is -- that is from the 19 team system that's a -- that the tax office uses in the 20 voter registration. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. But again, you 22 know, what -- what's your plan if we have another 23 meltdown, another CrowdStrike issue? Or simply our grid 24 goes down. You know, the electric grid. We've already 25 seen it go down before. How do people vote when the 105 1 power goes out? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can still vote. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The Internet went down 4 during early voting. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Only if you have paper 6 poll pads and -- 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Did it not? Didn't 8 early voting -- 9 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, one at a time. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And it -- it didn't 11 affect our voting. Yeah. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Let's get back in order. We 13 have a motion and a second pending on the floor for Item 14 1.16, which is to consider, discuss and approve the 15 contract change with Hart Intercivic to upgrade the 16 election equipment from Version 2.4.2 to Version 2.5.2 17 and the -- and upgrade the operating systems. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think we need to 19 pump the brakes. There's not a deadline. Let's wait a 20 little bit. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I forgot who made the motion. 22 Did you make it? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I made the motion. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm good with going 106 1 forward. I mean the -- you know, I vote on a paper 2 ballot every time I vote in Kerr County and always have. 3 And there's -- as far as I understand, there's 4 accommodations made for those that want to use 5 electronic. I choose not to. Anyone that's concerned 6 has an option not to. I don't -- I don't see it. I 7 have a letter from the Secretary of State saying that 8 they certify that, the upgrade. I'm ready to go. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then let's take a vote. 10 Those in favor say aye. And those opposed? 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Aye. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Aye. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And those abstain. So 14 opposed? Three, two. Motion carries. 15 Item 1.17 consider and discuss ordering the 16 2024 General Election. 17 MS. ALFORD: Yes. This is to order the 18 November election for all the voting for the candidates 19 that are on the ballot. The last day to -- to order the 20 election is August the 19th. The next Commissioners' 21 Court meeting that it could be ordered is August the 22 12th and my staff and I will be in Austin at the 23 Secretary of State's Convention at that time. And 24 there's no first day, you can order it now or even 25 earlier it could have been ordered. 107 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 2 approve ordering the 2024 General Election. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that 4 motion. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve ordering the General Election. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: What she has in there 8 is -- the order for the election is based on using the 9 Hart Verity 2.5.2 system. So you've approved it but, 10 you know, it has the same objection that I find is we're 11 adopting a system that's not -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If it's not legal the 13 19th what are you going to do, not have an election? 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, we -- we just 15 don't use this equipment. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I don't see how -- you 17 can't go forward on -- you can't not go forward on 18 pending litigation. It's pending. Can't stop. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Motion. Is there a second? 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes, I seconded it. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 22 approve ordering the General Election this November. 23 Discussion. Got two people on the agenda or 24 that have requested to speak. Alicia Bell. 25 MS. BELL: Who was the other person? 108 1 JUDGE KELLY: And Jarrett Woodward. 2 MS. BELL: I'll give my time to Jarrett. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 MR. WOODWARD: Jarrett Woodward, 16511 Stone 5 Ridge Drive, San Antonio. I think that your County is 6 in a very good position to switch over to the hand 7 marked, hand counted paper ballots to conduct a legal 8 election. You've had fairly exciting community 9 involvement that want to do this process. You have more 10 than enough volunteers to be able to properly staff 11 every precinct. 12 And something else to take into 13 consideration, I know that this ballot secrecy thing has 14 come up with the machines recently with the countywide 15 polling -- or the countywide polling place program. I 16 know that you guys don't participate in that. So thank 17 you. But there is still a vulnerability doing precinct 18 based voting with these voting systems. And I think 19 that it has to do with the poll pad. 20 When you're checked in, there are time 21 stamps, okay. And those have to be there for the laws 22 to be audible for the actions that these systems take. 23 So you have a time stamp when they're checked in. And 24 you also have a time stamp when you cast your ballot and 25 run it through that tabulator. So if you are the only 109 1 voter that came into that Precinct, and then cast their 2 ballot, and no one else was come or going during that 3 time, those time stamps could be utilized by somebody 4 requesting public information records. If they knew the 5 general time frame that you had gone to vote, you can 6 tie that vote back to a voter. 