Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

We'll call this regular session of the Commissioner's Court of Comal County to order for Thursday, July 23rd at 8.31. Please let the record reflect that all members of the court are present this morning. We will begin with action agenda item number one, which is approved claims.

Judge, I move to approve the claims as presented for July the 23rd, 2026. EFTs $455,366.40. Regular claims of $1,269,892.90 for a total of $1,725,259.30. Second.

There's a motion to approve claims by Commissioner Hogg with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. We'll move into our workshop agenda with item number one, citizens' comments. Public comments may address items of public interest and concern or a specific agenda item and are limited to three minutes per person. Is there anyone here that would like to address the court this morning? Good morning.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. My name is Danae Delaney. And everyone, good morning. I'm here to talk about the Canyon Juniper Ranch wastewater permit renewal. It's 300,000 gallons per day. I looked up for us, is wastewater affluent a pollutant? And according to the EPA and TCEQ on their website, yes, it is. So you can see my kindergarten little coloring. This is from a geophysicist who mapped the aquifers and the Cow Creek Formation. And you can see that the path of the affluent in red will go right through the Cow Creek Formation. And there are faults and fissures there that the affluent will go directly into. There are 8,000 plus private wells that will be affected. The effects will happen estimated within months, maybe two quarters. There are solutions. The developer is going to use 210 development reuse. It's a partial reuse. And there are two golf courses nearby that drive to Shirts to buy tap water to water their golf courses, about 700,000 gallons per day. They could buy the effluent and make everyone go zero to hero right away. Travis County Commissioners approved a resolution to... Tell TCEQ to not adopt a permit for a development that is asking for a TLAP permit, 100% reuse, a closed loop system. So Travis County Republican men are also concerned about the Canyon Lake cumulative effluent loading. At the TCEQ meeting, the standards implementation team leader said that someone will call them when it's a sloppy, soupy mess. And then they will come out and do something. And when asked after degradation, not before, TCEQ answered, that's right. after. We have a problem. Even Representative Isaac when she saw that video said he shouldn't be talking that way. Well he did because people were informed and he finally told the truth. So it's not anymore. They can do whatever they want with their private property when it affects other homeowners. Mr. Shake had a mini lake on his property. Mr. Wright has effects on his property from stormwater. And TCEQ does not know if the best management practices, which is SILT, try to keep the silt off of the other properties have been properly maintained or even built. So, TCQ has a track record that I have researched. And if you want more information, I have facts and I can share them. And it's not, I want to do this nicely, but there are facts to back up this. And thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here to address the court? Public comment?

OK.

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.

I just wanted to share the latest information related to the levels of Canyon Lake and the particular boat ramp access points that are open. Currently, the level is 909.43. We have a few ramps that are open. We have ramp 1, 2, 6, 7, and 11. Big point here, I added the QR code onto this for folks to be able to scan. It'll take you to this particular site that has all the information related to ramps, lake level, and the different ordinances and regulations associated to the ramps. I hope you find it useful. And then, importantly, the ramps are used for the launch and recovery of watercraft. And there's a lot of verbiage there in the ordinances to remind folks about that. So please be careful out there this weekend. If you head out, there is still quite a bit of debris floating around. And you could really damage your valuable watercraft. So be careful.

I've got one. I just want to compliment our new emergency manager on standing up an EOC within five days on the job, six days on the job. Is that correct? And our county judge. I think you guys and all the different departments that were involved. did a phenomenal job with the disaster response and management. And it was really nice to feel included in that. And it was a great response and great communication. And I just wanted to praise the team. You guys did a great job.

Thank you. Anyone else? OK. Moving to workshop agenda item number three, which is the recognition of employees for years of service to Comal County.

Samuel McCosh, 10 years of service. Elena Padilla, JFS in the piece.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Janelle Hikers-Cannon from the Law Library, 10 years of service.

And we will honor Raul Arias-Luther from the Sheriff's Office Ready? One, two, three. I don't think so.

I think I told you we used to take a break at this point. And we had cookies and like punch on the table out there. We did that for years.

Okay, we'll move back into our action agenda item. Item number two, discuss and consider final plat approval of the vacate and replat of lots one, two, and four of the Hogan 281 subdivision, establishing lots one R, two R, and four R, and authorize the county judge to sign. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge Commissioners. There's a piece of property here. The owners came to us to do some cleanup, kind of administrative. Had some different property owners. They wanted to switch property lines around. Wanted to point out this is the first dual process we've done since the kind of the opt-out process. So they opted out of the property, which actually kind of complicated this. So this ended up being a dual plat process where the city reviews it, the county reviews it. A lot of communication back and forth. You can see here by the plat is separated there with city jurisdiction and county jurisdiction. Took some time. We ended up getting it all together. I want to point out that the city has already approved there and they're signed off. So my recommendation is to go ahead and approve this plat.

