Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

OK, we'll call this meeting to order at 8.30. And let the record reflect that Commissioner Hogg is absent and all other members of the court are present. And there is a quorum. We'll begin with action agenda item number one, which is approved claims.

Judge, I move to approve the claims as presented for May 28, 2026. EFTs, $107,780.09. Regular claims, $940,195.46 for a total of $1,047,975.55. Second.

There's a motion to approve claims by Commissioner Crownover, with a second by Commissioner Webb. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. We'll move into our workshop agenda. And we'll begin with item number one, which is citizens' comments. Citizens' comments are limited to three minutes per person. And this would be the time that anyone could come forward to address any matter of public interest, as well as any item on the agenda. Is there anyone here to address the court? Good morning. Morning.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. My name is Jonathan Gulick, and I am a Comal County resident. Before I dive into what I say, Commissioner Leacock, thank you for yesterday's email to me. I stand before you to speak about a recommendation made last week before Commissioners Court by Mr. Robert Boyd, Comal County Engineer, to update the September 3, 2020, Comal County subdivision regulations. The regulations address a variety of topics, including water availability reports. Over the past few years, I have devoted time to reading and commenting on approved San Jose Water Texas 2022 war and a draft of the Texas Water Company 2025 war. I have read the Comal County subdivision regulations specific to wars, as has my colleague, John Heidor. In 2025, John and I spoke with Mr. Boyd about updating water availability report content in the subdivision regulations to address perceived shortcomings which, if codified, would ideally result in consistently higher quality reports. Mr. Boyd agreed to consider our recommendations, provided we submit them in a format that facilitated an efficient review, which John did on September 4, 2025. Since then, we have been checking in with Mr. Boyd about our recommendations for inclusion in an update of the regulations. I was pleased to see in the May 21st Commissioner's Court Action Agenda 6 about proposed revisions to the subdivision regulations. Prior to this, neither John nor I had received feedback from Mr. Boyd seeking clarification about inclusion of all or part of our war recommendations. As I was sitting next to Mr. Boyd prior to the start of the May 21st meeting, I asked him if any of our war recommendations had been incorporated in the proposed subdivision update and was told the consultant that reviewed the regulations had advised war-specific content did not require an update. I was very surprised about this. As we've seen, water availability reports are vitally important to many here in Comal County. My concern with the May 21st approval of the timeline for proposed revisions to the subdivision regulations is that there will be no time to conduct a review and refresh by a cross-section of informed stakeholders of war content, including the Hydor Gulick recommendations, such that accepted recommendations are included in the 2025 update to the regulations. It has been nearly six years since the regulations were updated. Finally, how soon will you be willing to execute the next update with war content? Thank you.

Is there anyone else? Good morning.

Good morning, judge and commissioners. My name is Julie Prescott, and I am a Comal County resident. I'm here today to place a serious public accountability concern on the record regarding the administration of the precinct four constable's office, Comal County. This is not about personal politics, and it's not an attack on Constable Ali Flores. This is about whether the office followed the professional and legal safeguards required before selecting and attempting to appoint a deputy constable. The issue is not simply that someone was sworn in. The issue is whether a thorough background investigation was conducted, whether TICO procedures were allowed, followed, I'm sorry, and whether the constable exercised the due diligence expected of a Texas law enforcement administrator. TICO's background confirmation form, BCF 24.004, requires the chief administrator or designee to certify that all pre-employment procedures required by Texas Occupations Code Section 1701.451 have been completed. That certification includes required background procedures, including review of service records maintained by the commission. This is not optional paperwork. It's a formal government certification that required pre-employment safeguards were completed before an appointment moved forward. What makes this matter, especially concerning, is reports that TCLED's website rejected the L-1 appointed for this deputy constable. If TCLED had not rejected that appointment, this individual may have been improperly appointed to a deputy constable position. That means the issue was apparently not discovered through the constable's own due diligence, but only after the state system rejected the appointment. If that is not accurate, then the constable should be expected to produce documentation proven otherwise, including the completed background packet, personal history statement, background confirmation form, service record review, prior agency contacts, and proof that all required TCO procedures were completed before the appointment was attempted. It is even more troubling if another qualified individual applied for the same position who had already been appointed or sworn in and was passed over in favor of someone whose ineligibility should have been identified before any appointment was attempted. I respectfully request that this matter not be minimized as a harmless Independent investigation should determine who applied, who was qualified, who was passed over, what background was completed, what did TCLEDs reject, who certified the BCF, and whether any government documents certified facts that were not accurate. The public deserves facts, not minimization. Law enforcement leaders cannot demand accountability from citizens while excusing preventable failures within their own offices. If the facts show that TCO procedures were not followed, required background steps bypassed, or a government certification was submitted without the required foundation, then the constable and the individual involved should do what every credible law enforcement leader would expect from others. Accept responsibility, step aside from the position, and restore integrity to the process in office. Law enforcement authority begins with credibility. Your time's up. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Anyway, citizens of Comal County deserve better. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone here that would like to address the court? Anyone else? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move into workshop agenda item number two, which is reports by county staff and elected officials on items of community interest.

