Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. Today is Thursday, the 25th day of June 2026. And it is 906am. And we're here for several, several matters. First, we're here to do a public hearing And then we're also here for our second day of budget workshops. So because this is actually a public hearing, I'm going to call roll. Commissioner McCall? Present. Commissioner Weijian? Present. Commissioner Chapman? Here. And Commissioner Carpenter? Here. We have all members of court here, so we have a quorum. Next up, we have public comments. We have one. one member of our esteemed public here would you like to say anything before we start. Anyone online like to make any public comments. It is officially 9.07 AM on this Thursday June 25th 2026 and we're commencing a public hearing. This public hearing is to conduct a hearing regarding the county clerk's plan for funding the preservation and restoration of the county clerk's records archive. Good morning, Denise. How are you?

Good morning.

Can you just give a quick summary of why we do this for the public and just to remind the court members what this is?

Okay. We do this every year just to make sure and also to inform the court of what I'm doing, the records archives. And we charge $10 on every instrument except for your birth or death certificates. But all the other instruments get the $10 archive. And with that, With no cost to the county, the records are preserved, and we use that money to do that. And like this year, we're working on the criminal, and I'm going to do 1951 to 1992 and preserve that for next year's budget. And right now they're working on from 1865 to 1950, which absolutely those have to be put in books, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm just trying to get all of our records. put reserved and then I'm going to have them all be put online. So that way we will have from the beginning of time up to present day. So that is my plan. I'm working on it. So by hopefully after next year, I'll have one more year and I'll have everything online. As we finished our probate, we've got our commissioner's court. And so that's the money that we use to do all that, to keep all of our records online and preserved.

Okay.

Yeah.

And if I can just judge and commissioners this in the in our county budget, this is fund 26. And so this money is is part of these requirements. This money is controlled by joint control commissioners court and the county clerk. And so it is required to be budgeted. There's currently 654,000 of fund balance in this account. And this money can only be used by the county clerk for preservation and archiving of the records within her office. And so it's called a special fund or a dedicated fund. And so there's money budgeted in the current fiscal year with the plan that she came for next year or last year with for the current year we're in. And then now she's doing her plan, and there's money budgeted in the FY27 budget for that purpose. So all the money that she brings in in that $10 fee goes into Fund 26 revenue, and all the expenditures for this specific archiving plan comes out of Fund 26. So nothing is crossed in the general fund.

Right. This year, this year it's going to be 107,000 because I'm not doing the whole thing because they take all my records and I'm not going to do that. Cause if we need something, we have to call them. And so it's better to do, I'm doing whatever 41 years.

So if I were to make a motion, do I need to include the figure of one Oh seven or you just need to just, this is just approving the plan. Okay. Only. All right. Uh, does anyone have any questions before I make a motion? So I do, uh,

I know this has been going on for years. Yes, sir. Roughly, how much do we have left over there in the historic courthouse to bring up?

Well, I get this year's done, and then next year I'm going to go from 92 to 2009. Because 2010, I started with Tyler. So that's all done. Okay. I get to stop at 2009. And then after that, you go back and you have to put them in like 1865 to 1950. Those have to go in those books. If you see those in my office in the back, those years have to be in books. So then I'm going to go back and ask for that to have them put in books because then they go in sleeves and all that. So trying to preserve it one and not to do it all at one time because they can't complete everything. So it'll be about probably four more years. Hopefully I'll have it. That's my plan.

Four more years to probably, yeah, to do everything that we really need to do.

And I might can get it done before then, but don't know.

Would you mind recognizing the ladies that are helping? Are they not saving us a lot of money by helping over there? Oh, the ladies?

Oh, you know, I haven't seen them. What's that? They are not on this part. They're not on this part? No, they're not on this part. No, this is just strictly criminal. And that's all the files that I have at the sheriff's office where we keep our files. And they don't see any of that. That other part, they have already done that. We did that years ago, the older part. We still have some, I think, that we needed to work on. So, no, they're not on this part.

What I'm referring to, there's three ladies that come over and they unfold the tri-folded or whatever, four-folded documents and put them, straighten them out, kind of take a plastic press and open them up so that they can be sent off and then duplicated and put online. And it... I mean, those three ladies do it for no charge. Oh, they're volunteers?

Yes. Well, usually on Thursdays.

And they've been doing it for years.

I guess, and they've taken a break for a while, so I have not seen them for a while.

But they do a lot of work for the county in archiving these records and getting them preserved and getting them, help getting them online. We definitely need to recognize them.

And they may be in Susan's office. That may be why I'm not seeing them. And I don't know who is there now. I haven't seen him.

I do know some of the stuff they've done was criminal because they are going through a lot of this stuff. They stop and they find a particular document that was interesting such as uh uh the new the old jail where it used to be it was only moved into a very short period of time and they had the first jail break and so anyway and of course they they pull that stuff out they read it and they uh make notes of it it's Going through these records all the way back to the 1860s, they have found a lot.

I know Kay Pugh, the former district clerk, has been helping. And I don't know, there was another two ladies. Catherine.

I haven't seen Catherine.

And then Mrs. Vogt. Yeah. I have not seen her in a while. But every once in a while, Kay will come in. But I do believe they were working on some of Susan's stuff. That's probably why I don't see them. But they do a wonderful job, the ladies do.

So I wonder if when you go through the jail tour, you can see some of those logs from way back. I bet that's where they got those pictures. I'm sure.

Oh, yeah. I'm sure there's a lot of history.

It's interesting to see what people were arrested for way back.

It is. We still have those books, too.

Yeah.

So is there anything else you'd like to add? Because I will make a motion for you. Okay.

Before you make a motion, Denise and I had a lengthy conversation with Jen Osteen prior to actually posting this to make sure we were doing the process correctly. We've learned some new stuff, and Denise, can that correct me if I'm wrong? There's no action item for this, so it's just a public hearing. So when y'all accept the budget, if y'all accept it or not accept it, That also assists her being in there. Why?

Because I have an order here. Do you want to sign it, or I didn't know? That's what they did last year, so I don't know if they can sign it today, or do we need to wait until it's approved? A Jen question.

Wait.

I would wait. Okay.

Let's get all of our signatures on it. We won't date it, and that way you don't have to collect anything. Okay. That will be fine. Okay. So if there's no further discussion, it's 9.15 a.m. on this Thursday. Actually, excuse me, 916 a.m. this Thursday, June 25th. And that concludes the public hearing regarding the county clerk's plan for funding the preservation and restoration of the county clerk's records archive. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for all you do. Thank you.

We'll now move into our consideration and possible action regarding our session two of the FY2027 budget hearing workshops.

Judge, I know you told me that the first person I was supposed to come is IT and that possibly they would need to come later today or at a future meeting. So if it's okay with the court, I would suggest go ahead and maybe, um, if somebody could reach out to Jason Parker and ask him to come early. And in the interim, I can start with our 315 item, which are these departments that either have no changes or Rick said they did not need to meet with the court unless the court had specific questions. So I was just going to present those budgets. If that's okay, we can get that going.

But also call Brian with EMS and let them know we're basically moving everything up.

So we're going to start, if you look at your 315 item, we're going to start with county clerk, which she wasn't going to be here this afternoon. It's department 13, or maybe not available.

And that's department county clerk.

And actually her budget was reduced. Are you not going to have imaging?

Yes.

But not in the general fund?

No, nothing in the general fund.

So that's why her budget was reduced. And so this was one of the reasons she wasn't going to need to come because there was no, I just thought since she was here, she could sit here in case y'all had any questions.

We know you run a well-oiled machine over there, so there's no issues there. The main reason you're here is, can you talk about the employee request that you're asking for? I think that's the one.

The main concern for the court is employee requests. I am asking for an additional position for the county clerk to be added to the office. It's due to the increase of the workload since we have the two courts. You know, when the sheriff's office arrests somebody, you know, that creates more work. For us, for the DA, and then that trickles down to Susan and I. So we're just busy with the two courts, and then we have commissioner's court going on sometimes. Same time we have court, and that makes it very hard to cover everything. Probate court. And the probate court has really grown, especially our guardianships. We have a lot of guardianships.

And they're not simple. They're complicated.

No, they're very complicated, and it takes a lot to have to. to work through all of it. So it would be helpful. And, you know, and then in public we have, we're just busy. Our birth certificates, people know they can come and get them and having to go in San Antonio, you know, I mean, word gets around. Yeah. We average a bunch, an average about a hundred a month now.

