Notes on PCCC Meeting May 29 2019, 10 AM, Presidio.
Present: Buddy Knight, Cinderela Guevara, Brenda Bentley, Jose Cabezuela, Eloy Aranda
Convene at 10:10 AM
Video pt 1 begins.
Payroll approval
One payout for jail employee quitting.
Airport fuel sales bonuses.
Commissioners ask questions about how this works. They approved this before.
Video in 8:30 for inmate trust fund item. Bank signatures.
Time 9:45 for item 7 approve inter local for jail prisoner housing Hudspeth County Jail. From $48 per day to $50 per day.
Approved with changes to dates
Video in 16:20 min- contract with Texas Communities Group for tax sale properties. Lori Wilmarth, Molly Flores
Marfa sale to be July 2
Talk about categorizing properties within the county
Price increase from $2500 to $7500.
Judge wants to wait to see last year’s annual report.
Aranda motions to renew.
Video 42:30 minutes in item authorizing Guevara to seek grant funds for city of Presidio streetlights. Also item 10, seal coating for City of Presidio roads.
Guevara speaks on this. Migrant concerns.Aranda speaks.
120 single adult migrants identified.
Video pt 2
Cabezuela says county can help city of Presidio with street seal coating.
Some arguments about who can help whom. City obligation? Joe Portillo talks at length about city priorities. Difficulties in securing grants, deadlines. Partnership with city instead of for the city? Writing letters or more than that?
Talk about EMS and Fire costs from Portillo.
Agenda item streetlight passes. Streets pass, Knight dissents.
Video time 33:00 minutes into Pt 2 - 4 items with regard to TAPS grant funding.
Patty Roach addresses these.
Grant goes back to 2015.
No Austin st RR crossing work included.
Marfa item approved.
Bledsoe to OReilly connector in Presidio item.
Scope of work has shrunken because of right of way issues on street.
Item approved
TASA grant in Presidio from 2017. Removed some items from scope of work.
City of Presidio is going to be on the hook from approx $550,000
Item passes
TASA grant fro Marfa, Cosmico shared use path. Scope is smaller because of right of way issues. From 2017
Match is budgeted.
Item approved.
Video time Pt 3 9:56 on item award Redford tank project bid
Kleinmann presents.
County will do prep work for tank, piping and foundation.
38,912 after tank purchase for force account to complete work.
Controls will cost about $18,000 including electric. about 33,000 to do the work including county match of 13,000.
Two tanks will be in use.
Aranda talks about mounting tank at higher elevation by Mr Morales’ request. Ramon says tank would be too high, pressure would go up too 120 psi. County will have to build a booster pump for Morales. That is not in grant application but maybe we can use money left over with TDA approval.
Morales donated property for other tank and wells. Aranda wants to help him out.
Item approved
Video time 19:19 for item line item transfers and budget amendments
Bills just afterwards.
Grant match payments for grants just passed.
Video time for reports: 22:45 in.
Presidio EMS: ambulance mechanical issues. Oil cooler defective, misdiagnosed prior.
Looking for funding for new ambulance.
Announcements: 29:04 in video.
Budget packets due by June 3
Reverse 911 contract: still have some requirements to meet. Who has authority to make announcements?
Forwarded to Gary. Hopefully resolved in conference call tomorrow.
Judge Bishop told her that Medical Examiner on Lubbock is under Fire.
Knight went to airports training. Maintenance plans stressed.
Drones discussed. TSA using drones for maintenance and surveillance.
Probably should become a member of the Texas Airport Council.
Adjourn at 12:27 pm
Links to Video:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
The Video site with all future video postings is https://vimeo.com/davidwbeebe
Thursday, May 30, 2019
POSTS WILL LINK TO VIDEOS OF MEETINGS
Hello, everyone.
I missed a few meetings this year while attending different dates at the Texas Capitol during Legislative Session. As in sessions past, I’ve been trying to be as loud as possible about reforms to the Texas DPS Driver Responsibility Program, which I consider to be a debtors’ prison trap and some courts consider to be a method of illegal taking of money beyond statutory fine maximums.
This year, success was had on this, and the program is due to be discontinued and dismantled in September.
In the meantime, though, I have been very disappointed in particular actions of certain County officials, and I find myself not only being weary of typing at breakneck pace for hours on end at meetings, but also unable to comment as much or with as much focus as I need to have at these same meetings.
In the interest of FULL transparency, I believe the solution is to film the meetings I can attend and place the full contents online for public viewing and interpretation.
I have invested in a camera and sound setup with my own personal funds and my campaign fund is paying for the web hosting, as permitted by ethics rules.
My first foray into this project is the meeting in Presidio yesterday. My sound system is not completely ready, so I used the stock microphone on the camera. It’s adequate, but future sound quality should be remarkably better. I should also get better at visual quality as I educate myself about the fancy camera and its features.
This page will have agendas, notes on when in the footage agenda items are discussed (so you can skip ahead) and imbedded links to the videos, which run a maximum of 47 minutes per. What that means is that a three hour meeting will be divided into four parts. Notes will reflect where items fall within the footage time, in other words.
I will likely have some really basic notes transcribed as part of those posts, just because I like to write a few things down for myself and this blog functions as my file cabinet for all these meetings, pat and present.
Thanks so much for your interest in Presidio County governance.
David Beebe
Notes on Presidio County Commissioners Court Special Meeting, March 20, 2019, Presidio
Notes on Special Meeting Wed March 20, 2019, 10:00AM, Presidio
Meeting convened at 10:08 AM
Present: Aranda, Guevara, Knight. Absent: Bentley, Cabezuela. Also present: County Atty Ponton
Citizen Comments: Barbara Baskin: Redford community called for an unscheduled meeting. Tank repairs presented by Ramon Carrasco.
