1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Tuesday, October 15, 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 *** Commissioners' Comments. 8 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 action on request from the Jewish Community 5 of the Hill Country to use courthouse grounds for a Hanukkah Menorah Lighting Ceremony on 6 December 15, 2024 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. 7 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action to approve Proclamation declaring 8 October 2024 as "Hill Country Night Sky Month." 9 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 action to approve Resolution required for 10 funding to enable Dietert Center to apply for a grant from the Texas Department of 11 Agriculture to support their Meals on Wheels program in Kerr County. 12 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 13 action on request to use Lions Park for a "Fall Back Festival" on Sunday, November 3rd 14 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. 15 1.5 Passed. Consider, discuss and take appropriate action on request from the Alamo Letter 16 Society to place a bronze plaque containing Col. William Barrett Travis's "Victory or 17 Death" letter on the courthouse grounds. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action to approve Interlocal Agreement 19 between Kerrville Independent School District (KISD) and Kerr County to allow KISD to use 20 the Hill Country Youth Event Center(HCYEC) as an emergency evacuation site for FY 24-25 21 October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. 22 23 24 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to authorize the formation of a 4 sub-regional planning commission(SRPC) pursuant to Chapter 391 of the Texas Local 5 Government Code and an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement with Kendall County and other 6 governmental units as may be subsequently agreed by the SRPC members to plan for and 7 protect the health, safety, and general welfare of our residents and to study, 8 research and plan for the future development of our communities regarding Battery Energy 9 Storage Systems(BESS) that may potentially be located within the jurisdiction of the SRPC. 10 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 51 11 action to approve Kerrville Public Utility Board(KPUB) Commercial Outdoor Lighting 12 Service Agreement for installation of security lighting on north side of the courthouse. 13 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 56 14 action to accept Chapter 59 Asset Forfeiture reports from Constable Precinct 1 and 15 Constable Precinct 4. 16 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 56 action to accept donations to Kerr County 17 Animal Services totaling $60.00 for the month of September 2024. 18 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 19 action to authorize Environmental Health Department OSSF to surplus one(1) white 20 Ford F-150. 21 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 action to authorize Environmental Health 22 Department OSSF to purchase a 2024 Toyota Tacoma. 23 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 61 24 action to ratify and confirm SAVNS, Statewide Automated Victim Notification Service, Grant 25 Award for FY 2025, September 1, 2024 - August 31, 2025, in the amount of $18,571.30. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 action to approve the 5th Contract Renewal 4 with Appriss Insights, LLC for the SAVNS, Statewide Automated Victim Notification 5 Service, required Victim Information and Notification Everyday(VINE) training has been 6 completed by Chief Deputy Sheriff Cris Lalonde and Jail Administrator Sylvia Foraker. 7 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 63 8 action regarding the 2025 Kerr County Resolution in support of the grant application 9 for the "FY 2025 Indigent Defense Formula Grant Program" offered by the Texas Indigent Defense 10 Commission(TIDC) and authorize County Judge to sign said Resolution. 11 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 12 action to execute the LMR (Land-Mobile Radio) Project Manager extension contract utilizing 13 ARPA(American Rescue Plan Act) funding. 14 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 action to set a public hearing for 10:00 a.m. 15 on November the 25, 2024 to consider a request to cancel both the original plat for 16 Hall Ranch and the Revision of Plat for Hall Ranch Lot 3, Plat Files 22-07892 and 23-03772. 17 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 67 18 action for the Court to determine if additional work under the East Kerr County/Center Point 19 Wastewater Collection Project is warranted and if so, the scope of the work to be included in 20 a Phase IV project funded under the TWDB, Texas Water Development Board, Project No. 10366. 21 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 85 22 action for the Court to release portions of the VA Pedestrian Pathway sidewalk project 23 to the City of Kerrville for City ownership and maintenance. 24 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 87 action to approve contract with Maxwell 4 Engineering, PLLC, said contract not to exceed $13,200.00 for the structural 5 engineering services associated with retrofits for the Kerr County Indoor Arena and East 6 Addition located at 3782 Highway 27, Kerrville, Texas. 7 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 90 8 action regarding a developer's request for the Court to accept Bond Number 0832517 in 9 the amount of $18,750.00 as financial guarantee for the remaining construction associated with 10 Creekside at Camp Verde Phase 1 and release Bond Number 0798320 in the amount of 11 $2,666,406.00, Plat File Number 22-01280. 12 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 action regarding the acknowledgement of 13 construction completion of private roads and drainage for Creekside at Camp Verde Phase 2, 14 and release Bond Number 0814615 in the amount of $1,271,784.00 for said private roads and 15 drainage. Plat File Number 22-09621. 16 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 93 action regarding conditional approval for a 17 Revision of Plat for Hidden Valley Ranch Section 2 Lot 94, (with the condition that 18 HGCD sign plat pursuant to their requirement that the existing groundwater well be plugged) 19 authorize the County Judge to execute a Subdivision Construction Agreement as required 20 by the Model Rules and accept the Letter of Credit Number 472 issued by The Bank and Trust 21 of Del Rio, Texas in the amount of $35,000.00 as a financial guarantee for the associated 22 construction improvements of a water main. 23 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 102 action to go out for annual bids for road 24 materials. 25 6 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 103 action regarding graffiti painted on Flat 4 Rock Dam. 5 1.26 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 112 action to approve Interlocal Cooperation 6 Agreement between Kerr County and Liberty County for Jail Services. 7 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 114 8 action to surplus office chairs for County Court at Law(CCAL) and Information Technology 9 (IT). 10 1.28 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 114 action to offer Sheriff radios as a trade-in 11 for new property of the same general type per LGC 263.152. 12 1.29 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 116 13 action to approve contract with CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates). 14 1.30 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 116 15 action to approve the contract with Werling Associates, Inc. for the salary survey and 16 authorize Judge Kelly to sign same. 17 1.31 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 118 action to approve medical expense for inmate. 18 1.33 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 119 19 action to ratify and confirm Grant Application and Grant Agreement with the 20 Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for the Rural Law Enforcement Salary Assistance 21 Program pursuant to Senate Bill 22(SB22). 22 1.32 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 120 action to amend General Provisions and 23 rescind Court Order #40794. 24 4.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 122 action regarding personnel matter with 25 District Clerk's Office employee. 7 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 2.1 Budget Amendments. 127 4 2.2 Pay Bills. 127 5 2.3 Late Bills. 127 6 2.4 Auditor Reports. 128 7 2.5 Accept Monthly Reports. 129 8 2.6 Court Orders. 130 9 3.1 Status reports from Department Heads. 131 10 3.3 Status reports from Liaison Commissioners. 133 11 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 134 action to authorize Environmental Health 12 Department OSSF to purchase a 2024 Toyota Tacoma. 13 *** Adjournment. 135 14 *** Reporter's Certificate. 136 15 * * * * * * 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. It 2 is Tuesday, October the 15th, 2024. It's 9 o'clock in 3 the morning and the Kerr County Commissioners' Court is 4 now in session. If you would, please stand for the 5 prayer and pledge, which will be led by Commissioner 6 Harris. 7 (Prayer and Pledge) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Please be seated. First item 9 of business is to request everyone to turn your phone 10 off or to vibrate so it does not interrupt the 11 proceeding. And then secondly, as we do in our regular 12 court meetings we have public input. This is an 13 opportunity for the public to offer their input to the 14 Court. We do not get the opportunity to give you our 15 output back, but we do have the opportunity to listen to 16 what you want us to hear. If it is an item that's on 17 the agenda, we ask that you save your remarks for when 18 that agenda item is called. If it's not on the agenda, 19 this would be the time to address the Court. Is there 20 anyone who would lake to offer public input to the 21 Court? 22 And with that, we'll move on to 23 Commissioners' Comments. Precinct 1. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Precinct 1. No rain. 25 I don't think anybody else has gotten rain either. I 9 1 did want to highlight a couple of weeks ago now, on 2 September 24th, I attended the commencement ceremony for 3 the specialty courts one night up here. And I -- it's 4 open to the public. I highly advise everybody to go to 5 one of those at sometime. If they have somebody 6 graduating, they have one a month. 7 This gentleman that graduated, Felix, it was 8 a very moving ceremony. Short. Quick. He had somebody 9 speak for him on his behalf. He gave his speech as 10 well. And so what I'm here to do is to encourage the 11 Court in future years to keep this in the budget. They 12 are also looking at doing a -- this is a drug court. 13 They're looking at doing a mental health court in the 14 future or maybe even a veterans court in the future. 15 And so I hope that you guys keep the money in the budget 16 for those courts coming up. Because it's very 17 important. And I got a very nice thank you note from 18 Andrea Bode. So anyway. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Precinct 2. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. I'll jump 21 right in. I had the dubious honor of attending a 22 debriefing session following the annual inspection of 23 our County Jail. Now, the inspector was a gentleman by 24 the name of Mike Garrett. And I'm pleased to inform the 25 Court that he told us that the jail was in excellent 10 1 condition, and that no deficiencies were observed. He 2 went on further to say that our jail was the best run 3 jail out of the 50 jails that he's responsible for. He 4 was extremely complimentary. 5 So I offer my congratulations to Sheriff 6 Leitha, Chief Deputy Sheriff Cris Lalonde, Jail 7 Administrator Sylvia Foraker, and Assistant Jail 8 Administrator Andrew Blizzard. Great job. Please keep 9 up the good work. 10 I want to let folks know that, you know, 11 we're in the process of renovating the indoor arena at 12 the Youth Event Center and the pre-bid meeting for the 13 roof replacement is this afternoon at two o'clock. Bids 14 were due on the 25th at two o'clock. With bid opening 15 due to -- for the next Commissioners' Court. 16 Also, I attended a meeting with our 17 Tax-Assessor Collector, Treasurer and Auditor to discuss 18 the possibility of implementing a hotel occupancy tax to 19 help fund the indoor arena renovations, as well as the 20 maintenance and improvements of our various parks, which 21 all help draw tourists and visitors to Kerr County. 22 This looks like a really good option. And I'm -- I'm 23 hopeful that it will progress and come to the Court for 24 approval at some point soon. 25 County Engineer, Charlie Hastings, and I had 11 1 a kick off meeting with Mustard Architectural and Keener 2 Engineering to define the scope of work for the two key 3 projects, 550 Earl Garrett remodel and the indoor arena 4 renovation post the roof repair. 5 Also, I want to inform everyone that -- the 6 public in particular, Mr. Greg Rising who was here in 7 our last Commissioners' Court meeting, and a handful of 8 other concerned citizens provided our County Clerk, 9 Nadene Alford, and her election staff a demonstration of 10 the Chapter 65 Echo Manual Count Method. That method is 11 far superior to the recount method that's been used in 12 the past in terms of ease, accuracy and transparency. 13 The hope is that our election staff will choose to use 14 that method for the mandatory manual hand count required 15 under Section 127 of the Election Code. And there's 16 a -- we're happy to help with training and there's 17 plenty of volunteers, if needed. 18 Another item I need to make everybody aware 19 of. Last week, there was a cross country meet held at 20 the Flat Rock Dog Park and it raised a bit of 21 controversy regarding the unauthorized use of pesticides 22 to control ants. So an investigation was conducted. 23 The individual involved was reprimanded and has 24 apologized and assured me it will never happen again. 25 So I'll work with Shane Evans to come up with some kind 12 1 of policy on the use of pesticides in our parks going 2 forward. But I do want to emphasize that Flat Rock Park 3 is a County park made available to our citizens and this 4 Court decides how it will be used to maximum the 5 benefits for the County and all of our citizens. The 6 cross country meets that are held there three days a 7 year are remarkable events benefiting over 35 schools, a 8 total of 1600 student athletes, and brings in an 9 estimated 3500 spectators, the majority of whom are from 10 outside Kerr County and bring in substantial economic 11 benefits. So I'll be working with some of the key 12 players to minimize the inconvenience of these events on 13 those who enjoy the regular use of the Dog Park. 14 And the last thing I've got is just to let 15 the public know that I'll be holding a town hall meeting 16 tonight in Center Point at the elementary school 17 cafeteria, starting at 6:00 p.m., with a variety of 18 interesting topics that I suggest might be interesting 19 to anybody in the County, not just Precinct 2. 20 That's it. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Can you follow that up? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll be pretty short 23 compared to that. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Almost break. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, almost time for a 13 1 break. 2 Definitely need rain. And I will be putting 3 the burn ban on in the morning, or later today. Because 4 it has been really, really dry. 5 And Thursday, there's a meeting at 10 6 o'clock at the UGRA lecture hall, for those that want to 7 attend that. And then at one o'clock. There's an 8 animal -- advisory committee meeting at one o'clock here 9 in this courtroom. And anybody that wants to attend, 10 both of those are open to the public. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Precinct 4. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I can be shorter than 13 that. We do need rain. One thing coming up. I believe 14 this Saturday -- I'm sorry, a week from Saturday. The 15 Hunt Fall Festival is always a fun time. Take the kids 16 out there. It's also a benefit. They have auction 17 items. Silent auction items and stuff. So I encourage 18 people to go to the Hunt elementary school for that. 19 And that's all. We just had -- Mountain Home 20 had that fundraiser over the weekend. I heard it was 21 well attended and what have you, and hopefully they 22 brought in a lot of money. I haven't heard. So support 23 our VFDs as they have these benefits. I believe y'all 24 have -- Center Point has one this Saturday. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I forgot to mention 14 1 that. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: How do you forget 3 that? 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Saturday, the 19th, 5 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Good deal. So -- 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Fish fry. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- support these 9 volunteers because when you need them, they're there. 10 So that's all I got, Judge. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Let's move on to 12 the Consideration Agenda. Item 1.1 is consider, discuss 13 and take appropriate action on a request from the Jewish 14 Community of the Hill Country to use courthouse grounds 15 for a Hanukkah Menorah Lighting Ceremony on December 15, 16 2024 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Greg Bitkower. 17 MR. BITKOWER: This will be our seventh 18 annual Menorah Lighting, I believe. And the community 19 is invited and we usually have a lot of people. This 20 will be the second year the actual the Kerrville Board 21 of Realtors will also be there serving hot coffee and 22 hot chocolate and water and so on. And it'll last about 23 an hour. And the Menorah will stay up through the end 24 of the year, coinciding with the Christmas decorations. 25 So we'd certainly like that approval and 15 1 like to continue this wonderful tradition. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: All right. Judge, I 3 move for approval. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the annual Hanukkah Menorah Lighting Ceremony on 7 December 15th as presented. Any discussion? Those in 8 favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you, Greg. 9 MR. BITKOWER: Thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Moving on to Item 1.2 11 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 12 a proclamation declaring October of 2024 as Hill Country 13 Night Sky month. Dr. Rector. 14 DR. RECTOR: Thank you. Judge, 15 Commissioners. It is an honor to be here once again, 16 and ask you to consider October 2024 as Hill Country 17 Night Sky Month. And we're here this morning 18 representing the Kerr County Friends of the Night Sky. 19 (Holding up a T-shirt.) And the reason for declaring 20 October 2024 a Proclamation as the Night Sky Month is to 21 make people aware of the importance of proper outdoor 22 lighting as we decrease the amount of sky glow that we 23 have then we can see remarkable use of the night sky. 24 Charles, let's see, you have a -- these 25 pictures were taken recently over Kerrville. You see 16 1 the night? The beautiful lights? You can see northern 2 lights over Kerrville. Very unusual occurrence. But a 3 beautiful night sky. This is what we need to observe. 4 As each of you were growing up, you walked 5 out and saw the Milky Way. Today's youth often does not 6 see that. We are hoping to make people aware so that 7 they can see the wonders that each of us saw when we 8 were young. 9 I ask for your approval. Last year, as you 10 proclaimed Kerr County issued this Proclamation, you 11 joined Blanco County, Kendall County, Bandera County, 12 Hays, Gillespie, Real, Comal, in declaring October 2024 13 as Hill Country Night Sky Month. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion to approve 15 the Proclamation declaring October 2024 as Hill Country 16 Night Sky Month. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 approve October of this year as the Hill Country Night 20 Sky Month as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor 21 say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 22 DR. RECTOR: Thank you. We appreciate it. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Nay. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Almost didn't make the 25 connection without the glasses. 17 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Nay. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's a nay. Four, 3 one. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Four, one? Oh, four, one. 5 Okay. I'm sorry. 