Then do you have space for this person?

Yes, I do. They're going to build that out hopefully tomorrow. And we will have it. It will be for the handicap. We're going to build it on the end so we'll have room for somebody. Is that the place where I sit in front of Maria? It's going to go out to the side. It's going to go out to the front of the foyer. So they're going to take that one half out, and then they're going to just move it, and we're going to have two spaces. But we'll put the other computer there for the time being for birth certificates. Okay.

And you have plenty of work for this new person?

We will have plenty of work because I'm going to need people to be able to do a commissioner's court. You know, I need three. You need three because anything could happen. And Teresa's doing a great job and Paula is as well. They're both doing a great job. But it's, you know, they go on vacation and then something happens and then y'all are going to get me. So, yeah, there's just a lot of, it's just very busy.

It's, yeah. I'll open it up. I guess we'll start with you this time, Ted. Any questions for Denise?

It's not a no. It's a maybe. I want to get through the entire list of everyone that's been requested.

I understand that. I'm a yes.

How many employees do you have currently? Eight. Eight. Are you full? Every position's filled? Yes. Okay. Yes.

And then would this mainly be attributed to the new district court and the workload there?

That is correct.

Yes. It takes three of us because we have a lot of workload and I am the third person, but I really need somebody else to help the ladies, you know, get the cases filed and go into court. And so I can stay down and do some of the stuff I need to do, which, you know, that's why I come in early and Get it done.

So is your staff working any overtime now because of that?

We do on court week, yes. We have to because we work through the lunch hour and then we have to get caught up because we have to be ready in three weeks for court next, you know, for the next turnaround.

Are we paying overtime or are they taking comp time? Comp time. They're taking comp time. So then certain days are not there.

So, I mean, yeah, it's busy during court week, especially when you all have commissioner's court and, you know, and I've got... One up here and then, you know, the next day we have probate and we have two. I really need three because when we fill probate court, I need to have two ladies working, you know, here to get him ready to go. So and then I have one sitting up there.

Yeah, because the way probate court works is you have a clerk here. assisting me and they have one or two over there assisting clients because we try to get we created a efficient way of doing court instead of letting people walk away and send it send in documents with signatures we get everyone to sign it all documents in front of us and that way we can open and close the case right then yes and we are efficient doing it that way but they need letters we have that prepared but

And everybody kind of comes in because we stack them from 10 to 11, then 1 to 2.

But we often have to work through lunch because these things take longer, so they're giving up their lunch time to do this, but they'll get comp time. But the attorneys appreciate the system we've got going.

Yes, we get a lot of compliments. A lot of compliments that we're better than the Bexar County and the surrounding counties. Like I say, I like to be organized. When somebody walks out, I want to know that they have their paperwork and they don't have to come back.

that's a testament to your office and your lady.

So I just, they do a great job.

Thank you for that. And so it's probate also increasing as our population increased.

Like I was just saying with guardians, guardianships is what's exploding, really exploding. Yes. They're just bringing them to Kendall County because it's easier than going to bear. You don't want to be in bear.

And they take time because you got to have a court reporter here and then you got to question witnesses and go through, uh, It's an in-depth analysis of their assets.

It's a day for our guardianships when we have that. We put them all in one day because we have to have that. So it just takes time to process each one of those individuals.

So this is a need, not a want.

Yes.

And what is the result or what is the consequence if this position is not funded?

We'll just have to do what we can do. We'll just have to have a few more court days and try to, whenever the judge is available, to get these things done.

Corinna, do we have a tally of how many hours the employees are taking comp time or payout time? She said everything is comp, so it's not a dollar amount, but it does translate into a dollar amount.

Juanita should be able to run that report, and if not, Clint and I should be able to run that report, I believe. There's a report that can be run that shows

paid out for comp time taken that that that is what you would be looking at because I think that would be helpful because I'm inclined to want to do this I would like to know how many hours because then you know that really offsets the salary paying you know x and dollars of comp time why keep you know, putting all that pressure on existing employees. Right. And then fund the new position, and we're not really spending maybe but half of it. Right. Just want a comparison. So thank you, and let's look at this in round two when we get those numbers. So I'm not a no. I'm still looking into it. Okay. Thank you.

So I have another question. How many days a week are you working on the – I'm sorry, how many probate – How many times a month are you doing probate and guardianships and things like that? Twice. Twice a month that you have the three employees up here. Right now we just have two.

Okay. Unless I'm not in court, then I come up.

Okay. All right. And I think this information will be helpful that we get that we'll be able to kind of make a more informed decision around two. All right.

So you're now wait and see? I think so.

Yeah.

You can comment, sir.

One of the things that I've watched for years is the average age of the people in Kendall County. It affects our tax rate, how many taxes get frozen. We're now at 22% over 65 in Kendall County. And growing, yes. Which is one of the factors attributing to...

Right. And you do not know if you're going to have 10 probates filed or 20 a month. You just don't know when they decide to file them because they have up to four years to file a probate. Now, guardianships are different. We have to act on those as the judge will. When a new one's filed, it's got to be heard pretty quick. So we have emergency ones that happen, so We never know on a daily basis. Whatever comes in, we have to take care of it.

Okay.

Okay, it looks like this will be addressed in round two. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, if we could go ahead and go to page 15, which is Veterans Services. She made no changes. I will say there is $1,000 that has been historically budgeted in office supplies. In office supplies, and typically what Mr. Cortez buys is just the ink for his cartridges. He did tell me that he probably is going to need a new printer. His printer's on the fritz, so I don't know if he'll buy it this fiscal year. I know he's only spent $80. Maybe he will purchase it next year, but that In normal years, I would not think that he would need $1,000 in office supplies because he only spends...

He hardly asks for anything, so just keep it and let him get his printer. And Jason's here, by the way.

Okay, so if y'all want to go ahead and go to Jason, we can come back to that MyList later.

So we get any questions on veteran service?

Just one thing, we are going to have to deal with their space at some point.

Correct, but we have a...

couple potential options if we buy that building or once election moves out we have space of who's moving out of elections could that could be a home for them as well so just a reminder that that old house is what it is where offices indigent services and veterans services needs to be torn down exactly we haven't the county's never put any money into that so that's that's something in the future a demo and maybe we'll do something else with that space we own the land

Correct.

Parking.

Yeah, ideally that could be, that also could be where how we expand this court is that way. We were always talking about a parking garage, but we could, top two floors could be office spaces. That's another, could be a dual way to get a benefit to the community.

So that everything is right here with this courthouse, Justice Center, and not have to build over

Correct. And we could put two new courtrooms over there if we needed to. And so I think that's something we need to explore as well as utilizing the current footprint we have.

Good thinking.

Thank you. Good morning, Dana. How y'all doing?

So we're going to go to page 45, judge and commissioners, which is the facility maintenance budget.

This is Department 510 facilities. Okay. Jason, I don't know if you did. What was the leak that Melissa and I found above?

Still working on it. What was it? Coming out of the holding cells on the second floor. Oh, really? Okay. We think it could be leaking in the wall from the toilet. It's fresh water, I mean, because it's under the tile now. We found it under the floor tile. So they got prisoners up there right now.

So I don't know. But you're on top of it. And then what about the missing piece from that flood last week? Everything's fixed on that.

Okay.

What kind of pipe is that? You said it's fresh water pipe.

It's probably water going to the, we think it's going to the toilet. That's what's in that area.

Is it PEX or copper?

Copper. And when this place was built, they were still using copper pipes.

So do you think we'll encounter more of that and then eventually have to move to PEX, which I think is kind of the industry right now?

We just had a leak on the first floor men's restroom on a two inch line, inch and a half line, whatever it was. It's all copper. But there's some places we can make it PEX if we've got the option, you know, adapted from copper to PEX. But in some places we don't have that.

Have you accounted for the possibility of having to redo this entire courthouse and the cost? No. No. that might be something you want to look at.

That's my answer for a lot of things as a bulldozer.

Well, I think we have to plan for it.

So no, I mean, yeah, to repipe this building, that's, that's going to be an, you're pretty much about to shut the whole building down. We're going to have to rip open walls and ceilings. I mean, it's a, it's, It's all in the floor, you know, drop ceilings and the walls.

Yeah, we're going to have to set up temporary work locations because there's no way to make that work.

And there's no way to really do it, and you would have to do it from the get-go to the finish. Because if you try to turn the water off to do the first floor, then you're not really helping anything because nobody could be on the second or the third anyway because the water would have to be off to the entire building.