Wants to know what the grant project number is for Redford water project. Rains are coming, talks about her road.
Has spent $1200 clearing road of sediment that County worker dropped. Meeting in Redford of commissioners occurred while she was gone. She needs help.
Judge says that County now has forms citizens can fill out and county can respond to.
Baskin says this is awfully hard. Asks if grant documents are at the courthouse, has that happened. Judge says that they have those documents.
Joe Portillo, city of Presidio. They had a charter meeting last night. Home rule charter will be put to voters. Very exciting.
Judge introducing Matlyn Sein(sp?). She is going to be our new County Ag Extension Agent. She has a BA from Sam Houston State. Masters in nutrition research. Goal is to become an agricultural scientist. Ponton says rents are cheaper in Presidio and there are more youth in Presidio. From Lake Jackson, TX. Official start date is May 1st. By June training will be ver and sh will start working for Presidio County. Aranda recommends talking to Diana Baeza at the Presidio high school.
Item 5: payroll approval. Judge asks Treasurer if there is anything extraordinary. No. Just over 96,000. Aranda motions to approve. Second by Knight. Unanimous
Item 6: bids for trust properties. Aranda says this has been working out fine. Judge motions to approve. Second by Aranda. Unanimous
Item 7: renewal of affordable care act reporting and tracking service. IRS forms Treasurer has to do. TAC helps with this since our payroll system does not track this. TAC only charges to mail forms to employees.
Unanimous
Item 8-11 Still no action. Still not sent to us from Blanca. Waiting on papers from TXDOT. Judge called Austin to ask if County is at risk of losing projects. No, County is not at risk. Joe Portillo confirms that environmental studies have been done.
Item 12: 2018 Operation Stonegarden grant. Resolution read by Knight. Assures funds will be spent properly. Judge is grantee authorizing official. Knight motions to approve. Second by Guevara. Unanimous. Patty Roach says this covers overtime for officers working with Border Patrol on their operations. No equipment purchases. Some money for vehicle maintenance.
Operations border patrol requests are covered. No other overtime covered.
Item 13: Evaluation team for new Outside Auditor. Roach says that there have been multiple firms interested. Five firms so far. Judge nominates Frances Garcia, Natalia Williams and herself to be on the team. Makes motion. Unanimous.
Item 14: approve that Presidio EMS and Fire Dept present their reports at the monthly meetings in Presidio instead of at the regular meeting in Marfa. Better opportunity to communicate with commissioners.
EMS brought their report today.
17 runs to Candelaria in January. Virtually impossible to expect any reimbursement. Discussion about Candelaria mileage, call load, service interruptions, transports to hospital. Ambulances are having mechanical issues.
Judge wants to have EMS Director Melinda help educate the commissioners on all these issues. Including border patrol station calls.
Border station calls that are non-emergency may no longer be covered.
Melinda is looking at indigent care grants for next hospital district funding period. Planning on putting in requests. Joe Portillo has also requested to be on the hospital district board.
Ponton talks about City of Presidio and port of entry calls. Many calls from port of entry. Typo. Approximately 40 per year. 10-15% collection rate.
Portillo says that City of Presidio has serious health care issues. Urgent care services don’t exist in Presidio. Preventive care exists.
City is studying these issues with a professional firm. Pop is now about 5800.
Aranda is glad to have some reliable numbers.
Presidio hospital district office needs to do indigent care outreach.
Presidio now has a basic EMT education program available through the Workforce Solutions and Presidio EMS.
Judge motions to approve submissions of reports at Presidio meetings. Unanimous
Item 15 and 16: authorize county judge to seek safe routes to school TAP grant funding. Approve engineering services for preliminary application. Due April 12.
Project she wants to apply for is safe routes to school. No matching funds required. Sidewalks for kids, mostly. She wants to do a sidewalk from HWY 90 up Mesa st by MAC building, up past the schools, up Austin st back to the highway.
Knight moves to approve. Second by Aranda, unanimous. Engineering services: judge says that she, Patty and city officials met and city has an engineer from Parkhill Smith and Cooper who can do the support work on the preliminary. $10,000 possibly less. Works with city on their portion of this project and additional related work. Judge wants to work with him. If pre-application is approved there will be a competitive RFQ for engineers.
Aranda wants to know how much funding could be available. Construction costs are 100% reimbursable but this money will not be reimbursed.
It’s side of project is focused on south side and connecting bike trail. Knight would like a written contract with engineer. Judge says we can postpone. He is ready to work and submit by the end of the week. Commissioners can look at the product before approval at next meeting.
April 3 is next commissioners court meeting. Judge motions to postpone, second by Knight. Unanimous.
Item 17: airport Aviation Equipment Lease with AvFuel Corp for refueled truck.
Chase is not here, doctors follow up. Thrifty day use of truck during paving project.
Subject to change April 8. 3,025.00.
Ponton says this is standard, nothing out of the ordinary. Aranda motions to accept. Second by Knight. Unanimous
Item 18: line item transfers: Patty Roach presents: purchase new table for county judge office, telephone headsets. Airport: repairs and maintenance .
County clerk: telephone headset
Unanimous
Item 19: bills.
Treasurer says nothing out of the ordinary.
Autopsy expense for auto wreck individual.
Unanimous
Item 20: announcements from Judge and commissioners
Judge says that there was a meeting yesterday in Marfa. Wildfire preparedness. Numerous first responder agencies.
Meeting was good.
She says Presidio County needs an EMC in Presidio.
Texas Forest Service is looking to having training in Marfa for emergency management.
Try to ask Mexico not to burn when winds are high. Burning alfalfa fields. Natural fertilizer, but if it jumps river, it’s our problem.
