Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

I would like to call this meeting to order. This morning's invocation will be led by our very own Pastor Darius Todd. If you will please all rise.

Let us bow. Heavenly Father, we honor you this morning. We thank you for giving us a space where we can take a moment and breathe and say thank you for all the grace that you have given us this day. We thank you for the sun that is shining and for the people that have come together to share and to spend time with one another to resolve issues and to come and to be a community. We ask, Lord, for your peace, your unity and your strength today. Help us, Lord, to use those to lead to hear, to think about what is going on, and then to lead into the peace that you have called for this region. Thank you for teaching us how to love you and love one another. We will do that today and always. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

Will you please call the roll?

Commissioner Inglesby? Here. Commissioner Cohen? Here. Commissioner Hammer? Here. Commissioner Smith? And Judge Becerra.

Here. You see, technology can bring you into the focus. Thank you. But let's not be there too long, okay? Thank you. Okay. Public comments. Do we have that section? If you guys will lead the charge on that. Tell me what the total count is.

Five general public comments and two e-mails.

Perfect. Let's start with the five and then we'll go to the e-mails.

Carol Pennington.

When the timer goes off, I don't have to tell you, but I'll just repeat it. When the little beeper goes off, that means wrap it up, please, and thank you. Thank you.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. Why are you extending the time frame for action on the development of high water use developments? Creating the Hays County High Water Demand Development Review Board is taking more time to make a decision. kicking the bucket on down the road and putting the decision on someone else. What I would like to see is for Hays County to create a high water use development review checklist that gives the county the authority or at least to suggest to enact the various parts of the checklist. This is what Hill County did and it can be stronger than what we have now and can be more immediate. The checklist would require high use developers to submit things like a traffic impact analysis, high haul route study, construction traffic plan, bridge capacity analysis, road maintenance agreement, a peak water demand, annual water consumption estimate, closed loop versus evaporative loop cooling analysis, water recycling. This is not even the entire list. Good leaders know how to pivot, and this checklist ensures that developers have to be good neighbors to make them prove it on paper ahead of time before building anything. I believe that this checklist will deter data centers from picking Hays County for their sites. This is not trust but verify. This is verify and verify again. I have one copy of the Hill County's proclamation that should be a resolution that includes the checklist. This document is 17 pages long. I urge you to adopt this as soon as possible so we can have something we can use immediately. Then create a review board if you still feel it necessary. We don't have time to waste on this matter. Thank you. Thank you.

Karen Abel.

Good morning. My name is Erin Abel, and I am a commissioner of ESD 9. I'm here to speak to you today on the distribution of assets to the county and the city of San Marcos upon the dissolution of San Marcos Hayes EMS. Last year when ESD 1 left their partnership with San Marcos Hayes and ESD 9 began the process of leaving also, the city of San Marcos and ESD 9 had many meetings to discuss how best to do that so that the continuity of care of our citizens would not be interrupted. In good faith with the city, ESD-9 discussed such items as when trucks would be rolled out, when key personnel could be hired by our organization, etc. In truth, ESD-9 could have gone out on our own much sooner, but we were told by the City of San Marcos that that would leave them in severe financial shape. So we worked with them so that, again, the citizens of Hays County and San Marcos would continue to receive the same level of care that they had always received. It came, therefore, as quite a shock when ESD-9 was told that upon dissolution of San Marcos Hayes EMS, ESD-9 would be given no share of the eight plus million dollars worth of cash and assets sitting on San Marcos Hayes balance sheet, but instead would also be distributed in totality to the city of San Marcos. ESD-9 was told that they were not owed any assets because the county had stopped paying San Marcos Hayes EMS upon the creation of ESD-9. strongly disagree with this. The taxpayers of Hayes County, your constituents, continue to pay every year through the tax dollars collected for ESD 9 that were paid to San Marcos Hayes EMS. I therefore request and recommend that before any decision is made upon the disbursement of San Marcos Hayes and EMS asset ownership upon its dissolution, you request a full financial accounting and of tax dollars paid to Sam Marcus Hayes from your constituents, and a complete asset inventory provided to ensure an informed and just decision can be made by the court. Thank you.

Thank you.

Liz Gee?

I'm trying to say it aloud.

That might be you. You're trying to say Liz Giles? Yeah. There we go. There you go.

For those of you who don't know, I'm former Hays County Judge Liz Sumter. I'm here today to set the record straight. I'm running for Hays County Judge as an independent because of you, Commissioner Cohen. Your inability to tell the truth is astonishing. Your willingness to mislead and outright lie to get a vote is despicable. During the primary, especially during the runoff.

Please, just let her get through her three minutes. You're going to make it worse.

She's making it worse right now.

Please. Please stop.

During the primary, especially the runoff, you told people that I would not run if you won the primary. That was a lie. You willfully told that lie because you thought it was going to get you votes. You're misleading statements about your accomplishments that never happened.

Please stop before I ask you to be moved.

You can ask anything you want, but first you ask her to stop making personal attacks.

Please. Last chance.

I don't care how many chances. Okay. Please escort him out. I ain't going anywhere. I ain't going anywhere. I ain't going anywhere. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving.

We'll try one last time. I'm sorry for the interruption.

Your misleading statements about accomplishments that never happened. coupled by a failed political agenda to provide anything meaningful to the people of Hayes County is on record for all to see.

Will you please help him out?

I don't need any help at all because I'm not leaving. When I choose to leave, I'll get up on my own legs and walk out.

The bailiffs have that capacity. Please help him out.

No, I'm not getting up. I'm not getting up. I'm not getting up until the court enforces its own rules. I'm not getting up. I'm saying no. I'm saying no. I'm saying no. I am being reasonable. The court is not. The court is this speaker. I understand it.

I'm not talking to a person.

Will you roll it back maybe, I don't know, a sentence? If you can have a complete thought, start it again. We'll try again.

He's putting his court in a bad position. He's running for office from this courtroom, and this courtroom is not enforcing its own rules

Can we ask for legal opinion Thank you, yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. Let's ask for legal opinion.

Yes, just for clarification Please say your words your direction your suggestion.

Can you tell me what your exact question is?

What Liz Sumter is saying. Is that against our court rules?

I would say currently what Ms. Sumter is saying in her comment is allowed by our rules currently.

Thank you.

What rules are they?

Thank you. Well, I can go into a recess until you help them out, but we're not going to stop. We're not going to stop. Bayliss, please help us out.

We're gonna take a five minute recess and we are back from a short recess Liz we'll give you a fresh three minutes

Thank you, Judge. For those of you who don't know, I'm former Hays County Judge Liz Sumter, and I'm here today to set the record straight. I'm running for Hays County Judge as an independent because of you, Commissioner Cohen. Your inability to tell the truth is astonishing. Your willingness to mislead and outright lie to get a vote is despicable. During the primary, especially the runoff, you told people that I would not run if you won the primary. That is a lie. You willfully told that lie because you thought it was going to get you votes. You're misleading statements about your accomplishments that never happened coupled with a failed political agenda to provide anything meaningful to the people of Hays County is on record for all to see. You broke promises that you made and you willfully voted against programs that would help the people because you didn't want your opponent to get a win. Your public statement that you know better than the people and don't need a committee to get their input is dismissive. All across the county, I spoke with people, and their overwhelming comment about you is they cannot trust what you say, and they cannot trust what you do. I expect that during the course of your campaign, you will continue to mislead and lie to get votes, but the people of Hays County are smarter than what you think, and they deserve better. You and the Republican candidate are cut from the same pro-growth, water-sucking, special-interest, pay-to-play political cloth. Judge, while you and I have had and have not always agreed on the issues and clearly have different management styles, I respect the fact that you tried to do the right thing by the people of Hays County. Unfortunately, you were derailed by the Commissioner Cohen, who put her ladder climbing career before the people. Finally, I'm not here to divide, but to unite. I am here to stand up with the people of Hays County on issues that matter to the most. No to AI data centers. Protect our water resources. put people first over paid consultants, cut waste in government spending, and be held accountable. I'm here to earn each and every vote by telling the truth and listening to their concerns. My campaign is all-inclusive. Independents, Republicans, and Democrats have a seat at the table, their voices heard and valued. Thank you.

Thank you. And if you'll go to the next one.

Margarita Crosby Good afternoon, my name is Margarita Crosby. I'm here to address Judge Ruben Becerra and other commissioners about our water quality and preserving our water but first after what has taken place I I don't think that that was the time or the place to speak about this, considering the information that was given. I was told today to come and speak and hold all of you accountable, each and every single one of you. The people are listening. The people are paying attention. Do not underestimate us at any point. We need water. That is no lie. The Lord gives us water so that we can drink. We need it. It is an essential element. From our blind salamander to the abuelita that's there watering her grass and her plants, we need the water. Do your job, listen to the people, preserve our water at all costs. So whatever organization, whatever people you are aligned with, whatever campaign contributions you're receiving, whatever it is that's motivating you to go one way or another, take note. Dr. Cohen, Debbie Inglesby, if you are elected, Liz Sumter, Morgan Hammer, and Wal Smith is in here. interesting. Our data centers do not belong here. The water and the people and the creatures under it do. I hope you understand that. Don't underestimate the people. Do not underestimate our power and do not underestimate at any cost that we aren't listening and that we won't go out there and vote. Thank you. Thank you.

Sherry Boyett.

I'm Sherry Boyett. I've been coming up here for years. trying to save lives of animals, dogs, and cats, trying to promote live outcomes, no-kill policies. I've stood before many judges, many commissioners, and I'm here to remind you of the promise you made. Ms. Inglesby was signator on a no-kill proclamation back in 2018. So my passion and voice for the voiceless precede this commissioner's court, but there have been many community constituents who have supported no kill. I'm wearing black today in commemoration and in mourning of the dogs who lost their lives last week. The animal shelter has a kill list for today. I asked the commissioner's court, three dogs were killed in San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter last week. More are scheduled to be euthanized today. Those deaths did not happen in a vacuum, They are the direct and foreseeable result of the court's decision back in March 2025 to terminate the Austin Pets Alive contract and abandon the Hays County Pet Resource Center project and community vet clinic. The Pet Resource Center was not a distant dream. It was a planned, nationally recognized public-private partnership, the first of its kind model working with the government, integrating animal welfare with human social services, It had the support of major institutions, national foundations, and leaders in animal welfare industry. Over 1,000 Hays County residents submitted surveys in favor of it. Feasibility studies were completed. Professional expertise was engaged. Potential sites were identified. We were on the verge of a state-of-the-art facility that would have served the people and the pets across the entire Hays County region. Then, a 4-1 vote. The commissioner's court ended it. Four commissioners, including Michelle Cohen, now running for Hays County judge, who has put together an animal services division. You could stop the killing that's happening tonight. You all voted to kill the project. Only Judge Ruben Becerra voted to protect it. The reasons given did not reflect the public interest or the community's values. They want no kill. They want healthy life. The decision was driven by politics and a desire for power, not by the needs of Hays County residents or the animals in their care. The consequences are now undeniable. The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter is over capacity and has been for years in constant overflow. The stray population in Hays County is growing. Animals abandoned reproduce unchecked and animals are being killed, not because there are no solutions, but because the but because the court chose to abandon them. The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelters contract expires in September 2026. The commissioners must act immediately. A voice for the animals. Their lives are in your hands. Don't let future deaths be on your watch by your continued inaction. We demand accountability, we demand action, and we will not stop. Make an interim plan to save the animals and do what the community asks of you. Stop the killing, stop the slaughter.

Go for it.

This comment comes from Jasmine Farmer in San Marcos, Texas. Dear Planning and Zoning Commissioners, I am writing to you today as a local resident because I am genuinely worried about what these massive data center developments are going to do to our community. We are already seeing big corporate developers scout out space all over Hays County. And it is honestly scary to think about the massive strain these industrial server farms put on our infrastructure. Our power grid is already pushed to its limits, and our water supply is simply too precious to risk. We absolutely need strict protections in place right now before things get out of hand. First, the constant noise is a major issue for families. These facilities run huge industrial cooling fans 24-7. which creates a low-frequency hum that travels for miles and penetrates home walls. I am asking the Commission to enforce a strict clear noise limit, 60 decibels or less, right at the property line, so local neighborhoods don't lose their peace and quiet to relentless mechanical rumble. Second, We have to protect our basic utilities. Any future commercial requests or utility agreements need to completely prioritize our residential water supply and grid stability over corporate profit. Thank you for your time and for looking out for the people who actually live here and care about this town. Please make sure that this comment is officially read and entered to the public record for June 23rd meeting. Respectfully, Jasmine Farmer.

Was that it? All right, perfect, thank you. Please open F1.

F1, adopt a proclamation recognizing June 19th, 2026 as Rose L. Brooks Juneteenth Scholarship Cake Auction Day.

So moved. Second.

And if you'll read it. Whereas Juneteenth commemorates June 19th, 1865, the day enslaved African Americans in Texas were finally informed of their freedom, marking a defining moment in American history and the continuing pursuit of liberty, equality, and opportunity. And whereas, Hays County proudly recognizes the importance of preserving and celebrating the history, culture, and contributions of the black community throughout Hays County and the state of Texas. And whereas, Mrs. Rose Brooks has dedicated her life to service, education, civic engagement, and community empowerment. leaving a lasting impact on generations of Hays County residents. And whereas Mrs. Brooks grew up in Hays County during segregation, attended the San Marcos Colored School, became the first college graduate in her family, and devoted decades to uplifting others throughout advocacy, mentorship, public service, and educational opportunity. And whereas nearly five decades ago, Mrs. Brooks established the Juneteenth Scholarship Cake Auction, as a means of supporting local students and expanding access to higher education for young people throughout Hays County community. And whereas Rose L. Brooks Juneteenth Scholarship Cake Auction has become the longest continuously running Juneteenth event in Hays County, standing as a cherished community tradition that brings together residents, families, educators, civic leaders, churches, businesses, and volunteers in celebration of culture, unity, and educational achievement. And whereas, through the generosity and commitment of countless community members over the years, the auction has helped provide scholarships and educational support to local students while preserving an important culture tradition rooted in fellowship, perseverance, and hope. And whereas, the Hays County Commissioner's Court recognizes that the enduring success of the Rose L. Brooks Juneteenth Scholarship Cake Auction reflects the strength resilience, and spirit of the Hays County community and the extraordinary legacy of Mrs. Rose Brooks. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Hays County Commissioner's Court does hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as Rose L. Brooks Juneteenth Scholarship Cake Auction Day and encourages all residents of Hays County to recognize and celebrate the tremendous contributions of Mrs. Rose Brooks, the longstanding impact of the Rose L. Brooks Juneteenth Scholarship Cake Auction and the enduring importance of Juneteenth in the history and future of its community. Adopted this the 23rd day of June, 2026. Please call the roll. Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Commissioner Inglesby? Yes. Commissioner Cohen? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Judge Becerra?

Yes. Commissioner Inglesby?

Thank you. I just want to congratulate Ms. Brooks on the amazing accomplishment. I was fortunate enough to attend the auction, and I'm curious, and maybe you can speak to it, but how much was raised at the auction, and talk a little bit about who it's supporting. That would be great.

Good morning. I'm Michelle Burleson, and my mother is Rose Brooks. And I want to thank you for the honor because my mom is going to be 93 in August. And this is something that she's dedicated her whole life to is helping young people. And that's what's important about this whole thing is giving back. And this year she raised close to $8,000. We still have some money out. And all of that will be divided up and given to the five students that were chosen for the cake auction scholarship this year. And also want to thank you, Michelle, for everything that you did, the beautiful cake that you baked, Debbie for always supporting, always being there, being her commissioner. And I also want to say that I know there was a little bit of things happening before I got here this morning, but John Leonard was here today to stand with my mother because over the last 20 years, he's been beside her, helping her, making sure that her cake auction could always be successful. And I just want to say that We probably shouldn't come here and use this place. Everybody knows I don't particularly get along with Judge Becerra, but I'm not going to come here and be disrespectful to him at this podium. So I don't think that anyone should come here and be disrespectful to anyone at the podium. So I'm sorry, Judge, I mean, well, Judge Cohen, Commissioner Cohen, that you had to endure that today. God bless you.

Commissioner Mosby?

Yeah. So, Rose, I just want to thank you so much. I'm just honored to be your friend. And I just appreciate everything that you have done for our community. You are a powerful woman and very respected throughout the community. And, again, honored to be a friend of you and your family.

Commissioner Hammer? You deserve to be.

You deserve to be recognized, a lifetime of achievements, and all on top of that, you're a mom, which is definitely its own job in itself. So for you to be able to have all of these things, it was a lot of work. You did a lot of work. You did a lot of work for your community, and you continue to support your community, and this is the time where your community supports you. So thank you.

Commissioner Smith, can you hear us?

Yes. You're up. Can you all hear me? All right. Thank you so much. I just want to say how proud I am to know that the family is there today, and I sincerely apologize for not being there today. I've got my daughters with me this week, and this is one of the weeks that I have to spend with them. But I have to tell you that I've attended the cake auction a number of times, and I could not have been more happy and proud to be asked to be the auctioneer for the cake auction this year. It's an amazing event. I always look forward to it. I love Ms. Brooks. As you all know, I always try to mention her. I think what may be lost in one of the things that in all the accolades that was read was Ms. Brooks was also a volunteer for our elections office for almost every election for over 40 years. And that is the true citizen of our county. I love you, Ms. Brooks. I wish I was there to give you a big hug. Perfect.

You always got to give credit where credit is due, and that's a wonderful, worthy resolution. Thank you for bringing it forward. I've been a witness and a supporter and a part of these cakewalks, and I've also benefited from the community's goodwill, and I appreciate the effort, and I think this is a great, worthy resolution. It is customary for us to bring those that want to be in this picture on up for this photo. So, Ms. Brooks, is she good to come up here? Okay.

and my grandma, like,

This is for you. You earned it. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right, we'll hold it all together. And the screen is green.

We can't see the balance.

How are we looking?

One, two, three. One, two, three. Beautiful. Now this is all yours.

Well deserved. One more time.

Take care, okay?

I'll see you next year. It's open.

Sorry, guys. I've got a claretin D with the allergies, and I'm very hot-mouthed, so sorry about all the crunchy talk. Please open F2.

F2 presentation from the Texas Police Chiefs Association.

Morning, Judge, Court. I feel a little tension coming from up there. Relax. Take your hand off the checkbook. I actually don't want anything this time. I know you're not used to that, but I actually bring some news. The Texas Police Chiefs Association, TPCA, offers a program whereby law enforcement agencies who meet 174 best practices standards can achieve accreditation. Being accredited lends professional credibility to an agency in addition to reducing risk and liability. Over two years ago, our office began the arduous task of reaching those standards. This mission included, among other things, rewriting all 12 chapters of our general orders. So they reflected the highest operational standards, each chapter having up to 23 sections. So it was a lot of writing. Also, we had to do a lot of necessary training in critical areas to support those standards and then create proof of compliance documents and processes for each standard. All this in preparation to prove our compliance during an on-site assessment by two independent law enforcement professionals assigned by TPCA. Culmination of this extensive process is why we're here today. I'm happy to report to the court and the citizens of Hays County that the Hays County precinct five constable's office has officially been awarded accreditation status. To put an exclamation point on this achievement, I want to point out that among approximately 1000 constable's offices in the state of Texas, Our office is the fifth constable's office to achieve this status. There's a lot of people to thank for this. Everybody in the office had something to do with this. It was a lot of work. People put in a lot of time. But one of the things I want to say about that is no matter what we did, we could not have done that without the support of the court. So this is your victory just as much as it is ours, and I can't tell you how much we appreciate that. So with that, it's my pleasure to introduce retired police chief J.P. Bevering, who now serves as a program coordinator for the Texas Police Chiefs Association. Chief?

