Commissioners Court - Special Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. It is 1.30 p.m. on this Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, and the special call meeting of the Kendall County Commissioner's Court is now called to order. We're going to begin by calling roles. Mr. McCall.

Present.

Mr. Wieschen. Present. Mr. Chapman. Here. Mr. Carpenter. Here. And I'm present. We have a quorum of all five members. Next up, we're going to do a declaration of conflict of interest. Ladies, anything from you? no nothing gentlemen anything from you no i will not be participating in agenda item nine mr chapman will take over for that item next move to public comments it looks like we have one participation form so uh and that person wants to speak during the specific agenda item kathy moore is that correct okay like we have one more okay cole bishop item five is there anyone else that is intending to speak okay next uh Consideration of possible action regarding Proclamation P-20260505-1, proclaiming May 7th as National Day of Prayer. So this is, can you hand me one of those proclamations? So each year we've recognized, here we go. We recognize a National Day of Prayer here in Kendall County. Commissioner Regan and I usually speak. We've been invited to speak again at that event. And it's a countywide event, including Donna Campbell, Mary Ritchie. And so law enforcement, law enforcement, I'll hand it over to you to kind of detail anything else. Anyone else that I've missed?

Yes, we do this every year. And we actually have some of the representatives.

Would you all come up and just kind of talk about what the significance of this day is for our community? And if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself to everyone. Thank you for coming. Hi, I'm Rob O'Connell. This is my wife, Meena.

Bernie Berg, pastor of San Antonio, Louie Martinez, and his wife, Susan. That's all right.

I should know that by now.

That's all right. But, uh, we have, uh, volunteered to serve, um, on an annual basis to prepare for a plan for the National Day of Prayer here in Bernie. And, uh, this year we're going to have a Mayorsburg breakfast as we usually do at Las Guitarras restaurant. And then at the noon hour, we'll have a gazebo event, as we usually do. And a number of people will speak there, those in authority, as well as those who serve in the community in various service ministries. And then at night, we're gonna do something a little different this year. We're gonna have the youth-led event, called Light Up the Square. And we're gonna have some of the Bernie youth are gonna lead the whole thing. They're taking control. We're providing the pizza and the surroundings. But other than that, it'll be a great day of prayer to lift up our great God and our various people who serve in many capacities here in Bernie. So great. Thank you.

Thank you all for coming in. Did Judge, you want to go get a picture with them?

Yeah, we'll do that. And so just a quick summary. So basically the proclamation will summarize that. National Day of Prayer has not only been part of our heritage since it was declared by the First Continental Congress in 1775, but it's a public law established in the United States Congress in 1952, approved by a joint resolution amended by Congress and the President Reagan with Public Law 100-307 in 1998, affirming that it's essential for us as a nation to pray and directs the President of the United States to set aside a day and proclaim the first Thursday of May annually as the National Day of Prayer. And so in every state across America, the observance of National Day of Prayer will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026, with the theme, May the God of Hope Fill You So You Overflow with Hope, found in Romans 15, 13. May the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust in him. And so you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. There's some other language in the proclamation, but that's the most important part to recognize that that's the day we'll be celebrating. So with that, I move to proclaim May 7, 2026 as National Day of Prayer pursuant to Proclamation P-2026050501-05-1. Do you second it? Yes, sir, and I second that motion. Motion by the judge, seconded by Commissioner Regan. Any further discussion? If not, Paula, would you please call the vote?

Commissioner Paul? Aye. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS.

thank you all we'll see you thursday all right thank you thank you no that one's for you it's got all the signatures on it thank you so much thank you john thank you so much okay next up we have thanks consideration possible acts regarding the formation of a committee to examine kendall county's continued participate the hill country regional public defender's office in her local agreement and the task the committee with evaluating whether notice of intent to opt out should be provided pursuant to section 10 of the agreement before we begin uh miss bishop would you like to make your public comments information thank you thanks thank you

so what you have in front of me i want to make sure i have all of the facts absolutely correct first i want to um very much thank commissioner huijan for um of getting on top of this issue when i spoke about it back in june about the pay disparity and the request for higher salaries than us historically the public defender's office has been paid more than my prosecutors have since the inception of that office until about last year when it kind of evened out and then we had learned that there had been a request and that had been approved by the oversight committee of some very high salaries that were going to push them above our people again And so, unfortunately, the last time I came up here, this is not a personal attack on the public defender's office at all. I'm just stating facts. These are facts. Unfortunately, the last time I did this, the chief PDO filed a bar grievance against me. It was not approved. The bar basically said, we're not going to go forward on this because there's nothing to it. It was basically me stating facts and calling them out for not having open meetings. So we took care of that and made sure that that happened now. Um, unfortunately, commissioner region's only 1 vote on an oversight committee. And so the last time they had a meeting. Prior to this last time, sorry. She was outvoted by the rest of the committee. And a lot of the decisions you see in this packet happened prior to her being there. And we have our county actually having an active voice on that committee. So what you'll see is in this packet, you'll see the raises that she gave the staff, the raises she didn't give the staff. You'll see my chief's bar sheet that shows when we were licensed, her chiefs, when they were licensed. You'll see the original job description for that job, which required 10 years minimum relevant experience and five years supervisory experience. The two currently in that role have only been attorneys since 2020 and 2019. So I'm guessing that that requirement is no longer in place. They have spent 1.2, one, maybe accurate, $1,222,928.98 on a six-year lease in prime real estate with 5,700 square feet. When my office is crammed in here with an investigator in a closet, no conference room and no place for victims to meet with them. We have two offices where three or more people can meet as we're speaking right here because I'm in here. We've got people watching video in my office because that's the only place that we can watch certain sensitive material. If this is going to continue with the other counties, I would really like to consider bowing out of this because if it's going to continue where they're going to have better facilities, better pay, less caseload. If you look at the last page, this was actually sent out to a letter by the chief PDO to all the commissioners court after I spoke. And like I said, I'm telling you right now, everything I'm saying is fact. I can give you a document to back it up. I can promise you that that letter that went out and that bar of grievance, did not have all facts, but in here she says they have 916 felony cases with 13 felony attorneys. If you divide that, that's 70 cases per attorney, and they have a caseload limit of 137 felony cases. So they're at maybe half. And if the chief PDO has a caseload, as she stated in her letter, then that's actually 65 cases, which is less than half of the caseload limit for those attorneys. number that she has here for us i don't know where she got that the i asked the clerks afterwards if she they'd given her any numbers they had not um this may be the amount of cases they have that are felonies that we have that they have that are ours but we have many more than that and again this was from june of last year that this went out um and so now we're here again where the chief has gone out for a grant got a grant for supplemental salaries uh And medina county has proved it so now the six year attorneys are getting paid 4000 less than my 30 plus year attorney Bob level and certainly more than my. My civil chief, who has more years of experience as well i'm not my civil chief my misdemeanor chief so and I put their bar pages on here as well, so I would really like for us to. and fiscal responsibility and fairness to the prosecutors that stand up for the citizens of this county that we really look at this and maybe tell that oversight committee that we're really serious about this if they don't get these salaries in line and commissioner region doesn't get some support on this subject then we're going to really look at not being part of this anymore thank you thank you thank you

