Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Okay, good morning again. This is calling the regular session of Commissioner's Court for Comal County, Thursday, June 18th, to order. It is 8.30 a.m. Let the record reflect that Commissioners Hogg and Webb are absent this morning, and all other members of the Court are present, and there is a quorum. We will begin with Action Agenda Item 1 to approve claims.

I move to approve the claims as presented for June 18, 2026, EFTs $196,935.42, regular claims $1,847,689.82 for a total of $2,044,625.24. Second.

We have a motion by Commissioner Crownover and a second by Commissioner Leacock to approve claims. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item two is discuss and consider accepting a check donation from Water Oriented Recreation District in the amount of $200 to be deposited into line item 010-000-2332 for providing power to the Word Guard Shack at Nichols Landing. Good morning.

Good morning, judges and commissioners. This is Nichols Landing in the western part of Comah County on the Guadalupe River. The guard shack we're talking about is the entrance to Nichols Landing. And just down the road from there is the siren that we installed a few years ago, one of our high water warning sirens. We're bringing power to that location from an existing PEC pole. And so we'll be going right by the guard shack. And so word is asked if we could provide power to that shack. And the answer is yes. The cost is $200. And that's what they're providing the check for today.

Move to approve action agenda item number two.

Second.

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

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Boyd. OK, we'll move into our workshop agenda item now and begin with citizens' comments. If anyone is here to address the court, you may come forward now. And you're limited to three minutes per person. Seeing no one, we'll move into workshop agenda item number two, which is reports by county staff and elected officials on items of community interest.

Starting tonight, we have our first of five public meetings to discuss the road improvement program. It'll be here in the courthouse from 5 to 7. The locations of those are around the counties over the next couple weeks, and so we really encourage the public to come out, see what our consultant HNTB has put together as far as the projects we're looking at, and also get input for potential other projects that could be considered by the court. So we encourage everyone to come on out tonight or one of the other meetings. If you can't make one of the meetings, we have a QR code on our website. You can see...

projects we're talking about thank you thank you judge i'd like to give a brief report on the new world screw worm zones that are currently in texas this map shows the current zones that ex the infested areas as well as some surrounding surveillance zones And I highlighted here where Comal County is. So right now, Comal County is not in an infested zone or a surveillance zone. No portions of Comal County are included at this time. We did receive an email from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service disseminating some information about behavior if you're moving livestock within one of these zones, and they did ask us to distribute this information, so that's what I'm doing today. We have these two PDF documents showing livestock movement within an infested zone and approved drugs for moving those livestock in or out of the zones. And those two documents are shown. And again, it doesn't apply to movements in Comal County at this time, but it does in those other zones. If anyone's interested for more information about this, this is probably the best link that I found to go to it. It's a an A&M link on the New World screw arm. And our public information officer will be making these documents available and disseminating these today.

Thank you. Any other comments or reports?

Good morning. Good morning, Judging Commissioners. So, as Tom mentioned, the New World Screw Worm Public Health has been following this for quite a while, and we are still following that also. We're also following the outbreak in the Congo of Ebola and kind of talking about that with our local partners. We have been doing World Cup education, provider education, since probably December, January, working with all of our freestanding ERs in our hospital just to make sure that if someone is here from another country, they make sure they get all the information and notify us, just making sure we don't have anything come into the country via World Cup. We're still following our normal stuff like rabies, measles, everything else, still doing vaccines. We are back to doing CPR, so any county employee, we're only offering it to county employees right now. We have a lot of room over there at our new building, and we have all our... dummies in the closet, so we don't have farted totems, so we encourage anyone to call. We do that the third Wednesday of every month. But any department can call myself or Natalie Peel, my nursing supervisor, and we can also come out to where you're at and do that CPR, stop the bleed, Narcan. You know, there's still a big push on the fentanyl side. Me and Commissioner Crownover have went to some meetings in San Antonio about that, and we still teach Narcan. And we can do any of those individually for your department. Just let us know. We met with our EMS providers this week and had a really good conversation on all these topics. So it's just a... It's something always going on. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other reports by county staff or elected officials? Seeing none, we'll move back into our action agenda. Item number three is discuss and consider accepting the continuation certificate for construction bond number 0864532 as a one-year extension of the surety term for construction of roads and other improvements within Kindwood Unit 4. Precinct 3.

Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. City of New Braunfels continues to enforce our regulations. Kindwood 4 is about to get close to closing out here. They're just not quite ready. We can't get the closeout documents, all the testing results and everything, so they want to extend this, and I'd recommend extending this acceptance or accepting this extent.

Move to approve action agenda item number 3.

Second. There's a motion to approve action agenda item number 3 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions for Mr. David?

All right.

All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item four is discuss and consider approval of the amendment to Platt of Mystic Shores, Unit 3, combining lots 251 and 252, establishing lot 251R, and authorize the county judge to sign.

Typical large lot amendment to Platt. Maldonado family has a complete application. Recommend approval.

Move to approve action agenda item number four.

Second.

There's a motion to approve agenda 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.