Border patrol has grants available to make fire breaks.
There will be another meeting April 25th in Ojinaga or May 1st there as well.
Barbara Baskin says she is in terror in Redford anytime a fire is near because former farmlands next to her are overgrown and dangerous fire fuel. Can county make a rule that fields be tended to?
Some farming has started again in Mexico.
Judge says she wants budget done by July 31st.
Aranda says that he got a message that there is a bill to support county infrastructure plans paid for from the Rainy Day Fund. Wants Ruben Carrasco to prepare a list of needs including disaster preparedness.
Ruben has already sent it in.
Item 21: adjourn at 12:32 pm
Meeting convened at 10:08 AM
Present: Aranda, Guevara, Knight. Absent: Bentley, Cabezuela. Also present: County Atty Ponton
Citizen Comments: Barbara Baskin: Redford community called for an unscheduled meeting. Tank repairs presented by Ramon Carrasco.
Wants to know what the grant project number is for Redford water project. Rains are coming, talks about her road.
Has spent $1200 clearing road of sediment that County worker dropped. Meeting in Redford of commissioners occurred while she was gone. She needs help.
Judge says that County now has forms citizens can fill out and county can respond to.
Baskin says this is awfully hard. Asks if grant documents are at the courthouse, has that happened. Judge says that they have those documents.
Joe Portillo, city of Presidio. They had a charter meeting last night. Home rule charter will be put to voters. Very exciting.
Judge introducing Matlyn Sein(sp?). She is going to be our new County Ag Extension Agent. She has a BA from Sam Houston State. Masters in nutrition research. Goal is to become an agricultural scientist. Ponton says rents are cheaper in Presidio and there are more youth in Presidio. From Lake Jackson, TX. Official start date is May 1st. By June training will be ver and sh will start working for Presidio County. Aranda recommends talking to Diana Baeza at the Presidio high school.
Item 5: payroll approval. Judge asks Treasurer if there is anything extraordinary. No. Just over 96,000. Aranda motions to approve. Second by Knight. Unanimous
Item 6: bids for trust properties. Aranda says this has been working out fine. Judge motions to approve. Second by Aranda. Unanimous
Item 7: renewal of affordable care act reporting and tracking service. IRS forms Treasurer has to do. TAC helps with this since our payroll system does not track this. TAC only charges to mail forms to employees.
Unanimous
Item 8-11 Still no action. Still not sent to us from Blanca. Waiting on papers from TXDOT. Judge called Austin to ask if County is at risk of losing projects. No, County is not at risk. Joe Portillo confirms that environmental studies have been done.
Item 12: 2018 Operation Stonegarden grant. Resolution read by Knight. Assures funds will be spent properly. Judge is grantee authorizing official. Knight motions to approve. Second by Guevara. Unanimous. Patty Roach says this covers overtime for officers working with Border Patrol on their operations. No equipment purchases. Some money for vehicle maintenance.
Operations border patrol requests are covered. No other overtime covered.
Item 13: Evaluation team for new Outside Auditor. Roach says that there have been multiple firms interested. Five firms so far. Judge nominates Frances Garcia, Natalia Williams and herself to be on the team. Makes motion. Unanimous.
Item 14: approve that Presidio EMS and Fire Dept present their reports at the monthly meetings in Presidio instead of at the regular meeting in Marfa. Better opportunity to communicate with commissioners.
EMS brought their report today.
17 runs to Candelaria in January. Virtually impossible to expect any reimbursement. Discussion about Candelaria mileage, call load, service interruptions, transports to hospital. Ambulances are having mechanical issues.
Judge wants to have EMS Director Melinda help educate the commissioners on all these issues. Including border patrol station calls.
Border station calls that are non-emergency may no longer be covered.
Melinda is looking at indigent care grants for next hospital district funding period. Planning on putting in requests. Joe Portillo has also requested to be on the hospital district board.
Ponton talks about City of Presidio and port of entry calls. Many calls from port of entry. Typo. Approximately 40 per year. 10-15% collection rate.
Portillo says that City of Presidio has serious health care issues. Urgent care services don’t exist in Presidio. Preventive care exists.
City is studying these issues with a professional firm. Pop is now about 5800.
Aranda is glad to have some reliable numbers.
Presidio hospital district office needs to do indigent care outreach.
Presidio now has a basic EMT education program available through the Workforce Solutions and Presidio EMS.
Judge motions to approve submissions of reports at Presidio meetings. Unanimous
Item 15 and 16: authorize county judge to seek safe routes to school TAP grant funding. Approve engineering services for preliminary application. Due April 12.
Project she wants to apply for is safe routes to school. No matching funds required. Sidewalks for kids, mostly. She wants to do a sidewalk from HWY 90 up Mesa st by MAC building, up past the schools, up Austin st back to the highway.
Knight moves to approve. Second by Aranda, unanimous. Engineering services: judge says that she, Patty and city officials met and city has an engineer from Parkhill Smith and Cooper who can do the support work on the preliminary. $10,000 possibly less. Works with city on their portion of this project and additional related work. Judge wants to work with him. If pre-application is approved there will be a competitive RFQ for engineers.
Aranda wants to know how much funding could be available. Construction costs are 100% reimbursable but this money will not be reimbursed.
It’s side of project is focused on south side and connecting bike trail. Knight would like a written contract with engineer. Judge says we can postpone. He is ready to work and submit by the end of the week. Commissioners can look at the product before approval at next meeting.
April 3 is next commissioners court meeting. Judge motions to postpone, second by Knight. Unanimous.
Item 17: airport Aviation Equipment Lease with AvFuel Corp for refueled truck.
Chase is not here, doctors follow up. Thrifty day use of truck during paving project.
