Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

We'll call this meeting for Thursday, May 21st to order at 8.30 AM. Let the record reflect that Commissioner Hogg is absent and all other members of the court are present today. We will begin with action agenda item number one to approve claims.

Judge, I move to approve the claims as presented. EFT is $20,636.32. Regular claims, $782,650.09 for a total of $803,286.41. Second. There's a motion to approve claims by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Item number two is a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Water Safety Month in Comal County.

Whereas water recreation is a huge part of Comal County, with boaters, swimmers, tubers, kayakers, and many more enjoying our beautiful lake and rivers year-round. And whereas swimming and other water recreation can play a vital role in maintaining good physical and mental health, building social connections, and enhancing quality of life. And whereas it is important for families and individuals of all ages to understand the importance of water safety precautions and rules. And whereas drowning is often caused by inadequate swimming skills, failure to wear a life jacket, lack of supervision, and is a leading cause of unintentional recreational deaths worldwide. And whereas water safety awareness, proper safety gear, and basic swimming skills are crucial to anticipating, avoiding, and surviving common drowning situations, as well as recognizing and providing assistance to those in need. And whereas during the month of May, multiple entities in Como County practice, promote, and teach water safety skills. Now, therefore, it be proclaimed that Como County Commissioner's Court hereby recognizes May 2026 as National Water Safety Month and encourage all to practice safe swimming habits and always utilize proper equipment and life jackets and use caution around water during the summer season and year-round. Judge, I move to approve the proclamation. Just ready.

Second. There's a motion to approve the proclamation by Commissioner Leacock, with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions, comments? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. I think we have some folks here to accept the proclamation.

Don't worry, they're really easy to put on.

I feel good.

I feel good. Ready? One, two, and three. Awesome.

I just want to thank the court for recognizing what is an issue of vital importance. Comeau County has a beautiful lake and two fantastic rivers, and we have hordes of people coming here every summer to enjoy them, as well as all of us who live here enjoying them. Water safety is very important to all the people up in this group, as well as many of you in the audience. I just wanted to say thank you. Drowning is almost always preventable, and it's almost always preventable with one of these. So we believe in it, we live it, and we teach it, and we love it. Thank you.

We'll continue the fun here today in celebration. Our next item is number three, proclamation recognizing Tim and Elizabeth Barker as recipients of the Frederick Freeholtz Jr. Historic Preservation Award.

Whereas the Camel County Historical Commission has designated the Frederick Freeholtz Jr. Historic Preservation Award in honor of the late Dr. Frederick Freeholtz Jr., the first chairman of the Camel County Historical Commission and longtime member. And whereas recipients will be chosen annually by the Camel County Historical Commission members and the award presented in May of each year to celebrate Texas Historic Preservation Month. and whereas recipients shall be chosen based on their dedication to the historical preservation of Comow County, and whereas in 1989, Tim and Elizabeth Parker bought the property located at 465 Fredericksburg Road, New Braunfels. where they restored one of the city's oldest homes, a dog-trot style home that was originally built in 1846 by Eugene Volker, stepson of George Kloppenbach, an early settler of New Braunfels. And whereas Tim and Elizabeth Barker restored the beautiful hillside rock garden terraces and maintained the late 1880s barn on their property, and saved from demolition, the 1865 Falkworth Kep House, and the 1855 quarried limestone kitchen of the Dainey Bartels House by moving them to their property and restoring them. And whereas volunteers with Friends for the Preservation of Historic Atlanta Park since 2007, Tim and Elizabeth Barker have contributed greatly by advocating for the protection and preservation of the natural and historic assets of Atlanta Park and educating others on the historic park's history. and whereas Tim and Elizabeth have been selected as the recipients of the 2026 Frederick Feeholtz Jr. Historic Preservation Award for their efforts to preserve the history of New Braunfels and Comal County through their restoration projects and as devoted volunteers. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Comal County Commissioner's Court and the Comal County Historical Commission hereby wish to commend Tim and Elizabeth Parker on your work towards receiving this award and your dedication to historical preservation and recording the history of Comal County and New Braunfels. Judge, I move to approve this proclamation.

Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover to approve the proclamation. Any questions or comments, discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

We have a couple of folks here. Mr. Barker, would you like to come up?

Thank you. One, two, three.

Thank you so much.

We are just really thrilled to honor Tim and Elizabeth this morning with this award. They have an amazing property. And with their preservation mindset, it'll be there for a long time. And so we are just really thrilled that they're here receiving this award this morning. I'm going to ask them to come up here.

We'll go ahead and give you your award first.

So on behalf of the Comel County Historical Commission, this is the Frederick Freeholz Jr. Historic Preservation Award presented to Tim and Elizabeth Barker by the Comel County Historical Commission, 2026. Thank you very much. Now we're going to let Tim say a few words. OK. Good. Thanks. All right.

Well, my wife and I are really honored to recognize our historic conservation efforts. And we truly love the history that comes with each structure. At age 10, I appreciated the beauty of historic structures while on a tour of historic homes in Casterville, Texas. One day, in 1985, I visited the Katy Waiting Pool in Landa Park. And this is... An area that, as a child, we came in. Now, this was a drought of records in 1945 and 55. And we would come to the Bountifuls, where the only water was, I think, in all of Texas, and be able to enjoy the clear, cool water. This became a fountain of youth for me. And three families would come and we'd have the big table by the kiddie waiting pool and fried chicken and the whole day and go home sunburned. So one day in 1985, I visited the kiddie waiting pool. It's always been a kind of a spot I'd like to come and recollect having had such great childhood memories there. So across the street from where I sat on that day in 1985, there was a for sale sign there. And when I crossed to explore the property, I found a four-terrace stacked rock garden area covering most of the hill. Continuing up the street driveway, there was a stucco-covered stone house in much need of love and restoration. At that time, the asking price was beyond our financial means. Since we camped on River Road quite often, we would always go by to check and see if there were any changes in the property advertisement or sales. So after five years of checking, the asking price fell in half. We purchased the property in 1989 and initiated the restoration. Fortunately, most of the restoration talent was already right here in New Braunfels. We moved into a partially renovated home in December of 1989. So Ronnie Smith of Texas Heritage Construction and other local folks made this all possible. For my garden, I can see the kitty waiting pool quite well and have fond memories. I'm a Comal Master Gardener, so I spend a lot of time in the garden. So many of you here today were involved in the initial attempt to get a historic designation, which we didn't get, but we gave it the best effort, and I appreciate that. So similar stories apply to locating and moving the Bake Key Rock Kitchen and the Kemp Fock Works structures. Our total property and structures are in a conservation easement with Green Space Alliance, a Barra County, Barra Land Trust in San Antonio. We wanted to preserve the current beauty of the land and historic structures across from land to park. Thank you.

Thanks for being here today.

Sure.

I'll see you around.

Thanks for being here.

And you know there's a rainbow. Mm-hmm. Oh, really? Oh, wow. Small world.

Continuing with item number four, which is a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Community Action Month in Comal County.