Judge, commissioners, and citizens of Hays County, good morning. My name is J.P. Bevering. I am a retired police chief for the City of White Settlement Police Department, and I do serve as one of six program coordinators for the Texas Police Chiefs Association Accreditation Program. It's my honor to be here this morning to represent the TPCA and the accreditation program and to present to the Hays County Precinct 5 Constable's Office with a certificate of being an accredited law enforcement agency. Constable Allen already took my thunder away from me and talked about the program, so I don't know what I'm going to say on top of him, but you're going to hear a lot of redundant information here. But the Texas Police Chiefs Association is made up of hundreds of law enforcement professionals throughout the state of Texas who are dedicated to professional policing. A number of years ago, the association developed an accreditation for Texas law enforcement. Many of you may know about accreditation programs from schools, hospitals, universities and those things. Those programs are all to serve for professional excellence and require you to prove compliance with professional standards. Ours is the same. It is a voluntary program. Our agencies prove that they meet 174 difficult standards. The standards are based on Texas law, Texas court decisions, and contemporary best practices in law enforcement. These standards address a full range of operations such as use of force, protections of individual rights, vehicle pursuits, property and evidence management, patrol and investigative operations, proper training, and that's just to name a few. This program is the gold standard in Texas law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies across the state are working diligently to meet these standards. The Hayes County Constable's Office Precinct 5 has now achieved this accredited status as the 231st agency in the state to reach and maintain this goal. As Constable Allen said, this office is also only the fifth constable's office in the state to achieve this accreditation. This accomplishment was not easy to do. The agency spent almost two years auditing and modifying their policies, their practices, their operations in order to meet these rigorous standards. This accumulated with trained assessors, law enforcement experts from across the state making an on-site visit here for several days to physically inspect every policy, every procedure, and every standard. They interviewed the staff, they inspected their facilities and their operations, rode out with officers, ensured compliance with each of these 174 standards. The assessment team then drafted a report, which was then sent to an accreditation committee, which is comprised of nine police chiefs and sheriffs from around the state who reviewed that assessment and then voted to award accredited status to the Hays County Constable Precinct 5's office. And that vote was unanimous. Of the over 2,700 law enforcement agencies in the state, only 232 are accredited. The largest agency that we have is Fort Worth with approximately 1,900 officers. The smallest is four. Regardless of agency size, professional policing is an absolute must. The citizens of Texas expect it, and they deserve it. This morning, we officially recognized Constable John Ellen, and the precinct five constables office for their outstanding performance in achieving accreditation. But what does this mean to you and the community? This ensures that the citizens of this county and your precinct five constables office is operating in a manner that reflects the current best practices of Texas law enforcement. It means that your precinct five constables office is continually striving for professional excellence. It also means that your precinct five constables office is one of the very best in the state of Texas. The certificate that we present this morning is symbolic. While it clearly marks professional excellence, the real value of the program is the process in which they must complete to receive the certificate. And this is not the end of the process. The department still must submit annual reports to the accreditation committee to prove continued compliance. And in four years, we will send another assessment team back here to physically look and ensure that the agency is continuing to comply with these best practices. The Precinct 5 Hayes County Constable's Office is a leader in Texas law enforcement, and you should be very proud of their accomplishment. Constable Allen, would you please join me back up here? So I'd like to read this certificate for you. It says, The Texas Police Chiefs Association Foundation, to all that see the certificate, know that the Hayes County... Precinct 5 Constable's Office has fulfilled the necessary qualifications and mandatory requirements of the Texas Police Chiefs Association Texas Law Enforcement Best Practices Accreditation Program. By voluntary approving their compliance with Texas practices and the Texas Police Chiefs Association Foundation Board of Directors do hereby award this certificate of accreditation effective the 26th day of May, 2026 through 2030.

Wow, that was very humbling. In addition to thanking you guys and all the people in our office that worked so hard on this, I would be remiss if I didn't point out two people in particular that just gave their heart and soul and their life and a good part of their off-duty time, thousands of hours, literally thousands of hours in making this happen. And so I'd like to recognize them, especially if you will indulge me for just a minute. These both say the same thing, so I'm just going to put their names in both of them so you don't have to hear it twice. This is to certify that the Hayes County Precinct 5 constable has awarded the commendation medal to Sergeant Cody Fagan and Deputy Gary Bottoms. Through exceptional initiative and commitment, they consistently performed above and beyond normal expectations, reflecting the highest standards of professional law enforcement, and bring a distinction to this agency. In grateful recognition of this extraordinary contribution, the commendation medal is hereby awarded. So if you guys would come up so I can embarrass you personally.

And what I'd like to do, Constable, if you don't mind, is I have the most perfect backdrop for that photo. So when you're done, let's come up here for that picture.

Okay.

A retake.

Okay. That's all we have in court. Thank you again for everything you did to help us achieve this. And thank you for your continuing support. And when you see me next time, have your checkbook ready.

Congratulations. It's customary for us to, as a court, have some words as well. So here's our part. When you came to me a very long time ago, kicking this off and asking for my support in it, and I said, absolutely, because I... I see too often, we all do in society today, when things go wrong, without fail, there's a camera somewhere showing where someone could have been better, could have done different, could have done whatever. And so I am just so grateful that you're reaching and striving for this because it is absolutely the beacon for me in my mind in your office to have this level of representation of your excellence. And it really stuck to me, Chief, what you said. Professional policing is a must. That to me, if I was writing a newspaper, that would have been my headline from everything I just heard. Because when you approach it the way you're approaching it, we have fewer friction points and we have better public safety in every way possible. So I just want to say from the bottom of my heart As one of the sponsors of this agenda item, thank you for reaching for it. Thank you for having the creation of it. And thank you for doing the work. We are just most all, we are most served when you do this. I just want to say that. Commissioner Hammer? I'm sorry, I should say, just to be protocol, Commissioner Smith would be next. Thank you, Judge.

I just want to congratulate Constable Ellen and actually every single member of the Precinct 5. I think that the good Lord had his mind in the right spot that the fifth one of these constable offices out of the state was Precinct 5 in Hayes County. And I'm just proud of your officers every day. I'm proud of you, John. You're always a leader with not only within our constables, but throughout the state. And I'm just really proud to have this in my have y'all in my precinct and y'all move forward with such a professional organization.

Thank you, sir. Wonderful. So, commissioners on this side and after them, we'll come up for a pick.

You want me to say?

Oh, I'm sorry. Just so you guys know, when some department heads and elected officials are grabbing their phones and texting, it's more often than not, to me, about agenda stuff. So, I'm sorry, commissioner.

No, you're good. So, Constable Ellen and your wife, I just adore you all and I can't imagine, usually people strive and they do well when they have great leadership in an office. I'm not saying that you all wouldn't strive or do well on your own, but it does always come back to a good leader to give them that empowerment and that sense of direction. Congrats on everything that you guys are doing and continue to do. I will say that the Hayes County residents do deserve the best policing possible, so I'm glad that you're just hitting the mark for Hayes County residents.

Well said, well said. Commissioner Cohen.

Just thank you, Chief, for being here, and congratulations, Precinct 5. Constable Allen, this is just a testament to your leadership and your desire to have the highest standards for your precinct, and You know, I'm glad the court has always been able to support you and your initiatives. And this is definitely a win for the entire county. And congratulations. Very proud of y'all.

Thank you. I'll just echo my colleagues. Congratulations, Constable Ellen and the entire staff. What a wonderful recognition and such an honor to have that here in Hays County. You're such an asset to our county and the citizens that you serve, and we just appreciate everything that you all do. So thank you and congratulations again.

Now come on up for your picture. Thank you.

I think you should. Thank you. Yes. The answer is yes. Yes. And then if you guys will hold your side as well. Alright, you're right over here. One, two, three. One, two, three. Thank you. You take care of yourself out there, okay? Take care. Good seeing you.

Moving right along, let's go to F3.

F3, presentation by Hays County AgriLife Extension Office staff to recognize 4-H students for their achievements at the state roundup.

So moved.

Hello, good morning. My name is Kate Blankenship and I'm with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office here in Hays County. And I just wanted to introduce our new employee, Ileana She wants to come up. She's our new 4-H and youth program coordinator for Hays County. I'm just going to let her do a brief little intro, and then we're going to have some of the kids come up and talk about the Texas 4-H state contest is a huge contest. 4-Hers are participating from all across the state of Texas, and we had... seven 4-H'ers from Hays County being able to compete in several contests at the state contest that happened in early June in College Station. So I will let them talk about their stuff after Ileana. Perfect.

Hi, good morning. Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Ileana Garizales. I just graduated from Texas State University with a degree in agriculture, and I'm so excited to join the Extension staff here in Hays County.

Beautiful, thank you very much.

Hello, my name is Genevieve Orsak. I'm Penelope Orsak, and we are here representing the Dripping Springs 4-H Club in Hays County. And we were able to compete in... Oh, we were able to compete in Food Challenge in state. We got fourth place. And then we also competed in the Duds to Dazzle competition, where we won second place, which is a sewing contest in state. Thank you.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Good morning, Hays County. My name is Penelope Soto. I'm currently 15 years old and attending San Marcos High School here in Hays County. I'm going into my junior year, and I've been around 4-H for literally as long as I can remember. I kind of sprouted through there, and my sister was in it, and she graduated in 2021. But my main project is cattle, where I have the opportunity to raise steers and heifers. But outside of cattle, I participate in choreographed routines. This past year I did a lyrical solo called Still Growing by the song, using the song Vienna by Billy Joe. I worked for hours perfecting my routine and I am honored to say that I advanced from district to state where I represented Hays County and received third at state. I just want to thank y'all for the opportunity and the constant support from Judge Becerra and the commissioners as well as Hays County. It's great to represent Hays County and just having that support makes us want to represent y'all even more. Thank you.

Some of the other 4-H'ers could not be here today, but I just wanted to shout out to one of them got a $10,000 scholarship from McLean Foundation, so that was pretty awesome, too. So she was recognized there at the assembly one night. But I just wanted to say I'm super proud of all of the 4-H'ers that got to participate at the state contest, and we would love to see more and have the number grow and have more Hays County 4-H'ers there.

Well done. Well done. I will say that we've had the privilege of being very close to 4-H and I've even given out some participation awards and have handed out bars of candy and I've just, I've been so grateful to have been a part of it and some people forget that Hays County is not just I-35. There is so much that is not urban and densely packed and there are so many acres that are wide open that are being used in ways that are historical and have always been and so we fight for that to continue. And so we are so grateful that you are learning and keeping these traditions alive, because without you, these things fade off into the sunset. And we don't want that. So thank you so much. Commissioners Hammer.

So I'm very happy that you asked me a sponsor as I had an opportunity to sit down and meet some of you individually. And you are just such aspiring young people and it's amazing to see all of the work that you guys are trying and striving to do. I mean, y'all don't just go to work or go to work, go to school and do the bare minimum. Y'all go home and then that's when the real work begins. So congratulations to everything that y'all are accomplishing. And I was just telling my husband the other day at dinner, supporting our ag life and our farmers. And that's so important, especially here in Texas, but from our nation and as a whole. So thank y'all for all that you guys do.

Commissioner Smith.

Yes, I just want to clarify a couple of things. Number one, most of these kids, while we talk about specifically focusing when we talk about 4-H on the rural portions of our county, almost half of the programs that 4-H offers, and y'all can clarify, our county extension agent can clarify, but at least in the past, almost half of the programs out there are specifically targeted for more suburban and urban youth. And so I was always proud to be part of 4-H. I went to the state 4-H Roundup from the time I was 10 until 18. I qualified every year. It was the first chance for me from small town Texas to get out and get into, you know, see a larger city. I thought College Station, where the state 4-H Roundup was held every year, was a massive town. And so it was... It gives all of us an opportunity to get out and learn different things. I actually qualified for state three times in cooperative public speaking and a couple of other events, more rural events like livestock judging and those kind of things. But it really paved the path for me to go to the A&M and to get, you know, to really know that there's more out there than where I just grew up. I'm exceedingly proud of the student that we saw today. For those of you who've been on the court, I know we've seen you at least six or seven times in court. I'm so proud of you. I know that you're finishing up school and heading on to the next step in life. I'm really excited that I was able to attend Yale's banquet this last year again. I would encourage all of my colleagues to do the same. And I'm just proud every time I see 4-H'ers out there. I was able to work at the State 4-H Center for two years in college in Brownwood and be a counselor for these kids. And anytime anyone says anything about the youth of America, the first thing I tell them is they need to go to a 4-H event. They need to find those kids because there are some really great kids out there who will be our future leaders. The young lady who's in our court today is a perfect example of that.

Beautiful. Commissioner Cohen.

I just thank y'all for being here. I love leadership, anything leadership. And you can find leadership in every space. And I know that these programs grow y'all's leadership skills, and y'all are going to be wonderful leaders in the future. So thank you for the hard work. Keep working hard. Keep asking for help. Seek. advice from other leadership, and you guys are going to do great. But congratulations.

Yeah, Judge, thank you. Congratulations. I mean, y'all are such an inspiration and will be to so many young adults. Hays County is represented well, and I am just so proud of y'all. Thank you so much for all you do.

Wonderful. Well, it's customary for us to take a picture. What do you guys think? Come on up. Let's take a picture.

Thank you.

All right, looking right here. One, two, three.

One, two, three.

F4 presentation by HNTB regarding an update on community input and public engagement efforts related to the Darden Hill Road project.

GOOD MORNING, JUDGE, COMMISSIONERS. MY NAME IS CARLOS LOPEZ. I'M YOUR ROAD BOND PROGRAM MANAGER. I'VE BEEN ASKED TO PROVIDE A SUMMARY OF AN INFORMAL COMMUNITY MEETING THAT OCCURRED ON MAY 20TH LAST MONTH OVER AT THE TWISTED X TO DISCUSS THE DARTON HILL EXTENSION AND WIDENING PROJECTS. THAT MEETING WAS ATTENDED BY APPROXIMATELY 120 PEOPLE, SO IT WAS A VERY GOOD CROWD THAT SHOWED UP TO EXPRESS THEIR VIEWPOINTS. WE STARTED OFF BY MAKING A BRIEF PRESENTATION ON WHERE WE'VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE, AND WHERE WE'RE GOING TO BE GOING. WE NOTED THAT THE PROJECTS THAT THE WIDENING AND EXTENSION BOTH APPEARED IN THE 2013 HAYES COUNTY TRANSPORTATION PLAN, AND THEY BOTH APPEARED IN THE 2021 HAYES COUNTY PLAN AND THE CITY OF DRISPING SPRINGS TRANSPORTATION PLAN. REGARDING THE EXTENSION, WHICH IS BETWEEN DARDEN HILL AND SOY RANCH INTERSECTION AND RM 150, WE'RE ABOUT TO RESTART THE PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT PROCESS. WE DID HAVE A PROCESS THAT STARTED OFF A FEW YEARS BACK BUT IT WENT ON PAUSE. WHAT WE WILL LIKELY DO IS START OFF WITH ONE OF THE ALTERNATIVES THAT WAS IDENTIFIED DURING THAT PROCESS TO TAKE THAT OUT TO THE PUBLIC. to start getting stakeholder input. That should be kicking off later this year. And when we talk about stakeholder input, what I'm referring to is not only the people that live on or near the road, which is very important to hear their viewpoints, but also other potential users of the roadway. So in this case, we would want to get the input of the city of Dripping Springs, the Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce, of course, the Dripping Springs Independent School District. THE NEIGHBORHOODS ALONG 1826. THE NEIGHBORHOODS ALONG RM 12 AS WELL. AND THE TURPING SPRINGS HISTORICAL CONSERVATION SOCIETY AS WELL. SO WE'LL GATHER ALL OF THAT AND SEE WHAT DIRECTION WE MAY NEED TO GO AT THAT PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME. IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE 2025 CERTIFICATES OF OBLIGATION ONLY FUNDED THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND DESIGN PHASES OF THE EXTENSION PROJECT. IT DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY CONSTRUCTION FUNDING WHATSOEVER. IF THE PROJECT WAS TO BE CONSTRUCTED, IT WOULD HAVE TO BE DONE THROUGH SOME FUTURE FUNDING SOURCE, EITHER CAMPO APPLICATION OR ANOTHER BOND OR OTHER CEO TYPE OF ISSUANCE. NOW, REGARDING THE WIDING PROJECT, WHICH IS BETWEEN SOIL RANCH ROAD AND 1826, THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESS WAS COMPLETED IN 2024. DESIGN IS UNDERWAY FOR A FOUR LANE DIVIDED FACILITY, PROJECTED TRAFFIC DUE TO THE OPENING OF THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL, WHICH IS PROJECTED TO GENERATE ABOUT 5,000 NEW VEHICLE TRIPS EVERY DAY, PLUS THE NATURAL GROWTH IN THIS AREA JUSTIFIES THE FOUR LANE FACILITY. THE MAIN INPUT WE GOT FROM THE FOLKS AT THE MEETING ON THE WIDING PROJECT WAS THAT THEY WANTED TO UNDERSTAND WHY IT WAS DESIGNED TO A CERTAIN SPEED, THE CROSS SECTION THAT WE WERE PROPOSING, THE ABILITY TO PERFORM A NOISE ANALYSIS AS WELL, AND THE POSSIBLE USE OF THE PLANNED SHARED USE PATH ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE ROAD BY FOLKS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE ROAD. So regarding the design speed, what we explained to folks is that because the road is designed for, in this case, 45 miles per hour, does not mean that that's what's going to be the speed limit when it's opened up. The county has full authority to set speed limits. And right now, from talking with Aaron, there's no intention to increase the current 40 mile an hour speed limit once the road is open. The cross section looks wide when you first see it. It's about 160 feet wide. It's got the four lanes in each direction, but it's got green space in the middle for median and also on the outside, which helps with the drainage of the roadway and for the water quality aspects that are there. What that cross section also does, it provides shoulders on the outside. So right now, Darden Hill Road is a narrow two-lane roadway. So what that means is that there's always that chance that somebody is going to drift across that center line and cause a head-on collision. or somebody's going to drift off the edge line and have a run-off-the-road crash. With this type of cross-section, you have that median in the middle, which greatly reduces the chances of a head-on collision, and it has a wider shoulder on the outside that if they do run off, they have a time to recover. And the striping on the outside will have that rumble effect as well, so if people are falling asleep, they'll be able to wake up. regarding the noise analysis, there is nothing in the county rules, the type of funding that we're using that require us to do a noise analysis. But we heard plenty of noise, no pun intended, there at the meeting that people wanna see that. So for this case, we are gonna do that. We've already adjusting the scope of the design consultant to see what noise might be created by future traffic volumes. One thing that, THAT IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT WITH THE ROAD YOU SEE TODAY IS THAT IT'S GOING TO HAVE WHAT'S CALLED A HOT MIX SURFACE COURSE AS OPPOSED TO A CHIP SEAL WHICH IS MUCH, MUCH QUIETER THAN WHAT WE HAVE OUT THERE TODAY. ALSO THE SEPARATION FROM THE HOMES AND ON THAT ROADWAY ARE PRETTY FAR OFF BUT WE'LL CHECK TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS WITH THOSE DECIBEL LEVELS AND SEE IF THEY MEET ANY MINIMUM THRESHOLDS. REGARDING THE ACCESS TO THE SHARED WITH YOUTH PATH, THERE ARE FOLKS ON FIELDSTONE JUST ON THE NORTHERN NEIGHBORHOOD THAT WANTED THE ABILITY TO ACCESS THAT SOUTHERN SIDEWALK. THE REASON WE HAVE IT ON THE SOUTH BECAUSE THAT'S THE SIDE THE SCHOOL IS ON AND IT JUST MAKES A LOT OF SENSE TO HAVE IT WHERE THE KIDS MIGHT BE WALKING. BUT IT WAS ALSO A REALLY GOOD COMMENT. HOW CAN THEY GET THERE? SO WE'RE LOOKING AT THE POSSIBILITY OF LOOKING AT INSTALLING ONE OF THOSE SIGNALS AND YOU SEE THEM IN AUSTIN THAT ARE MIDBLOCKED THAT SOMEBODY CAN ACTIVATE. AND TRAFFIC WOULD HAVE TO STOP SO THEY COULD ACTUALLY CROSS THE ROADWAY. SO WE'RE LOOKING AT THAT TYPE OF INSTALLATION AND WE SHOULD HAVE THAT DECISION A LITTLE LATER ON. ONE LAST POINT ON THE DESIGN SPEED. ONE THING A HIGHER DESIGN SPEED DOES, IT FLATTENS THE CURVES AND MAKES THE HILLS LESS STEEP. SO ANY TIME YOU DO THAT, YOU NATURALLY HAVE A SAFER ROADWAY. So our goal is to be in construction on the winding project sometime in 2027, the mid part of the 2027, with the goal of having a major part of the road open by the time the high school opens in fall of 2028. In closing, these projects are being undertaken to improve safety and mobility and be ready for the growth that's naturally occurring in this area. Both of these projects were also included in the 2024 roadmap program. With that, Judge, would you be happy to answer any questions the court may have?