Subject to change April 8. 3,025.00.
Ponton says this is standard, nothing out of the ordinary. Aranda motions to accept. Second by Knight. Unanimous
Item 18: line item transfers: Patty Roach presents: purchase new table for county judge office, telephone headsets. Airport: repairs and maintenance .
County clerk: telephone headset
Unanimous
Item 19: bills.
Treasurer says nothing out of the ordinary.
Autopsy expense for auto wreck individual.
Unanimous
Item 20: announcements from Judge and commissioners
Judge says that there was a meeting yesterday in Marfa. Wildfire preparedness. Numerous first responder agencies.
Meeting was good.
She says Presidio County needs an EMC in Presidio.
Texas Forest Service is looking to having training in Marfa for emergency management.
Try to ask Mexico not to burn when winds are high. Burning alfalfa fields. Natural fertilizer, but if it jumps river, it’s our problem.
Border patrol has grants available to make fire breaks.
There will be another meeting April 25th in Ojinaga or May 1st there as well.
Barbara Baskin says she is in terror in Redford anytime a fire is near because former farmlands next to her are overgrown and dangerous fire fuel. Can county make a rule that fields be tended to?
Some farming has started again in Mexico.
Judge says she wants budget done by July 31st.
Aranda says that he got a message that there is a bill to support county infrastructure plans paid for from the Rainy Day Fund. Wants Ruben Carrasco to prepare a list of needs including disaster preparedness.
Ruben has already sent it in.
Item 21: adjourn at 12:32 pm
Notes on Presidio County Commissioners Court Meeting March 16, 2019
Notes on Presidio County Commissioners Court Regular Meeting Wednesday March 6, 2019, 10:30 AM, Marfa
Present: Buddy Knight, Cinderela Guevara, Eloy Aranda
Absent: Brenda Bentley, Jose Cabezuela, Co Atty Ponton
Meeting convened at 10:46 AM
Citizen Comments:
TAC Rep announces award for no workers comp claims last year. Gives credit to County and in particular Treasurer Garcia.
Item 5: Payroll approval. Judge says that deputies asked about Holiday comp time pay. County has moved to overtime instead of comp time. Holiday comp time is a pending matter for another agenda.
97,341.05 total payroll.
Approved unanimously
Item 6: Mona Garcia presents appointment of Genevieve Bassham to Presidio County Historic Commission. Gives Genevieve’s history as former Mayor and councilwoman in Marfa. Approved unanimously.
Item 7: Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District appointment of Ruben Brito to represent S County. Unanimously approved.
Trey says board will meet second Thursday of each month at ten AM instead of quarterly. Production permit holders (2 in the County) . Have asked them to pay for their water. Cibolo and Village Farms. They have paid up. Approved six drilling permits. Carolyn McCartney will visit well sites they are drilled. Rudy Garcia will assist with expertise. Working on setting up some monitoring wells. Artesian Wells ( unable to be turned off) concerns. Rudy Garcia will be working on capping any that are not needed. Talking about water usage outside of district jurisdiction, between districts. Issue in Culberson County; district does not cover the whole county. Mention of City of El Paso Dell City pipeline plan.
That directly relates to Valentine water ranchers owned by City of El Paso and planning for that impact here.
Item 8: 2017 Annual audited financial report. Doak Painter presents.
Auditors opinion: no adverse material findings.
Numbers were solid, a few adjustments.
Management analysis: net position decreased by approx 47,000.
Jail slight decrease.
Positive budget fund. Spent less than budgeted and also collected a little more than anticipated.
Net capital assets of just over 11 million.
Judge Guevara asks about p 38 payroll retirement contribution.
Aranda says it’s a good audit, yes? What is his personal opinion. Doak says this is an unqualified opinion. Unmodified. Same as last year.
Aranda would like to thank the employees for doing a good job of helping get things in order. He thanks Doak as well. They wish he would keep auditing the County. Doak says it’s time to move on.
Abbie Perrault wants to know who the next auditor will be. Judge says that there is an agenda item for going out for bids. Also asks about a forensic audit of the tax office by inside auditor. Patty says that the process is ongoing, preliminary work is being done by county auditor. Patty says hat she has not completed that process yet.
Asks about bank reconciliations. Treasurer says they are up to date.
Judge motions to accept the financial report. Knight seconds. Unanimously adopted
Item 9: Redford new storage tank approval. Presented by Ramon Carrasco.
Proposed new tank out of coated and painted steel instead of raw galvanized. Having problems with general contractor pricing. Need foundation and tank, second contractor for piping, plumbing, third contractor for electrical control and lighting top of tank.
Possibility for County to do some of this work. County will definitely do granting and some other things for the County match to grant.
Bidding process will start soon. Judge asks about tank leak and location of new tank. Tank will be built higher up for more pressure, but location would have been too high, providing too much pressure downhill. Going to leave old tank, fix it, possibly provide booster pumps for Mr Morales. City of Presidio has the same problem with too much pressure. Legally it’s the duty of the water Corp to provide at least 32 psi to Mr Morales on the hill.
Booster pump should only be about $5000. If there is money left over they can ask the State to use leftover money to buy the pump and County employees can install it. Aranda asks if after this we’ll have two tanks so that one can be in use while other is being fixed or cleaned.
Knight moves to approve. Aranda seconds
Unanimous. Going out for bids next week. Plans need to be approved. Not on agenda. Patty says that since the plans and specifications are approved we can go out for bids.
Abbie Perrault asks about updates on Candelaria wells and arsenic reduction in Candelaria and Redford? Not on the agenda but Judge asks Ramon for update. Gives update. Work is being done. Unknown as to whether water is potable.
Item 10: Trust property bids:
Aranda motions to approve bids
Second by Guevara. Unanimous
Item 11: mixed beverage permit tax collection.
