1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, August 12, 2024 6 Commissioners' Courtroom 7 Kerr County Courthouse 8 Kerrville, Texas 78028 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge ANNE OVERBY, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 RICH PACES, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Public Input. 7 4 *** Commissioners' Comments. 12 5 1.10 Recognition of the Kerrville C3 Swim Team 16 for a meritorious performance at the State 6 Games of America National Swimming Competition held at the University of California San Diego 7 Aquatic Center in San Diego, California, on July 19, 2024. 8 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 9 action on request from Schreiner University to use Flat Rock Park, Dog Park area, for a 10 cross country track meet on September 14, 2024. 11 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action to accept donation of "Shop Local 12 First" cards for all Kerr County employees. 13 1.3 Update regarding flood response and recovery 21 from the storm beginning on July 22, 2024. 14 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 15 action to approve Resolution against Battery Equipment Storage Systems(BESS) proposed in 16 Kerr County. 17 1.5 Passed. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 56 action to approve Alarm System Monitoring 19 Agreement with Beckwith Electronic Engineering Co. for the fire alarm system at the Juvenile 20 Detention Facility. 21 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 action to approve justification for Sole 22 Source procurement of products and services from ShaiderTech LLC for the Stone Garden 23 Grant in accordance with Local Government Code 262.024 Discretionary Exemptions 24 Subsection (c) if an item exempted under Subsection (a)(7) is purchased, the 25 Commissioners' Court, after accepting a signed statement from the county official who makes 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 purchases for the county as to the existence of only one source, must enter in its minutes 4 a statement to that effect. 5 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 58 action to approve justification for Sole 6 Source procurement of products and services from Magnet Forensics for the Operation Lone 7 Star Grant in accordance with Local Government Code 262.024 Discretionary Exemptions 8 Subsection (c) if an item exempted under Subsection (a)(7) is purchased, the 9 Commissioners' Court, after accepting a signed statement from the county official who makes 10 purchases for the county as to the existence of only one source, must enter in its minutes 11 a statement to that effect. 12 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 action to approve the Interlocal Agreement 13 between Kerr County and Bexar County for jail services, and allow County Clerk, County 14 Attorney, and County Judge to sign same. 15 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 action for the Court to set a public meeting 16 date and time for the presentation of findings from Tetra Tech Engineering for the Eagle 17 Ridge Road study. 18 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 66 action for the Court to adopt a Resolution 19 supporting installation of a pedestrian crosswalk on FM 480 at Kelly Street in 20 Center Point. 21 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 77 action on Implementation of the Burn Ban. 22 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 79 23 action regarding the 2025 Kerr Central Appraisal District(KCAD) Budget. 24 1.15 Discussion regarding proposed budget and 83 25 tax rate. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 87 action to rescind Court Order 40759, 4 "Proposed Salary Increases for Elected County and Precinct Officials for Kerr County 5 Fiscal Year 2024-2025". 6 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 89 action to approve "Proposed Salary Increases 7 for Elected County and Precinct Officials for Kerr County Fiscal Year 2024-2025", and 8 authorize County Clerk to publish same on August the 14, 2024. 9 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 90 10 action to rescind Court Order 40760 setting base salaries for Elected Officials 11 for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. 12 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 91 action to approve the base salaries for 13 Elected Officials for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. 14 1.20 Passed. 15 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 action regarding the proposed Kerr County 16 budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. 17 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 95 action to set Public Hearing on proposed 18 Kerr County Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 for 9:45 a.m. on August 26, 2024, and 19 authorize the County Clerk to publish the notice of Public Hearing. 20 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 103 21 action to set the date and time for the vote on Kerr County Budget for Fiscal Year 2024- 22 2025 for 9:45 a.m. on August 26, 2024. 23 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 103 action to surplus items for the Kerr County 24 Sheriff's Office. 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 104 action to allocate remaining ARPA funds. 4 1.26 Discussion regarding Microsoft Office 365. 111 5 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 117 6 action to purchase Swift Water Response Craft pending approval of budget amendment. 7 2.1 Budget Amendments. 120 8 2.2 Pay Bills. 121 9 2.4 Auditor Reports. 121 10 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 122 11 2.6 Court Orders. 122 12 3.2 Status reports from Elected Officials. 123 13 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 127 14 1.28 Discussion, presentation and action on 129 15 potential economic development incentive package for a multifamily residential 16 project located within the County; directive to staff and consultants for preparation of 17 package and related documentation for future presentation to and consideration by 18 Commissioners' Court. 19 1.29 Consideration of and action on a 132 professional services agreement with the 20 developers of the Bluewood Project. 21 5.1 Action as may be required on matters 133 discussed in Executive Session. 22 4.2a Consider, discuss and take appropriate 133 23 action to reclassify HR employee and approve revised job description. 24 25 6 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Adjournment. 134 4 *** Reporter's Certificate. 135 5 * * * * * * 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Monday, August the 12th, 2024, 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 the pledge, which I will lead. 6 (Prayer and Pledge) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. I've 8 already announced that we're going to take item 1.10 out 9 of order because we have all of these youth here and we 10 want to be able to get their photos and get them all 11 done so we can get on with our business. 12 But I want to remind everyone that has a 13 cell phone to either turn it off or turn it to silent so 14 it does not interrupt the proceedings. And the first 15 part of our regular Commissioners' Court meeting is 16 public input. I have two people that have signed up -- 17 two to speak -- three now. Well, here. And yours is 18 for a specific agenda item, okay? So then the first one 19 is Jan Pieraccini. Did I say it right? 20 MS. PIERACCINI: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Close enough. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Well, my late wife was Italian 23 so I learned a little. 24 MS. PIERACCINI: Oh, really? Uh-huh. Good 25 morning. We are Mike and Jan Pieraccini and we live at 8 1 162 Cypress Drive South in Kerrville, Texas. And we are 2 the founders of Gunny's Warriors. And Gunny's 3 Warriors -- this is the second year that we have put on 4 the event called, now it's called the Second Annual 5 Kerrville Field of Honor. And this event is for the 6 public. It is September 7th through the 11th. It's 7 free to the public. Open 24 hours a day at the Hill 8 Country Youth Event Center in the River Star Park. 9 We will be flying 500 American flags, just 10 as you see here, and our theme is Honor Your Hero. And 11 you can purchase a flag for $45.00 and dedicate it to 12 your own personal hero. And it can be a teacher, a 13 neighbor, a family member, first responder, military. 14 Anyone that is your own personal hero you can dedicate 15 this flag to. 16 MR. PIERACCINI: May I approach the front, 17 Judge Kelly? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 19 (Displaying flag.) 20 MS. PIERACCINI: So we're very excited about 21 the response that we're getting this year. Our main 22 goal now is to get the word out to the public. If you 23 have never seen a field of honor, it is a sight to see. 24 And we encourage the public to come out during the day 25 to see the flags, bring the family. We encourage you to 9 1 come out at night, when they're illuminated. That's an 2 amazing sight to see 500 of them. 3 Saturday is our big day, September 7th, and 4 we have opening ceremony at 11:00 a.m. Every night at 5 dusk, taps will be played over the flags. And Saturday, 6 back to Saturday, we will have an opening ceremony, 7 there will be food trucks, kids' activities, vendors, 8 and live music. And the rest of the week is just days 9 to reflect on the flag. 10 And then Wednesday, September 11th, at 8:45 11 the local VFW post will be holding their 9-11 ceremony 12 there. And then we don't have an official closing 13 ceremony, but it became unofficial last year. People 14 showed up, at dusk, to listen to Mr. Eichner play taps 15 the last time over the flags and it was quite moving. 16 So we encourage everyone to come out and to 17 get the word out. So hopefully you'll see these fliers 18 in your -- at local businesses, and we encourage you to 19 go to Gunny'sWarriors.com for information about the 20 event and how to purchase flags. Thank you very much. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thank you. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Next is Edward 23 Rogers. 24 MR. ROGERS: Good morning, Court, 25 Commissioners, Guests. My name is Edward Rogers. I'm a 10 1 resident of Boerne. Thank you for the opportunity for 2 some time on the agenda this morning. I serve as the 3 Deputy Speaker Pro tem for the Texas Silver Haired 4 Legislature. We are the Statewide all-volunteer 5 non-partisan self-funded non-profit. We receive no 6 funding from City, County, State or Federal sources. 7 We were established in 1995 by the Texas 8 Legislature to serve for the voice of aging Texans. I'm 9 here on behalf of 15,800 older Texans, here in Kerr 10 County, which represent 29 percent of your eligible 11 voters here in Kerr County. On their behalf, TSHL will 12 bring resolutions to the Legislature regarding issues 13 requiring legislative action next January. And that 14 will be to improve the lives of aging Texans age 60 or 15 better. 16 My role is to serve as Kendall County's rep 17 in the Alamo Area Agency on Aging. That is the -- Kerr 18 County is among that constituency for that area agency. 19 We collaborate with many local agencies to help serve 20 the needs of aging Texans. Kerr County is part of that 21 12-county area. 22 To my knowledge, in the past Kerr County has 23 not had a representative and that's not right and that's 24 kind of why I'm here. I have prepared some materials 25 for you that each of you have, just to make you aware of 11 1 what TSHL is and what we do. There's a brochure that 2 addresses those issues. We use it to recruit new 3 members and to raise money. And assuredly, I'm not here 4 to raise -- to ask you for money, but I am here to ask 5 you to consider some nominations or a nomination for 6 Kerr County. 7 There's a handout of a two-page review of 8 the qualification for TSHL representatives and 9 candidates, and those include our expectations for their 10 involvement. It is customary for us to connect with 11 Commissioners' Court, so I'm making the tour of 12 12 counties of Commissioners' Courts to make an appeal for 13 leadership from your county and those others. I would 14 appreciate your adding that to -- information on my 15 business card to your list and if you think of someone 16 here in Kendall(sic) County that's 60 and over who might 17 be a good candidate to work with TSHL, I'd love to hear 18 from you. 19 The Resolutions that are posed -- that we 20 will pose to them are in another handout. It's just a 21 two line description of each and 66 resolutions that 22 we're taking to the Legislature. We will publish those 23 in the Legislative report that will be delivered to all 24 statewide leaders, including your senator and 25 representative, and talk with them about supporting 12 1 those Resolutions next January. 2 Once we have published our Legislative 3 report, I'll return and provide a hard copy to you. And 4 it will also be available in a electronic format as 5 well. I hope you'll read over the Resolutions and give 6 some thought perhaps to whom might be interested or 7 willing to nominate to serve in TSHL and I look forward 8 to hearing from you in that regard. 9 I appreciate your time and consideration. I 10 look forward to discussing those thoughts about who 11 might be a good candidate and what interest you might 12 have in supporting some of those Resolutions. Thank 13 you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Any other public 15 input? 16 There being none, we'll move on to 17 Commissioners' Comments. Precinct 1. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Pretty quiet in 19 Precinct 1. We still have a few folks cleaning up from 20 the flood but we're getting through those. That's all. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Two. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, the burn ban 23 remains lifted for Precinct 2. And just wanted to kind 24 of give a little bit of an update on the assumption that 25 we have budget funds available to replace the AG barn 13 1 roof. And making some good progress. We met with a 2 number of contractors last week. Just basically to try 3 to identify the best solution and make sure that we have 4 enough contractors that can provide that solution. The 5 good news is, we seem to, and that will give us 6 competition with local contractors. And I was also very 7 optimistic to find out that they can all do kind of the 8 full scope with -- there are some structural 9 modifications required, which I wasn't aware of earlier 10 but I am now. 11 And meeting with Jim Maxwell to further 12 refine those and make sure we understand what is and is 13 not required. So all that can be rolled into one scope 14 and they can do the roof replacement and/or repair and 15 the insulation. So it's all very encouraging, 16 particularly with respect to using ARPA funds where we 17 have to have at least a contract signed so the funds are 18 committed before the end of the calendar year. So I'm 19 very encouraged about that. 20 And I'll just say that I -- first time, I 21 attended the 4-H Club Awards Saturday night. And I was 22 really pleased. I mean, it was basically amazing and 23 encouraging to see so many young people who have 24 achieved so much and are involved in so many different 25 projects, activities, whatever. So these are our future 14 1 leaders that, you know, we're going to be relying on 2 to -- to look after us one day. And it sure looked like 3 they're going to be up to the task. So I was very proud 4 of them and grateful to have been invited to attend. 5 And big thanks to all the kids, all the parents, and the 6 folks at AgriLife that support 4-H. Great organization. 7 That's all. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Three. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just piggyback two 10 things that Commissioner Paces said. One is 4-H. In 11 addition to -- it's amazing the number of -- I guess the 12 breadth of the number of projects that they have. I 13 don't know, we think of 4-H as animals. And it's so 14 much more. It goes into diet and fabric and design and 15 on and on. There's different things, recordkeeping. 16 Great program. 17 Other thing was, yesterday I happened to 18 look at the Keetch-Byram Index, which is the key index 19 for drought and burn bans and things of that nature. 20 And I was a little bit shocked to see that Kerr County 21 is listed as a blue county, which means that we're flush 22 with -- wet with moisture. There may be some part of 23 the County that is, but it's certainly not the eastern 24 part of the County and it's very misleading for people 25 to look at that and think that the drought is over for 15 1 Kerr County because the drought certainly is not over. 2 I mean, we're in -- our springs are starting to hurt and 3 so I was just shocked to see that. 4 And the final thing is, our area schools are 5 all starting this week. And so many of them starting 6 today. So please be careful driving through school 7 zones. There are a lot of kids wandering around and 8 just be safe doing that. That's it. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right, well I'll 10 also piggyback on the 4-H awards banquet the other 11 night. You know, as a former AG teacher and stuff, I'd 12 like to remind people it's not just sows, cows and plows 13 anymore. There's a lot of stuff other than that going 14 on with these students, both 4-H and FFA. So it's great 15 to attend that and see the people that attend. 16 Another group that was recognized, because 17 4-H does not exist or function at the level we do 18 without adult volunteers, and that goes a long ways. 19 That's bread and butter to keep this organization going, 20 and the different things that they participate in. 21 I see Terri Hall in the crowd. Her husband, 22 Roger, teaches the robotics, which a lot of people 23 wouldn't think that would go into the 4-H but it is. 24 It's a big part of it. And they excel at it. 25 Another thing I want to bring up is we had 16 1 some damage to our boat ramp on 39, right there passed 2 the Ingram Damn. If you go fishing or boating, be 3 careful. We had damage to the dock and we've got signs 4 and stuff telling people to stay off of it. But 5 sometimes people take that as a challenge. So until we 6 can get it fixed, please be wary of it. And that's all 7 I got. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Very well. And the only thing 9 I would add is I forgot that school started in Ingram 10 today, until I got about a mile west of Ingram Tom Moore 11 High School. And then I remembered. And the traffic 12 was backed up all the way -- all the way back into town. 13 They had some kind of event there in town, there was an 14 ambulance and a state trooper and red and blue lights 15 everywhere. It was a whole lot of commotion in west 16 Kerr County this morning, let me tell ya. 17 So with that, we'll move on to the 18 Consideration Agenda. We've already taken up the -- 19 1.10, let me call that. That is the recognition of the 20 Kerrville C3 Swim Team for a meritorious performance at 21 the State Games of America National Swimming Competition 22 held at the University of California San Diego Aquatic 23 Center in San Diego, California, on July 19, 2024. 24 Mr. Hastings, bring them all in. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. We're 17 1 going to give them just a moment to get situated. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And y'all come forward, I'm 3 going to -- 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, there you go. 5 Get everybody in. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So if you're short, get back 7 in the middle. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I was always in the 9 middle. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And if you're doubling up, if 11 you're taller, step behind the one that's shorter than 12 you. 13 (Photographs taken.) 14 MR. HASTINGS: Stay right there. I need to 15 say a few things about this group. Good morning, Judge 16 and Commissioners. I'm Charlie Hastings and I serve on 17 the C3 Swim Team as a proud father and as assistant 18 coach to the inspirational Coach Chris Cawthon. Raise 19 your hand, Chris. And our swimming-technique-guru 20 coach, Nancy Emerson over here. We can't do this 21 without her. She's amazing. 