Whereas the Community Council of South Central Texas Incorporated was established as a community action agency on May 11, 1965. And whereas the service area encompasses the South Central and Southwest Texas counties of Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Dimmitt, Edwards, Frio, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Carnes, Kendall, Kinney, Kerr, LaSalle, Live Oak, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Real, Uvalde, Valverde, Wilson, Zavala, Terrell, Presidio, Pecos, Jeff Davis, Hudspeth, Culberson, Brewster, and Crane. And whereas community action has made essential contributions to individuals and families across the nation by creating economic opportunities and strengthening communities. And whereas community action is a robust state and local force connecting people to life-changing services and creating pathways to prosperity in 99% of all American counties, and whereas community action builds and promotes economic stability as an essential aspect of enabling and enhancing stronger communities and stable homes, and whereas community action strategies and innovative solutions evolve as the needs of individuals, families, and communities in cities, suburbs, and rural areas change. And whereas community action is experienced in advancing opportunities by coordinating federal, state, local, and private resources to achieve results for people and communities. And whereas community action insists on community participation and involvement, ensuring that all sectors of the community have a voice and will be heard. And whereas Community Action is celebrating 61 years of innovation, impact, and providing proven results for Americans, now therefore be it proclaimed by the Commissioner's Court of Comal County that May 2026 is hereby recognized as Community Action Month in recognition of the hard work and dedication of all Comal County Community Action Agencies. Judge, I move to approve the proclamation just read.

Second.

We have a motion by Commissioner Cronover with a second by Commissioner Webb to approve the proclamation. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Do we have anyone here to accept the proclamation? Great.

Okay, you guys ready?

Good morning, everybody. I'm Bobby Dyke, Executive Director at Community Council of South Central Texas. We're based in Guadalupe County, but as the proclamation stated, we have a wide service area, including right here in Comal County with our office right across the circle. Our efforts are priority to elderly households with elderly disabled children under five and also hardworking households that don't have the means to take care of basic needs. paycheck to paycheck, monthly, and then other hardworking households that find themselves in the same situation. We also focus on our veterans that have served this country, and we work to stabilize their households so they can remain in their house through payments of rental and mortgage assistance. Thank you so much to Commissioner's Court for recognizing the work of CCSCT as a community action agency. Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number five is a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as National Military Appreciation Month in Comal County. Whereas in 1999, the United States Congress designated May as National Military Appreciation Month, calling upon all Americans to honor the service, sacrifice, and steadfast devotion of those who have worn the uniform of the United States. Whereas the month of May includes observances that reflect the breadth of the American military service, Loyalty Day, Victory in Europe Day, Military Spouse Appreciation Day, Armed Forces Day, and Memorial Day. And whereas the men and women of the Armed Forces have, in every generation, answered the call to defend the freedoms enjoyed by every citizen of this nation. Whereas Comeau County is home to a proud community of veterans, active duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, military spouses, military children, and Gold Star families, enriched by its proximity to Joint Base San Antonio and a long Texas tradition of service. And whereas the invisible wounds of war, including post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and moral injury, continue to affect many veterans long after their military service has ended, and addressing these challenges requires compassion, understanding, and sustained commitment. And whereas Comal County affirms that mental health care must include timely access to meaningful treatment, peer support, crisis intervention, and evidence-based care that honors the complexity of each veteran's experience. And whereas the veteran service organizations of Comal County, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, the Marine Corps League, and other Title 36 organizations play a vital role in supporting veterans, strengthening families, preserving traditions, and ensuring that no service member faces their challenges alone. Whereas Comal County further recognizes the work of the Comal County Veterans Service Office, the Veterans Treatment Court, and the faith in nonprofit communities who walk working alongside veterans and their families. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Comal County Commissioner's Court hereby recognizes May 2026 as Military Appreciation Month in Comal County and calls upon all citizens to honor the service members, veterans, and military families among us through remembrance, gratitude, and action.

Move to approve the proclamation just read, recognizing May 2026 as Military Appreciation Month in Comal County.

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

I'd like to welcome everyone up to accept the proclamation.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Judge Hoyt, Commissioner's Court, Como County, thank you very much for recognizing veterans this month for their service and dedication to this great nation. With Monday being Memorial Day, let us not forget the remembrance of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice over the many generations. Mental health is a big struggle for veterans today. So if you know of any veterans that need some assistance, urge them to see a veteran service organization, the VA, or dial 988 for a crisis.

Thank you.

We will move into our workshop agenda now and start with citizens' comments. As a reminder, citizens' comments are limited to three minutes per person. That would be item one under the workshop agenda. Is there anyone here to address the court?

OK.

Seeing no one, we'll move on to item number two, reports by county staff and elected officials on items of community interest.

Good morning.

Good morning, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. I just want to briefly say on behalf of your veterans, Como County Veterans Service Office, I want to take this opportunity to introduce the two new veteran service officers. This is Scott McCarty, Army veteran, also a published author. and Monique Benson, who is not feeling well today, so she's not here. She, too, is an Army veteran, and in her free time, she gives back to the community by volunteering to be a youth baseball coach. So if you see them around campus, just say hi. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome. Anyone else for county staff and elected official reports? Seeing none, we'll move on to item three, which is a presentation by the Comal Master Gardener Association on the new Master Gardener Guide. Good morning.

Morning. I want to tell you, along with Eleni Petitsas, who is the new county agent, how thrilled we are to be able to present to you the new Comal Master Gardener Gardening Guide. We hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed getting it together. It's been a years-long process. And there are some Master Gardeners here present who've been part of that. And they will come up, I'm sure, when we get a chance to take a picture. They range from a botany professor from Texas State Emeritus, who did a lot of work on the pest chapter, They involve vegetable gardening experts. They involve annual and perennial experts. We had lots and lots of help from lots of master gardeners. And you might be wondering where you can get one of these guides for someone you would like to gift. And they are available at the Plant House, at NB Feed, and out at Ace Hardware in Statler. So we encourage you to enjoy this as our gift.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Your Honor and Commissioners. Just to add to what Ms. Bonney said, this edition is named after Mr. Lindheimer, who is the father of Texas botany. And ironically, or fortuitously, today is actually his birthday. He was born May 21. 1801, and he studied and recorded over 15,000 species of Texas plants and then settled in this area. So he's part of the legacy that we hope to carry forward in, and we're so honored to offer this resource to our county and our community that has a local nod with all of the water and soil and climate type Situations and environmental characteristics that are unique to us here.

And I do want to add one other thing. New Braunfels Utilities, that I am absolutely thrilled is part of our community, is giving a rebate of $40 for every one of our guides that are bought.

Excellent. Would you like to take a photo?

Let's do it.

You doing okay? Good.

That thing's awesome.

Thanks, thanks, thanks. Where do we stand?

Okay, perfect. Okay, everybody, are you ready?

We're going to do a couple of these. Ready? One, two, three. Thank you so much.

We'll move on to item number four, which is a recognition of dedicated years of service by Jesse Ra as our Comal County Auditor and to the citizens of Comal County. Ms. Ra, it has been a pleasure working with you. From the five years of working with you at the tax office, I learned very quick how smart and passionate and dedicated you are to serving the people of Comal County and getting things right and accurate for the people of Comal County. Your care, your expertise was on display. I am really going to miss you, but I'm really going to miss you in July when it comes time for TNT and crunching those numbers. But I do wish you all the best in your future endeavors, and I'm so grateful for your service to Comal County.

Thank you very much. Commissioner Webb?