Commissioner Regan, but what's the next steps for this?

So I believe the next step would be for this court to consider appointing a committee that we could look into this and I really appreciate the district attorney's comments and of course I've heard all this and been very involved in this. The main thing that I want to bring out is that we've got to make sure that this model is effective for the citizens of the county, that we are spending our money in the best way possible. We are in a little bit different position than Medina, Bandera, Gillespie, and Kerr counties because we're closer to San Antonio. And so there is a possibility that we could convert back to the previous system, which was called the wheel. And that is a list of attorneys who say, yes, I would like to be a public defender and I agree to this amount of money and so forth. And so they have an easier drive to come to Kendall County. So we certainly could do that. I believe these other counties probably need Kendall County more than We need them. And having said that, we just don't want to up and leave and leave them in a bind. And frankly, it's going to take a while to have the transition. It'll take probably a year because we'll have to get those attorneys on the wheel, you know, back engaged. And then the other thing I want to say, and we're going to hear from staff, but we have to check with the new district judges. What do they want to do? So it's not just this commissioner's court decision. We have a lot of stakeholders involved. i think that we should start the conversation and then perhaps the committee uh would be the the best way to do that um those are my thoughts and you served with me on on the pdo oversight committee so what are your thoughts well i'd like to hear from mr lippo do you have any comments that you'd like to add i was going to be available for questions for you judge um i've been you've been a lawyer for 40 years and i know you've uh

seeing the wheel in action, can you explain a little bit about more how you'd envision it? Could it be reinstituted and things of that nature, just to give some background, please?

I believe it could be reinstituted, Judge, especially since this court created pretrial services, because my understanding was with pretrial services, when a person's incarcerated, they immediately fill out an affidavit of indigency to determine whether they qualify for a court-appointed attorney. And I was told by pretrial services and by the district clerk's office that the notices to the attorneys are usually sent out 30 to 60 days before the first setting of court, which would allow not only allows the PDOs office right now who are appointed to those cases, to access our files on TexShare to go visit their clients in jail. But if we reinstituted the wheel system, it would give the attorneys, presumably from San Antonio, an opportunity to have some time to come out, visit with our office, visit their clients in jail, and they would not just have to be appointed on the day they show up. and take their chances on whether there is a case for them to be appointed or not. I think that's a lot better than it was under the old system. So not with pretrial services having that.

And you have ties to Bexar County. Do you think that we would be able to get a good pool of attorneys that would want to participate in New Wheel if we were to reinstitute it?

Yes. I spoke to several friends of mine who are part of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. They're 100-plus members. When I was in private practice, I was a member of that organization, and they could get people out here with no trouble whatsoever. And the flip side of that, too, Judge, is they want to come out here because a lot of them don't want to go downtown San Antonio. You have to pay for parking. Don't pay for parking here. We resolve our cases faster here than they do in Bexar County. They get paid sooner than once they get the case resolved. They get paid sooner, and they have an incentive to come back and resolve the case, as opposed to with the PDO's office, they get paid whether they resolve the case or not. If they reset it 10 times, they get paid. If a defense attorney resets the case 10 times, he doesn't get paid until the 11th time when he resolves that case. So I believe the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association would have a lot of attorneys out here who would be amenable to participating in the wheel. And several friends of mine are on the board of directors. I've asked them, and they said they wouldn't envision any issue with our county having people come out and participate on the wheel. And you've been a lawyer for 40 years, correct?

Yes, sir.

In your opinion, do you think this is worth at least exploring? I believe it's worth exploring, Judge, especially in light of the salary situation, in light of the lease agreement that was signed for $1.2 million. I think from a financial standpoint, I think it needs to be explored. Okay. Thank you, sir. Any questions for Mr. Lippo from anyone? I want to make a point.

I just want to make it very clear that I'm not speaking on behalf of the district judges at all so they're aware that I'm coming here today but they wanted to make sure that this wasn't something that was decided immediately I do have something I mean we've heard one side of the story I'm interested in hearing the other side of the story

before we go forth and i'm not disputing what ms bishop is saying but there's always two sides to every story today we're hearing one side so not two cents worth commissioner carpenters you have something i think if we can if there's a way to salvage in a positive

outcome. I think that's a good way to go if that's possible. And all she's asking for is a committee to explore, you know, and maybe by having a conversation with them. I mean, Judge Shewhart's a cousin of ours, and he's a retired judge over in Medina County. I'm sure he was part of that when they were forming that, and I'm sure that there's probably some opinions that might come from some other counties as well that maybe

weren't thinking like we are but 16 000 a month for rental rental space and salaries that they're paying um it does seem very unfair to our people people yeah i think i think this is more about starting a conversation more than taking any action so all we're doing is i think the proposal today is just form a committee and have the conversation to get both sides and get see where it goes Is that your view as well? Just let's start the conversation and take no action other than form a committee, correct?

Yes. And the district attorney certainly is entitled to its opinion in the office. This commissioner's court at the end of the day will decide this. I believe that we have to listen to everybody in order to do that. My main goal is to make sure that the money is being spent most efficiently and that the indigent and those who do need these services are getting the best services.

And frankly, it makes court go smoother when they have good attorneys who know how things run.