Morning. Good morning. Good morning, county judge and commissioners. I would like to address the court regarding my recent chief deputy appointment by clearing up any concerns regarding the role of commissioners court in this process, as well as present a solution that I will implement in the future when appointing a new deputy. I would like to respectfully remind the court that I was adhering to the pursuant provisions of the Texas local government code relating to constables and the appointment of deputy constables. Specifically, Local Government Code Section 86.011 outlines the required process for the appointment of a deputy constable. Section 86.011 states that an elected constable who desires to appoint a deputy must apply in writing to Commissioner's Court, demonstrate the necessity for the position to properly handle the business originating in the precinct, and state the name of the proposed deputy. The statute further states that Commissioner's Court shall approve and confirm the appointment if the court determines the constable needs a deputy to handle the business originating in the precinct. In compliance with the statute, I followed the required process by bringing the appointment before Commissioner's Court, naming the intended chief deputy, and provided an introduction regarding the appointment. the Chief Deputy position itself had already been previously budgeted and approved by Commissioners Court years prior. Therefore, the purpose of the appointment request was to comply with the statutory process required for confirmation of the individual being appointed to that already approved position. Additionally, Section 86.011 specifically states that the Constable is responsible for the official acts of each Deputy of the Constable. The facts are that the completion and review of any background investigation or administrative licensing matters fall under the responsibility of the chief administrator of the agency, which in this case is myself, and not the responsibility of Commissioner's Court. Any accidental oversight or issue related to the background or licensing process rests solely with me as the chief administrator and not with the Court. In saying that, I would like to point out that I had completed all background investigation requirements in accordance with TECOL rules and procedures. Confirmation of this was provided through a background completion form, a BCF completion email received directly from TECOL, indicating I was cleared to proceed with the next step of submitting the L1 appointment application. And in this email, there was no indication that he wasn't eligible. This was received prior to Commissioner's Court appointment request and approval on April 2nd. It is extremely important to note that approximately five days after Commissioner's Court approved the appointment request, when I immediately became aware of the licensing status issue, I contacted the appropriate T. Cole authority for guidance and took prompt, corrective action to ensure full compliance moving forward. The solution I will implement moving forward is that I will attach the attended deputy's printed T. Cole personal status report, a PSR, and a printed background confirmation form, BCF, email confirmation from T. Cole, along with the requested deputy appointment agenda item. So the court will have that information available. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else for workshop item two, county staff elected officials? Seeing none, we'll move into item three, which is a presentation of the 2025 annual report by the Comal County AgriLife Extension Service.

Good morning.

Good morning. Thank you.

Sorry. Okay. Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. We are here this morning to do our annual report of last year. Before you, you have our annual report that we do for the county that kind of sums up everything we did. Behind that, you'll find our in-depths that go more into detail of each one of those different items from the programs that we're doing here in the county. On that second page of the annual report, you will see kind of at the bottom some of the numbers. The total contacts by our faculty for the previous year was 229,000, almost 230,000 contacts here in the county. Of those contacts, almost 166,000 of those were for educational contacts. whether that be adults or youth in the schools or programs within the county itself. We had almost 800 volunteers that we organized through our office that volunteered about 65,000 hours combined with a total economic impact of about $2.25 million here in the county. As you know, part of our job is through working with the youth, whether that's 4-H or in the schools. And so I'm going to ask our program assistant, Lauren Shoemaker, to come over and kind of give you a little bit more on the youth side of it with our curriculum enrichment.