7 And so, yes, it's more difficult than 8 countywide polling place programs to -- to do the -- to 9 sift through the data, but it's still possible. And so 10 with it being possible, that violates ballot secrecy, 11 which is the requirement, the very first requirement in 12 Chapter 122. So I think that a way to get past that is 13 the paper poll book. Right. Because you don't have any 14 datapoint that are -- that can be corrected back to a 15 voter. 16 And that's the problem with these systems is 17 that they're creating the datapoints that are timed, 18 these actions to voters, which can be deciphered and -- 19 through a process of elimination. Any questions? 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: And I think I also 21 understood that in our last primary election four people 22 checked in and voted but did not sign the e-poll pad. 23 So -- 24 MR. WOODWARD: I mean, they're not aware of 25 that. 110 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: So they're fallible. 2 Yeah, I know. You wouldn't know about that. 3 MR. WOODWARD: That's just another argument 4 for you guys to look at -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Well -- 6 MR. WOODWARD: -- it, the way I look at it 7 from ballot secrecy. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I totally endorse 9 and support the paper poll pads and I'll make a motion 10 in our next Commissioners' Court meeting that's detailed 11 along those lines because the Texas Election Code allows 12 us to modify our adoption at any point in time prior to 13 the election and it won't require any cost. 14 JUDGE KELLY: But that's not before the 15 Court today. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, it's not. 17 JUDGE KELLY: What is before the Court is 18 whether to order the election or not. Is there anymore 19 discussion? Yes, sir. 20 MR. WELLNITZ: I have both 1.1 -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: You've gotta go to the podium. 22 MR. WELLNITZ: On the form that I had filled 23 out, I had both 1.16 and 1.17 on it. I don't know, do 24 we have to -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Go ahead. 111 1 MR. WELLNITZ: Okay. So back to the e-poll 2 book since I had a lot in my first one. This should be 3 relatively short. E-books obviously are connected to 4 the Internet during early voting. We've already heard 5 that. Which is why I think paper poll books can save us 6 from an outage. I'm not talking about cyber attacks. 7 I'm talking about just a plain old IT outage. Right. 8 Happens all the time. 9 It was brought into the forefront with the 10 Maricopa County thing, which is why I'm messing in it. 11 Normally I wouldn't even be up here. Right. I'm taking 12 time off work to come talk to you guys because it's 13 important to me. 14 And so, paper poll books are where I would 15 suggest the Court go. Besides the mention about 16 confidentiality. When we talk about information 17 security, we talk about confidentiality, integrity and 18 access. Right. So we -- we want -- those three things 19 we're talking about information security. Okay. 20 Confidentiality and integrity are what our election 21 systems should be focused on. Okay. Access, there's 22 all these -- all this push to let anybody basically vote 23 in other states. Not so much here, okay. The only way 24 we're going to have confidentiality and integrity is if 25 we do not use digital systems, because we could have an 112 1 outage. We could have -- you know, let's say one 2 polling location has no power. Poll book has no power. 3 How are those people in that precinct -- so they have 4 a -- Lutheran Church is my voting location usually. If 5 our barn, which is the building that we use, doesn't 6 have power, what the heck do we do? I can't go vote. I 7 generally vote on election day. Okay. We -- I've seen 8 no disaster recovery plan. I have seen no contract with 9 Hart Intercivic about how they handle all this stuff. 10 I've seen none of it. I've looked for it. I can't find 11 it. 12 So I urge the Commissioners' Court to figure 13 out how we handle disasters going forward because it has 14 happened now. I have documented proof in Maricopa 15 County that this happened. I need y'all, in order to 16 protect my vote, to figure out what we're going to do if 17 we have something happen. I know it's kind of it might 18 happen, it might not happen, but every business I've 19 worked with has an instant response plan. We need an 20 instant response plan. We need a disaster recovery 21 plan. We need plans to deal with these problems and I 22 have not seen it nor have I seen a contract with Hart 23 Intercivic laying out their responsibilities if 24 something should happen. Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll just say I know 113 1 Jacob Wellnitz very well. He is my go-to IT guru. And 2 he's as qualified as they come. So thank you, Jacob. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Back to the agenda item 4 before the Court. There's a motion and a second to 5 order the 2024 general election. Those in favor say 6 aye. Opposed? 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Aye. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Abstain? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She voted yes. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Four, one. 11 Okay. 1.18 update regarding the new Animal 12 Control facility. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This won't take long. I 14 just want to -- really things are progressing. I will 15 say for future Commissioner's Court, I hope you never 16 design a building by committee. 17 I have gone through back in the past couple 18 of weeks. I have four pages that we received from KPA 19 July 2023, and then I have another February of 2023. I 20 don't know how many pages. Probably a 20-page document 21 of -- giving us all input from various groups, mostly 22 KPA, as to how we design our facility. 23 And I'll tell ya that, you know, probably 90 24 percent of the suggestions they made were incorporated 25 in. Some of them did add a little -- some thoughts, but 114 1 I think they were -- they made sense. But it was 2 just -- really, I wanted to say because I really don't 3 understand why there's been such an uproar about this. 4 KPA evidently is irritated with at least me. They won't 5 return my calls. They won't meet with Peter Lewis, the 6 architect. They were -- they've been asked recently to 7 go by and look at the plans and they said no, they gave 8 their information a year ago. 9 So -- but the bottom line is I just want to 10 let everyone know that the -- a lot of the input they 11 made was very, very good. And almost all of it was 12 incorporated. There were a few things that weren't 13 incorporated, such as they -- they wanted shelving put 14 in all the rooms. And they're -- shelving is not in the 15 contract in most of the rooms because we're not really 16 sure how it's all going to work and you'd rather add 17 shelving after the utility is being used. I mean, 18 you're talking about a minor cost here. 19 But most of the things, you know, drains in 20 floors and all this stuff. So I just want to let 21 everyone know that most of the input that we received 22 from KPA primarily, and Freeman and Fritz, some of 23 the -- and other residents and several extensive visits 24 to Atascosa Animal Facility where they have a -- really 25 we're modelled after that. I received several e-mails 115 1 and things saying that -- they didn't use the word 2 luxurious but it was similar to luxurious facility. 3 It's a bare bones metal building. There's nothing 4 fancy. I will say that the cost is high. There's a lot 5 of extra things that are needed. Air-conditioning units 6 have to all be separate for quarantine rooms and other 7 areas. 8 But anyway, everything's going as planned. 9 Hopefully -- I think Jerry made a comment about this 10 being a million dollar overrun. Don't think it'll be 11 that much. Hopefully it's not. Hopefully it comes in 12 within budget. That's why we came to the Court and we 13 made a number of things alternates that needed to be 14 added. If they come in within budget we may do it, we 15 may not. We'll decide at that point. 16 But hopefully it appears that the facility 17 will come in based on the estimate we had recently right 18 about bond amount. And it's one of those things with 19 CIP, there's been a lot of discussion about animal 20 security and animal cages or kennels. A lot of those 21 items that were place holders in the bond for the -- so 22 CIP, what they're -- there's been some of their 23 communication is correct. There were numbers in there. 24 But those numbers -- security is a good 25 example. They just had an arbitrary number for that. 116 1 That had to be done through our Sheriff's department 2 through Guardian. And -- or working with Guardian who 3 does our Sheriff's Department and all its security. And 4 that -- I mean they never got into that kind of a 5 detail. So some of these numbers are a little bit 6 higher. But overall I think it's not going to be -- 7 it'll be within budget. We certainly hope. We'll find 8 out. And I think be able to be back early -- by the 9 middle of September. Something like that. But in the 10 future, don't do it by committee. That's all the 11 comments I have, Judge. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: I appreciate your 13 comments. And I just want to clarify, once again, 14 because I get a lot of e-mails criticizing myself for 15 holding this project up. I have nothing to do with this 16 project. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will -- yeah, I agree. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: See Commissioner Letz, 19 please. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I will say, you 21 know, I will go into one thing that it gets confusing. 22 And I'm not throwing a rock at the City on this. A huge 23 time delay came because of FEMA. Those that remember 24 awhile back, years ago there was a big controversy about 25 the City of Kerrville building a reuse pond. The City 117 1 had to do a map revision through FEMA when they built 2 that pond. This Court, and I kinda led the charge, 3 fought against that map revision. As a compromise, 4 because we didn't want to hire an outside engineer to 5 look at their work, we compromised with the City that 6 they would stop it at Spur 100. But that put this 7 property within their map revisions that they did, I 8 don't know, five years ago or something like that. 9 But now that we're building on that 10 property, we looked at it and it did have a major impact 11 on it. Hired an engineering firm. They looked at the 12 work that the City did. It was different now. And to 13 go into the old work would have cost more. So this is 14 saving the taxpayers money, but it's called a CLOMR or a 15 condition letter of map revision, which has been filed. 16 We've expected -- we've heard that it's been 17 approved by FEMA now. The City agreed with our revision 18 of their earlier work, but we cannot move -- you know, 19 and the timeline will be a little bit tight. We have to 20 have the actual certificate back from FEMA before we can 21 start construction. We think it'll all line up right. 