And so if we're talking about sides, there's lots of sides. There's lots of perspectives because there's many stakeholders. So again, the district judges have to weigh in, the DA's office, and then Corinna will be depending on you to run some numbers. I know the Medina County, which Medina County actually administers the grant. And a lot of this money does come from the state of Texas. So that saves counties a great deal of money as well. But we just want to maybe look at those numbers. The auditor Ruby over Medina County is certainly willing to sit down with us. So, um, with that, I moved to approve a committee to review Kendall County's participation in the Hill Country Regional Offender's Office, looking at effectiveness cost and whether it continues to be the best model for meeting our obligations with the following appointed Judge Shane Solorzik, Commissioner Andrew Wiesion, a representative from the District Attorney's Office, and one or both of the district judges.

Okay, I second. Any further discussion?

Commissioner Chapman? The committee is predetermined. So why don't we just vote today on it?

Vote today on what?

On whether or not to stay in the PDO or not.

Oh, Commissioner, we don't have near the information to make that decision. I mean, maybe I wasn't clear. We're going to have to look at the cost effectiveness of doing that

Um, and there was no predetermined this was just on the spot and those all those players right there have an, like, because the district courts have to have buying to create the wheel. And we were the 2 appointees on that. So, technically, I don't know. I just if there's anyone else you'd like to appoint, we're open. I just this is just to start the conversation. That's all. So. I mean, I'm happy not being on it if you want if you want to sit on it, that's cool. Um, I got no problem.

That's perfect. I think that's fair to have a defense attorney on there too.

Well, we can't do that right now. We are in a contract with these other counties. I have talked to Judge Lutz and the representatives, the judges and commissioners who were in the meeting the other day. So they know that we're looking at this. And so again, this is not something we can we can do and we and the decision made it be to stay at the end of the day so um general counsel do i need to amend my motion to appoint a local attorney and i haven't talked to any local attorneys so i don't know who that would be i don't think you need to name them just like you're not naming the rep for the judge or the d.a i think just a a member of the local defense bar okay and so then your motion to add to amend that motion to add to that committee a member of the local defense bar

And and to clarify I second that and we're not taking any action today this or with this committee. It's just to discuss and make here all sides of it and see what is what is the feasibility of getting back on the wheel. What is the pros and cons of staying in it versus getting out and I'm missing anything Mister Lippo no service that that's a perfect.

And because region do you see anything else, you know, I think this is what instituted in 2018 or 19.

I believe the discussion about forming the PDO started with Judge Palmer when he was still on the bench, and then it took a while after Judge Cahoon took the bench. I think it was instituted in 2020, if I remember correctly.

2020. Okay, so it's been some time. So, yeah, I mean, that's six years, and I think that that's a reasonable time to look at something. We don't want to put things in motion that go forever without ever vetting them.

And the answer may be we still stay in it, but what is the most cost effective measure for the people of Kendall County? Do we stay in it or is it going to be more economically feasible because we should run the numbers? Is it better to pay civilian defense lawyers to represent people? Maybe that's more bang for a buck. I don't know. But I guess this is a good time to just reevaluate. That's just my two cents.

I think you and I are on the same page. And last question. It's under the public defenders interlocal agreement. So that's a fiscal year.

Yeah, we couldn't get nothing could happen anyways, right?

So it'll go through the end.

Okay. If the committee decides to make a recommendation to the court and the court wants to opt out, we have to give 90 days notice under the interlocal agreement. 90 days notice prior to the expiration and expiration is I believe September 30 of this year.

Okay. All right. Any further discussion? If not, Paul, could you please call the vote?

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries four to one with the judge and precinct commissioners one, two, and four in favor, and commissioner from precinct three opposed. Okay, next up, agenda item six. Consideration of possible action regarding updating district boundaries as advised by Kendall county fire marshal Mr region or commissioner carpenter. Would you like to take point or hand it over to Brady?

So just to tee Brady up, thanks for coming in. So we had gotten questions from the various fire departments about the boundaries of their districts. And a lot of this came into play when the Bergheim fire department in that group wanted to form an ESD. So I thought it would be worth revisiting how the boundaries got formed. Are the boundaries still good? Do we need to adjust those? And if so, what do we need to do? And perhaps legal needs to weigh in as well. What would be the process in making any adjustments accordingly? I know that, for instance, there's a line that perhaps goes through someone's property and there's a fire district on 1 side and a fire district on the other side, and there's no gate on the other side. So, you know, it needs to be adjusted and included. This would also pertain to the person when that person comes on board. So.