Natalia says that only beer and wine licenses have been collected. Asking for approval to collect on MB permits. Roughly $3500-4000 every two years.
Beer and wine is 60-175 every two years. Judge Beebe asks what the basis of the difference in cost is. Unknown.
Want to issue a letter before bills go out to inform license holders.
Motion by Knight to approve.
Second by Guevara
Unanimous
Item 12: rental of County information resources information. Aka email system with TAC.
Judge motions to approve. Auditor asks for clarification of email items in motion because the bill has already been received. Email service and website services are separate. 800 for website hosting plus 725 for website content management. Judge changes motion to approve. 800 for email.
Search query in email no longer works properly. Knight seconds. Unanimous
Item 13: Ruben Carrasco presents to have Zeke Rodarte work on Chispa rd and donate materials. Permission for cattle guard, assorted related.
Judge asks about whether any of this is on his private property. Ruben says road has been flooded, only way to get through is to enter via private land. This pr-dates his employment. Zeke is willing to give access to County on his own access road. Wants County to maintain.
Judge clarifies that it is a private road he is wanting to let county use. Judge says that we cannot do any work on private roads. Knight suggests seeing if he will donate this land to the County. Beebe agrees that the county need to buy the land or have it donated before any work can be done.
Judge asks about the emergency route, does that change anything? Existing county road is impassable when rains came.
Ruben recommends going through the County Atty or any Atty to go through the proper legal procedures to make this happen.
Aranda says it would need to be designated a true county road and always available to the public.
Aranda would like to find out more about emergency routes and rules governing them.
Ruben says there is a black age on the river and any time it rains just a little there is a backup and the road is impassable.
Judge says that County Roads 101 on Texas Progress website has some information.
Cattle guard issue is different.
Knight moves to postpone pending further information.
Second by Aranda. Unanimous
Item 14: designate area near golf course for Road and Bridge Dept secure yard.
Knight did the work on this along with Ruben.
This could also be a place that could store emergency management equipment under cover once a structure is built.
8.5 acres will provide room for expansion.
Knight moves to accept.
Second by Judge
Unanimous
Item 15: donating excess materials to City of Presidio. Acquired at no cost from TXDOT. Unused hot and cold mix.
Aranda moves to accept
Second by Knight
Unanimous
Item 16: Renewal or burn ban.
Gary Mitschke says conditions are not yet all that critical but they are getting there. Winds are pretty bad. Fire season is coming. Fires in Presidio were all from Mexico but it is time for proactive movement. Not enough Presidio Fire Volunteers. Unanimous
Item 17: acceptance of donated land.
Location is western edge of Presidio County, two miles from road access.
Property is within an estate. Judge asks about mineral rights.
Deed will reflect rights. They want to dispose of property.
Twenty acres, no access.
Ruben recommend not to accept.
Taxes every year are $72.35
Permission to cross land is very hard to obtain.
Aranda motions to deny.
Second by Knight. Unanimous
Ten minute break at 1:02 pm.
Reconvene at 1:14
Item 18: resolution about wall construction regarding studies by TWDB and the TCEQ before any wall construction. Flooding issues, etc.
City of Presidio and Presidio County have historic vulnerability to flooding.
Support of Hurd’s bill for a “smart wall”
Judge reads resolution supporting Texas HB 990 written by Roland Gutierrez
Judge says that she has been receiving email from Roland Gutierrez for a few months. Met with him in person to understand issues. She agreed to bring it to commissioners court. City of Presidio adopted similar resolution.
She is in agreement with Hurd’s smart wall over a physical barrier.
Hurd bill did not pass house.
Roland Gutierrrez’s goal is to have the support of all Texas border counties and cities.
Knight says he thinks a wall is not the answer, he wants a secure border. We need better ways for people to become citizens, faster and better, filter out the band people. Wall is not feasible out here because of terrain.
Eminent domain issues.
Aranda says we know what all this is going to bring. For property owners along the river it’s going to create huge problems.
Aranda wants to help Mr Hurd convince Congress to see it his way.
City of Presidio passed resolution.
Judge motions to accept.
Second by Aranda
Unanimous
Items 19-22
TAP grants issues. Still waiting on TXDOT documents. Item needs to be postponed again.
Item 23- RFP financial audit services.
Process to take bids for outside auditing firm.
Two year term with opt out.
Single audit will likely be required for federal grants. More costly. Not yet required but add on price will be requested.
Advertising required.
Knight moves to approve.
Second by Aranda
Unanimous
Item 24: purchase of jeans for Sheriffs Dept. Sheriff wrote a letter. Says that deputies are required to have jeans and after they are used are returned to the Dept. There is no way these could be considered personal. This is the first time he has ever had to ask permission from commissioners to buy jeans for his staff.
Auditor says that our policy says that personal use items must be approved through commissioners court.
IRS considers jeans to be personal use items. Commissioners can approve without an issue. Policy could be modified in the future to designate personal use items that can be purchased without commissioners permission.
Commissioners need to approve the exception to the policy.
Knight moves to approve.
Aranda seconds
Unanimous
Policy will be worked on.
Item 25: minutes from previous meetings
Jan 23 and Feb 6, 20
Unanimous
Five minute break at 1:49
Back from break at 1:51
Items 26,27 auditor items
Line item transfers
Airport fund moving around to pay match on runway design fee.
VA office transfer for fuel card
Budget amendments
Estray fund: no budget established to feed cattle. LEOS funds from State restricted for law enforcement training. Unanticipated funds received from State. Add $2110 into budget.
2018 Stonegarden grant has been submitted and certified. State is reviewing and will send back for corrections or court approval of grant resolution to receive funding.