Well, thank you, Carlos, for this presentation, because I want to remind the public, I mean, we, I am grateful to say that if you bring my attention to something, I will listen, I will lean in, and I will do everything I can to make your interests captured in the government's work after all at the end of the day people must realize we exist in these chairs because we are supposed to be serving the community and so if we lose sight of that, well, then what are we doing? And so thank you for participating in that Darden Hill meeting. I asked for the community to come speak their minds straight to the professionals. And thank you for capturing their concerns. Thank you for retooling the thought process in a way that will help people feel safer, feel understood, feel heard. And the more we realize that the sooner and more frequently we include our community the less pitchforks and clamoring and full courtrooms we're going to have to deal with. Let's do the people's work at the beginning, and I think we'll be better served. And so I just want to say thank you, and I did everything I could, and I know you know it, to make sure people weren't throwing pitchforks at you, and I tried to tell people you're here to support and inform the conversation, and so you did a great job, you and your entire team, and I just want to say thank you for your time and effort. Commissioner Hammer, anything to add to it?

I'm just grateful to have a GEC that is able to hear our constituents' complaints, comments, and concerns, especially when it comes to environmental sustainability and conservation of our beautiful natural resources. And I do believe that you can have both. And I think that you just have to be cautious and careful and continue to do these environmental feasibility studies and just pivot in every single direction that we possibly can to give the reassurance that we are doing this with our environment in mind.

That's right, that's right. Commissioner Smith, anything to add?

Absolutely. I've met with the organization who has organized relative to this project a number of times, actually. And I just want to reiterate a couple of the points that Carlos made. As we look at the East Darden Hill project, which is where there is concern, I think that it's important to note, and I think in Carlos's presentation that was given at the meeting that you organized, the overall view, the Google Earth views of what that area looks like now compared to what it looked like back in 2012 or, pardon me, whenever we actually included that project for the first time. It is a completely different place. Knowing that that Darden Hill Sawyer Ranch area is going to have 5,000 students on it in 2028 is also a major consideration. One of the things that I think is lost here, actually two of the things that I think is lost here is that in the 2024 road bond, there's actually by passing that bond overwhelmingly in my precinct, by the way, where those individuals are most affected, we created with the education and information that was distributed that with that, a actual contract with the voters to deliver those projects. I think that what is important to, the second thing to note is that if we look at this overall project, the east side corridor of Darden Hill, where the concerns have been raised that are mentioned here, that is, if we are, if that project is a child that we're attempting to raise, we're just past conception. The fact is that Carlos and his team, along with my office, the Precinct 4 office, has scheduled a number of public outreach and engagement meetings scheduled to start late summer, early fall. That portion of the project, there's no construction funding for it. We would have to come back and identify funding at a later point. And so we are absolutely at the very, very beginning stages of that project. I think it was just as a commissioner and knowing the process and delivering projects such as this in the past. Then I think my fellow Commissioners would agree with me on this. I don't want to speak for them, but working with these projects on a daily basis. I think it was somewhat. I think it's somewhat irresponsible. to go out not knowing anything about this project or any of the background for the project or the fact that it was included in at least two, actually three prior iterations of our master transportation plan and included in our bond and not knowing a background or any of the particulars about the project. To have a public meeting and not understand that those actual public meetings to have direct input on the process and gain public engagement were scheduled and to do so without a single phone call, email or communication with the commissioner who is statutorily in charge of delivering that project or having the ability to impact that project. I think it was purely for political means If you wanted to have a truly engaging meeting or engaging interaction with the public, it could have waited a week until after a primary. I think the meeting that you did was a feel-good meeting for political purposes, and I'm embarrassed for the general public. Let's stay on the agenda item, sir, besides your political talking points. I finished talking. I will finish talking now. There's no public record of the exact comments that were made. There's no way to quantify that or use that data in the future as will happen when we have the public meetings that will be held by the County. And I think those comments, you can say in general people said this, but having the actual collection of that data to hear the real concerns of those citizens, that's the most important thing as we move forward with the project. And none of that was done. I would hope that this doesn't happen again to any of my fellow commissioners. And if it does, I would severely object to that as well. And I feel bad for the general public who attended the meeting and felt like their voices were heard when there is no record of what their voices said.

Thank you, sir. And thank you, Carlos, for capturing those comments that were actually said and speaking them here in the court of record. I really appreciate you capturing what the citizenry has said. And no matter how many times we try to say we've checked the box, we've had our public meetings. If the public doesn't feel heard, we've failed. Commissioner Cohen.

Well, thank you, Carlos, for the presentation. And just to remind me, how many schools on Garden Hill are going to be built?

Well, right now the elementary school is already open. The high school is going to be open in 28. Our understanding, there's planning a middle school as well in that area. So that whole area hadn't stopped growing yet. The traffic is going to be generated.

And, you know, I appreciate Commissioner Hammer talking about, you know, that we need to consider all aspects of a project. And I believe that there's a pathway forward for all, right, as long as everyone's concerns are addressed. CONSIDERED AND ADDRESSED. JUST SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE A LARGE SCHOOL ON A COUNTY ROAD THAT HASN'T BEEN DEVELOPED IN OVER 50 YEARS, YOU KNOW, I THINK IT'S GREAT TO BE A LITTLE PROACTIVE ON DARN HILL BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT'S COMING FOR THEM. AND MOST OF THE CALLS I GET ARE ABOUT SCHOOLS, TRAFFIC AND THE DROP OFF AND THE PICK UP AND ALL OF THAT, THE UNSAFE DRIVING. AND SO WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THAT ROAD IS SAFE FOR OUR KIDS IN THE COUNTY. Thank you for, you know, listening to the community. And, you know, like you said, they just want to be heard. So I appreciate that. Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Inglesby.

Thank you. Carlos, thank you so much for the presentation. I really do appreciate it.

I was coughing. I turned it off.

I really appreciated your presentation. And for me, you know, I did hear that we are listening to the citizens' concerns, and I really appreciate that. You know, as I said, relates to the design speed and our current speed out there and what we can, the county would be able to lower it to what is now 40 miles an hour. The noise analysis, I'm glad that we're moving forward with that and the access to the shared youth path. So if they weren't recorded, I hope that they will be recorded so we can continue to work with the residents out in the area and ensure that we're listening and, you know, complying with the needs.

Commissioner, our communications team did take summary minutes, so we do have that. And, Judge, we did follow up with an email to everybody that wanted to be kept informed last week, mentioning a lot of things that I talked about today.

Thank you. And I know you get it because you were in that full, full room, overflowing room of people. And you heard all they wanted to do is be included in a in a different way just to help people save face in a different way than had been done in the past. And so this worked. And I'm just grateful that you were there to capture the concerns. I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Judge. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

So I've been asked to pull G18, just so you know. If there are any others I've been asked to pull, the reason I'm going to talk about that is because if there's someone that wanted to hear about an agenda item, I wanted you to know that we weren't going to open it. So we're going to pull G18. Is there another agenda item, elected officials, department heads, you want me to pull? Not open, in other words. Not open K4 as well? Who said that? Oh, yeah, so you're not an elected official or a department head, so thanks. Anything else to pull? Pull the question. Pull. Carla? Pulling was I was asking the elected officials. Nothing? Okay, good. So what we're going to do is we're going to go based on the attendance and the interest, we're going to go K-1 first. So please open K-1.

K1, discussion and possible action to adopt a resolution establishing a temporary 180-day emergency water protection review period for high-impact development applications, creating the Hays County High Water Demand Development Review Board to evaluate critical groundwater impacts and providing an immediate effective date. So moved.

Second.

Thank you. So a couple of weeks ago, we presented a proposal resolution that had the up-to-date capturings of the things that we felt were going to be useful for us as a county and to get the legal buy-in we tabled it to make sure that we had further review from our legal division legal department and make sure that there were some you know wordsmithing pieces that would be addressed that would make everyone more comfortable and so last week I think Friday Civil Division returned a draft that I think Jacob, as the architect of the document, helping me put all those ideas together, was working with them directly and had some feedback. But I could start with, in reverse, did you see anything that you wanted to... I could have the clerks read it, or do you want to... What do you think? Have them read it?

I was going to say, if they want to read it, that would be great. I think so.

That way everyone will be up to speed.

Perfect. And then do you have a printout of it all?

Or does somebody have a printout? I have some printouts, right? Okay, perfect.

I was looking at my phone. I don't have a printout.

It's just hard to zoom in. Here we go. I'll do this. Thank you. I'll give you this if you want one. It's four pages. I had a few extras printed for anybody in the audience that may want one. Okay, we'll get it to you. But again, it's online. Also, it was online two weeks ago, and they're just wordsmithing differences for the most part, but if you don't mind reading it, please.

Resolution of the Hays County Commissioner's Court establishing a temporary emergency water protection review period and establish the Hays County High Water Demand Development Review Board. Whereas Hays County is experiencing prolonged and severe drought conditions leading to historic declines in regional aquifer levels and diminished water availability. And whereas the ongoing drought threatens the public health, safety, and welfare of county residents by increasing the emergency response burden, straining infrastructure, and compromising essential fire suppression needs. And whereas Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 366 and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rules designate Hays County as an authorized agent with direct regulatory authority over on-site sewage facilities. And whereas certain industrial high water use projects present significant risk to public health and groundwater quality, due to potential soil sustainability limitations, system capacity overloads, and increased stormwater runoff risks. And whereas large-scale industry high-water use developments require technical and environmental evaluations that extend beyond the standard administrative resources available within county government. And whereas State of Texas electrical grid managed by the Electrical Reliable Council of Texas, ERCOT, is experiencing rapidly increasing demand for electricity, and whereas the pace of data center construction has exponentially increased across the United States and within the state of Texas, driven by increasing demand for digital infrastructure, data aggregation, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency mining, and related transaction settlement processes, and cloud computing services. And whereas responsible long-term planning is necessary to ensure that critical infrastructure growth occurs in a manner that protects grid reliability, water sustainability, fiscal integrity, and the quality of life of existing residents. And whereas large-scale data center developments may require sustainable land conversion, including the clearing or repurposing of agricultural land raged lands, and open space that support local food production, rural economies, wildlife habitats, and natural drainage patterns. And without appropriate siting, mitigation and conservation planning, such as development, could result in fragmentation of habitat, loss of prime farmland, increased storm runoff, and long-term impacts to native species and ecological systems. And whereas protection data indicates indicate that without expanded generation capacity, transmission infrastructure, and relatability safeguards, Texas could face substantial shortfalls of electricity generation and grid reliability over the coming decade, increasing the risk of service interruptions and high energy costs for residential, agriculture, and commercial consumers. And whereas rapid increase in large continuous load electrical demand attributable to hyperscale and similar data centers, facilities raise important reliability planning considerations, particularly during peak summer demand and extreme weather events. And whereas the Commissioner's Court seeks to evaluate the model, these impacts to establish a lawful health-based standards without implementing countywide zoning. And whereas the direct onsite water consumption of proposed data centers And similar computing facilities constitutes only one component of the total water demands associated with such projects. And the sustainable electrical loads required to operate those facilities impose additional direct strain on available water supplies and costs through the water energy nexus, including water used in electrical generation and related infrastructure serving those demands. Whereas Article... 8, Section 59 of the Texas Constitution declares the conservation and preservation of the state's water and other natural resources to the public rights and duties, and further provides that the legislator has responsibility to pass such laws to protect those rights. And whereas effectively protecting shared groundwater resources requires unidentified regional cooperation among neighboring counties and groundwater conservation districts. as well as enhance statutory authority from the state of Texas to properly regulate the unique impacts of industrial high water use projects. Whereas current state level regulatory framework provide limited uniform requirements for transparent reporting of project electrical demand and water consumption associated with proposed data center facilities. And whereas counties bear primal financial responsibility for the maintenance and repair of county roads, drainage systems and certain emergency response infrastructure, yet possess limited statutory authority to require appropriate cost participation from certain large-scale developments impacting such infrastructure. Whereas counties have limited statutory authority over electrical generation, regulatory and grid oversight. yet bear responsibility for protecting public health, safety, infrastructure, integrity, and natural resources within their jurisdiction. Whereas under current Texas law, counties do not possess general zoning authority and are not granted broad land use regulatory powers comparable to those municipalities, thereby limiting the ability of counties to regulate the local density and operational characteristics of large-scale developments, such as data centers, within unincorporated areas. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Commissioner's Court of Hays County, Texas, section one, establishment of temporary emergency review period. The Hays County Commissioner's Court hereby institutes temporary emergency water protection review period. During this review period, the Commissioner's Court shall defer consideration of discretionary approvals associated with industrial high water use projects to the extent such matters are lawfully subject to the discretion of the court for the above list reasons. Such discretionary approvals include but are not limited to tax abatement agreements, development agreements, variance requests, and other discretionary approvals outlined by the Hays County Development Regulations. This temporary review applies strictly to specific categories of discretionary approval within the county's existing statutory and regulatory jurisdictions. creates no new regulatory or permitting authority and shall not be constructed as countywide zoning. Section 2, duration and automatic expiration. This emergency review period shall remain in effect for a limited duration of 180 days from the date of adoption of this resolution. This pause shall automatically expire at the conclusion of the 180-day period unless explicitly extended by the Commissioner's Court following the presented presentation of the fine public findings Section 3 definition of industrial high water use project for the purpose of this resolution an industrial high water use project is defined as any industrial development or operation meeting any of the following measurable thresholds the applicant requests represents or submits material reflecting anticipated water demand more than 25,000 gallons of water per day for an industrial use or The project includes data processing, server hosting, cloud computing, or comparable facilities designed for an electrical load of five megawatts or greater. Or the project includes industrial cooling, operations requiring more than 10,000 gallons of water per day of ongoing water for the thermal management. Or the project includes one or more onsite sewage facilities subject to review under TCEQ rules due to size, system size, site condition, wastewater volume, or surface water and groundwater concerns. Section four, written findings. The Commissioner's Court bases its temporary action on the following documented emergency conditions. Aquifer levels. Historic drops in the Trinity and Edwards Aquifer threaten local well sustainability and residential water security. Drought declaration. Active local and state drought declarations confirm persistent water scarcity, water availability, declining surface and groundwater supplies, limit reliable availability for new massive demands, OSSF limits, high volume wastewater discharges, risks exceeding local soil absorption capabilities. resulting in potential system failures and environmental contamination. Runoff risks. Large-scale industrial footprints significantly increased impervious cover, creating severe stormwater runoff, flooding, and localized aquifer recharge contamination risks. Emergency response burden. Water scarcity severely limits the county's capacity to handle concurrent emergency events. Fire suppression needs. Depleted water reserves compromise the critical infrastructure required for active firefighting operations. Infrastructure impacts. Rapid, uncoordinated water hauling and heavy industrial construction traffic threaten the physical integrity of county transportation infrastructure. Section 5, State Drought Proclamation Alignment. The Commissioner's Court hereby directs the Office of Emergency Management and county legal staff to identify all lawful emergency management tools available under the Act of State Issued Drought Disaster Proclamation. The county shall not claim or exercise any authority not clearly delegated by said proclamation. Section 6, Enforcement of OSSF Authority. Hays County shall strictly exercise its statutory authority As a TCEQ authorized agent under Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 366, this oversight focuses on public health, wastewater management, soil sustainability, system capacity, and groundwater protection. This authority shall not be utilized for general land use control. Section 7, creation of the Hayes County High Water Demand Development Review Board. The temporary review period shall serve as implementation period for the Hayes County High Water Demand Development Review Board. an advisory board to the Commissioner's Court and Development Services Department for the review of proposed industrial high water demand developments, including data centers, large scale industrial facilities, and other projects with significant water demands. The review board shall consist of representatives appointed by the Commissioner's Court, but not limited to elected officials, development services staff, water resource professionals, emergency services representatives, development stakeholders, and members of the public health with relevant expertise. The review board is directed to evaluate proposed industrial high water demand developments and their potential impacts on water availability, aquifers, public infrastructure, emergency services, and long-term drought resiliency. Review water availability studies, utility commitment letters, drought contingency plans, conservation measures, and other supporting documentation submitted by applicants. Provide written findings and recommendations to the Commissioner's Court regarding the potential impacts of proposed developments on the public health, safety, and welfare of Hays County residents. Recommend policies and development review standards related to industrial high water demand projects for consideration by the Commissioner's Court. Review and make recommendations to the Hays County High Water Development Review Checklist. Such recommendations may also consider other environmental and public health risks. including noise, air quality, and the general welfare and orderly growth of the unincorporated areas of the county. This checklist, while not required, shall be published on the county's website, and the county, in the strongest possible terms, urges developers involved in industrial high water use projects to follow the checklist prior to developing in Hays County. Section 8, call for joint environmental review. The Commissioner's Court hereby issues a formal call to neighboring counties, local groundwater conservation districts, and regional water authorities to initiate a collaborative joint regional environmental review. This joint effort shall aim to study the cumulative transboundary impacts of industrial high water use projects on regional aquifers, map shared vulnerabilities, and establish unified data sharing protocols to preserve regional water security. Section nine, petition for special legislative session. The Commissioner's Court hereby authorizes submission of a formal petition to the Governor of Texas requesting the call of a special legislative session. This petition shall originally request that the Texas legislator expand the statutory authority of Texas counties, granting them localized power to protect vulnerable surface water and groundwater resources. and directly regulate the water availability and infrastructure impacts of industrial high water use projects within their jurisdiction. The court further encourages adoption of statewide planning and regulatory standards prioritizing sustainability, including the integration of water-efficient or closed-loop cooling technology, utilizing of reclaimed, recycled, and non-potable water sources where feasible, Demand resource participation and load management requirements to protect grid stability. Decommissioned bonds for removal of related infrastructure shall be the data centers no longer in use. Exhibit A, industrial high water use development review checklist. Applicants for any development meeting the threshold of an industrial use project under section two, Submit a completed review package containing the following engineering data, independent impact studies and local transparency reports to the County Development Services Department. This does not in any way affect the applicant's requirement or obligations elsewhere required under the law or local regulations. One, resource consumption projects. Daily and peak water demands provide certified projections for total water for total daily water consumption in gallons per day, explicitly identifying all planned resources, public water supply, groundwater, wells, surface water, or hauled water. Cooling system specifications submit comprehensive mechanical engineering data for any evaporating cooling, closed-loop cooling, or alternative industrial cooling. Power grid impact study disclosed total projected megawatt demand Stub station requirements and formal service availability and grid reliability assessment from the local electric utility provider. Two, environmental and wastewater management. Large capacity OSSF design provide detailed engineering plans for onsite sewage facilities, including comprehensive localized soil sustainability analysis, hydraulic loading rates, and long-term absorption capability studies matching peak capacity. Stormwater runoff and flooding model. Submit pre- and post-development hydrology reports measuring the impact of expanded impervious cover to local drainage basins, along with stormwater pollution prevention plan. Air emissions and off-grid energy. Provide compliance documentation and copies of TCEQ permit applications for all heavy equipment auxiliary facilities and emergency diesel backup generators. Three, community impact and infrastructure protection. Traffic impact and road damage assessment. Submit a comprehensive traffic impact analysis, factory heavy vehicle loads, factoring heavy vehicle loads during construction and operations paired with proposed infrastructure protection agreement to remedy damage to county roadways. Noise and light pollution controls. Provide an independent acoustic engineering report providing compliance with local quality of life standards duplicity modeling, continuous low frequency hums from industrial cooling units, or generator testing. Site plans and infrastructure expansion layout. Submit visual architectural renderings, localized facility setbacks from property boundaries, and clear project framing for future phase footprint expansions. Four, mandatory public notice and community transparency. On-site physical signage. Provide proof of installation for high visible weather resistant structural place cards placed on the street facing perimeter of the proposed site detailing the nature of the industrial high water use application. Formal media announcement. Provide affidavit proofs of published public notices detailing the project specs run consecutively in regional newspaper and local digital media outlets. Adopted this the 9th day of June, 2026.