With that, I'll turn it over to Brady, the fire marshal. So right now, the county, along with the other emergency services, are working on migrating towards the new CAD system that was chosen this last year, Tyler Enterprise. With that is migrating a whole bunch of data over to it, which means our 911 system and how it will recommend certain services based on the 911 address that populates with the Annie Alley information through 911. Right now, the way the boundaries were drawn out, I know specifically I don't know. I mean, early 1900s, whenever whichever the various fire departments were created here in Kendall County, but speaking with Jeff. when Berkheim was incorporated in, I believe it was 2009 or so. Historically, it's always been to the fire chiefs of the said fire departments to come together and Jeff would be in the middle of it, of bringing them to the table and say, okay, what response makes the most sense based on travel distance or even capabilities of the specific fire departments based on manpower and strengths. uh bernie historically takes care of hazmat rope rescue any technical responses they're not the initial fire department but they are the backbone of the specialized stuff so when berkheim was created the chiefs came together and that's how they drew out the boundary lines to create the berkheim volunteer fire department at the time it was chief hofstadt chief longbine up in sisterdale and then chief mechel at bernie um moving forward as we try to clean these lines up is what we're doing so that the information can be pushed into the new CAD system and loaded into it. The city's GIS department, one of them are taking lead on that project with the new CAD system. And so I don't really know as far as the action, if something needs to change, but I've got two fire chiefs right now, the comfort fire chief and the wearing fire chief working on that district line. Bernie has already done their proposed district what we're doing is on some of the properties it goes as commissioner said it goes straight through the property line as where two different fire departments service that that address where they have two different maybe even two different gates one on the back side of the property one on the front side but they have two different responses that will populate in the cad system the example i brought up at the chief's meeting was if you go up the just south of joshua joshua springs park You have addresses and properties that are in Bernie's Fire District, but they're only accessible from Mill Dam Road, which is the far northwest of Comfort. So it makes no sense for Bernie to service those addresses. It's a delayed response for the citizens whenever we figure out where they're actually going to page an additional department out to get there. There's a property in Cordillera. All of Cordillera has been Bergheim's area since their incorporation. However, there's a single house in the back of Cordillera in the top northeastern end of Cordillera that's actually mapped into Bernie's Fire District as if it were to be in River Mountain Ranch, where the river is generally the divider mark. So we're cleaning up those lines to make the migration. I'd like to keep moving forward with the fire chiefs making that decision. Um, if there's any disagreement, which I do not foresee there being any kind of disagreement whatsoever. Um, I. had planned on being that that third party the last one that's going to look over the map to put another set of eyes on it just with my knowledge of the county and the responses just to see if there's anything that i may be able to bring in the question that they may have over overlooked any oversight i don't foresee there being any issues all the chiefs were um excited about this at the chief's meeting moving forward but that's that's currently what we're doing with the redistricting of the lines not taking a whole bunch of property and shoving it towards one or towards the other it's just going to straight down the line and seeing responses what makes the most sense are you figuring in the new fire department that's coming into esperanza the new fire station so that is chief manny uh with bernie he is um because it's not changing the bernie fires response district it's changing their station one versus their station two so they're not gaining more district they're just dividing out which station would be dispatched based on the closer unit for iso purposes do you agree that at this point there's really no action item because until we get the data from brady and the fire chiefs there's really nothing to take action on because until we see or if there's a conflict to resolve

We're just kind of in a holding pattern. I think so.

I think we just wanted to, again, get that out there. And I appreciate the update on everybody working towards that. And I would think that when they get it all sorted, as they think that it's, you know, good, bring it to Commissioner's Court and counsel. Do we need to adopt something formally at some point?

I don't know that the Commissioner's Court even needs to vote on the map. I think traditionally the fire marshal has the authority to adjust those lines involving the RFOs and their opinions on what those lines should be. There is no specific requirement that the court vote. Of course, if there is a disagreement, it would be a good idea to have another item, at least to discuss the disagreement and figure out a way to resolve it. But I do want to mention a couple of important things about the map. These VFDs need to have a map of their boundaries for their service area in order to apply for funding. And those who are serving as first responder organizations from a medical standpoint, to have those districts lines drawn for the same reasons so it's really important that they be accurate and i think everybody's been working pretty well together lately on some issues and i just want to express my personal appreciation for that um it's been bumpy but i think we're all on a path forward and a good direction so i just want to mention that and thank them for that well thank you i know you spent a lot of time with um with everyone working on the rfo group um fro agreements as well as our contracts with the vfds so

I guess come back and let us know what you've got.

Anything from y'all on this topic, Mr. Chairman?

So you're right. For years, the fire departments have taken care of this. I see no reason why the fire departments shouldn't continue to take care of this. I know Mike Howe with our former GIS person, he got in and started adjusting some boundaries based on exactly what we've talked about here today. And it needs to go a lot further. But it's going to take somebody with GIS a lot of hours to really do what needs to be done. But the bottom line, I don't think this court right here has any say-so in this. As far as input, this should be left up to the fire chiefs. And when I talked to Kendalia today, they knew nothing about this. And that concerns me. so i'll just leave it at that if we we have to have buy-in from all of the fire departments and not one two or three can you confirm make sure that each department

Every single 1 of them are at the chief's meeting, except for our time. We spoke about it on the on the phone. Adam Hawkins is aware and I specifically spoke with chief more. Okay. About it that before any district line was touched of any fire department, they would both be brought to the table. Okay. They're working, they're not working with me. I'm helping facilitate and coordinate schedules to bring them together. But not one is going to take district from another or vice versa without them both being at the table and agreeing on the lines. And they're doing that with this one of the city GIS coordinators because as they're speaking about it, he's literally they, I was sat up there with him and the burning fire chief and we looked at the map and we showed how they're doing it. And then they're saving that file, putting it over here and then we move on to the next boundary line.

In the meantime, are they using mutual aid agreements to make sure that everybody has adequate coverage, even in the areas where maybe it doesn't seem to be the logical boundary line?

Yes, ma'am. All of the fire departments in the county have a mutual aid agreement, countywide. I'll pull it out and send it to you. If you want to call anything down. All right, so we'll take no action and just just see all aware as we move forward with cleaning those up. Once the fire departments are done, we're going to bring so that his different districts for the different ambulance stations and that migration as well.

when when's the next quarterly meeting our chief's meeting july 20th i believe you'll be able to have further conversation and just to clarify you did this was on the agenda at the last meeting i didn't get to go because i was at another event but um everybody was great on board with it and excited about it good good to hear thank you

Thank you. Next up agenda item seven consideration and possible action making a policy for all new hires for Kendall County DMS to involve a court member during the interview processes and have final approval required by vote from the commissioner's court. Before we begin, we have a public comment from Miss Moore. If you when you come up if you just bend the mic down so you can hear and just make sure it's on please. Thank you, ma'am.

Looks like it's on.

You're good.