Officers now must be trained in Border Patrol system to export on Stonegarden patrols. Training has not yet happened.
Overtime worked with border patrol reimbursed and some vehicle maintenance reimbursement.
County had to withdraw from TXCDBG 2019-2020 grant because of ineligibility. This is because the other ones have not yet been completed. Redford and Candelaria.
Patty has some concerns. Grant administrator was hired for both projects.
Getting bids has been very hard but there are other possible issues.
Grant works was admin.
Aranda has a lot to say about the status of each project.
Unanimously approved
Item 26: Treasurers report:
Frances says everything is pretty standard.
Accepted unanimously
Bills: no November report from City of Presidio. Frances says that October is missing as well. But yesterday they forwarded them to office.
Approved unanimously
Balances approved unanimously
Consent agenda reports:
Problems receiving Presidio Fire Dept reports in a timely fashion. Judge would like to move to having them report monthly.
Reports approved
Announcements
Knight says water line at golf course is being repaired.
No date for jail reopening.
Judge says that she received a text two Thursdays ago from Joe Portillo that there were no ambulances available in Presidio. This frightened her.
She called hospital district.
Asked for help and she called Big Bend hospital. Rick Flores from hospital got First Flight to cover for Presidio for that time. That option is still available.
Both cities are down to one ambulance right now.
Presidio County contribution to hospital district is now $900,000.
Judge wants to have this as part of a permanent plan for service.
Fire was next day in the river. Congressman Hurd called to check up on the situation. Brewster County just received a new giant water truck that we can use as well in an emergency.
Austin trip was a good trip. Everyone should go next time.
TXDOT Aviation meeting went well, wanted clarity on why we were denied Omnibus grant. Can’t guarantee that grant will be eligible again this year if it comes back. Other people had the right connections.
New economic study by TXDOT aviation is out and you can see the impact of airports, including both of ours.
SB 440 may have a clause in it that might make us have to pay back city hotel motel funds. Need to research.
She went to TAP workshop in El Paso. She realized that a route by the school no match is necessary. City of Marfa was there and already have projects planned. Application is due by April 12.
US 67 corridor Meeting tomorrow morning.
Aranda asks about Chase and his contract.
Jim Allison has been called, waiting on word to get this going.
Judge Beebe mentions that this could be an open meetings violation. No, says Judge, this was already decided.
Adjourn at 2:51 PM

Present: Buddy Knight, Cinderela Guevara, Eloy Aranda
Absent: Brenda Bentley, Jose Cabezuela, Co Atty Ponton
Meeting convened at 10:46 AM
Citizen Comments:
TAC Rep announces award for no workers comp claims last year. Gives credit to County and in particular Treasurer Garcia.
Item 5: Payroll approval. Judge says that deputies asked about Holiday comp time pay. County has moved to overtime instead of comp time. Holiday comp time is a pending matter for another agenda.
97,341.05 total payroll.
Approved unanimously
Item 6: Mona Garcia presents appointment of Genevieve Bassham to Presidio County Historic Commission. Gives Genevieve’s history as former Mayor and councilwoman in Marfa. Approved unanimously.
Item 7: Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District appointment of Ruben Brito to represent S County. Unanimously approved.
Trey says board will meet second Thursday of each month at ten AM instead of quarterly. Production permit holders (2 in the County) . Have asked them to pay for their water. Cibolo and Village Farms. They have paid up. Approved six drilling permits. Carolyn McCartney will visit well sites they are drilled. Rudy Garcia will assist with expertise. Working on setting up some monitoring wells. Artesian Wells ( unable to be turned off) concerns. Rudy Garcia will be working on capping any that are not needed. Talking about water usage outside of district jurisdiction, between districts. Issue in Culberson County; district does not cover the whole county. Mention of City of El Paso Dell City pipeline plan.
That directly relates to Valentine water ranchers owned by City of El Paso and planning for that impact here.
Item 8: 2017 Annual audited financial report. Doak Painter presents.
Auditors opinion: no adverse material findings.
Numbers were solid, a few adjustments.
Management analysis: net position decreased by approx 47,000.
Jail slight decrease.
Positive budget fund. Spent less than budgeted and also collected a little more than anticipated.
Net capital assets of just over 11 million.
Judge Guevara asks about p 38 payroll retirement contribution.
Aranda says it’s a good audit, yes? What is his personal opinion. Doak says this is an unqualified opinion. Unmodified. Same as last year.
Aranda would like to thank the employees for doing a good job of helping get things in order. He thanks Doak as well. They wish he would keep auditing the County. Doak says it’s time to move on.
Abbie Perrault wants to know who the next auditor will be. Judge says that there is an agenda item for going out for bids. Also asks about a forensic audit of the tax office by inside auditor. Patty says that the process is ongoing, preliminary work is being done by county auditor. Patty says hat she has not completed that process yet.
Asks about bank reconciliations. Treasurer says they are up to date.
Judge motions to accept the financial report. Knight seconds. Unanimously adopted
Item 9: Redford new storage tank approval. Presented by Ramon Carrasco.
Proposed new tank out of coated and painted steel instead of raw galvanized. Having problems with general contractor pricing. Need foundation and tank, second contractor for piping, plumbing, third contractor for electrical control and lighting top of tank.
Possibility for County to do some of this work. County will definitely do granting and some other things for the County match to grant.
Bidding process will start soon. Judge asks about tank leak and location of new tank. Tank will be built higher up for more pressure, but location would have been too high, providing too much pressure downhill. Going to leave old tank, fix it, possibly provide booster pumps for Mr Morales. City of Presidio has the same problem with too much pressure. Legally it’s the duty of the water Corp to provide at least 32 psi to Mr Morales on the hill.