Excuse me. Move to approve action agenda item number two. Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number two by Commissioner Hogg, with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carried. Item three is discuss and consider final plat approval of the amending plat of Flying W, unit one, amending lot 907, and to make corrections to street names and authorize the county judge to sign.

Judge Commissioner, simple amending plat. There was a note on one of the easements that the developer did not want, so they were trying to make a correction on here. Also, while we were reviewing the plat, there was an address issue naming, actually street naming issue, so this plat is correcting that as well. So I recommend approval.

Move to approve action agenda item number three. Second.

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

Thank you.

Thank you. Item four is discuss and consider approval to participate in the Department of State Health Services Texas Infertility Prevention Program Procedures of Collaboration in connection with grant number 6NH25PS005182-05-12 for the term September 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027. and authorize the public health director to sign via electronic signature. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. So this is a program that we picked up right after COVID. The state helps us with some funds to be able to offer STD or STI testing and treatment to our residents, and I respectfully ask for your approval.

Move to approve action, Jenna. Number four. Second.

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

Thank you.

Item five is discuss and consider approval of amendment and renewal to RFP 2024-3355, inmate medical, pharmacy, mental health, and psychiatric services for the Comel County Jail and authorize the county judge to sign. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. Before us today is the renewal for next year with our current provider, which is Turnkey. Just the one major change in all this is in the original staffing matrix when we had their proposal, we had EMTs on there as being part of the staffing group. during the first two years of the agreement. One of the changes that was requested during the renewal from the jail and in collaboration with the DA's office was removing that position and changing it to an LVN. LVNs are more, have the expertise to do these forensic broad draws that are needed. So you can see there the Hours per LVN goes up. I'll show it again here. The EMT is 12 hours per, 24 and 12 on the LVNs, and then the new one is going to be 36 and 24. Again, that will give us the level of expertise needed to do these forensic blood draws. Again, that is the only major change, so I respectfully request approval of this new amendment and a renewal of the agreement.

Who would approve Action Gen. I, Number 5? Second.

Second. There's a motion by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Cronover to approve action agenda item number five. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 6, discuss and consider approval of Noble General Contractor's Job Order Contract for the Equipment Pole Barn Expansion at the Comal County Engineer's Office using RFP number 24-7494, Job Order Contracting and Facilities, Construction Services, State of Texas, ESC Region 19, Allied States Cooperative, and Authorized Purchasing Agent to execute all related documents.

Judge and Commissioner, so back in 22, this pole barn you see here was budgeted and built by noble general contractors at that time through the same procurement method. The road department went ahead and budgeted and was approved for an extension of this, which looks to be a 90 by 30 addition to this structure. So everything is covered. Like I said, we're using a job contract on this, so I respectfully request approval of this agenda item.

Who to approve action agenda item number six?

Second. There's a motion to approve action agenda item number six by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Cronover. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item seven, discuss and consider approval of TASB Energy Cooperative Fixed Rate Transportation Fuel and Heating Oil Agreement and authorize the purchasing agent to execute all related documents.