Good afternoon, my name is Kathy Moore. I live at 106 Wild Horse Drive in Precinct 1. Appreciate the opportunity come before you on a personal note, I'd like to thank Road and Bridges for the work that they're doing out in Skyview Acres and Dodge Rd. And I'm very grateful to my neighbors who had bombard our Commissioner, but I'm grateful that Commissioner McCall got this on the road. We've been waiting for years for this, so thank you. When it comes to our employees, we have some of the very best. I'm sure there are some that are not. And if that is the case, then their managers need to take care of that. I have a background in human resources, although I have been retired for some time. I looked at all of the profiles of the court, and I did not see a single one of you that holds a certification as a human resources specialist or director. That takes years to get studying. You have to know human resource law and you have to go every year and be updated on human resource law. At least one person from your department should be going every year and being updated. From what I can tell, not a single one of you are qualified to make decisions that are related to the hiring of people in this county. Now, do you have input? Do you have wisdom and knowledge? You do. But you are not qualified. As of January 25th, or 2025, last year, this court began a process of injecting itself into the human resources and the process of our employees. You have taken over that and done a very poor job. In fact, the Human Resources Director stood here a few weeks ago and said, just hiring a receptionist was nightmarish and chaotic. I just heard Commissioner Wieschen speak about effective models, I think is what she said, when talking about the system with your defense attorneys. You do not have an effective model. As commissioners, if you look at the definition of what your job is based, you can go to the state. I'm sure you all know what it is. You are on the board of directors. You are directing. You are not injecting yourself into every little thing that goes on. And I see once again, you know, you've taken over administration, you've taken over HR, and now you want to inject yourself into EMS as well. I don't think any one of you are qualified. I don't see anything in your background that makes you an EMS director. And yet you want to go in and say who has a right to be hired and whether they're qualified or not. If you can't trust your director to make those choices and bring them to you, and this applies for all of your departments, then you need to get a new director. If somebody can't do their job,

let them go thank you thank you thank you so um so i will hand it over to uh commissioner carpenter this your item floor is yours okay and if this can be a little bit of a question as well during this process um how many vacancies do we currently have with our ems department three only three yes but we need prn people too to cover the people who are health okay are you are you almost a crew you're missing about a crew yes okay so we have a lot of different things happening right now in our county and it is the duty of the commissioner's court to oversee public safety and that's one of our number one charged duties as far as elected officials is making sure that our county residents have the protection that they need and our duty is to provide emergency medical services as well as police and things like that. And so with that being said, our current policy in Kendall County, we have no way currently of evaluating a department head in any department that answers to the court. There is no process. There is no department head that's been brought before our court. For an evaluation to find out, are they doing a great job for the for Kendall county? Or are they not? Are there certain things we want to see improvements on or are they not? I will tell you. This item should have said leadership positions, not necessarily all EMS positions. Right now we have a situation where one of our commissioners told our EMS director to stop giving supplies to Bernie Fire Department. They had to go other places to get oxygen refilled for their tanks. That is not okay. And until this is fixed, until we have a smooth running department, I'm not gonna sit up here as an elected official for my precinct and be silent about what's going on. And so, yes, I do think that when we have a new hire in a leadership role, I think there should be a court member involved. the interview process our medical director also needs to be involved making sure that they're okay with the final decision in fact they can pick that person just as if i was in business hiring a medical director and i wanted to do a certain type of service they would also be subject to making sure that they were doing what we wanted them to do and so i don't know what else you guys want to discuss i need to correct a couple of things if you don't mind absolutely and the medical director

doesn't get to choose county employees because the employment process has to follow the county's policies. However, we would always want our medical director to waive in, pardon me, weigh in and give a recommendation. When it comes to hiring and firing decisions, those are solely within the purview of the county. Those outside of the county organization can make recommendations. I wanted to ask, is this your recommendation based on the fact that we have an interim administrator or is this something you would be asking for from this point forward for this department?

I think until things get smooth. I think that I would like to see us involved when we're hiring a leadership role. I would like this to be across the board and leadership positions throughout the county when we're hiring. For that, at least until we get this solved. and have some systems and procedures in place where the leadership position comes before the court for the final okay.

This came up during my interview process, and I have to refer everybody to the local government code chapter 151.003. After the entry of the commissioner's court order, the officer applying for the employees may appoint them. There's nothing in the statutes that give the commissioners court any type of authority when it comes to hiring decisions. The way that you have that authority is by supervising and managing the department head that you are trusting to make those decisions. However, if you're looking at this on an interim basis due to the fact that our administrator who happens to be here today has been out and that we have an interim administrator, I think that maybe we could talk about that and still have it fall within the legal guidelines due to the fact that you have a temporary situation in leadership. But generally, Commissioner, I can do more research to see what the rules are, but generally You're supposed to be managing and choosing department heads that you're delegating.

And if you go back to my email, that's exactly how I worded the request. I haven't seen it.

I'm sorry.

Okay. It was due to the absence of Brian and a special situation where we're bringing new people in.

I would also caution you of having something come before the court for a vote. Having one of you participate in the hiring process, I think would be acceptable. I think having the court vote doesn't fall within the requirements of the local government code.

I think this whole issue could have been avoided in this department had I had put into the budget a second in command and it was set to be on this agenda several months ago when it was pulled in. It never came back and I want to know why. Why is that? Because we've that's been budgeted for five months now. It's not been filled.

So judge part of the issue is is we need to discuss salary. Because if you look at the current salary structure that the court approved. It's not up to standard for what region pays can we clarify administrators position ryan are you here today at work are you here today as a citizen i assume a citizen the way he's dressed i assume that too just want to clarify so um that's the reason why it hasn't been filled yet but it's ready to be posted and ready to go it's ready to be posted other than the discussion over the salary itself yes okay we will let's let's figure that out like asap because

We amended the policy guidelines to give a sliding scale to make sure that there's a range for someone that's fully qualified, because this would be an exempt position. So that would, non-exempt, so it's a zero to two, zero to four step raise. So that could get them a significant bump.

For non-exempt is four, for exempt is up to six.

Right. So I understand the recent changes, but that was part of the reason why it was not moved. So... understand where commissioner carpenter is asking we have always had somebody from the court or department heads when in an interview process especially for supervisors positions you know i've always done that the medical director has always been involved so it's not like i just pulled somebody out of my hat and hired them there's a process that we go through I understand part of this is because one person complained because upset because who I hired as a, as an FTO field training officer is a good field training officer. I support him a hundred percent. He doesn't get along with this individual. This individual doesn't like him. So there's some conflict there. That's the only issue here with that. He just needs to get over it. So. The staff, Shelly has done an excellent job. Lisa has done an excellent job, will have been out. Hoping to be back soon, but that's where we're at.