Booster pump should only be about $5000. If there is money left over they can ask the State to use leftover money to buy the pump and County employees can install it. Aranda asks if after this we’ll have two tanks so that one can be in use while other is being fixed or cleaned.
Knight moves to approve. Aranda seconds
Unanimous. Going out for bids next week. Plans need to be approved. Not on agenda. Patty says that since the plans and specifications are approved we can go out for bids.
Abbie Perrault asks about updates on Candelaria wells and arsenic reduction in Candelaria and Redford? Not on the agenda but Judge asks Ramon for update. Gives update. Work is being done. Unknown as to whether water is potable.
Item 10: Trust property bids:
Aranda motions to approve bids
Second by Guevara. Unanimous
Item 11: mixed beverage permit tax collection.
Natalia says that only beer and wine licenses have been collected. Asking for approval to collect on MB permits. Roughly $3500-4000 every two years.
Beer and wine is 60-175 every two years. Judge Beebe asks what the basis of the difference in cost is. Unknown.
Want to issue a letter before bills go out to inform license holders.
Motion by Knight to approve.
Second by Guevara
Unanimous
Item 12: rental of County information resources information. Aka email system with TAC.
Judge motions to approve. Auditor asks for clarification of email items in motion because the bill has already been received. Email service and website services are separate. 800 for website hosting plus 725 for website content management. Judge changes motion to approve. 800 for email.
Search query in email no longer works properly. Knight seconds. Unanimous
Item 13: Ruben Carrasco presents to have Zeke Rodarte work on Chispa rd and donate materials. Permission for cattle guard, assorted related.
Judge asks about whether any of this is on his private property. Ruben says road has been flooded, only way to get through is to enter via private land. This pr-dates his employment. Zeke is willing to give access to County on his own access road. Wants County to maintain.
Judge clarifies that it is a private road he is wanting to let county use. Judge says that we cannot do any work on private roads. Knight suggests seeing if he will donate this land to the County. Beebe agrees that the county need to buy the land or have it donated before any work can be done.
Judge asks about the emergency route, does that change anything? Existing county road is impassable when rains came.
Ruben recommends going through the County Atty or any Atty to go through the proper legal procedures to make this happen.
Aranda says it would need to be designated a true county road and always available to the public.
Aranda would like to find out more about emergency routes and rules governing them.
Ruben says there is a black age on the river and any time it rains just a little there is a backup and the road is impassable.
Judge says that County Roads 101 on Texas Progress website has some information.
Cattle guard issue is different.
Knight moves to postpone pending further information.
Second by Aranda. Unanimous
Item 14: designate area near golf course for Road and Bridge Dept secure yard.
Knight did the work on this along with Ruben.
This could also be a place that could store emergency management equipment under cover once a structure is built.
8.5 acres will provide room for expansion.
Knight moves to accept.
Second by Judge
Unanimous
Item 15: donating excess materials to City of Presidio. Acquired at no cost from TXDOT. Unused hot and cold mix.
Aranda moves to accept
Second by Knight
Unanimous
Item 16: Renewal or burn ban.
Gary Mitschke says conditions are not yet all that critical but they are getting there. Winds are pretty bad. Fire season is coming. Fires in Presidio were all from Mexico but it is time for proactive movement. Not enough Presidio Fire Volunteers. Unanimous
Item 17: acceptance of donated land.
Location is western edge of Presidio County, two miles from road access.
Property is within an estate. Judge asks about mineral rights.
Deed will reflect rights. They want to dispose of property.
Twenty acres, no access.
Ruben recommend not to accept.
Taxes every year are $72.35
Permission to cross land is very hard to obtain.
Aranda motions to deny.
Second by Knight. Unanimous
Ten minute break at 1:02 pm.
Reconvene at 1:14
Item 18: resolution about wall construction regarding studies by TWDB and the TCEQ before any wall construction. Flooding issues, etc.
City of Presidio and Presidio County have historic vulnerability to flooding.
Support of Hurd’s bill for a “smart wall”
Judge reads resolution supporting Texas HB 990 written by Roland Gutierrez
Judge says that she has been receiving email from Roland Gutierrez for a few months. Met with him in person to understand issues. She agreed to bring it to commissioners court. City of Presidio adopted similar resolution.
She is in agreement with Hurd’s smart wall over a physical barrier.
Hurd bill did not pass house.
Roland Gutierrrez’s goal is to have the support of all Texas border counties and cities.
Knight says he thinks a wall is not the answer, he wants a secure border. We need better ways for people to become citizens, faster and better, filter out the band people. Wall is not feasible out here because of terrain.
Eminent domain issues.
Aranda says we know what all this is going to bring. For property owners along the river it’s going to create huge problems.
Aranda wants to help Mr Hurd convince Congress to see it his way.
City of Presidio passed resolution.
Judge motions to accept.
Second by Aranda
Unanimous
Items 19-22
TAP grants issues. Still waiting on TXDOT documents. Item needs to be postponed again.
Item 23- RFP financial audit services.
Process to take bids for outside auditing firm.
Two year term with opt out.
Single audit will likely be required for federal grants. More costly. Not yet required but add on price will be requested.
Advertising required.
Knight moves to approve.
Second by Aranda
Unanimous
Item 24: purchase of jeans for Sheriffs Dept. Sheriff wrote a letter. Says that deputies are required to have jeans and after they are used are returned to the Dept. There is no way these could be considered personal. This is the first time he has ever had to ask permission from commissioners to buy jeans for his staff.
Auditor says that our policy says that personal use items must be approved through commissioners court.
IRS considers jeans to be personal use items. Commissioners can approve without an issue. Policy could be modified in the future to designate personal use items that can be purchased without commissioners permission.