Thank you. Item five is discuss and consider approval of the Tax Assessor Collector's Monthly Collection Report for Comal County for May 2026.

Morning, Judge, Commissioners. Presenting for you this morning the property tax collections for the month of May 2026 in the amount of $1,034,886.33. Move to approve action agenda item number five.

Second. There's a motion to approve action agenda item number five 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. Item 6, discuss and consider approval of the Treasurer's Monthly Report for May 2026. Good morning.

Good morning. So there are the balances at the end of May. We were appropriately collateralized at that date. Our interest income year-to-date is $3,225,000. And let's see, the new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, had his first meeting yesterday, and he chose to play it very, very safe and didn't change the rates to either decrease them or increase them. So we are going just as normal. Money market's running at a 3.54 this morning. Investments are running at low fours for a two-year maturity. So we'll just keep taking advantage of it where we can.

Move to approve actions at number six.

Second. There's a motion to approve action agenda item number six 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.

Item seven is discuss and consider approval of a memorandum of agreement between Comal County, Texas and the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding the use of interoperable systems and IPAWS open platform for emergency networks and authorize the county judge to sign. Commissioners, this is something that Comal County has not had in the past. Some of our neighbors do have this ability to utilize iPause. We, on April 2nd, performed the statewide notification test for TDEM, Texas Department of Emergency Management. And in the preparation for that meeting, we realized the importance and how critical it would be for our county to have access to this system. The difference on this is IPAWS is a nationwide, as you can see, a federal ability that they would allow and grant us. So if there were an emergency in our county or within a portion of our county, what IPAWS does is it sends a signal to the cell phone tower, so anyone's cell phone within that area or that radius would receive an emergency notification, assuming that their notifications were turned on. So I would respectfully request approval of this item and look forward to sharing more information about this program with you all as it proceeds. Move to approve action agenda item number seven.

Second.

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

I just wanted to make sure in the paperwork, when I read it, some of the stuff was needed to be updated.

Yes. And so that will be updated. I apologize. I meant to mention that. Contact information in Appendix B will be updated once we have the staff in place for emergency management. OK. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 8, discuss and consider approval of an unexpended balance transfer by ACH payment to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for the fiscal year 2024 Senate Bill 22 Rural Law Enforcement Grant and the amount of $8,933.92 to satisfy program requirements. Good morning, Sheriff.

Good morning, Judge Commissioners. This was actually our year one funding where we used it to buy equipment and some of the equipment that was purchased we got for a less expensive price than originally. So we had this money left over. And as required by the statute, it must be returned to the state.

Move to approve action agenda item number eight.

Second. There's a motion to approve action agenda item number eight 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. Thank you. Item 9, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer and public information officer from computer components and software to administrative costs, non-capital equipment to provide funds for the purchase of a replacement laptop.

Good morning, judge and commissioners. This $1,800 was approved previously, but what had happened, the money that we were trying to move it from had a zero budget, which we don't do. So this is just having that $1,800 come from a different fund that has a budget.

Move to approve action agenda item number nine. Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number nine by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 10, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer and administrative costs from contingency to insurance to provide funds for the insurance costs for the remainder of 2026.

Good morning again. When we budget for these items, we don't know the exact amount since the renewal has not come through. There was an increase in the property insurance renewal this year due to fully insuring the Goodwin Annex. And then there was also an increase in the casualty insurance as well.

Move to approve action agenda item number 10.

Second. We have a motion to approve action agenda item number 10 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 11, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer in road and bridge, maintenance and operations from contingency to property improvements, capital equipment, overtime, and herbicide materials to cover the cost of equipment barn installation to replacement hydraulic hole diggers for traffic control signage teams, overtime, and herbicide materials.

We're judging commissioners. I want to go through a couple of items here. This was some of those budgeted in the 2026 budget was to extend equipment barn, and so we put off-season equipment in here. Right now our paving machines are active, so that's why they're not in there. But we needed an additional $12,600 to cover that cost. The second part is normally we try to budget for these items. These are older items. We were hoping to make it 2026, but we were not able to, or 2027, so we were not able to. So we need to replace those today. Those are for our sign crews when they have to install new signs and limestone. Third, $20,000 of overtime to complete our paving season. So right now, we're in the middle of paving season. We're on schedule, so we should be done by the end of September. But we need that extra time for our paving crews to work 50-hour weeks in the summertime. And then lastly, this is our current herbicide, and we need $10,000 to complete our 2026 application. And we'll put more money in there for the 2027 budget.

Move to approve. Action agenda item number 11.

Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number 11 by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions or discussion? I have one. You and I discussed this about regarding the overtime. That was initially requested in last year's budget, but there was only a certain amount.

That's correct. We had requested $130,000 and got $100,000 in our 2026 budget.

Okay. And you'll anticipate to adjust that in your request for 2026?

Yes, ma'am. Absolutely.

Great. Okay. Any other discussion, questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. So there's no need for executive session today, so that will conclude our agenda. We will be in recess until the next scheduled meeting next week, June 25th. We'll adjourn at 846. Have a wonderful day.