And just so the court knows, we do have interviews scheduled already for the 13th and the 19th. And I had already reached out prior to this to speak to the commissioner, to my medical director, to human resources. and to some other people in the community who are in the medical field for 40 plus years so we do have a good panel for our two interview days open up questions commissioner region you set your fingers so what's the next step in getting the salary all squared away well now that you the court has approved the new not have not yet okay

whatever the new process is i think you're good to good to uh post it and advertise with that policy change in my opinion and by you you meant the interim administrator sorry yes i meant ems in general with the interim manager director and by the way you're doing a great job and thanks for stepping up thanks ma'am anything from y'all

Mr Chapman you're up all right so a couple things uh let's address the uh supplies for the fros so in this contract let's make sure we stay within the scope of this item as much as possible I know he brought it up but if you can something that Commissioner I know brought up let's make this short and keep it with this go thank you as far as the agreement it was yes it was put in there it was put in there by me And I take full responsibility for putting that in there because when you have two medical directors and the medical directors have not met yet and have not come up with an agreement, there are certain supplies that cannot be supplied under one medical director into another one. And until that could happen, yes, I wanted this to protect the county. now as far as the the amount what was in the fros it was put in there and commissioner it was that was passed by this court five to zero so that tells me either you approved everything or you didn't read your packet one of the other because it was in what we approved at this court five to nothing and as far as the process goes we are trying to establish a process Commissioner McCall the judge and myself we went to as all of the court was invited to go to a class to actually study what the process is and how to present and how to evaluate these departments but yet you chose not to go to to that and in this very courtroom you have said we do not need to be micromanaging our departments and i agree with uh what kathy said either we trust our departments or we fire the person that's running them but we do not manage these departments i'll shut up you're correct i did not see the language you placed in

that contract and I don't know why you're involved in that contract to begin with but you're right I did not see that we're also supposed to be good stewards and we're supposed to be working with the city of Ernie on their contract in providing supplies to the fire departments across the board the whole deal with a different medical director I agree that needed to be approached But it should have been approached before we started changing document language. And besides that, the city of Bernie, their medical director never signed off on that agreement. So if we're going to change something in the middle of our budget year, those agreements should reflect what this court agreed on when we went through the budget process. Not what one commissioner decides we should and shouldn't be doing. Commissioner, can I say something?

so we're veering pretty far away from our topic so i i'm just going to briefly say that agreement was generated on the last general council i know that this general council had no idea review it but it was drawn up given to the city of bernie the city of bernie signed that agreement and returned it it wasn't like we just arbitrarily just

that hey today we're not doing that okay i'm going to ask you to to close this part of the conversation um because our topic is talking about supervision and hiring of subordinates so if we can if you want to have an item on the future agenda to discuss that in more depth i'd be happy to participate in that discussion and tell you what we've done to try to rectify the situation i don't think this is the appropriate item to do that however

All right, so the path for so sounds like we have a path forward 1, you have an interview committee set for your new hires for these vacant positions. Correct? We're going to advertise the deputy direct administrator position, whatever we're calling that 2nd in command. Correct? Just get with HR to get the salary range to a better understanding of that. And then we've worked out the situation with the city of Bernie on filling their supplies. Are there any open-ended topics that we discussed today that we need to close the loop on? And we've confirmed that Shelly's doing a good job in the interim. So thank you. So is Lisey. And then you're doing well on your recovery. So sounds like it's positive across the board.

I think that you did confirm that EMS will continue to include a commissioner in the hiring process. So that is something that Commissioner Carpenter is asking for, and they've confirmed that they will do that. So that is...

Well, we can't mandate it because I think it sets a wrong policy because it's for department heads. This court has always included the court when we hire the department head, but we've never done it for anyone else. And I think that that tradition continues of trusting the department heads to hire the right people. That's where I think we go. So with that, if there's nothing else, we're going to move on to agenda IME because I know we have our district judges here to make a presentation. Good to see you, Brian. Good to see you all. So thank you all. Agenda item eight, consideration and possible action regarding space needs for Kendall County Justicism, including evaluation of the current facilities and potential options to accommodate those needs. Before I hand it over to you, I'm going to introduce Commissioner Reginald. good afternoon judges you ladies can come up up there i know you may have something i know i'm going to put you on the house trying to avoid that you don't have to say anything susan

So we really mainly wanted Judge McDaniel to be called up because we haven't.

Thank you. I have to say congratulations. Glad to see you.

So as you know, we purchased the Burdick Center, and Judge Cahoon and I were talking about space needs and who was moving where, and she thought it would be a good idea to look at the courthouse and see how this is going to change as other people have moved out and gone across the street to the Blanco building, as anybody from here going to the Burdick Center and so on. And so we thought it'd be a good idea just to hear from you all to see how things are going with the new 498th, having another entire courtroom up there. So really the floor is yours today to tell us what's going on. Give us a status report. So I'll turn it over to Judge Cahoon.

We wrote and I emailed this letter. Did everybody get that around the 13th of April by their email? Because I have a copy if you didn't.

Did we read the title of this agenda item?

I did. You want me to read it again?

I read it.

Consideration and possible action regarding space needs for the Kendall County justice system, including evaluation of current facilities and potential options to accommodate those needs. Thank you. You're welcome.

I think it was, we talked about and I said I would open it up and then let everybody else add in or answer questions. And so I'm your local administrative district judge. I used to be a local administrative district judge. That was only because I was the only judge, which by default made me that. And then when Judge McDaniel came on board, we kept me as that. And she's now the head of the juvenile board for this year. And as your local administrative district judge, which I'll say LADJ. I felt that it was important and imperative to advise you all about kind of the space constraints that we are experiencing now. That we have a second court for the courtroom. Also, the space constraints that the district attorney is now probably due in large part to the second district court, but due in large part to the fact that there have been those space constraints. And the spacing constraints that we are starting to notice of the district clerk and the county clerk. And this is just the same reason why we got another court. It's just growing. And there's a lot more people. I don't know if you guys were here. What day was that? We had over 300 jurors come through last month, April 13th. We had 300 potential jurors lined up at one metal detector.

Coming through to come and serve every single 6 months.