So it's just patching as we go then?

Well, right now, what happened in the bottom was not a pipe. It was actually a pump that just blew apart. It wasn't a pipe itself. It was a circulating pump that was circulating hot water to the restrooms right there by the Sallyport and up to the second floor. So it wasn't really the pipes. It was a circulating pump.

Okay. Well, I would ask that you be thinking about it and thinking about the plan and And coming back at some point, it doesn't sound like, you know, we need to think about this in the next budget year, do we? No. Okay. But let's like look long term. No problem. And then the other concern that Judge Cahoon had was something about the aesthetics of the bathroom and the grout. Can we get a little, you know, grout patching up there and make it look cleaner? Yeah.

The two bathrooms you and I talked about between our office.

And the jury rooms.

And the jury rooms. And I kind of let everyone know that we have a plan for it. It's just you were trying to tackle the more higher priority issues and that the cosmetic things were going to be addressed. We have a steam cleaner. We can steam clean it if that's what you're asking.

We have a steam cleaner that we have. that I can try to steam clean the grout before I... Because the next only other thing to do is to chip it all out or grind it out and then re-grout.

Re-grout it. Could you look into doing that, Judge Cahoon? I think she said Judge McDaniel goes and cleans the tile because she can't stand it.

We put new floor in her bathroom. She still has tile on the wall. I think. The floor, we put that vinyl like what's in the hallways.

Yeah, so that's not a problem. I think it must be the tile on the wall.

You put it on the floor in the jury rooms as well? Okay, I think it's talking the jury rooms.

Oh, the tile on the floor in the jury room. That was the bathroom.

The bathrooms that are in the... I saw it yesterday.

Every bathroom in this building needs to be gutted and remodeled. Every bathroom. You've seen the wallpaper in the bathrooms. It's all peeling. The grout The tile's all nasty in all the bathrooms, the countertops. But they're all functional. They're all functional, but they're just ugly.

And we did move into this building November 1st of 1998. That was kind of when departments started moving into the building from across the street in the historical courthouse and the various little buildings that were kind of around the county. So some things are

So we're coming up on 30 years.

I only know that date. That's the day I started with the county. So I know the date. And so, you know, some things do need to be repaired. But while he's in there, there's other issues. And I know I think I've said this before, but, you know, in the county auditor's office, my specific part of my office, you know, there's cracks around the windows and the walls and stuff. And I think that's probably settling issues. And so at some point, that's something that the court's going to have to think about overall. I think we've done a lot for the outside. I think the inside, I mean, it's being maintained, but there's just a building that's almost 30 years old.

Yeah, because I talked to Sharon, and she's trying to get a quote because a mason needs to come, and you're aware of it. There's cracks. The rock is separating from the building, and water can get in behind it. And so there's some TLC that needs to be done to solidify the envelope of this building in addition. But, again, Basin's aware of all this. The foundation could have settled causing these cracks. Yeah, and our office has some cracks. But everything that we're talking about is on your radar. It's just a matter of what priorities that you're having to address on a day-to-day basis. Is that a fair assessment?

So I would just like to explore this. I'd like a facilities report. kind of asset inventory or analysis so that we have a big picture of what we have and what would be major projects that we would have to plan in the next two to three years and then day to day. And you're doing a great job, and I get a lot of good feedback from you, you know, from your work, and all your employees are just super nice. And I love Alex over at the Blanco building. He's just so helpful, and he dusts like I've never seen anybody dust. He moves all my stuff and dusts. But it looks like you're day-to-day trying to take care of everything, and you have to do that. But let's look long-term and see what our plan is so that we can budget you some money, and we'll take your lead on what you think is more critical that we need to do now, what could be in the next two years, and then the next five years.

Does that also include that family building across the street? What is it, genealogy? That building, that's almost as bad a shape as the Veterans Building.

That needs to be on the list. We really need to have a total inventory of what all we've got and where we are with it. And I think Commissioner and I were going to work on the capital improvement plan, which would address some of this.

I think part of this, Commissioner, could be handled with our needs assessment, definitely, because I think that would be the opportune time to include that into the needs assessment plan. That would be... definitely something that I think would be a part of that plan because they've got to assess these buildings. And so right there is your, you'll get a detailed report.

That may be too. And, but I think that's something that you would want to be involved in as well. I mean, it's kind of your baby.

If you would like to call Jason back for round two, just for more discussion of this, I can run a report. A detailed report that shows all buildings in the county because we have those. Not only do we insure them, so I have them that way, but I also have them in the financial system because we capitalize this because they're perfect. Thank you. So we can bring that back to round two, along with the comp time report, you know, just either the first or second day of the, you know, of the. as we get to other's projects, but we can bring him back for y'all to have that document. And he can... He's like, oh, goody. And I can give him that list.

Yeah, if you can print him whatever you have, so basically we all can work off the same thing.

It starts the talking point if you are going to work on whether you wait on the space needs or you do a capital improvement plan. It gives you kind of an idea, a snapshot of the buildings that the county owns.

Do you want to just let everybody know what the capital improvement plan is now that we have a GIS person and you and I can get back on that?

Well, the capital improvement plan will go through and it's going to be a in my opinion, kind of a different branch of the needs assessment. You go through and you think the needs assessment will greatly enhance the capital improvement plan because it's going to give us goals that we have to look at. Are we going to need a bigger jail? Are we going to need a this justice center? Are we going to need an annex for just the administration side of the county? All of these things will go into a capital improvement plan. Then at some point in time, I think there is a way that through the legislature, existing laws that we can go, okay, Mr. Developer, you're coming in here and you're going to, we need to ask you to help with X, Y, or Z because your development is going to be a part of what is causing us to have to enlarge these other parts. So impact. Avoid using that word.

Generally impact.

For a reason. Don't say that. Yeah. Impact is not. We cannot charge impact fees.

I didn't say fee. I just said impact.

But we can work with developers on areas that they will affect the growth in the county.

And that's only fair.

Yes, I agree.

So in Jason's budget. There is one $600,000 expenditure that is on their capital list. That is the Tupperwine storage building project. And I just want to discuss that to find out if you're keeping it in or not keeping it in.

I'm just trying to put that in because at Tupperwine, we have a space in between the sheriff's office and where EMS or emergency management operates. There's a building there, but it's not in good shape. And so the thought is we can tear it down, build a nice metal building two stories and use it for storage because there's a lot of departments that need climate controlled storage for all their storage files uh and whatever else we we could turn in a couple offices over there for people now you just want to go well because we didn't i didn't put any plumbing

Yeah, you're on a septic system over there that I don't know what shape that septic system's in. I didn't put in enough electricity. I put in just enough electricity for some air conditioning and some lighting.

Do you need toilet and plumbing there?

Well, I was just saying that it could be expanded if we want it, but the main reason was storage because we got people storing places in the old jail. We're running a space here. This way, every department or office could be given... their own locker, and it just makes sense to utilize that space.

Do we have to put an elevator in it since it's two-story?

It's not going to be an elevator. It's going to be more of just a lift.

Like the dumbwaiter that we're putting in the Burdick Center?

Okay. And so we thought $600,000 was a reasonable way to do it. But if we take this out of the budget, that's $600,000, but it's just something that It seems to be a reoccurring need for folks, and so I figured let's... We don't have any secure storage right now.

So the building that we're using for storage is not secure. What all is in there? I mean, and a pet peeve of mine is keeping stuff that we don't need to either throw away or throw away.

Well, the tax office has stuff, county clerk, district clerk, treasurer. Everybody's got auditors. Everybody's got something in that old...

These are records then.

Yeah, these are records.

And they have to be climate-controlled.

And right now those records are really not, what I would say, properly secured in that you have a jail key that fits basically every door. What Jason is proposing in this building would be similar to what we used to have in the old maintenance office behind the courthouse. It was a huge area and they had the wire cages. And then each individual office only had the key or access to however it would be, whether it be electronic or a key or whatever combination. You have the access to that only. Everybody that had storage in there would have access to the building, but then you only have access to that space.

Good plan. One thing, and this kind of just popped into my mind, we need to plan for additional electricity usage and a bigger bill. If we're going to air condition a two-story building, hopefully it will be insulated well. But with any new purchase, like, Brenna, have we talked about or thought about the Burdick Center when that comes online? That's 10,000 square feet of air-conditioned space. If we buy more property, that's more air conditioning, maintenance, repair, replacement. Those are all factors from adding new property.