6 Okay. We'll move on to Item 1.3 consider, 7 discuss and take appropriate action to approve the 8 Resolution required for funding to enable the Dietert 9 Center to apply for a grant from the Texas Department of 10 Agriculture to support their Meals on Wheels program in 11 Kerr County. 12 Miss Thompson, how are you doing? 13 MS. THOMPSON: Good morning. We were busy 14 last year at the Dietert Center providing food for our 15 homebound seniors in Kerr County. Last year, we 16 delivered 68,720 meals to our homebound seniors. And 17 that was 200 volunteers that provided 22,044 hours of 18 service providing those deliveries. So there was a lot 19 of homebound seniors that received a knock, a smile, and 20 a friendly visit to make sure that they did not feel 21 isolated. 22 So this matching grant that you did for us 23 allows us to apply for funding from Texas Department of 24 Agriculture. They provide -- for any meals that are not 25 reimbursed by our other funding sources like AACOG, 18 1 we're able to get -- last year we got about $11,000 2 because of your match that you gave us. And this year, 3 I think we'll be able to get a little bit more because 4 we had some funding cuts this last year. So I think 5 we'll be able to get a little bit more. So your -- your 6 $4,624.50 goes really far. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 10 approve funding the Meals on Wheels for the Dietert 11 Center as presented. And I am intimately aware of the 12 drop in the plan, the income this past year. We'll deal 13 with that on behalf of Dietert. 14 MS. THOMPSON: We're working on it. Thank 15 you. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And for the public that don't 17 understand exactly why we do this, it is a requirement 18 from the Department of Agriculture that a local 19 municipality -- municipal government participate in the 20 Meals on Wheels. If we don't participate, they don't 21 get the money. So we participate. Because it's -- it's 22 a very worthwhile program. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I believe that's the 24 one that -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we got a motion and 19 1 a second. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 2 Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. 3 MS. THOMPSON: All right. Thank you so 4 much. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: The next 9 o'clock item is 7 Item 1.4 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 8 on a request to use the Lions Park for a Fall Back 9 Festival on Sunday, November the 3rd from 3:00 p.m. to 10 6:00 p.m. Robert Lockaby. 11 MR. LOCKABY: Succinctly, our plan is to go 12 to Lions Park, if it is available that day, to have an 13 evangelistic outreach there at the park. We will be 14 serving barbecue. We'll have a band. And there's 15 gospel music. We're going to have testimonies from 16 folks that have been in prison, these kinds of things. 17 And we would simply request to use it for November the 18 3rd, starting at four o'clock p.m. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Four o'clock or three o'clock? 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: You want -- he 21 probably wants access at 3:00 to set up and then start. 22 MR. LOCKABY: Four o'clock to about 6:00, 23 6:30. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Are you going to be 25 wanting to close the park to other people? 20 1 MR. LOCKABY: Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be 2 open to the public. But -- 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: But it is open to the 4 public, that's fine. 5 MR. LOCKABY: My one question is, do we have 6 electrical out there so we can plug in to a pole that is 7 hot? 8 MR. EVANS: No, sir, we do not. No. 9 MR. LOCKABY: Okay. Then we will be taking 10 generators out there so we can have the power for the 11 band. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. I'll go 13 ahead and make a motion that we approve the request to 14 use Lions Park for a Fall Back Festival on Sunday, 15 November the 3rd from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. And then 17 I have a question. Does he need to fill out that mass 18 gathering application? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Depends on the size of the 20 crowd. 21 MRS. GRINSTEAD: No, he said it wouldn't be 22 large enough. 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It doesn't meet that 24 minimum? Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And what's that -- 21 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Are you volunteering 2 for the next one? 3 JUDGE KELLY: -- number? 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No. 5 MS. GRINSTEAD: I know it's over 500. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 500? 7 MS. GRINSTEAD: Yeah. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 9 second to approve the use of Lions Park in Center Point 10 for a Fall Back Festival on Sunday, November the 3rd 11 from 3:00 to 6:00, as presented. Any discussion? Those 12 in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. 13 MR. LOCKABY: Thank you very much. 14 Appreciate it. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Moving on to Item 1.5 16 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on a 17 request from the Alamo Letter Society to place a bronze 18 plaque containing Col. William Barrett Travis's "Victory 19 or Death" letter on the courthouse grounds. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: And is Scott here? It 21 doesn't look like it. I met with Scott. I support 22 this. But I think to be able to answer any questions, 23 he really needs to be here. In the absence of Scott 24 Bradley, we'll need to pass it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean -- 22 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, it's like -- I 2 don't believe there will be any cross with the County, 3 but I'd like to have him -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- confirm that. And 6 then it comes down to where we're going to put it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: And that's still up in 9 the air a little bit. So if he's not here -- I had met 10 with him and suggested that he meet with the other 11 members of the Court to bounce ideas off of them in 12 terms of where to put the thing so we don't have to 13 waste too much time in Court. But I don't know where he 14 got to on that. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: So let's pass on it. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let's move on to Item 1.6 18 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 19 the Interlocal Agreement between Kerrville Independent 20 School District and Kerr County to allow KISD to use the 21 Hill Country Youth Event Center as an emergency 22 evacuation site for FY 24-25. 23 And this is something that we do every year. 24 Dr. Ringo is not here. And I will make a motion that we 25 go ahead and renew this Interlocal Agreement with KISD 23 1 to use the Youth Event Center in case of emergency. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: I reviewed the contract. 3 Nothing's changed from the years past. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Right. It's the same old, 5 same old. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 8 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 9 Unanimous. 10 9:15 item is 1.7 consider, discuss and take 11 appropriate action to authorize the formation of a 12 sub-regional planning commission pursuant to Chapter 391 13 of the Texas Local Government Code and an Interlocal 14 Cooperation Agreement with Kendall County and other 15 governmental units as may be subsequently agreed by the 16 SRPC members to plan for and protect the health, safety, 17 and general welfare of our residents and to study, 18 research and plan for the future development of our 19 communities regarding Battery Energy Storage Systems 20 that may potentially be located within the jurisdiction 21 of the SRPC. Commissioner Paces. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Let me pass out 23 copies of the Resolution which I had submitted with this 24 agenda item. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it the same as what's 24 1 in the backup? 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes, sir. I didn't 3 know whether you might need an extra one. I also want 4 to pass out copies of a -- this is a motion for a 5 partial summary judgment to just show that 391 6 commissions have been given standing in a court and this 7 one in particular was for Waller County and they were 8 ultimately successful in forcing TxDOT to participate in 9 the coordination of their development plan, and 10 ultimately have exceeded the trans-corridor project that 11 had been proposed to go through there. 12 So we've had a number of meetings, 13 particularly with Kendall County and concerned citizens 14 both in Kerr and Kendall, about forming this 391 15 commission, and there seems to be a lot of support to do 16 it. A lot of progress has been made. And, you know, we 17 had a meeting which four members of this Court attended 18 in Comfort and have been additional meetings subsequent 19 to that. 20 This item is also being discussed in the 21 Kendall County Commissioners' Court today. They have a 22 similar Resolution to ours on their agenda. And the 23 idea is to partner with Kendall County, and form this 24 commission, and the key thing about a 391 commission is 25 that government agencies are forced to cooperate with 25 1 the commission. It gives far more leverage and 2 influence, and will also help us in terms of trying to 3 work with the State legislation -- legislators to get 4 some more favorable laws to regulate this industry. 5 So happy to answer any questions, but I'll 6 start with making a motion to approve and authorize the 7 formation of a sub-regional planning commission pursuant 8 to Chapter 391 of the Texas Government Code, to partner 9 with Kendall County and other government units as may 10 subsequently be agreed by the SRPC. 11 This is to plan for and protect the health, 12 safety and general welfare of our residents and to 13 study, research and plan for the future development of 14 our communities, particularly regarding the Battery 15 Energy Storage Systems that are trying to find a 16 foothold in Kerr County and Kendall County. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 19 The floor is open for discussion. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Are there any costs 21 associated with forming a 391? 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: There are costs, but 23 none may be borne by the County. So there will -- in 24 fact, the Judge that was involved in Waller County 25 doesn't need it anymore so they've already set up a 26 1 non-profit organization and they're happy to assign it 2 to the SRPC so that any funds required, primarily legal 3 fees -- 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Is that where the cost 5 would come from -- 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- would be paid by -- 7 by private, you know, contributors through -- through a 8 fundraising mechanism. So that saves a lot of time. 9 And, you know, they've already identified an attorney 10 who has experience working on these commissions and 11 they're pretty much willing to do this pro bono, but 12 they'll be very happy to get any kind of financial 13 support. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Is that the same lawyer for 15 the Texas -- West Texas Billionaire that's underwriting 16 everything? 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: I don't know. I don't 18 think so. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: This is the -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Why are we doing this? 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Why? To -- to try to 22 stop the Battery Energy Storage Systems from coming to 23 Kerr County. In particular, you know, those that are 24 not safe. There is -- and you've heard, there is 25 massive concern from residents in our communities where 27 1 these things are being targeted about the potential for 2 lithium battery thermal runon. Runaway fires. If a 3 fire does occur, and they have in California and 4 elsewhere, we can't fight it. You know, our Volunteer 5 Fire Departments -- number one, we don't have enough 6 water. We certainly don't have enough foam. And then 7 we have sensitive groundwater that could be 8 contaminated. You've got all kinds of toxins that would 9 be in the air. 10 So we want to, as a minimum, make sure that 11 they have to comply with international fire codes. 12 Right now, they're just -- they're unregulated. They 13 don't require our approval to establish anything. And 14 we want to ensure that -- 15 JUDGE KELLY: But I -- I went to Comfort. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes, I know you did. 17 JUDGE KELLY: And -- and I listened. And I 18 think Commissioner-Elect Jones asked the most saving 19 question of the day, is what's the purpose of this 20 commission? Is this to stop the battery storage 21 facility or is this to try to regulate safety? And if 22 it's to regulate safety, where did the County have the 23 authority to do this? We don't have ordinance authority 24 like the cities do. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. We don't yet. 28 1 JUDGE KELLY: And I understand that you 2 don't want to involve the City of Kerrville, which seems 3 to me to be odd. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: We may at some point. 5 But -- but it's like anything. And Commissioner Letz or 6 Precinct 1 has already pointed out that the more people 7 we involve, the more difficult it is to get off the 8 road -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: I'm concerned that -- 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- or off the ground. 11 JUDGE KELLY: -- we're going to get -- 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: So let's start with 13 Kendall County. And certainly, there are avenues and 14 it's relatively easy to add additional government units 15 to -- 16 JUDGE KELLY: If you have a stated mission. 17 And we don't have a mission statement. I'm concerned 18 we're going to get sued. You can't tell private 19 property owners what to do with their property. The 20 County does not have ordinance authority. We can't pass 21 ordinances like the City can to say you can -- this -- 22 we're doing this for the safety. We don't have that 23 power. And so we're going to tell -- I think this is a 24 thinly disguised effort to prevent the development of 25 those property owners' wishes. And if that's the case, 29 1 I'm almost positive we're going to get sued. And I 2 don't want to have to pay for the cost of that lawsuit. 3 If we're going to do this, we oughta have a 4 public committee come together, brief a submission. 5 Explain to us what we can do, what we can't do. Input 6 from the County Attorney. Input from -- I talked to 7 Chuck Kimbrough. And he -- 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: What experience does he 9 have with the 391 commission? 10 JUDGE KELLY: That's his area of 11 specialization is municipal law. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Municipal law. With 13 the 391 commission? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, have you checked with a 15 lawyer? 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yes. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Why isn't he here and explain 18 this to us? 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Didn't think he needed 20 to be. 21 JUDGE KELLY: This to me seems like another 22 farfetched reach for some sort of power grab of 23 something that I don't know what the agenda is. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I think the 25 health and welfare of our citizens is ultimate. 30 1 JUDGE KELLY: But we don't have the 2 authority to -- we don't have ordinance authority. We 3 can't just pass laws. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, I -- our mission 5 won't either. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So what do we do? 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: But it's about 8 leveraging. It's about bringing the other government 9 agencies that may have some authority, bring them to the 10 table to coordinate with this commission. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't see the down 12 side, Judge. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. The state 14 marshal's office. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- and I understand you 16 don't see it. I'm just telling you -- 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: TCEQ will be the key 18 player here that we want this -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: This feels -- it feels like to 20 me that this is a byproduct of the fossil fuel 21 billionaires from West Texas that have been funding our 22 local politics lately. And to try to stop these lithium 23 battery storage facilities across the board, I think is 24 not legal. And before we go forward, I would like to 25 have a legal opinion and I'm not going to put my County 31 1 Attorney on the spot today. But I think I ought to have 2 a -- some kind of legal report that this is something we 3 can do. Am I wrong? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: No, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: How many people -- how 6 is it put together? 7 JUDGE KELLY: It was a mob of people 8 together that the Comfort people -- 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A mob? Come on now. 10 Judge. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Terri Hall on why she wanted a 12 commission. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A mob. You come in 14 here awful wound up on this but it wasn't no mob. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: How many people sit on 16 the commission? 17 JUDGE KELLY: It's yet to be determined. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's suggested it would 19 be five. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We don't have a plan yet. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's yet to be 22 determined. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: We're going to form something 25 that we don't know what we're forming. We don't know 32 1 how many people are going to -- two-thirds of them have 2 to be elected officials, that much we do know. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: The idea would be to 4 have two County Commissioners or Judges from each County 5 and one from the public. So we'll -- we'll come back 6 with recommendations as to who. The first step -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, why don't we -- 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: The first step is to 9 have a resolution that says we want to do this. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Why are we rushing into this 11 without getting the details? 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Time is of the essence. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't think it's a 14 rush. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We've been talking 17 about it for awhile. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, we've already 19 signed two Resolutions opposing BESS and you signed on 20 both of those. The one that went to TCEQ and one that 21 went to representatives of sort of elect Wes Virdell and 22 also Senator Pete Flores looking for support. Asking 23 for legislation that will help define regulations. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Legislation? Yes. 25 Absolutely. 33 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, that's part of 2 it. And having a commission gives you more influence at 3 the legislative level. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that the -- I 5 don't see the problem with doing a 391 moving forward. 6 But I do have a problem with the Resolution. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Well -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Resolution -- 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That can be tweaked. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not -- it's not 11 just tweak. It says under authorization of the City, 12 the Judge or a designee is authorized to take all steps 13 necessary and required under the 391 of the Texas Local 14 Government Code to establish and join the HCEC SRPC, 15 including cooperating to form interlocal cooperation 16 agreements. I read that that says all of a sudden this 17 is -- no longer comes back to this Court. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No, it's not coming 19 back here. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will not -- I know. 21 And that's all it says here. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing -- 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's true. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- will get done -- I 34 1 won't vote for it until there's bylaws. Because I don't 2 want go down a path -- this Court has got to have 3 ultimate veto authority over whatever this commission 4 does. 5 JUDGE KELLY: I agree. Absolutely. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So -- as well as 8 Kendall. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Kendall, too. If 10 they want. I don't care. If they -- if they don't want 11 it, they don't have to have it. But I think -- you 12 know, I don't want to spend a lot of time going down 13 this until we have the documents ready to move forward. 14 I mean, I think it's worth doing from what I know about 15 it. But I think that we -- I want to see the bylaws. I 16 want to see how this thing is going to operate and I 17 asked a question at the meeting in Comfort, how was the 18 Governor? And I never really got a great answer. 19 I mean I thought there was -- that people 20 were appointed. Well, who's -- you know, you have three 21 elected officials. But can they over -- I mean, there 22 needs to be a lot of detail figured out before we can go 23 forward with this. So, I mean, I'm in favor of moving 24 forward with forming one and preparing the necessary 25 documents with Kendall County or any local agreement 35 1 with Kendall County and bylaws but -- and how it's 2 governed, but I can't just vote for a Resolution that's 3 going to, to me, give a lot of that authority outside of 4 this Court. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, if you have 6 language to suggest -- I hear what you're saying about 7 bylaws. I've seen a draft -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- bylaws document but 10 I haven't shared it so -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, but the -- I 12 will have no problem with that. 13 JUDGE KELLY: I guess I go back a little bit 14 more fundamental. When we were looking into our capital 15 improvement program and what kind of bond issue we were 16 going to recommend to the people. We formed a 17 committee. And every Commissioner appointed a member of 18 that committee, there were five people, and they -- they 19 did the recommendation. They did the research, came 20 back and made recommendations to us. And that's what we 21 followed. 22 At this point, we've got half of this 23 County, the City of Kerrville excluded. That doesn't 24 make sense to me. Why don't we put together a committee 25 to research this, come back, give us recommendations, 36 1 write bylaws, tell us what the mission statement is, so 2 that we know what we're doing. Rather than what I think 3 is rush. And I apologize, maybe you don't think it's a 4 rush. But it seems like to me we're rushing to form 5 something that we don't even know what it is or exactly 6 what it's going to do. Wouldn't we want to know that? 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: We can come back with a 8 lot of that information. Forming a public commission 9 like we did with the bond proposition. That took three 10 years. We -- we don't have that kind of time, so I'm -- 11 I'm opposed to doing that. If you want to suggest 12 somebody to be part of a team to work on this in 13 conjunction with some of the folks that are already 14 heavily involved, I mean that's fine. 15 I mean, I've been heavily involved. 16 Commissioner-Elect Jeff Holt is heavily involved. 17 Commissioner Harris has been heavily involved. And we 18 represent the interest of our constituents. We don't 19 necessarily -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: We the People Liberty in 21 Action. That's who you represent. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, that is not who I 23 represent. No, that's -- that's -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: That's who's involved in this. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: One amongst men. One 37 1 amongst men. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: There are a lot of 3 people sitting out here that don't have anything to do 4 with Liberty in Action. I don't. 5 Voice voice: I don't either. 6 Female voice: I don't either. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You're the only one I 8 found in the County that doesn't want to fight this 9 stuff. 10 JUDGE KELLY: I signed the Resolution. I'm 11 not in favor of these batteries. I would like for them 12 to be regulated. But we don't have the authority to do 13 it unless we get them under contract. The only way to 14 get them under contract is to give them a tax abatement. 15 I went to a luncheon with LCRA this past week and Bill 16 Wilson says do not do tax abatements with these electric 17 battery storage people. 18 But that's the only way you can enforce 19 anything. Other than that, it's what the law is, and 20 that's why we need to talk to lawyers as to what we can 21 and can't do other than trying to do something that I 22 don't think we can do. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me, the resolution -- 24 I mean it would be a pretty simple one. Obviously, I 25 haven't spoke to the whereases. I think under one I 38 1 would say study the creation of a commission. "B" is 2 fine. "C" delete. Under two, the section, I would only 3 leave "B". I'd delete the rest of them. Because we're 4 not ready to move -- you know, I can see that the merit 5 of a Resolution saying we want to study this and go 6 forward with a -- you know, evaluating it. But I don't 7 want to commit to a 391. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I -- I'm good with the study. 9 Let's look into it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the benefit 11 of a Resolution is Kendall County is looking at it, and 12 it shows that we want to look -- we're basically saying 13 we want to -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And it hinges on them. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That -- if y'all would 18 accept that -- those amendments to the Resolution -- 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I think we have a 20 motion and a second. I'd suggest we listen to the 21 public input at this point. There's a number of people, 22 I believe, who have signed up to speak on this subject. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Really? 24 JUDGE KELLY: We've got one. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just one? 39 1 JUDGE KELLY: That I've got. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Oh. 3 MS. ALFORD: That's all I have. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Huh? 5 MS. ALFORD: All I've had is that one. Yes, 6 sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Danny Holcomb. If you would 8 go to the podium. 9 MR. HOLCOMB: Yes, sir. Good morning all. 10 My name is Danny Holcomb. I'm at 15 Riverside Drive in 11 Kerrville. I want to thank the Court for hearing my 12 opinions. I do appreciate it. I want to talk on the 13 BESS situation, the battery energy storage system. 14 In the past five years there's been over 15 25,000 incidents. Lithium batteries producing a 16 hazardous fire. The one thing that I have not heard 17 y'all talk about is the welfare of our people, the 18 welfare of Kerr County. What this is going to impact. 19 How this is going to impact the people of Kerr County. 20 When these batteries overheat, they cause a 21 chemical reaction, not only in the one area or the 22 battery that it started in, but it multiplies quickly. 23 There's been over 40 known fires in the BESS system over 24 the past five years. Not only does it produce the fire, 25 it produces toxic gases. All the fire department can do 40 1 is sit there and contain the area. It cannot put it 2 out. 3 And the research I've done in the 4 containment areas of these systems do not really contain 5 what's produced by this fire. It causes a health 6 hazard. The gases and the chemicals that leech into the 7 ground. And when they leech into the ground, they're 8 going into our water system. This County is dependent 9 on the water that we have. If we have contaminated 10 water, our County residents are going to be in trouble. 11 We're not going to be able to live here anymore. The 12 way of life that we love is not going to be possible if 13 this is contaminated. 14 Now, they sell us on the fact that it's 15 going to produce jobs. They bring in their own people. 16 And then they have somebody sitting in another place in 17 Houston or someplace that monitors these things. It's 18 not producing any jobs. They say it's going to protect 19 us from battery -- or from power outages. For two 20 hours. They forget to tell you that. They have enough 21 power to do two hours. That's it. Is it worth it? We 22 have seen these systems go up all over the United 23 States. These systems contain multiple lithium battery 24 cells. Seven by five by two. When they experience a 25 battery runaway, again, flames, gases, the failure of 41 1 the whole system will be a detriment to the health, 2 welfare of our citizens of Kerr County. Is it worth two 3 hours of power? The last time this power -- we had a 4 power shortage it was several days. Two hours is not 5 going to make a difference. I think, in my opinion, we 6 need to find an alternative. Something besides a 7 product that's going to cause health and welfare 8 concerns. Thank you. 9 JUDGE KELLY: I have a question, legally, 10 can we tell people how they can use their property? Do 11 you think we have that right? 12 MR. HOLCOMB: That's a tough question, 13 Judge. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I know. It really is. 15 MR. HOLCOMB: But, if I were to have some 16 land and I were to sell it to somebody that would kill 17 hundreds of people, I have a conscious. I would have a 18 conscious. Am I going to make -- put money over the 19 health and welfare of my -- of my friends? That would 20 be my concern. 21 I was told -- and I don't know this for a 22 fact, please forgive me. I didn't research it. But I 23 think everybody knows there was supposed to be a high 24 speed bullet train between Dallas and Houston. And a 25 lot of controversy came up. 391 commission was used to 42 1 stop that train. It's not in existence today. So the 2 391 commission, I think, is a tool that we can use for 3 the general population of Kerr County. Will it hurt a 4 few people? It very well might possibly do that. But 5 are you going to put 54, 55 thousand people at risk? 6 Can you -- can you do that in clear conscious, knowing 7 that these things are so destructive and can cause 8 serious injury and health hazards? That's my concern, 9 sir. 10 If I had the land and was going to sell it, 11 you know, it would be tempting. Or lease it. I can get 12 five or $10,000.00 a month for the rest of my life. I'd 13 be set. But how many of my friends am I going to kill 14 if that battery goes up? And what about the property? 15 It won't be worth two cents anymore. The valuation will 16 go down tremendously. So that's my concern, sir. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Thank you. Anything 18 else? 19 Mr. Jones. 20 MR. JONES: Tom Jones. I was going to try 21 not to talk today. Tom Jones, Precinct 1. I was at the 22 meeting and I did raise that question, because it is my 23 concern for property rights. From Headwaters, that's 24 what we live on is property rights. And so I did ask 25 the question which you referred to, will the objective 43 1 of a 391 commission be to stop it or to make it 2 environmentally safe? Because if we make it 3 environmentally safe, then you are not invoking property 4 rights issues. That was my concern as well. Terri Hall 5 made it very clear it was to stop it. That's their 6 objective, I get it. And I know that it might be a 7 worthy cause. I'm not objecting to a 391 commission at 8 all. I do think it's a good approach. 9 Commissioner Harris and I talked briefly 10 about it and he -- you know, the opinion is you bring 11 everything you got when you're doing that. And I agree 12 with that. I don't disagree with that. I do think you 13 need to make it sound when you do that. When you use 14 that approach, to make sure that you are in a bullet 15 proof place. 16 But they have proven a 391 commission does 17 work. It is effective when it's done properly. That's 18 the reason two months ago I got up here and talked about 19 us doing one here and y'all wanted then to include 20 Kendall County and make it broader spectrum with more 21 strength. And I get that. No -- no problem. I think 22 Kerr County is more ready to do that today than Kendall 23 County would be. 24 And so we could bring in another entity and 25 form it here, whether it be the City or who. Whatever 44 1 we need to do to make that happen here would take place. 2 Kendall County has different authority. As of two 3 months ago when I spoke, I was also speaking of the 4 authority that we already have and I've done some 5 research on that. Compliments to Mike Lowe, he's helped 6 tremendously with some of this. 7 And I think that if the County would 8 immediately look at adopting the current fire code, you 9 will already see things in that that address this issue 10 that you're discussing today. That's something that 11 we -- you can do now. You can have a 20-day hearing. 12 You can adopt it and you have strength and authority. 13 The way that you move forward with that 14 might be something that's not real palatable to you. 15 But -- but there is an avenue forward to serve the short 16 term interests of the residents of Kerr County 17 immediately versus having to wait for the formation of a 18 391. 19 So I think those options need to be 20 discussed by y'all as to how you want to move forward 21 with it. But we need to get our rules to where they 22 will help us towards any lawsuits that might be 23 necessary in the future. And I think we do that by 24 first adopting the updated fire code that does address 25 BESS in there. So I am concerned about property rights. 45 1 Greatly. That was the reason I spoke up at that 2 meeting. But, there's a path forward for us today. We 3 just need to move towards that. And in the meantime, 4 form your 391 commission, whatever timeliness it takes 5 for that, and have the strength in the legislation to 6 come in and back that up. So thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Wolff. 9 MR. WOLFF: Jerry Wolff, Precinct 4. 10 William Tecumseh Sherman, he was a Union General in the 11 Civil War and he was asked, "How do you win a battle?" 12 And he said, "Get there the firstest with the mostest." 13 And I think the comment that Mr. Jones just made, yeah, 14 there appears to be two paths and I've heard about those 15 prior to this meeting, of course, is the 391 commission 16 and something to do with the fire marshal and the fire 17 code. 18 And also, what I've heard this morning is 19 now we're back to saying we're going to talk about this. 20 We need to form a commission. We've gotta find out who 21 we're going to put on this commission. And all this is 22 time delay. Time is not our friend in this situation. 23 It's time. How long has this issue been going on in 24 front of this Commissioners' Court? For two months? Is 25 that about that time period? 46 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Close. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 3 MR. JONES: Where are you at? Let's move 4 forward. Except there was a meeting with Kendall County 5 talking about a 391 commission. And that's still a ways 6 down the road. I would expect this morning that 7 something come out of here would have been action that 8 something is being done to move forward, as been 9 commented here earlier today too. 10 The vast majority of us here in Kerr County 11 are against these type of battery facilities being here. 12 For all the things that have been mentioned about their 13 downside. We see very, very little upside to them. 14 Well, it's time for this Commissioners' Court to stop 15 talking and let's take an action today that moves this 16 process forward and prevent this facility from coming 17 here to Kerr County. Thank you. 18 JUDGE KELLY: My concern is if the 19 motivation is to stop a property owner from using their 20 property the way they want to, I have a problem with 21 that because I think it's going to lead to a suit. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's illegal. 23 JUDGE KELLY: I do too. And if our 24 motivation is we're trying to find a way to make it 25 safer and better to protect the public, within whatever 47 1 authority we have I'd like to do that. But I want to do 2 it at the guidance of the attorneys that tell us what we 3 can and can't do. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'm not ready to vote 5 on it until we hear the legal, we hear if there's any 6 liability of people that serve on this. If you're going 7 to have to form a money arm, then I think we need a 8 little bit more than a drawn-through draft. And I'll be 9 happy to look at another one if it's moving forward. 10 But I think there's too many questions that are 11 unanswered. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And with that, I can 13 vote for it with the changes that I mentioned. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: To try to make a little 15 progress and I -- I'm fine with doing some further study 16 and trying to talk with Chuck and get some legal input 17 on this and share a set of bylaws that have already been 18 obtained and we can start editing on those as required. 19 Anyway, so I'll -- I'll accept your amendment to the 20 motion and amend my motion to approve the Resolution as 21 amended by Commissioner Letz. 22 JUDGE KELLY: And so that would go from -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me -- I'll -- I can 24 restate what I said. It would be -- and I reread the 25 actual heading. It will be the Resolution of Kerr 48 1 County, Texas, to study the formation of a sub-regional 2 planning commission and interlocal coordination with 3 other counties and municipalities and other governmental 4 units providing -- and providing open meetings. 5 And then under Section 1, the first line 6 would be, Study the creation of a commission pursuant to 7 391. "B" would stay as it is. Under 2, (B) and (D) 8 would remain. So delete "A", "C", and "E". 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Leave "B"? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because I think that 13 kind of goes to our purpose. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Yes. 15 JUDGE KELLY: "B" and "D"? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: "B" and "D" stays, yes. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. I've made the 18 motion to accept your amendments. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We've got an amended motion 21 and a second to approve the study -- the formation as 22 read of the Chapter 391 as presented. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. And basically 24 that's what I'm doing is moving forward, so we can start 25 talking with Kendall County and see where they are. 49 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Exactly. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And start writing 3 interlocals and bylaws. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 5 in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. 6 Move on. 7 MR. LOWE: Judge? 8 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Lowe? 9 MR. LOWE: Might I say one thing? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can't talk about the 11 fire code. 12 MR. LOWE: Why not? 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: We've already moved 14 on. 15 MR. LOWE: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not on this agenda 17 item. 18 MR. LOWE: Well -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: If we want to talk about the 20 fire code, we just need to make it an agenda item. 21 MR. LOWE: Right. So I have one question 22 that I'll pose to the Court. You can't tell a private 23 property owner what to do with his land. The Judge 24 points that out. That's exactly right. You'll get your 25 rear end sued over that. But, to me, those battery 50 1 storage systems might be welcome in Kerr County if they 2 complied with the fire code. And that would be a fire 3 suppression system, a halon system maybe that sucks the 4 air out of the thing and kills the fire before it -- we 5 send our 24-year-old firefighter with a wife and two 6 children in there to fight that dang thing. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Or a 74-year-old one. 8 MR. LOWE: Yeah. Like me. So they can come 9 and they can do their thing. But they've got to comply 10 with regulations. Is that how you feel, Judge? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 12 MR. LOWE: They've gotta comply. And 13 there's a way to get that done. If you ever want to 14 talk about it, I'll help ya. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We want to talk about that. 16 And I will call you. 17 MR. LOWE: Okay. 18 COURT REPORTER: Excuse me. What's your 19 name? 20 JUDGE KELLY: Mike Lowe. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mike Lowe, L-O-W-E. 22 JUDGE KELLY: This is Kerr County. We all 23 know each other anyway. 24 Okay. Let's take about -- take a short 25 break and come back at 10 o'clock and we'll reset. 51 1 (Break) 2 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come back to order. 3 I want to make an announcement that we have a new PA 4 system. For those of you who hadn't seen the new 5 microphones. Hopefully you can hear us. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No. I can't. 7 JUDGE KELLY: We're trying to fine tune it. 8 So be sure and give us your input so that we can figure 9 out exactly how we can better use these things. And for 10 those that go to the podium, there is a microphone up 11 there. If you would pull the microphone and project 12 your voice so that you can be heard. 13 So with that, we'll move on to the next item 14 on the agenda which will be a 10 o'clock -- well, I'm 15 looking to see. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I don't think we have 17 a ten o'clock. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We don't have any ten o'clock 19 items today. I've looked down the list. So we'll go 20 right back to 1.8 consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 action to approve the Kerrville Public Utility Board 22 Commercial Outdoor Lighting Service Agreement for 23 installation of security lighting on the north side of 24 the courthouse. Constable Gonzales and Shane Evans. 25 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Good morning, Your 52 1 Honor. Commissioners. Members of the audience. 2 Members on YouTube watching. Myself and Shane Evans 3 here, Maintenance Director Supervisor, myself, Paul 4 Gonzales, Kerr County Constable, Precinct 3. We're here 5 as representatives of Kerr County to present and request 6 your approval in steps in adding additional lighting to 7 the campus. 8 This would be on the north side, which is 9 the Jefferson Street side. There's two existing utility 10 poles located on Jefferson Street. One's sort of on the 11 northwest and the other one on the northeast. 12 Basically, this would add additional lighting to the 13 campus. Specifically coming in from the north facing 14 the south. Primarily focusing on the lower employee 15 parking area, which gets shadowed during low light 16 conditions, nighttime hours. 17 So the proposal was based on an assessment 18 conducted by myself and also by KPUB, which we contacted 19 their engineering department. They came and did their 20 own assessment, as you can probably see in their report. 21 They recommended two specific types of lights that would 22 be installed on the poles. 23 They are maintained by KPUB. They are 24 operated by a photo cell, which means that they will 25 come on automatically during low light conditions and 53 1 they will turn off once the lighting is appropriate and 2 there's bright enough. If there's ever an issue, we 3 contact KPUB. They send their crews and replace them. 4 All we do is pay a monthly fee, which is attached to our 5 electric bill here for the County. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. 7 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Any questions? 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Paul, how much is that 9 fee? 10 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Right now, based on 11 their assessment it's $36.97 a month. And once they 12 install, and we assess them -- assess the lights and 13 make sure that they're working appropriately, the area 14 of coverage, then we leave them as-is. 15 Now, is it possible that we're like, okay, 16 that light may be a little too bright, maybe we can, you 17 know, downsize a little bit. Then, if there's a 18 potential then at minimum it would be $30.92, maximum 19 $43.02. So it could possibly vary, but right now as it 20 stands, $36.97 a month. And like I said, this is 21 something that they would maintain. If it goes out, 22 they replace it. So this would add additional 23 lighting -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: Sounds like a deal to me. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 54 1 CONSTABLE GONZALES: -- that area for the 2 County. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sounds fine. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It needs lighting. But 5 it comes out to $420.00 a year forever. 6 CONSTABLE GONZALES: This is -- 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Well, for -- 8 CONSTABLE GONZALES: -- a three-year -- 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- three years. 10 CONSTABLE GONZALES: -- contract. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: For three years. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Three years. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So you're adding -- 14 CONSTABLE GONZALES: So a three-year 15 contract. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- you added the two 17 together. You added the medium flood and the large 18 flood together to get that price? 19 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Yes, ma'am. So 20 there's -- 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And it's not just the 22 large flood? 23 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Correct. So there's -- 24 there's two lights that will be installed. They had 25 them as Stock No. 3414 and 3416. So based on the type 55 1 of lighting and the monthly cost, it would be $36.97. 2 Would be the 1546 plus the 2151. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean definitely the 4 lighting needs to be done. I guess this may be the most 5 economical way to get it there. I mean, I don't know 6 what time it would take for Shane to buy lights and 7 install them. Might not really save much. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And they're 9 maintaining it too. 10 MR. EVANS: If we were just upgrading the 11 lights on the side of the courthouse, we're talking 12 several thousands -- I mean thousands of dollars just to 13 update what we're exactly lighting up in the lower level 14 parking. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion to approve 18 the agenda item. 19 MS. OVERBY: I'll second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 21 approve the lighting service agreement with KPUB for the 22 north side of courthouse as presented. Any discussion? 23 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank 24 you. 25 CONSTABLE GONZALES: Thank you. 56 1 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.9 consider, discuss and 2 take appropriate action to accept Chapter 59 asset 3 forfeiture reports from the Constable of Precinct 1 and 4 Constable of Precinct 4, which is Tommy Rodriguez and 5 Brad Rider. Those reports are attached. Do we have a 6 motion to approve those? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: A motion and a second to 10 approve the forfeiture reports as presented. Any 11 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 12 carries. 13 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to accept donations to the Kerr 15 County Animal Services totaling $60.00 for the month of 16 September 2024. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion -- oh, 18 go ahead. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We've got to let him get to 21 the podium. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Oh. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't even see you 24 there, Reagan. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Sorry. 57 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought, Reagan's not 2 here, we'll go fast forward. 3 MR. GIVENS: Since I'm here, can I just say 4 real quick that if you'll look at the -- your first 5 sheet there, that's going to be actual money. But I 6 wanted to also mention in here that we did get blankets 7 and tarps from another individual, and a trash bag full 8 of towels. So help again. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. And I'll 10 make a motion to accept the donations to the Kerr County 11 Animal Services. 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 accept the donations to the Kerr County Animal Services 15 as presented. Any discussions? Those in favor say aye. 16 Opposed? Motion carries. 17 1.11 consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action to authorize the Environmental Health Department 19 OSSF to surplus one white Ford F-150. Ms. Badders. 20 MRS. BADDERS: Yes, Your Honor. Can you 21 please also read out 1.12, because they go together. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Very well. 1.12 is consider, 23 discuss and take appropriate action to authorize the 24 Environmental Health Department OSSF to purchase a 2024 25 Toyota Tacoma. Ms. Badders. 58 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Oh, that's fancy. 2 MS. BADDERS: Thank you. And I also brought 3 my Administrative Assistant, Himanshu Sharma, who has 4 worked with me in this process to purchase the vehicle 5 for our department and there should have been attached 6 with this the quote from Toyota of Boerne. 7 There are two figures highlighted. And the 8 first figure of $47,007.00 is if y'all decide to keep 9 this other car, the Ford F-150. The figure below is 10 $44,499.78 is with the trade-in of the Ford F-150. And 11 to explain the current condition of the Ford that we 12 have, right now it's met its life span. The truck 13 continues to overheat. It's left me stranded in really 14 rural parts of the County. Fortunately, I did have cell 15 service on those parts to be able to call for help. The 16 AC is not working. 17 As I mentioned during the budget workshop, 18 the Ford is no longer manufacturing parts for these 19 trucks of this year. It's a 2008. And so the 20 after-market parts are not properly fitting. So also 21 the Ford F-150 currently shakes badly when it's sitting 22 on idle. 23 JUDGE KELLY: You had me at life expired. 24 MS. BADDERS: Okay. So we are just asking 25 for the Court's approval to allow us to purchase the 59 1 Toyota Tacoma that was approved in the budget for line 2 item 1064057. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll move for 4 approval. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do we need two separate 7 motions? There are two separate -- 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, yeah. We do. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's -- it's the 10 purchase and the trade-in. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, the first is the 13 surplus -- 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The trade-in. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The surplus. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- and then the second 18 is the purchase with the $2,000 trade. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Whichever one you want 20 to start with, I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do the surplus. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 23 JUDGE KELLY: The first motion is to surplus 24 the existing white Ford F-150. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Right. I'll second 60 1 that one. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second. 3 Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 4 Unanimous. 5 We'll move on to the next one which is to 6 purchase the Toyota Tacoma. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion -- 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: -- and a second -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Clarify that. Including 12 the trade-in on that one. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Including the trade-in. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. We don't want 16 to mess with it. 17 JUDGE KELLY: To include trade-in. 18 MRS. BADDERS: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: So with that motion and 21 second, any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 22 Opposed? Motion carries. 23 MRS. BADDERS: Thank you. And I just want 24 to highlight Humanshu because he has helped us out a lot 25 on savings, and it really brought the cost down on this 61 1 Tacoma. So -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, if he's ready for his 3 baptism by fire, we'll just get him right up to the 4 podium. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's a cultural thing. 6 I think he's great at negotiating and that's a -- 7 MRS. BADDERS: He is. I want to -- 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: It's a skill that many 9 of us should try to learn. 10 MRS. BADDERS: Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: So well done. 12 MR. SHARMA: Thank you. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Good job. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Now. We have the Noel 15 Putnam hour. Let's start with Item 1.13 consider, 16 discuss and take appropriate action to ratify and 17 confirm the Statewide Automated Victim Notification 18 Service grant award for FY 25 -- 2025 in the amount of 19 $18,571.30. 20 Ms. Putnam is our grant coordinator so we'll 21 start with this one. 22 MS. PUTNAM: It's exactly what you just 23 said. Just to go ahead and ratify it and confirm we 24 have already accepted it. So basically an apology. 25 Just for informational sake, last year was $18,030.39. 62 1 So it runs about the same every year. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 3 we ratify and confirm the SAVNS grant award for 2025. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 6 approve the SAVNS grant as presented. Any discussion? 7 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 8 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 9 appropriate action to approve the 5th contract renewal 10 with the Appriss Insights, LLC for the Statewide 11 Automated Victim Notification service, required Victim 12 Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) training 13 has been completed by Chief Deputy Cris Lalonde and jail 14 administrator, Sylvia Foraker. Ms. Putnam. 15 MS. PUTNAM: Again, that's exactly as it 16 sounds. Just action to approve the contract with the 17 Appriss Insights. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 19 renew the -- 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 1.14. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- contract for renewal. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 1.14. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I've got a motion and a second 25 to approve the VINE contract as presented. Any 63 1 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 2 carries. 3 Item 1.15 consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action regarding the 2025 Kerr County 5 Resolution in support of the grant application for the 6 FY 2025 Indigent Defense Formula Grant Program offered 7 by the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, and authorize 8 the County Judge to sign said resolution. Ms. Putnam. 9 MS. PUTNAM: This is the TIDC grant. The 10 most recent one that we have received was FY 23, to my 11 knowledge it came out to $40,127.00. It's about a year 12 behind, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? 13 MRS. SHELTON: You didn't receive any last 14 year because our costs savings that we had with the 15 Regional Public Defender's Office. 16 MS. PUTNAM: We didn't receive any last 17 year. 18 JUDGE KELLY: This is the formula grant? 19 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We have specific grants for 21 the Hill Country Public Defenders' Office. 22 MS. PUTNAM: This grant is calculated by 23 the -- each -- every time it's eligible to receive a 24 grant of $50,000 plus its share of remaining funds 25 budgeted. And so 50 percent of that is based on the 64 1 County's percent of state population and 50 percent is 2 based on the County's present percentage of statewide 3 direct indigent defense expenditures. So over -- 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So you're just asking 5 to apply again even though we didn't get it last year? 6 MS. PUTNAM: Yes, please. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: No, it says in support 8 of a grant application. Yeah. I'll make a motion that 9 we approve Item 1:15. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 12 approve the application for the indigent defense formula 13 grant as presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say 14 aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 15 And 1.16 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to execute the LMR (Land-Mobile 17 Radio) project manager extension contract utilizing ARPA 18 funds funding. Ms. Putnam. 19 MS. PUTNAM: Okay. This is just a little 20 bit of housecleaning because we have gone ahead and 21 extended the funding with Court Order No. 40686 back on 22 June 10th. Since the original court order for this 23 position back in February 13th of 2023, that is when the 24 ARPA language changed to be obligation to be another 25 contract of purchase order. So what this will do is go 65 1 ahead and put this position under contract in order to 2 meet that requirement to obligate that funding. But 3 it's basically the exact same thing. It mirrors the job 4 description. 5 JUDGE KELLY: This is just meeting the 6 requirements of ARPA belts and suspenders, right? 7 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. And there's just as an 8 FYI, I will probably be up here a lot in the future 9 months doing some housekeeping I'll do on a lot of these 10 projects. So as GrantWorks indicates things that need 11 to be done for the different projects, I'll be up here 12 requesting more of the same. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I make a motion that 14 we approve item 1.16. 15 MS. PUTNAM: And this has been reviewed by 16 the County Attorney and by the Sheriff's Office. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 19 approve the LMR project manager extension contract as 20 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 21 Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. 22 MS. PUTNAM: Was that quick? 23 JUDGE KELLY: That's very efficient. 24 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 25 to set a public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on November the 66 1 25th, 2024 to consider a request to cancel both the 2 original plat for Hall Ranch and the Revision of Plat 3 for Hall Ranch Lot 3. Plat files 22-07892 and 23-03772. 4 Mr. Hastings. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 6 proposed plat cancelation results in four existing 7 platted lots and the platted 60-foot right-of-way for 8 Guilanshah Road becoming three unplatted lots, with the 9 platted restriction to further subdivide effectively 10 removed. Lot 1 will remain 62.16 acres. Lot 2 will 11 remain 226.97 acres, and Lots 3A, 3B, and the 12 right-of-way will combine into 510.16 acres. 13 It is our understanding at this time that 14 the owners' legal counsel is working to resolve the 15 issue of Guilanshah Road right-of-way being canceled by 16 establishing an access easement in its place. We will 17 need proof of this resolution before the Court can take 18 action on the request to cancel the plats, but at this 19 time we're only asking for the Court to set a public 20 hearing. 21 And the County Engineer requests the Court 22 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to set a 23 public hearing for 10:00 a.m. on November 25th, 2024 to 24 consider a request to cancel both the original plat for 25 Hall Ranch and the Revision of Plat for Hall Ranch 67 1 Lot 3, plat files 22-07892 and 23-03772, Precinct 3. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve setting a public hearing for the request to 6 cancel the original and revised plat of Hall Ranch as 7 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 Opposed? Motion carries. 9 Item 1.18 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action for the Court to determine if 11 additional work under the East Kerr County/Center Point 12 Wastewater Collection Project is warranted and if so, 13 the scope of the work to be included in a Phase IV 14 project funded under the Texas Water Development Board 15 project number 10366. Mr. Hastings. 16 MR. HASTINGS: Construction plans of 17 Phases II and III of the East Kerr Center Point 18 Wastewater Collection Project are complete; however, 19 there are a number of properties with owners that have 20 expressed interest in being conducted to the sewer. 21 There are several areas where short extensions to the 22 sewer system will allow the connection of additional 23 properties to the project. 