We have grand jurors that we're trying to house. And once the grand jurors get here, we have no place to house them. I can't keep them meeting in the court system because they technically we set them. We, we go ahead and pick those grand jurors. But once we, as the district court picks the grand jurors, they go to the district attorney's office. there's no place for us internal right now we're having to house them at the sheriff's office which is not a great idea it doesn't look great to to house your grand jurors the sheriff's office i don't know if you all know this as well but we do have four judges that are housed here in kendall county We have Judge McDaniel and myself as the 498th and the 451st, respectively. But we also are host county to our CPS Judge Alexandra Morris. She's AG. AG. She's AG. Yeah, she's our... Robert Folkenberg is our CPS. Did I say CPS? I'm sorry, I said that backwards. That's okay. For our AG judge. And we also have... Judge Falkenberg, who is our CPS judge. Not only under the Constitution do we have to give us, obviously, adequate courts and statutes, adequate courthouse space and courtroom space, but the Texas Family Code also requires that those two judges, that the host county has to provide an adequate courtroom and plus quarters and all the accoutrements, the quarters and telephone and the furniture, for not only the judge, but also the staff for the judge. That was one of the reasons why we created those two offices, but we're struggling with Judge Morris when we became the host county for that. We're also struggling because we don't have an adequate courtroom at this point for those two under the family code. Used to be that they would share the smaller courtroom. Now that is housed for our 498. I use the word smaller and she will tell you about how it's too small for a district court. We can't fit 12, much less 14 jurors in the other jury room, which means she has to make a decision as to whether or not she can have that jury trial if it happens to fall when I'm having a jury trial. Not to mention the 300 plus souls that are coming in to do their civic duty having to wait in line to come in because we only have the 1 metal detector and they've got to get in through here. These are just a, this is just a scratch of the district court problems, but in the, in the district clerk office, she still has been waiting for over 10 months to have a window. The window and what's this word? The desk that comes in right at the front. She still is waiting on that much less before you were here. And before most of this commissioner's court was here, I remember we were having discussions of expanding by closing in the patio out the balcony. It's never happened and she hasn't had that expansion of the room. The county clerk's office is in need of other additional people, and I'm not sure how that is going to do with what we need to fit it in. And then our office, which we have been talking about since before you all were on most of you save commissioner Chapman about the lack of adequate space. for the victims' advocates, for the victims' work that comes in. Right now, they used to come down and they'll be in the what little space we have downstairs when we're doing docket and or trials, but we can't keep them there anymore because we don't have space for what the two courts are. And so we're using all of that space and now she doesn't have any more space for victim advocates. She doesn't have any space for the grand jury, which is why every single grand jury term, once a month, sometimes two now, every month they come and they serve, and every time they're getting notices of where are we going to be able to fit this month. We're struggling with finding where Judge Morris and her staff will go, and we do have the need to still have an additional person. We're trying to get a paralegal or somebody who can help us with the dockets that we have, but we have no place to put any additional staff. We have no place to put the requirements that we're having to put on right now under the code. And I'm afraid, and I wrote, we wrote this letter to say, we need to be in that room when you're talking space. I don't think that you all kind of, we just kind of come along and go along. We do our job, right? We try to get our job done and we're not up here all the time saying need, need, need, want, want, want. I think this is the first time really that we've talked about the justice system as a whole. We need a space needs analysis that we have with all of the properties of to find out what's the best use so that we can address these immediate needs in your justice system. Your justice system is working top notch. Our clearance rates are there. We are within one year less of indictment to trial. Offense date to trial. Offense date to trial. I mean, we are going on all cylinders, but hear me now when I say that pretty soon what's going to have to happen is We can't have that trial because I don't have space to have the trial. I can't call in a visiting judge on something that maybe Judge McDaniel is recused from, maybe I'm recused from. I have to stop work and give that space to the visiting judge to come in. So I have to not have anything planned for that day in the courtroom.

so what i'm telling you is that we're going to get to a point now where we're going to have to be less efficient and effective because we don't have the space and that's going to afford that only because of the new requirements this clearance rate report we will lose all of our grant funding if we don't meet the requirements that the legislature has now put on these judges and myself

to report these things so we are here we are here with no great answers to the problem we have no great answers we have suggestions maybe that might could work but we're not space needs experts there's probably better ways to do things i don't think spatially is why i went to law school and i didn't become an architect i couldn't do that wouldn't be my thing but we need to be in that room and we need your consideration on how we deal with these problems because they're real problems and maybe there was discussion and there probably needs to be discussion with justice center how does that look but even that's going to be a five six seven year deal and we don't have a year before we're going to start seeing problems. What do we do in the interim? I don't know. We need to figure it out, though. We need help. And so we need to be in that room, and we need to be considered because we're going to start feeling that pinch, and it's not going to be great for any of the five of us sitting up here. So I'll open it up, and if everybody wanted to, if I didn't answer something here or say something that you felt that I left out, please step in or I'll let them just ask us questions.

I did want to mention one other additional item. So the way the courtrooms were set up is for it to be a district court and a county court. The jury room that I have seats six people. I'm a district court judge. I will have juries with 12 people, 14 if you count two alternates. There is no room at the end. We are now going to try to buy an additional table and chairs But if you have someone who is not a tiny person, they are not going to feel comfortable in there. And one of the things that I hope that we all honor, and I know that the five of us do, is that we're here to represent the citizens and provide them with the access to justice. That is a big thing. And if we can't provide them the avenue to serve as jurors, we're not doing a good job. If we don't have more than one metal detector so that 300 people can come into the different courtrooms for us to qualify people to serve as jurors in the numerous trials that we have, we're not getting justice for the family law cases, for the civil cases, for the criminal cases, for the juveniles, for any of them. And the only thing that I think that when we had discussed this that I think Judge Cahoon did not mention is the security aspect. And that is, it is a real thing. It is a real thing that both of us have received numerous threats to our office from litigants or proposed litigants. The situation that we currently have on the second floor does not provide us security. I will tell you right now that the sheriff's office does an amazing job. The bailiffs that we have are outstanding. But they can't be on the first floor watching people come up. And they can't be on the third floor watching somebody come down. And we have a real issue, in my opinion, and I think in all of our opinion, with the lack of security for the district courts and for the court system. And I think that's one of the things that Susan is working towards getting the bulletproof glass.