Thank you very much for reading that. And we have some comments written in, is that right?

Yes.

Thank you. If you'll start with their name, the timer, and the routine, and we'll read through those, and then I'll go to the commissioners.

Liz Gajados? Yes.

Oh, Liz. OK. Oh, I thought they were all written. You're in person. Got it. Come on in. Sorry.

There's a lot of people here in person, I think, who are going to give their comments today.

Very good. I was reading a note that I was handed about emailed comments. I'm happy to have you in person all day.

Thanks.

Got it.

This is the third time something has come up for consideration to somehow tamp down AI data centers. And while you do have limited resources and limited development rights in the county, there are so many things that you can be doing, and this is one of them. The 180-day pause isn't going to hurt anyone. If you're going to sit here and wait for the perfect document, you will continue to put people at risk, landowners, water resources, everything. However, passing this one today and knowing that if you need to amend something in the future, you can certainly come back and make an amendment. So I strongly urge you to stand with the people who are behind me, and of course myself, because I obviously am against data centers in a drought-ridden county with limited resource and limited infrastructure resource. So I urge you today to vote yes for this, and let's start protecting the citizens and listening to them behind us. Thank you.

Thank you. Next.

Bobby Levinsky.

Thank you, Commissioners. Bobby Levinsky, Saver Springs Alliance. I actually came here to speak in favor of K-1 and K-2, thinking that K-1 was Judge Becerra's and K-2 was a different resolution being worked on by Commissioners Cohen and Inglesby. So I was prepared to speak in favor of both of them. But regardless, I do want to speak in favor of these actions and express gratitude for this court collectively for moving forward with this action. I think it's smart. It's legally defensible. And although it's not a moratorium, it is meaningful action. The language is firm. It recognizes the urgency of the situation. It explores what we can do as a community together. And I think most importantly, by putting forth a policy that this court would not approve tax incentives or other discretionary actions, you are giving the community that's fighting these things a chance to breathe, knowing that we won't have to rush down here to respond to a greenwash deal. We're seeing that in nearby counties where tax abatements and development agreements are being offered up to these data centers with little to no benefit to the community or curtailment on the amount of water that they'll use or recognition of the damage that they're causing to our air quality and our environment. To highlight a few of these issues between the Palomino Alpha and Cloudburst data center sites, along with the existing power plant, the neighborhood out there is looking at the realistic possibility that three power plants will be built within a 1.5 mile radius of each other. The wastewater permits are starting up with proposed discharges into tributaries of the San Marcos River. Individually, any one of these sites creates some environmental consequences that we have to deal with as a community, but collectively, it's staggering just what's happening across our community and across the state. There's over 480 large-scale data centers in the queue at our cot. This problem is not going away, and we need to be working together, and these actions do that. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

I'll keep it short. I'm really excited to see the resolution on the table today. It seems like it's a kind of a beautiful mix of everything that is innovative but also legally sound about I think like it's really clear that THE PEOPLE WHO DRAFTED THAT WERE WORKING WITH THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AND TRYING TO DRAW ON THE BODY OF WORK THAT'S HAPPENING ACROSS THE STATE IN TERMS OF WHAT'S POSSIBLE AT THE COUNTY LEVEL TO STAND UP TO DATA CENTERS. social politics around county government. And I'm not really sure what it takes to actually get something like this passed in sort of real social terms. But I just think this is good legislation. I think it's, I'm really happy to see it on the table. And I hope somehow the process happens such that everyone votes yes, eventually, and this gets passed. If it takes a little longer than today, I think that's okay. But I also think there's no reason to wait. So thank you. Thank you.

Abigail Lindsay.

Abigail Lindsay. This wasn't part of my speech, but I just want to let you know that about 40 minutes ago at the Texas House Natural Resource Committee, they just read this resolution, so. Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. I'm here today to support miscellaneous items K1 and K2 regarding the industrial high water users, aka data centers. At this point, with all the information out there and what's happening in our county and surrounding counties, I can't see how you wouldn't vote yes on this. I've read the documents. I believe there's more that the county could put in there, but I understand we must start somewhere, and I'm asking for the judge and the commissioners to be bold, to be leaders, and to take this initial step. I support Commissioner Hammer. I know that you'd said last time that you wanted to be on the high water demand development board. I support that. I think you would be a good candidate for that. I would also like to see Hayes County eventually come out and say absolutely no to tax abatements. Just put it on the paper. We can't sit by and think that we're going to be saved from data centers by the way of the federal government or even the state. Change doesn't work that way. It starts with people on the ground, small grassroots movements, and then it builds and it builds to where there's so much noise we cannot be ignored. There's not one single reason for these hyperscale data centers. The amount of misinformation and lies these companies have told to the public, to city leaders, and to county commissioners is unbelievable. I invite all the commissioners and Judge Becerra to come out to my home and see my land. I want to show you what it's like before the destruction happens. I want you to see what we're about to lose. The city of San Marcos just banned data centers within the city limits. I know this doesn't fix everything, but it's a start, and let's build on that momentum. Your community is begging you to take a stand against this. So come over to the right side of history. If we never challenge the laws that are in place, how does anything ever change? I hope every person sitting up there votes yes on miscellaneous items one and two. One more thing, yesterday I found out that Cloudburst has purchased more land. So that takes their total to about 900 acres. That's right across from Palomino Alpha that is in Guadalupe County. That's 942 acres. And like Bobby Levinsky said, possibly three power plants. I drove along the road, Francis Harris, it's a mile of Cloudburst Data Center road frontage, and then drove up the other way and it's 1.4 miles. of data centers. And yesterday, they were both out there taking soil samples, both Palomino and Cloudburst. So I see it every day. And I just really hope you all come together. Thank you.

Judge, may I ask a quick question? Ms. Lindsay, do you know if Cloudburst is wholly going to build in Guadalupe County? I know that one property that they were looking at was partially in Hays and partially in Guadalupe County.

Have you heard? Yeah, so they bought the 94 acres, which has the energy transfer natural gas pipeline on it, and they do own that outright. I BELIEVE ALL THE OTHER TRACKS ARE PROBABLY UNDER CONTRACT UNTIL THEY GET THEIR WATER, ET CETERA. THEY HAVE SUBMITTED AN APPLICATION WITH THE CITY OF SAN MARCOS TO GET THE RECLAIMED WATER. AND SINCE DOING THAT, THEY HAVE THEN PURCHASED ANOTHER 100 ACRES THAT GOES BACK BEHIND HAZE ENERGY. AND I CAN SEND YOU THOSE DOCUMENTS. IT KIND OF HAS IT LAID OUT FOR WHAT THEY'RE PLANNING TO DO. They're pretty sure of themselves. They are growing. But, yeah, they weren't going to build in Hays, and then they were going to build in Hays, but they definitely want to use San Marcos water now.

Thank you. Our next speaker.

Cy Freddie.

Hi, y'all. I haven't been here since May of last year when Cloudburst gave their presentation. And I just feel like the tides have turned since then. We no longer have to convince anyone. The popular opposition to data centers is clear. And it's clear that we need to innovate and develop tools to stop them and that we can. know in that time we've defeated one probably two data centers in our county and it's um and like abigail just said i i really think we can prevent these projects from getting what they need to go forward and y'all are um can let's see um i'm excited for us all to work together to to ensure that that happens um so I know that it takes some courage and some creativity and like being able to think outside the box, but the resolution that we heard seems like extremely comprehensive is an amazing starting place. And we can always build and strengthen it from there. I also want to say that in contrast to y'all's counterparts in Guadalupe and Caldwell counties, we're already, you know, I just to express gratitude that y'all have never been what we haven't, been willing to sign these development agreements and tax abatements as, as they have. And, um, yeah, I think, um, we are now realizing how fragile these projects are. Like they have, they need to get a lot of pieces to come together, to come to fruition. And, you know, we can take a lot of different strategic tax and county government. I mean, y'all, y'all are important players in this and, and I believe your, your hearts are in the right place and, um, You know the communities behind you. And yeah, I look forward to continuing collaboration. I'm one of the core organizers with the Data Center Action Coalition. We've been kind of focused on this and educating folks on the threats of data centers in our communities. And it's pretty apocalyptic what we're up against. And I think everyone is now recognizing that. And like Bobby was saying, Three huge gas-fired power plants in a 1.5-mile radius, that's affecting all of us, not just here, but, you know, and Central Texas is becoming a hotspot for this, and it's not inevitable. We now know that it's not inevitable. And just, yeah, thank you all for your service, and that's all I got. Okay.

Thank you.

Tori Martin.

Good morning. Tori Martin, member of this esteemed community since birth. The American dream stated in our Declaration of Independence is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How can we, the citizens and neighbors, pursue our happiness and peace with our well-being and livelihood at stake and on the table? Data centers are not compatible with life, with us, with Hayes County, with all of Texas. An area constantly stressed by drought and submerged in triple-digit temperatures most of the year, the air quality already worsening and on the rise, with an already stressed power grid that should be serving people, citizens, schools, hospitals, families, and farms that feed you. They call this progress. They call this the future. What kind of future threatens our health, our air quality, builds multiple power plants, and harms us to only serve computers? What kind of progress threatens our quality of water, threatens our electricity bills, our water bills, and gives us light pollution, sound pollution, and pollutes our ponds and our creeks? heats our soil, kills our grass, and our feed, kills our livestock and wildlife, creates frequencies that are limiting our food supply. And by that I mean cows aren't giving births next to data centers, and the only thing they're doing is having stillbirth. This is the third summer in a year now of that. How can we pursue happiness when we are living in a perpetual state of dread? When our water and our power is redirected from citizens to computer or we are neglected and blatantly lied to and ultimately our lives and our homes and the dreams that we pursued are to be lost at the hands of our own government with no fault of our own. Data centers go against our constitutional rights. We cannot afford to wait for what we already know awaits our fate next to a data center, let alone some of the largest data centers proposed. We cannot wait for the state to save us and help us because we know they will not. I don't care what side you're on because it should all be on the side of Hays County and the citizens here. You should all be in agreeance on this. We need you to help us in our county, in your county. This is what you signed up for. This is what you campaigned for.

You fought for those seats. And I hope you mean everything about the kids of 4-H being the future of this county and how important agriculture is for Texas because I wouldn't be the woman I am today if I wasn't raised with that background. And I hope you make decisions that stand by the decisions that you said about that being so important to you. So please make a good decision for our county and stand by that. I put my script away and that I'm not very good at freestyling, but these are very emotional issues. These are our homes. We're so glad we've been fighting at San Marcos for us to not have data centers, but we actually live in the county. So please, we are your citizens. I was born here. This is my home. I am fighting for it. Please fight for it with us. Thank you.

Jessica bunting in favor of item k1 180 day emergency water protection Hello, my name is Jessica bunting and I'm home been a homeowner in San Marcos for nearly 20 years in that time We've seen X potential growth in the area last year in San Marcos City utilities produced projections regarding our water usage versus our natural resources and They highlighted the potential for our region to essentially run out of water before 2047 without accounting for the four proposed data centers in San Marcos and Hays County. Currently, San Marcos receives water from Canyon Lake and the Edwards Aquifer with contracts to connect to the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. all of which are great significant and even historic lows. The corporate entities pushing these data centers provided documentation claiming their updated systems will only use 75,000 gallons of water per day. According to the EPA, one citizen uses an average of 82 gallons of water per day. That equates to one data center using the same amount of water in a day that 915 Hays County residents will use in the same day. One person's water consumption over two and a half years is the same as one day of data center water usage. We do not have the natural resources to accommodate these developments. If these data centers are permitted to move forward, we are setting ourselves and future generations up for failure. I believe any person supporting the proposed data centers would change their opinion if they understood or had to live with the long-term consequences of their opinion. If you are in office to represent our community members, then you need to do what is best in interest for our community and protect our natural resources and our environment. We are already facing elevated stages of water restrictions in our county. This should be common sense. Please protect our community and follow suit with the city of San Marcos in halting data center development with intentions to ban data centers within Hays County as San Marcos accomplished last week. Thank you. This is from Susan Cook in Driftwood, Texas. Dear judges, Dear Judge and Commissioners, my name is Susan Cook. I applaud Judge Becerra's proposal that we work with the state legislator to take a good, long, hard look at our water used in Hays County and across Texas. We are in the years-long drought and there is no way anyone should be coming into this area and trying to extract permissions for large water uses. I also support a 180-day moratorium on these kinds of water demands or until such time as we can get a firm handle on how much water we have and how much water our current residents and businesses will need. We cannot allow big money and or big tech to bully its way into our dwindling water supplies. And as a county government, we have to learn to say no when people come in, try to take advantage of our water resources. Also, I would really like to know if any of our commissioners are already in conversations with these data center companies. And rather than trying to stop them coming here, working with them to enact weak local regulations,

would provide a blueprint for how these kinds of businesses can come here please y'all just say no thank you commissioner cohen we can start with you sure um i want to hear from legal i think it's important for us as i mean i heard one of our speakers said that it's that we're legally not at risk but i really would love to hear from our legal on their opinion

Good morning, Court. Chase Young, Assistant Criminal District Attorney with the Civil Division. So on this resolution, I think we've limited our potential exposure pretty strongly here. From a legal perspective, the vast majority is perfectly fine. I will say there is a small exposure that we have to the first portion, which is the exercise of discretionary acts, putting a pause on that portion. However, I believe that while that might risk a suit, that it's something that we would have good standing to have defenses against. If there is something brought, we might have to hire outside counsel for it. But overall, I think that it's a defensible position to have. CHAIR BAILET. Thank you, Chase. Appreciate that.

MS. Thank you. I AM IN FULL SUPPORT OF THE PROCLAMATION OR THE RESOLUTION. THE ONLY CONCERNS I HAVE ARE JUST MORE LOGISTICAL. THE CREATION OF THE BOARD, HOW LONG IS THAT GOING TO TAKE? HOW MANY MEMBERS GOING TO BE ON IT? IF THIS IS APPROVED AND SIGNED TODAY, THE 180 PERIOD STARTS TODAY, RIGHT? AND BEFORE WE HAVE A REBOARD. SO MY CONCERNS ARE JUST I can see this probably being brought back to be extended is what I'm saying. But for me, I am in complete support of this resolution. I am not a fan of data centers. It is not lost on me where they are being built or trying to be built, what I would call marginalized communities. And I'm very concerned about that. I know about the water situation. And so for me, it's just, know who's going to lead internally you know who's going to uh put this board together and it's more those kinds of questions and because it's that could take you know a month and a half before we have a a true board and then answering the questions of the expectation time commitment all those things that that i usually kind of hone in on as far as process and so but other than that i fully support the resolution as long as our legal feels good about the standing that we have a stance in case something were to happen. But yeah, I am in support of it. Commissioner Inglesby.

Thank you, Judge. Judge, thank you. And Chase, I want to thank you for all the work that you've done to bring this, I think, to a resolution that is good. You know, I think Tori said it well. Data centers are not compatible with us or with Hays County. And I think that holds true. I agree with that. I've said this before. All the data centers that are so far that had been proposed early on were all in Precinct 1. And, you know, I have a lot of neighbors out there that are very concerned, and I understand because it is extremely close to my home also. And, you know, I spoke with Dad. I guess it was cloudburst. They came to my office twice. I met once online with them, and I asked both. They were different representatives. And I asked both those representatives and the group that they had with them, um, if the County doesn't give you incentives, will you still come? And they said, absolutely. I don't believe that. I think that incentives are a key to their decision-making. And I think if we stand firm in that, I think this court has committed, we've had discussions about it. We're not willing to give incentives to data centers. And I think we just need to continue to hold firm to that. I know that we can't tie the hands of future courts, but I think this court is dedicated to not doing that. And so I am in full support, Judge, of this resolution.

Thank you. Commissioner Hammer.

I think this resolution, just basically to echo my colleague, it affirms the court's stance on data centers and how we will perceive data centers in Hayes County. As I wanted to say, Tori Martin stated, she lives here, she grew up here. I actually live in the neighborhood that your parents live in, so met them at their garage sale a couple years back. So don't know if you were raised in that house, but if you were, our water is of utmost importance. Every one of our constituents understands where we're at in our water situation. They care deeply about it. When it comes to this, I did want to just, for clarity purposes, The resolution that was read and the resolution that was provided yesterday, a couple of red line comments were read, so I just want to say we're voting on the one that was sent finalized, correct? Yes. Okay, perfect. Because section six was just a little hasty there. But as for the resolution that we were provided with, I'm always on board for saying as a court that we are not going to accept variances from FROM DATA CENTER SO I'M IN FULLY SUPPORT OF THIS RESOLUTION AND I APPRECIATE YOU WORKING AND I APPRECIATE YOU, CHASE, WORKING ON IT AS WELL.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. SO FAR WHAT I HAVE IS THE EXTENSION TO LONGER THAN 180 DAYS, I'M ABSOLUTELY OF COURSE AND IT SOUNDS TERRIBLE BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS. I'M BRINGING IT DOWN TO THE LOWEST POSSIBLE LEVEL WHERE I CAN GET THE SUPPORT TO MAKE A MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION WITH THE COMMUNITY. But we can say, December 31st, extend this until December 31st, it's fine with me. That's an easy amendment that we can make on the fly. I would also say, who will lead this? Will you put the camera back to the people? Thanks. And you also have the ability to say, who will lead this? Well, we can also shape that right here and right now. And I've always said that it should be a... development services initiative. They are the ones that touch these items. And so we can very simply decide, because that's what it's about. It's us port members deciding to say, we will appoint one person each. from our seat, and we will email Candace, and our first meeting will be in a week or whatever it may be, and it's done. It doesn't have to come back. It doesn't have to take a month, a month and a half, or two months. It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to. This is where the court does work, right here, right now. And so the other thing Commissioner Inglesby said was... strengthen to have no incentives. Absolutely. We can even say that until December 31st, which is this court, we commit, fortify, that there will be no incentives, loud and clear, to anyone looking to do business in Hays County under those descriptions. So absolutely, they're all very doable. They're all highly supported by the community. And I would love to do even further, but I understand I need to move as a group, and what moves the group is how I have to lead the conversation. Commissioner Smith, now turn the camera.