Hi, good morning. So I specialize in the curriculum enrichment here for the Extension Service. And last year, overall, I impacted approximately 6,000 students across approximately 40 schools here in Comal County. With our curriculum enrichment programs, including Youth Gardens, Hatching in the Classroom, Maggie the Monarch, which is Hatching a Monarch Butterfly students, and various other programs within that realm. And so I'm going to move it on to Lauren Strom. She's our 4-H agent and she has information about our 4-H program.

Good morning. So last year we We had about 531 4-H members in the program, and we also had over 100 volunteers that worked directly with the 4-H programs and the clubs throughout the county. And it was a very successful year last year, and we had everything... Sorry. It was a great year across the board. They were involved in so many different project areas as well as leadership activities throughout the county. So we were really excited for last year and all the participation we had. And this year going forward, we just completed the school year with our 4-H program. We had a lot of success with the kids and participation. And we are gearing up for our state roundup, which is this coming week, where we are taking 21 senior level 4-H members to College Station to compete. the state contest and so they're competing in nine different contests some of them are qualifying others are invitational contests so we're really excited for that opportunity for those kids to get leadership experiences as well as some state level experience there but we have lots of camps coming up this summer and lots of activities still going strong but it's been a great 4-H year and just excited to keep going and keep improving as we go

We love what we do, obviously, and we hope that y'all can see our passion and our drive for doing what we do. And if y'all have any questions, we're definitely here to answer.

I just want to thank you all for everything you do. I get a lot of great feedback from people in my precinct and beyond for the outstanding job you do. And when people call up with their different questions, they've just moved here or whatever, and they've got those things. You guys are extremely responsive. And the educational, the classes that you all hold for the community and stuff are very much appreciated and well attended, too. So keep up the good work. Thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you. Item number four is recognize and award the first, second, and third place teams and team member winners for the Spring 2026 Walk Across Texas.

Good morning. So real quick before I announce our top three teams for Walk Across Texas Spring 2026, I just wanted to say that this year we had a total of 24 teams. Last year we only had 15. We had 171 county employees who participated. So we were up from last year as well. We had 114 employees last year. And last year, we logged 30,224 miles. This year, we ended up capping it at 41,230 miles. I want to say this is probably the most I've seen. This is my fourth time doing Walk Across Texas in the county, so this is probably the highest number I've seen those four times. So I will jump into announcing our top three teams. As I call the team, if they want to come up, and then at the end we'll get a picture with everybody. So in third place, we had the HR Hustlers, and they averaged 353 miles per participant. Are they here? If y'all want to come up. And then in second place, we had between a walk and a hard pace, who averaged about 402 miles per participant. And then in first place, we had the Pedominators 2.0, high speed, low drag, who averaged about 651 miles per participant.

Oh, you're fine.

We're good in it.

Okay.

Congratulations to you three teams. Good work. OK, we'll move back into our action agenda with item number two, discuss and consider extending or releasing the surety for construction of roads and other site improvements within Mayfair parcel EA3, lots 1R, 2R, and 3, block 81, or direct the county engineer to take appropriate action.

Good morning, Judge, commissioners. Mayfair is still hopping out there. And the city of New Braunfels is doing a regulatory authority out here. And this particular commercial development, The item's kind of wordy because we were just on the cusp of releasing this, which was my preference, but we weren't able to get that, but we were able to get an extension for this bond. So we're going to extend it. Likely in the next week or so, we'll release it. So I recommend accepting this extension.

Move to approve action agenda item number two.

Second. There's a motion by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover to approve action agenda item number two. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand.

Sorry. We were talking about whether we need to say we're extending or releasing, and the motion is to extend. Correct. Recommended.

And a second. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 3, discuss and consider approval of the amendment to Platt of Mystic Shores, Unit 15, combining lots 1899, 1900, establishing lot 1899R, and authorize the county judge to sign.

Judge, Commissioner, this is a large lot amendment to Platt. Mr. Salo has been working on this for a year, finally got things done with his bank, and we're happy to see him get this done. I recommend approval.

Move to approve action agenda item number 3.

Second.

There's a motion to approve item number three by Commissioner Cronover with a second by Commissioner Webb. Any discussion? Questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item four is discuss and consider approval of awarded United States Army Corps of Engineers contract number W9126G26QA056, fiscal year 26, for increased law enforcement services at Canyon Lake and ratify county judge's signature.