We have a lot of parolees coming from TDCJ that come to my office to pay court costs and fines. They're not happy. They just served 10 years in prison. Their parole officer has sent them to my office because that's in their judgment. They have to come see me, set up a payment plan. They don't have a job yet, but they're coming disgruntled, not happy, and we have to deal with them the best we can. But it is not a safe environment when you have a folding table in between you and the public and two chairs. And that's what I've had for the last nine months. So security is a big issue for me. I would hate for something to happen to one of my deputies on my watch. It would ruin me for life. So that is a priority for us, all of us.

And it's a priority for us. And you would all agree over the last three years, we have made significant strides in reinforcing the security of this building. So it's not something this court takes for granted. Agreed.

I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. We have done a lot towards that safety. There are some things that we can't do. And those are the ones that we have to think about.

You know, yeah, we can always do better. So I'm with you. So whatever else we need, I think we have a security meeting set up next week. So let's table some of these other, let's not discuss security weaknesses in public and we can address some of your concerns privately and go from there because safety is paramount.

I appreciate that. I just do. I do think I did mention it because I do think it has to do with the spatial considerations of

how we pivot from the current setup if we do okay uh anything from the court in response or questions no I mean you're going to have to have a real discussion today it's brought to and I'll talk to the judge of the day for quite some time this unfortunately as I explained to the judge is a long process Judge telling me it cannot be five years. I don't see it happening much quicker than that. And so are there some band-aids? Are there portable buildings? Are there something that can be talked about? But as far as building a building, realistically, if we started today and said the planning starts today, you're not going to move in for five years. And that's just the reality of it. By the time you plan it, by the time you design it, and by the time you then bid it and build it, you are at five years. So we're going to have to look at band-aids. At the same time, looking at a permanent solution.

I believe the two have to be discussed together because the way that we are cannot go for five years as I just talked about. we have to figure we have to figure out how can we get uh ourselves to that point what can we do from here to there to still comply with the rule of law that's exactly that's exactly what you said though we're doing simultaneous and then we get there and I said and I'm concurring because we can't just wait five years we've got to do something in the interim So, and like I said, beforehand, I don't know that we have the right answer, but there has to be an answer out there if I might say something.

And I know a lot of y'all everyone here wasn't here. For all this time, but back in 2017, when the district. Attorney's office came in and the district court, we did talk about this and that was way more than 5 years ago and we were talking about needing to be 5 years and we did put band aids on it. I split a conference room. I split 3 offices. I split another 1. I've got an investigator in a closet. I have no more room at the end. And so we did talk about this 7 years ago. Y'all were there when we talked about it. I was there the. I mean, we had an entire committee, then COVID happened. Then we tried to get the committee back to talk about it again, and it wouldn't meet for whatever reason. So, and that was five years ago. So this is not a new thing, but it is new to y'all. So when we say it's going to take five, okay, great. Let's start putting those plans in place now. Let's not kick the can down the road because we kicked it down the road in 2017. We kicked down the road in 2020. I would really like to not kick the can down the road anymore. because we do not have any more room on it. I don't know what other band-aids you're going to put on it, but we have to figure something out. And they weren't dealing with this back then, so they're probably not as passionate as I am about it right now. But I know that Susan has had storage in my office forever. She's run out of storage for things. It's not secure in her office. We had to basically beg for the bulletproof glass that we got back then. I would like to see some kind of definitive answer within, like, the next 90 days of what the short term answer is going to be and also what the long term answer is going to be and start that ball rolling. I would appreciate that. That's just that's to me. I don't know. I don't speak for them.

You speak for this part, so I think within the budget cycle, we need to have this needs to be something that needs to be thought of. We need to be thought of in this process.

What is the status with the bulletproof glass and the counter?

I believe it's been ordered.

Okay. We've been working, Commissioner Chapman and I have been working on it.

To get it ordered.

And then once Denise's or Susan's is done, Denise's next up, we were trying to do one project at a time, but it's been, it's in the works.

Well, it's a good time coming up because we are coming into budget and, you know, there's that patio idea too that we had mentioned and I'd forgotten about that actually.

appreciate your response to the letter that was sent out to thank you for that we do appreciate that i thought it was important that we hear from you okay we're happy to answer any other thoughts yeah all right anything else all right with that it is 2 43 p.m on this tuesday may 5th and that concludes today's open portion of the special session we'll recess until 2 48 and then commissioner chapman will take over the closed session

with that we're in recess thank you okay it is 4 11 and we're going excuse me 4 12. we're going back into regular session and we will go with a item 11 consideration and possible action approve the purchase of the real property of the guadalupe river ranch located at 614 fm 474 bernie texas 78006 with prop a funding do i have a motion i do did you say located at 6 14 or 6 15. uh 6 14 is okay i must have misheard okay um

If it's okay with you, Judge Pro Tem, I move to approve the final purchase price of the Guadalupe River Ranch located at 614 FM 474, Bernie, Texas 78006 of $11,411,595 with the claim of $11,245,970.79 for final payment being approved for payments. Do I have a second? A second.

SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCCALL. IS THERE ANY DISCUSSION?

NEW SPEAKER, DID YOU GET THAT? OKAY. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER, PAULA, WOULD YOU CALL FOR THE VOTE?

NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL. NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL.

NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL.

NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL. NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL. NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL. NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL.

NEW SPEAKER, MCCALL. Four to zero with Judge Stolarczyk being absent. So moving on to item number 12, consideration of possible action regarding matters discussed in closed session. Are there any additional motions that need to come out?

Yes, sir. Judge Pro Tem, I have a motion. I move to adopt resolution R-202-605-05-1, concerning details of the Guadalupe River Ranch purchase and authorizing Commissioner Chapman to execute all documents on behalf of Kendall County.

I think there was a slight change on the resolution number. It's resolution R-20260505-1. I stand corrected. Sorry. That would be R-20260505-1. Thank you.

Do I have a second? A second.

SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER McCALL. ANY DISCUSSION? IF NOT, PAULA, YOU WANT TO CALL FOR THE VOTE?

MR. MCCALL? AYE. COMMISSIONER MCCALL?

AYE. SO THE MOTION CARRIES 4-0 WITH JUDGE STORK'S STAKE BEING ABSENT FOR THIS ITEM. IS THERE ANY FURTHER BUSINESS THAT WE NEED TO BRING UP? IF NOT, This court stands adjourned at 4.15 p.m. on this fifth day of May.