22 The C3 swim team was formed in 2020, a great 23 year, as a year-round program designed for both girls 24 and boys of all ages and abilities to learn to swim 25 through advanced competition. C3 stands for courage, 18 1 character and commitment. 2 Kerrville's C3 swim team has recently 3 competed at the regional, state, and even the national 4 level at the "State Games of America" swim meet on July 5 19th, 2024, hosted at the University of California 6 San Diego Aquatic Center. 7 Over 450 swimmers from 97 teams competed for 8 a national title, both individually and as a team. C3 9 Swim sent 16 swimmers who finished with 34 medals, 14 of 10 which were gold, and finished in fourth place overall in 11 the nation. We're real proud of that. 12 (Applause) 13 These athletes have learned firsthand how to 14 apply courage, character and commitment into the sport 15 of swimming and the game of life. Before you today are 16 various members of the C3 swim team, it's not all of 17 them. They have their regional, their state, and their 18 national medals. So please join me in congratulating 19 and celebrating the meritorious performance of the 20 Kerrville C3 Swim Team. 21 (Applause) 22 MR. HASTINGS: Good job guys. Let's hear 23 those medals jingle on the way out. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We're proud of you. 25 Congratulations. 19 1 MR. HASTINGS: And I'm here to tell you in 2 about 12 years if you keep following one of these kids, 3 the ones that stick with it, they will be in the 4 Olympics. Some of these kids are really out of this 5 world. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Next item on the 7 agenda, Item 1.1, which is to consider, discuss and take 8 appropriate action on a request from Schreiner 9 University to use Flat Rock Park, the Dog Park area, for 10 a cross country track meet on September 14th, 2024. 11 Do we have anybody here from Schreiner? 12 This is something that we usually do. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll make a motion that 14 we go ahead and allow Schreiner University to use Flat 15 Rock Park for a cross country track meet on 16 September 14. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second. 19 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 20 Unanimous. 21 Moving on to Item 1.2 consider, discuss and 22 take appropriate action to accept the donation of "Shop 23 Local First" cards for all Kerr County employees. 24 Is Mr. Willis here? I didn't see him here. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I don't see him. 20 1 JUDGE KELLY: He's offered to make these 2 cards available for our Kerr County employees. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Want to just wait 4 until he comes back? 5 COMMISSIONER LETS: Heather, can we do that? 6 I would -- 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I would rather hear 8 his presentation rather than -- 9 MRS. STEBBINS: But I would think that it's 10 considered a gift to our employees and I would say no at 11 first. But I haven't really read the letter. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So let's pass on it. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Let's pass. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So if he's watching on 16 YouTube, we need to know a little bit more before we can 17 accept his gift. So come talk to us. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's not a cash 19 donation. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, it's -- 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- it's just a 23 discount. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's discount card. 25 When you go buy something, you get a discount. 21 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Just want to make 2 sure. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: We need to -- 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- let Heather look at 5 that. 6 JUDGE KELLY: It's a little bit stickier 7 than this conception. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I'll talk to you later. 9 I'll look at it. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Moving on to Item 1.3, 11 which is an update regarding our flood response and 12 recovery from the storm beginning on July 22, 2024. Dub 13 Thomas. 14 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge. Good 15 morning, Commissioners. I kinda wanted to give y'all an 16 update on the data that we've been entered into what we 17 call iSTAT and pSTAT. Basically that's where folks can 18 go in and do their individual assessment for damages. 19 As of Friday afternoon, we had 70 total 20 individual residents and businesses that have made 21 entries into the iSTAT. Of that, 16 declared major 22 damage, 39 listed their damages as minor, affected was 23 13, destroyed was two. In the pSTAT, that's for 24 government agencies to put in their data, everybody 25 knows the City of Ingram had substantial damage over 22 1 there. Also, Ingram Independent School District, the 2 high school had a lot of water. So for the pSTAT with 3 Road and Bridges so far we've had two injuries, 4 buildings and equipment seven, utilities one injury. 5 Total estimate of damages for the pSTAT only was 6 $7,970,000. 7 Kind of give you an idea of what 8 major/minor, affected and destroyed are for the 9 individual -- the iSTAT tool. "Effective" basically is 10 minimal cosmetic damage, basically your porch, carport, 11 garage. "Minor," you had one to three inches of water 12 in your living space -- 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's minor? 14 MR. THOMAS: -- and no structural damage, 15 but it could affect the habitability, meaning mold and 16 that kind of thing. "Major damage," above 18 inches or 17 intense significant structural damage. "Destroyed" is 18 basically a total loss and water level was at the roof 19 or higher. We didn't have anybody with water level at 20 the roof or higher. I think some folks probably put 21 destroyed thinking their home is destroyed, but it's 22 really not. They're probably in the category of minor 23 or affected. Although we do have a couple that were 24 mobile homes that were moved off their foundation a 25 little bit. Those are automatically destroyed. So I 23 1 had to go out and look and see if they were mobile home 2 or actually stick built homes. But that kind of gives 3 you an idea of where we stand as far as damages. 4 So Kerr County threshold for disasters 5 assistance is $242,000. That's our net insurance damage 6 threshold. The problem with that is the State has to 7 meet its threshold, which is $54 million and we're not 8 anywhere near that. So for now, we're still asking 9 folks to go in and put their damage estimates into the 10 iSTAT at some point. That will come to a deadline. 11 We're going to try and get that deadline extended if we 12 need to. We've had two settings where these folks who 13 come in and do iSTAT information. One was at the 14 Sheriff's Office not too long after the event. Last 15 Friday, we did another one at the Ingram annex for the 16 folks to come in and get information from TDEM. We had 17 eight TDEM employees there at the time. Anywhere from 18 financial recovery to volunteer assistance. So we've 19 done two entries for that. 20 I don't know what the deadline will be, but 21 we're going to do another one. We'll have another setup 22 for folks that can do the iSTAT on August 31st and we 23 have the expo out at the AG barn. 24 So, any questions? It's where we stand so 25 far. I'm hopeful we'll get assistance, I'm not 24 1 confident. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If the State does not 3 reach the 54 million, that means we don't get 4 assistance? 5 MR. THOMAS: No, there will be some type of 6 assistance. TDEM is going to be working with us to get 7 some small business administration loans, that type of 8 stuff. Those loans are -- I don't know what the 9 interest rate is, but it's significantly lower than 10 anywhere else. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's kinda good news, 12 bad news. 13 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 14 JUDGE KELLY: The bad news is we're probably 15 not going to get any money. But the good news is we 16 didn't have that much damage. 17 MR. THOMAS: Well, I'm hoping we can get 18 added on. Basically it's -- specifically for the public 19 assistance side, I'll tell you where we are right now, 20 we have $7.9 million worth of damage. The sewer system 21 in Ingram is significantly damaged. Not to mention the 22 Independent School District, the high school. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any questions for Dub? 24 Thank you. 25 MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir. 25 1 JUDGE KELLY: Next item on the agenda is 1.4 2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 3 a Resolution against Battery Equipment Storage Systems 4 proposed in Kerr County. Jeff Holt. 5 MR. HOLT: Thank you, Judge. Commissioners. 6 Jeff here. I want to go over where we're at with the 7 Battery Energy Storage Systems. But before we do that, 8 I'm on Cypress Creek, 2855 Cypress Creek. We're -- just 9 a quick mention to the Court, we -- that road is 10 shutdown if you try to go through Comfort for a -- a 11 great project, and that should last throughout the month 12 of August into September. TxDOT is doing a bridge 13 rebuild right there at Allerkamp, so we're pleased to 14 have that going on. But there's an impact on mail, on 15 people trying to ride bikes, and people trying to go to 16 school along Cypress Creek. 17 Analysis of the lithium battery storage 18 system. I took the liberty of putting this together so 19 we could actually track where these things are going. I 20 think it's important to understand what the concerns 21 are. At the very end, the intent is to present a 22 proclamation to the Court to consider signing. I think 23 the time for admiring the problem is over. The time for 24 taking action is needed because we are way late. We are 25 behind, I think, the power curve on where all these 26 1 things are going. And I'm going to speak to that in the 2 overall sense where Brien Alexander is going to follow 3 me. He's going to deep dive on fire. 4 Next slide, please. 5 Okay. This map I pulled off, it's an old 6 map. It's 1975. It's what LCRA offers on where our 7 power grid is and so it's -- you really have to look at 8 multiple sources of information to figure out where all 9 these substations are located. And it's important to 10 understand it started out mostly with hydropower from 11 our northeastern dam that provided power to Comfort, 12 which is probably why Comfort was the first target. 13 As you notice on there, it kind of spokes 14 out to all the Kerr County substations and I'll show 15 each -- slides on each of these substations so you'll 16 understand really how they're all aggregated into one 17 power network. 18 Now it only shows about seven that are 19 highlighted on there. But I'll show ten, as we found 20 out through additional research which are plugged into 21 our power grid. Yes. Comfort is. Kendall County. But 22 a lot of our customers for that station are in Kerr 23 County. Like our home on Cypress Creek. And in this 24 understanding and coordination, I met with several 25 folks. I've reached out to power stations, LCRA, ERCOT, 27 1 TCEQ, and I've had a meeting recently with Chad 2 Carpenter and their Fire Marshal that they have in that 3 area. What's interesting to note is the demand, the 4 great demand of 830 different BESS'S, if you will, 5 coming to the state in the next few years. And I'll 6 talk about why. That is a significant growth of this 7 and we need to understand what the challenges are with 8 this. 9 Okay. Let's deep dive. Next slide. 10 First of all, this is an overall picture of 11 what it could look like. On the left hand is a 12 graphical image I drafted, which is the lithium site in 13 Pflugerville. They're north Austin. That's what a 14 120-megawatt site looks like on the left. On the right, 15 that what one looks like under fire, which is not great, 16 which was the one in Otay Mesa, in the San Diego area. 17 And that was a thermal runaway. 18 Now the chart in the upper blue storage 19 shows where we're going to grow, which is why they're 20 looking for 830 sites in Texas alone. This is what 21 ERCOT is looking for. 2020, 275 megawatts of storage. 22 Growing in five -- or four years, sorry -- five years to 23 over 15,000 megawatts of storage -- or sorry, 18,000 24 megawatts of storage. That's a lot of power that 25 they're looking for. 28 1 And they're looking -- in storage, what it's 2 going to look like on the left, hopefully, but 3 unfortunately sometimes on the right, that is what it 4 looks like. The concerns that I've illustrated from of 5 the Court are indicated on that slide. This is new tech 6 with a lot of foreign components that has our concern. 7 There is certainly increased demand for storage, without 8 a lot of state regulations. In fact, not many at all 9 right now outside of the inadequate fire code. It is an 10 issue. 11 Foreign parent companies. Almost every 12 single one of these has foreign parent companies. Gotta 13 ask, why is that? Why is it PPV, Public Private 14 Ventures, instead of an LCRA venture? Because they're 15 making money. 16 Thermal runaway of these lithium batteries 17 is, of course, a significant issue. It does happen, 18 which is why you can't fly with a personal storage 19 device on lithium more than a hundred milliamp on an 20 airplane, because they've had issues. They don't like 21 them aggregated. And when they get aggregated in such 22 great fashion as shown here on the left or the right 23 pictures, it becomes an issue. 24 Cyber security of key infrastructure is an 25 issue, regardless of what you may hear. I know that. I 29 1 used to do that for our country. 2 Next is no site reclamation mandates 3 currently that are there. We've had one offered like 4 to, you know, bring the site back to its original state. 5 At think that's a key component. That should be 6 involved. And those are our major concerns. 7 Our landowners throughout our substations is 8 LCRA. They provide our power and our network, so 9 there's a lot of outside companies involved. 10 Next slide and we're going to go deep dive 11 on Comfort. 12 We've heard about Comfort. I've talked 13 about it a couple times in front of the Court. This is 14 going to be one of the largest sites in Texas at 350 -- 15 sorry, yeah, 350 megawatts of power. Plan for that. To 16 the east and to the south. To the east, that's a 17 hundred megawatts. To the south, 250 megawatt. 18 They are renting the land to the east. They 19 are buying the land to the south. That's the commitment 20 these foreign companies, which there are two, intend to 21 have. One company is Key Capture Energy. We've 22 listened to them propose, didn't go well for them. But 23 they're still proceeding without a tax abatement. And 24 then the second is a company out of Norway that is doing 25 that as well. These are large companies. The big 30 1 concern that we have with Comfort is everything's a mile 2 away. Right? The Guadalupe is a mile to the south. 3 It's a downhill runaway. The high school to the west 4 where I substitute teach sometimes is just about a mile. 5 And the town is about a mile, 1.2 miles to the 6 southwest. And then I-10 is right there. If you had a 7 major fire like that, think about the impact. 8 Especially for all those folks that live north of that 9 on a road, which would be completely blocked off. 10 That's a major concern. And Kendall is trying to fight 11 it and they're -- they believe that they're behind and 12 they're probably the most advanced in coordination. 13 Next slide. 14 Okay. Center Point. We have been 15 approached already by Center Point. Some of our 16 landowners have been approached already for a lease. 17 Willing to pay 5,000 a month for a -- anywhere from a 18 seven to 17 acre lease. They're still negotiating that. 19 There is public water there but not on-site. It's south 20 where that neighborhood is. Just to geographically 21 orient you, that's right off 27. Right north of the 22 town where that station is at Mini Mart. And that -- if 23 that Eden Farms sounds familiar, that's where they tried 24 to get a model subdivision. 25 Okay. Next slide. 31 1 Legion's LCRA substation is right off 2 Highway 27. Very close to Highway 27. And just to the 3 left of that is, of course, the Guadalupe River, within 4 about 500 feet. So if there was something to go there, 5 and we don't know yet, but we're tracking. On every 6 single one of these I list the project on there, if it's 7 unknown currently, don't believe that they haven't been 8 approached. They're sending out mass letters as a 9 strategy to all the landowners. All of these developers 10 are tracking where all this is as well. So I'm going to 11 continue to update this as a living document. 12 Next slide. 13 Travis LCRA, right in the heart of 14 Kerrville. So it looks a little different between City 15 and County when you talk about where these projects 16 could go. This is the one that's up on Travis and Third 17 Street. But there is available land. If you look out 18 to the northeast, that's privately owned, where 19 potentially a site could grow into. Don't know that's 20 going to happen in the City limits, but I don't want to 21 say it's not going to currently. There is, of course, 22 public water system nearby in the heart of the City. 23 And again, no project known at this time. 24 Next slide. 25 Stadium. A large facility. They have some 32 1 land to the northeast, that's right in the middle of 2 Holdsworth and Stadium Drive. We all see it. We all 3 drive by it. We know where it's at. 4 But again, the same concerns that we have in 5 the urban and in very much key infrastructure facility. 6 Eventually, a lot of the ones in the City will be tied 7 to a power plant. That's been talked about in the City. 8 You probably saw that. Not exactly sure where that's 9 going to be or how it's tied into our substation, but 10 it's just a note. That's our largest right there. 11 Next. 12 Harper. Up on Harper and Holdsworth Drive. 13 We definitely know the landowner to the northeast of 14 that and there is available land on that one as well. 15 Currently that's in the County. Right. That's not in 16 the City. It's right outside if you look on the limits 17 for the Harper and LCRA substation. So that one kind 18 of, like, close to the City. Very much County. 19 Definitely has our concern about where that would be 20 tied to. Right to the north is I-10. Within probably 21 about a half mile, that's a key intersection that we 22 need. A lot of people travel a lot. 23 Next slide. 24 VOICE: Right on Town Creek. 25 MR. HOLT: Yes, sir. Thank you. Right on 33 1 Town Creek. An LCRA substation. If -- you may think 2 it's out there, because it's out there in Hunt, just 3 north of Hunt and your 1340 and 39 kind of bisect, 4 that's right on River Road. That's about as closest to 5 the Guadalupe as I've seen. It's about 300 feet to the 6 Guadalupe River. And that's right on River Road. I 7 don't know that they're targeting that right now. But 8 I'd be surprised if they weren't because of all the 9 customers that are right around there in that -- that 10 area. 11 Now the proximity to those two highways that 12 go off the river have my concern. If shouldn't use -- 13 Next slide. 14 The Horizon substation out there on 1777 15 South and Horizon, if y'all know where that's at. That 16 is owned by McRae Energy Company. And we'll probably 17 understand about them later as they provide power for 18 those local customers. But LCRA owns property just to 19 the northeast of that. It's technically not one of 20 their substations but they have an agreement. And 21 again, no project at this time. 22 Next slide. 23 Mountain Home, LCRA substation out on Ranch 24 Road 479 and I-10. They presented here. They are 25 targeting that. That is the Black Mountain Energy, 120 34 1 megawatt. The concern we have of that is the proximity 2 of I-10 if something did happen. I mean, you saw what 3 happened with the truck when it caught on fire with a 4 bunch of lithium batteries and what that did to the 5 road. Imagine a permanent structure right there at an 6 important intersection. 7 I know why they build these substations 8 close. Right. Because it's really expensive to run 9 power. If you've done that on your place before, really 10 expensive to run power. That's why they try to get it 11 as close to the customers as possible. But once you 12 start adding battery storage with that, the potential 13 for thermal runaway and fire exacerbates the big problem 14 of proximity. That's important to understand. Which is 15 why I'm deep diving on maps right now and people. I 16 think it's important to understand where these are 17 located. 