That's a good point. I actually reduced based on usage last year. If you look at utilities, which is the 10, 5, 10, 5, 4, 400, you know, in FY25, we had 190,000. We used 162. There's 190,000 budgeted right now. And in eight months, we've used 94. So I reduced it based on trend to 175,000. But I think I better increase that back up to 190 for right now. So that would be, I'm going to be adding 15,000 back just to cover that. Because I didn't know when that was coming. I didn't know when that was going to be finished. The verdict.

No, we're paying for electricity now. I imagine you've got it set at a higher.

Pretty much off.

Pretty much off. Okay. Okay.

I had the heat on during the winter just for freezing purposes, but it was way low into the 50s. We haven't had anybody in there in a while. Even when somebody was going in there, I had the stats way up into the 80s just to maintain a semblance of.

Is that freezer off, that walk-in freezer?

No, because they had food in it. I don't know what we're doing over there. Some people were using it, so I never turned it off. There's food in there.

Yeah, I wouldn't turn it off because leave it running. You got your deer hanging in there?

Maybe. Is that freezer going to be disposed of under the new construction plan? Yes.

Well, I guess because we're having a hole in the wall, they're going to have to fix the wall.

It's part of boating storage, isn't it? Boating machine storage. What are we doing with that? Are we going to auction that off?

As soon as I'm given the okay, I'm going to, I wanted to auction everything off the cooking equipment because that way the Right now, I pulled the stove out because the vent hood needed to be inspected, and I didn't see any sense in wasting money. I yanked the gas off so the fire marshal would leave us alone about the cooking because it was hooked up. It's pulled out in the middle of the floor, and he's never come back. But anyway, you give me the permission. I'll start inventorying all those freezers and refrigerators. We took the ice machine out of there, and I moved it over to Bernie EMS because they needed an ice machine over there. Because theirs was no good.

Is that on a list somewhere that we had this asset and we moved it so we keep up with where stuff goes?

Well, we didn't have any assets. So the nothing's over there is considered on our list because it's never been. But you understand, she didn't have it on a list.

Doesn't Clint go around and take pictures of everything?

Yes, but the building as a whole. It's the building that we insure. So for something to be considered an asset, the tangible item has to be $5,000 or more. So, like, because that's what we depreciate anything over $5,000. So, stuff that's less than $5,000, we don't have an asset list of. But, like, this equipment right now, this refrigerator, freezer, whatever, we would still bring it to commissioner's court because I would consider it individually probably an asset. And to dispose of stuff, local government code says only the commissioner's court can declare something surplus or salvage. And so that is when we would auction off. So right now it's not individually on a list because we didn't buy them separately. We bought the building as a whole. So it's part of the contents of the building.

Let's get together after this and we'll talk about.

But we would have to go take individual pictures for the auction site. But before that, we would have to bring the list to Commissioner's Court. Y'all would have to approve to dispose of such through an auction. And then we take all the pictures. We get it online. we take care of the entire auction in our office. That's something that we do.

Commissioner Chapman, you and I probably need to go over there because there's some nice tables, some stainless.

I'm not, I wasn't going to really get, well, some of those tables have sinks built into them and they're really, there's some good tables over there. We need to make sure what we keep.

See what we want to keep. And, and I don't know any other County department like the ice machine, anybody else can use them.

Right. Yeah. So should we check with all of the EMS buildings and, um, comfort fire, anybody that could use any of those.

I went to the jail and talked to Green about using the stove over there because it's a good big gas stove. But he said he didn't need it.

This is a gas stove with the whole Ansel system and everything. We don't need that for sure.

And the thing is that money does come back into the general fund because you purchased the property with general fund money. So all the money goes back into the general fund of things that you sell.

Okay. Well, we approved the space needs plan, and so I don't know when we're going to start demoing, but that's on the horizon.

I would probably suggest that you and I go over and look at it sooner than later so that we can get these items removed from there because once we approve the basic plan, ARCHITECT now is moving forward towards a final design. So we probably ought to try to get that out of there sooner than later.

Yeah, because there's a lot of stuff I'm going to have to store then. All those tables and there's desks and stuff in there that we're wanting. So yeah, before they start doing what we're doing.

A good idea would be of any of these that actually that's at, oh, sorry, if any potential employees I think before we sell the desk, we certainly need to offer them because I know the desk that the purchasing agent has in her office specifically, her staff member, they purchase the desk for. But her desk that she uses, all that furniture, she got from the Burdick Center because over a year ago when she moved, so the county did not have to buy furniture. We basically already bought it when we bought the building. So there may be others. The JP2s. laid claim to the rest of this and that's great that's great that means we don't have to buy it's not part of soft cost of once some once they're in there if if we can use it i just don't want to sell it if there's desk and things i mean i i would i would look at one i my desk is 28 years old and i've had money in my budget but i've been told for a few years i might be moving so i haven't bought a desk that might not fit in another office but i would i'm You know, I wouldn't mind using a used desk if it would fit in my office, but I just don't want us to sell them if somebody can use them. So that would certainly be something I'd want.

Okay. So, Jason, you maybe get with Commissioner and I will go over and kind of make a list and put out a little memo. If you need something, speak up.

Can I go back to the topper wine for a minute? You're talking about building a metal building that you would then climatize. Can we, if just thinking, we have a storage building there, could we, if all the furniture and all those things have been there, all the chairs, all of that, it was out of there, could we climatize that building?

Which building? That's a separate building. That's the emergency management building, and we are climatizing half of it.

No, the storage building that's at Topperwine. The one at Topperwine that is existing, that has all the used... My building? Mm-hmm.

There's not even electricity there. We were talking about putting electricity, but that building's not even going to have electricity. It's like a barn.

It's a barn.

Right, but if you're building... But do what with it after we air-conditioned it?

If... Can we climatize it to do what you're talking about building this building to do?

Then I don't have any place to put any of my stuff.

So if we're taking stuff out of the jail, I'm just thinking we have that.

No, the stuff I have stored in there won't fit into the jail. I've got trailers in there. I've got all the extra carpet, tile, all the building materials stored.

And I'm talking about the building that has the chairs, all the papers.

That's where everybody dumps their junk on me, which I have to then deal with. But there's really nothing in there that I could store in the old jail. I don't have anything in there I could store in the old jail.

Well, I was just thinking of using an existing building we have, instead of building another, to acclimatize it.

Like remodel, refurbish, add on, make it what you want. Use the shell. Because you've got, right.

But then I just go back to what I have in there now. I have no place to put that, what I'm storing there now, if I use it for document storage. And you'd have to redo that old building. It's got big overhead doors. You'd have to pretty much reskin the whole building because it's got big overhead doors that wouldn't, and one walk-through door. But like I said, if we did that, then I don't have any place to put what I have in there now.

So you're saying you're going to keep the barn type building for your outdoor trailers and whatnot, and then we'll have a new building that's climatized for records. So two buildings. Okay.

Would you like to keep the 600,000 in there currently? And I suggest you go back at the end of this. when you're done, to review this entire list to make sure it's stuff you still want to do. I'm just curious as of right now, do you want to keep it in?

Start with Commissioner Weeson this time. Yay or nay?

On the $600,000, let's leave it and see if we can stretch and make it work. Are you asking for any new employees?

Not at this point, no. I'm waiting. The more we're adding square footage, the more I'm getting pretty much stretched pretty thin with the six guys I got.

Can you make it another year?

Yeah, I'll put it in there for next year. I haven't put it in there for this year. He projected, so I did project. No, I'm good. That's all I have for you. Commissioner McCall, yay or nay?

I think it sounds like we're going to revisit it, so I say we see again what we have at the end of budget.

I'm a yay. I'm going to revisit because I want to know what our space needs are. I still hear there's people moving around, and we haven't even talked about who's going where, even in this courthouse, and I'd like to I'd like to have that conversation as well so we know what's even happening in this building that we're in right now.

Can you tell me the number of your employees again?

I've got seven custodians and six technicians.

Just one comment you made that everybody dumps or drunk on you. See, that's what I was getting at. Is this stuff that... I mean, how do we dispose of stuff? It's not...

But it's broken. We've now... I've gone... to Sharon and talk to her and we were getting, I mean, they were, before I started here, they were saving everything broken or not. And when I got here, that building, you couldn't even walk in and it took probably six full roll off dumpsters for me to empty that building. And the stuff is broken. Cause I'll get a call from somebody that, Hey, I got a new office chair. Come get this broken one. Well, the guys were just so used to taking everything out there because that's what, and I'm like, no, if it's broken, We're throwing it at this point, taking it to solid waste if that's where it needs to go or wherever it needs to go. At this point, if it's a broken desk, if it's a broken chair, if it's broken, we are now disposing of it immediately.