You know it's coming. And I'm going to have to read it because I don't want to leave anything out, and I probably won't get through it if I don't. I just want to thank you for your hard work here and your complete honesty and integrity. I learned pretty early on, if I didn't want to know, I shouldn't ask you, because you were going to tell me whether I wanted to hear it or not. If you're a courageous leader, you step forward, take ownership of things, and you stand in the breach when others either can't or won't. And that can be very costly. You lose sleep, your times of personal peace are constantly interrupted, and you can make enemies. But you also garner the respect and admiration of others for having the fortitude to say and do the things that need to be said and done. Jesse, thank you for having the courage to say and do those things, and for doing it with a pure heart just because you felt like it was right. As I said at Judge Krause's funeral, you were an integral part of his team for so long and contributed significantly to his success. He thought so much of you, and this would have been a terrible day for him. I was talking with Chris and Michelle yesterday, and we all think that if he was still around, he would have begged and convinced you to stay through the end of his term. I also need to thank you for your patience with me and helping me understand county finances and acting like it was normal. to have to explain things six times and draw crayon pictures for me to understand. I wouldn't understand this stuff without you. I'm going to miss you for your advice and expertise in financial matters, but I'll also miss you as a great friend. You know that I spend a lot of time up here avoiding making eye contact with you, because if something's funny and you're laughing, I'm going to laugh, and we have that connection. But I also know that When something sad happens, if I look you in the eyes, I'm going to cry too. And I'm going to miss that connection with you. You're also the first person that can just make me laugh out loud after the sad times. So thank you for that. I wish you luck and blessings in your new endeavor. And thank you very much for your service to us and the citizens of Camel County.

We would like to invite you forward to accept a recognition plaque and take a photo with any county folks that are here this morning that would like to come celebrate. Jesse.

Okay, hold on. We may have to go upstairs with this one then. We're going to have to go upstairs, so hold on. Thank you. Okay, everybody, ready? One, two, three.

Okay, one, two, three. First of all, thank you, Judge White and commissioners, for this recognition. It's been an honor to serve Como County and to walk along.

Walk along great individuals that work for Como County. And to my auditor staff, thank you isn't enough. Y'all made every day rewarding to me. Carry on the good work. Thank you.

We will now move back into our action agenda, beginning with item six, receive report from the county engineer's office regarding proposed revisions to the Comel County subdivision regulations, and discuss and consider setting the time, date, and place for a public hearing regarding the proposed revisions.

Well, Judge and Commissioners, I wish we had a few more items between Ms. Ra's goodbyes. Thanks, Jesse. We've been working on these regulations and discussing this for about a year now. And David Volbrecht is not here today. His son is actually graduating this morning. But he's done a lot of the heavy lifting on putting these regulations together, these proposed regulations. And I also want to thank Tim Bray and his staff for helping us along through this as well. So what I want to do on these revisions is just go through a brief history of subdivision regulations, how we got to where we're at. So the first record of subdivision plats was in June of 1946, so 80 years ago. And I'm going to go through just some high points as we got to where we're at. So in 67, the court adopted more stringent platter requirements, including road standards for roads and streets. We had another run at this. And then in 1985, these are the regulations that are still in play. And so in December of 1985, the order that was adopted by Commissioner's Court is the subdivision regulations that we still refer to today. And so since that time, we've had some major revisions. In 99 was our minimum lot size requirements that were tied to our OSSF order. So one acre for public water and 5.01 acres with private wells. In 2000, what went into effect in January 1, 2001, was our water availability rules, as well as the first time we brought forward the grandfather date of things that were created, plots or lots that were created prior to that date were grandfathered to our subdivision regulations. In 2001, we adopted stormwater drainage requirements. And then in 2004, the court adopted the major thruver plan. So those are major revisions from the 85 regulations. And this is what they look like from 85 all the revisions we had through 2004. And so in 2000, our office put together, adopted these regulations, but we incorporated all the revisions to a more consumable format. And so things that the public could read and understand and our staff could read and understand. And all the revision dates were reflected in these revisions. from 2020. So this is the documents on our website right now. This is the document that we refer to as we're processing plats that come through our office. And so with these new regulations, I want to go through the noted changes that we're going to have that we're proposing to Commissioner's Court. So the list of them here is the lot frontage requirement increasing from 40 feet to 60 feet. the removal of the high-density development section of the subdivision regulations, increased minimum requirements for our road construction standards, a two-year maintenance bond after road acceptance, requirement of a PIPRO permit for the intersection of a new subdivision road with an existing county road, subdivision ingress and egress, and then disfavoring variance requests except in exceptional circumstances. So I want to go through each of these and just give you some more insight. So our current lot frontage order was adopted in 2024, requires 40 feet of frontage, And the confusion that's created there is that our right-of-way for a roadway is 60 feet. And so what happens a lot of times is people come in and say, I'm looking to plot my property. I'm looking to maybe do a larger lot subdivision. What's the minimum frontage? And we'll say it's 40 feet. They say, great. And then they come back and they say, I'd like to maybe put a road in there to subdivide off of that in a larger piece of property. That's acceptable, right? And we'll say, no, it's actually 60 feet of frontage for a roadway. And so the idea there is that we want to match up what our minimum right-of-way width is for a road and our lot frontage order. And that's what we're proposing here. So what we're proposing is to rescind the lot frontage order that's currently in place. And to incorporate into our proposed subdivision regulations this statement about lot frontage, that any subdivisional land, including land accepted from the planning requirements under this order, for the purposes of safe and adequate ingress and egress, shall have a frontage on less than 60 continuous feet, so increasing from 40 feet to 60 feet. Now, one of the questions that might come up is, why not go beyond 60 feet? In the local government code, the lot frontages talks about reasonable standards for lot frontage in relation to curves in the road. So our design requirements are for a 30 mile per hour roadway. We have sight distance, passing sight distance, stopping sight distance. And we feel that a 60 foot lot frontage is consistent with the 30 mile per hour design standards we have in our design criteria for our subdivision regulations. We feel going beyond that would be unreasonable in light of local government code 232. The next section is the removal of high density development of the subdivision regulations. And so the question would be, why would we remove these? There's confusion on lot frontage, confusion on building setbacks. It's a 20 foot building setback in this section versus 25 feet in other areas. And also there's discussion about side setbacks, which we don't have any regulatory authority we could find that supports that. And then, quite frankly, this is an area that we don't ever process these types of developments. And so we're proposing to remove this from the proposed subdivision regulations.

The third thing is increased minimum requirements for road construction standards.