18 Next. 19 Okay. Ingram substation, which is Highway 20 27 and Moore Street. Again, very close. That's a 21 smaller substation. I can't imagine they'd put a -- 22 maybe in the future a large battery storage, but they 23 could. But it has a proximity to Johnson Creek or -- 24 which is, like, runs right into the Guadalupe as you 25 know. Right there to the south. Probably 200 yards 35 1 away. Definitely has my attention with property 2 available to the north. 3 Next. 4 So what you saw from each of those is they 5 have property available, privately owned property, 6 probably could develop. You've got water and foreign 7 water sources all around it. You've got highways all 8 around it. I'm going to keep track of where all these 9 things are going. Because you and I know it's not 10 stopping without our effort. 11 Okay. So I'm going to talk about those 12 concerns a little bit. I love SWOT analysis. That's 13 part of my background. I apologize, I like to do that. 14 Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and 15 threats. Okay. I'm going to look at it objectively 16 about what it brings and about concerns. Because that's 17 our job and our role as elected officials and maybe a 18 soon-to-be elected or sworn in official. 19 Strength. They want to do grid reliability. 20 It is a part of our political platform. It's also part 21 of our state platform and our national platform to make 22 the grid more reliable. In order to do that, it takes a 23 lot of things. Good substations. Good tranformers. 24 Good transmission lines. Good power sources. But 25 they're trying to say that they're a part of grid 36 1 reliability with a battery backup. 2 Okay. Taxable income. Hard to ignore, $87 3 million for 120 megawatt plant of taxable income. Said 4 it would bring. Hard to ignore. And then job creation, 5 but only during the build phase. That's the strength. 6 The opportunity for regulatory compliance is 7 there. I think we need to look at that pretty hard, 8 folks. There's an economic boost that these provide and 9 there's an opportunity for our joint collaboration, like 10 maybe to form a commission, a 391 commission. 11 There are several weaknesses and threats to 12 talk about. System safety overall is our biggest 13 concern. Now we don't have the regulations that PPVs 14 are foreign owned. That has my concern. That's a 15 weakness. And that it devalues real estate. If you 16 don't believe me, just look on YouTube. 17 The guy who lives in Mason who I spoke to, a 18 retired marine, a true guy like me, he's -- he's not 19 loving it. He grew from a very small megawatt plant to 20 a very large one right in his backyard. Now he can't 21 sell his place. That potentially could happen for every 22 single one of those sites that I have on there. 23 Now it definitely affects the immediate 24 landowners that are there. And they have to understand 25 what they're getting into when they lease or sell their 37 1 property. 2 Okay. Threat. Environmental, that's why I 3 kept talking about the river. Foam suppression system 4 that puts foam out if there's an issue, and then we come 5 on top of it. We, being the volunteer firemen, like 6 Commissioner Paces and like Brien here who's going to 7 talk. You put water on top of it and where does that 8 foam go to and what does the foam have in it? It goes 9 into our ground. There's no containment system around 10 that. It could go right into our river. That is a huge 11 issue that we need to talk about and think about. 12 For every hangar that has aircraft, there's 13 always a container and containment system that has the 14 foam and the water that goes into it and pumps out. I 15 haven't heard this spoke about once in front of any of 16 these companies that come in. A real containment system 17 to pump that water and that foam out. It needs to be 18 talked about. 19 Cyber security of course is a threat for the 20 power that's stored. It could be reverse flowed. If 21 somebody is in on that system. It has placement and 22 access. That is a huge issue. 23 Okay. Time around 15. Wrap up here with 24 the next one. 25 Fire safety and toxicity. If there is 38 1 flames there's fire. This is all classic. A, B, C, D, 2 fire. That's -- Brien can talk about more of that as an 3 issue. I'm going to leave that for him to talk about. 4 And then threat. We're in a predicament, 5 folks. It took anywhere from one million to eight 6 million gallons of water on that one that showed the 7 fire in San Diego. We do not have that kind of water 8 for any of these systems. That definitely has our 9 concern because we're going to try to reduce the smoke 10 and the flame and cool down the remaining things if 11 something happens. Imagine it happening at all ten of 12 these sites. We don't want that. We don't need that. 13 Next slide. 14 Okay. Here's our strategy that I've come up 15 with I think that we need to seriously consider and I've 16 set for maybe Executive Session discussion or 17 consideration amongst our Commissioners a Resolution 18 against these BESS projects. I won't go into detail 19 about the Resolution, but it does talk about where we 20 need to be and where we should stand firm with 21 consideration. If we can't stop it, we need to limit 22 it. We need to prevent it from growing at such a 23 certain size that we can't maybe control it. That is a 24 real concern that we have. 25 TCEQ is the permitting agency for 39 1 environmental. As a rep for Cypress Creek on the 2 advisory board, I've already touched base with TCEQ 3 about this and will continue to provide our concerns. I 4 think we need to do that as a court as well. We need to 5 have a House Bill like 4971, that didn't make it out of 6 commission, to promote that safety. 7 We do need to form a planning commission 8 that would have us, the City, other folks that are 9 involved in it. Because we need to organize more than 10 just us talking about it here in order to do something 11 because we don't have any Fire Marshal, if you will, to 12 put more stringent rules on it. Because right now all 13 we have is Chapter 12 of the IFC, International Fire 14 Code, until we have a Fire Marshal. I'm not saying we 15 need one for this certain issue, but there is -- it's an 16 issue. 17 We need to promote our grid to be strong and 18 there are other measures besides this. That storage 19 facility. That's better transmission lines. That's 20 better power plants. And there is growth in wind. We 21 may not like it, but wind grew from six to 20 percent of 22 our total grid, 20 percent in three years. Drive out 23 west towards Big Spring and you'll see it. And they're 24 coming here. I don't believe that's what we need. I 25 would like more good smaller power plants that don't 40 1 take up our horizonal view. And then smaller scale 2 energy harvesting. Like on my house. With the gates 3 and solar panels. Not a lot. But just on my private 4 place. I don't draw that much from the lines. 5 Overall, to the Commissioners' Court -- I 6 won't go into it, but I've sent y'all and I'm asking 7 y'all to seriously consider, that's why I'm here today, 8 to do a Resolution against that project. I've heard 9 back from two commissioners. This is my ask. This is 10 my request. Because I think we need to take a stand and 11 we need to be ready for this continual growth. 12 And with that, I thank y'all for the time 13 today and I'll inform you and I'll continue to track 14 this issue. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll make a motion that 16 we adopt the Resolution that's been put before the Court 17 against Battery Energy Storage Systems in Kerr County. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll second it for 19 discussion. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll start. I applaud 21 what you've done, Jeff. I think it's good -- really 22 good information and educational. 23 MR. HOLT: Thanks, man. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'll go with a 25 general statement about Resolutions and my feelings 41 1 towards them. They need to be very specific and 2 something that we have some authority and control over. 3 What I would support is a specific Resolution to the 4 legislature, primarily to our incoming State Rep and our 5 current state Senator, because those are the two 6 individuals that can do something. We can't do anything 7 as a court really. I mean we really -- our hands are 8 tied. 9 And I'm -- I've always been against, you 10 know, really just doing resolutions that feel good. I 11 mean, yes, this is a feel good Resolution. I agree with 12 what you're saying for the most part. A lot of it. I 13 don't know the -- you know, I have a hard time because I 14 don't know all the facts. But if we could come back 15 with a Resolution that was very specific to this issue, 16 lithium batteries, and really all renewals as to have 17 them -- I know that I visited with Wes Virdell last week 18 and he has a bill already to limit how close to property 19 lines things can be. I totally support that. Senator 20 Kolkhorst had a bill last time that he mentioned that he 21 got out of committee. I support that and I worked -- I 22 was fine with that bill at the legislature. 23 That's the approach we need to do. It needs 24 to be specific to them, telling them that this 25 Commissioners' Court wants them to act on those 42 1 particular bills. One area, and this won't be popular, 2 but this is one of my core beliefs of mine, we get real 3 close to property rights on issues like this. It's kind 4 of like a quarry. And nobody wants it next to you, but 5 I have a real hard time with any Resolution that's going 6 to tell anybody what they can do with their property. 7 So, to me, the approach is to get the Legislature to put 8 guidelines in place so you can do what you want with 9 your property but not -- you know, because as soon as we 10 go along or if the Legislature -- we start down a road 11 of telling people what they can do with their personal 12 private property, all of a sudden we're going to lose 13 everything. 14 And, you know, you have this, which I 15 totally agree with what you're saying. But, you know, 16 hopefully none of my neighbors would ever do it. But 17 you know it's real hard for you to tell what you can do 18 with your property and for you to tell me what I can do 19 with my property. 20 So I think there's a very fine line in that 21 area because there's a lot of -- I'll tell ya, I 22 wouldn't want a big power plant next to me. I wouldn't 23 want a gas power plant next to me. So I think the way 24 we move forward, and I would totally support a 25 Resolution that focuses on Legislation to improve this. 43 1 And the question I do have, is BESS the name 2 of the company doing the one here or is that the name of 3 all of the -- 4 MR. HOLT: It's a generic name like a 5 Band-aid. Battery Energy Storage System. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That was a little 7 bit unclear and I didn't know if they -- the one that 8 came through they had BESS on their front little 9 package. 10 MR. HOLT: Yeah, it's generic. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think that 12 included in that Resolution should be a prohibition in 13 making any resolution against tax abatements. I agree 14 totally with that. Any kind -- and any kind of a 15 subsidy. And it's really frustrating that a lot of this 16 is because of the Legislature. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's right. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're the ones that 19 cause this to happen based on -- because of the ice 20 storm in 2011. Is that when that was? They came 21 through -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: '21. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: '21? That's right. 24 '21. Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: A lot more rain then. 44 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Might have had one back 2 then, I don't remember. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I mean, you know, 4 this is all being done because the Legislature mandated 5 to fix the grid, and this the worst option in my mind to 6 fix the grid. It's really not fixing it. So that's 7 just kind of my opinion. I won't vote for it today, but 8 if we can come back and I'll be glad to work with you on 9 one that, you know, that would -- because I think it is 10 something that we need to do as a court, it just needs 11 to be tweaked a little bit. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. You know, 13 I -- the original one, I sent you a small little tweak 14 to it. But after talking with Commissioner Letz this 15 morning, I agree with his approach. We could focus it 16 in a little bit more. It is a little general. We're 17 all against these suckers coming in here. You know, we 18 all but threw them out of here the last time they were 19 here. You know, but let's tweak it a little more and 20 come back with a little bit more refined focused 21 resolution. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And specifically mention 23 our incoming State Rep and -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, without a doubt. 25 That's why we have -- 45 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're the ones that 2 can do it. They can fix it. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean, fair enough. 4 But obviously it can be tweaked. I mean we well know 5 these resolutions are nonbinding, so it's not like -- 6 you're right, it's not in our authority to do much of 7 anything. But, to me, we need to send a strong signal. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: And let people know, 11 including the public utilities and TCEQ, that they're 12 not welcome here. That doesn't mean they're not coming 13 and, you know, we heard from Back Energy Mountain, 14 they're coming regardless of the tax abatement. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: And -- yeah, but we -- 17 and we really can't stop them but -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They are coming but the 19 legislation needs to be in place to protect -- 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: I agree. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- you know, 22 containment -- containment of property lines. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: It definitely needs to 24 go where the -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The one in Mason County, 46 1 which is right next to someone's house. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All those things can be 4 addressed through legislation and not through them. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: This is an issue, 6 you're right, they have created. I mean, all this 7 unreliable wind energy. That -- that's -- it creates 8 part of the why they want BESS. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Because they've created 11 situations where the power is unreliable and they're 12 looking for a way to get some reliability back into the 13 system. And it's crazy that event the wind -- you know, 14 that doesn't benefit U.S. manufacturers. It's a stupid 15 idea. But we're stuck with it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: But we don't need to be 18 in the future. And -- anyway. I'm all for it, very 19 much supporting of this Resolution. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? I want 21 to applaud your ingenuity here. So we're just a little 22 County Court. And there's only so much we can do. And 23 feel-good resolutions pretty well maxes out on us. 24 I remember years ago when we first moved to 25 this part of the country, had a little place outside 47 1 of -- outside of town. My neighbor came up to me and 2 wanted to know if I was putting a mobile home park on 3 that place. Well, obviously we weren't. It's a weekend 4 place. I don't even -- never even thought about mobile 5 home park. But I didn't want to have a mobile home park 6 next door as a neighbor. Just like I wouldn't want to 7 have one of these outfits next door as a neighbor. 8 But in the County, we don't have any zoning 9 authority. We don't have any regulatory power out there 10 to tell people what they can and can't do. And that's 11 why you see mobile home parks next to really nice 12 places. Because they didn't buy the property next door 13 to protect them. 14 And so I'm opposed to these types of lithium 15 battery storage plants. And I share your sentiment on 16 that. And I want to do what we can. But I think this 17 is very ambitious and I'll help you as much as I can, 18 but there's only so much we can do. Anything else? 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will make a comment, 21 just because I've been dealing with this kind of stuff 22 for a long time. I know of several occasions that I've 23 testified for counties to get additional authorities. 24 Usually in area subdivisions. But other areas as well. 25 And unfortunately, the legislature as a whole is totally 48 1 against giving counties any authority to do anything. 2 Which is a frustration. You know, to quote -- and this 3 is a quote from a State Rep. I won't say -- can't 4 remember which State Rep. But his comment was -- it 5 gives you an idea of the feeling of the legislature. 6 The quote was, and this was on subdivision, 7 an initial subdivision authority because of water. It 8 was, I don't know, about ten years ago. The quote came 9 back, giving -- and on the record at the legislature, 10 "Giving counties additional authority is like giving a 11 monkey a loaded shotgun." That's true. That's what 12 they said in an open hearing. And that gives you an 13 idea of the philosophy of many of our legislature. So 14 that's where we need to really focus it. Now, our two, 15 I don't think agree with that. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And our current or our 18 future State Rep and our -- currently our State Senator. 19 But in getting into a lot of the urban areas, they do 20 think that way, so it's an uphill battle. But 21 certainly, I think this is one that rural Texas can 22 unite by and -- I'm meeting Monday with 23 Calgary(phonetic) Association, their president, and this 24 is one of the topics. All the renewals. 25 And I met with Senator Perry a couple weeks 49 1 ago. So something that's high on my priority list but 2 we need to -- and I'll certainly help you, Jeff, focus 3 just a little bit more to what I think the resolution 4 should be. 5 MR. HOLT: Thank you for your cooperation. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess -- 7 MR. HOLT: I appreciate your time. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- based on the 9 comments, I will table or rescind my motion. There's no 10 point in voting on it today but -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Let's just -- we can table it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Table it and come back 13 at next meeting. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: And see what we can do 15 to -- 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I want to piggyback on 17 what -- something Commissioner Letz just said about our 18 State Reps and stuff. Especially the urban ones. Why 19 wouldn't they want to give counties a little more 20 authority? They want to control that power. And by 21 controlling that power, the lobbyists help their 22 campaigns and stuff. Does that make sense? So that's 23 kind of where it is. All right. 24 JUDGE KELLY: So Miss Hall. 25 MS. HALL: My name is Terri Hall. I live at 50 1 118 Independence Lane. I'm here on behalf of Liberty in 2 Action and myself, as a property owner in an area 3 affected by some of these, I think your property rights 4 end when it imperils your neighbors and when it imperils 5 everyone's drinking water. So I mean, you couldn't ask 6 for a stronger property rights advocate in legislation 7 after my 20 years of work on that. But I think that 8 we're completely two issues. 9 Also, I don't know that you totally 10 understand the power of a 391 commission. And the first 11 step in that is passing a resolution opposing these BESS 12 facilities in Kerr County. That's the first step you 13 need to take. That's where your power begins, the 14 central planning commission. It can be with Kendall 15 County. It can be Kerr County. Put them together. It 16 can be Kerr County and the City of Kerrville. Then you 17 can bring in your Water District and everybody else that 18 are going to be impacted, like the fire departments. 