Thank you. I want to say, number one, some of the specific concerns that I had last week, or pardon me, week before last have been addressed. I think I can support this. So one, there are a couple of things that I have notes here on that I think we can work through and get past today. The first note that I had was specifically addressed by Commissioner Inglesby, and that's the 381 incentives. I think we just solidify that. We've all been very direct that we do not support 381 incentives. and just put an additional point in there, and I would leave it to legal as to what that looks like. To number one, say, you know, the Hays County Commissioner's Court will not support any additional 381 incentives for data centers. I will say that due to the points listed in the in the finding section. I agree with that. Changing the date to December 31st and leaving the decision up to the next court on what they or how they would like to progress is something that I would support. Making sure that our appointments end on December 31st and allowing the court to appoint there whomever they feel are the correct individuals there. I think that would be helpful. I think that, you know, one of the considerations that I had last week that I'm glad or two weeks ago that I'm glad to see addressed was the fact that, I mean, after our court session, I went back and in the original resolution, it specifically said any pending TCEQ permit. And so I went and looked at what small businesses were impacted by TCEQ permitting. And it's everything from gas stations to dry cleaners to a plethora of other small businesses that would have been impacted should we decide to move forward with the language as written. So I'm glad to see that that was changed. One item in the resolution itself that I would like to address specifically, and I hope legal if you're listening to this or watching, as we look in the in the session for kind of the definition of industrial high water users. Under TCEQ, under their definitions, they don't say high industrial water users, but they do say significant industrial water users. And we use the definition of in section three, subsection one as 25,000 gallons of water for use. The 25,000 gallon water usage daily is actually the number that they used for significant water user on the OSSF side as well. On the onsite sewage facility side is what they define. So if we can just change or look at changing section three, subsection four to reflect that, the 25,000, you know, in subsection one, you say 25,000 gallons per day. If we want to change, or I would like to change section three, item four, to that 25,000 gallons a day as well, because that would bring it in direct correlation with what the state defines it as right now. Again, the the absolute consideration or the non-consideration of any tax incentives or abatements or any type of 381 incentives, including property tax, any of that. I'd be fine with that. I'd actually be very supportive of that. Two other things that I have question of. and I would like to get clarification from legal if Chase could answer these. I've spoken to some folks from Hill County on their original moratorium and on the follow-up checklist that they've done. One of the things that I found out in those conversations was the reason behind those three specific members being named in the lawsuit over the moratorium was because the moratorium that they voted for was clearly in violation of state law. And they felt as though in that lawsuit, those three individuals were named because it put them in violation of the bonds that the County carries on those individual members of the court. I'd like to know if you've had any insight into that, or if there is any concern over that, should this be challenged, because that would provide personal liability to each member. I'd still be supportive. I just need to know that. And I think all the members of the court need to know that. I think that if we added a line, because we can't mandate, you know, on these things, we can't mandate what these centers are doing in certain areas. But what we can do is mandate what we as members of the court do. I wouldn't mind having a line in there to require full disclosure of any political contributions to any member of the court. that they may have received from representatives of a data center. And then I do have a question that I'd like, and can we include that in this? What are the ramifications of that? And number, and the very last thing I have for Chase to possibly answer is, is there any section or, you know, is there any concern as far as designating data certain categorizations of business differently than others, as far as constitutionally or statutorily, when we differentiate those, and does that have any, I think you know exactly what I'm trying to ask here under Section 5, is that a concern that we need to know about, and is there any clarification there?

Sure, okay. So, I don't need to re-announce myself, do I?

No, as long as it's within the same agenda item, because you gotta think of it this way. And I'm just going to share this with the viewing public. I know you remember now. As someone plays commissioner's court 25 years from now, that's how I want you to see this. That's how I run it. You click the agenda item to know what we did 25 years in the past no one's going to know who he was because you won't have everything visible so you click that agenda item and it will show who spoke that's why i always ask everyone at each agenda item to say their names and their titles and affiliations so that anyone in the future can click and see all of it in one transaction um so

There are, I don't know how much of this you want me to go in open session or if you want to do potentially a closed session for legal advice specifically on this. If you'd like me to talk about an open court.

What I'd like to do is hit the highlights that he can address so that we can address it in summary.

Okay. So there, so potentially about classifying specific businesses, there are, potential equal protection claims. That's one of the potential suits that I was alluding to earlier. There's something called a class of one equal protection claim, basically the idea if you define a certain group of people or of community members or industries, right, where they're getting essentially special treatment in a negative way, right, you could potentially open yourself up to litigation surrounding that. However, case law is fairly clear that in order for the government to do that, all it has to show is by a rational basis standard that it has a good reason for treating them differently because they have a different impact on their typical regulatory structure. And so here, I think that we'd be able to meet that rational basis standard. Of the three different standards, rational basis is by far the lowest of the traditional standards of review. So there is that potential litigation risk if we start defining and treating them in that different subcategory, right?

That's why I've always used the word industrial and not naming a specific industry. Too granular creates the feeling of, impression of, being arbitrary. So thank you for reinforcing that thought of mine as this thing unfolded.

Sure, yes. And as far as, Commissioner Smith, you were asking about Section 3, the definition section,

AND ARE YOU JUST WANTING TO CHANGE THE... JUST TO HAVE THEM HARMONIZE WHERE IT SAYS 25,000 GALLONS, BE CONSISTENT. WHAT THERE WAS WAS A VARIATION IN THE STATE'S DEFINITION VERSUS OURS IN ONE OF THE PARTS, AND SO I AGREE WITH IT TO MAKE THEM CONSISTENT, MAKE THEM SIGNIFICANT INSTEAD OF WHATEVER WORD WE HAD. SURE, 100%. I AGREE AND SUPPORT THAT EDIT.

PERFECT, YES, THAT'S AN EASY EDIT. And then there was a question about Hill County, about whether or not the commissioners potentially have personal liability there. Without getting into too many specifics, the highlights, there is a distinction sometimes in the law between when the body of the court performs a specific act versus when the individual members of the court create specific acts. And so... the theory that the data center was pushing forward in their federal lawsuit was that not only did the court act wrongly in that area, and clearly against state statute area, that's their theory, but that also the individual court members who participated in that also violated their oath of office to do that function, right? And so that's why they're trying to go after it. They're trying to pierce through a specific version of, I believe it's called legislative immunity or something along those lines. That's a very high bar to meet, but it's something they're going forward on. Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, and here I'm not nearly as concerned for that in this instance because, again, discretionary acts are going to be where y'all have much more protection on those areas than you would elsewhere. And because this doesn't, the rest of the best practices list doesn't, or the exhibit list doesn't really materially overly burden those areas, I'm not concerned about it in that area. And we can have a more detailed discussion elsewhere. I think that's good.

I think you've covered it. Yes. Oh, yes, ma'am. Don't forget your name and title.

Jordan Powell, civil first assistant. I just wanted to kind of double down on a couple of things that Chase said. I was trying to scribble a list of some of the changes that were suggested so that in the event the court does want to make changes, we are very abundantly clear on what the court expects of us as far as drafting goes. And so I just kind of wanted to double down on a couple of things that Chase said to make sure that I captured the notes correctly in the event the court wants to move forward with this. On one of the, I know one of the comments was to add in no 381 incentives for the high water use projects. We referenced that in section one. We referenced discretionary approvals and we include a list that says include but not limited to and tax abatement development agreements. Those things are listed. Is it the court's intent to want stronger language than that? Okay. saying so right now there will be no and I think I mean you're totally welcome to correct me if I'm wrong it says that we're deferring consideration of all those approvals during this period are you all intending to say something different that's good because I will recap another I just want to make sure that we're You may or may not want changed.

And I want to say to harmonize the idea on several fronts because there were three fronts where we talked about extension potentials, including that one. Let's move the whole document because I feel the support of December 31st. Okay. And so let's move all of those. That's why I was anticipating. Let's move all of these things like no 381, which is the code for tax incentives from the county. 380s are tax incentives from the city for the viewing public so no tax incentives from the county until for sure December 31st as well as I was thinking we can appoint two because there's a lot of people that care two court members uh two members of the community Hayes County community Hayes County residents will be the only stipulation I would place two members from each commissioner's court member to be emailed to Candace to accelerate the first meeting within two weeks of those people. We'll email them to you so we don't have to come back. And the December 31st continues as well on the extension instead of 180 days to be December 31st. So everything pushes to December 31st where this body will meet for the last time as a group.

So everything that references 180-day changed out to a flat December 31st. Got that on the list. Incentively, we talked about that. Board composition. Totally up to the court if composition of the board if you want us to add something in about that If you just want to put that in your motion, that's fine, too We can work either way with that just so we're all on the same page on the next item I had on my list was I think a suggestion from Commissioner Smith to anywhere that LABEL THESE PROJECTS AS HIGH INDUSTRIAL HIGH WATER USE. THERE WAS A SUGGESTION TO INDUSTRIAL SIGNIFICANT WATER USE. I THINK THAT'S WHAT I CAPTURED THERE. WE TALKED ABOUT THE 25,000 GALLONS. I THINK THAT WAS IN SECTION 3. Part four? Yes.

To be consistent with the 25,000 gallons throughout.

Okay. And then I just want to be clear that I know the version that was read by the clerk. We did talk about this earlier. The version that was read by the clerk was a little bit different than the paper version that was sent out by your office. So the section numbers are off. to make sure that we're not making an assumption. We're talking about making these potential edits to the version that your office sent and not the version that was just read.

They may have missed a minor edit. That's fine. Absolutely right.

I just wanted to make sure we were clear on the version.

Good point, and thank you.

And then I think there was a question. I don't know if this... It was mentioned about putting something in the resolution about political contributions. We may need a little bit more conversation about that if the court wants to add something to that effect in the resolution just so that we have some better direction on what exactly y'all may want included. That was the other thing I had on my list.

Can we just bring back another resolution that states that?

Well, my hope is they capture the edits that we vote on and be done with.

Yeah, I'm okay with that.

I JUST DON'T WANT TO PUSH ALONG. EXACTLY. I THINK YOU'VE CAPTURED IT.

A SECTION, SO A LITTLE BIT MORE CLARITY, SORRY. REGARDING THE POLITICAL.

COMMISSIONER SMITH APPARENTLY WANTS A LINE ITEM THAT IF A DATA CENTER HAS CONTRIBUTED TO A COURT MEMBER TO INCLUDE IT IN THEIR DOCUMENTATION. THAT'S GREAT.

IF A SIGNIFICANT HIGH WATER USE PROJECT has contributed to a political contribution, made a political contribution to a member of the court, you want it disclosed? To include it in the process. Okay. Do we know where in the process we want that disclosed?

In the checklist of things that we created. That'd be an easy place. Okay. It reminds me of the purchasing agreement effort from Stephanie Hunt's section.

Okay, thank you. Judge, just small housekeeping under Exhibit A, it references Section 2. It just needs to change Section 3. You're fine with those kind of administrative edits? You're exactly right.

Changing the section letters or numbers is totally fine. Jacob, before we get too much further, do you mind approaching the podium?

Can I make one clarification while he's walking up here? For the political contribution piece, yes. Good point here is the project obviously doesn't make a political contribution. Perhaps a key participant in the project makes a contribution.

To be known during the application process. Absolutely. Something of that nature.

I used the wrong terminology. For sure. I'm glad someone brought that to my attention.

For sure. Okay. And Jacob, if you'll state your name and title for the union public.

Okay, Jacob Lamone, Chief of Staff, Judge Ruben Bissetta's office.

And what I want to ask you is to make sure that, because this is, you know, it's a four-page document, I want to make sure that we didn't leave anything out meaningful in spirit and that you're clear on everything we've touched and asked to edit and that you are in line with those comments and didn't leave anything out.

Thank you, Judge. I definitely think we are in line. The charge that Chase and I had over the last couple of weeks was to... try to utilize what limited tools we have without getting us into that area of increasing our chances of a challenge or a lawsuit. And I think we have, Chase and I just covered one quick point that we'd like to throw out. We intentionally did not mention quote unquote data centers. That's right. Again, we're going back to the class of one or singling out a particular industry. There are several industries that if they come in and they still meet these standards probably are just as environmentally impactful. And so I just made sure we both agree that would probably be something we'd like to avoid actually using that term. Jordan looks like she's shaking her head too. Yeah, we spent some good time really avoiding that. Otherwise, you know, no offense to the attorneys, you're never going to get an attorney to say we're definitely not going to get sued. But our challenge was to That's why I apologize for all of the whereases, but that was our legislative intent. We were purposely going through and saying this was the intent of the court. Those bad things that are getting sued on, those are not the intent of the court. The intent of the court were all of these whereases, which is why you see a lot more as we've gone through. We're giving them the intent. But I do think that... Yes, sir. Okay, thank you.

So I also had Commissioner Smith wanted to say something.

Yes, I just wanted to make sure that, and I know Jordan, you're listening, whatever we do, I want within that disclosure portion, I completely agree with Judge Becerra, that could just be part of that voluntary checklist that we've asked for. But as long as a contribution meets the, number one, a representative or associated party with the data, one of these projects. In other words, if it's the property owner who's selling it or if it's the legal representative of the applicant, whatever that might be, that that disclosure occurs or is requested just like all the other information is requested. The other thing is that if you read the resolution, and I know this is It's written this way, and I know the judge did it this way just to adhere to state law. Some clarification as to the recommendation from the commission or committee that set that up. At the end of the day, we know that, again, we're looking at what incentivization or what discretionary control that we have. I don't know. I just... And this is a real question I don't know the answer to. Chase and Jordan, you may. But I just want to clarify for the general public and for anyone else that this isn't going to impact the 30-day shot clock when we have to consider certain applications. And I know that's what we're going after. I want to give any type of facility the ability to file an application and say, okay, well, we didn't turn in this voluntary stuff. It's day 31. Now by state law, you have to take it. That's my only concern. I'm 100% supportive of it with the evidence that we just talked about. I'm 100% supportive of the resolution. I just want the public and our members of our court to know whether or not we're going to be safe here because I don't want to give these guys a free pass just because we do this.

That's a good question, Commissioner Smith. I believe that the language edits that we've made protect against both a facial challenge and an as-applied challenge for this kind of work. So I don't believe it will affect our 30-day shot clock, and we won't worry about those.

Okay, well, thank you. And I know because we have this all recorded and we have everyone's notes taken and reiterated for clarification that I think we've got the content. And, Ken, did you want to add something before we move on?

Yes, sir. Just want to get clarity on a few things regarding the appointments. So will you all appoint the two court members today? And did I understand you correctly?

We are going to email you with those appointees. Each court member will email you directly with our two names. We've got to speak with them, make sure they're good with it, and then we'll email it to you. Each one will have two, and then you will take it from there with development services to create within the next two weeks your first meeting so that you can at least have a welcome and an understanding of what can be expected in a coming together of however that looks.

So, sir, I just want to point out that in two weeks we have court again.

Right.

So you want it on a court date. It doesn't have to be Tuesday. I'm giving you a window. I just want to make sure. Give me a little space. So the week of the 6th.

I wouldn't say Tuesday at 9 a.m. when there's court. Okay. This is a generalization.

And no court members appointed.

I think we shouldn't have court members.

Okay. Just wanted to confirm. Thank you.

Okay.

Judge, may I add just, I'm not going to ask that the court... put this or or consider this today but i do want to pass out this one pager that i just received today and so uh... since nobody has seen it i had asked chase to put it together it just has a little stronger language on some areas that i'd like us to consider maybe adding to the checklist knowing that you know we can only or strongly recommend that the significant water use projects follow. And so when I just appreciate the help of some of the community members that suggested some of this language, I'll just read just a little bit of it. So one of them has to do with providing a list of all chemicals that will be mixed into the lines of the cooling systems. Another one is to provide sufficient setbacks and native vegetation buffers. Another one was related to tax abatement. And so there's just a little bit more language that I think that if we're comfortable in providing in the checklist, you know, we can always come back and amend. But I'll pass this out. And if we want to consider this, then maybe we can... At some point, bring it back.

How about I respond this way? These are the suggested checklist requests, and I will happily take whichever, Chase, as one of the people keying up on this thing, you don't have to get up, just to make sure you're listening on this part. I would happily, it's my document, right? I would happily welcome anything that's tighter wording in the checklist. Without fail, I would always welcome the stronger of the two, wouldn't you? No.

Yeah, okay. Well, then if we can add, Liz, Chase created this.

That's right. Thank you, Commissioner. There is no need. Whichever is strongest, yes, please.

This might be my last question. I'm not going to make promises, but I hope it is. So in regards to the appointments that the court members will be sending to Candace, in Section 6 of the resolution, it talks about the reviewed board consisting of representatives appointed by the Commissioner's Court, including but not limited to elected officials, development services staff, water resource professionals. There's a list. And I think I heard, it might have been your suggestion, Judge, but I might be, my notes are a little wonky at this point, was that I think it was perhaps your preference that anyone on the review board was a Hays County resident. Yes.

Did I catch that? That was my hope. Okay. Because biggest dog in the hunt.

And I just, if that's the intent, I just thought that might be good to add to this, if that's what the court would like. And as far as the two members, I think that's still consistent with the language. It was just the resident piece that was slightly different.

Perfect. I think people that live here, would be honestly best represented by people that are here.

That's fine. I just wanted to clarify that point, and I think that's my last question.

Do you need a copy of this? I know that your department probably has it, but okay. Wonderful.

Okay. Okay. Commissioner Smith.

Yes. As the precinct at this point that is most impacted by this, and we've already heard one other commissioner volunteer I'd like to go ahead if the court is okay with it and not necessarily make a nomination, but if we have two volunteers, I would love to have Commissioner Inglesby and Commissioner Hammer serve as the two representatives of the court on that commission.

Yeah, I was hoping because court members are plenty represented, I was thinking leave that moment for community members that they're gonna come back to the court anyway.

That was my preference. Whenever we say elected officials, I think that if this commission works in a vacuum without representation from the court and understanding what recommendations can or can't be adhered to, I think that that's a, I'm not going to say a losing proposition, but it's one where they may be working in a vacuum and not understanding, number one, the rules, number two, the statutory ability of the court. I think having two court members on there would be a positive for that group. because they can make recommendations and have no understanding or idea what the tenor or what the acceptance of those types of recommendations would be to the court. I think having two members of our body on that committee would be very helpful. And again, Commissioner Hammer has already volunteered to do it, and Commissioner Inglesby's precinct is the most impacted thus far.

So here's my response to that. We have Candace, our county administrator, who knows the rules, parameters, insides and outsides of what bodies will be able to promote, suggest, encourage. She has access to the full government run through development services, which is the other extension of this piece. So they're not going to just get together and have coffee and discuss it and then come up with a wish list that's way off base. Instead, it will be led by professionals. But if you want to make your two, of your two recommendation items be the commissioners, and they're willing, I guess, I mean, that's fine with me. I want to get something done, and I don't want to commit to this to death.

And, Judge, you know, if we have legal civil division representative, I think that would be good. Absolutely.

A civil division representative. Absolutely. Totally a great addition to the conversation. My intent in that effort was to have our county administrator into the conversation, leading the charge of not only meeting, but all that, to make sure that everything was done above board and most completely guided.

Well, I appreciate that, Judge. But what I'd like to do is go ahead and make a motion to appoint those two members of the court to the commission.

I hear no second. So what we'll do, there you go. And let's call the roll. And that'll be to have Commissioner Inglesby and Commissioner Hammer on the body. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Inglesby? Sure, I'd be happy to serve. Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Commissioner Cohen?

Yes.

Judge Becerra?

Yes. Now, I move that we vote as amended for this K-1 item. Second? Second. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Smith? Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Commissioner Cohen?

Yes.

Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Commissioner Inglesby? Yes. Judge Becerra?

Yes. Ten-minute recess. All right, so we are ready. We have taken a short recess. And K2 was a plan of mine to have a breakout that we didn't need to have. So it all worked out just fine. K2 is within K1, which means I don't have to open K2. It is all consolidated in one document, which I'm grateful for. So there will be no need to open K2. What I ask now is that you guys humor me. I'm going to bounce through the agenda as requested by the People in the court, department heads, elected officials, I'm always listening to what they need to keep things moving and when others are ready as well. So I'm going to bounce through a few and then we'll start hitting slates. For now, let's start with G13.

G13, approve the reappointment of Scott Roberts to the board of directors of the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, position four, term ending September 20, 2013.

Commissioner, it takes us a minute to get on.