And so the first thing we did is we clarified the definitions. So on the left is the current regulations. We added a rural road section and an urban road section for a definition as far as roadside ditches and curb and gutter for rural section versus urban section. Second, we adopted our rural cross section and urban cross-sections that clearly identifies what our expectations are when developers and engineers are putting together these standards for their subdivision. And then third, we increased our design standards. Right now, our minimum requirements is six inches of compacted base with a dual core surface treatment. That's been in the rules since 85. What we're proposing to do is to increase those to 12 inches on a collector road, and 10 inches for a secondary road of base material, and then an inch and a half of hot mix asphalt over that. This is consistent with areas with New Braunfels, ,, their standards in place. And we feel this is a much better design minimum that we have for our road standards. You can see also on the arterials, it's a case-by-case analysis. We're asking for them to submit for us to review on arterials, which is a larger right-of-way. We have an arterial within a subdivision. The next thing we talk about is our two-year maintenance bond after road acceptance in the unit road system. So when we accept a road in the unit road system, that happens almost on a weekly basis here. Almost immediately, they're starting to construct houses out there. And so these are just some pictures you can see of how these roads get beat up by the first two years is when the heaviest traffic is going to be in these subdivisions for building houses. And so what happens is we end up, within the first couple years, we have these birdbaths and ponds that are happening in our roadways there. And we have, for landscaping purposes, they scrape up our roads there. So what this allows is at the end of two years, we can go and evaluate these roads and we can work with the developer to say, hey, these roads need to be addressed in these areas because in the first two years is when we have all that heavy traffic and work on these roadways. And so that's another opportunity. proposal we're putting in our regulations and recommending to the court. The next one is a requirement of a PIPRO permit. That's a driveway permit we have. And so what we're looking for is that you can see that what the proposed regulation has that it says a PIPRO permit or private improvement in the public right-of-way should be required for any construction occurring within the right-of-way for any intersection approach connection in accordance with our right-of-way order. So this is an example of Mountain Springs Ranch. This is an older subdivision tied onto Rebecca Creek Road. And as you can see on the right-hand side, our major thoroughfare plan did get dedication right away along Rebecca Creek Road. But we don't have any ability to have the developer look at what other impacts could come in there based on the amount of traffic being created by the Mountain Springs. So what we're proposing to do is to modify our right-of-way order. And so we're changing the definition of a driveway to include, a driveway includes new subdivision roadway intersection approach connections established during the platting process under the subdivision regulations as amended. And we also define a traffic impact analysis, means an engineering study that evaluates the effects of the proposed development on the surrounding transportation system. This is also what's going to be in our regulations, is that the TIA, the cost of the TIA, and any related improvements will be borne by the developer. And then traffic mitigation concepts include pavement widening, turn lanes. A lot of times you see on these subdivisions on text out roads, you see a right turn lane and a left turn lane that are installed. We're looking for that same ability on a county road as well. And we're tying it to the transportation code within our PIPRO permitting process versus the local government code. So on June 11, when we're going to have this discussion on public hearing, We're also proposing to adoption of a new Kilmer County private construction with a public right-of-way order, which would incorporate these regulations in tandem with the subdivision regulations. So they're worked together to allow us to require TIAs, which we've never been able to do before. Subdivision Ingress and Egress. Local government code talks about the only time we can require, the county can require, more than one entrance for ingress and egress is if you have more than 1,000 lots within a subdivision. It also mentions, I underline it here, the section does not limit the authority of the commissioner's court under other existing laws to adopt infrastructure standards that are more stringent. So we discussed this with Corey Klubundy, our fire marshal, and he said in the fire code, there's a statement that says, developments of one or two family dwellings where the number of dwelling units exceeds 30, should be provided with two separate and approved fire apparatus access roads. So what we've proposed is that we've incorporated the International Fire Code into our regulatory authority within the subdivision regulations. And then we've added this in our master plan. That master plan showing more than 30 lots need to show two points of ingress and egress. And the master plan is the important part of this, because it's not every single unit that comes in. So if you have 10 units and you're presenting that in your master plan, unit one might have your main point there, and then unit 10 might have your second point of ingress and egress to satisfy this requirement. And so we're allowing that to be in the master plan, not unit by unit, which I think is a reasonable way to approach that. And then finally, disfavoring variance requests, except in exceptional circumstances. The biggest impact of that is 60-foot right-of-way for all roads, and then maintaining 25-foot building setback for all subdivisions. The reason we're proposing this is that we also have a statement here that within our right-of-way, we don't have any utility lines located under the pavement. That becomes a maintenance nightmare for us when people have to, our utility company has to do work on that. We want them to stay outside the paved area. And so I've drawn on here in this typical section for an urban street where the utilities could be located, and it's going to be outside. And so having 60 feet of right-of-way allows more room for installation and also maintenance and work on those during that process. The other thing is the 25-foot building setback. This is just an example I showed from Meyer Ranch Unit 4. You can see there at lot 75, there's a truck parked in the driveway. Meyer Ranch was plotted with a 20-foot building setback. And you can see the truck is hanging over to the sidewalk. Having a 25-foot building setback, you create more space for a vehicle to park in the driveway without having to have a concern of somebody having to walk around that end of the street or outside the sidewalk. And that's why we want to support the 25-foot building setback for all subdivisions. We also have some just housekeeping changes. One of those is to formalize our standard practices for adjacent property transfer exemption. That's a statement we have that goes hand in hand with our grandfathering clause. We want to condense the plot approval and final approval into one section. Right now they're separate, and that's just an administrative change. We do want to move the grandfathering date from the current, which is January 1, 2010, to January 1, 2020. And that will allow a lot of these grandfathered lots to be compliant with the subdivision regulations. With regards to water availability, the only change we're making is that there's a piece in the local government code that doesn't allow an exemption for four or more lots. We currently have that in there, so we're removing that exemption within our regulations. And then finally, we're clarifying lot size definitions. And so we're creating what we call OSSF lot subdivisions, which is the one acre and five acre lots. and the non-OSS of lot subdivisions. And the minimum lot size is driven by the minimum lot frontage that you have for each property. So the water availability changes. My question might be, why don't we do more of that? During this process, we're currently evaluating Texas Water Company and SAWS. Their water availability reports are currently under review. And what we're finding is that really the rules that were implemented back in 2001 are really stringent They're good. We don't feel there's a need to change those outside of the minor change I just mentioned previously. And so we're not recommending any rule changes to our water availability rules. Because what was adopted in 2001 has turned out to be a really, really good rule. Our proposed order for our subdivision regulations, here's a copy of it. We're proposing to, we're going to place this on our website today, a draft version of that between now and June 11th. And so that'll be accessible there. I want you to notice a couple of things that with the public hearings on June 11th, we're also proposing for if it passes that day for it to take effect immediately. We'd have two attachments, the regulations that we've been talking about and also a traffic, sorry, a takings impact assessment that we've worked with our legal team on that. It'll be part of the regulations and also vacating Order 88, the lot frontage order, because we're incorporating that into our regulations. We're also on that same day talking about taking action on adopting a new order for private construction with the public right-of-way, and that's to address the TIA requirements that are going to be part of that order. It's not just for subdivisions. If somebody comes in and has a 400-unit apartment complex, we'd apply the same standards to that. And so that ability allows us to both regulate subdivisions as far as the impact on roads as well as private developments. Finally, here's the timeline we put forward as we're presenting this today to the commissioner's court. We'll have two legal notices or two public notices on May 31 and June 7. Well, a hearing on June 11, that's going to be for both the subdivision regulations as well as the private construction with the public right-of-way order. And then if everything goes according to that plan for commissioner's court, is they would go into effect that same day. So if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer those.

Thank you, Robert. I want to thank you and your team and the legal team for your time and effort on this. It's been a lot of heavy lifting. You said a year. I think it's been a lot longer than that that we've been meeting and working on this. And so I'm really proud to see this coming to fruition and think that the timing is really good because while the Texas Water Company has been a moratorium at the moment on new developments. They're also strengthening their water requirements for any future developer agreements between them and developers. So I think the timing is great. I appreciate the effort. I'm excited about tightening up the restrictions and the regulations for subdivisions. And hopefully, we'll get some good quality products coming in out of that.

Yes, ma'am.

I move to set the public hearing for June 11, 2026, at 8.30 AM at the second floor courthouse, 100 Main Plaza, New Braunfels, Texas, 78130. Second.

There's a motion by Commissioner Leacock and a second by Commissioner Crownover to approve item number six, or to set the public hearing for June 11th at 8.30 a.m. in the Commissioner's Court courtroom. Is there any discussion or questions?

Thank you for your work on it, and thanks to the commissioners. You all have worked on this quite a bit, Commissioner Leacock and Commissioner Crownover, so thanks for that.

Thank you, Robert. I appreciate taking all of our input and and taking it under account and analyzing it and going, well, what does work? What does not? And the analysis associated to it and some of our ideas and thoughts and really working with us to put this document together. Appreciate it. Yes, sir.