19 Everybody to be a part of this central planning 20 commission and you have to bring them in. 21 And that's your power to repel these from 22 coming into Kerr County. And while we don't have -- 23 counties have a lot of broad regulatory authority, 24 that's why they gave you the 391 commission. And 25 there's a lot of history in about all kinds of issues at 51 1 the County level using this tool. So I encourage you to 2 get more educated about that. I'd be happy to sit down 3 and talk with you more in depth about that, about how 4 you can do that, but the first thing you need to do is 5 pass such a resolution that lists very specifically like 6 Jeff Holt did in that commission -- I mean in the 7 Resolution all the areas that would impact our County 8 negatively. That's exactly how you do it. 9 Also, you're not as helpless as you think 10 and we're not going to let you sit back and say you are. 11 Remember, this is the same County that had social 12 upheavals galore during COVID. And you imposed a whole 13 lot of stuff on us and our local businesses. A part of 14 it was the State but a part of it was the County too. 15 So please don't sit there and act like you're helping us 16 when you use your strong arm of authority that you do 17 have and start a planning commission when you can stop 18 this from coming to Kerr County. 19 Also, the TCEQ permitting process is going 20 to be a process we can also exploit to stop this. And 21 that involves our local County passing Resolutions 22 saying don't do it here. And that's how you submit it 23 as part of the formal record with TCEQ that they don't 24 put them here. It's not enough to just sit here and all 25 of you say I'm opposed to this, I don't want this in my 52 1 backyard. But you are the County Commissioners. We 2 have elected you. We expect you to do something. And 3 that it's not a feel good measure. This is a protect 4 our County measure and we need you to do it. So 5 whatever tweaking y'all feel like you need to do to be 6 comfortable with it, okay. 7 But it does need to be fairly broad enough 8 to make sure we get every one of those concerns that 9 Jeff Holt and others have brought up about not just 10 fire, but water, property value, all of that does need 11 to be addressed in such a Resolution in our opinion. So 12 I think this is something we can finally all agree on 13 moving forward and we absolutely support getting the 14 Resolution passed. Thank you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Do we have anybody else here 16 speaking on Item 1.4? 17 Okay. Then let's move on to Item 1.5 18 discussion regarding Battery Equipment Storage Systems 19 and the impact they will have on County volunteer fire 20 departments. Is Brien Alexander out there? 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: No, sir. Not here. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I'll just say a 23 little about this, because I don't want to steal his 24 thunder or his input as a fire chief. Maybe our 25 resident VFD member might have something to say. But, 53 1 you know, as Jeff brought up a minute ago, huge concerns 2 about fire. And our VFDs are our first line of defense 3 if anything goes wrong, and they struggle each year to 4 make ends meet on different things and look at they'd be 5 burdened with one of these in their backyard. They 6 don't have the resources for foam and water to handle 7 this stuff. And so that's what I think our fire chief 8 would bring forward. Brien was going to talk about 9 that. But when we put this on the agenda he said, I'll 10 try to be there but he -- he's short-handed at his shop. 11 So that's all I'm going to say about it and maybe 12 we'll -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: We'll pass it. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- pass it until next 15 time. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll throw a few 17 comments out there as a volunteer firefighter. And 18 you're absolutely right, we do not have anywhere close 19 to enough foam to extinguish one of these things once it 20 gets to a formal runaway. And we don't have anywhere 21 near enough water. You know, we'll put all we can on 22 it, but our main priority would be to protect 23 surrounding structures and to control any wildfire that 24 might result from one of these things and that's the 25 best you can really expect. 54 1 I think we even heard from Black Mountain 2 Energy, you know, once these things go up the strategy 3 is let it burn. Because nobody really has water or 4 anything you can do about putting a lithium battery fire 5 out. Especially one of these big ones. So it's a very 6 serious concern. 7 And again, the longer it burns, you're going 8 to have to put some water on it. And where -- where is 9 all that toxic smoke going to go? Where is all the 10 runoff from the water and all those toxins going to go? 11 You know, as Mr. Holt has pointed out, we're in a pigma 12 and our groundwater is pretty close to the surface and 13 we all rely heavily on it. So what are we going to do 14 when our groundwater gets contaminated? So I -- I 15 think -- I have great concerns about these things and 16 want to do everything I can to fight them. 17 I -- I hear the earlier comments, so let's 18 see what we can do with that Resolution. But it -- to 19 me, that's just step one. So I'll leave it at that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Final comment to the 21 County Attorney. I do not know about a 391 agreement. 22 So if we could get, you know, I don't -- some kind of a 23 summary as to -- you know, because if -- we've never 24 discussed that as a court so that's just something I 25 don't know. And I don't know how we -- you know, what 55 1 the -- the best way to learn something about that may 2 be. I don't know if you're familiar or -- 3 MRS. STEBBINS: The 381 agreement? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 391. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 391 commission. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: I'll get someone to look 7 into it. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: If it's a tool we can 9 use, we need to use it. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess I'll throw out 11 a couple more comments just -- well, one really. I 12 mean, just for people that think that EVs are a good 13 idea. If you have an accident in an EV and it catches 14 fire, you know, first of all, all these little 15 batteries -- there are a whole bunch of little ones that 16 go into one -- one vehicle. Every one of them has a 17 potential lethal charge. So as a firefighter, you know, 18 the first thing they tell us is don't touch them. We 19 don't have the specialized equipment. The only VFD that 20 does is Mountain Home. 21 So if there's an accident along I-10 or -- 22 well, pretty much anywhere in the County, they're going 23 to be the first ones we call to respond to any kind of 24 an EV fire. So, you know, the main thing that the rest 25 of us are going to do is just try to contain the fire so 56 1 it doesn't spread and create a wild land fire or cause 2 other damage. So it's an interesting technological 3 development that's, in my opinion, not a real good one 4 for lots of reasons. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. With that, let's take 6 the morning break and be back here at 10:15. 7 (Break) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 9 Is Commissioner Letz out there? 10 Next item on the agenda is Item 1.6 11 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 12 the Alarm System Monitoring Agreement with Beckwith 13 Electronic Engineering Company for fire alarm system at 14 the Juvenile Detention Facility. Shane Evans. 15 MR. EVANS: Good morning, Commissioners and 16 Judge. This is basically a monthly contract for the 17 juvenile detention facility at 3501. It has been -- the 18 County Attorney has already looked at it and she's 19 approved it and it's now waiting for y'all's approval. 20 I would like to note that since we started 21 the contract agreement with them in 2020, they've only 22 gone up $12.00. And this year they went up $12.00 on 23 the contract. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Nice. 25 MR. EVANS: So -- 57 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that's good news. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve the alarm system monitoring agreement with 6 Beckwith Electronic Engineering as presented. Any other 7 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 8 carries. 9 Thank you, Shane. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 11 MR. EVANS: You're welcome. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.7 consider, discuss and 13 take appropriate action to approve justification for the 14 Sole Source procurement of products and services from -- 15 is it ShaiderTech? Shaider? 16 MR. GAIGE: Yeah. Either way. 17 JUDGE KELLY: S-H-A-I-D-E-R. And this is 18 for the Stone Garden grant in accordance with the Local 19 Government Code. 20 MR. GAIGE: Yes, sir. Just need the Court's 21 approval for Sole Source procurement from ShaiderTech 22 for Operation Stone Garden. I put the automatic license 23 plate reader system. It's a very amazing product. It's 24 developed in Virginia so everything is developed there 25 and so it's made in the United States. But it's still 58 1 incorporated into our system that we already have. We 2 currently have trailers. These are actually going to be 3 more of a static location. They can be moved, but 4 they'll be throughout -- a few throughout Kerr County. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 8 approve Sole Source procurement from ShaiderTech, LLC, 9 as presented. Any discussion? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question just to 11 be on the record. And so there's no other entity that 12 provides this equipment? 13 MR. GAIGE: No, sir. They're developed -- 14 the power system is what it's called. They're developed 15 and strictly contracted with HSI in Virginia, Homeland 16 Security Investigations. There's very few units 17 produced. We're probably going to be one of the first 18 counties in the state of Texas or even the U.S. that has 19 this product. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Those in favor say 22 aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 23 1.8 consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 action to approve justification for Sole Source 25 procurement of products and services from Magnet 59 1 Forensics for the Operation Lone Star grant. 2 MR. GAIGE: Magnet Forensics, they bought 3 Graykey. We used them previously. This company just 4 bought them and it's still one of the -- they just 5 renamed the product, so now it's called Magnet Forensic 6 Graykey. We use that in our digital forensic labs. So 7 that's to download cell phone data and things like that 8 so we extract that data. So it's for Apple products. 9 JUDGE KELLY: And we had the sole source 10 procurement approval on the other product? 11 MR. GAIGE: Yeah. It was the same thing. 12 They just -- this company bought the other one. And 13 there's only one provider for it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 17 approve the sole source procurement for the Magnet 18 Forensics for Operation Lone Star grant as presented. 19 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 20 Motion carries. 21 Item 1.9 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to approve the Interlocal Agreement 23 between Kerr County and Bexar County for jail services 24 and allow -- go ahead, Sheriff. 25 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, looking for the 60 1 Court's approval on this Interlocal Agreement. Kind of 2 let me update the Court on what's going on. Recently 3 Kendall County and Medina County have opened their jail 4 expansions and that's taken a majority of our prisoners, 5 probably three-quarter of them. 6 So currently, today, I'm holding 68 inmates 7 out of Bexar County on what's called emergency hold 8 which is allowed through Texas Jail Standards because 9 they're overcrowded. The only thing working with Bexar 10 County, there's a lot of red tape, it's taken us a while 11 to come up with this agreement that we both agree on. 12 The County Attorney has reviewed it. 13 Just to kind of give you an idea, my goal 14 every year is to try to bring a million dollars from the 15 jail. Last month the bill for just Bexar County was 16 $126,000. So currently we're -- that's at the $65 -- 17 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me, how much was 18 that? 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: $126,000. 20 COURT REPORTER: Thank you. 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: Currently, this is at 22 $65.00, which was tough to agree on. I know the Court's 23 kind of been wanting me to go up. I'll reevaluate this 24 next year. I think this was a good opportunity to jump 25 on it at the time with the other three counties taking 61 1 their prisoners. Like I said, we're just focusing on 2 the million and we're way -- we'll be way over that this 3 year. So just looking for y'all's approval. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 7 approve the Interlocal Agreement between Bexar County 8 and Kerr County for jail services. That caught my 9 attention when I approved the bill. 10 SHERIFF LEITHA: There you go. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sheriff, I just want to 12 clarify. You do have the ability under the contract to 13 accept only those prisoners that you want to accept? 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 15 SHERIFF LEITHA: They have been very good. 16 I'm telling you, we were surprised. Everybody's like, 17 hey man, we're going to get the worst of the worst. 18 These -- they -- they love it. It's a lot different. I 19 don't know how crowded it is in Bexar County, but this 20 is like really a five star place for them. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we don't get the 22 worst of the worst? 23 SHERIFF LEITHA: No. And if we do, we send 24 them right back. They're very good at -- no matter 25 if -- for any kind of reason they take them back. But 62 1 no, we -- we've been really pleased. We were worried 2 about that but it's, like I said, they're loving it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then the next item on 4 the agenda -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Then do we need to 6 vote? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, we forgot. We had a 8 motion and a second, right? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor say aye. 11 Opposed? Motion carries. 12 Next item on the agenda is 1.11 consider, 13 discuss and take appropriate action for the Court to set 14 a public hearing, date and time, for presentation of 15 findings from Tetra Tech Engineering for the Eagle Ridge 16 Road study. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. We were 18 looking at the calendar back there with Jody real quick 19 to try to pick some dates to throw at the court in 20 September for setting this meeting. She's suggesting 21 the 16th might be a good date. 22 On December the 27th, 2023 the Court entered 23 into a contract with Tetra Tech, Inc. for professional 24 engineering services to analyze Eagle Ridge Road for 25 safety concerns, and to develop a master plan for the 63 1 development of the road to safely support existing and 2 future traffic. 3 The scope was developed by the Court, 4 Engineering Department, and with the input of Eagle 5 Ridge Road resident Jack McGuire. Tetra Tech then began 6 the process of gathering data, conducting their 7 analysis, and presenting their preliminary findings to 8 Commissioner Precinct 2, Engineering Department, Road 9 and Bridge Department, and Eagle Ridge Road resident 10 Jack McGuire and Don Macdonald on May the 16th, 2024. 11 The final analysis is almost ready for 12 presentation to Commissioners' Court, to be held at a 13 public meeting day and time of the Court's choosing. 14 The County Engineer requests that the Court 15 set a public meeting date and time for the presentation 16 of findings from Tetra Tech Engineering for the Eagle 17 Ridge Road study, Precinct 2. 18 And as I just mentioned or suggested, I was 19 visiting with Jody and she thought either September the 20 16th, which is a Monday, which is in between some 21 regular Commissioners' Court meetings, or the 30th of 22 September. Either one of those dates she was thinking 23 might -- might work well for y'all. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And this meeting is to be 25 a public meeting, more like a workshop or -- 64 1 MR. HASTINGS: It would be a workshop. Yes, 2 sir. Or a public meeting to -- 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Could it be after a 4 court meeting? 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: It was kind of my 6 suggestion. Because, I mean, this is a pretty 7 comprehensive report and it'll take a little while for 8 Tetra Tech to go through it. I knew we didn't have 9 enough time in today's agenda. So having a separate 10 meeting -- and I think we also need to understand that 11 this is just one of our County roads. And some of these 12 implications could cascade and -- and have impacts on 13 some of the other things that we are responsible for in 14 terms of road maintenance. So I think it's a subject 15 that we spend $85,000 on -- is that the right number? 16 MR. HASTINGS: About that number. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: About that amount on 18 this study and it merits a little bit deeper review of 19 the findings and where we go forward. So -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So what are the proposed 21 dates? 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: September 16th I heard, 23 and the 30th. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Or the 30th. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Either one is fine with 65 1 me. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Those are both Mondays? 3 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. And he's not 5 ready to present it. We still have to get some final 6 cost or something? 7 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: So hence, not today. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The 16th works; the 30th 11 does not for me. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sounds good. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Does the 16th work for 14 everyone else? 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The 16th, yeah. 16 JUDGE KELLY: The 16th? 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 9 o'clock? 19 JUDGE KELLY: 9:00 a.m. 20 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, sir. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Next item on the 22 agenda -- 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do we have to make a 24 motion or anything about that or -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: We're just going to have the 66 1 workshop. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.12 consider, discuss 4 and take appropriate action for the Court to adopt a 5 Resolution supporting installation of a pedestrian 6 crosswalk at FM 480 and Kelly Street in Center Point, 7 Texas. 8 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. In an 9 effort to increase the safety of pedestrian traffic 10 crossing FM 480 in the Center Point downtown area, a 11 meeting was held with the group known as "Creative 12 Crosswalks," TxDOT, and Center Point business owners to 13 discuss the following: 14 Creative Crosswalks asked for -- there's 15 three items they asked for: 16 Number 1, Permission to paint a crosswalk on 17 FM 480 at Kelly Street (similar to the green crosswalk 18 recently painted on Clay Street at Jefferson in 19 Kerrville), if you want to go look at that. 20 Number 2, permission to place strings of low 21 voltage LED lighting across FM 480 (again, similar to 22 the strings of lights that are placed over Clay Street 23 at the business "Pint and Plow" in Kerrville), if you 24 want to go look at that; and 25 Number 3, something to be done now to help 67 1 with pedestrian and vehicle interactions on FM 480 in 2 the Center Point downtown area. 3 TxDOT responded to all three. 