Board and Judge, Commissioners, earlier this year we submitted a cost proposal to the Corps for our annual summer contract where we provide additional patrols through the Corps parks. This is the award letter. We had to get it signed last week because the contract actually went into effect starting last Friday, and it will run through Labor Day requesting approval.

Move to approve of action agenda item number four. Second.

There's a motion to approve item number four by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you, Captain. Item number five is concerning the Comal County Mental Health Extended Observation Unit Crisis Residential Unit Facility Project. Discuss and consider A, approval of change order number seven from the Trevino Group in the amount of $4,791.92, the cost of which is to be covered by the American Rescue Plan Act interest earned funds. B, approval of change order number 8 from the Trevino Group in the total amount of $578,126.90, the cost of which is to be covered by American Rescue Plan Act interest-earned funds. And C, prioritize the use of principal ARPA funds for all project-related payments, including all change orders effective quarter 2 of 2026 to complete principal ARPA fund expenditure prior to December 31, 2026.

Judge, commissioners, I'll do my best to explain these change orders. The first change order, number seven, involves some changes to the inside of the building. It's a zero-day add and an add of $4,791.92. The changes that are being contemplated here is to change some lock sets within the building. We did have some access issues that were discovered during the review process and working with Hill Country to make sure we have proper egress from the building during emergency situations. So it triggered some changes to our lock sets. And then we also are modifying or adding TV in the day room, which was not originally included. Those costs here are outlined here. That would be item A. Item B on today's agenda is the kind of a relatively large change order. It'll take me a little time to explain what's happening here. We've got kind of a fancy word here called supervoid redesign. And this is a redesign of our foundation that we ran into as we completed all the pier installations and as we started working on the utilities, the plumbing and so forth, underneath the slab. We found some conflicts with not only the slab but with the carton forms for the design of the building and ended up actually re-looking at the whole situation and changing the way the plumbing is installed underneath the building. I'll go into a little detail on that. It's a relatively significant change. It does add 177 days, and the total amount of the change is $578,126.9. Supervoid system is a method of dealing with the plumbing and utilities underneath the slab to account for expansion of soils. And this site that we're working on over by the jail has highly cohesive expansive soils. And according to our geotechnical reports, we have roughly about a 10-inch potential movement, either up or down, depending on the moisture content of these soils. So when you have that condition, it can disrupt the plumbing systems that are in contact with the soil underneath the building. This is a detail of all the changes that were involved, fairly extensive. It involved a lot of the subcontracts and the actual special system called Supervoid. Uh, what's happening here is we actually ran into a code change. Uh, the, uh, international building code, uh, identified this need and has recently added this to their design. And what I want to focus on is this little paragraph right here. And I'm just going to read this under foundations where a slab or framing that structurally spans over a under floor space that isolates the slab or frame from the effects of expansive soil swelling and shrinking in accordance with section 1808 of the IBC, the plumbing shall be suspended so that the plumbing hangers and supports are isolated by a void space from the effects of the expansive soil swelling and shrinking. This is kind of a little diagram showing what we're talking about here. So this simplified little cartoon shows the top view shows a newly built situation where a slab is on grade. And this is not exactly the situation we have out at this site. We have a void space here. But it shows what the effects are of these expansive soils. So the original design shows the plumbing going to toilets and showers and lavatories, and then buried in the soil. During a shrinking situation, the slab, and it's exaggerated in the view there, shows the slab actually moving down with the soils. And the bottom example shows the actual expansion after a rain event or moisture enters the clay soils. And what it does is it disrupts those utilities providing service to the building. The system that we're installing here, and we actually looked at a different system initially, and that's why it took so much time to get this resolved. But we ended up going with the Supervoid system, and this is just a diagram showing how it works. You can see that there are hangers installed in the actual slab of the building. On this particular view, you can see that the expansive soil is at the very bottom of that little exhibit. And then you have this void in between the slab and the building, which allows those soils to move. up and down. So with the utilities actually hanging from the bottom of the slab and the void boxes underneath those pipes, when those soils expand or contract, it won't move the pipes. They'll be stationary. Then there's an added feature, which allows this kind of a universal joint type scenario. So if there is any movement of these utilities, these joints will actually handle the flex. Pretty cool system, actually. And the good thing about this, too, is that these mechanical devices are located outside of the foundation of the building. So future maintenance can be handled 10, 20 years from now, if these joints need to be serviced, they can be uncovered without getting under the building. It's a good design. I think we're going to incorporate it on every future building that we build out on that site. That would be my recommendation, that we get our architects to add the Supervoid system to all of our designs on that property due to those soils. The final item here is to establish a priority for the use of the ARPA funds so that we will use all of the principal ARPA funds prior to the end of the year and then use the remaining funds for the project. We still have about $3 million of ARPA funds remaining that need to be expended. Once we get this thing off and running again, there won't be any problem meeting that deadline, in my opinion. So that item C will establish a future use of those funds to make sure they're expended prior to the end of the year. I do have Kirksey here, along with their structural MEP consultant, if there are any questions about the Supervoid system. But our recommendation is to approve this item A, B, and C.