It's a little delayed. Was that a motion from you?

Yes, I said so moved.

Okay, perfect. So now we have it on the record. So moved. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Do we have a motion and a second? And do we have comments on this item? Okay, if you will start that, please.

Rick Brown.

If you'll approach the podium, you'll have three minutes, sir.

Good afternoon, judge, commissioners, citizens of Hays County. Thank you for your time and your dedication to your job. I know it's difficult. Driving here this morning, talking about water, I knew I was going to put people to sleep. But I think I picked the right meeting to show up. There's a lot of passion. In every topic, I can drill down to water. From the cake lady, from the ag folks, Road construction, it's all about water. I'm passionate about water. I've been doing it for 17 years. Not as long as some other professionals, but water, I know a lot about. A lot of people don't know the difference between groundwater and surface water. I represent Drivers Things Water Supply Corp. I'm the general manager. We have two permits, groundwater, surface water. For almost 10 years now, we've been declined application to get additional surface water for one reason or another. Ten years, you know, that forces us to drill more wells, use more groundwater. A lot of people here are very concerned about groundwater, data centers and the like. Could you imagine ten years ago if we would have had more surface water? We'd use less groundwater. There would have been more water to Wimberley. I know that you guys are all passionate about conserving water, groundwater for the people, for their wells, for their businesses, for their homes. Recently you all passed a resolution, I believe, in favor of the local groundwater, Hays-Drain Groundwater Conservation District to promote them for legislation, for protections, for monies. It's great. I need that same passion today from you all to say this Appointment may not be the best for Hayes County. Very smart man. I have nothing against him. He's a developer. He has a nice golf course, mansions. He has surface water. We've been in drought stage four for three years, while other people around us have been in drought stage two. All we're asking for is our fair share at the lake water. The lake's at 85% full. That's amazing. Great. I'm so glad of the rains and people's conservation. I've been hitting people so hard about conservation, cutting back, cutting back irrigation. That's what I do every day. But what I need are... You guys pointed out, you wanted to elect a committee of people, of citizens from Hayes County to represent... THE PEOPLE. I NEED THE SAME THING FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OVER AT THE WEST TRAVIS COUNTY PUBLIC UTILITY AGENCY TO SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF DRIPPING SPRINGS. EITHER THIS POSITION NEEDS TO BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE OR A PERSON APPOINTED BY FROM DRIPPING SPRINGS, NOT DRIFTWOOD, SOMEONE WHO IS IMPACTED BY THIS DROUGHT STAGE FOUR. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU, SIR. THANK YOU, SIR.

And do you have any others?

One email.

Okay.

My name is Susan Cook, and I beseech you to deny Scott Roberts another term on the WTCPUA Board of Directors. Mr. Roberts is unsuited to make impartial water decisions for tens of thousands of people in the Dripping Springs area, as he himself is a walking conflict of interest. Mr. Roberts is a landowner and developer in the area whose water is partially provided by the WTCPUA's water agreement with entities in Austin, along with his own development, including the golf course in Driftwood, supplied water by that water entity. We're not talking small potatoes here. The man is involved in these developments to tune of tens of millions of dollars. He has consistently prioritized green grass on that relatively new golf course over making sure the homes in the area had enough water for their household to use. I would like to see a comprehensive water conservation plan put in place for this area, but until you get rid of people like Scott Roberts, nothing will change. In addition to using Austin water to keep that golf course green in the drift of seasons, he himself pumps aquifer water, which is essentially free, to water his barbecue joint, the Salt Lake, and to create and maintain the vanity vineyards adjacent to it. Not only does this massive use of groundwater impact neighboring wells in Onion Creek, but the herbicides and insecticides and fertilizers growing grapes here requires risk polluting the water resource. Instead of allowing Walt Smith to appoint Scott Roberts to continue to make important decisions on how water is used in the Driftwood and neighboring communities, I would like to see you search a bit further afield to find actual experts and public servants in the field of water management and replace both Walt Smith and Scott Roberts on the WTC PUA Board of Directors. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

That's everything. Okay. Commissioner Smith, I'll start with you. It's your agenda item. Do you have anything to contribute?

Yes. Absolutely. I'd first like to clarify some of the statements made by the two public comments. The first one, at the end of the day, and this is a very direct statement, and I hope Mr. Braun and the Dripping Springs Water Supply Court procure this. Poor planning is no one's fault. but the person who does poor planning. At the end of the day, having the assumption that your water supply will be augmented or increased by another entity is absolutely, that's number one, crazy, but number two, shows the severe lack of consideration for future usage. At the end of the day, I think one of the things that I find very interesting is the overall number non-standard service agreements and service agreements that have been signed by the by The driven strings water supply cork without a guaranteed source of water for the future at this point You know, we know that those have occurred out there when you talk about your fair share You know there there was a There was a decision a long time ago and an offer from the West Travis County PUA to provide additional service to standardize the contracts. There are currently, for the general public, there are 14 wholesale service agreements that the West Travis County Public Utility Agency maintains. Those 14 contracts are all standard with the exception of one. at one contract is with the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp because they've chosen not to do that. We've asked them to go to 100% surface water and they've said no. I find it ironic that the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp would advocate for their fair share of surface water when they've gone to the state legislature last session and advocated for complete and utter untapping of all all groundwater permitting for commercial users in order to drill as many wells as they wanted here in Hays County at the detriment to their neighbors. To state that driftwood is not an important portion of the system, of the PUA system, is an absolute absurdity. There are, again, over 9,000 residential users And 13 other commercial users, or I would say commercial users, wholesale users that are currently a part of that system. To say that one portion of Hayes County should have more purview or one small section of Hayes County should have more purview over what happens on that board as a representative, I think is very short-sighted and I think it's very selfish as a matter of fact. The comments by Ms. Cook or not only number one, untrue, but unfounded. If you look at the first comment which was made, was that Mr. Roberts actually uses a large or significant amount of aquifer water. I think if you want to review the groundwater district records, you'll find that they have meters on his commercial well there. And I've actually documented whenever we were doing the research for the last legislative session, that they're monitoring wells or pardon me, the meters that they have that he has on his commercial well, haven't been used in several years. In other words, all of his facilities have completely switched over to West Travis County PUA water, which is surface water. The other accusation that he controls or has provided the water, the PUA has directly provided the water for that golf course over there, is also untrue. That is done under a contract with the City of Drifting Springs. And that contract gives us the general service area, and that's in their service area, which we provide the West Travis County PUA provides water to. The other thing I would say that is a significant factor is that there's over $200 million worth of expansion in water service coming to Northern Hays County at this point. That will be bonded through the West Travis County PUA. Most of it already has been bonded. And what we found is having a change in the board of directors, would have a significant impact on the rate which the PUA would be able to provide that. What many people don't know is the PUA itself operates under a statute which mandates we have to provide water service to our customers at the lowest possible rate. Unlike bad actors out there, which we see, especially in the western side of our county, who want to do expansions and just pass those costs on to their rate payers. And I'll say it very publicly, we've seen that happen in both a number of the privatized water systems out there, but especially Aqua, Texas and the Wimberley area and the San Marcos area of our county. The PUA does not have that ability. Any expansion that they do must be done off of connection fees or impact fees by future users. And so we have the ability to provide that water at the lowest possible rate to our customers. As a matter of fact, I believe that the West Travis County PUA is the only water entity, and I may be wrong here, but the only water entity within the last 15 years to actually drop our impact fees at a certain rate because we wanted to provide those savings back to our customers. With that being said, Scott Roberts has served on the PUA board since its inception. And actually, let me... appointee to the West Travis County PUA Board about three months after its creation. But that was done, I want to say, in 2012, 2011, 2012. And he served with distinction as the president and is the current president of that board and is supported by all the other entities on that board. What you may not know is each appointee to the West Travis County PUA Board is not only appointed by Hayes County, but Any of our two appointees must be approved by the other two entities that are involved in the PUA. That is the MUD that is located in Travis County along with the city of Bee Cave itself. Similarly, any appointee that they have must be approved by the other two founding entities as well. With that said, I can tell you that at this point, both of the other two entities have expressed support for Mr. Robertson and voted for his reappointment on multiple occasions. And I would just go ahead and would love to hear if there is any other comments. If not, I would move for approval of the appointment.

Thank you. Turns out there was a letter that we overlooked that needed to be read as well. If you don't mind setting that timer.

This is from Mark Key in Dripping Springs. I respectfully ask that Hayes County Commissioner's Court not reappoint Scott Roberts to the West Travis County PUA Board. Mr. Roberts is no doubt a pillar of the community and has developed a national following with his Salt Lake Barbecue. He has also helped create a world-class golf course community in the Driftwood development. That community is the reason Mr. Roberts should not continue on the WTC PUA Board. Mr. Roberts sits on a board that provides water to the golf course and to quite a few developments in northern Hays County. The Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp has tried twice and spent over $40,000 to get more water from the WTCPUA with no success. Somehow, the driftwood development has been able to get a million gallons per day allotted to put on grass. Mr. Roberts still owns significant land holdings and driftwood while sitting on a board that oversees water to the area. I am sure that it will be a that it will be pointed out that Dripping Springs City provides water to the golf course not the WTCPUA. The city of Dripping Springs gets 100% of their water from the WTCPUA, and the water lines that feed the development come directly from the WTCPUA treatment plant. One additional thing, the biggest threat to the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District is the WTCPUA. They have set themselves on a path to expand into the northern Hays County with future service areas predicted both north, south, and west of the DSWSC service area. For every new water service, DSWSC pays the HTGCD $1,000, the WTCPUA pays them none. The Honor Renee project alone, which has WTCPUA water costs, the Hays Trinity $2.4 million. Had the WTCPUA agreed to sell DSWSC water for this subdivision, the HTGCD would have had plenty of money for foreseeable future. Please open this position up and take applications from the public. Respectfully, Mark Key.

It's important that we do have a Hayes County representative in that footprint. Open it up is one of the last things we just heard. Open it up, let people apply for the position. It is, as you well know, we can fill the courtroom every time we meet until the end of the year. It is very top of mind water in our county. And so open it up for someone else since he's been there for so long, why not? I don't see anything wrong with that. Maintains 14 contracts. And do we have them on now? I was killing time for you. You there?

I'm here. Can you hear me?

Yes. Yes. Okay. Would you like to address that last letter? That'd be the last piece of it.

Sure. I just find it ironic at this point, we've got the president or former president of the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp, along with the general manager, who to this point is roundly acknowledged as possibly some of the worst actors when it comes to groundwater in our County. Acknowledging that or claiming that the best thing on earth for the groundwater district is to make a change where we have two board members who are very adamant in converting from surface water to groundwater. What was left out, two things that were left out of the letter that Mr. Key wrote that I find great irony in is the fact that Mr. Key as president or pardon me, he may not have been president at the time, but as a board member of the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp actually performed services for them. And as the contractor who installs or installs utilization for developments, yet he sits on the board that provides water for it. And he somehow finds that there's a conflict with Mr. Roberts. The second thing I would say is, as we look at these developments, we're talking about an organization that has been at least admonished by the Public Utility Commission for running a wholesale water operation when they didn't have it or when they didn't have a license to do so. We're looking at an organization that worked in concert with Representative Kerry Isaac last year to lift all restrictions on groundwater production and stating that in order to ensure the future of the local groundwater district, they need to be able to get surface water from other places. At the end of the day, this is an organization, the Drifting Springs Water Supply Corp that has been multiple lawsuits with our groundwater district with the intent of bankrupting them. I think the general public needs to understand exactly what was said in that last statement and how ludicrous it was. I fully support Mr. Roberts. He's done an amazing job. Both the city of Bee Cave who has oversight and must approve such an individual has approved him multiple times. Mud 5 in Travis County has overwhelmingly supported him in the past as well. And the fact of the matter is, is there is no one in Hays County who has served in a position like this without compensation in the past and been a larger protector of groundwater. The whole purpose of the P-Way at its inception was to ensure that those residents in Hays County who were on the LCRA system, the Lower Colorado River Authority water systems that were purchased by the public utility agency back during its inception received clean, licensed water from the state of Texas at the lowest possible rate. And he has done an outstanding and amazing job in ensuring that that happens. The implications that had been made in these three public statements are not only ludicrous, but at a certain point, I would hope that the misstatements in these, if they were stated publicly, if either one of the two written statements were actually read in court, I would ask that those members of the public be sworn in, because as a court of record, and Judge, you're very fond of often saying that this is a court of record, As a court of record, any witness to our court, we must, under state law, have the ability to swear those witnesses in. If those two individuals were actually in court and we ran a court that was actually following state law, I would ask the court to swear those individuals in and restate or read those statements because I know that they not only verge on slanderous, but they may be in a very legal sense. I fully support Mr. Roberts' continued position on the court or on the PUA Board of Directors. And I would ask that those individuals review the statute and understand that that appointment is put forth by the Precinct 4 Commissioner. With that, I'd love to hear any other comments. And again, I would move upon the completion of the comments of the three members of the court. I would ask for recognition again. in order to move for his nomination to move forward.

Commissioner, did I miss? I was trying to write down key highlights. Before you get off, I just wanted to ask you one clarifying question. Does Mr. Roberts live in Hays County?

He's a property owner in Hays County and a fourth generation Hays County resident. I do believe that he has a house in Austin now and lives in Austin. because he's caring for his wife who's exceedingly ill. She actually fell last month and broke her leg and he's her full-time caretaker as well. And so if that's a detriment, then I apologize for that, but I can tell you that the Westratt, one of the reasons that he was initially appointed was because as a Hays County resident, he could bring that with an understanding of the other individuals on the board there, the other entities, because he has a foot in both Hays County and Travis County.

And as the court of record, you're correct. I do love to say that we are the court of record. Everything is recorded. And I captured some of your implication type responses. And I wanted to ask you for caution because you said that Mr. Key IS AN INSTALLER FOR THE DEVELOPMENTS THAT ARE COMING BETWEEN BEFORE THE DRIPPING SPRINGS WATER SUPPLY CORPORATION AND HE SERVES ON THE BOARD. AND SO I WASN'T GOING TO GO INTO THE BACK AND FORTH IF YOU HAD TRUTH. IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO CLARIFY. BECAUSE WE HAVE A DELAY, I'D RATHER YOU NOT INTERRUPT. IT'S A LITTLE DIFFERENT IN PERSON. AND SO MY ASK OF YOU IS Because there are things that you don't have hard proof of in your hands at this moment, I also would ask for us not to bring generalizations and stick to the agenda as tight as we can, as best we can. But I wanted to give you that latitude to respond, as you felt so passionately to. But I wanted you to know that I also heard implications on your side as well. And so what I would like to do, commissioners, is to ask if you have additional questions.

Well, Judge, maybe just some comments, but it just appears that there's more here that I'm aware of. I mean, I think if we're concerned with time limits of service, then we need to look at all boards and commissions that we make appointments to. I mean, I think we talked about that at one time. I mean, I believe that... you know, people that have served on boards that have that knowledge and history is beneficial. But if the court wants to look deeper into time limits, then let's open that up at some point and do that. Yeah, those are my comments for now, Judge.

I just don't... You got it. You got it. Commissioner Cohen.

I think it's... you know, in reappointments, it's, it's usually just, you know, we just approve it because we trust the commissioner or the judge who is appointing, but, um, and we don't want to ask, but since there seems to be some concern, maybe it'd be beneficial to either talk to Mr. Roberts or just get a better feel from him. Just kind of, you know, I mean, I don't know him personally or, aware of the work, so maybe having him come to court or some additional info from him would be helpful.

Good point, Commissioner Cohen. Commissioner Hammer.

Yeah, I've been approached by many members of the public just regarding this agenda item recently in the last 48 hours or so. I don't know Mr. Roberts personally either. I would like a little bit time to review. I mean, there were some accusations made. I would like some time to get some clarity around those accusations. I understand Commissioner Smith had his perspective as well. I would just like to get, for my own personal benefit, get a little bit more, because water is a That's my biggest issue that I care about. I want to make sure that we are doing the right thing. If I meet him and I hear, if I see him having a conservation mindset and know from there, Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp and what they have

Stated I think it's important, but I also think that we need to take a better look at the the holistic view of it I like what you just said take a better look and so my comments will be my personal opinion is Commissioner Smith confirmed that he does not live in Hays County and I I'm grateful that we have plenty of qualified water people in Hays County, and I believe we should open it up. We should say, anybody interested in this position, apply for it, and then, I mean, we could have any one of us, or as a group, Erasing the names and picking based on qualifications, not relationships, who's a better fit, who's a better applicant, whatever. But opening it up is a good idea. Universally speaking, it creates better governance, in my opinion. And so a better look is exactly what that would do. And I think that would be a good idea. At a minimum, I feel tabling this is what we're headed towards. And so...

I have just a quick point of clarification. Is this appointment, is this one that Hays County has the ability to appoint? Do we get two appointments and this is one of them? Yes. Okay.

We get two appointments. One is Commissioner Smith holding at this time. And the other one is Mr. Roberts holding at this time. And so we will be having those seats, of which one is in front of us today, to decide how that very important use of water through that organization happens in the entire portion of the county, which captures a big chunk of Dripping Springs and other spaces.

And when is his term up?

Does anyone know when his term is up? August.

August.

Okay, so we got time. Commissioner, the feel of the room is we're going to table this.

Yes, no, you're not going to tell me what the feel of the room is. I'm going to make a suggestion before we close out the item. What I'd like to do is give Mr. Roberts an opportunity to speak with each one of the commissioners and members of the court. And then I will bring the item back. And at this time, I'll pull the item for consideration.

So the item will be tabled. And so what I'm hoping for is that we have not only talking to individuals, but... I think there's an opportunity for us to open it up for the public for input, you know, to share who's qualified, who's skilled, who wants to do this, because I think that's been long enough. Okay, so now we're going to go on to G12.

G12, approve and confirm the appointment of Tomas Hernandez as a regular full-time deputy constable in the Hayes County Constable Precinct 3 office. Effective date? June 23rd, 2026. So morning judge.

Second. And thank you for your patience. Yes, sir. I know you're even on good morning mode. It's actually good afternoon already. Thank you again for your patience. Most sincerely grateful.

Yes, sir. Judge, court, my name is Don Montague. I'm a constable in Precinct 3, the Wimberley area. And constables, as you well know, are required to anybody that they hire that are commissioned officers need to come before the court and receive their approval, which I would appreciate. Tomas would appreciate this morning. I do want to introduce you to Tomas Hernandez, who will be the newest deputy in our Corps. And like I said, I would appreciate your vote so we can add him to the team. I appreciate it.

And, Constable, it is customary for us to hear about the individual's qualifications, certificates, and anything else that you might be able to share.

Tomas began his career with the Cibolo Police Department, was there for several years, and then went to work for the Hays County Sheriff's Office, was there for a period of time, and applied at our last opening. And we... did did two three interviews and we felt like he was the best selection for our office and our officers had been able to work with him quite a bit as he was stationed as an so deputy in wimberley knows the wimberley area so we're really happy to have him nice commissioner hammer anything else to add no i'm very um i'm happy that you wanted to be a part of precinct three and i think that you have a great leadership within constable montague so are you from hayes county yeah

Okay, do you live in Hayes County? No. Come on. Well, welcome to Hayes County. You'll move here soon because you'll love it so much, especially the Wimberley area.

Thank you. Okay, I've got to ask, what city do you live in? I live in Marion slash Cibolo. Okay. Okay, got it. Commissioners, any questions or comments?

No. Welcome. Welcome.

Okay, so there's a motion to approve and a second, I'm pretty sure, right?

Yeah, motion to approve.

Second, and you interviewed him. Please call the roll.

Commissioner Cohen? Yes. Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Commissioner Inglesby? Yes. Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Judge Becerra?

Yes. So there you go, and now you can go to work in Hays County. Congratulations. Yes. Thank you. Now we're going to go to K4. Humor me, folks. I've got your priorities written down. I'm getting to them all. K4 is next.