4 Number 1. They said that if a crosswalk was 5 done, it would need to be done by TxDOT standards, a 6 study would be conducted by TxDOT. It could be five 7 years before action. A Resolution of support from Kerr 8 County Court would help speed up the process. We're 9 going to ask the Court for that Resolution. 10 Number 2, Andres Gonzales of TxDOT would 11 check with the District Office to see if lighting can be 12 placed over FM 480 as suggested. 13 And number 3, Andres Gonzales of TxDOT, he 14 is our area Engineer, Kerrville Area Engineer, committed 15 to having red borders placed around the two existing 30 16 mph speed limit signs on FM 480, and tree trimming as 17 necessary, so those signs are more visible. And that 18 will help a lot. 19 So those red borders, if you've seen them, 20 especially if you're driving towards Austin to go 21 through Johnson City, Fredericksburg, and those things 22 jump out at you and remind you to slow down. So I think 23 those will be very effective. TxDOT said they would get 24 on that right away. 25 The County Engineer asks the Court to 68 1 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to adopt a 2 Resolution supporting installation of a pedestrian 3 crosswalk on FM 480 at Kelly Street in Center Point, 4 Precinct 2. And I think Commissioner Paces put together 5 a really good Resolution. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you. And I'll 7 just say after that meeting with TxDOT, I mean, they 8 were out there I think the day after or maybe two days 9 after, and they've already removed all the overhanging 10 brush, making their signs more visible. So they can 11 move quickly when they want to and I appreciate them for 12 doing that. 13 And I think it will help to have the lighted 14 red strips around the signs and have greater visibility 15 because we do need to slow traffic down. But in my 16 discussions with Andres Gonzales, you know, this is 17 about the pedestrian traffic. And I think you also left 18 out that the crosswalk itself would be done by TxDOT to 19 their standards. 20 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: They're not going to 22 allow artistic crosswalk like we've seen elsewhere maybe 23 within the City. And that -- that's fine. This is a 24 TxDOT road. They're responsible for everything that 25 goes onto it. And if it has to be to their standards, I 69 1 mean, our object -- my objective is to improve the 2 safety of the folks that are in Center Point. So I -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm recommending at, 4 what, Kelly? 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Kelly Street. 6 MR. HASTINGS: On 480 at Kelly Street. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. On Kelly. Kind 8 of on that corner where Central Provisions is. It gives 9 a safe means for -- a lot of people are parking in the 10 post office parking lot after hours, when it's closed. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I've done that. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: And people are just 13 lined up along the roads on either side that activity 14 has picked up so much. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I possibly -- and I'm 16 blanking on it, what's the road -- first road you come 17 to? 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Skyline Drive. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Skyline. I'd recommend 20 you add Skyline and do two of them. And the reason is, 21 there will be two, possibly three more restaurants 22 opening before the end of the year right there. And 23 it's going to get a lot worse. Because the traffic is 24 really dangerous. And the speed limit is 35 along 25 there? 70 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, 30. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, 30? 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: And that's -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we can't go any lower 5 than that but -- 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. That -- that's 7 another issue. But anyway -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, if it's a 9 five-year study to do it, I'd list both intersections. 10 MR. HASTINGS: Well, let's talk about that 11 and try to -- I think Andres was trying to manage 12 expectation about a crosswalk going in. I don't think 13 it's -- that it takes five years to get a crosswalk in. 14 I think that he's anticipating that they're going to do 15 a pedestrian count, a study. And if the pedestrian 16 count's not there now, it may take a few years before 17 it's high enough to warrant a crosswalk. So there's 18 that. 19 And we did discuss -- and some of the folks 20 are here -- that Skyline intersection. And the concern 21 about having a crosswalk there was that it's so close to 22 the bridge. The bridge is still 40 miles per hour. And 23 TxDOT was asked to lower the speed limit on the bridge 24 over the Guadalupe River. Please look into that. Can 25 we lower it to 30, please? And on paper they can't make 71 1 it work. On the studies they've done, they can't make 2 it work. They -- they're bound by 40 miles per hour 3 still. And so it's so abrupt, it drops from 40 to 30. 4 And then Skyline, boom, is right there. And so we -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. That's the top 6 of the hill. 7 MR. HASTINGS: -- I guess the committee, if 8 you will, the group that I listed that we all had this 9 meeting, we said let's focus on Kelly Street and give 10 folks crossing one more block for vehicles to see them 11 because of that concern coming off the bridge. 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Gotcha. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- you know, I just -- 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: To me it's a great 15 start. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know. It's a 17 start. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean I -- I missed 19 that meeting because we had a budget workshop but -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a start, but I 21 just -- I mean, because people -- the people, especially 22 in the evening, park at the post office in that -- 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: I know. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and that post office 25 parking lot is at Skyline, not at Kelly. So -- I don't 72 1 know. How do they -- and another question, how do they 2 do pedestrian counts? I mean -- 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Just like we do. 4 MR. HASTINGS: They send someone out there 5 to do a count, a pedestrian. It's going to take a 6 person. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And there will be 8 somebody at night? 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: They don't put -- 10 MR. HASTINGS: I think the -- 11 (Talking over) 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- up the equipment 13 like we do? No? They won't install something -- 14 MR. HASTINGS: I think it'll be -- 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Dang. That's -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I just -- I would 17 encourage that it needs to be in the evenings and like 18 our -- you know, as well. Because that's when -- that's 19 when the people use it. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- I'm told that this 23 Resolution will help facilitate -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh no, it'll help. All 25 right. 73 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- to get it done. So 2 I would ask the Court to go ahead and approve this 3 Resolution. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. Sure. It's fine. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do I need to read it 6 into the record? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Did you make a motion? 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Then I'd like to make a 11 motion that the Court approve the Resolution that's been 12 put before it in support of a pedestrian crosswalk on 13 FM 480 in Center Point. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Kelly. Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: I wasn't even going to 16 be that specific. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We've got the motion and we've 19 got the second. Discussion? Jeremy, you wanted to 20 speak? 21 MR. WALTERS: Thank you. Judge, 22 Commissioners. I'm Jeremy Walters with Kerrville Urban 23 Trails System. We were approached by these business 24 owners and building owners and homeowners and residents 25 up and down 480. In response to quite an uptick in 74 1 commercial activity along in the last two years. 2 And as Commissioner Letz said, there's not 3 only two more restaurants coming in, but a third 4 business as well. So we're looking at three existing 5 businesses. There will soon be six businesses. Five 6 years ago it was just the post office and that was kind 7 of it. 8 So this is just a grass roots effort to say, 9 hey, we don't want to -- we don't want to ask the 10 Sheriff to park a Deputy out there and just have him sit 11 with a radar gun. We don't need -- we want to follow 12 the, you know, procedures that TxDOT has in place, to 13 work with them, to partner with them. But this is a 14 very real need and we don't have five years to wait to 15 be addressed before a kid gets run over. 16 So this conversation has also expanded to 17 the Center Point School District. They, on their next 18 agenda item at the end of this month, will be 19 considering not a Resolution, but just a discussion. 20 Because we do see quite a bit of kids crossing 480 after 21 school and before school. Mostly live down Skyline. 22 And so the School District would be -- the 23 superintendent is supportive of this idea as well. So 24 we're going to bring it to the school board and make 25 sure that everyone on Center Point is on board. So it's 75 1 very much a grass roots community effort. Thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: And Jeremy, why don't 3 you tell us a little bit about the string lighting 4 that's being discussed and who's going to do that and 5 pay for it. But that -- that's part of this as well and 6 we definitely need more lighting at night in that 7 downtown area. 8 MR. WALTERS: Creative Crosswalk is a 9 program of KUTS. Right now it's a partnership -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Tell people who KUTS is. 11 MR. WALTERS: KUTS, Kerrville Urban Trails 12 Systems, a non-profit grass roots organization that 13 promotes walkability through Kerr County. We are 14 partnered with the City of Kerrville and KPUB. 15 Specifically, KPUB are the ones that engineer and design 16 the string lights to traffic standards. These string 17 lights are crossing over a place where 18 wheelers could 18 be coming through or where there's ice load or wind 19 load, and so those are long-term assets that consider 20 that environment. And so they're professionally 21 installed, engineered. They're owned by KPUB and KUTS 22 would basically pay that monthly rate, you know, so that 23 KPUB's not and the taxpayers are not. And we raised our 24 funds through grants and private donations. 25 In this case, we've organized multiple 76 1 business owners and building owners in Center Point that 2 are willing to commit a small amount of payment every 3 month to a fund that goes directly to KPUB to pay for 4 those string lights. And if TxDOT doesn't allow the 5 string lights over 480, the alternative is to look at 6 placing them over Kelly Street or perhaps over Skyline. 7 And the idea is when you illuminate, it'll send a signal 8 to traffic that's approaching to -- 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Something's going on, 10 yeah. 11 MR. WALTERS: -- calm down. Something's 12 happening. Change your behavior. And that's the 13 benefit of the lights. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jeremy, and this area of 15 Center Point is served by KPUB, correct? 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes, sir. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 18 MR. WALTERS: Yeah. They're the ones that 19 put up the Christmas decorations every season for Center 20 Point. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's very unusual with 22 that little area out there. Doesn't go real far out of 23 town but downtown. 24 MR. WALTERS: Yeah. And we're thankful. 25 We're thankful that KPUB's in Center Point. 77 1 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're very appreciative 2 of your leadership on this matter. 3 We've got a motion and a second. Any other 4 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 5 carries. 6 Next item on the agenda is Item 1.13, which 7 is something we do every quarter. Consider, discuss and 8 take appropriate action on implementation of the burn 9 ban. 10 And for those of you that don't understand 11 the way Kerr County does it, is the -- the authority to 12 determine burn ban is done by Precincts 1 through 4. 13 And that authority has been delegated to each 14 Commissioner for those precincts. And that way, we get 15 a more customized burn ban on or off that is more 16 suitable to the weather conditions in that part of the 17 County. Kerr County is 1100 square miles and it goes -- 18 it's a long, narrow County and the weather is very 19 different. I'm in Precinct 4 and we've had rain. If 20 y'all are in Precinct 3, you haven't. But you live in 21 the county. And that's why we let the Commissioners do 22 that. 23 And every quarter we re-implement the plan 24 so the Commissioners are authorized to do this. So 25 that's why we have it back on the Court. If there's 78 1 some question, I just want to clarify it. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sure. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a fine line. 4 Commissioners can individually do it. We can -- what we 5 do, we suspend it. The burn ban's in place. Each -- 6 our court order allows each Commissioner to suspend the 7 burn ban in their precinct. So we don't have the 8 authority to implement a burn ban, but we can suspend it 9 because it's part of the Court order. 10 JUDGE KELLY: We kind of did it in reverse. 11 We put the ban on. But they're authorized to suspend 12 it. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The other side of the 14 coin if we didn't do it this way, we wouldn't be able to 15 change it until each Commissioners' Court countywide -- 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: We'd be blanket across 17 the County. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. And that's 19 what other counties do. And they -- they wait to put it 20 on or off until they meet each Commissioners' Court 21 session. So that's a benefit we have. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: This is a much better 23 approach. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Precinct 4, we have 25 four VFDs. Over half the County. And things are 79 1 different from one side of the County to the other. 2 JUDGE KELLY: From one side of the precinct 3 to the other. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Bingo. Bingo. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 4 takes up two-thirds 6 of the county. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, I've had people 8 calling me ranting and raving. I just got four inches 9 in Hunt. Well, I didn't get anything in Mountain Home. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. So with that, 11 I'll make a motion that we approve the implementation of 12 the burn ban for another 90 days. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 15 continue the implementation of the burn ban for another 16 90 days. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 17 carries. 18 Next item on the agenda is item 1.14, which 19 is to consider, discuss and take appropriate action 20 regarding the 2025 Kerr Central Appraisal District 21 budget. 22 And this is actually an amended budget that 23 was sent over to us. For a lot of people you may not 24 know who serves on the Central Appraisal District Board, 25 but it's Jack Burch, Bob Reeves, Amy Billeiter, Rolinda 80 1 Schmidt, Lary Priour, and Wesley Holekamp. 2 And their budget for this year is right at 3 1.298 or 1.3 virtually million dollars. Last year it 4 was about 1.2. So it's gone up 4.7 percent. And there 5 are 30, I think, entities that are serviced by the 6 appraisal district that provides these services for our 7 taxing authority. And they have to get approval from 8 all of them. So this is our time to approve it or not. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess I'll just make 10 some comments that I kind of struggle with the average 11 four percent salary increase. I was opposed to it for 12 County employees and I'm opposed to it for Kerr CAD. I 13 don't think there's adequate justification. In 14 particular, when I look at some of the salary increases 15 for their senior staff, they're substantially higher. I 16 saw some 10 and 12 percent numbers. So I guess I'm not 17 inclined to approve it as it is currently before us. 18 That's me. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. I was doing a 20 quick calculation on some of those salaries and -- 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: We could get into other 22 discussions about the general feedback of the Appraisal 23 District and there's a lot of people that aren't happy 24 with the way their homes and properties have been 25 valued, but I'm not going to go there today. 81 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Another can of worms. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: I know it. And we do 3 have -- 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And it starts out -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- good people now on 6 the board so -- 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Kerr County -- well,it 8 doesn't have anything to do with us really. Other than 9 this -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, here's our 11 opportunity. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, they're required by the 13 Comptroller. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And they report to the 16 Comptroller; not to us. And we have to have somebody 17 that does the appraisals for us to be able to issue our 18 taxes. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They don't do it. The 20 Comptroller does it. And that's worse. 21 VOICE: You're probably right. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: But that doesn't mean 23 that we can't give them some feedback on their budget. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, I agree. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And there have been a 82 1 number of times that we have not approved their budget. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh? I didn't know 3 that. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Nobody does. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to say almost 50 6 percent of the time. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Half the time. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it takes, I believe, 10 the majority of the funding entities? 11 JUDGE KELLY: A majority of the 30. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. And I'm not sure 13 how stacked that is but -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Don't hold me to that number. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But it's -- the 16 fact that we don't do it doesn't mean anything unless -- 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A bunch of others may 18 do it as well. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But I think -- I 20 mean it's worthwhile on some of these salary 21 increases -- 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: In particular, some of 24 the lowest paid people aren't getting much of an 25 increase at all. 83 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Quite a bit of 3 disparity. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Right now, no motion. Fail 5 for lack of a motion. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, that's one 7 approach. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I'll report that to 9 Ms. Constantinides. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You did that very 11 well. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I stumbled across her the 13 first few times and she taught me I had to do it 14 syllable by syllable. 15 Okay. So we'll move on from that. Then the 16 next item on the agenda is Item 1.15, which is 17 discussion regarding the proposed budget and tax rate. 18 This is time for public input. There's a 19 couple people signed up. Miss Hall, did you want to 20 speak on this one? 21 MS. HALL: Yes, sir. Obviously you've 22 brought up several of our concerns. Y'all have a letter 23 from us at "We the People, Liberty in Action" about 24 trying to approach the budget in kind of a fresh 25 approach on having a zero based budgeting process and 84 1 always keeping in mind the fact that it's not really 2 about wanting a no new revenue budget; it's about 3 needing one. 4 The residents of this County can't afford 5 it. Families are hurting. Young people are hurting. 6 They can't get into housing. We're just exacerbating 7 the whole thing like into our cities -- and the taxes on 8 our citizens at a time when the economy is just 9 horrible. And it's -- you've probably all heard it 10 prior to me, but basically we're on the edge of a 11 recession. So this is not the time to be increasing 12 salaries, it's not the time to be increasing our tax 13 rate. I want you to keep that in mind. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other public 15 input? 16 Okay. There being none, then we'll move on 17 to the next agenda item which is -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, can I make a 19 comment? Because my recollection is, and correct me if 20 I'm wrong, but we have a no new revenue budget that 21 we're approving -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: That's right. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and there is a slight 24 tax decrease. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. 85 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And tax decrease is 2 minute, but it is. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: I guess the only thing 4 we haven't really -- and you can tell me when we're 5 going to do it but, you know, particularly on the 6 capital items, are we going to talking about how we 7 might fund some of that through financing or -- is that 8 built into this already? I'm not real clear on that 9 part. 10 JUDGE KELLY: It's built into it already. 11 This is part of the handout, right? 12 MRS. HALL: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. That's -- 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: For clarification on the ARPA 16 fund. We have leftover ARPA funds, which is, what, two 17 or three hundred thousand dollars? 18 MS. PUTNAM: $294,947.81 unobligated. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And the projects that we have 20 under the ARPA column total almost 900,000. And what 21 that represents is the leftover funds which have to be 22 obligated by the year end, plus the interest that we 23 have earned off of the ARPA funds. And so that's how 24 we're able to do all these projects. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean, this shows all 86 1 of the items that are currently built into the budget, 2 it just doesn't show if we're going to finance any of 3 it. Correct? Or have I missed something? 4 MRS. SHELTON: The final column that says 5 debt shows what we're going to be financing. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Ah, okay. 7 JUDGE KELLY: If you turn to the second 8 page, you'll see what we're financing. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I got it. All the Road 10 & Bridge stuff, 2.8 million. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's 2.8 and then 12 there's another 53 for the -- 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: More road and bridge. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. That's carry on the 15 projects, right? 16 MRS. SHELTON: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Since we're on budget, I 18 know that the budget workshop had a schedule for 19 Wednesday was changed, and I will not be here this 20 Friday for that budget workshop. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And we changed it to 22 when? 23 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Friday. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Friday. That's what I 25 thought. It didn't make my calendar yet. 87 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I'm not sure 2 what all -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: I wasn't happy about it either 4 but -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But anyway, I just -- 6 for the record, I will not be here for that budget 7 hearing. I don't know what time it is. 8 MRS. GRINSTEAD: It's 9 o'clock. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 9 o'clock? 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Is there a time that 11 would be better for you? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm gone that day so -- 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm in San Angelo. 15 Lucky me. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Next item is Item 1.16 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to rescind 18 Court Order No. 40759, which is proposed salary 19 increases for Elected County and Precinct officials for 20 Kerr County Fiscal Year '24-'25. Miss Zapata. 21 MS. ZAPATA: Good morning. So we're 22 requesting to rescind that order. Commissioner 23 Precinct 2 is not taking the wage adjustment and so we 24 are proposing a new one in the next item to show that. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 88 1 JUDGE KELLY: Because -- because it changes? 2 MS. ZAPATA: Correct. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. You made the motion? 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Got a second? 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, good. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, he seconded. But 10 I have a comment. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: I have comments, too. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the past, the way 14 this is done is if it was not done through a court order 15 or a change in the schedule, it was just done by the 16 person to do it, but I don't have any reason why it 17 can't be done this way. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, it was -- there 19 was some oversights I think the last time it came before 20 the Court. And then it was released to the public and 21 it's shown up in the press but -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. Either/or. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: In particular, there 25 was an error on my salary. I did not take the five 89 1 percent last year. And I've already signed the 2 affidavit saying I'm not taking the four percent this 3 year. If I'm going to be outspoken and vote against 4 something, I need to put my money where my mouth is and 5 so I'm not taking these salary increases. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So you are in favor of 7 rescinding the order? 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh yes. I -- I made 9 the second. So yes. I'll be in favor of the new order. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. With regard to 11 rescinding the previous order, the 40759, any other 12 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 13 carries. 14 Moving on to Item 1.17 consider, discuss and 15 take appropriate action to approve proposed salary 16 increases for elected County and precinct officials for 17 Kerr County Fiscal Year 24-25, and authorize County 18 Clerk to publish same on August the 14th, which is the 19 day after tomorrow. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is the revised 21 one on -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: I don't know. Did they 23 change -- because this is different from my issue. I 24 mean, there is a base salary for an eventual Precinct 2 25 Commissioner that is appropriate with the increases. 90 1 MS. ZAPATA: That's the next agenda item. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the next item. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's the next item. 4 Not this one. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: So this is the one 7 that's -- reflects the changes in my salary? 8 MS. ZAPATA: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Good. Then I'm all for 10 it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And a second. And this is to 15 approve the new proposed salary increases for elected 16 County and Precinct officials for Kerr County for next 17 year. Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. 18 Opposed? Motion carries. 19 Item 1.18 consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action to rescind Court Order No. 40760, 21 setting base salaries for elected officials for the 22 Fiscal Year 24-25. Ms. Zapata. 23 MS. ZAPATA: Same reason for the previous 24 one. So there was a mistake. Specifically for the 25 County Judge. 91 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Which one had the 2 mistake? 3 MS. ZAPATA: The County Judge. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: The County Judge. Did 5 we overpay him or underpay him? 6 MS. ZAPATA: It was double. We double paid 7 him. 8 JUDGE KELLY: It was a double dip on the 9 state. 10 MS. ZAPATA: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second 14 to approve the -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rescind it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: -- rescinding order 4076 as 17 presented. Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 18 carries. 19 Item 1.19 consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action to approve the base salaries for 21 Elected Officials for Fiscal Year 24-25. Ms. Zapata. 22 MS. ZAPATA: So this is the schedule -- the 23 correct schedule that does not double pay -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 92 1 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 2 approve the revised base salaries for elected officials 3 as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 4 Opposed? Motion carries. 5 And the County Attorney on Item 1.20, is 6 this something we need to take up in Executive Session? 7 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. I'd like to do 8 that when we go into Executive Session on that other 9 item. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we will pass over 11 item 1.20 for the time being and come back to it in 12 Executive Session. 13 Moving on to Item 1.21 consider, discuss and 14 take appropriate action regarding the proposed Kerr 15 County budget for Fiscal Year 24-25. Miss Shelton. 16 MRS. SHELTON: The proposed budget was filed 17 on the 8th of August, which is in front of you. This is 18 what is on the website, and what was filed with the 19 County Clerk. So it does show the no new revenue taxes 20 that will be raised, estimate of about 32 million six 21 hundred and just shy of 50 thousand. It shows estimated 22 non-tax revenue of almost 20 thousand -- 20 million. 23 And then expenditures of about 67 million. Meaning that 24 we will spend from fund balance about 14 million, 14.4 25 million. This will end with a percent of expenditures 93 1 in fund balance of 26.62 percent, which our goal is to 2 stay above 25 percent. 3 This, in some form or fashion, includes all 4 of the worksheets that y'all just talked about, about 5 the capital outlay and major expenditure requests. We 6 will be purchasing about 2.6 million in projects. 7 That's on page Page 3. About 4.4 million in projects. 8 ARPA, about 436,000. Sheriff will continue to lease the 9 vehicles at 322,000. And then we will be issuing debt 10 tax anticipation notes of about 2,800,000, almost 11 900,000. And the interest payment that would be due 12 next year is included in your worksheet and in your 13 proposed budget. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The comment I have, a 15 chunk of the -- spending the money of the 14 million, 16 spending that on reserves, the 5.7 of that is because of 17 the new Animal Control facility. So -- I mean, it's 18 still a big number but that's a big chunk of it -- 19 spending. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, and the remainder of the 21 communication system for the County. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And that remainder is 24 about? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Sheriff Leitha, what, about 94 1 five million? 2 SHERIFF LEITHA: What's that, sir? 3 JUDGE KELLY: On the -- the unpaid portion 4 of the communication systems? 5 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. Yes. 6 JUDGE KELLY: About that. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So about 5 -- about 8 10, 11. 9 JUDGE KELLY: 10, 11. Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. So that makes 11 me feel a little bit better. I forgot the communication 12 part. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And that gets us back to 14 the -- some of this is the over budget. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. Right. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we're not spending 17 that much out of reserves. I mean -- 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- I mean we are, but 20 it's a one year because of some large expenditures. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: We'll still have 25 22 percent in reserve. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The numbers are 24 deceiving. Yeah. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, but, for example, with 95 1 Road & Bridge just about every year we spend about two 2 million dollars out of our fund balance. That's been 3 ever since I've been here. 4 So I will make a motion that we approve the 5 budget as presented -- the proposed budget as presented. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's proposed, but it 7 can still be modified, correct? 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. We've got 9 another workshop. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Right. We've got a workshop 11 and we have to -- also have to take it up on August the 12 26th. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I'll second the 14 proposed budget. 15 JUDGE KELLY: It's proposed until August. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's not the final 17 budget. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Still in limbo a 19 little bit. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion and a second. 21 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 22 Okay. Motion carries. 23 Moving on to Item 1.22 consider, discuss and 24 take appropriate action to set public hearing on 25 proposed Kerr County budget for Fiscal Year 24-25 for 96 1 9:45 a.m. on August 26th, 2024, and authorize the County 2 Clerk to publish the notice of public hearing. 3 MRS. SHELTON: Yes, sir. According to our 4 budget calendar, this is when the public hearing should 5 be. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second to 9 approve setting the public hearing for August the 26th 10 as presented. Any discussion? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question of going back 12 to the workshop. What's on -- I mean is there -- what's 13 the reason for a workshop this late? 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The Friday one? 15 MS. GRINSTEAD: You have the agenda in front 16 of you to go over if you want to make any other changes. 17 But it's also to talk about the potential tax rate. And 18 Bob Reeves wasn't available Wednesday, that's why we 19 moved it to Friday. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It says overall 21 department budget, tech share and tax rates -- tax 22 rates. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And normally we would have the 24 budget workshop this Wednesday. That's when it was 25 scheduled. And that would be when Bob comes to us for 97 1 the first time and starts talking to us about the tax 2 rate and we get that information. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Gives us the revenue 4 rate and all that. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: He has already given us 7 a preliminary. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 9 JUDGE KELLY: But the first thing, he'll 10 come and give us the no new revenue rate. He -- he 11 officially gives that to us. And that's when we know 12 where we are. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess my question is, 14 there's two general items that are very specific on a 15 tech share. And we've talked about tech share at every 16 workshop and I'm just trying to -- you know, because I'm 17 not going to be here, I'm trying to figure out are we 18 going to make a change on this? 19 JUDGE KELLY: I -- I don't know. Well, the 20 Sheriff's fielding discussion on it, I know that. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: I know he's concerned 22 that there's going to be some additional costs. It's 23 not just the tech share software itself. Is that right? 24 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, I'll be coming at 25 3.2, or I'll talk about it whenever y'all want me to. 98 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's 3.2? 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 3 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Elected Officials report. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Oh, not executive 6 then. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So then we can't talk 8 about it now, I mean -- 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh, okay. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No. It's not 11 Executive Session. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I believe -- but 13 it has issues. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There are 15 implications. 16 JUDGE KELLY: It's still being discussed. 17 As long as it's still being discussed, we need to be 18 available to talk about it and hear what people have to 19 say. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, but -- I just have 21 a bit of an issue of a budget workshop hearing changed 22 to a date that I can't make it. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: -- I don't disagree with you. 99 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't blame you. 2 You know, in talking with Jody when we found out that 3 Bob and them couldn't be here Wednesday, and it -- man, 4 just like hey, it's hard gathering -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: What about Thursday 6 then? 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We looked at 8 everything. We knew somebody might be left out. And I 9 hate that anybody's left out, but this is like a game 10 trying to gather everybody together. It's gonna be 11 tough. And so we knew it but that's the best we could 12 do. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: When are you 14 available? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's not the question. 16 JUDGE KELLY: You try to juggle all these 17 schedules. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just an odd thing. 19 I mean, you know, we always have some general things we 20 can tweak. But this is obviously going to be something 21 specific that we've already talked about a lot. That's 22 my concern is that -- you know, and I guess we can talk 23 about it again on the 26th or whenever our final budget 24 numbers. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And this is -- I'm looking at 100 1 our County Attorney. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: There's concerns on it 3 so -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: This is a workshop. So we're 5 not going to be able to take any action. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And it gets back to -- 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Can't take any action 9 on it while you're gone. 10 JUDGE KELLY: -- if a Commissioner is unable 11 to make a meeting, can they come -- call in remotely? 12 MRS. STEBBINS: No, sir. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Just to listen? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: I mean they can -- he can 15 listen through -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can listen, but I 17 can't speak. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: If you were -- you could 19 call in remotely to listen, but he won't be able to 20 provide input or vote. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You'll be able to get 22 the information, either on YouTube or from different 23 people individually. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Are we going to vote 25 on it that day then? 101 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: What? 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Are we going to vote 3 on it that day? 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: No. We can't vote. 5 It's just a workshop. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So no vote. No. 7 Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a workshop and 9 workshops tend to be kinda final at this point. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's getting toward 11 the end. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 13 JUDGE KELLY: It's just the budget culture, 14 you know. 15 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I mean, your only other 16 option is if you want to move it a week from today. I 17 assume Bob is available. 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's the 26th. 19 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Are you available -- 20 (Checking on available dates.) 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm available Monday 22 morning. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: We have a workshop planned 24 that starts at 9:00, so if you could have it start at 25 8:00 o'clock, all of our departments would be able to be 102 1 at the budget workshop on that, but we have -- 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, let's get the 3 important ones done first and -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: So now we're pushing this off 5 until Monday the 19th? 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'm good. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sounds good to me. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm getting all head 9 nods here. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: So, okay, we'll move it 11 to the 19th. 12 MRS. GRINSTEAD: At 8:00 a.m. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And where are we on the 14 agenda, item 1.23? 15 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Yes. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Consider, discuss and take 17 appropriate action to set the date and time for the vote 18 on the Kerr County budget for Fiscal Year 24-25 for 9:45 19 a.m. on August the 26th. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know if we voted 21 on 22. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 22? 23 JUDGE KELLY: 22? 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: We didn't. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's a motion and a 103 1 second, but I'm not sure we voted. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, on 22 it's a public 3 hearing. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have to set it. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Okay. We'll go back to 6 it. Item 1.22 is consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action to set the public hearing on the proposed Kerr 8 County budget for Fiscal Year 24-25, for 9:45 a.m. on 9 August 26th, 2024, and authorize the Clerk to publish 10 the notice of public hearing. So we got a motion and a 11 second on that? 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 14 Opposed? Motion carries. 15 Moving on to 23 -- 1.23 consider, discuss 16 and take appropriate action to set the date and time for 17 the vote on the Kerr County budget for Fiscal Year 24-25 18 for 9:45 a.m. on August the 26th, 2024, immediately 19 after the public hearing. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 23 approve the date for the vote. Those in favor say aye. 24 Opposed? Motion carries. 25 Item 1.24 consider, discuss and take 104 1 appropriate action to surplus items for the Kerr County 2 Sheriff's Office. Miss Shelton. 3 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Occasionally the 4 Sheriff's Office sends us information on items that need 5 to be destroyed and/or surplused. And so you have that 6 in front of you. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I move we accept the surplus 8 items as requested by the KCSO. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 11 Any discussion? 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I have a question, 13 Sheriff. 14 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes? 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What's a suicide 16 blanket or smock? 17 SHERIFF LEITHA: Something you can wrap up 18 the prisoner in. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Just curiosity. 20 And they wear it out? 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor say aye. 23 Opposed? Motion carries. 24 Moving on to Item 1.25 consider, discuss and 25 take appropriate action to allocate remaining ARPA 105 1 funds. Miss Putnam. 2 MS. PUTNAM: Hello. This is to see if you 3 want to go ahead and obligate the remaining ARPA funding 4 that has been discussed in the workshops in the proposed 5 budget for the AG barn and the electric. According to 6 the most recent GrantWorks ARPA status report, our 7 remaining amount to be budgeted is 295,000 or there 8 about. That project will go over budget. But I believe 9 you compensated for that. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, let me just 11 clarify that right now we're not putting the electrical 12 into this scope. 13 MS. PUTNAM: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: So it's just the roof 15 and insulation, which should be under $500,000, 16 including some structural modifications. And we've 17 resolved the issue with the engineer. Charlie qualified 18 so he's going to do the engineering required and we're 19 using Jim Maxwell with Maxwell Engineering as well. 20 So -- 21 MS. PUTNAM: And our next step -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just to clarify, it's 23 really just the roof scope. 24 MS. PUTNAM: And our next step would be go 25 out for bid for construction services. Our most recent 106 1 ARPA status report from GrantWorks now includes the 2 additional monies for the project, communications 3 project manager position, as well as the fire alarm 4 system. So other than -- Tanya would have more accurate 5 numbers than what GrantWorks has, but it's here about 6 that -- that range. It would be obligating the 7 remaining funds to this project, whatever the funds may 8 be. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Do we need a court 10 order for that or what? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we've got it in the 12 budget. I'm trying to figure out. Is there any action 13 we need to take on this today? 14 MS. PUTNAM: What we've done in the past, 15 and it's up to you, in previous projects -- it's not 16 mandatory, but we have previously because it was in a 17 court order to obligate the funding for transparency; 18 however, it's not required. We can set that on as an 19 option, if you would like to do so. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm good with belts and 21 suspenders if we need -- 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We're here. Let's do 23 it. I move for approval. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We've got a motion. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 107 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: What is the actual 2 motion? 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: To obligate the funds. 4 MS. PUTNAM: The true obligation will come 5 once we have a contract. That will be the actual -- 6 that will be the ARPA requirement for the obligation, 7 this is just what it was in the past, and so carrying 8 forth to keep in line with the other project. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But that's -- 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That would encompass 11 the -- 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let's just read them 13 off, okay? Don't you think? 14 MS. PUTNAM: The ones that you -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, what's included in 16 the ARPA -- 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well -- but we don't 18 have to do anything with how we're spending the interest 19 monies? 20 MS. PUTNAM: This is not interest money. 21 It's -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: We only have to deal 23 with how we're committing the -- whatever the number is, 24 293,000? 25 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. 108 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Is that the latest 2 number? 3 MS. PUTNAM: And that has nothing to do 4 with -- 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: And we have one 6 project, which is the AG barn roof, that's going to more 7 than satisfy that. But we'll have to supplement it with 8 additional funds because it'll be more than that. But 9 it'll follow the ARPA process -- oh, I thought -- 10 MRS. SHELTON: No, I just wanted to reaffirm 11 that the 295ish that she is speaking of does not include 12 the obligations that will be released once that end of 13 the year happens. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 15 MRS. SHELTON: And so we will have more than 16 the 295. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. But -- but will 18 we have more than, you know, 500? 19 MRS. SHELTON: Whether we're at 445 -- so if 20 we're only going to spend 500, if our projections -- 21 depending on how that works, my concern is enough will 22 not be obligated, which is the -- why the projects are 23 listed in next year's budget like it is. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Gotcha. 25 MRS. SHELTON: So as soon as we know what 109 1 that final amount is, we may need to come back and add 2 more. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well -- 4 MRS. SHELTON: The last projection for the 5 Hill Country Youth Event Center was we needed to add 6 another 200,000 for the engineering architecture study 7 and -- 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. There -- 9 there are other things we could do, there's no doubt. 10 I'm just -- I was trying to keep it simple. But -- 11 MRS. SHELTON: So again, keeping it simple. 12 But making sure that we have all of the ARPA funds 13 obligated is the key part of that. 14 MS. PUTNAM: And this will allow us to get 15 this on to the GrantWorks report -- reporting system, so 16 it will allow them to put it onto their report to say 17 yes, this is obligated. This project is happening. And 18 so this is -- this is to be budgeted. That 295,000 is 19 just the un-budgeted portion that they are aware of at 20 this time. 21 But as Tanya said, it will be different. 22 We're just trying to do the remaining funds towards this 23 project for the reporting for GrantWorks. 24 MS. PUTNAM: And again, I don't think that 25 that's necessary to have a court order to do it. I 110 1 think they can go ahead and put it on there and -- 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Just more to come. I 3 withdraw my motion. 4 MRS. SHELTON: There's no real point. 5 Approving it right now would allow us to move forward 6 with GrantWorks and go ahead and start the process of 7 the advertising and everything that's needed to happen. 8 But it needs to be not -- not -- you don't need to say 9 for 295,000. You need to leave it broad enough to where 10 anything for that project can be considered ARPA. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Anything that we put in the 12 budget that we have identified as ARPA? 13 MRS. SHELTON: Could be used. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 15 everything's included in the budget -- 16 MRS. SHELTON: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- as ARPA funded be 18 included in our ARPA -- 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's cleaner. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- funding request -- or 21 allocation request. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Everybody understand? 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 111 1 Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. 2 Item 1.26 discussion regarding Microsoft 3 Office 365. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And I put this on here 5 because -- oh. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I saw him come in here. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. There he is. 8 Bill, take the stand, man. We'll swear you in right 9 quick. 10 Bill called me last week and he has some 11 concerns with Microsoft 365 that we're going to. And I 12 said well, heck, let's hear them. I haven't heard any 13 opposition to it but -- or bad experiences, but 14 obviously he's had some so we want to hear from him. 15 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Thank you. My real concern 16 is I don't know how to be -- most of y'all know me. I 17 don't know any other way to be but to be blunt. That 18 Word 365 is from hell. It is probably one of the most 19 difficult things I've tried to maneuver through and 20 navigate through, it's not -- to me, it's not intuitive. 21 But I have spoken to -- Cory, right? 22 (Mr. Thoennes nods head.) 23 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Since I showed protestation 24 to our Commissioner, he has assured me that what we're 25 going to be facing with this transition is fairly 112 1 minimal as far as difficulties. I just know that when I 2 put it on my computer, I paid a hundred dollars to get 3 it off. And it went back to the last Word that came 4 out. I think 13 or 16, whichever one was the last one. 5 And it is -- the problem with it is that all of the 6 other progressions of Word, I don't care about the 7 e-mail stuff. He says it's going to be fine. Whatever. 8 We'll get through it. 9 My concern is I use Word a lot in my work. 10 And the way Microsoft had always done this was to make 11 gradual changes incrementally over the years to where 12 you could learn with a minimal problem how to navigate 13 the dumb thing. 14 This is -- this is a huge leap, and in my 15 opinion it's ransomware because where you bought the 16 license to use however long you want, you guys are going 17 to have to pay an annual subscription or they cut you 18 off. And that's ransomware to me. Because if you don't 19 like it or you just -- you say, well, we're not going to 20 use this anymore and you don't pay the next year's bill 21 you're done. 22 All of the storage is in the cloud, which 23 they control. I -- now Cory, I think, is going to -- he 24 goes to a lot of schools for these things. I don't. 25 I'm the poor fat dumb J.P. that sits out there at the 113 1 annex. Nobody sends me to school to learn these things, 2 I have to learn by the seat of my pants. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Bill, are you running 4 for office? Are you running for re-election since 5 you're so -- 6 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Pardon me? 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: The way you've 8 described yourself, are you running for re-election? 9 JUDGE RAGSDALE: One time somebody asked me, 10 says are you running for reelection? I said, I 11 apologize to you. They said what do you mean? And I 12 said, I'm always running for election. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Could have fooled me. 14 JUDGE RAGSDALE: But what I'm saying is my 15 concern is, like I said, it's -- it's not friendly in my 16 opinion. I think it's ransomware. But I understand 17 some people are having trouble with e-mail. I get my 18 e-mails, I can open my e-mails. I don't have any 19 problem with e-mail. 20 But Cory has suggested that this will fix 21 all the problems we are having. And I know they 22 replaced some equipment out at my office. I think I was 23 the proud owner of the oldest computer in the County. 24 And that was fine. It worked, it did what I needed it 25 to do. But at any rate, I do appreciate Cory's patience 114 1 with me on the matter. I could have come or not. 2 Because you guys are going to do what you're going to 3 do, I'm not naive. I've been doing this for 34 years. 4 But I just wanted to let y'all know, I -- I 5 hope we don't get into a problem that we can't live 6 with. Because I would imagine a good many of the people 7 who are going to be into this are as well educated in 8 computer science as I am. Okay? Anyway. That's it. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Bill, I'll assure you, 10 you and I are probably on about the same level so -- 11 JUDGE RAGSDALE: No, I'm -- oh, I'm sorry. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: As far as computer -- 13 JUDGE RAGSDALE: Oh, computer science? 14 Okay. Anyway. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's hear from Cory. 16 Thank you. 17 MR. THOENNES: So yes. Migrating to the 18 online Office 365 is a web-based platform. So there 19 will be annual renewals, but that is not really 20 different than what we are to doing today with our 21 licensing on a number of different products to include 22 office renewals. So granted, where it might be a little 23 bit of a stretch. But yes, there are -- there will be 24 mixed signals that will happen. 25 Now, his concern was the functionality of 115 1 his desktop version of Office, or his Excel Word, 2 whatever you have. Those offices that need to have the 3 full functionality of a desktop will still have those. 4 Those that do not rely upon all of the functionality 5 will move -- will migrate to a web-based product. And 6 each user will have their subscription tailored as such. 7 So yes, there will be some migration and 8 some differences between the desktop and the web-based 9 platforms, but those are going to be minor and handled 10 on a case by case basis. As far as the web mail, that 11 also serves purposes for multi-factor authentication, 12 security. Yes, cloud storage and collaboration, that 13 will be web based. That will -- it effectively helps 14 with our out-of-office replies and other struggles that 15 we are having. 16 So yes, there's going to be a little bit of 17 a learning curve. We are prepared to jump ahead of that 18 when we get to that point. Probably in the spring. So 19 any questions? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Just want to share it, Cory. 21 MR. THOENNES: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE KELLY: That whatever his experience 23 is, you're going to be there to help him. 24 MR. THOENNES: Absolutely. 25 JUDGE KELLY: That's what I want to know. 116 1 MR. THOENNES: If he wants, I will be in his 2 office. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: He's going to be asking 4 for more staff. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I will -- you know, it 6 hadn't been that long since we hired Cory and we went 7 through an interview process of four or five people, and 8 I think it was a hundred percent all of them thought we 9 should go to Microsoft 365. And most of them were 10 surprised we weren't already there. And so -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: But I want to send him out of 12 here with the assurance that his needs are going to be 13 addressed. 14 MR. THOENNES: I will take care of it 15 personally. 16 JUDGE KELLY: That's all I need. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: And Cory, can -- I keep 18 hearing rumblings and rumors that, you know, Microsoft 19 is vulnerable. This is going back to a couple of recent 20 episodes with Crowd Strike and some major systemwide 21 failures. Can you, you know, talk to that and give us 22 an assurance that Microsoft is going to be around, and 23 they're not going to crater on us? 24 MR. THOENNES: A hundred percent? I cannot 25 say that. No. Every platform that you encounter does 117 1 have some vulnerability. We are taking as many 2 appropriate steps to ensure we have continuity of 3 efforts throughout. By moving to the cloud based 4 platform, that does -- that does expose some potential 5 vulnerabilities. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: I mean, is there any 7 strategy to mitigate that, in terms of -- I don't know, 8 duplicate stores on our server or -- 9 MR. THOENNES: So in regard -- in regards to 10 storing our data, that's going to be -- we are still -- 11 the essential records will be kept locally. And we are 12 backing up. We have redundancy in place. And I've got 13 other projects in motion that will ensure that we will 14 maintain continuity of operations. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. 16 Moving on to the next agenda item is 1.27 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 18 purchase a Swift Water Response Craft pending approval 19 of the budget amendment. Commissioner Paces. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, this is -- 21 obviously we have funds available or had funds 22 available. I think it's 31,000 in the current fiscal 23 budget. Unfortunately, like so many other things, from 24 the time the budget was approved until we're now ready 25 to basically place an order the cost has gone up. So 118 1 instead of being 31,000, it's now 35,557. And hopefully 2 everybody got a copy of the quote. And subject to the 3 Court approving the budget amendment, which it is 4 included in the budget amendments that you also have 5 before you that we'll be talking about here in little 6 bit, then we would go ahead and procure this boat. 7 This is what we could have sure used in the 8 recent floods. But anyway. We'll have it for the next 9 one. And this is a Swift Water Response that is per the 10 state -- Texas State Standard. Yeah. So it's under the 11 50,000 but it is a Sole Source. And we got other quotes 12 but it would be more money and you'd have to go out of 13 state to pick it up, where this is manufactured in the 14 state, to the standard state specs. 15 So if we ever wanted to take it over to 16 Houston and help people out with the flood over there, 17 it's the same vessel that they use. So anybody could 18 operate it and be familiar with the way it operates. 19 So I would make a motion that, subject to 20 the necessary budget funds being approved, that we go 21 ahead and authorize the Judge to sign a purchase order 22 for the Swift Water Response Craft based on the quote 23 from Triad Marine. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 119 1 Any discussion? 2 MRS. STEBBINS: I have a little input. I 3 think during part of the discussion with our bond 4 counsel we talked some about the lease agreement that we 5 prepared for KARFA and he was interested in who do we 6 actually serve and if it just remains in Kerr County. 7 And I told him that our VFDs also serve some of the 8 surrounding counties that we touch when -- when there's 9 an emergency and they're needed out there, and so that 10 would be okay. I don't know that Harris County would be 11 one of those counties that they could go help. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I gave a bad 13 example but -- 14 MRS. STEBBINS: -- but maybe Kendall or 15 somewhere that touch that -- that's around Kerr County. 16 So I just wanted to clarify that. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well -- and certainly 18 we can work that into the lease. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Mutual aid. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: It is the mutual aid -- that 22 the VFD have, that's the area it could serve. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and second 24 to go ahead and approve the purchase order for this 25 Swift Water Response Craft. Any other discussion? 120 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: And give you authority 2 to sign. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Those in favor say aye. 4 Opposed? Motion carries. 5 Okay. We've got a timed item at 11:30. I 6 don't see Mr. Binford here yet. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: We have a couple other items 8 that could -- we could talk about in Executive Session 9 before Mr. Binford gets here. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Or we can -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Pay all the bills. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- do budget amendments 13 and some of that stuff. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Let's move on to the 15 approval agenda. Item 2.1 budget amendments. 16 MRS. SHELTON: We have 23 budget amendments 17 in front of you and this will be for line item 18 adjustments. And Commissioner Paces, the one that he's 19 referring to for the Swift Water Rescue vessel is number 20 5186. And that's for about $4,000.00 -- just over 21 $4,000.00. And we're using the interest that has 22 accumulated to make that adjustment. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll move for approval. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 121 1 JUDGE KELLY: And a second to approve the 2 budget amendments as presented. Any discussion? Those 3 in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 4 2.2 pay bills. 5 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 6 consideration amount to $1,998,279.21. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 10 approve paying the bills as presented. Any discussion? 11 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 12 Late bills. 13 MRS. SHELTON: There are not any. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Auditor reports. 15 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. You were presented the 16 internal audit report for the District Clerk's internal 17 audit earlier -- like I guess late last week. And we're 18 asking that you accept the report. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll make a motion to 20 accept that report. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 23 approve the auditor's report as presented. Any 24 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 25 carries. 122 1 Monthly reports. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For June 2024 3 Justice of the Peace, Judge Mitzi French, Precinct 1, 4 amended. July 2024 payroll approval, County Treasurer 5 Tracy Soldan. Environmental Health OSSF, Director Ashli 6 Badders. Constable Tommy Rodriguez, Precinct 1. Kyle 7 Schneider, Precinct 2. Paul Gonzales, Precinct 3. Brad 8 Rider, Precinct 4. 9 Justice of the Peace. Judge J.R. Hoyne, 10 Precinct 2. Judge Kathy Mitchell, Precinct 3. District 11 Clerk Dawn Lantz, District Clerk. Auditor's report. 12 And -- excuse me. Auditor's Office, Tanya Shelton, 13 County Auditor. Investment Portfolio Summary 4-1-24 14 through 6-30-24, County Treasurer, Tracy Soldan. 15 I move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 18 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 19 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 20 carries. 21 Court orders. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have court orders 23 from July 29th, 40753 through 40760. And also from July 24 22nd, 40732 through 40752. And I did have one minor 25 change on 40741 that I'd recommend. It currently reads, 123 1 Go out for annual bids for delivered fuel. I think it 2 really should read go out for annual bids for delivered 3 fuel for Road & Bridge Department, just to clarify what 4 we're doing. And with that one modification, I move for 5 approval. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 8 approve the Court orders with one modification as 9 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 10 Opposed? Motion carries. 11 Information agenda. 3.1 status reports from 12 department heads. Nobody's moving. 13 Okay. 3.2 Status reports from Elected 14 Officials. 15 SHERIFF LEITHA: All right, Judge, I'll try 16 to give you a quick 30,000-foot view of this reference 17 to Tech Share. Basically trying to give y'all a quick 18 update. But Tech Share is a case management system for 19 our County Attorney and District Attorneys. What we're 20 looking at is, you know, all agencies in the County will 21 have to put our information there if we go to it. I'm 22 concerned about KCSO. 23 So what has to happen is, it's been 24 mentioned several times, there's not a cost for it. And 25 there's not a cost for Tech Share. Where our cost comes 124 1 in would be for Motorola Watch Guard and possibly Tyler 2 Technologies. 3 So the Court and the public understands, 4 what happens is we -- Tech Share is over here, this is 5 what the prosecutor uses for case manager system. As 6 far as KCSO, and KCSO only, we have Motorola Watch Guard 7 and we have Tyler Technologies. So Motorola Watch 8 Guard, all of our -- goes in it. Tyler Technologies is 9 where we do our RMS reporting system. So there's a 10 thing called API, Application Program and Interface that 11 has to be done. And it's developed, it's already 12 developed. Other counties are using it. Well, 13 that's -- that's where the cost comes. 14 So I'm here to come to Court today and I'm 15 going to need some kind of funds to put in this budget. 16 I know y'all are winding down. I don't have that 17 amount, but I will have it by this next week. The funds 18 come from the cameras, unfortunately. How many cameras 19 you use. Well, I took it upon myself to include KCSO 20 and talked a little bit to Animal Control. It's just 21 easier if I oversee the whole program. 22 That cost -- you've gotta remember the 23 Tahoes have three cameras but the good thing is it only 24 counts as one and there's a body cam camera. So with 25 those numbers, basically it's like 60 body cams and 48 125 1 in-cars. So that's where the costs arise from. I 2 understand it's going to be between 12 and 15,000 3 dollars. That is for our Motorola Watch Guard to be 4 able to connect with Tech Share, which would be a good 5 integration and basically, you know, I definitely don't 6 want to do that stuff twice. If that all works out, 7 we'll get that bill and stuff, we'll integrate the cost, 8 you know, seamlessly. 9 The other one is our report system. I've 10 been told -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sheriff, can I 12 interrupt you one time? To that fee you just mentioned, 13 is that a one-time or annual? 14 SHERIFF LEITHA: No, it's annual. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: But I mean, it just depends 17 on how many cameras you got. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Gotcha. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: Stuff like that. Like I 20 said, that does -- as far as KCSO, that includes us, 21 that includes Constables, and that includes the Animal 22 Control. 23 And so with Tyler Technologies, our 24 reporting system, they're like -- Tyler Technology and 25 Tech Share are competitors, so I'm told they'll never 126 1 integrate. There won't be anything with that, but there 2 may be some options they said to maybe help us. 3 The last thing I want to do is to have my 4 guys give that information twice, once over here, once 5 over here. So we're trying to meet in the middle on 6 that. 7 I am in contact with the County Attorney's 8 Office and will meet with Heather hopefully today, and 9 see if we can -- if Tyler Technologies and Tech Share 10 will contact them, maybe there's some type of 11 integration but it won't be a total integration. 12 And I don't know if there's going to be a 13 cost to that. I just know that we're working on it as 14 much as we can. One thing we do know is it would be 15 with Motorola Watch Guard. So our money would not go to 16 Tech Share, our money would go to Motorola Watch Guard 17 for putting this API in place. I'll be happy to answer 18 any questions. I don't have that number. I'm working 19 very hard to get it though. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think now's a good 21 time to answer any questions from the Court on the 22 report from the Sheriff. 23 SHERIFF LEITHA: All right. So that's where 24 we're at. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We're on the road to 127 1 Resolution. 2 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's good. 4 JUDGE KELLY: That's what we need. 5 SHERIFF LEITHA: Okay. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, sir. 7 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Any other elected officials? 9 Okay. 3.3 status reports from liaison 10 commissioners. Anything? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I have one. At 12 the last meeting we authorized submission of the rain 13 water harvesting grant to UGRA. And it was done. And I 14 want to thank Noel. It was a little bit harder than I 15 probably thought it was going to be. But Noel did a 16 really good job. 17 And I also want to compliment -- even though 18 he was frustrated with me occasionally -- Connor over at 19 Wellborn Engineering, did a really good job. And I say 20 that because Tara from UGRA let me know verbally that 21 she was very impressed with the application. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Okay. Anything else? 24 So I guess we need to take a break. We have 25 the timed item at 11:30, and then we have Executive 128 1 Session. Let's take about a ten-minute break. 2 (Break) 3 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 4 We're still in general session and we have two timed 5 item at 11:30. I see Mr. Binford's here. Let me call 6 the first one, which is agenda item 1.28 discussion and 7 presentation and action on potential economic 8 development incentive package for a multifamily 9 residential project located within the County; directive 10 to staff and consultants for preparation of package and 11 related documentation for future presentation to and 12 consideration by Commissioners' Court. And is this 13 going to be in Executive Session or general session? 14 MR. BINFORD: Yes, sir. In Executive 15 Session. 16 JUDGE KELLY: In Executive Session? 17 MR. BINFORD: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So with that, it is 19 11:45 and we will go into Executive Session. 20 (Executive Session.) 21 JUDGE KELLY: We're coming out of Executive 22 and we're going to take care of some business and then 23 going back in. 24 Okay. It's 11:58, we're coming out of 25 Executive Session. And we'll kind of do this piecemeal. 129 1 We're going to go back into Executive Session when we 2 finish our business here, but this will be agenda item 3 5.1, which is action as may be required on matters 4 discussed in Executive Session. And we're going back 5 to -- 6 MRS. STEBBINS: And 1.28. 7 JUDGE KELLY: -- 1.28, which is the 8 discussion, presentation and action on potential 9 economic development incentive package for a multifamily 10 residential project located within the County; directive 11 to staff and consultants for preparation of package and 12 related documentation for future presentation to and 13 consideration by Commissioners' Court. 14 MR. BINFORD: Clay Binford from the Law Firm 15 McCall, Parkhurst & Horton representing the County. I'm 16 here today to discuss the response to a petition or 17 application for economic development for multifamily 18 housing. Based on research that we have conducted and 19 on input from the Commissioners' Court, it's our 20 recommendation on the basis of the application 21 requesting economic incentive to people of 70 percent of 22 the ad valorem tax proceeds for the ten year period, 23 that this would be in the form of a Chapter 381 24 agreement, Chapter 381 of the Texas Local Texas 25 Government Code, and it would be under the economic 130 1 development program that has been established by the 2 Court most recently in 2023 in the form of a rebate of 3 tax proceeds that are paid, as opposed to abatement. 4 And on the basis of that recommendation, 5 we'll prepare a development agreement to memorialize 6 those terms and submit it to the Commissioners' Court 7 for consideration likely at the first Commissioners' 8 Court meeting in September. 9 One item that as I'm talking, I neglected to 10 mention, when we talk about the 70 percent of ad valorem 11 taxes, are we talking about all ad valorem taxes or 12 would there be any exclusions of either Road & Bridge or 13 interest and sinking fund? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's my intent -- my 15 thought is it's all ad valorem taxes but it's only the 16 value added. 17 MR. BINFORD: Correct. Incremental value. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Incremental value. 19 MR. BINFORD: Okay. Thank you sir. With 20 that, that would be my recommendation for preparation of 21 documentation. Again, when we come back in there's no 22 action committing you to that today, this is to direct 23 me to work with Miss Stebbins in order to come up with 24 an agreement that we will then present to this 25 Commissioners' Court and go over in detail the elements 131 1 of each of them. So this is just directive to proceed 2 on that basic premise. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to so 4 direct. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 7 approve the Chapter 381 agreement as outlined in the 8 presentation. Any discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I'll just say 10 that I remain opposed to tax abatements. Having said 11 that, I think the proposed Chapter 381 approach for 12 rebating on taxes paid is a far better way to go, so it 13 gets my vote. But -- and I just want to make sure 14 everybody's aware and -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: You're not waiving anything. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I'm -- I'm 17 against giving tax abatements in general. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any other discussion? 19 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Motion 20 carries. Unanimous. 21 Next agenda item is 1.29 consideration and 22 action on a professional services agreement for the 23 developers of Bluewood Project. 24 MR. BINFORD: Clay Binford again 25 representing the County. The purpose of this agreement 132 1 is for the cost of economic development to not be borne 2 by the County or its taxpayers, for it to be borne 3 instead by the developers that are requesting the 4 abatement. So what we require is that the developers 5 and the County enter into a professional services 6 agreement. This agreement will require that the 7 developers place an amount of money with the County that 8 would be used to basically pay my fees. 9 And so if the transaction is terminated, at 10 either party's discretion, if there's any money left in 11 that fund it gets rebated to the developers. But there 12 is no -- there will not be a call on the general fund or 13 the tax revenues of the County, other than the money put 14 forth by the developer in order to negotiate this 15 transaction. 16 My view on this is that if the developer is 17 not willing to pay the cost to the County to get the 18 economic incentive then it's probably not a real 19 transaction anyway. So this is protection for the 20 County. And a minute entry will be evidence of 21 authority to sign the contract. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What would our motion 23 be? 24 MR. BINFORD: Move to approve the execution 25 of a professional services agreement. 133 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move. 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 4 approve the professional services contract as presented. 5 Any discussion? I think this pass-through concept, it 6 works good for us. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 8 JUDGE KELLY: All those in favor say aye. 9 Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Binford. 10 MR. BINFORD: Thank you. Y'all have a great 11 day. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: Let me know if you need 13 anything. 14 MR. BINFORD: We'll be in touch. Thank you. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And we're going to go -- it's 17 12:03 and we're going back in Executive Session. 18 (Executive Session) 19 JUDGE KELLY: It is 1:18 and we're out of 20 Executive Session. And we move on to item 5.1, which is 21 action as may be required on matters discussed in 22 Executive Session. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Under 4.2.a, I'll make a 24 motion that we accept the revised job description for 25 Human Resources Generalist at the pay grade 21. 134 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that 2 motion. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second. Any 4 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 5 carries. 6 There being no other business before the 7 Court, we are adjourned. 8 * * * * * * 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 135 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 23rd day of August, A.D. 10 2024. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2025 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25