All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you, Robert. Item 7 is discuss and consider a final plat approval of the amending plat of Triple Peak Ranch Estates Unit 1, amending lots 3 and 4, establishing lots 3AP and 4AP, and authorize the county judge to sign.

Judge and Commissioner, is this the typical amending plat we recommend approval?

Move to approve action agenda item number 7. Second.

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

Thank you.

Thank you, Robert. Item eight, discuss and consider approval of the Tax Assessor Collector's Monthly Collection Report for Comal County for April 2026. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge Hoyt and commissioners. I'm here to present for your consideration and approval the property tax collections for the month of April 2026 in the amount of $1,345,995.31. Move to approve action agenda item number eight. Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number eight by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Item nine, discuss and consider approval of the Treasurer's Monthly Report for April 2026.

Good morning. Good morning, judge and commissioners. This is a typical monthly report. There were our balances as of April 30th. And as you can see, we were properly collateralized. For April, our year to date, our interest income is just under $2.6 million. That's about $191,000 less than this same time last year, so that's not too bad considering that our yield for this year through April was 3.7%, and last year it was at almost 4.4%. That being said, that's why we, when the money market goes down, we have to do other things. And so that kind of shows that we're doing that. Monday, we now have a new federal reserve chair. And as expected, the interest rates are going down, but they're going down steadily. So I will tell you that at the beginning of May, we were at 3.54%. And today we're at 3.45. Every single day it's taking down just one little hundredth of a point. So I think that's probably what they're expecting it for the rest of the year is just to slow both that going down. So that's good for us here. And with that being said, I respectfully ask for your approval of this report.

I would approve.

Second. The motion to approve item number nine by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Cronover. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 10 is discuss and consider approval of the following item relating to the closeout of the United States Army Corps of Engineers contract number W9126G25P0008P00001 for increased law enforcement services at Canyon Lake and authorize the county judge to sign Amendment A of solicitation modification of contract adjusting the total funded amount of the contract due to undispersed funds.

Morning, Judge. Commissioners, this is, we do this every year. Anytime the contract finishes with the Corps of Engineers, it's just the obligating the funds from the contract and shifts that we did not cover after we spoke with the Corps and agreed they didn't need to be worked.

Move to approve action agenda item number 10.

Second.

There's a motion to approve item number 10 by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

I've got to thank Jessie and her wonderful office for, once again, helping us out and get this done correctly. Thank you.

Item 11, discuss and consider approval of license agreement by and between Comal County, Texas, and Heidelberg Materials Southwest, LLC, and authorize the county judge to sign.

Good morning.

A long-awaited work in progress. I want to thank Lori Means. Basically, this is the same agreement that we've had with, that used to be called Hanson Serve Texas, where the county range is. So the changes in here are, of course, the name. It will run for the 10-year period. We'll pay them their dollar. And the county judge's name has been amended and changed. But other than that, it is exactly as it has been in years previous. Move to approve action agenda item number 11.

Second. The motion to approve item 11 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions for the sheriff? All those in favor, please raise your right hand.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 12 is discuss and consider approval of an order granting a discretionary exemption pursuant to local government code section 262.024 for a professional architectural engineering services contract with Park Hill.

Good morning, Judge Moore, Commissioners. The Local Government Code 262.024 allows counties to exempt professional services from the competitive solicitation process. This order will allow us to exempt Park Hill from the solicitation process and allow the county to contract for design services for the design of the maintenance barn to be constructed eventually on the Churchill Annex. I respectfully request approval of this agenda item.

Move to approve action agenda item number 12. Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number 12 by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Webb. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number 13, discuss and consider approval of the proposal for professional architectural engineering services by and between Comal County, Texas and Park Hill and authorized county judge to sign.

Judge Commissioners, as I had mentioned on my previous item, this is the actual contract itself. It's pretty detailed. Tom Hornstead, actually, his team, we looked through this. And he has a couple more things to add on this one.

Judge, commissioners, this was a project that we budgeted for this year in 2026. It was along with a collection of other capital projects that were planned. The proposed building, at least when we started with this, was to put it off the back side of the building onto that parking lot where it says new building 4,000 square feet. Actually, now that the Churchill project is completed, that really is not a good location due to some drainage facilities over there. So we were talking about this almost a year ago, possibly putting it in this location or maybe over here off of this little access road. So that hasn't been finalized, but we'll work through those details during the design process. This building will just be a metal building to serve our maintenance facilities for their equipment, their landscaping gear, and storage, and operational site for our electrician and other things. So it will be a really nice addition for the facilities maintenance team. One of the questions we had was, why didn't we build this with the Churchill project? couple reasons one we really didn't think of it till after we had already completed the design of this of the Churchill building that you see the larger building and second the Churchill building was constructed with ARPA funds which would technically probably not be eligible for this maintenance facility so it's always been planned to be as a separate relatively small project and we do have architectural design fee services and the actual construction costs budgeted for this year. So our recommendation is to move forward on this project.

Move to approve, action denied, number 13. Second.

There's a motion to approve item number 13 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions? Oh, I'm sorry. There was a motion by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover. I'm sorry, Leacock. Y'all, I'm so sorry.

Spaced out for a second, I guess.

Okay, one more time. There is a motion to approve item number 13 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover.

I still messed it up?

It was a motion by Commissioner Webb and a second by Commissioner Leacock.

I concur. Any discussion or questions?

Not anymore. Not anymore. The motion.

The motion to accept everything we just did.

Yep, absolutely. The motion to approve. Please raise your right hand if you're all in favor. All right. Okay, motion carries. It was bound to happen. Okay, item 14, discuss and consider approval of the Texas Association of Counties Health and Employee Benefits Pool Board of Director election ballot and authorize the county judge to sign. So, Commissioners, I received this item from this board from TAC, and there is one position and one nominee.

Sounds like a no-brainer.

It's the pleasure of the court.

Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Move to approve action agenda item number 14.

Second.

There is a motion to approve item number 14 by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 15, pursuant to section 84.003 of the Texas Local Government Code, receive and direct the county clerk to record an order dated May 19, 2026 by the Comal County District Judges appointing the Comal County auditor effective May 23, 2026, and consider an order approving payment of the auditor's salary as determined by the district judges. Good morning.

Good morning. Ms. Feller is here. Would you come on over? Before that, I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the district judges and myself to congratulate our county auditor, Jessie. She surely will be missed at the court level, and we wish her all the best. As for our new incoming county auditor, this is Michelle Feller. She comes from the state auditor's office with over 30 years of experience. She'll be sworn in next Tuesday. Didn't think we could have two county auditors at the same time. So just would like for you all to meet her. And if you have any questions?

I don't think so. Not right now.

Welcome.

Move to approve action agenda item number 16.

Second. There is a motion to approve item number 15 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any questions or discussion? It's a much better commute.

It is, yeah.

Welcome. We look forward to working with you. And thank you to the district judges for making a prompt appointment. Very much appreciated and very much needed. Thank you.

Welcome. Happy to have you. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Commissioners, I will read item 16. I will not read item 17, and then we will, if there's no opposition, we will take up item 16 and 17 after executive session today. But Mr. Thomas, you're welcome to present. Item 16 is discuss and consider approval of an order establishing the positions of one full-time and four part-time criminal associate judges in Comal County pursuant to Chapter 54A. of the Texas Government Code and dissolving the positions of one full-time and four part-time magistrate judges in Comal County previously created under Chapter 54 of the Texas Government Code.