OK, I'm going to give you some background on this one. It's pretty lengthy, so please bear with me. So one of the jobs we do in the office is keep track of fuel costs and consumption, just to ensure that we're always maximizing our dollars as to how we're purchasing fuel. So I did a comparison earlier this year that had to do with how much we're paying at the pump versus how much we pay at our fuel tanks located at the road department. We captured this data, you know, the different mechanisms. So I ended up doing a combination of this data. So as you can tell, the blue there is what we pay at the pump. And the way we do this, we actually have gas cards that are pretty much in every vehicle that the county owns. And this is for ease of use. You know, a lot of it has to do with we have people that are in the far end of the county. You know, sometimes it doesn't make sense to drive all the way back to the yard and waste, you know, a gallon and a half, two gallons of gas driving back and the same thing going back. So it is ease of use and it does help when they're there, especially in emergency situations, too. You know, so it does have a benefit. Unfortunately, we pay what is at the pump. You know, there is no tax incentive on that. There's no... all taxes are included in that again. But as you can see, what we pay at the pump versus what we pay at the yard, there's a big difference. The pricing we pay at the pump right now has to do with OPUS pricing. So OPUS basically is whenever we place the order, whatever the market rate is, that's what we pay at that time. So as you can tell, it fluctuates and it does move up and down with the market. But as you can tell, ever since March, You know, we've had an increase. We had a dip there in June and July. So that's when I started looking at it closer to see if there could be something we could do to take advantage of or at least lock in prices at our fuel dispensing area at the road department versus, you know, playing with a fluctuated market. Here's more information. So in May, I compiled this information. I actually sent out to everybody. I included the sheriff's office, constables, anybody who has a fleet of vehicles to let them know that there's an advantage to us cleaning up at the yard. And I guess it was really well received because, as you can tell, our monthly average there for a rolling 12 months was 17,000 gallons at the pump purchase price. In June is when I sent out that email, and we reduced that a mile away to 4,100 gallons at the pump. which is great. I actually had to rerun the numbers. I thought I had made an error. I'm not going to lie. But it was right. Difference is 12,000 gallons. That actually leads to a savings of almost $6,000 for the month of June alone. I mean, you multiply that out by 12 and you're looking at $72,000 savings just by filling up at the yard. And that's what this graph shows. A little bit further, The pricing at our field location at the yard, again, we've been averaging, you know, for rolling 12 months, over 202,000 gallons purchased of unleaded, 100,000 of diesel. Monthly average is 16. But as you can see, again, those are the 26 totals, 96. So I kind of tried to give you as much information. I did add July. I figured, you know, we would have one more delivery for July. But again, we're at 1875. And you can tell there in June, we literally bumped up to 32,000 gallons at the yard. Again, we have been averaging 16. So again, that all leads to savings. Right now, the last purchase price is $2.89 and $4 on diesel. Now, with all that said, we have an opportunity to lock in pricing through TASB Cooperative. But because of the market being what it is, their pricing right now, and I just got the latest this morning, even if we decide to lock in, and the lock-in is 170,000 total gallons, which would be 120,000 unleaded, 40,000 of diesel, which is really something we can consume within six months. It is a 12-month agreement, but again, I lowered it so we have six months to play with. But if we do lock in today, we're looking at $4.02 for diesel and $3.24 for unleaded. Again, it is a little bit higher. We're trying to hit a moving target. It's a little bit difficult, but again, this is an opportunity to lock in the pricing so we don't pay more than as we move forward. But again, it's a moving target, so I'm just presenting the information to see if we want to take action on locking in pricing for a year. But again, in reality, it will be about a six-month commitment because of the amount of fuel that we're consuming right now.

Move to approve action, Jenna, on number seven.

Second.

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

I know we've done this a couple times before. It's been many years back. We've had the In the last several years, our fuel costs have been pretty stable. And they went up substantially earlier this year. And I immediately told our budgeting, the county administrator, that I said, we're going to start putting fuel costs into the budget because we're going to run short because of the big difference that we were at that time. I'm not sure that this is the time to get into a contract with TABSI or whatever we, you know, what y'all refer to this at, because I don't know where those fuel prices are going to be in three months. And I want to be more stable. And when we did this, we did it also to help us as a budgeting process, because we would start the year And I'm just going to use even numbers at $2 a gallon. And we knew what to budget. That way we wouldn't run out of fuel. And we budgeted for that those years. So I don't know if this is the time to do that. But it's definitely something that we probably need to keep in mind and look at as we go forward.

And this price you gave from today is $0.09 over yesterday.

Yes, ma'am. And honestly, put it out there, the email I got is like, whenever you all log in and then you call me back, that might be a different price too. It's a moving target right now. There's absolutely nothing that anybody can do.

Well, I appreciate the analysis. And I mean, you went, clearly you went through this and looked at the impact that it has in the county and and the potential savings that we could have over a period of time. One thing you delineated is the amount of fuel that we do use in a six-month period of time compared to the contract blank for a year. And so again, if we look back, we look forward to six months from now, we can revisit the purchase of the fuel as the fuel price.

Yes, sir. Once we consume our allotment, then pretty much the contract comes to an end because it's either the term date comes first or the allotment comes first. Whichever comes first is when it terminates. So, again, if six months, five, I mean, if we keep these levels that we're at where it's kind of increased, you know, we're going to do about... I'm expecting for July, we're probably going to do about 23,000 gallons versus the 32. It's a little bit less, but you do 23, you multiply that by 6, you're at 120 plus. So again, the diesel will be about the same. Again, we do have the off period coming at the end of the year, because right now we've got road crews running, paving, so that consumes a lot of extra fuel. So we do have some slow period coming into the winter. But, again, I anticipate consuming the allotment as presented right now probably within six, seven months tops because then right around we have the new year starts again and we're running around everywhere. So, again, but, again, it's a moving target. You know, it's just fuel prices right now. I mean, we've all seen what's at the pump every day.

Yeah, and furthermore, we have law enforcement involvement around the county that's going to increase with. the changes we've had with the lake and the rivers and just that impact to a lot of vehicles traveling around the lake. But I appreciate that, and especially the communication to all the fleet partners in the county, because that clearly made a difference. I mean, the facts don't lie.

Yes, sir? You know, one thing I did forget to mention, and actually Commissioner Concrano and I were talking about it, that bill that passed last year on paying taxes as a county, that actually saved us a ton. I hadn't paid attention to that one until yesterday. I was reminded we actually saved half a million dollars just on taxes that we have not paid as a county based on that bill. So that in itself is huge. I mean, because that's an extra half a million we would have paid out over the last 12 months if that bill was not in place. So actually, that's pretty amazing. Again, I thank you for reminding me on that because it's something I kind of, you know, it's We don't see it on the invoices anymore, so it's kind of just out of sight, out of mind. So that's actually huge, half a million dollars, because right now then we would have been in trouble having to need additional funding for the budget for fuel alone.