22 But that whole process took about a year that we didn't 23 anticipate. So that's -- and it's a savings in the long 24 run. But it is -- it's complicated. And that's what it 25 is, you know, why there was such a delay in the work. 118 1 JUDGE KELLY: Just to clarify and put it in 2 context, because when I first heard this I was sitting 3 in those blue seats thinking I wanted to do this job. 4 But my recollection was that the City had to do -- had 5 to get FEMA to update their floodplain study. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And it's like anything else, 8 anytime a Federal agency updates something, it changes. 9 And that change that the City's floodplain study did, 10 would have put the Youth Event Center in the floodplain. 11 And that was a big shocker back then. And so we didn't 12 know what to do. And I said we -- I was in the blue 13 seats like you. They didn't know what to do. So they 14 sat down with the City and worked this deal out that 15 they would limit their floodplain study to not cross 16 Spur 100, but it picked up those 16 acres back there. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 18 JUDGE KELLY: It's included in that. And 19 that's why we stopped at the Spur 100 so that we didn't 20 have to deal with the problem with the Youth Event 21 Center being in the floodplain. And so this has come 22 back to bite us, as it always does, and that's a lot of 23 the delay in getting this approved. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the good news is 25 that our new -- the new analysis, which I think was -- 119 1 is accurate, I mean I'm not an engineer as I've said 2 many times, but I do understand water. And the new 3 analysis shows that the Youth Event Center is not in the 4 floodplain. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And also change the 7 property we own, the 16 acres. Some of it's in the 8 floodplain but it changes the road. If you start 9 working the floodplain it causes lots of problems and 10 this revision will fix it and make things a lot easier. 11 And that was something that no one anticipated really 12 when we did the bond issue. And that's the reason for 13 the huge delay and that caused inflation increases which 14 has caused the concern. Hopefully I confused everyone 15 even more. 16 JUDGE KELLY: The next item on the agenda 17 we're going to take into Executive Session. If you look 18 over at the Executive Session agenda, the item 4.1, 19 consultation with the attorney. We're going to do that 20 by conference call at 1:15, here in Executive Session in 21 this courtroom. 22 So with that, we're going to go ahead and 23 move on to the approval agenda, which is 2.1 budget 24 amendments. 25 MRS. SHELTON: We have 12 budget adjustments 120 1 in front of you. The first one is just an end of year 2 adjustment. It happens every year about this time. We 3 do have major repairs to the jail. And so that needed 4 about $26,000, which that has been switched around, 5 16,000 of it came from contingency fund. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 9 approve the budget amendment as presented. Any 10 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 11 carries. 12 2.2 pay bills. 13 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 14 consideration amount to $1,506,310.94. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second to 18 approve the bills as presented -- pay the bills as 19 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 20 Opposed? Motion carries. 21 2.4 Auditor -- 22 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Late bills for 23 today's -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, 2.3. Late bills. 25 MRS. SHELTON: Okay. Late bills for today's 121 1 consideration, $16,577.77. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: You got the second. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Everybody -- so we have a 8 motion and a second to approve the late bills as 9 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 10 Opposed? Motion carries. 11 Monthly reports -- or Auditor reports. 12 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. There were two internal 13 audit reports that were presented to y'all, and we just 14 ask that you accept them. So the Justice of the Peace, 15 Precinct 2 and Precinct 4. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Make a motion -- 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Move for -- 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- to accept the 19 monthly reports. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Got a motion and a 21 second -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. 23 JUDGE KELLY: -- to approve the Auditor 24 reports as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor 25 say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 122 1 2.5 monthly reports. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For March, 2024 3 District Clerk's Office amended, District Clerk, Dawn 4 Lantz. April, 2024 Veterans Services Office, Director, 5 Jennifer Sanchez. District Clerk's Office amended. 6 District Clerk, Dawn Lantz. May, 2024, Veterans 7 Services Office, Director, Jennifer Sanchez. 8 June, 2024, environmental Health and Animal 9 Services, Director, Reagan Givens. Justice of the Peace 10 Judge Mitzi French, Precinct 1, Judge J.R. Hoyne, 11 Precinct 2, Judge Bill Ragsdale, Precinct 4. 12 Treasurer's Report, Treasurer, Tracy Soldan. 13 I move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 16 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 17 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 18 carries. 19 Court Orders. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've got Court Orders 21 from our July 8th meeting. 40721 through 40731. And 22 they all look to be in order. Very short meeting. Move 23 for approval. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion -- 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 123 1 JUDGE KELLY: -- and a second to approve the 2 Court Orders as presented. Any discussion? Those in 3 favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 4 Okay. Moving on to the information agenda. 5 Any status reports from department heads? 6 Okay. There being none, we'll move on to 7 3.2. Status reports from Elected Officials. 8 There being none, we'll move on. Item 3.3. 9 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. Trifecta. 10 There being none, we'll move on. So with 11 that we're going to recess. We will come back at 1:15 12 for the Executive Session -- wait, I've got one more 13 thing? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: There are a couple items on 15 the Executive Session that aren't -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: I know, that's what I'm 17 saying. We're going to do the attorney consultation and 18 then we've got 4.2, which is our two personnel matters. 19 4.2 (a) and (b). 20 MRS. SHELTON: Are those at 1:30 also or no? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. Well -- Executive 22 Session. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, we've got the 24 budget workshop at 2:00. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 124 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Can we get them all 2 done in 45 minutes? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think so. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't -- I don't know. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: 4.3 is just 8 discussion. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: She says no. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Well, I'm going 11 to go ahead and go do the ones we can right now. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Let's take a break. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Can we take a two 15 minute break or a one minute break, a five-minute break? 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let's take a five-minute break 18 and we're going to come back in Executive Session. 19 (Break). 20 (Executive Session.) 21 JUDGE KELLY: It's 12:30, we're coming out 22 of Executive Session. And 5.1 action as may be required 23 on matters discussed in Executive Session. Do we have 24 any action? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Under 4.2(b), it's 125 1 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 2 authorize the extension of protected Family Medical 3 Leave Act for two employees. 4 I'll make a motion that we extend protected 5 leave for the two employees for 60 days. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I -- 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- second that. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second 10 to extend the protected Family Medical Leave for the two 11 employees for 60 days. Any other discussion? Those in 12 favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 13 Next. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. On 4.3, we 15 have -- we've had a security issue out at the west Kerr 16 annex, and as discussed during Executive Session, we 17 feel that it would be prudent to add additional security 18 out there. And we have gotten bids from a couple 19 security companies and so I move that we hire Hill 20 Security, LLC, at a rate of $35.00 an hour to man the 21 west Kerr annex during their office hours. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For the next two months. 23 Through October 1. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Through October 1. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 126 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion and 3 a second to retain -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Hill Security. 5 JUDGE KELLY: -- Hill Security -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Does that include 7 authorizing the Judge to sign the contract? 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, it does. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I heard him say that. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: Good. Perfect. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Hill Security Services to 12 provide security services at the west Kerr County annex 13 through October 1, and authorize the Judge to sign the 14 contract. Any other discussion? Those in favor say 15 aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 16 And with that, we will stand adjourned until 17 1:15. 18 (Recess) 19 JUDGE KELLY: Let me go ahead and call -- 20 I'm going to call the Court back to order. And we'll be 21 in Executive Session. And it is -- oh, I didn't bring 22 my phone. What time is it? 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is 1:16. 24 JUDGE KELLY: 1:16. And we are now in 25 Executive Session. 127 1 (Executive Session.) 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Time? 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is now 1:35. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 5 is now 1:35. We've come out of Executive Session and we 6 have no action to take at this time. And therefore, we 7 will be adjourned. 8 * * * * * * 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 128 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 9th day of August, A.D. 2024. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2025 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25