Good morning. This agenda item is to reclassify our current magistrate office under Texas Government Code Chapter 54 to a criminal associate judge under Texas Government Code Chapter 54A. The magistrate office was created in 2003 and had one part-time magistrate. The magistrate at that time and continually has had similar duties to today's magistrate's office. But through the years, that role has expanded due to legislative requirements, which brings us to today. Senate Bill 9, amongst other duties, prohibits Chapter 54 magistrates from setting bonds on certain offenses, for example, murder, aggravated assault. By reclassifying the Chapter 54 magistrate to a 54A associate judge solves the issues relating to these bonds. The duties remain the same as they were prior to April 1st. There has been no change to what they are doing. This includes setting bonds, and the whole magistration process, which includes setting bonds, the warnings, the EPOs, all that stuff, in addition to search warrants. The things they've been doing, All along. There's no budget amendment needed for this. It's simply what I've been saying as a name change, so to speak. Once, if the court approves it, the appointment would be for all the district courts and all the county courts. I just want to make sure that's in the motion. If y'all do, approve it. That way, there's no ambiguity. That's all I have.

Any questions or discussion? I don't think so.

I appreciate the explanation and the time that you all spent letting us all know how this all works. It's a complex issue.

As it relates to what we're trying to do, we want to be very clear in the report that we are not trying to serve the community anymore, or do anything that might appear to be increasing the power of working at the magistrates as they currently work.

I've worked with the county magistrate prior to becoming the district head, and I can tell you that what these individuals do on the weekends and nights

And we're very important to the jury trials. We need them because if we don't have them, then we violate people's constitutional rights and their rights according to the statutes created by the legislature. And we want each of you to know that our county is in a position where we're subjecting all of us to any sort of lawsuit or anything like that. And that's why we are asking for this. Just so you guys are aware of that.

Thank you. Thank you. Move to approve actions and numbers.

Yeah, a fat club discussion.

Oh, my fault.

Do you rescind your move?

Yep. Gotcha. All right.

So thank you all for being here. I appreciate the time, again, and the effort put towards this project and this effort. We will hold off if there's no objection on 16 and 17 and visit an executive session. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Item 18, discuss and consider the reclassification of position 025318001, felony court division director E16 to 025314005, attorney felony 1E15 to be effective May 23, 2026.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. A couple years back, Commissioner's Court allowed me to take one of my felony one attorneys and reclassify that position to an intermediary supervisor that would provide my office with several positive opportunities. Some of which, and you'll see the circle around Daniel Floyd, some of those opportunities included the fact that Comah County, at that point in time, we were transitioning to court assignments at the time of arrest. So in approximately August of 2023, at the time of someone being arrested, they were then assigned to particular courts. With the court assignments at the time of arrest, it allowed me to build court teams. And as that happened, and then secondarily, I knew my chief felony prosecutor was approaching retirement. It gave me an opportunity to train Mr. Floyd as a potential candidate to take over the chief felony role. For the past seven months, as Sammy is now transitioning towards his retirement, I've really studied on the structure of whether it makes sense to have a felony division chief, civil chief, but then under felony division chief, a felony court chief. And quite frankly, I feel like it makes more sense to move from that intermediary supervisor and have a felony division court chief, but then to transition to what actually the DA's office had, which was a first assistant. In looking at this change, I'm changing that division director down back to a felony one position, which is where it started a couple years back. And I will tell you my focus with that felony one position would be to help. They're not going to be able to handle, but to help with the additional dockets that our judges have added. And thanks to our visiting judges, which I will be frank with you, has increased to our case efficiencies. I'd like to recognize collectively our criminal justice system team, which includes our law enforcement, our judges, our magistrates, our clerks, our bailiffs, and my office. When you look back to When we went back to in-person jury trials, Como County had a backlog of almost 600 felony cases waiting for jury trial. It was a backlog that, I'll be honest, kept me up many nights, and I didn't know how mathematically we would be able to tackle it, even with doubling our district courtrooms from two to four. you had a combination of multiple things. Number one, we had only two district courtrooms. Number two, we were in the process of renovation and we cleared out the courthouse annex and moved everyone into the land annex. And then three, we stacked COVID on top of that. And that's how we got to that point. I am really, really proud to tell you that today Due to everyone's hard work, which includes all the additional jury trials and all the additional dockets that our judges have done, we only have only 251 total defendants set for trial in district court. What that means to, quite frankly, most of our district judges, they have an average of about 50 defendants waiting for jury trial in their courtroom. I don't know about all of the state of Texas, but that is a backlog that should be commended. Judge Steele only has 36 defendants waiting jury trial. We've never had numbers like that. I'm super proud of that. With the increased number of jury trials conducted in Comac County, number one, every person is guaranteed a right to a jury trial by their peers. It is their constitutional right. And what I'm proud about is in Comac County, we honor that right. And not only do we honor that, but we have created a system and added to our workload to honor that right in a quicker, more expeditious way. for the defendant, but number two, for the victims in these cases, too. They deserve to get resolution in their cases as quickly as possible. So it should be commended. I'm really proud of it. If you look to counties our size, we try more jury trials than counties our size. When you look to counties larger than us, we try just as much, if not more, than counties larger than us. A great example is Montgomery County. 2024, we charged and tried as many jury trials as they did at county four and five times our size. Incredibly proud of that. All of this positive dynamic, I will tell you about some of the impacts with the increase of the number of jury trials and dockets. The impact with regards to my office is my team spends their workday, their weekends, and their evenings prepping for court and for court dockets, whether it's trial or non-jury dockets, which needs to happen. However, that has led to a backlog on how quickly and how expeditiously we are screening cases that we receive from law enforcement. That backlog has been growing year by year. It is not ideal. Since 2021, if you look to the number of our CJIS arrests, we had 3,600 adult arrests. 2022, we had 4,100. 2023, we had 4,500. 2024, we had 4,800. 2025 will be an even higher number. Right now, I am proud to tell you we are at 89%. We will hit our CJIS 90%. We will hit it. But the way we're hitting it and the timeliness of how quick my office is able to screen cases, not because we don't care, not because we're not trying, but because there are only so many hours in the day and you can't be in court and at your desk reviewing cases at the same time, it's not ideal. You turn on the news here recently, your state leadership, our governor, our lieutenant governor, speaker, along with key leadership in both the House and the Senate, there is added pressure on not only our judges to move cases quickly through the court system, but also on your DAs to timely file and review cases and on law enforcement to get the cases to DAs timely. I'm not complaining about the added pressure, because quite frankly, if I was accused of a criminal offense, I would want a resolution timely. Or if I'm a victim of a criminal offense, I deserve to have a timely resolution, a quick and expeditious review of that criminal case. So my plan with these agenda items, and I'm kind of leading into this next agenda item, and that's why it's important, is With removing that intermediary supervisor and making it now a floating attorney to help with some of these additional dockets, that's step one. Step two needs to look at that intake aspect. That is an entire new division and team of people that needs to be created, led, and collaborative. With this second agenda item is to create the first assistant. My new chief felony prosecutor would fall in line of supervision of that first assistant, and that's come of what leads to some of these agenda items. So I'm happy to answer any questions on first the reclassification down or the potential next one if you'd like me to, or I can wait off on that.

Move to approve action agenda item number 19.

Second. We're on item 18. 18.

Yes, sorry.

We have a motion to approve action agenda item number 18 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion from Ms. Tharp? Any questions? Okay, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 19, discuss and consider reclassification of position 025322, there's a correction there, dash 001, Chief Civil Prosecutor E17 to First Assistant E18 with no budget amendment necessary to be effective May 23, 2026.