Now, on the tax, on the fuel, do we still pay it when we are at the pump and then not pay it when we buy in bulk?

Or do we get a rebate? There's one side that we get credit for at the pump, and that's because of the gas card itself. But I don't know which one it is. I can't remember. I'd have to go back and look which one it is because we use the ExxonMobil plan. But again, it's ExxonMobil. You don't have to fill up at an Exxon station. You can use any one of them. So there is a cost savings there. I just can't remember which one it is.

Any other discussion or questions? Good work. All those in favor, please raise your right hand.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number eight, discuss and consider the following actions for the county administrator position. A, reclassification of position 051-534-001, county administrator from E18 to E20, effective July 23, 2026. no budget amendment is necessary. B, approval of the revised county administrator job description to include effective October 1st, 2026, county budget officer functions and duties pursuant to subchapter C of the Texas government code chapter 111. And C, authorized moving the supervision of the county administrator effective immediately the following positions and departments. Grants administrator from the auditor's office, information technology director, Public Health Director, Indigent Healthcare Administrator, Veteran Services Director, Commissioner's Court Staff, Facilities Maintenance Director, and Public Information Officer.

Judge, Commissioner, this item is on the agenda to adjust the job description and responsibilities of the county administrator position. I think everyone knows that my plan is to retire fairly soon, so you'll be in the process of finding a replacement for the county administrator. And this will set up all these responsibilities so it's very clear for the new candidates that are being considered, they will know exactly what the responsibilities of the job will be in the future.

So to approve action agenda item number eight. Second.

A, B, and C. There's a motion to approve action agenda item number eight, A, B, and C by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 9, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer in elections from voting supplies to capital equipment to provide funds for the purchase of a ballot printer. Good morning.

Good morning.

Was this changed a little bit?

There was a change in where to, from to. The ballot printer is what we use to print all of our ballots for ballot by mail. And we anticipate many, and our printers that we have now are at the end of life. And they're not supported by even the manufacturer. So we need a printer to print our ballots. It saves us a lot of money than ordering ballots from the vendor.

Move to approve actions on item number nine. Second.

We will need it to be read with the adjustment made on your screen, if you don't mind. It would actually be administrative costs, capital equipment, if you could

We're going to move to approve action agenda item number nine, moving, was it 9,000? 9,600. Out of money is not on the screen. 9633. 9633. Moving $9,633 from voting supplies to administrative costs and capital improvement to provide funds for the purchase of a ballot printer. Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number nine with the change of moving to administrative capital equipment, with a second by Commissioner Hogg.

I think you were told 9636, but it's 9663, according to this.

Great. Yeah, the number's not changing. It's really just the clarification on where the funds are being moved to. I believe I have a corrected amendment motion for number nine and a second by Commissioner Hogg. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 10, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer in public health from books and publications to copier lease and maintenance to provide funds for copier lease and maintenance for second copier for the remainder of the year.

Good morning. So as I discussed in budget workshop, this is something we looked at what is the most effective way for us to be printing. And we had individual printers. We're running out of that ink as we speak. And moving away from that and going to a second copier in the back of the public health office, which we have in the new building, I work in with purchase, and we looked at that, and this would cover us for the remainder of the year for that second copier because our lease agreement is up in August. So they will bring that second copier in August, and we will move to printing to copiers and not individual printers.

Move to approve action agenda item number 10.

Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number 10 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number 11 is Executive Session. In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, Subchapter D, Commissioner's Court may convene in a closed session to discuss any of the following items. Any final action or vote will be taken in public. We'll be meeting under Item A and C. A is deliberate and consider the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property in accordance with Section 551.072 of the Texas Government Code. and 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're going into executive session at 9.03, and we would like to invite our legal counsel and our county administrator to join us. We are returning from executive session at 10.07. What is the pleasure of the court?

Judge, under item 11A, I move to authorize the purchasing director to obtain preliminary estimates on cost to prepare the site at 1345 Sattler Road.

Second.

We have a motion by Commissioner Cronover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. On item 11A, to authorize the purchasing director to obtain preliminary estimates on costs to prepare the site at 1345 Sattler Road. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Judge, on item 11C, I move to authorize the purchasing director to engage in professional services related to sales tax analysis. Second.

A motion on item 11C by Commissioner Webb and a second by Commissioner Leacock to authorize the purchasing director to engage in professional services related to sales tax analysis. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Okay, with no further business on the agenda today, we will be in recess until the regular scheduled meeting of court on July 30th. We are in recess at 10.08.