24 In addition, there are some improvements to 25 the existing infrastructure installed under earlier 68 1 phases that is needed. For example, the installation of 2 sewers on Elm Pass Road disrupted drainage facilities in 3 the right-of-way and improvements are needed to restore 4 the drainage capacity and protect the new sewer 5 infrastructure from erosion. 6 In addition, Lift Station J, located at the 7 back of Hill River Country Estates requires a permanent 8 solution for odor control. Odors that are produced in 9 the lift station and force main reach high levels in the 10 gravity system -- sewer that carries the flow along 11 Skyline Drive. 12 These and other improvements are discussed 13 and will be discussed as a potential Phase IV of the 14 project. Our project engineer, Don Burger of Tetra Tech 15 Engineering, is here to present these items in detail. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. Burger. We have a new 17 microphone up there so be gentle. 18 MR. BURGER: Thank you. So I just handed 19 out the various exhibits, and we have them on the 20 screen. This shows the relative location of each one of 21 the individual projects. We've provided these -- or 22 labeled these projects kind of A, B, C, D just to give 23 them a different naming system so we can help keep track 24 of them because these are little, small things that 25 either were found to have been missed in the original 69 1 construction of the project or that we found where we 2 had a request for service from somebody and the 3 particular line extension was not in the original 4 project that could be added to serve that particular 5 property. 6 And start with Item A is a sewer extension 7 at China Street. There are several homes that front 8 China Street, a block away from the Center Point ISD 9 School District facility there on China Street in 10 downtown Center Point. 11 There was -- during Phase I of the project, 12 we had a sewer line that went through the lots behind 13 those lots in an easement, and one of the property 14 owners that fronted did not want to provide an easement 15 to continue that sewer through. So the sewer connection 16 was actually made behind them, behind the lot on First 17 Street. And so this particular section actually got 18 cutoff of the project and was not installed. And so 19 this is an opportunity to -- to fix that and go back in. 20 It's only about 250 feet. But it is in an easement in 21 the backside of the property. So the easements have 22 already been acquired so it's pretty much ready to go. 23 And then Item B is an extension on Kelly 24 Street. At Kelly Street right off of Skyline Drive to 25 the north of Skyline Drive there. And the Vandenberg 70 1 Farms residence there requested service. And that 2 original line would not extend far enough up Kelly 3 Street to provide that service. To do that, the sewer 4 line does have to get out in the road because there were 5 some utilities on the side of the road where the 6 original sewer extension was designed to go. But we can 7 build a sewer extension up that half a block to serve 8 the last couple of properties at the end of Kelly Street 9 there, just north of Skyline Drive. 10 Mockingbird Lane sewer extension. 11 Mockingbird Lane is another roadway that extends off of 12 Skyline Drive, as we say north, it's actually south. 13 Upside down. The Mockingbird Lane is -- also extends 14 more or less south off of Skyline Drive. And there was 15 a property that sits behind one of the lots that front 16 Skyline Drive that requested service. And there's no 17 way to get to that property without an extension of 18 Mockingbird Lane. It is possible to -- Mockingbird Lane 19 is uphill in that direction. So it is possible to 20 extend about five or six hundred feet further up 21 Mockingbird Hill making sewer service available to a 22 number of the properties there on Mockingbird Lane. 23 However, the Kerr County Road and Bridge Department has 24 recently rebuilt that roadway or seal coated that 25 roadway. It's in really good condition. Construction 71 1 of sewer along that road would -- would damage that 2 work. So we're not recommending this at this time, just 3 because that extension would cause damage to the roadway 4 that the Water Development Board won't pay to fully 5 repair. 6 Item D is a sewer extension on State Highway 7 27 at Simpson Road. One of the customers that was 8 connected on Simpson Road also owns property just west 9 of Simpson Road on Highway 27. The sewer line on 10 Highway 27 is on the opposite side of Highway 27. So 11 they don't have access to the existing sewer. But we 12 could extend a line about 250 feet in the TxDOT 13 right-of-way to pick up that service. There are at 14 least two other properties that would also -- it would 15 make service available to those other properties as well 16 to provide service to that property owner who expressed 17 the desire to be connected. 18 Item E is a sewer extension crossing Elm 19 Pass Road. We did get a request from a property that is 20 at the end of Verde Creek Road but also backs up to Elm 21 Pass Road. And because of the situation of where the 22 structure is located, the structure is too low to access 23 the sewer on Verde Creek Road by gravity, but we could 24 do a short extension across Elm Creek Road from the 25 manhole in front of Lift Station D, which is right at 72 1 river -- is it River Road -- that would be able to serve 2 that particular property as well. So that would be 3 another crossing there, right across Elm Pass Road. Elm 4 Pass Road is a county road so that would not require any 5 coordination with TxDOT like the extension at State 6 Highway 27 would. 7 Item F is the Willow Bend Drive sewer 8 extension. This is a sewer extension required to 9 provide service to 105 Willow Bend. This would extend 10 from an existing manhole in State Highway 27 to the 11 north of Highway 27. This is just west of the Mini Mart 12 in Center Point. And this would also add that customer 13 and make it possible for one or two other properties in 14 that general area to be connected in the future as well. 15 Item H is a wastewater manhole protections 16 on Elm Pass. When we constructed the line down Elm 17 Pass, as part that goes into the mobile home park there, 18 we discovered that there was a lot -- most of the 19 manholes where in drainage areas. And there's a risk to 20 the sewer being damaged by erosion around the manholes 21 and that sort of thing. It may also be affecting the 22 capacity of that drainage ditch. During construction, 23 we did have a flooding event that was a result of the 24 contractor not getting some of the drainage facilities 25 put back in place in time for the storm, and so we're 73 1 trying to prevent any loss of the sewer system to damage 2 due to erosion and also at the same time make sure that 3 that drains properly and that the sewer lines are not 4 impeding drainage in that area. 5 And so, this has been designed. The 6 contractor for the Phase II and Phase III construction 7 refused to provide a proposal for change order to do 8 this work. And so we'd like to add that to the project 9 so that it can get done. 10 Item I, is a pavement repair on State 11 Highway 27. We have an area that is out of warranty 12 from Phase I that requires some pavement repair, and 13 it's where the roadway intersects State Highway 27. So 14 this was something that failed quite some time ago. It 15 was never actually completed, so it's not really 16 warranty work because the work was not completed. It 17 was not paid for and -- but we do need to get this done. 18 Item J is additional sewer services. This 19 you'll find -- on that Exhibit B map, you'll find that 20 additional sewer services. We have identified 52 21 additional services that have been requested. Of those 22 52, about seven of them are not in a place where they 23 can be accessed by existing sewers or the sewer 24 extensions that we've just talked about. And so 45 of 25 them we can make connections to. Some of them require 74 1 new taps on existing sewer mains, and the others would 2 require -- already have taps on the existing sewer main, 3 so it's just a matter of connecting the structures to 4 the sewer system. 5 And then Item K is odor control for Lift 6 Station J. This Station J is in the back of Hill 7 Country River -- Hill River Country Estates. Pumps the 8 wastewater all the way from the backside of that 9 subdivision to Skyline Drive, and to the gravity line on 10 Skyline Drive. Because of the relatively low flow in 11 that neighborhood, especially during the day, and the 12 very long force main that the water is pumped through, a 13 lot of odor is developed in that forced main that are 14 then discharged and have been complained about from 15 residents along Skyline Drive. And to mitigate that, we 16 are looking at an ozone process that provides mixing an 17 ozone addition at the Lift Station. This would be 18 equipment that would be installed under this by using 19 the Water Development Board funds under the project, but 20 then would be maintained by the Kendall County WCID as 21 they maintain that Lift Station going forward. 22 And finally, Item L is a manhole adjustment. 23 So when the sewer line was completed along Skyline 24 Drive, the County came in and did a pavement repair, 25 pavement rehab project. This left -- some of the 75 1 manholes along Skyline Drive got covered up during that 2 construction and left a little bit low. And so we just 3 want to go in and identify each one of those manholes, 4 dig them up and bring the rim and cover up to grade on 5 those manholes to finish up that sewer line once and for 6 all. 7 JUDGE KELLY: So to kind of recap -- and 8 thank you for the very detailed explanation on each one 9 of these. To recap, this is for a Phase IV for the East 10 Kerr County Center Point wastewater line, and these are 11 kind of fine-tuning details to try to perfect the system 12 even better than it was. 13 MR. BURGER: Exactly. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And that would be to authorize 15 the scope of work as presented. Is that what you're 16 asking us to do? 17 MR. BURGER: Yes. Unless there are some 18 discussion, you would like me to remove something from 19 the scope or if there's something that we've missed that 20 needs to be added to the scope. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think it's very 22 thorough. But I want -- I want the public to 23 understand, we still have grant funds available to do 24 these additional work items. 25 MR. BURGER: Yes. The total cost of what 76 1 we're projecting here is about $1.4 million. And 2 there's somewhere in the excess of $10 million of 3 available funding left. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. But you're 5 recommending that we do the -- without -- 6 MR. BURGER: The only one we're not 7 recommending is Mockingbird Lane. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Item C. So the 9 actual cost is 1.2 million that's recommended? 10 MR. BURGER: Yeah, that's right. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: And so my question 12 there is, does that include engineering, project 13 management, if any, and -- 14 MR. BURGER: That is construction. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- inspection? 16 MR. BURGER: That is construction only. It 17 does not include engineering. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: So what does that cost? 19 MR. BURGER: Estimated currently around two 20 hundred, two hundred fifty thousand dollars for that. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. And again, 22 that's project management, engineering, and inspection? 23 MR. BURGER: And inspections, yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 25 JUDGE KELLY: But the good news is we have 77 1 the grant funds to do this? 2 MR. BURGER: Yes. We have these funds 3 available. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question I have to 5 Kelly and Charlie. I mean, I understand we just redid 6 Mockingbird Lane. And I hate to tear up a road we just 7 did. But at the same time, are we being short-sighted 8 by not adding those six people on Mockingbird Lane? 9 MR. HASTINGS: I think what we could do is 10 have it designed and continue to evaluate. But right 11 now, my understanding is there's really just one person 12 on there that wants to connect. They have a full acre. 13 They don't have to be connected. They just -- they want 14 to. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 16 MR. HASTINGS: They see what their neighbors 17 have and, yeah, I'd like to be connected too. Sorry, I 18 didn't go to the podium. 19 MR. BURGER: The other properties at 20 Mockingbird Lane are -- also have -- are on acre lots. 21 That's why it wasn't included in the project originally. 22 So there's no guarantee that any of the other people it 23 was made available to would actually connect. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 MR. BURGER: The other alternative would be 78 1 to do a short extension just for that first property. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 3 MR. BURGER: And then if, you know, it needs 4 to be extended it could be later. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I think the 6 overall good news is that there are people that want to 7 be connected that don't have to be connected. I mean 8 that's a -- 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Positive. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- positive. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that -- that's a 180 12 from where we started on. 13 MR. HASTINGS: And I might add, there's a 14 number of people that want to be connected that are 15 still contacting us and they -- they couldn't be, and we 16 need to get them connected. They're under an acre and 17 they -- they need to be connected. We've got some 18 people that they're still having to pump their septic 19 tank and they're -- they're ready to connect. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: So what's their plan 21 for them? 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Charlie, those are all 23 included in the 45 -- 24 MR. HASTINGS: They're included, yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- service connection? 79 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Oh, okay. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Gotcha. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. My only other 5 question for you is that that one connection -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mockingbird Lane? 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: No, no. Let's see. It 8 was the second one. Yeah. Item B. You know, that goes 9 right in front of the Center Point fire station. 10 MR. BURGER: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: So how long would you 12 have a trench open and have work going on there that 13 precludes the Department from running trucks in and out? 14 Because that's a key -- 15 MR. BURGER: I think that the work is just 16 past the driveway on the -- by -- the end of the line 17 extends just past that driveway to -- 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: I don't think it does. 19 MR. BURGER: It's very close. But they 20 should be able to get that done very quickly without -- 21 at least get out of the way of that driveway quite 22 quickly. Because, if it does interfere we -- it's on 23 the opposite side of the road. And we're going to come 24 into the road at a 45 degree angle, so they should be 25 able to allow traffic in and out of there. 80 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Well, it's -- 2 it's really important that we don't -- you know. A 3 couple days, yeah. Okay. We can move our trucks. 4 But -- 5 MR. BURGER: Yeah. I wouldn't expect it to 6 be more than a week that they would needed to block the 7 driveway completely. But I think that that driveway 8 would be open pretty quick after that. 9 MR. HASTINGS: We can handle that with some 10 notes on the plan. 11 MR. BURGER: We can. Yes. 12 MR. HASTINGS: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other question. I 14 think it's good to do these. The other question I have, 15 though, is the remaining ten million. Can that -- what 16 can those funds be used for? Could it used to pay 17 back -- pay down on any debt, or what's the use -- 18 what's the -- the recommended use of the remaining ten 19 million? 20 MR. BURGER: Yeah. So the -- the funds are 21 earmarked for sewer service projects or projects in the 22 general vicinity of Center Point and Kerr County to 23 provide sewer service to un-sewered areas. So if it was 24 another area that we wanted to extend sewer service to, 25 we could definitely create a project and use those funds 81 1 to extend that service to that area. It would require 2 amending the -- changing the feasibility report for this 3 project to include that project area in the project. 4 Kind of going back to the beginning a little 5 bit, but then developing that project out. The funds 6 that are borrowed funds can be used to pay back some of 7 the debt on those borrowed funds. The grant funds, the 8 loan forgiveness funds, and some of those funds I'm not 9 sure that those can be used to pay off debt service at 10 this time so. We've been trying to focus on using those 11 loan forgiveness funds and other grant funds first so 12 that any funding leftover could be used to pay down some 13 of the debt service. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Don, is there any 16 issue -- I mean, this whole project was originally based 17 on, you know, economically distressed area. Now, some 18 of the service connections that you'd be doing here are 19 not economically distressed, they're just people that 20 would like to tie into the sewer system. So any issue 21 with any of our funding, because you're using it for 22 people that aren't -- 23 MR. BURGER: Not -- not all of the funds are 24 tied to the economically distressed areas program. 25 There are only certain fundings that are tied to that, 82 1 to those funds; however, the -- in the original 2 documentation for the submittals or the applications for 3 those economically distressed area program funds, pretty 4 much the entire service area was labeled the 5 economically distressed area. And so we can use those 6 funds within that area. So -- 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. But -- but 8 you're saying we don't necessarily need to -- 9 MR. BURGER: We don't. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- use those funds 11 anyway, we have other funds that -- 12 MR. BURGER: There are other -- 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- will have those -- 14 MR. BURGER: Funds as well. Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, if we try use the 16 other funds -- 17 MR. BURGER: So if we did run into it -- if 18 that would became an issue, we could -- we would have 19 other funds that are not tied to that EDAP program that 20 could be used. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it sounds like to me 22 you're maximizing what's available for us. 23 MR. BURGER: That's what we want to do. 24 JUDGE KELLY: And we appreciate that. We 25 appreciate that. Is there a motion? 83 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: What do we need a 2 motion on? Allow additional work? I'll make that 3 motion on 1.18 that we take action to go forward with 4 the additional work on this Phase IV. 5 JUDGE KELLY: As presented. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: As presented. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Less Item C. Less the 8 Mockingbird -- 9 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- Lane extension? 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the representation -- 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes. The one he 13 recommended, yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Just want to be 15 real clear. So it's the 1.2 and we'll also have to make 16 funds available from the already available grants to 17 cover project management, engineering, and inspection 18 services, which I -- you -- you said a quarter million 19 or what was the number? 20 MR. BURGER: Approximately. We'll come back 21 to the Court with a firm proposal and contract for 22 that -- contract amendment. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So this is really just 24 a -- 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: He just wants to 84 1 get -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- motion to proceed. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 4 JUDGE KELLY: This is a scope of work 5 authorization really. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 7 MR. BURGER: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then the contract -- 9 MR. BURGER: Know what we want to do. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The engineering 11 portion -- 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, it has to go out 13 for bid and everything anyway so. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. So it's a -- 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: But it -- you're right. 16 So it's a scope of work. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion and a 19 second to authorize the scope of work as presented for 20 Phase IV of East Kerr County Wastewater Line as 21 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 22 Opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, Don. 23 MR. BURGER: Thank you very much. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.19 consider, discuss 25 and take appropriate action for the Court to release 85 1 portions of the VA pedestrian pathway sidewalk project 2 to the City of Kerrville for City ownership and 3 maintenance. Charlie Hastings. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. 5 The VA pedestrian pathway sidewalk 6 construction project, which was City of Kerrville 7 project number 23-017, is complete. A final walkthrough 8 was conducted on June 18th, 2024, by the City of 9 Kerrville Engineering Department and a final acceptance 10 letter was issued on June 24th, 2024. That's Exhibit A 11 in your packet. 12 The project was funded by Kerr County with 13 Corona Virus state and local fiscal recovery funds from 14 the U.S. Department of Treasury at a cost of 15 $309,804.25. It was constructed by M&C Fonseca 16 Construction Company, Inc., bonded with a one-year 17 warranty period under Harco National Insurance Company 18 payment bond number HSHNSU0846758. Said warranty period 19 shall extend to June 18th, 2025. That's on Exhibit B. 20 A certificate of completion was issued by the County on 21 August the 3rd, 2024. That's Exhibit C. 22 And the portions of the project that are to 23 be released to the City of Kerrville for City ownership 24 and maintenance are depicted on the attached map Exhibit 25 D and are comprised of the following: 86 1 Approximately 375 linear feet of 10-foot 2 wide concrete sidewalk located on City of Kerrville 3 property adjacent to Kerrville Schreiner Park connecting 4 the existing rivertrail to the old Legion crossing 5 bridge over the Guadalupe River. That's one site. 6 Approximately 980 linear feet of 6-foot wide 7 concrete sidewalk located on City of Kerrville street 8 right-of-way, beginning at the northeast end of the old 9 Legion crossing bridge over the Guadalupe River and 10 running southeast along Riverside Drive, said Riverside 11 Drive is owned and maintained by the City of Kerrville. 12 And third, approximately 400 linear feet of 13 6-foot wide concrete sidewalk located in a recreation 14 easement granted by Edward Maldonado to City of 15 Kerrville as filed in document number 23-07098. That's 16 Exhibit E. The Kerr County land records stating -- 17 starting at Riverside Drive and running northeast and 18 southeast to the intersection of State Highway 27 and 19 the Veterans Administration main entrance. 20 The County Engineer requests that the Court 21 release the aforementioned portions of the VA pedestrian 22 pathway sidewalk project to the City of Kerrville for 23 City ownership and maintenance. This is Precinct 2. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll make a motion that 25 the Court approve the release of the portions of the 87 1 veterans pedestrian pathway as presented to the City of 2 Kerrville for City ownership and maintenance. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion and a 5 second to approve the release of Veterans Pedestrian 6 Pathway sidewalk project to the City of Kerrville as 7 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 8 Opposed? Motion carries. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'd just add to that. 10 Charlie, great job. I mean, I've heard nothing but very 11 positive feedback on the veterans pathway. I think most 12 people are pretty happy with it. And we had a few 13 hiccups in terms of the weather and material flooding 14 over the pathway but it -- you know, Shane and his crew 15 do a great job of keeping it clear. So again, I just 16 want to compliment you. It's a good project. Thank 17 you. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Yeah. It was the greatest 19 honor to work on that project. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Moving on to the next agenda 21 item, which is 1.20 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action to approve a contract with Maxwell 23 Engineering, PLLC. Said contract not to exceed 24 $13,200.00 for the structural engineering services 25 associated with the retrofits for the Kerr County Indoor 88 1 Arena and East Addition located at 3782 Highway 27, 2 Kerrville, Texas. Charlie Hastings. 3 MR. HASTINGS: The Kerr County Indoor Arena 4 and East Addition, which is the weld-up metal building 5 attached to the east side of the indoor arena, are in 6 the bidding process for being re-roofed, and prior to 7 re-roofing, these facilities are in need of structural 8 retrofits to accommodate future building loads as 9 identified and recommended by the Office and Storage 10 Space Committee, including the possibility of a 11 retrofitted roofing system. 12 Maxwell Engineering, PLLC was selected in a 13 recent request for qualifications solicitation issued by 14 the Court and a scope and fee has been identified in the 15 attached Maxwell Engineering, PLLC proposed -- proposal 16 dated October 1, 2024. 17 County Engineer requests that the Court 18 authorize the County Judge to execute a contract with 19 Maxwell Engineering, PLLC, said contract not to exceed 20 the amount of $13,200.00 for structural engineering 21 services associated with retrofits for the Kerr County 22 Indoor Arena and East Addition located at 3782 State 23 Highway 27, Kerrville, Texas. Precinct 2. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll go ahead and move 25 that we approve the contract with Maxwell Engineering. 89 1 Said contract not to exceed $13,200.00 for structural 2 engineering services associated with the Kerr County 3 Indoor Arena. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 7 approve the contract with Maxwell Engineering as 8 presented. Any discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just -- we are also 10 going to need Maxwell Engineering engineering services 11 in preparation for additional work at the Indoor Arena. 12 Such as -- we know that we want to remove the dirt and 13 put in a concrete flooring. And that's exactly -- you 14 know, Jim Maxwell is the right person to do the 15 engineering associated with that concrete flooring and 16 incorporating in the MAP work that Keener Engineering 17 will also be providing under that contract when we sign 18 them. 19 So I guess we will need additional services 20 and, you know, we -- the plan was to award these 21 contracts for a three-year period, with Maximum's not to 22 exceed. But I'm just kind of curious, how -- how are we 23 going to manage that so that we can use them a little 24 bit later in the year? 25 MR. HASTINGS: At the appropriate time, I'd 90 1 bring another scope and fee just like this. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. 3 MR. HASTINGS: Prefer to do the "not to 4 exceed" lump sum. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's fine. 6 MR. HASTINGS: That seems to work out best. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I just wanted 8 the Court and the public to be aware that there will be 9 additional services required from Maxwell Engineering to 10 enable us to progress with the Indoor Arena 11 improvements. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Any other discussion? Those 13 in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 14 Item 1.21 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action regarding a developer's request for 16 the Court to accept Bond Number 0832517 in the amount of 17 $18,750.00 as financial guarantee for the remaining 18 construction associated with Creekside at Camp Verde 19 Phase 1 and Release Bond Number 0798320 in the amount of 20 $2,666,406.00, Plat File Number 22-01280. Mr. Hastings. 21 MR. HASTINGS: The final plat for Creekside 22 at Camp Verde Phase 1 was approved by the Court on 23 February 14th, 2022. It contains 103 tracts (over five 24 acres each) with six newly-constructed private roads and 25 drainage to be maintained by the developer and/or the 91 1 homeowners' association. Since most of the construction 2 has been completed, the developer is requesting a 3 reduction in the -- to the amount of financial guarantee 4 from $2,666,406.00 to $18,750.00. The developer has 5 submitted Bond Number 0832517 in the amount of 6 $18,750.00 as a financial guarantee for the remaining 7 construction, which is establishing vegetation. 8 The County Engineer requests the Court 9 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 10 the developer's request for the Court to accept Bond 11 Number 0832517 in the amount of $18,750.00 as financial 12 guarantee for the remaining construction associated with 13 Creekside at Camp Verde Phase 1, and release Bond Number 14 0798320 in the amount of $2,666,406.00. Plat File 15 Number 22-01280. Precinct 2. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll move to approve 17 the developer's request to accept the revisions to his 18 bonds as presented. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And release of the other bond. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: And -- yeah, release of 21 the bond as presented. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion to accept 25 and release the bonds as requested and as presented. 92 1 Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 2 Motion carries. 3 Item 1.22 consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action regarding the acknowledgement of 5 construction completion of private roads and drainage 6 for Creekside at Camp Verde Phase 2, and release Bond 7 Number 0814615 in the amount of $1,271,784.00 for said 8 private roads and drainage. Plat File Number 22-09621. 9 Mr. Hastings. 10 MR. HASTINGS: The current plat for 11 Creekside at Camp Verde Phase 2 was approved by the 12 Court on December 12, 2022. It contains 56 tracts (over 13 seven acres each), with five newly-constructed project 14 roads and drainage to be maintained by the developer 15 and/or the homeowners' association. Bond Number 16 0814615, in the amount of $1,271,784.00 was submitted as 17 a financial guarantee for associated subdivision 18 construction. A final walkthrough of the subdivision 19 was conducted by the Kerr County Engineering Department 20 on August 29, 2024. 21 Construction of the subdivision is complete 22 and as-built drawings have been received. This 23 subdivision is in compliance with the Kerr County 24 subdivision regulations. 25 The County Engineer requests the Court 93 1 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 2 the acknowledgement of construction completion of 3 private roads and drainage for Creekside at Camp Verde 4 Phase 2 and release Bond Number 0814615 in the amount of 5 $1,271,784.00 for said private roads and drainage. Plat 6 File Number 22-09621. Precinct 2. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. I move to go 8 ahead and release Bond Number 0814615 as presented -- as 9 requested. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second 12 to acknowledge that the construction completion of the 13 private roads and drainage for Camp Verde Phase 2 and 14 release the bond as presented. Any other discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just -- just -- there's 16 no vegetation issues in this area? 17 MR. HASTINGS: Not in Phase 2. They had a 18 lot more black dirt in Phase 2 than in Phase 1. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Good. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 21 Opposed? Motion carries. 22 Item 1.23 consider, discuss and take 23 appropriate action regarding conditional approval for a 24 Revision of Plat for Hidden Valley Ranch, Section 2, 25 Lot 94, with the condition that HGCD, Headwater 94 1 Groundwater Conservation District, sign the plat 2 pursuant to their requirement that the existing 3 groundwater well be plugged, and authorize the County 4 Judge to execute a Subdivision Construction Agreement as 5 required by the Model Rules and accept the Letter of 6 Credit Number 472 issued by The Bank and Trust of Del 7 Rio, Texas in the amount of $35,000.00 as a financial 8 guarantee for the associated construction improvements 9 of a water main. Mr. Hastings. 10 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This 11 proposal revises Lot 94 (6.78 acres as platted) into 12 three lots to be known as Lot 94-A (2.01 acres), Lot 13 94-B (2.75 acres), and Lot 94-C (2.00 acres). Each lot 14 will have frontage on Lillian Drive, while Lot 94-A will 15 have additional frontage on Camino Real. 16 Texas Water Utilities, LP (TWU), also known 17 as Southern Hills Public Water System (PWS), is the 18 water service provider, and is requiring the existing 19 water line to be extended as noted in the attached Water 20 Service Agreement, which is Appendix M. The Model Rules 21 require the developer to enter into a Subdivision 22 Construction Agreement (that's Exhibit O), which 23 requires the developer to submit a financial guarantee, 24 said guarantee is in the form of an Irrevocable Letter 25 of Credit (which is Exhibit P) in the amount of $35,000. 95 1 There's currently a private groundwater well 2 on the property which Headwaters Groundwater 3 Conversation District requires to be plugged before they 4 will sign the plat. 5 The County Engineer requests the Court 6 consider, discuss and take appropriate action regarding 7 conditional approval of a Revision of Plat for Hidden 8 Valley Ranch, Section 2, Lot 94, with the condition that 9 Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District sign the 10 plat pursuant to their requirement that the existing 11 groundwater well be plugged, and that the Court 12 authorizes the County Judge to execute a Subdivision 13 Construction Agreement as required by the Model Rules, 14 and accept Letter of Credit Number 472 issued by the 15 Bank and Trust of Del Rio, Texas in the amount of 16 $35,000 as a financial guarantee for the associated 17 construction improvements of a water main. Volume 4, 18 Page 39. Precinct 1. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Make a motion? 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll make a motion 21 that we approve Item Number 1.23. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 24 approve the conditional approval of the Revision of Plat 25 which includes the plugging of the well as presented. 96 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: Charlie, how are we 2 getting around the water availability study? I guess 3 we -- we've heard this item several times. We've seen 4 the water availability -- so-called water availability 5 study that was presented. 6 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: So we're -- we're not 8 really addressing that? 9 MR. HASTINGS: It is addressed. It's 10 addressed fully. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: How? 12 MR. HASTINGS: This is the water 13 availability study and it followed precisely what the 14 State of Texas said they were supposed to do. 15 COMMISSIONER PACES: I thought that was 16 pretty well contested and debated the last time we heard 17 it. 18 MR. HASTINGS: It was and we -- 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: Was there a new 20 study -- 21 MR. HASTINGS: -- didn't understand it at 22 the time. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- that has come out or 24 is it the same study? 25 MR. HASTINGS: Here's what we didn't 97 1 understand when we contested and debated this the last 2 time. The Model Rules require that you file a 30 TAC 3 230 certificate of groundwater availability for plats, 4 and they did. And within that, there is -- it says that 5 if you're expanding -- if there's an expansion of an 6 existing or a new water system, site specific 7 groundwater data shall be developed under 30 TAC 290(d), 8 and those are the rules and regulations for public water 9 systems. 10 So if you're following the Model Rules and 11 you're going to develop property and you're being 12 serviced water by a public water system, either you are 13 creating a new public water system or you're expanding 14 an existing one, then you are, too, you shall follow 30 15 TAC 290(d) when you're developing the ground -- site 16 specific groundwater data. And they did. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: And was that clarified 18 and agreed in the recent meeting that was held with the 19 Water Development Board about their rules? 20 MR. HASTINGS: I've had conversations with 21 TCEQ about their water rules. And -- and they called, 22 and they said hey, we're concerned about how this is 23 being done. And I said, I'm concerned about your rules. 24 They are following your rules exactly. And they said -- 25 they got very quiet and said oh. I said, how long have 98 1 these rules been in place? Since 1999. So for 25 years 2 the State of Texas, when they developed those rules, had 3 this provision for public water system. So -- 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. My issue -- I 5 don't think the Model Subdivision Rules are appropriate 6 and that they should be modified. You know, I -- this 7 type of subdivision shouldn't be held up because of this 8 called technicality. But I -- you know, this Court has 9 an obligation to comply with the law as written so. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have an obligation to 11 followed TCEQ as well. And TCEQ, I think, trumps this. 12 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, did they give you 13 that in writing? 14 MR. HASTINGS: They gave me their 15 regulations. The regulations are in writing. This plat 16 and the way it was done is precisely the recipe that 17 they give. Precisely. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, the Model 19 Rules -- I agree. But if we're going back to TCEQ rules 20 and -- the water code, I guess actually is what it is -- 21 but -- and they're following it. So, I mean, we may not 22 like it or you may like it but it doesn't make any 23 difference if you like it or don't like it. If they're 24 following the rules, they're following the rules. 25 MR. HASTINGS: We did point out earlier this 99 1 year -- it was myself, Tom Jones, Chris Childs -- to 2 TCEQ, we said, are y'all -- do you realize what your 3 rules are allowing for? And if -- I believe what has 4 happened here is the rules were written in 1999. And I 5 don't think there's anybody that -- at TCEQ working 6 there that was working there when they were written in 7 1999. And it is a -- it is a nuance in the rules that I 8 picked up on. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, I'd just feel a 10 lot better if they would go ahead and amend these rules 11 and make it a little clearer as to -- 12 MR. HASTINGS: I suspect that's what's 13 coming. We -- we presented our findings. And I 14 presented them to the Court earlier this year and the 15 Court said yes, make sure TCEQ has that. Make sure the 16 Water Development Board has those comments. But I think 17 in 1999 when they wrote the rules, they decided public 18 water systems were different. 19 And I will tell you my opinion why. My 20 opinion is that you can take any public water system 21 here in the State of Texas and there's no way they 22 can -- they can do a water availability study. They 23 probably do not have the land -- enough land to conduct 24 the study. The study requires that you have a monitored 25 well located a specific distance away from the well that 100 1 you're testing. And if you don't own that land, you 2 can't do the study. And public water systems knew that 3 in 1999 and they made sure this provision was in there. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think our Legislature 5 makes changes and doesn't understand the ramifications 6 of the changes. 7 MR. HASTINGS: I agree. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: I -- I agree. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And you've gotta live 10 with them. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Again, I'd love to see 12 them legislate corrections to this thing to make it more 13 usable and less contradictory. That's -- that's the 14 problem. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the person to 16 handle that -- I mean I visited with Senator Charles 17 Curry from Lubbock. He acknowledged that he does not 18 think this is how it should be interpreted. And I said, 19 well, you need to change it. 