As just discussed by the judge in reading out that agenda item, there is a typographical error in how I listed out that position. It's listed as 025321001, and it should be 025322001. As just mentioned, my hope in reclassifying to this first assistant is for some of the first assistant's responsibilities to take on this new intake division, as I discussed. I have with Ms. Frazier a tremendous opportunity. She's got extensive time with the county and has led multiple collaborative teams, not only from our teamwork with the district clerk's office, our magistrates, our law enforcement, and I'm excited of this opportunity. I ask for your permission on that.

Move to approve action agenda item number 19 with the correction of the position 025-322-001. Second.

There's a motion to approve action agenda item number 19 with a correction 025322001 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Webb. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 20 is discussed to consider the creation of the following position, 025314006, Intake Attorney, Felony 1, E15, to be funded with SB 22, Rural Law Enforcement Fund to be effective May 23, 2026.

This is actually the presentation slide that I've had in my last couple budgets to Commissioner's Court. And it was, at that point in time, my best attempt of trying to figure out how to deal with the intake backlog. Some counties, most counties, will have where you have three attorneys assigned per courtroom, where you've got one at their desk rotating in and out. That is a huge addition to my office at one point in time. Number one, it's a big expense. And I'm not saying that that's not necessarily the way that should go in time, but two, it is hard to fill all of those positions at one point in time and properly train everyone to put it in place. As I've seen this intake snowball kind of grow in front of me, as I've tried to navigate filling attorneys' roles, I... told Judge Krause, I don't know how to fix this, but I'm going to keep studying on it, and I don't want to emotionally react to a problem. I want to have data, and I want to think through what it looks like. What I think my next best effort is, and this just gives you a slide which will come. This was my 2025 slide where if you take the number of cases that we received intake, you divvy it up equally among the judges. And I'm not saying it should be divvied up equally in terms of the orange, but Last year, my prosecutors were looking at about 500 cases. That's absolutely impossible, and they weren't handling 500 cases. I've spent my nights, my weekends, and I'm not opposed to that. That is absolutely my job. I'm not complaining. But that caseload is continuing to increase. It's not getting easier, and it needs to be dealt with. My plan in this process is to start right now with discretion funds that I have, It's not discretion funds that are guaranteed every year. It depends on the state when it comes to SB 22. In terms of using state or grant funding to fill full-time positions, that's tricky. I've had grant-funded positions, and they're hard to fill because attorneys are not sure that they want to sign on to a position that could go away with grant funding. In terms of what I'm proposing to you is to create a felony one intake position, I have a candidate. I'm excited if this opportunity goes through, but because this position doesn't exist, I have to ask permission from Commissioner's Court to create it. With my 2027 budget, I just want to be completely up front. My plan is to ask for a second felony intake attorney and a second felony intake paralegal. So just all out there. My plan is for 2026 to fund both of these positions with my discretionary funds. But in 2027, for that to be picked up with general revenue dollars from the county. Waiting till January is an opportunity, yes. The problem is when you look at the dynamic, my cases are continuing to be happening. I'm not getting them done quickly, and it should be. But more importantly, our procedures deadline, we like to have it met by July 31st at the latest. If I start them in January, by the time I get them onboarded and training, I am six months or less before I'm hitting that deadline. And so that's why I would like to use these discretionary funds to start now, get that training, and training in an incremental, gradual step versus trying to add a whole bunch of people at one point in time. The individual candidate that I have comes with 30 years of state and federal prosecution experience, and I'm really excited about this opportunity for Comal County.

Move to approve action agenda item number 20. Thank you.

There's a motion to approve item number 20 by Commissioner Crownover with a second by Commissioner Webb. Any discussion or questions for Ms. Tharp?

Just quickly, just financial implication for the budget for the new position.

Yes. So the, I'll have to, I don't know one's fringes in play. It's 125 as base salary for the felony one's position.

Any other discussion, questions?

All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 21, discuss and consider approval of the following in Fund 149, CDA Bond Commission. A, creation of an intake paralegal position, 025-289-004, N11-6. And B, line item transfer budget adjustment from special pay to hourly personnel, FICA, retirement, workers' compensation, unemployment to fund the intake paralegal position for the remainder of 2026.

My office files NISAI cases, which are bond forfeiture cases against individuals who fail to appear. In 2025, we collected $331,000 from our NISAI cases. Where does that money go? That money goes to your general revenue. I get a commission off of the cases that are filed. It is about, you get 10% of the first thousand and then 5% of every thousand after that we collect on that. On average, we probably bring in about $20,000 $20,000 to $60,000 a year in our bond commission that goes in my discretion funds. I budget that money out every year. You'll see it here in this 2027 budget. What I'm asking for permission in this agenda item is to move into my NISAI. I'm not asking for contingency from general revenue. I'm asking for my basically savings account of this bond commission that we have saved up to be able to fund this intake paralegal. To date, my office has collected $1,025,482.96 in NYSCI funds that we have filed in cases. There are a lot of counties whose prosecutors do not file NYSCI cases. So that is a million dollars that we have put back into the general fund. Respectfully, I ask your permission to be able to start this intake paralegal now and use my discretionary funds. Again, I have an opportunity of a third year law student who started in my office about six years ago as a clerk. She has her third-year bar card and is willing to take on this intake paralegal screening position full-time, and it's a great opportunity for our county. I'm excited about the plan. It's taken me a long time. I spent about eight months working on this plan to come up with it. Like I said, I didn't want to emotionally react to a situation. I wanted it to be data-driven.

We'll do approve action agenda item number 21A and B.

Second.

Here's a motion to approve action agenda item number 21 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Cronover. That is item 21A and B. Any question or discussion?

I just want to thank you for your time and diligence in putting this together to make your office more efficient and figure out ways to fund it that wasn't on the general fund. And so thank you for that. And I know it's been a heavy lift for you, but hopefully it'll provide a lot of relief for your office as well.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you for your effort in the presentation. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Thank you.

If there is no objection, I'd like to take a small break. Recess is 9.58. If we could all return promptly no later than 10.05, I would appreciate that.

Thank you.

OK, we are returning from recess at 10.05. We will take up item number 22, which is discuss and consider approval of the reclassification of the emergency management coordinator position from pay grade E8 to pay grade E13, including approval of the revised job description and corresponding salary adjustment effective upon approval, no budget amendment necessary. Commissioners, I've been spending the last couple of months with Jeff Kelly's retirement in the search for a new emergency management coordinator. And in my research, I've determined that there are different various folks and experts in the field that I would like to propose that we adjust the pay annual salary for this position. And this would put this person in line with some of our other director positions within the county at the E13. So I'm happy to take any questions.

Move to approve action agenda item number 22. Second.

There's a motion by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions or discussion?

I don't have any qualms with this whatsoever. We need to hire the best people that we can in these positions. This is a vital, this is a critical position, I mean, especially for you. But for the county, and I think going forward, there's going to be these kind of adjustments coming up as we sort of make the leap from the sort of organic folks that have been coming up through our systems, and we need to go out and get the people that we really want to work here. And it's going to take these kind of moves at different times to take care of that. So all for this. Okay. Will this trigger a reposting proposition?

Yes, it actually will. So if this item is approved, there will be a reposting and a reset of the application process. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 23 is discuss and consider approval of the unpaid intern job description for the juvenile probation department for classification and administrative purposes. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. We have worked with the Human Resources Department to formalize this job description to satisfy their needs for onboarding a new college-level intern that we intend to host at juvenile probation. It's been quite a while since that's happened. So we revisited that with the human resources. And I think with this unpaid intern description, we'll be lined up for hosting that person this summer.