K4, discussion and possible action regarding the potential disbursement of San Marcos-Hays County EMS asset ownership upon the dissolution and give direction to staff regarding SANE.

Judge, I will say that there is no action that is going to be taken today. We felt that it was important to just give the court an update of what's happened with San Marcos-Hays County EMS. some other issues that have come up. But I will say that San Marcos-Hays County was created back in the early 1980s, maybe 83, between the City of San Marcos and Hays County with both entities contributing financially with public funds for the creation and the operation of that organization. San Marcos-Hays County will cease operations effective September 30th of this year. And throughout the years San Marcos Hays County has entered into contracts with different ESDs to provide EMS services in their coverage areas. Now that the dissolution is taking place, there are potential assets that the county is being asked to distribute. But I believe, as I mentioned earlier at this time, And since we do not have a comprehensive list of those assets that we not take action at this time, I have reached out both to San Marcos-Hays County EMS and also to the city of San Marcos to see if there is a list available at this time. I don't believe there is. I believe that's being, is it still being worked on or do we have one now? Okay, so Jill Rosales, who is the City of San Marcos' new chief of EMS, since we have not had an opportunity to take a look at that, I would just ask that y'all understand that we won't be taking any action today, but we would appreciate a copy of that as soon as possible. And then, Judge, I know that Chase has been working with me on this, and so he may have some... some things to share, and then I know that there are others that also would like to speak.

And Chase, while you approach the podium, just walk slow, I wanted to add that I've also been asked to have this tabled and give time for those pieces of information that weren't available, that it was incomplete, and that we shouldn't take action. So thank you for voicing that. You're there. It's a magic trick.

CHASE YOUNG, ASSISTANT CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR HAYES COUNTY CIVIL DIVISION. LIKE MR. ANGLES WE HAD SAID, WE HAVE BEEN DOING SOME BACKGROUND AND SOME LOOKING INTO THIS. SO EXCUSE ME. THE SAN MARCOS HAYES COUNTY EMS IS AN ORGANIZATION WE'VE BEEN A PART OF SINCE IT'S FOUND IN 1983. THERE HAVE BEEN INTERMITTENT FUNDING THAT WE'VE BEEN GIVING TO THEM OVER THE YEARS BUT THE FUNDING HAS BEEN ULTIMATELY declined since about fiscal year of 18 to 19, as far as regular contributions have gone. And so with their upcoming dissolution at the end of this fiscal year and transition to different organizations potentially taking over, there has been questions over WHAT SORT OF ASSETS, IF ANY, THE COUNTY SHOULD BE REIMBURSED FROM ITS HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE. CURRENTLY IN THE BYLAWS THERE IS A SECTION THAT SAYS FAIRLY CLEARLY THAT UPON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE SAN MARCOS HAYES COUNTY EMS THAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A 50-50 CUT EXACTLY BETWEEN THE CITY OF SAN MARCOS AND HAYES COUNTY. IN CONVERSATION SOME PEOPLE HAVE MADE THE ARGUMENT THAT BECAUSE because of some of the lack of financial contributions we've had since 18 to 19, that there's an equity argument that has been given to somebody else. However, with talking with, and Scott, I'll let you speak for yourself on that, but that we have had some contributions since 2020 and 22 and 23, I believe. Do you mind if I ask him to talk first?

Well, I was just going to say, as you're talking, if the contract wasn't changed, the contract's a contract, it's a 50-50, regardless of contributions. But that's just my interpretation, but you feel free.

Scott Woodland, budget officer. To add on to what Chase was saying is that we made specific grants for specific equipment purchases out of our ARPA funding that we received. And that was both the coded funding that came before the SLFRF. That's the state load. I forgot the acronym on that one, but that was our second round of funding. And we contributed roughly... So from the second round, we contributed almost $800,000 for the purchase of ambulance and related equipment. And then we made a more general purchase that was before my time here for COVID-19 assistance that was made back in 2020 from the first round of funding for the pandemic.

So in summary, in the last commission, you're on the body. The last few years, there's a potential discussion as to the... CONTRIBUTION THAT EACH ENTITY HAS MADE, BUT YOU'RE STATING THAT THERE HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY THE COUNTY, BUT IN ALL THE DECADES BEFORE IT WAS ALWAYS A FAIR CONTRIBUTION, SO THAT'S WHY THE DISTRIBUTION OF ASSETS IS BEING DISCUSSED.

YEAH. AND WE HAD JUST BECAME AWARE OF THIS YESTERDAY LATE, AND SO Yeah, so we felt that it was important to share that. And it was for specific equipment, and we can get more into those details as we have this information.

And, Commissioner, what I'd like to do, since the freshly minted San Marcos chief is here, Chase, if you don't mind yielding the podium, I'd like to ask if you can just give us the spirit of what you're holding, even though we can't bring it into the fold. At least give us the gist of the direction.

Yes, sir. Good afternoon, Judge, Commissioners. Jill Rosales, San Marcos EMS Chief. I had to leave off that Hays County for the first time publicly. It's a little weird. So all of the facts that Commissioner Inglesby spoke about are absolutely correct. The ARPA funding that was brought to light yesterday, I would like to specifically note that in those budget years, that ARPA funding was somewhere between 1% and 3% of the entire budget. and that the contract itself doesn't actually have a 50-50 split. It is the organization's bylaws, not the interlocal agreement that was founded initially in 1983, and then the second version of that was 1994, I believe.

Okay. Okay, and so far, from what you've heard already, of course we want to be as fair and even-handed as possible because you're serving, no matter how you throw it, you're serving our same constituency, Hayes County residents.

Yes.

And so the bylaws say 50-50. Do you feel that is a mistake if we were to follow that path? Potentially.

Personally, I do. So having previously been San Marcos-Hays County EMS's chief and having been affiliated with the organization for almost 18 years, the funding mechanism changed drastically. And in the midst of all of this conversation, it was asked of Commissioner Inglesby to secure three ambulances, a command vehicle, and $8,000 for ESD-9 specifically, since they were the last county partner. or the last county customer of San Marcos Hayes County EMS. Those things were set aside and it was mentioned in our board meeting that we would be willing, that San Marcos Hayes County EMS would be willing to turn those items over to ESD-9 as part of the county's take in those assets. And that is all set, ready to go, been voted on by our board and is completely appropriate. Anything over and above that, I think the board of that organization should revisit. But at the end of the day, we're trying to get a solution to this relatively quickly because at the end of the organization, we also have... bargaining unit of employees that we have to make sure that we treat right and fair and we need to know what assets we have coming to the table for those conversations so the sooner this part of it is settled the better we can take care of the citizens and the employees who will be potentially displaced at the dissolution of the organization.

And since you've been reminded with our previous agenda item that we are the court of record, and I'm not going to put you under oath, I still want to hear from you, just generally speaking, and you're not speaking for the agency or the body, but in your personal assessment, what would be, for those watching and in the audience, a potential sticking point that needs consideration?

I think that if there is something over and above what ESC 9 requested as their as their kind of portion of what the county's interest is that that be made clear so that the San Marcos-Hays County EMS Board can determine if that's appropriate, yes. But I think right now we don't have a secured list. It was that, and we approved that, and then now we're revisiting it. So I would like a very clear determination of what's being asked.

And so very well done, because it's these simple questions with those types of answers that keep the ball rolling in a meaningful way, because we're, again, We're all served and benefiting from your existence. And so I really appreciate your taking the time to clarify. Anything else to add before we table this?

Well, Carla Sist is here, Judge. Carla would like to speak a few words.

Okay, well, thank you, Chief. I think that's it for now. If you don't mind emailing it to us, if that's possible.

Or you can have all five copies of this. If you can give them to Chase.

We'll take it. Chase, we'll take it. Thank you, Chief. And Ms. Caskey-Sist, if you don't mind taking the podium. And there's no timer, but be gentle with our time.

Yes, sir. Howdy, y'all, and howdy, county judge and the commissioners. Thank y'all for giving me a moment. My name is Carla Sisk, or as you said, Carla Caskey Sisk, and I am ESD-9 commissioner, and I'm also the vice president of that organization. I was going to read this email into the record, as you said, the court of record, but I think y'all sort of already hit some of the highlights, so I think I would just like to summarize a couple of things. We are interested in the three ambulances and the command vehicle and the $8,000. That, if you add it up, is maybe $150,000 worth of assets. Over the last eight, nine years since ESC-9 was created, we have been in that contract with San Marcos Hayes EMS. They say that we've only contracted for services and that they charge this their cost. However, We paid the same amount no matter how many calls were run. I understand what it costs to staff and turn on an ambulance and keep it going. If we only pay cost, then how are they able to save all the money, buy equipment, buy land, these other things. So the idea that Hays County did not contribute to them is not correct. Once ESD-9 was created, we were the body that was garnering or gathering those tax dollars, and we took how they were spent very seriously. When they would come to us and ask, for example, that they needed extra money to buy radios or update or buy a new box for a truck, that would happen, and we would approve that as our board. So what we're asking, they're in a little bit of a hurry because they're dissolving September 30th. We understand that. But when they've got over $7 million in the bank, that Hays County ESD 9 contributed probably $2 to every $1 that the city of San Marcos contributed, then we need to look at a more equitable split, and we need to make sure that Hays County ESD 9 constituents, which include San Marcos ETJ, Kyle, the city of Kyle, Ulan, Niederwald, Mountain City, that those taxpayers are not left high and dry. And that is our concern. So we have requested a copy of this interlocal agreement, the MOU, and it has not been provided. So we're looking for that to read and understand. Also, we've requested the asset list. And as you heard, it sounds like now it's available. So it looks like we can get it. So that's the thing. We, ESC9's not trying to be greedy. We're trying to say we're representing our constituents. We're not elected, we're appointed, but we take it very seriously. And we provided more than 50% of their budget dollars for every year, if you go look at it. And so we just feel like we need a little bit more equitable distribution. And so that's why I'm here today to speak on our behalf. And I do want to acknowledge that Commissioner Inglesby has been working hard to obtain information, pursuing a fair resolution, and we appreciate that. And that's why we're here today. We know that we've paid and bought way more than $150,000 worth of stuff over the last eight, nine years. So we need, the split needs to be more equitable.

Okay, and just before you go, I want to make sure court members have an opportunity, but Chase, right off the gate, MOU and bylaws, I'm sure we have a copy somewhere, right? You can get into her? Or somebody? Who has a copy? I want to end this as quickly as they want to end it. Someone who would have a copy of those items?

I have a question, just to make sure I'm following the right... documents. Is the interlocal agreement or MOU you're talking about, is that the one from 1994?

Well, that's the one apparently that some people have said. So originally the bylaws say 50-50. Then someone brought up that there's an MOU that since Hays County quit directly contributing, although now we hear that they have, that maybe that the county was not doing the assets because they were all depreciated. So what I heard in the board meeting is for St. Marcus Hayes EMS Monday a week ago was that Hayes County was not due any assets because they didn't pay the last seven years. And if they had, or if over seven years, anything would have been depreciated. Well, I believe that's wrong.

Okay, so I just did a little visual, and while you were talking and Jordan was talking, they say they do have MOU and bylaws available. So can I ask that you send them a copy so that we can accelerate the process in the conversation?

Yes, sir. Can we be clear? It's not an MOU.

It's an interlocal agreement. Interlocal agreement. Interlocal agreement.

Thank you for the correction. Thank you.

interlocal agreement, not memorandum of understanding, and bylaws. So they'll send you a copy of those just to keep this moving because I'm thinking we're going to table this and bring it back in two weeks. That's as quick as we can go. Commissioner Hammer?

Yeah, and before we bring it back, I have a couple questions that I would like to have answered so when we do come back to court, these are addressed. First, I just want to know how much money has the county paid into San Marcos-Hayes County EMS since inception, so the total amount? I heard, I was going to say I did hear, that was the total amount since inception. Was that $800, Scott? No.

No.

No.

I think inception was like 1983, so that would be way back. That would be a lot of money.

Please do me a favor. I've got two things. Yeah, turn on that mic and state your name. And I already heard you, Stephanie. Thank you.

SO OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM FOR NEW WORLD STARTED IN 2010 SO SCOTT WAS ABLE TO PULL THOSE NUMBERS AND THEN I WENT BACK TO ALL OF OUR PAPER GENERAL LEDGER DOCUMENTS FROM OUR OLD SYSTEM BUT WE WERE ONLY ABLE TO GO BACK TO 1994 SO I DID GIVE THAT INFORMATION TO THE BUDGET OFFICE AND TO CHASE SO THEY HAVE THAT INFORMATION BUT I CAN'T GO BACK TO ANYTHING PAST 1994. DO YOU HAVE THOSE NUMBERS NOW?

So I actually have it pulled up. And I combined what I put together along with what Marisol put together. And going back to what she said, this is going back to 1994 or fiscal year 1995. And if you add up all the contributions, it comes out to $6.29 million. Now that 6.29 million does include those ARPA contributions. So let me take those out real quick to see what was just for the operations. And that would be, that would be roughly 5.39 million from 94 through the last year, it looks like we contributed would have been, Roughly, I see a January of 2018.

Yeah, makes sense. Okay. And then have we funded any equipment in the 911 EMS dispatch center?

I do not believe that that came through the San Marcos Hayes County EMS for that.

How about this? Commissioner, I wanted to ask a question if you're done. I have more. Oh, I'm sorry. I had to go back to that. Go ahead.

I'll wait. And then when San Marcos-Hays County EMS formed under the original Articles of Nonprofit, what was our goal? Why did we do that as a county? What was our purpose there?

He can answer that better.

Sorry, I'm just trying to get like 30 plus years of understanding.

Let me try to shed some light on it. Good morning or good afternoon now. Name and title? Court and commissioners, my name is Les Stevens. I am the fire chief for the city of San Marcos. I am also, as it turns out, the president of San Marcos-Hayes County MS Board of Directors. I have been serving as one of the city's appointees since I was hired here as the fire chief in 2009. I do have a decent grasp on this. I say that to say that's probably the best anyone's going to have because so many people have turned over in these seats over that period of time. If we go back to 1983, prior to 1983, the hospital provided ambulance service for the area. And I don't know that it was geographically established or defined at that point. And there was a desire to start an ambulance service. Initially, the documents that I have read show that the city and the county joined together and would basically run a tab for the year. At the end of the year, whatever the cost was, was shared equally between the city and the county in halves. That eventually evolved. I don't know who was bankrolling it up on the front end because it shows that those payments were made in arrears. At some point there was a change and there was a budget built and money was paid in in advance. to the contributions of the county, as well as the contributions of the city, I want to point out this has never been a for-profit service. It has always been a cost-only service, and that's why so many of the entities engaged in it and stayed in it, is it offered economies of scale for ESD-1 in Dripping Springs. It offered economies of scale for Buda EMS, which eventually became the first one to secede from the corporation at some point. as well as the city, Hays County proper, which has now evolved. I had election for ESD 9 formation and the county stopped contributing and the city or the ESD 9 began. Of the contributions that were mentioned, I would point out in general numbers, About 93% of that is consumed by your personnel expenses. For fire and EMS, as a general rule, between 90% and 93% are personnel costs. The balance is your equipment and overhead, the lease on the building, the contracts, the maintenance on the life packs, and so forth. So it's, again, there is money currently in a till. But let me take you back to my arrival here in 2009. We were bankrupt. So we needn't go any further than August 2009. We had to ask ESD1 to front us money so that one of our payroll cycles would clear. We were out of money. And we have climbed and crawled out of that through some good fortune. We had a couple of different people make their way onto the board, one of those being Sam Hunegardt, who was a CEO for CTMC at the time. And Sam and I brainstormed how to better define the contributions and the collections. And what we came up with was a system of cost centers. The city would be its own cost center. Hays County at that time, prior to ESD 9's formation, would be a cost center. Dripping Springs ESD 1 would be a cost center. And we would look at what it cost to deliver service in that area. ESD 1 has always insisted on multiple ambulances, although they had an exceedingly low call volume, but a very large service area. And so they were willing to pay more to do that. They also bought their own ambulances, built their own stations. They held the title to all of that. Everyone else left that to Hays County EMS. So when they left, they They were not asking for anything. They own ambulances outright. They own their stations that they had built outright. They didn't believe that established equity in the partnership. What we have in assets currently before the court makes any decisions needs to be balanced against the existing and potential future liabilities. We have now set two different dates on which myself, Chief Maxwell, who's our interim EMS chief for San Marcos-Hays County EMS, and our attorney will be participating in effects bargaining with our union for the dissolution of this. So there's stuff that's going to be consumed in that process. There's our ongoing payroll expenses and insurance for our personnel. as well as our ongoing operating costs. So what we don't know yet is what would, if anything, what would be left at the end. What we do know is just basic breakdown and amortization over time. The ambulances were using the radios. The radios, I wrote a grant for the radios. I looked that up for the city manager's office yesterday. I believe we received that grant in 2015. Different agencies paid in a 10% match. Those are all fully expended. We're actually in the process of replacing those for the city. Currently, I don't know what the county is or isn't doing for that, but those have reached their end of life. So I'm not opposed, and good friends with Carla and several people on their board, I'm not opposed to an equitable dissolution. No one is running at me offering to share in the existing and potential future liabilities. If you want some of the assets, that's perfectly fine Just be sure to bring a check as we close this out because the liabilities are enormous. And we have to satisfy those. We have to complete the lease. It's either responsibility of the city or the responsibility of the county or that partnership to make whole all of the people that we have contracts with. And it's been my intention and the board's intention to do that. So we can't just look at this. as a piggy bank that we're going to break open and everybody's going to gather up their chunk and run away. There's a lot of things that have to be taken care of to close this out and to wrap up or wind up, is the term the attorney's been using, to wind up the business affairs of this entity that existed since 1983. And I hope that's pretty succinct as best I could.

Thank you, sir.

One more question.

Yes, sir. You had that one more question a few times.

I said I had more questions. How do we pay for EMS service currently?

The county of Hays County does not currently pay for EMS services directly. The participants remaining, as Carla mentioned, ESD 1 pulled out about a year ago. I'll get you that exact date. The two contributors are the city of San Marcos and recently ESD 9. But even over the last several months, we... The remaining partner, which unfortunately happens to be my employer, the city, has been paying in more and more and more so that ESD 9 can pay in less and less and less. We are continuing to employ employees so that we can flex and add additional ambulances if needed, because they initially only brought on one ambulance, and that's not enough to provide service to their area. So we would respond to that. The next month they added a second ambulance, and then a third, and then next month a fourth. So we've been trying to accommodate that. It's been working well up until recently. And again, I'm not trying to anyone get a better deal than anyone else here. I'm trying to make sure at the end the checks that we have to write in winding up this business will clear, and we weren't overly generous at this stage, and now we don't have the assets to make those payments.

I hear you loud and clear.

You're good?

I'm done. I'm done. Okay. So, commissioners, we're going to table this. We can go on. There's a whole lot of agenda left. If you guys don't mind, we'll table this, bring it back in two weeks, and let the conversation keep going. I know I have also, you wanted to say something, Stephanie.

Stephanie Hunt, purchasing agent. I just wanted, I'm sure Chase has probably covered this, but because if they're assets of ours, we do have local government code that governs how we dispose of our assets. There are several different ways that we can do that, but I just want to make sure that y'all are aware. Whatever is decided that we take this into consideration.

I need to be helpful, I hope, here. They're not yours and they're not ours. This is very clear in the ruling. It is a not-for-profit corporation, and all of the assets belong solely to that not-for-profit corporation. And ultimately, we don't need the city or the county to weigh in on this. We actually have the ability at the board to amend the bylaws. And I asked Commissioner Inglesby a month ago if she was comfortable doing that. We have always tried to be uber-respectful of the elected officials serving on our board. Y'all answer to the constituents. And at that time, we weren't comfortable doing that, and we did not move forward with that. Ultimately, this will be done by the board because none of those assets are titled to the city of San Marcos or to Hays County wholly or in part. They are titled to San Marcos-Hays County EMS as a not-for-profit corporation, and the National Labor Relations Board in allowing the formation of a union made it very clear that this is a separate, non-quasi-governmental entity. It is its own separate corporation.