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He says maybe he will. 22 I mean, who knows. But -- and this goes back to the 23 argument I've had forever. Is that once it's in a CCN, 24 that water company has an obligation under TCEQ rules to 25 provide water or release the lot. I mean that's -- and, 101 1 you know, if they release a one acre lot in the middle 2 of a subdivision, Headwaters isn't going to give them a 3 permit to drill a well. And so it's -- it makes sense 4 really the reason, what Charlie just said, what was done 5 in '99 made sense, they just didn't update some of the 6 rules after that. But anyway. They're in compliance. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I -- you know, 8 I -- I'm just concerned here. We're about to utilize 9 even more of the Texas Water Development Board funding 10 and I want to ensure that we comply. 11 Commissioner-Elect Jones, you are probably 12 the most well versed and read expert on the Model 13 Subdivision Rules and our subdivision regulations. 14 Would you care to -- 15 MR. JONES: Well, Charlie and I have had a 16 lot of discussions on this and -- and we agree there's a 17 hole in the rules. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 19 MR. JONES: There is. And like Jonathan's 20 saying -- and I visited with TCEQ. And they 21 acknowledge -- they got furious when they saw this 22 water availability study. Because they think it's not 23 the intent and purpose that was intended for what they 24 have. But they won't make it as a public statement, 25 right. 102 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Their state agency basic 2 position is, it's not their job to give legal opinions. 3 It's up to their -- either the Attorney General or a 4 County Attorney. 5 MR. JONES: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER PACES: Does our County 7 Attorney want to weigh in on this? Should we go ahead? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't want to review it in 9 an open open meeting. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: I was hopeful. Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we have a motion 12 and a second, Judge. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, we do have a motion and a 14 second. Any other discussion? Those in favor say aye. 15 Opposed? Motion carries. 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll abstain. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. One abstention. 18 Item 1.24 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action to go out for annual bids for road 20 materials. Miss Hoffer. 21 MS. HOFFER: Yes. This is what we do every 22 year. We go out for our road material. And so we're 23 asking for the Court to allow us to do that. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move for approval. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion -- 103 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: -- and a second to approve 3 going out for bids for your -- annual bids for your road 4 materials. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 5 Opposed? Motion carries. 6 1.25 consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action regarding graffiti painted on Flat Rock dam. 8 MS. HOFFER: The Road and Bridge Department 9 has received requests on cleaning up graffiti on Flat 10 Rock dam and also on Hilltop Road in the Guadalupe 11 Heights area. The Hilltop was a couple years ago. It 12 was in 2021. They had spray painted graffiti on Hilltop 13 Road on a brand new road surface in Guadalupe Heights. 14 And in September of 2024, Road & Bridge received a clean 15 up request on Flat Rock Dam. Both of these locations 16 are near one another. I don't know if both might be 17 related. 18 We have also received requests back in 2021 19 on graffiti clean up, again at Flat Rock Dam. But I 20 don't have photos or records of this incident. The road 21 graffiti, we used our mobile pressure washer trailer to 22 clean the graffiti on Hilltop Road. In the past, we 23 have painted over the concrete with gray paint to cover 24 up the graffiti on Flat Rock Dam. Which at times kind 25 of leads to a fresh canvas for the graffiti artists. 104 1 The materials that we use to get it off of 2 the sealcoat road I wouldn't recommend probably using it 3 on there because of the river. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Do we have a camera on 5 the dam? 6 MS. HOFFER: What's that? 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: We don't have a camera 8 on the dam? 9 MS. HOFFER: Not yet. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: How expensive is that? 11 I don't know. 12 MS. HOFFER: We use Crime Stoppers for a 13 continue blocking of the drainage pipe at a low water 14 crossing at Dowel Road in Precinct 4. And although we 15 didn't catch the individual, cross your fingers we 16 haven't had it happen again. Maybe Crime Stoppers will 17 give a reward to find who is continually painting on the 18 dam and possibly the same person painting on the road 19 surface of Hilltop Road, maybe will lead to an arrest or 20 a fine. 21 These acts are time consuming for the Road & 22 Bridge Department. It takes us away from our regular 23 duties and costs the taxpayers of Kerr County time and 24 money. 25 At this time, I ask the Commissioners' Court 105 1 to -- this basically is an FYI on this because Crime 2 Stoppers already has something posted. We do have an 3 estimate of about $1,700.00 to clean this one up because 4 it's the most so far. I did pull -- I don't think I 5 have it in the backup, I might, fines when you do things 6 like this and it really caught my attention on how 7 hefty, you know, these can get. And, you know, I 8 realize it's not at this location but you get over 9 $300,000 worth of damage in clean up costs, it can be 10 life in prison for it. Schools and churches, I think 11 the fines get even worse. But it's a pretty -- it's a 12 pretty serious thing. And if you look at the pictures, 13 kind of disturbing. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Some of them are very 15 disturbing. 16 MS. HOFFER: Yes. So Lisa Walters, I spoke 17 to her last week and I've been working with Commissioner 18 Paces on this. Lisa is well aware of this. She's going 19 to write something up. I'll make sure Commissioner 20 Paces sees the press release. I'll look at it. And 21 like I said, we're working with the Sheriff's Department 22 and I think they're going to do some extra patrols on 23 this. The problem is, is that the location of this, to 24 access it from the Guadalupe Heights side, it is a 25 little pathway. The other side, on 173, you would have 106 1 to get permission from Comanche Trace, which we have to, 2 in order to get our equipment there to go and do this. 3 So I don't know who it is. I, you know, feel like it's 4 maybe somebody from Guadalupe Heights area. But like I 5 said, this time -- this is a lot of graffiti. And very 6 time consuming. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. Certainly 8 somebody with a pretty twisted mind. But they're in 9 need of help. But who knows if they're going to make 10 good on any of the threats. That's my big concern. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, my concern is 12 have we -- do we have a motion and a second? 13 JUDGE KELLY: Not yet. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Not yet. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. I move for 16 approval. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: But what's the motion? 18 To approve what? We haven't taken any action yet. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I -- 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: We're talking about 21 Crime Stoppers so what would you suggest? 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Is the ball rolling 23 with Crime Stoppers? 24 MS. HOFFER: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes. 107 1 MS. HOFFER: It's on Facebook. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: But we don't know what 3 kind of reward they're offering. 4 MS. HOFFER: No. 5 COMMISSIONER PACES: Do we? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we're really just 7 authorizing a mediation action. 8 MS. HOFFER: Yes. To make the Court aware 9 of this. 10 JUDGE KELLY: So that's your motion? 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And who seconded? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we don't need a 14 motion. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We don't really need 16 it. I'll withdraw the motion. There's -- this is all 17 discussion. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I thought we had -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- something in place 22 to go forward. But I don't know who to ask. The 23 Sheriff, the County Attorney. If you catch these guys, 24 what's the consequences? 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: I would say a 108 1 misdemeanor. 2 JUDGE KELLY: If it's a juvenile, bring them 3 to me. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: It -- it probably is. 5 JUDGE KELLY: I've got a prosecutor sitting 6 right there. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well -- 8 MRS. STEBBINS: It probably is a child, 9 right? 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So is there fines, 11 restitution? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Yeah. 13 SHERIFF LEITHA: Is it kids or people -- it 14 depends on the amount of damage. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: And juvenile -- 16 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, the estimate is 17 $1700. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Juveniles can't be required 19 to pay any fines and attorney's fees. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: There's no financial 21 lien on that, yeah. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: I mean -- and often it's 23 very difficult to get restitution. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So what would they get 25 from a youth. A 15-year-old comes in that did a lot of 109 1 this stuff? 2 JUDGE KELLY: I can promise you, they will 3 leave the courtroom afraid of me. And you've watched 4 it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It depends probably on 6 the situation. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Whoever's doing it out 8 there -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, they may need help 10 like you were saying. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah, that's my 12 concern. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, we'll get them help. 14 That's not a problem. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: And that's the great part of 16 juvenile law, is that you can -- we can look into their 17 history and their social history and -- 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: See what's going on. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: -- figure out what their 20 needs are. And if they need help, if they -- if they're 21 a victim and they need some help, we can get it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Three weeks in 23 detention will actually work. Put somebody away and it 24 usually gets their attention. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Probably in the first 110 1 week. 2 MS. HOFFER: We -- you know, and this is the 3 worst location we've had and a couple other places. But 4 it's kind of been one and done. I have noticed on some 5 street signs, like stop signs and things like that, not 6 a lot. But I -- and I hope this isn't a sign of what's 7 to come on defacing some of these things. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We may not have any action to 9 take today, but I want to get the word out that whoever 10 is doing this, I dare you to come into my courtroom. I 11 dare you. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, that's the deal. 13 They need to -- and we got plenty of friends out here to 14 get the word out that they're -- we're looking for them. 15 JUDGE KELLY: We're on YouTube now. We got 16 them. 17 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. Well -- and I've worked 18 with Commissioner Harris on the Dowelling one and he was 19 the one that suggested the Crime Stoppers. And like I 20 said so far, you know, we -- we don't have anything on 21 that. But everybody that lives on there now knows 22 that -- what's happening. Shouldn't be doing it. So 23 hoping on this that maybe we'll get the same thing. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Parents and guardians can be 25 held liable for the criminal acts of their children. 111 1 Just so you know. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. I mean, this is 3 a lot of canvas spray paint. So if anybody is aware 4 that a child is buying a whole bunch of spray paint or 5 disappearing whatever the parent might have bought -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A child can't buy it. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'm sure they do 8 anyway. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: That's true. Well, 11 somehow they're getting it though. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: So -- because that's a 14 lot of paint. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Somebody can pick up a 16 few extra bucks for turning them in. 17 MS. HOFFER: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, let's hope they 19 do. This person needs help. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Very well. Thank you, Kelly. 21 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.26 consider, discuss 24 and take appropriate action to approve an Interlocal 25 Cooperation Agreement between Kerr County and Liberty 112 1 County for Jail Services. And this is actually to 2 ratify what I've already signed, I think. 3 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 7 approve the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement with 8 Liberty County as presented. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: Sheriff, when are you 10 going to raise your rates? I mean, now that you have 11 the reputation of being the best jail -- 12 SHERIFF LEITHA: We should go up, right? 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- out of 50. I mean, 14 you know, that oughta be worth some kind of added 15 payment. 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: Next year we're going to 17 raise it. Yeah. And I say that to be fair to other 18 Sheriffs obviously who do their budget. I think they 19 would be pretty upset with me if I didn't -- 20 COMMISSIONER PACES: I understand. 21 SHERIFF LEITHA: We're going to look real 22 hard at it. Judge, I'm sure you signed off on those 23 invoices. I mean, we had a really good month last 24 month. Just to share with the Court, we're kind of at 25 maximum capacity. Under my administration, like today 113 1 currently, we have 265 prisoners, 94 out-of-county. With 2 the employees we have, the one to 48 ratio, we're pretty 3 much maxed out. I mean but, you know, we brought in, 4 what, 167,000 last month. So that's a good month. 5 JUDGE KELLY: That's good. The Bexar County 6 contact is working. 7 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yeah, that one by itself, 8 that's enough for me. I mean, we just do this other 9 one. You never know. I mean, as far as I'm concerned 10 with Bexar County, that's more than enough. And they -- 11 like I said, they haven't gave us a whole lot of 12 problems. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Well, in terms of raising 14 rates, when you negotiated the contract with Bexar 15 County, we disclosed the rates and -- 16 SHERIFF LEITHA: Yes. 17 JUDGE KELLY: -- we gotta keep them that way 18 at least for a year. 19 SHERIFF LEITHA: And that took -- as you 20 know, that was a lot of back and forth in that. But we 21 will look at that real hard this next time. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Very good. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We voted on that, didn't we? 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: I don't think we did, 25 did we? 114 1 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 2 Opposed? Motion carries. 3 Item 1.27 consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action to surplus office chairs for County 5 Court at Law and Information Technology. Miss Shelton. 6 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We're asking that you 7 surplus the chairs. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 11 surplus the chairs and presented. Any discussion? 12 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 13 Item 1.28 consider, discuss and take 14 appropriate action to offer Sheriff radios as trade-in 15 for new property of the same general type per the Local 16 Government Code Section 263.152. Miss Shelton. 17 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We're asking that you 18 approve this trade-in. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 22 approve the Sheriff radio trade-ins as presented. 23 COMMISSIONER PACES: So my question on this, 24 are we trading them in for the new radios that are going 25 to be compatible with the new system whenever that goes 115 1 live? 2 SHERIFF LEITHA: No. No, these are the 3 radios you kind of brought up earlier we offered to the 4 fire department. They're really no use. They're kind 5 of outdated. You know, they may be selling them for 6 parts. I don't know what it is. But no, they're -- 7 they're not -- you know, the ARPA funds paid for all the 8 radios. So it's not like we could trade it back in to 9 them. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, that's what I'm 11 asking. I mean we're talking about trading them in for 12 new property of the same general type which we -- we 13 wouldn't want the same general type, would we? 14 SHERIFF LEITHA: Correct. Well, you never 15 know. We may need extra later but we're dealing with a 16 local vendor here. 17 COMMISSIONER PACES: Yeah. 18 SHERIFF LEITHA: Not for Kerrville. It's -- 19 Motorola project. Motorola doesn't want them back. I 20 mean, they have no use for them. Our local vendor 21 here -- 22 COMMISSIONER PACES: You can't get parts for 23 these things anymore. 24 SHERIFF LEITHA: Correct. I mean but 25 they -- you know, they are good for parts. I mean some 116 1 people are still using them. 2 COMMISSIONER PACES: Well, I suppose. Yeah. 3 Like me. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So we got a motion and 5 a second to approve the trade-ins as presented. Those 6 in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 7 1.29 consider, discuss and take appropriate 8 action to approve contract with CASA, court-appointed 9 special advocates. 10 This is just our annual renewal with CASA. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve the CASA contract. Those in favor say aye. 15 Opposed? Motion carries. 16 1.30 consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 action to approve the contract with Werling Associates, 18 Inc. for the salary survey and authorize the Judge to 19 sign same. Ms. Zapata. 20 MS. ZAPATA: Good morning. There's an 21 updated one. There's one in your packet but it's a 22 proposal. This one actually is the contract submitted 23 to me this morning. This is for salary survey. So I'm 24 asking for y'all to approve the contract. 25 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. I'll move to 117 1 approve the contract with Werling Associates for the 2 salary survey. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve the contract for the salary survey as presented. 6 Any discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: What is the total? 8 MS. ZAPATA: 32,720 is what he quoted. And 9 I think that the previous, when we did the bids, y'all 10 said 40,00 in case there's -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Max, yeah. I just 12 want to make sure it fell into there. I saw there's -- 13 MS. ZAPATA: It's on page 4. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: -- their hourly fees 15 on page 4 but that's just if something else comes up. 16 MS. ZAPATA: In addition, yes. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So we've got a motion and a 19 second to approve the salary survey and contract? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor say aye. 22 Opposed? Motion carries. 23 Item 1.31 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action to approve the medical expense for an 25 inmate. Miss Zapata. 118 1 MS. ZAPATA: So it was brought to my 2 attention that we had an inmate who went over the 3 allowed 30,000 in a year for medical expenses. He went 4 over by $13,591.12. So I'm asking the Court for 5 approval to pay those bills. We are still obligated to 6 pay those bills. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval that 8 we pay the additional amount. 9 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'll second. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: 13 thousand? 