Move to approve action agenda item number 23.

There's a motion to approve item 23 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Crownover. Any discussion or questions?

So is this just a summer internship or is it through the remainder of the year?

Well, we would intend to host a recurring unpaid internship. This one happens through, we intend to be able to kick off this summer.

Do you already have someone in mind?

Yes, ma'am.

All those in favor, please raise your right hand.

Motion carries.

Thank you, Mr. Collins. Item 24, discuss and consider approval of a budget amendment for the Public Health Emergency Management Facility project to increase the budget in the amount of $1,288.74. Funding will be provided through the American Rescue Plan Act interest-earned funds.

Good morning again, Judge and Commissioners. So for a little background, Kirksey Architect is the architect of record on the Churchill Annex and the mental health facility. So we had two purchase orders going at the same time, and they were billing against each one depending on what work they were doing at that time. So back in 2024, they submitted an invoice, and the invoice ended up getting received under the wrong purchase order. So we ended up dispensing funds to them under the wrong project. So that affected how the auditor's office does their reporting on ARPA funding. So we caught this back in December 2024. The intent was to correct this at the end when we paid the final payment to Kirksey, which happened in February of 2026. Unfortunately, we didn't recall what happened in 24 to be corrected in 26. So the payment was made out of the wrong description, basically. So now we need to create a a correction to this to ensure that we capture the amount of funds that were encumbered initially prior to 2024 and what was paid out of ARPA interest earnings, respectively, request approval of this agenda item.

We do approve action agenda item number 24. Second.

There's a motion to approve item 24 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any questions? Comments? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 25, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer and purchasing from non-capital equipment and supplies to office supplies to provide funds for the restocking fee of laptops returned to Dell.

Judge and Commissioner, so unfortunately earlier this year we placed an order for equipment that was not what was the desired equipment, and by that I mean that we ordered laptops instead of PCs. Once we caught, we tried to negotiate with Dell to get these returned. Unfortunately, with the time that we're in as far as holding inventory and the cost that's going into these pieces of equipment, they came back with a 20% restocking fee, which is not normal. We countered that. With a 10% or anything lower, and they counter back again. So anyway, we settled on a 15% restocking fee. So unfortunately, it has to be paid. The equipment has been sent back. I did have that restocking amount, which is the amount shown on the screen, within my budget. So I'm not asking for any money out of contingency. I'm asking to go ahead and pay it out of my own funding to get these restocking fee paid for.

We'll do approve action. Denied. Number 25. Second.

There's a motion to approve item 25 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any question or discussions?

And we have systems in place to ensure that this is not going to be repeated.

Yes, sir. We definitely evaluated the process, and it won't happen again.

Thank you. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Item 26, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer and facilities maintenance from air conditioning maintenance to capital equipment to provide funds for the repair to Circuit 1, Courthouse Chiller.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. Chiller, for our historic courthouse here, has two circuits. It's a redundant system. Circuit 1 has been given us some issues. We've done some repairs on it. This is to hopefully complete the rest of those repairs. So I ask for your permission.

Move to a perfection, agenda item number 26.

Second. There's a motion to approve item 26 by Commissioner Leacock with a second by Commissioner Cronover. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 27, discuss and consider approval of a line item transfer in Department of Public Safety from non-capital equipment to sheriff towing of vehicles to provide funds for the disposal of vehicles seized by Comal County for destruction of closed cases. Good morning.

Good morning. What we're asking to do is transfer. We had some non-capital equipment. We had some radars that were in our budget. And with our new leadership, we got state radars. So we don't need that money in this project. budget so what we're doing we're asking for that to be transferred over to the sheriff's department for the towing of vehicles we have six vehicles that were have been seized and they're re used in some of our cases for the intox man slaughters that have been stored. We have four in San Antonio at our regional office. We have two at the sheriff's office. And we need to have those. We finally have gotten the destruction orders on those vehicles. So we need to have those towed over to Comal Recycling. And they'll be disposed of over there. And it's my understanding too, and I'll get some more information on too, but I think whatever monies are received from those destroyed vehicles, they'll cut a check back to Comal County on those.

Move to approve action item number 27.

Second. There's a motion to approve item number 27 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Crownover. All those in favor? I'm sorry, any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you, sir. OK, so we will be going into executive session today under agenda item number 28, ANC. We will invite legal counsel, county administrator, Sheriff Reynolds, and Captain Guerra to join us. Item 28 is executive sessions in accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas government code, subchapter D. Commissioner's court may convene in a closed session to discuss any of the following items. Any final action or vote will be taken in public. A, deliberate and consider the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property in accordance with Section 551.072 of the Texas Government Code, and C, deliberate pending contemplated litigation settlement offers and matters concerning privileged and unprivileged client information deemed confidential by Rule 1.05 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct in accordance with Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code. We're going into executive session at 10.15 AM. I'm sorry. We'll also be considering items. We'll cover items 16 and 17. We are returning from executive session at 1056. And we will... What now? 1156. I'm sorry. 1156. And we will take up items 16 and 17. Item 16 is discuss and consider approval of an order establishing the positions of one full-time and four part-time criminal associate judges in Comal County pursuant to Chapter 54A of the Texas Government Code and dissolving the positions of one full-time and four part-time magistrate judges in Comal County previously created under Chapter 54 of the Texas Government Code.

Move to approve action agenda item number 16. Second.

There's a motion to approve this by item number 16 by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion?

Yeah, and I think he also wanted the agenda item to say something about it reporting to both the courts. Or how did you want that, the county and district courts?

It would be for the creation of all district courts and all county courts. That would include the new court coming.

OK, if the clerk can, we can have that added to the motion. Can you second that?

Yes, add that to the motion if you can.

So what was the wording?

We have a motion by Commissioner Webb and a second by Commissioner Leacock to approve item number 16, including that the magistrates will report to district court as well as county court at law.

They would serve the district courts and county courts at law.

Serve county courts and district courts.

Yes. So that would cover all the courts plus the additional one coming.

All those in favor? Or any discussion or questions? I'm sorry.

I mean, I think that this has been an interesting process, and I appreciate the time that y'all put into having us understand how this works. I think that we've also expressed concerns about the expansion of courts and stuff at different times, and also sort of working around this legislative change. And I think it's probably going to change again in the future. I'm not sure. But I understand what we're trying to do, and I appreciate your efforts to get it done. Thank you.

Judge, I want to make sure Commissioner Leacock is your second covering the additions to the motion as well.

My second covers additions to the motion.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time on this and for your work. I know it was stated that it is a name change only, but we feel that we've done our due diligence in reviewing what this all means and that creating an associate judge and other part-time associate judges could in the future result in further expenses and involvement, since those job descriptions are a little bit more entailed there. All in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries. Item 17, discuss and consider approval of updated job descriptions in the District Court Administrator Department, effective May 22, 2026, no budget amendment necessary. A, revise and retitle magistrate to criminal associate judge, and B, revise and retitle magistrate part-time to criminal associate judge part-time.

Move to approve 17A and B. Second.

We have a motion to approve item 17A and B by Commissioner Webb with a second by Commissioner Leacock. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries.

Thank you.

So that will conclude our Commissioner's Court meeting for today, and we will be in recess. We are closing out at 12 p.m. We will be in recess until May 28th. Thank you.