Okay, good. And that's okay for them to do that? Yes, because it's not really an asset.

Okay. But it sounds like we may need to spend a few hundred dollars to get, I mean, I know we did those roll-offs for a while when y'all were cleaning it out about a year or so ago, or about a year ago, but do we need to get another one out there?

Oh, yeah, because the roll-off I have now that's over by that old rent house, it's full again because we had to clean out that rent house. So I'm fixing to get it, and I'm going to have another one put down there to get rid of the broken stuff that we now have accumulated.

What are we doing with that rent house?

We are... It's in, I had hoped to auction it off, but it's been in the legal hands for a couple months.

So it's like pier and beam and someone can move it?

It's partial pier. It's got a concrete front porch.

Right. How much would we actually get for that? Because somebody's going to spend a lot of money to move it. And is it worth the cost of the county?

Two to $500, maybe. $500? Yes. Or that, but.

You know, it costs the county to do an auction.

I don't know.

I mean, it would, I'm guessing. A hundred dollars.

I'm guessing though. Okay. So it cost us a hundred. Let's say we get a hundred dollars for it and it cost us a hundred for the auction. We get zero. It gets moved off of county property at no cost to the county. That's what I'm shooting for. Because if the county has to go in there and tear it down, I'm just guessing between the, even if we do it, between the dumpsters and the equipment and the manpower, we're looking at, In excess of $5,000. Oh, I'm talking, I think you're pushing $50,000. So, okay, I'm being generous, but still.

I was just curious.

My intent was not to make money. My intent was to get rid of it and not cost the county anything.

Yeah, I've had mobile homes torn down, and it's like $3,000 to $5,000.

And in reality, auctions probably cost the county in time because it's manpower. A big auction with a lot of stuff can cost us about $300, which is why I try not to auction off one thing or two things because we have to take the same number of pictures. You have to put it on the website. He has to go out there. Somebody is going to pick it up. We have to go out there. We have to receipt the money or not receipt it. We get it. We make sure they've paid and all this. Cheryl receipts the money. I mean, so.

And I actually had some local people that were interested in bidding on it if it comes up for auction. So, uh, again, I was just hoping we'd get a hundred dollars for it and, uh, get moved off county property.

So are you handling that? Yes. Okay. Thank you. How much land do we have over there?

Where that building is? That whole lot? Quarter to half an acre, maybe?

It's bigger than that. Uh, I think it's, uh, probably close to an acre. Uh, A lot of big trees and everything, so it's not all usable. When you take the whole, it's kind of a little shaped property.

Not enough land that builds a new judicial system over there next to the sheriff's office.

I thought you were going to say a ballpark. A ballpark.

The soccer in front? Yes. And that's where I'm going is, you know, if... So, yeah, definitely we can do that. If we're looking at all these buildings we're buying individually and influencing office space, you could literally build over there, sell Blanco, move everyone back to the courthouse, all the commissioners and everyone that does day-to-day. That's where the space needs comes in, just before we spend more money on another building for storage.

Yeah. Well, like I said, the only reason I put this building out there is because we don't have any secure storage. If I go in there and check the key out, I can open up any storage, any room I want, and I can go through the auditor's stuff or I can go through the district clerk's stuff. I can do anything I want. One key opens up every door. And I don't even know how good those air conditioners haven't been changed out in, I don't know, 20 years. They're old air conditioners.

Humidity and all that, if it's even damaging the...

And this was just a way to get people to have their secure storage with metal cages. That way you would, you know, if you needed one, you'd have a cage that only you had access to. So on that assessment, you want me to take her list and just tell you how the building shape is, what you're asking for?

Yeah, in your opinion, I think that'd be great. And I mean, as Commissioner Chapman said, when we do the RFQ or RFP to do the space needs, we can pursue that as well. But you know more than anybody here about all the

Are you asking to grade the building and give, like, what's wrong with it?

Kind of an assessment, as detailed as you can be. Like I said, you know more than anyone about all the facilities. I always say, if you get hit by a bus, we've got to have a piece of paper.

All right. Anything else for Jason? All right. Thank you, sir. Next up, department number 540. That would be EMS.

Good morning.

Morning, Shelley. Welcome back, Brian.

Good morning. Welcome back, Brian. Good to see you.

Good to be back.

So if I could just quickly give you some highlights of the budget and then y'all can ask your questions. We increased We're on page 49. It's Department 10-540. We decreased operating or the EMS decreased operating increased uniforms just based on cost. alone. And, um, but then medical supplies we did increase and that's based on trend. I anticipate even possibly having to do another budget adjustment this year. We've already done one and moved it up to 175. Um, so they are asking, um, for 265,000 in that line. That's the first big, big item.

And also just to FYI, we discussed, uh, A request to change the truck 2472 truck to a 4896. And tentatively, the opinion of the court is that it's a go. Again, this would take effect October 1st. So we got to wait through the rest of the budget. There may be changes, but that is the tentative opinion of the court. So I know that was one of your big concerns. Just want to throw that out front so we can focus on this. And we also put in the budget. which so far it's another tentative approval, is an ambulance for 369175, a new bus, and then also ambulance equipment for 177540. Those are currently in the budget.

Okay. Judge, are those listed on our capital?

Yep.

Yeah, okay.

Which my understanding, but I don't have that information, is that a portion of that should be covered by a grant, but I will bring all grant stuff and any grant matches or any grant income to in round two.

And I need to clarify that because tentatively we had put out a grant request for the SB, is it 3000 or three? The EMS equivalent.

That was the last legislature.

We did not. when the list came out, we weren't on the initial approval list. However, when I went to my judge school, they basically said reapply because basically you're eventually going to get it. And so that's why we're putting it in there because if we don't have it in there,

I didn't know we didn't get that. That was like a year ago. I didn't know we didn't get it either.

I've just been... I didn't know that they said no. I just was waiting.

They didn't say no. We just weren't on the list.

Did we not file paperwork in time?

We did. Everything was good. It was just smaller counties.

I think smaller counties...

But that was the whole purpose of the grant.

Rural counties. But we're... We're kind of in the middle. We're not like so small. We're one of the midsize. So I think it's, they're prioritizing a different order, but that's just speculation.

So that was, we came out of the last legislature and it was a big deal. Texas association of counties did several articles and everybody, we learned it at all the conferences.

So in the future, when that happens, maybe let us know.

So we can call one of our legislators, Senator Campbell or track Claire. I mean, that's unacceptable for us to miss something on the first round when it was specifically for rural counties.

They gave it to like 50 counties. So far. Yeah. And I don't think we're out of it. I think we will get it based on the tone of, you know, the instructors that everyone's going to get it.

It's just when we've been keeping up with Christina on it and she's been touching base with them and then touches base with us.

So isn't there like a year lead time?

get these trucks and get them outfitted it takes longer than that so uh the current deal is 14 to 18 months depending on what their backup is once we place the order so how does that lead time fit in with it's as long as we order it we're qualified so no matter when it comes in the grant will cover it but we we needed two new buses anyways so regardless whether we got these this was This is to upgrade our fleet. So we have a current fleet, have another one. And so even if the grant doesn't come through again this year, my proposal, the recommendation to this court when I'm not here is go for one more bus because that way they will have a backup bus. That's in every station.

That's the important thing is we have one station. It only has one unit in there. And if you're having a shift change and that unit is out, then you're pulling a unit out of another district to cover that call. It's best to have two units.

So just long-term emergency planning, I think that is. So, Corinne, if you want to note that to just bring up next year, one more bus is probably a good idea.

Where do we stand with an order?

As far as?

To order the vehicle.

So we do a bid, but until we have an approval from the court and we turn that in, we don't get in a queue, so to speak, for them to start building it. Now, on the last couple months, what we have done is saved a couple of dollars is when we go in for that bid, if Razor has bought chassis already, we may be able to buy a chassis that's brand new that may be last year's model and save $15,000 on the purchase. That's what we did the last year? Yes.

That's a good idea.

The county had the money purchase the chassis and then the box was budgeted, you know, in the next fiscal year. This one that's just in service and comfort, 280.

So my question is then, when are we going to order the bus and are we actually going to spend the money in FY27 for this vehicle and its outfitting?