11 MS. ZAPATA: 13,591.12 12 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 13 approve paying the additional medical bills as 14 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 15 Opposed? Motion carries. 16 And then Item 1.32 consider, discuss and 17 take appropriate action to amend the General Provisions 18 and rescind Court Order No. 40794. And we'll take that 19 in Executive Session or here? 20 MRS. STEBBINS: You can take it in Executive 21 Session if you'd like to get some legal advice about it. 22 Sure. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then I'll recall that 24 in Executive Session. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 119 1 JUDGE KELLY: With that, we will move over 2 to the approval agenda. 2.1 budget amendments. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: There are two other items, 4 Judge. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, oh yeah. I forgot about 6 them. 7 1.33 is consider, discuss and take 8 appropriate action to ratify and confirm the grant 9 application and grant agreement with the Texas 10 Comptroller of Public Accounts for the Rural Law 11 Enforcement Salary Assistance Program pursuant to Senate 12 Bill 22. Ms. Putnam. 13 MS. PUTNAM: Yes. I would like to get 14 permission to ratify and confirm that we did submit the 15 grant and also got notification that actually we will be 16 receiving these funds tomorrow. 17 JUDGE KELLY: That's even better. 18 MS. PUTNAM: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. Good news. 20 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 24 approve ratifying and confirming the grant application 25 grant agreement with the Comptroller's Office as 120 1 presented. Any discussion? Those in favor say aye. 2 Opposed? Motion carries. 3 And then the next one is in Executive 4 Session. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: The next one will be in open 6 session but I'm going to ask that you recall the one 7 right before Noel's item, because I think we can talk 8 about it in open session. If you guys feel like y'all 9 want to go into closed session and ask some questions 10 about it -- 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the more we can do in 12 open session, the better. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: Yeah. Because -- 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Quicker. Yeah. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: That's what I think. 16 JUDGE KELLY: So I'll recall Item 1.32 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to amend 18 General Provisions, and rescind Court Order #40794. 19 Miss Zapata. 20 MISS ZAPATA: So on the revision that I -- 21 that you have a copy of in your backup, we didn't have 22 terminology in here to cover how we're going to be more 23 effective when they're approved during the budget 24 process. And so under number three, which is 25 highlighted in yellow, we just added that wording. So 121 1 effective full pay period. Wage assessments -- wage 2 adjustment increases approved by Commissioners' Court 3 shall become effective on the pay date of the full -- 4 first full pay period of the new fiscal year. It's the 5 practice we've been doing. Just didn't have it in the 6 general provisions -- 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: In writing. 8 MS. ZAPATA: -- and we feel like it needs to 9 be in there. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: I'm going to turn on my mic, 11 I don't think it helps you guys hear me. But this -- I 12 think this practice changed probably about five years 13 ago during a rewrite of the handbook. And that involved 14 HR, Commissioners' Court members, Auditor, my office. I 15 can't remember if there was anybody else that was 16 involved. 17 But it -- it was recommended by the office 18 that had payroll at the time, and so that change was 19 made back then. And it's been a practice that the Court 20 has been following for about five years. And the 25 pay 21 period -- the first full pay period after the fiscal 22 year starts is what the Commissioners' Court approves in 23 the budget. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 122 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: And generally what's at 2 stake is, at most, a half of a pay period with a new 3 salary increase whenever it was approved, right? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: I think so. 5 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 7 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion and a 8 second to approve the amendment of the general 9 provisions and to rescind Court Order Number 40794 with 10 regard to wage adjustments as presented. Any 11 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 12 carries. 13 Okay. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: So the -- the item that was 15 an addendum that is requested in Executive Session, it 16 needs to be in open session because it applies to 17 employees generally so you -- it can't be in closed 18 session. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So then I will call 20 Item 4.2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 21 regarding personnel matters in District Clerk's Office 22 employee. Yes, ma'am. 23 MS. LYLE: Good morning. So first of all, I 24 would like to thank Commissioners' Court for giving us a 25 cost of living this year. I'm sure everyone appreciates 123 1 it as the cost of everything has increased so it is 2 going to help cover some of those costs. But I do have 3 a question as an employee of Kerr County for over 23 4 years, as to how every -- every process has changed over 5 the last five years from previous payments of our pay. 6 I don't know how it got changed or when it got changed, 7 but we were receiving 26 full paydays, with pay being 8 prorated between old pay and new pay. And five years 9 ago that changed. 10 So this year we are getting paid for almost 11 half a pay period at the old rate, half a pay period at 12 the new rate. So I'd like to ask the same question that 13 I've asked other people. I've asked my supervisor. I 14 asked HR. I asked the County Attorney's Office and I 15 have yet to get an answer. And Heather kind of 16 explained it but not fully. 17 I'm curious as to the legality of how our 18 pay can be calculated at the old rate when part of our 19 pay period is within the new fiscal year, when every 20 order has stated that COLA is to become effective the 21 fiscal year. Fiscal year begins October 1st. It 22 doesn't begin October 6th, the 11th, the 3rd, the 15th. 23 It doesn't begin the first full pay period at the new 24 rate; it begins October 1st. I understand other 25 counties, Bandera and Gillespie as well as the other 124 1 counties in our area, pay their employees prorated. 2 They don't pay them the first full pay period. So I'd 3 like to know the legality of how that is happening. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can't answer to the 5 legality. That may be in Executive Session. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Ask the County Attorney that 7 question. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I responded to Terry last 9 week that this was what the Commissioners' Court adopted 10 with the 25 full pay periods is what you adopted in your 11 budget. So that's how the budget was created and 12 adopted by this Court. And so that's the answer to that 13 question. 14 But also, at the time, five years ago during 15 those -- during the meetings that we were having about 16 the employee handbook, the Department -- the HR 17 Department that was in place at the time made this 18 request so that it -- there would -- it would be easier 19 to calculate over 300 employees' increases for their 20 office. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Simplified. If this 22 is something that needs to be corrected, we need to 23 correct it. 24 MS. LYLE: So how was it not simplified five 25 years ago? I went back to 2013. And every year, there 125 1 were 26 pay periods. And it was prorated between old 2 and new pay. Five years ago, it started being 3 calculated at 25 and one. And I'm not sure who changed 4 that or why. Because the level of transparency is just 5 not there. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It is now. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. We need to 8 correct it. 9 MS. LYLE: That is after we got paid Friday. 10 It's now being changed? 11 JUDGE KELLY: No. That's what we've been 12 doing for the last five years. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: There's no action for the 15 Court to take to correct for change anything. If the 16 Court wants to talk to the Department who do payroll and 17 budgeting so that you look toward next fiscal year if 18 you want to make a change, that is probably appropriate. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Any change would be a 20 prospective change, not a retroactive change. 21 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 22 MS. LYLE: So it would be retroactive or it 23 would not be retroactive? 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It would not. 25 JUDGE KELLY: It would not. Because of the 126 1 last years -- five -- the last five years that's the way 2 it's been in the General Provisions. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: And in the budget. That's 4 how you've adopted the budget. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Now we can change it. But 6 that would be prospective only. 7 MS. LYLE: And each year that Miss Stebbins 8 was referring to the order states fiscal year. So I 9 still argue fiscal year begins October 1. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we adopt the fiscal -- 11 we adopt the budget and we put in 25 pay periods, which 12 we did, then that's what -- that's what the order is. 13 It's 25 pay period. 14 MS. LYLE: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Now, am I misunderstanding? 16 MRS. STEBBINS: No, sir. 17 MS. LYLE: Okay. That was all I need to 18 find out. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else? 20 COURT REPORTER: What is your name? 21 MS. LYLE: My name is Terry. Last name is 22 Lyle, L-Y-L-E. All right. Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Sorry. 24 Okay. Anything else we can handle before we 25 go through the approval and information agenda? Okay. 127 1 Then we'll start with 2.1 budget amendments. 2 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. You have in front of you 3 budget amendments for today. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Do we have a motion? 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: We're still getting 7 there. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 9 approve the budget amendments as presented. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. Did you 11 already get it? Sorry. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. That's okay. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I was thinking. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Those in 15 favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 16 2.2 bill pay. 17 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Invoices for today's 18 consideration amount to $1,505,253.29. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 22 approve paying the bills as presented. Any discussion? 23 Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 24 Late bills 2.3. 25 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. We have a couple of 128 1 late bills today in the total of $66,349.50. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve the late bills for payment as presented. Any 6 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 7 carries. 8 2.4 Auditor reports. 9 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Just a couple of verbal 10 reports. Each year we have to go in and re-certify or 11 re-register for SAM, which is the SAM of awards 12 management. This is how the Federal Government keeps up 13 and approves all of us that are asking grants for that 14 has been taken effect, and the new date is 9-27 of '25. 15 And the second report is just to give you a 16 little update on the Incode 10 migration. This has been 17 a project now for two to three years and we finally have 18 a better schedule for it. And so it's set to start in 19 February of 2025. The Treasurer's Office, HR, IT and 20 the Auditor's office have been working on a detailed 21 schedule as the migration will take several months. For 22 planning purposes, currently May 20th will be the last 23 day to work in Incode 9. There will not be any access 24 in Incode until Tuesday on May 27th. One of those 25 reasons is that Monday is a holiday. And so Incode will 129 1 be updated. Holecheck(phonetic) will be coming in and 2 updating all the financials at that point. And the 3 training on Incode 10 for timesheets, purchase orders 4 and report will take place in March and April. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Do we have a motion to 6 approve these Auditor reports? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move. 8 COMMISSIONER PACES: All right. I'll 9 second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 11 approve the Auditor reports as presented. Any 12 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 13 carries. 14 2.5 monthly reports. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. For August 2024. 16 Monthly report, County Treasurer, Tracy Soldan. 17 Veterans Services office, Director Jenna Sanchez. 18 Justice of the Peace, Judge Bill Ragsdale, Precinct 4. 19 September 2024. Payroll approval. County Treasurer, 20 Tracy Soldan. Constable Tommy Rodriguez, Precinct 1. 21 Kyle Schneider, Precinct 2. Paul Gonzales, Precinct 3. 22 Brad Rider, Precinct 4. Justice of the Peace, Judge 23 Mitzi French, Precinct 1. Judge JR Hoyne, Precinct 2. 24 Judge Kathy Mitchell, Precinct 3. Judge Bill Ragsdale, 25 Precinct 4. Auditor's Office, Tanya Shelton, County 130 1 Auditor. District Clerk, Dawn Lantz, District Clerk. 2 I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 5 approve the monthly reports as presented. Any 6 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 7 carries. 8 2.6 Court orders. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have court orders 10 from our September 27th meeting, 40872 through 40904. 11 We're recommending a slight change to Court Order 40879 12 that's related to the Republic Services contract. It 13 originally read, "Execute contracts as to public 14 services for County facilities", and I think we should 15 add the words, "Authorize County Judge to execute the 16 contracts." 17 And then October 7th is court order 40905. 18 For that one modification we recommend court approval. 19 So move. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 23 approve the Court orders as revised. Any questions or 24 discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion 25 carries. 131 1 Information agenda. 3.1 status reports 2 from department heads. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir. 4 MR. THOENNES: I just wanted to give a quick 5 update on our other training program from last year. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Identify yourself so the 7 public knows who you are. We're trying to get familiar 8 with you. 9 MR. THOENNES: Cory Thoennes, IT Director. 10 So last week we initiated our new cyber training for the 11 County. I just want to give a quick snapshot. So 12 roughly a third of the County members had actually 13 opened up the initial fishing e-mail, which definitely 14 in itself not necessarily a bad thing. But of those, 15 about a third of the group we ended up having 22 percent 16 of the hits that actually were negative hits. 17 So at the baseline number where that falls 18 in like government entities, that baseline number is 19 actually 28 percent. So we actually fell underneath 20 that. And then starting today, we're actually doing the 21 official training program. So there's going to be a 22 short, quick ten-minute video in your -- in your in box. 23 The hyperlinks on that e-mail are valid links to click 24 on. Yeah. So click on those hyperlinks on that e-mail 25 that -- 132 1 COMMISSIONER PACES: I'm not clicking on 2 anymore from IT. I thought you were trusted but -- 3 MR. THOENNES: Yeah. 4 COMMISSIONER PACES: -- you proved me wrong. 5 MR. THOENNES: So that was the initial 6 training program that will kick off in January. We will 7 release the annual cyber training that is required by 8 CAR for our requirements on that. I just wanted to give 9 you a quick update on all that. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And Cory, the people 11 that do open these, they're identified? I mean they -- 12 you've responded to them and said hey? 13 MR. THOENESS: We have awareness of them, 14 yes. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. 16 MR. THOENNES: And in the training that is 17 going to happen. Coming starting today. There's 18 training tidbits in each of those e-mails on what to 19 look for when you're suspecting an e-mail that might be 20 a fishing e-mail, whether it's an e-mail address. A 21 number of people within the County did really well on 22 that, they just deleted the e-mail, which is the 23 preferred method. 24 There are other flags. You know, weird 25 hyperlinks, if you scroll over with the mouse to the 133 1 hyperlink and it shows something that just does not make 2 sense, most likely is a fishing e-mail. And again, 3 delete it. You can report it to our office. If you 4 are -- if you do receive something that you're not 5 expecting that may look legit, absolutely, you know, 6 trouble ticket. Give us a call. We'll look into it. 7 But this is the initial steps in moving the right 8 direction for our overall awareness. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So if we didn't hear 10 from you, we did good. 11 MR. THOENNES: Not exactly. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, okay. 13 MR. THOENNES: You will be -- if you do in 14 the future click on these training e-mails that you are 15 not supposed to, you will get immediate feedback on what 16 you did. And, you know, why it's wrong. And then it'll 17 give you some additional training on that. So very 18 minimal impact but -- 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Click wrong, get more 20 training. 21 JUDGE KELLY: All good. Okay. Any other 22 Department Head reports? 23 3.2 status reports from elected officials. 24 3.3. Status reports from liaison 25 commissioners. 134 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a brief one on 2 the Animal Control facility. I met with JK Bernhard and 3 Peter Lewis. The good news is, they got the number -- 4 they have a way to get the number down to the actual 5 bond amount. The bad news is, I won't recommend that. 6 I'm going to recommend we add some things to it that I 7 think are necessary. But that will be coming up at a 8 future Commissioners' Court once we get final prices on 9 a few things. 10 And I've asked for some additional pricing 11 and some additional quotes also. So -- but they did 12 what they were -- we asked them to do. They got it 13 down. And it's not terrible where they got it but, you 14 know, I think some of it's shortsighted. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Any other reports? 16 Do we have anything for Executive Session? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: No, sir. 18 MRS. SHELTON: Judge, if it's okay, can we 19 recall Item 1.12 and just add to y'all's motion that it 20 is -- y'all are allowing for -- because I'm trying to 21 think of what the right word would be -- the Treasurer 22 to write the check for the -- 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Authorizing. 24 MRS. SHELTON: Authorizing. Thank you. 25 Authorizing the Treasurer to write the check for the 135 1 Toyota purchase. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I'm going to go ahead 3 and recall Item 1.12, which is consider, discuss and 4 take appropriate action to authorize Environmental 5 Health Department OSSF to purchase a 2024 Toyota Tacoma 6 and authorize the Treasurer to issue the check. 7 MRS. SHELTON: Yes. Thank you. With the 8 trade-in. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. That's -- that's 10 what -- 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I'll make that motion. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and a second to 14 approve the purchase of the Toyota and authorize the 15 Treasurer to write the check to pay for it. Any 16 discussion about that? Those in favor say aye. Those 17 opposed? Okay. Revised. The motion is passed. 18 As far as Executive Session, do we have 19 anything? 20 MRS. STEBBINS: No, sir. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Then we are adjourned. 22 * * * * * * 23 24 25 136 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 8th day of November, 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