Move to approve action agenda item number 5, A, B, and C. Second.

Here's a motion to approve agenda item number 5, A, B, and C by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item number six, discuss and consider approval of the following record rotation agreements pursuant to order number 552. A, buy in between Comal County and Hill Country, Hill Customs number two. B, buy in between Comal County and Hernandez Service Center. C, buy in between Comal County and Blue Bonnet Chrysler Dodge. D, buy in between Comal County and JJ's Towing. E, buy in between Comal County and Blue Bonnet Ford Motors. F, buy in between Comal County and New Braunfels Autoplex. And G, buy in between Comal County and Interstate Towing and Recovery. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. We, pursuant to Order 552, we respectfully request an insurance agreement with the said companies to perform record services with the Sheriff's Office.

We'll deprive item number 6A through G. Second. Second.

There's a motion to approve item number six, A through G, by Commissioner Webb, with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion or questions?

Kevin Garrett, thank you so much for all your work on this. I know it's been a trying process, and I appreciate the patience of the record service providers as well. But you've done great work on this, and I think everyone understands that we've asked you all to enforce this order, and you've done a great job of that. And we look forward to your recommendations going forward as well, because I understand it's been difficult, and there's some parts of this that we're probably going to want to amend in the future. But we look forward to hearing from you guys how things work. And we want to get it in place, too, and get it going so we can move forward. So thank you.

Well, thank you. And I thank everybody else, because it was not just me and the Sheriff's Office that played a role in this. There was a lot of people. So thank everyone. And we will come back in August and give some recommendations as well.

I don't know if there's anyone here that wants, I'm sorry. I don't know if there's anyone here from the public to speak on this, but I do want to see if there are. And then Commissioner Leacock, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just wanted to make sure that we gave space if there were people here.

No one? Did you have comments?

No.

No? Any other questions? Okay.

All right. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number seven, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer and administrative costs from contingency to jail housing of prisoners to provide funds for the funding for housing of inmates and out of county. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge, commissioners. This is to cover the cost for the MOU that we approved a couple of weeks ago to house inmates, overflow inmates. I'm respectfully asking for your approval on this matter. Move to approve action agenda item number seven.

Second. There's a motion to approve item number seven by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Thank you, Judge. Thank you.

Item eight, discuss and consider approval of line item transfer and public information officer from computer components and software to non-capital equipment to provide funds for the replacement of a laptop. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. Marcus Pacheco, Assistant County Administrator. This request presented before you is to move funds from computer components and software to non-capital. The request is mainly to allow the purchase of a new laptop for a public information officer, and we respectfully request approval of this line item transfer amendment.

Move to approve action agenda item number eight.

Second.

There's a motion to approve item eight by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions or discussion?

I think we need her to come in. I think she needs to come and come back from wherever she is and explain what's going on here. Well-deserved time off.

All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. OK, so we will be going into executive session 906. Under item number nine, executive sessions in accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, subchapter D, commissioners court may convene in a closed session to discuss any of the following items, and any final action or vote taken will be in public. We'll be going into executive session under Item C, deliberate pending contemplated litigation, settlement offers, and matters concerning privileged and unprivileged client information deemed confidential by Rule 1.05 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct in accordance with Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code. We'll need our county administrator as well as our legal team. And a correction, that would be 907. Thank you. We are returning from executive session at 9.31, and there is no further business for today. So we are adjourned until our next regular term and meeting of the court on June 4th.