If the court approves the budget, then what I do is Before October 1, we usually try to place the order with the court's approval. That way we try to avoid any price increases before October 1, and then we're in the queue to start building that truck.

Do we have to put down a deposit or pay for the entire thing?

No, we just need a commitment.

Can we commit so he can order now? Technically, there is no budget for FY27. So no one can commit to a purchase, and FY27 to the commissioner's court gives the And that authority comes with an adopted budget.

And we can't do a budget transfer and put that in a line item?

So you can't put current year budget in next year. Now, he could purchase the chassis right now. And essentially what you're doing, you're saying, hey, I'm going to buy a box next year. But if there was no adopted budget, the county's still on the hook for that box. But Sharon, there's – like, I can't give Sharon permission to – issue a purchase order because I have to strictly enforce the budget and there's no budget until you guys set the budget.

And then you run the risk of, I don't know, with the SB grant, buying it this year is before we've applied. That may not qualify us. I think you got to apply, get it in the queue and then buy it. So there's some logistical issues that I hesitate on. I know you're trying to save money. It's a good idea, but I think we just got to do this next one.

And we will follow up to find out when we have to reapply, try to get that.

Do you think realistically we're going to spend that money in this next budget year?

So my understanding is that last year we bought a chassis. You're waiting for the box, and that's going to happen this fiscal year for one that you have on order. No, we already did. We spent the $200. We don't have anything on order right now. What's on the schedule is the court's public hearing, I believe, is the first commissioner's court in September to adopt the budget, which means that you could not get a purchase order until after that. So that would be September. So if you got a PO from Sharon and ordered that that first or second week of September, are you going to have an ambulance By September 30th, 12 months later, no.

Just depending on where you're at in the queue. So if we take a chassis, if they have to have a chassis on the lot, and we get in a queue ahead of time, we may be able to have it done in 12 months. They did open up a new facility for building. So the time has been reduced some, but I'm not sure exactly when the delivery time would be. I won't know that. I can find that out, but I don't know what it is right now.

Isn't this the same process we've been following every year is we just buy the chassis the first year, next year we budget the box? Yes.

Well, that means you don't need all of this in the budget. That was where I was going with that question.

But you may need to for the grant.

That's right.

So I don't know until you know more about the grant. You may need to have everything in there.

So that they see that we committed to it.

Correct.

Does that make sense? Is it a reimbursement grant?

I don't know.

Yes. Really, most of your grants, the county has to foot the bill, and then you get the money.

That's all. I'm just trying to make sure we, without talking to Christina, we don't ruin our ability to get the money.

I don't know anything about it.

Because that would save, I mean, I see what you're saying, it would pull out another $180,000 from the budget if we're only going to budget for the chassis.

How much is the grant generally?

The grant, I believe, was $350,000. Correct. That's the set amount for an ambulance. That's the only thing that I know about that grant.

What if we just kept the grant application going all the time? You only get one.

One per. You only get one per county. So once we get it, we're done. Or how often?

Well, period. Until the legislature revotes on it to approve it again.

Yeah, I asked that question, can we keep applying? And they said, no, each county is entitled to one under this grant program unless they change the terms.

But part of the grant requirements is that the county has to, you have to have the expense budgeted. Mm-hmm.

So leave it in there and we'll just see whether or not it gets spent.

So do you want to budget the revenue? Because I wouldn't really budget the $350,000 revenue if we haven't even applied. I don't know when that application is.

Can we talk to Christina on that? Because I don't know the details. I really just know that. I know we've got to reapply and get the money budgeted. Sorry, I don't have time.

No, that's okay. I was trying to think about the offset. Once we find out on the application status, you can budget the revenue maybe. Yeah. Because that just reduces the fund balance you need to spend. Now, if you don't get the grant – whether your fund balance is budgeted or not, you have to, you know, you still come up with the money.

Is it safer to do the 350 budgeted, like we're going to get it, just that way you close all loops?

It's not safer. If you have it budgeted, then when money comes in, it's receded into that specific line item, and you're not using fund balance money. up front to purchase it if you if but if you don't have it budgeted and you get it it's called um just it's like a new revenue source it's a budget adjustment where i'm increasing revenue so i would decrease the amount of fund balance you had budgeted because you wouldn't need that fund balance okay so it's really either way if but if it's i'd i'll look at the grant requirements and see when that that goes through and then kind of make that decision but um

I think that was all the questions I had. Did we miss anything that you wanted to talk about?

There is one thing. This is in general.

Which page and which line item, please?

It is... She had initially 55400, but it really needs to be 55410 radio equipment. So she added a radio in for that new truck, but what she didn't realize is we have four mobile radios currently in the ambulances that are end-of-life that we need to replace. So the money that she budgeted for radio really needs to go to replace those radios and those trucks. But do we need to upgrade this in general now? What do you say? So the dollar amount is going to be real close because we just replaced, put a new radio and the new ambulance. So I did get a new quote as of yesterday.

And I had it in the wrong line item. I had it on small operating equipment.

It needs to go down to radio and radar equipment. But you budgeted, you asked for $30,000 for two dual head radios. I put that in radio and radar, not in small operating. Okay, good. Thank you. But you had $30,000. So what do you need?

Four radios at $6743 apiece.

Oh.

Because we have to upgrade the equipment in the current trucks. That didn't get a new radio. 280 has a brand new radio in it.

So how much again?

It's $6,743 with installation because they're going to have to replace the antennas and stuff. And the thing that I wanted to also mention to the court is we're not the only department that has this issue. There's other units that has mobile radios that are end of life. LCR has sent that information out. So it may be something that the county needs to look at as a whole. You have one, and I think you know where I want to go, too.

So one thing, if you want to, there's funds available for them to purchase in the FY26. So that would take out $30,000 here, and we would spend $26,972 currently. The other thing is all four constables put in their budget for future use because they said the radio is the end of life. And, Sheriff, maybe you can speak to this, was – was really like a year to two years out. But what's happening is they're no longer making parts for these radios. So if they go out, the county would be on the hook. So the four constables are fine with waiting a year for those radios, but just know that they would need those radios next year. But those radios are like $11,000 worth they're needing. So these are less So whether you wanted to purchase the constable ones early, they're not in the budget, took them out based on conversation with them, or with a couple of them, and based on their notes. But there are funds available currently, at least for EMS, to go ahead and get theirs in FY26. Is it in the same line item? No, there's some funds there, but they have some money that I could adjust so that they could get it. So that would be taking in 1054- 55410, that would be removing that $30,000 next year and making it zero.

Okay.

And then the total outlay would be... That line item would be zero for radio.

The total outlay that we'd be using from existing budget for...

Two radios would be... For these, it would be 26,972 current year. But you coordinated with Sharon? Harder, yeah. I need to do a budget.

I'm just saying they need to coordinate with Sharon to make sure you follow all... I know it's not related to your department anyways. I know with a lot of the radios that we have with... some of our VFDs and everything. I think we need to talk about just giving those radios to those departments for long-term for the county. I think it's, you know what I'm saying, or where I'm going with this, Corinna?

I'm sorry, I didn't know you were speaking to me. I was...

Sorry.

No, that's okay. Okay, yes.

We had that conversation about giving the radios for a lot of the VFDs, giving them their radios. So it's their asset and not the county's moving forward? Can you make a note of that?

Yes, I think that that can be a discussion that y'all have whenever you have the fire departments here in July.

If you just want to make a reminder on that because...

I have had a discussion with one person from Bernie about that. And I would suggest... I would suggest that because years ago we took all of the equipment that the county bought off our books and gave it to them, except the radios that we purchased later on. And that was just how emergency management.

Yeah, I think so. Just let's make note of that. Anything else, y'all? Ladies, anything from you for EMS?

Shelly, when you were talking about other departments using radios, I don't know if I followed you on that. The price, I guess, or what were you saying, what other departments could use?

Well, anybody that's using the VHS system or the 800 system may have radios that are coming obsolete. Oh, okay. So ours is not the only department. Anybody that's in emergency services and maybe include fire departments that may have those issues. Okay. So in the past, the county has looked at it as a whole and tried to purchase to get a bulk rate to reduce the cost overall versus each department buying something and then the price being higher. Like out of the same company? Same company, yes.

Okay, and that's why we were talking to JPs.

With the mobile, handheld radios.

With the handheld radios.

Yes.

If I might just interject here. So what Brian is saying is that... LCRA put out a letter.