I remember that. Thank you. Were you going to add something else? Oh, yes. Thank you very much. Out of sight, out of mind. Sorry, Commissioner Smith. Let's give him a word here.

Thank you. Fellow commissioners, I have some real concerns over how this is unwound. And I say that, and I'm going to run through some things here. And a lot of what I'm going to bring forth or mention is directly from the leaving of ESD1 from the entity, along with the formation of ESD9. I think the biggest concern that I have is at the end of the day, all the assets or a majority of the assets, if we were to look at what was just stated, would only go to the city of San Marcos, and I get that as an entity. But the problem that I have with that is knowing, you know, trusting at the end of the day that whatever list of assets that we're given is actually in all actuality what those assets are. And I say that because we've been told time and again that, and I've I brought this up whenever ESD1 chose to leave. We were told that as a nonprofit, that if it costs $2 for a ride, then you charge the ESD $2 for the ride. And if that's the case, and I know that's what ESD9 has been told as well, then how was this entity available to purchase a piece of property that was a million dollars? If every ride was, if there wasn't a distribution, I've heard my biggest concern is that before the dissolution of this, come September 30th, there's nothing to distribute because those assets have already been turned over to somebody. I'd like to know in court today, have any assets that are currently part of San Marcos Hayes County been transferred or is there an agreement to purchase or have been purchased by the city of San Marcos?

Yes, sir. The city of San Marcos, with board approval, has purchased one ambulance, just as we've done to assist ESD one and ESD nine with the creation of their own service system. We had to do the same for the city. The city purchased one ambulance so that we can have the appropriate decals put on it and it be made ready. The city has to hold title and it be made ready for inspection in pursuit of our provider license. by the Texas Department of State Health Services. So that one ambulance has been sold to the city. And what was the cost of that item? Original cost, I could not tell you. The purchase, when we bought it from the board, the board approved the amount of $1.

So again, my concern is that we know that there, or I have a feeling that there's assets there that at this point, If you had to estimate, the estimates that I've been given are $7 to $8 million in overall assets.

Does that sound correct? No, because that doesn't contemplate any of the existing and ongoing liabilities. That is looking only at the assets.

I didn't ask about liabilities. I said current assets.

There wouldn't be assets until the liabilities were subtracted. They have to be accounted for, sir.

I understand that. But any balance sheet has an asset column and a liability column. What's in the asset column today?

I would have to get someone else up here to speak to that.

But I don't think we're ready to have that conversation. Okay, but here are the questions. Here's the other questions that I have. My concern is that by the time there is a dissolution of this at the end of September, Hayes County won't have any board members. So what happens in September if y'all choose to change the bylaws and that 50% just disappears? I mean, at the end of the day, I know that ESD-1 contributed more into this than what they received back as far as that there wasn't a $2 charge for every $2 ride. Y'all, it was a profit center for y'all. That's not true. I've looked at some of the books, and so I have concerns over that. I mean, at a certain point, if there are roughly $7 to $8 million worth of assets, or $4 million worth of assets, having an outside entity look and actually determine what those assets are, I would feel much more comfortable with that because at the end of the day, turning over taxpayer dollars from throughout the county and even in the San Marcos ETJ directly to the city of San Marcos where they're not going to get any service anymore and the county's overall contributions in the past and those individual ESD contributions would be lost to one city in the county. I have a real problem with that.

Okay. Any final words? We're tabling this.

Yes. I just wanted to say I'm looking at the net asset value balance sheet as reported in December 31st, 2025. This is the painful that I was given. Total assets, $12,211,634. Sorry. $12,211,634. Okay.

And what y'all have delivered the paper copy and will be sent to you electronically is the asset inventory that the board ordered several months ago. It took much longer to get than we were told, but we do now have that. I just want to explain the commissioner's understanding of how the billing was done was completely inaccurate. I'm happy to explain that to y'all when and if you need to know that. Thank you, sir. His understanding is not correct.

This has gone on way longer than expected. Carlisle wasn't going to give you a moment, but since it went so long, you've got to have a moment. Come on back to the podium. But you've got to do it at the podium. And then we're going to move on.

Judge, I'd just like to ask that the copies of whatever this was, the asset list and everything, that they please email it over if they could, or unless I can leave with a paper copy today.

I'm going to give you my personal copy because I trust they'll give me a digital. Chase, will you give her that one, please, when you're done?

Okay, when you're done. Thank you so much. We appreciate y'all tabling it and looking into it. We just want equitable.

And I see and I hear friendship and camaraderie here. Oh, yes. And fair shake is all here all after. I see it. And so my job is to keep it moving in a meaningful way.

And I want you to know that we were going to go faster. We were going to do it within a year. And the city asked us to slow down because of the cost and everything else. And so as EST9, we have tried to work equitable. And they've even helped fix. I mean, guys, we're all friends. It's just business. At the end of the day, we've got to take care of our taxpayers.

And let's not forget that. Thank you all so much. Please open G14. Carla.

Carla. Yes.

I already gave her mine.

G14.

G14. Approve the After Dark Entertainment Program. Event called San Marcos block party for the use of the Hayes County historic courthouse grounds that shall include commercial vendors scheduled for September 5th 2026 So second, thank you motion second This is you guys understand it's customary but Mike is here and I told I'd move it through so they could see it done Is there any other any questions about it?

I think Judge I think there are oh Hello

If you'll state your name and title for the viewing public and just give us a very superficial description.

Okay. How is everyone? I would say good morning, but good afternoon. Thank you for the time. My name is Omar Dawood. I was raised in San Marcos. I'm a Rattler and a Bobcat. This community has built me and where everything I've built began. As a teenager, I started my production company on this very square for the past 13 years. I've owned and operated The Mark, just a few steps from this courthouse, safely hosting thousands of concerts, community and charitable events, and hosting world-renowned artists for tens of thousands of guests without major incident. Since then, I've gone to produce large-scale events across Texas and beyond, but San Marcos has always been home. Today, I'm asking for your support in the San Marcos Block Party. Our vision is simple, create a professionally produced annual event that brings visitors downtown, supports local businesses, creates jobs, generates tax revenue, and gives our home something it can proudly call its own. Yeah, I can pause there. Perfect. Thank you. Commissioner?

So there may be, we may need some clarification, but also I just wanted to ask, because I know that this has been an issue. Judge, I know you met with the downtown merchants. And so have they been informed of this? Because it seems like it's a pretty large area that is going to be asked to be blocked off. Yes, ma'am. So I'm just hoping that you have reached out to them.

Yes, ma'am. Yeah. So the streets that will be affected, I've communicated with all of those businesses already. And we've most we've already established ways where they'll benefit more than usual. And the others were still ongoing. But everyone is very excited about this event and support it.

Okay, and I know Tammy, you may have some questions, but I just wanted to ask, Judge, it's anticipated to be a very large number of people coming downtown, which is great, as you mentioned, if the merchants are supportive. I guess a concern that I may have, Judge, is the courthouse, the inside of the courthouse especially. I know that, I believe y'all are going to have porta-potties or those type of services for the people visiting. I'm just wondering what does that hold for the courthouse? Are we going to have to open that or can we maintain it?

Our idea is to block it off from access from the general admission. Okay. Perfect. Closed.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Is there other? I did have a question. Tammy Crumley, Director of Facilities and Resource Management. I noticed that there was a stage located off of San Antonio Street. Where will you be getting your power for that?

Those will be generators. Okay. Great question. We have very feeble power sources that trip breakers when you plug in the telephone. Of course, I'm being facetious. But generally speaking. Okay. Anything else, Commissioner?

I mean.

The city, from what I understand, is very excited and behind us aggressively. Good. Good for them. Commissioner Cohen, anything?

No, I was just concerned about the businesses that align the square. And I mean, I've heard from them in the past. their concerns about events at the courthouse and that it pulled away from their businesses. And as long as you're telling us that you've talked to these businesses and everyone seems to be okay and...

Yes, ma'am. Yeah, I've had direct communication with the business owners that will land in the area where the event will take place. And I'm confident we're going to provide More opportunity than they would receive typically on that particular time and day. Thank you.

Judge, I have one more. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. I was just wondering what time is the event?

We're looking at a 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Okay. And Mike, just from a business perspective, like the Sand Market and all of those other businesses, right? Are they going to be able to get into theirs? There's not going to be any parking available for them?

No. So just to give you an example, the discussion with Sand Market is to allow their brick and mortar to be part of the event site. That way the event goers have access to their shop. Perfect. Good. Tammy, did you want to add something else?

Yes, sir. There was a portion of your backup that had, like, a contact sheet. And I noticed that for the judge's office, it still has Anita Collins as that contact. Judge, that needs to be corrected. I don't know where the information came from, but that is incorrect.

Probably from the city. So, yeah, you could update that. That would be great. Okay, absolutely.

And then, Jordan, you're listed on there as well as you're reviewing the mask permitting.

I noticed that as well. Um, and I'm, you know, I don't know where the context came from either, but I would say, you know, County administrator's office needs to be included. I, I had a couple of questions on, obviously I knew the County has our license agreements for uses of property that judge your office handles. Since this is in conjunction with the city, I don't know if there's been meetings on who's going to handle what or require what, but one of my main questions was security. I know it says it's anticipated to draw about 10,000 people, and so I didn't know if y'all had already had those sorts of security discussions or kind of what that looked like. since this is a kind of a joint event with the city as well. I wasn't sure how that looked.

Yeah, if I could defer to Sage, he's head of Code 4, who we're hiring to help with safety planning.

Good afternoon, Judge, Commissioners. Yes, my name is Sage Allen. I'm the Executive Director of Event Safety and... emergency services at code 4 based out of Boston. I too am a San Marcos High School graduate and Texas State alum, although I'm sorry to say I do now reside in Hutto. Yes, so Omar and his crew with San Marcos Block Party has contracted Code for Emergency Services to provide all of the emergency planning and public safety management for this event. So we'll step in and basically handle all of the planning for security, law enforcement, medical, working with the city, and in this case, county agencies, to make sure that everybody's kind of coordinated on the same page. Again, like I said, we've just kind of come on board within the last really few days. So we haven't really gotten very deep into that, but security through private contractors is a big piece of that, and then along with support from either county sheriffs, constables, St. Augustine police, however that... kind of sorts out as we'll be in those negotiations.

How it sorts out, just to give you the answer, although that's not what you're asking. If it's on the county footprint, it is a deputy. And if it's on the road that's closed, it'd be technically PD.

Sure. And that's what it's just kind of figuring out those numbers of how we schedule that.

But we'll continue to meet with you guys and work with you through all the articulation of any questions you may have.

And just one more question. Are businesses being charged to participate?

If there are local food vendors that we bring on board, yes, unless they are a business that would typically be impacted by this, then no.

So like the San Marcos not being out? No, no, no. Wonderful.

Perfect. Please call the roll. Oh, I'm sorry again. Commissioner Smith.

Thank you. The only question I had was pursuant to the contract with the county, I just want to ensure that the deposit has been, that our auditor, pursuant to the contract that we have, it states that we're supposed to get our deposit beforehand. And I just want to know if there's any special considerations that Tammy might have concerns with, given the volume to the courthouse law. And if so, if we could amend that contract to address those.

I'm thinking, I'm hearing that, do you think there would be a larger deposit required? First part.

Commissioner, I haven't been involved in any of those contracts to make a decision on whether or not.

I'm not saying that there needs to be a larger deposit required. But in the past, we found events where that deposit check wasn't deposited technically. We're supposed to deposit that and then reimburse it after the event. I just want to ensure that our auditor gets that check pursuant to the contract. And then afterwards, we need to do a true evaluation of the impacts on the courthouse lawn after our recent renovation of it. And Tammy, can we just ensure that once it's over with, that if there are damages and those kind of things... Yes, sir. Otherwise, I'm fully supportive.

Beautiful. And I'll make sure, because that's in someone in our office's hands, to make sure your deposit gets sent to the auditors. Perfect.

And then, Judge, I have one more question. My office does do a check on Monday mornings after the event already.

Yeah, autopilot. You bet.

Again, because it's a little bit different teaming with the city for a large event, I noticed, you know, vendors, food, drink, alcohol sales. Who is it going to be, the city or the county that is going to be the expected entity to make sure all the proper permits are in place for food, drink, alcohol?

We'll likely run it by both Hayes County and the city just to check all boxes.

I think the city and the county need to have some conversations.

You bet.

Just because it's new, and I just want to make sure nothing falls through the cracks, and this is new to us, to our office, to be fair. I just want to make sure all these things are thought about. Good job. Thank you, Jordan.

Thank you so much, and I'll make sure that we are in communication with the city side to make sure that we have full coverage of the things you're describing.

Yeah, and to add to that, the city has been... requesting these documents, permits, licenses, and what have you. So they've received a lot of those items already, and I think we're just pending on this final approval.

Oh, so sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. That's okay. Are you good? Okay. Commissioner Inglesby and I, we meet with the city the first Monday of every month, so we'll make sure everyone's dialed in the same.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Cohen?

Yes.

Commissioner Inglesby? Yes. Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Judge Becerra?

Yes. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for your patience. Thank you all. My list says we did K-4 already, so K-8. K-3. Oh, K-3. Whichever you want. I got K-3, K-8, K-5.

I-6 as well.

I-6. I got your I-6 here after that. I was just going in the order. Oh, okay. Perfect. Let's do K-5.

K-5, discussion and possible action to authorize the Hays County District Attorney's Office to regrade a victim's assistance coordinator, position number grade 116, to a senior victim assistance coordinator, grade 119, effective June 23, 2026. So moved. Second.

All right. GOOD AFTERNOON, COMMISSIONERS AND JUDGE. GREG COX, FIRST ASSISTANT FROM THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE. THIS IS A REQUEST THAT WE'RE MAKING TO GO ALONG WITH SOMETHING THAT WAS APPROVED IN THE MOST RECENT BUDGET. FOR THE FY26 BUDGET, WE HAD A POSITION THAT WAS APPROVED TO victim assistance coordinator or VAC as we call them. We originally intended this to be sort of in a career progression path so that VACs as they gain more experience could move up the ladder and become a senior VAC and earn a little bit more money because it is a very high stress, hard job that they do. We have a significant amount of turnover because of the pay rate and everything else. What it has morphed into, though, is we're using our senior vac positions for assistant supervisors. I have Stacey Miles-Thorpe, the victim services supervisor, with me today to talk a little more in depth. We have expanded the scope of our victim services section so much over the last three and a half years, taken on additional duties related to protective orders, taken on additional duties related to high-risk domestic violence cases, in addition to making sure that every one of our court teams has a VAC assigned to manage and work with all of the victims of violent crime that we deal with in our office. and supervision of all of those different responsibilities and all of those staff have become a lot. And I believe Stacey would like some additional support for that. But it would also give us an opportunity to reward the particular staff members that have advanced degrees and years of experience and would give other VACs something to look forward to that they might be able to promote into at some point in the future. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Stacey.

STACEY MILES-THORPE, VICTIM SERVICES SUPERVISOR AT THE DA'S OFFICE. I CURRENTLY SUPERVISE 11 VICTIM ASSISTANCE COORDINATORS AND TWO TO THREE INTERNS A YEAR. IT'S BEEN A FANTASTIC ROLE THAT I HAVE LOVED. I ADDITIONALLY DO A FAIR AMOUNT OF PROJECT WORK, SO DEVELOPING AND PRESENTING TRAININGS, WORKING WITHIN THE COMMUNITY TO TRY TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE BENEFIT OF CRIME VICTIMS IN THE COMMUNITY, AND SO HAVING the assistance of two senior vacs would be extremely helpful in getting all of that done. The two candidates that we have many years of experience with our organization. They really take on a role already of leadership with the team and also with the agency. So they're the perfect first candidates to do that. They help me when I'm out. They help with training of new hires and also interviewing. So I'm helping develop them so that they can be the future leaders in the organization.

Well, that's perfect. That sounds amazing, especially in a space that is so critical of all things justice. So Commissioner Inglesby?

Yeah.

I was going to reach out to Eric in a minute, but I want to give you guys a chance.

Yes. Well, I was going to ask Eric also if this went through him. So I guess I'm trying to, this is just for one conversion. Is that correct? Or is this for more than one?

As part of the FY26 budget, you gave us one. We're asking for a second one. It would be a promotion.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, I'm supported, Judge.

Thank you. Commissioner Cohen?

I'm supportive. Commissioner Hammond?

I'm supportive. I also saw Eric give me the thumbs up, so I'm supportive.

Commissioner Smith? All for it. Okay, good. Thank you. And I'm going to yield that podium to Eric. Yes. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Eric Granheno, HR Director. So I did want to mention, I think we left out the position number specifically for this agenda item. So this is specifically for 0505-006. So if we can include that as part of the agenda item. But we did do a desk audit as part of the process, and the incumbent is performing at the senior level. So we do recommend approving this.

All right. Thank you. Perfect. Well, then with that edit spoken into the record, please call the roll.

Commissioner Inglesby. Hold on a second.

I got Tammy.

Tammy Crumley, Director of Facilities. Can I just confirm that there is a spot for this position to be housed?

This is not a new position. It's a promotion.

I wasn't completely paying attention, but just making sure.

Thank you.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Inglesby. Yes. Commissioner Smith.

Yes. Yes.

Commissioner Cohen? Yes. Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Judge Becerra?

Yes. I-6, please.

I-6, discussion and possible action to authorize execution of a contract for engineering services 2026-PSA-54 between Hayes County and BGE Inc. to provide utility coordination services for the Old Kyle Road project in Precinct 3.

So moved. Second.

All right, Commissioner.

Yeah, utility coordination for Old Cow Road. BGE has done a lot of the utility coordination in the past, and they're familiar with the project very much so. So I want to contract out for them.

Please call the roll.

Commissioner Cohen? Yes. Commissioner Smith? Yes. Commissioner Inglesby? Yes. Commissioner Hammer? Yes. Judge Becerra?

Yes. There you go. Go have lunch. And if there are no specific requests, I'm going to start doing the slate. We're good. Please open the remainder. I move that we open the remainder of consent agenda items. Second.

I will say there is an item on consent from the audit perspective that should have been a miscellaneous, but do we want to pull it out or do we want to just... She just has comments on it for number seven.

I was going to get to that part. Yes, but thank you. You're doing great. I'd rather hear it twice than not at all. So for now, I have Commissioner... We have a motion and a second. And Marisol, comments on number seven?

Yes, as Commissioner Hammers stated, this item was for discussion and possible action, and it is basically Texas Health and Safety Code requires the ESDs to submit their annual audit ESD number seven has requested that the commissioner's court order the county auditor to perform that audit for fiscal year 25. And we did include that audit as part of the annual audit plan. So the auditor's office is ready to perform that audit if the court so chooses and approves it.

Okay. Any questions, Commissioner Inglesby?

No, but I do judge on item number nine. I want to thank First Presbyterian Church, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and KT Fences for their generous contributions.

Well said. And as a reminder, we have pulled 18, so we're not voting on 18 in the list. If there's nothing else, please call the roll.

Commissioner Hammer. Yes. Commissioner Inglesby? Yes. Commissioner Smith?

Yes.

Commissioner Cohen?

I'm recusing myself from G1 due to quiddity payments where my stepfather works at quiddity. No on G15 and yes on everything else.

And Judge Becerra?

Yes. Wait, wait, wait. I didn't see that. No, that's... I'm double checking what she just said. Sorry, that's just my style.

I'll vote no also on 15.

Yeah. So what is 15? Let's articulate that further. Commissioner Inglesby, why didn't you just vote no on?