Sheriff, could you come to the speaker or a speaker? Yeah, we could meet.

There's one right there.

Not speaker, microphone.

Are we on? Hello? Is the red light on?

No, it is now. Okay. So what Brian is referring to is the LCR issues a letter on the radios that we have, and what they're telling us is that our radios are coming to what they call end of life. When did you receive your letter?

Probably in April.

Yeah, so earlier this year. So what that means is that they're not going to tell you that At this date and time, these radios are no longer available or whatever. What they're telling you is that get ready because these radios are becoming obsolete. We're not going to do parts for them. They're going to be inserviceable. And so they're getting them out of their inventory. And so I think I brought this to the court's attention before. So we have started that process in trying to eliminate a bulk purchase. You're talking just my office would be probably close to $700,000. And so if you, like Brian said, historically the courts have kind of looked at this holistically and in bulk to include everybody throughout the county that uses the services. Of course, EMS services. dispatches for everybody. And so the problem is it's not knowing exactly. So three years is a good probably estimate of how much longer these radios are going to be. They may last longer than that as long as you have any problems with them. They're still going to work on the system. But if one goes down, you're not going to be able to get it fixed. And so that's the challenge here. So they kind of give you a notice that letting you know that you better start thinking about you need to replace these radios. Three years is probably a very good estimate, maybe four. It's probably going to be no less than three. It could be maybe even five, but the time is coming, so you need to start thinking about it. So that's one of the grants that we've had. We've reapplied now twice to start the process through ACOG. We got one grant approved. I think we purchased six, if I'm not mistaken. I believe it was six radios that we've already got installed, and we're reapplying because you can't. They have a limit on what you can spend. So I think it was like $75,000, $80,000. So we've reapplied for that to get some more radio. So we're trying to work on piecemealing this thing in. But at some point, the court's going to have to address this with the fire departments and EMS and law enforcement.

So just know that it's coming.

We're doing our part to try to get as many radios as we can. I think on our new trucks, we're purchasing new radios for them as well. So to try to eliminate, you know, the high volume of purchase at one time.

That's why the constables did say that it's like a future. It's going to be in the next, you know, like two years, probably that they would be needing those.

Let's address that. Already had those radios that cost for the radios included.

Oh, for the new vehicles?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. Okay. Anything from you, gentlemen, for EMS?

No.

Okay. Thank you. Just one more question. Do we have contingency? I mean, like you said, the radios could work two to three years, but if one breaks, we're not going to get it fixed, and we'd have to then buy one.

So we always do budget some money in contingencies miscellaneous. So if that were to happen, then we would move money over to the appropriate department that may need that replacement radio. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Did you remove that one we had requested for another vehicle? Yes. Okay, good. Thank you.

That's not included. Okay. Oh, wait. No, it is included. It is included.

You can scratch that.

Okay. Well, that makes me happy.

What we did is before the escape, we were lucky enough that Road Bridge was able to get a new scanner that was able to actually access the

module on that truck and we were able to get it programmed and we'll put it back in service so perfect so you don't need the new vehicle we don't need to replace okay so that knocks off 43 45 45 so that so line item 10 540 55130 i'm sorry 55200 okay um

needs to be $324,175. So we're taking out $45,000. I'm sorry, which page and which number? So it's page 50, and it's the line item titled Vehicle Purchase. Oh, I see.

Okay. So that just needs to be $324,175.

Yeah, before they said with the old stuff that it couldn't be fixed, and with the new module, they were actually able to go in and fix it. Good. Yeah.

So good reduction. Yeah, the car only has 63,000 miles on it, so it still has life in it. All the lights were on on the dash, and it wasn't safe to drive until we got it fixed. All right. Thank you all.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. Good to see you both again.

Do you want to jump ahead to some of yours? So sure. Since it's only 1030, knock them out.

Yes, and I don't know if you want to see if anybody from this afternoon wants to, because my part's not going to take very long.

Melissa, do you want to call the JPs?

Probably cannot. That's too hard.

Engineer and parks and see who can get over here.

So if we could go down to page 19, which is non-departmental. And so the very first line item that you'll see says employees. This is not a line item that actually gets budgeted. This is my placeholder line item during the budget process. So right now you'll see $1.5 million, and that is what the judge spoke about yesterday that has the 4% increase to the scales. It has moving the TCDRS up to a match of 200%. So that's where all that is encompassed. So that actually will go away It will be zero at one point when you decide what you're going to do to the scales. And when you decide and any money that's actually increasing salaries would not be more than that.

It goes to where it belongs.

Yes. So but right now, that's just that placeholder of that one point five million dollars that encompasses what the judge has has requested in the budget. of the 4% to the scales and stuff. Because we don't calculate all that out until you'll decide what you're going to do because it's every single line item in the budget. So we wait to hear what you actually want to put in there and then we make that zero and we distribute that out to those.

And that's if everything were budgeted or everything recommended by the compensation committee were budgeted?

So nothing that came to the compensation committee is budgeted. The only thing that is budgeted is what the judge recommended to the scales, which is a 4% increase to the scale, all three scales, taking TCDRS from 195% to 200%.

9% carryover of insurance.

The 9% carryover and the natural progression of the scale. So that includes if you did nothing, there's still a natural progression of people moving on the scale, as well as the 4%.

But not new hires?

No new hires.

Okay, that was my question.

Because we wait until the court decides what they're going to do there. So no promotions, no new hires or anything in there. That still has to be encompassed in the budget.

This is all salaries?

This is and the benefits associated with that increase.

Okay.

So that would be if the scales moved up to 4% and the progression of those employees that are currently staffed, then... That's what you would, it's not even quite 1.5. It's like 1,400,000 something. I rounded right up to 1.5 for an easy number. But that includes the benefits associated with the increases to the scale on current budgeted staff. Even if they're empty, even if the position is not vacant, we include those because that's the total. Because they're trying to fill them. Correct, yes. Okay.

That's a very important number. I have to get my head around that. All right.

That's just the placeholder. So it's in one lump sum. So it's actually in the budget. And then the rest of this, the unemployment insurance, that is a line item that Juanita does use whenever the county does have to pay unemployment claims. Office supply county stock. Why did that go down? Just because of trend. I don't think we need to keep budgeting $10,000. I mean, like I budgeted $65,000 the year before, $10,000 last year. Just based on some things, I thought maybe we would have more claims. We didn't. And this is a department that I would get the purchase orders for mostly and then sign off on because this is no one's department. It's non-departmental because it's kind of countywide. Your office supplies postage, that takes care of what we use like for the mailroom. Okay. fuel you'll see that there's that there's activity current and fuel i just want to tell you when we purchase the bulk fuel for the topper wine station we purchase it there but then we credit it back so it's always zero because it goes out to the departments that are using that fuel so it's just a line item for accounting purposes or we don't need to have money budgeted because it's budgeted in all the departments

But you reflect the activity.

You would see the activity, but now once we pay it back for that quarter, it would be net zero again. Last year, the reason it didn't is just how it fit when we bought some more fuel.

What's our total cost for fuel?

I don't know offhand. You can tell me later. Okay, I can look that up. Okay. Now, operating would be something if it's really the generic, it's the miscellaneous line item in every single department that has an operating, it's a miscellaneous line. It did increase. Now, because that is last year, the court budgeted some funds to do some of the Christmas decorations for the courthouse to be part of the like the Dickens on Maine and all that to have the budgeted funds. So I think this is and I think there's still some expenditures coming out for this fiscal year. So that twelve hundred will in that thirteen hundred will increase. But this was Cheryl Cheryl. was taking care of that. And so that is just like additional lights and things that are needed that would be like a one-time expense. But last year we bought the lights through the company, but every year it does cost for them to install them and stuff. So that's what that is. The pauper burial is pauper burial.

And then... And that one I could see increasing in the coming years because we've been getting a lot of pauper burials, but... To date, it's been relatively low, but they're expensive.

And didn't the funeral home go up on that?

Yeah, it's like 1,600, average about 1,500 a pop. But I can see that as we grow becoming a bigger number. But for next year's purposes, I think 10 is fine.

So then the other are just are like the postage lease and countywide stuff that we have to pay. Property and liability insurance, that number will fluctuate. Clint and I are trying to determine the best way to charge property and liability insurance right now. We have it spread across the departments, which makes us do a lot of journal entries. And so if I increase that line, it's because I'm going to suck it out of everybody's department, put it in one. So it's one bill. It's just easier. Contract services. That $10,000 is where we pay for the shredding service that the county has. And the $200,000 miscellaneous, that's the miscellaneous money that I would use if needed for year-end budget cleanup. So sometimes we don't have money left in commissioner's contingencies because we've needed it throughout the years, but I need it because there was an employee that left and a new hire came and they had insurance issues. And the employee that left didn't have insurance. So I just used that if needed to do budget adjustments later. So I reduced it. I think it was like $250,000 and I've already used $28,000. But I think based on how people turn their budgets in this year, it seems to be a little bit better budgeting.

So I don't think I would need as much. So is there a line called contingencies and then a line called contingencies? contingencies miscellaneous or that's the same thing?

So in the 401 budget, you'll have several contingencies. One of them is miscellaneous. The miscellaneous that I have here is what I would use. It's just miscellaneous. It means if we don't need it to do budget adjustment, it sits there. It never gets spent. But in order for the court to do budget adjustments, that's not considered an emergency declaration. You have to have money within the budget to cover those expenses. And it can be pretty much anything? And it can be anything. So this in the 409, I use it, like I said, mostly at the end of the year when I'm cleaning up retirement or Social Security or all of a sudden we have something on a share vehicle or something. an emergency type vehicle and there's no money left in their budget. There's just no money, but we can't leave that particular vehicle without tires or something. I use that money like August, September to finish out the fiscal year.

So Joe from Parks is on his way. Give him about 15 minutes. And then engineering, Mary Ellen said that she can do all of her categories, engineering, brush site, solid waste, but Donnell's portion would need to stay for this afternoon. Okay. So would you like the Mary Ellen? Yes.

Yes, please. Thank you. Okay. Page 29. Department 438. Pre-trial services.

I don't believe Erica made any changes to her budget. She went down, so I don't know if The only big expense in that is that we rent that building out on Johns road. So, but that's when y'all talk about space at some point, I think we need to have a really in-depth conversation about space and this courthouse people moving and everybody. I don't know if that's this, this probably not enough time this round, but certainly in July, I know we're talking about space needs, but there's also departments here that may be moving or may not be moving. So I think, at least that first quarter in July, we can talk about that.

Did you get an exact figure of what we're paying in rent yearly for that? Because in my head, I have $47,000, $48,000. This is not it.

$49,094.

Where is it?

Rent, buildings, office space.

Oh, $49,000. It's real close.

So when is that contract, and that's annual contract? I believe so.

So if we got her moved out, that's $50,000.

Has... This rent increased?

Yes.

Yes, it did. It did. And I think it might increase again. And we can look at the rentals that we have right now when we talk about the spaces.

How many employees are in there?

She has, I think, there's three. Erica, I believe, just has two assistants. They have unique space needs.

That's their challenge. They need a secure bathroom. So that second building at the one we're looking at could be. could work on the new location. So we can talk offline about that.

So yeah, that's it on that. I don't know if you want to go to district clerk page 31. So I do have some good news on Susan Jackson's Her total needed for this, her records archived. So she has spent her, she spent the, you know, today we talked about archiving the county clerk because the state allows the court to set that $10 fee. They don't allow that in the district clerk's office for that. But those records also have to be archived. So it's on the county to foot that bill. And she's been kind of doing what she can with the special funds and she's been paying her tax. or imaging out of the special fund the entire time Susan was here, but now it's time for the general fund to start picking up some of this. However, she got two new quotes. She was going to try to be here. We talked yesterday because she got, she went back to them and said, I need you to do some more work on these quotes. And she knocked off over a hundred thousand dollars of this. And so she has a new quote, but since we're doing it early, I don't know that exact figure, but instead of 405, it was like 290-something thousand. What line, Karuna? So it would be the two line items at the bottom where it says software 120,000 and other capital outlay 185,000. It's probably closer to 80. So it is, and I don't know if we want to call her to get those two figures, but it was instead of 405,000 needed this fiscal year, it was two... Like 275 or 297?

No, you don't need to call her. Just get the accurate figures and put it in because that's something that needs to be done.

But when she told me this stuff, I was like, oh, that's great news to bring to the court. I think you should come. That's good. And tell them. So I can get those figures for you, but I did want to share that.

Yeah, there's no reason for her to come back. So HR... Juanita, you have anything you want to comment or you want her to handle it?

There's this page 41. The thing that you're going to see that was increased is the medical other, and that is for the new hire. It costs a little more money, $200 and something a piece now for the pre-employment physicals. So you're going to see line item. We're on page 41. You're going to see about halfway down the page under other services and charges, that very first line that says medical other, you're going to see that we increased based on the cost of the pre-employment physicals. And then she is asking for $13,000 for some software, which is on your capital expenditure list. And that software is application tracking software. Oh, look who's here. We did. We were just getting ahead.

No, no, no, no.

I was trying

She was giving you credit for reducing the price, and we were just putting it in, so you're good.

We had somebody that had to cancel, so I'm just doing all those.

So we didn't mean to stress you. Well, I'm sorry. I apologize.

No, no. Oh, it's less than I said.

It's $247,000. That's the figure now. So over a three-year period, $120,000 for the PLEO, which is the software to run over the documents, $127,446.85 over the next three years for the imaging.

And I just have that total, and I'm going to write it down. I'll adjust the budget. Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

came up here like a whirlwind. You're not late. This was us.

You're really early.

I said you were going to come because it's really good news, but then we were early, so I was trying to fumble through it, but thank you, because I said it was 274, but it's 247.

Do you all have any questions regarding it at all? I'm happy to answer them if you do.

No, thank you for getting this follow-up quote.

That's cheaper. If you've heard, we're told some We're a very good client. Oh, good. Let me just say that. We're a very good client. They are taking care of us.

Susan, we are talking about space needs, too. So just so you know, because I was in your office the other day. You could barely get by. I couldn't get by, and you had a folding table there. And you're tiny. Fancy.

Yes, yes. Thank you.

All right, appreciate that. All right, thank you. You're welcome. Sorry for causing you to.

No, I didn't.

Yes.

All right.

We're going to just, everyone, let's take a break from 1042 to 1047, the restroom break, and that way we're good to go. So we'll just pause for a second. All right, so we're back in session. It's 1049 a.m. on this Thursday, June 25th, and we're here with our Department 660 parks. So I don't think, if I recall, there was no major request from you this year. But long term, you talked about potentially once we get all the property properties acquired, some planning, strategic planning. done for those, and then probably an increase in your employees. Is that a fair summary of what we kind of talked about?

Correct.

But for this year, everything's still manageable, but probably next year is when you're going to need to start having a little assistance. Corinna, is there anything I'm missing from our

That is everything you talked about. The only large item is the contract services item, if y'all would look at that. It is line item 10660-54861, and it shows the $289,000, and that is for... The concept development plan, maybe for Guadalupe River Ranch, $150,000. And then floodplain study parking lot design for Guadalupe River Ranch, $130,000.

So we did put a little money in for some strategic planning. You know, I don't know if we're going to do it park by park or should we do it county wide. I don't know what the best approach is, but we at least put some money in to start something next year. But Joe, do you want to talk about this?

This question, is it on this capital expenditure?

No, I actually built it into the budget.

It's not capital. It's not. Well, these items are in the budget, but this is not a capital expenditure because it's a contract. Right.

It's built within his department is all I'm trying to.

But it's a one time.

Well, these two were Guadalupe River Ranch specific reason being because the grant, as you know, we submitted our waiver of retroactivity to use the purchase price of the ranch to be our match. So they would match us up to the 11 point, whatever million it was. They would actually reimburse us for the planning process. They won't reimburse any development. So anything shoveled to dirt, they will not reimburse, but they will reimburse retroactivity. If we get rewarded the fund, of course, they would reimburse these plans.

And how much are you figuring in? Sorry, you said the numbers really fast.

I didn't say any numbers yet.

280. Yeah, it's 280. 280. And what do we get for that?

That would be for the concept development plan and a floodplain study and parking lot design. Okay. And that would be for on the bottom terrace. You don't need the floodplain study for up top. So that's the reason.

That main area where you and I went, where it's kind of parked like already by the water, focusing on that area. Yeah. Okay.

Because you won't need, according to Mary Ellen, you won't need that study up at the top because it's not.

Right. Do you have anything to add on that? Is that what you were thinking about long term?

I was really leaving it to Joe's discretion, so I'll follow your lead.

I'd like to go ahead and go out for an RFP sometime later this summer for the concept development plan. We could probably just lump those into one RFP.