Commissioners need to approve the exception to the policy.
Knight moves to approve.
Aranda seconds
Unanimous
Policy will be worked on.
Item 25: minutes from previous meetings
Jan 23 and Feb 6, 20
Unanimous
Five minute break at 1:49
Back from break at 1:51
Items 26,27 auditor items
Line item transfers
Airport fund moving around to pay match on runway design fee.
VA office transfer for fuel card
Budget amendments
Estray fund: no budget established to feed cattle. LEOS funds from State restricted for law enforcement training. Unanticipated funds received from State. Add $2110 into budget.
2018 Stonegarden grant has been submitted and certified. State is reviewing and will send back for corrections or court approval of grant resolution to receive funding.
Officers now must be trained in Border Patrol system to export on Stonegarden patrols. Training has not yet happened.
Overtime worked with border patrol reimbursed and some vehicle maintenance reimbursement.
County had to withdraw from TXCDBG 2019-2020 grant because of ineligibility. This is because the other ones have not yet been completed. Redford and Candelaria.
Patty has some concerns. Grant administrator was hired for both projects.
Getting bids has been very hard but there are other possible issues.
Grant works was admin.
Aranda has a lot to say about the status of each project.
Unanimously approved
Item 26: Treasurers report:
Frances says everything is pretty standard.
Accepted unanimously
Bills: no November report from City of Presidio. Frances says that October is missing as well. But yesterday they forwarded them to office.
Approved unanimously
Balances approved unanimously
Consent agenda reports:
Problems receiving Presidio Fire Dept reports in a timely fashion. Judge would like to move to having them report monthly.
Reports approved
Announcements
Knight says water line at golf course is being repaired.
No date for jail reopening.
Judge says that she received a text two Thursdays ago from Joe Portillo that there were no ambulances available in Presidio. This frightened her.
She called hospital district.
Asked for help and she called Big Bend hospital. Rick Flores from hospital got First Flight to cover for Presidio for that time. That option is still available.
Both cities are down to one ambulance right now.
Presidio County contribution to hospital district is now $900,000.
Judge wants to have this as part of a permanent plan for service.
Fire was next day in the river. Congressman Hurd called to check up on the situation. Brewster County just received a new giant water truck that we can use as well in an emergency.
Austin trip was a good trip. Everyone should go next time.
TXDOT Aviation meeting went well, wanted clarity on why we were denied Omnibus grant. Can’t guarantee that grant will be eligible again this year if it comes back. Other people had the right connections.
New economic study by TXDOT aviation is out and you can see the impact of airports, including both of ours.
SB 440 may have a clause in it that might make us have to pay back city hotel motel funds. Need to research.
She went to TAP workshop in El Paso. She realized that a route by the school no match is necessary. City of Marfa was there and already have projects planned. Application is due by April 12.
US 67 corridor Meeting tomorrow morning.
Aranda asks about Chase and his contract.
Jim Allison has been called, waiting on word to get this going.
Judge Beebe mentions that this could be an open meetings violation. No, says Judge, this was already decided.
Adjourn at 2:51 PM

Notes on Presidio County Commissioners Court Meeting Feb 20, 2019
Notes on Presidio County Commissioners County Meeting Wednesday 02-20-2019, Noon, Presidio County Annex, Presidio
Commissioners present: Aranda, Bentley, Knight, Judge Guevara.
Absent: Jose Cabezuela County Atty Ponton not present
Meeting called to order at 12:20 PM
Citizen Comments: none
Approval of payroll Feb 4-17
Treasurer says nothing extraordinary.
95,229.70
Dispatch overtime hours total 57.
Judge motions to approve. Second by Aranda. Unanimous
Item 6: no action for Item from Trey Gerfers, not present to present to commissioners. Judge says no action.
Item 7: discuss and approve contract between county and hospital district. Natalia Williams presents. This is a three month proposed contract. Will get all entities to approve at the same time. County Atty was sent docs, did not respond. Natalia says these are the same terms as prior with three and half percent increase.
Court would approve, then send to hospital district. Aranda motions to approve. Second by Knight. Unanimous
Item 8: Discussion to remove all non Presidio County employees from health insurance policy. Presented by Treasurer Garcia.
Says we are trying to find out how long we have been paying for policies for Juvenile Probation Dept, two people, and also for the District Court reporter
For a couple of years they have been trying to get these out of the county. There is some reimbursement from other counties. Hudspeth Brewster, Culberson and Jeff Davis counties. Our retirement policy says that if they retire county will have to continue to pay their health insurance for life.
Knight asks if she is considered an employee of Presidio County. No. Does that make us liable for her continuing insurance? Why was this the first place.
Back when tri County probation Dept was established Presidio County was chosen because of the reduced cost of Presidio County insurance.
Judge says this is still the cheapest way for the County to cover our share since our coverage is cheaper.
Frances says that the liability here is that the claims go against us. Judge says these people are employees doing a job. We shouldn’t hold this against them that they work for multiple counties.
Bentley wants to know what the actual proper way to do this would be.
Concerned with our policy of paying lifetime insurance for orders who work for the County for twenty years.
Discussion about who really would have to pay if they qualified under our policy for free insurance for life. Other counties can’t be forced to embrace this and or pay for it.
Bentley says that commissioners are the ones who choose to pay, the obligation to make a decision is with us.
Advocates for the actual fiscal agent to administer and pay.
Patty Roach says that an issue of being the fiscal agent for another agency the personnel policies of that agent apply to the employees beneath the administering agency. Are we getting into an issue with assuming a future and or current liability for another agent?
Judge Beebe mentions that the entire policy of providing lifetime free insurance obligates future commissioners courts and could be illegal to begin with. Judge Guevara interrupts and says this is not on the agenda and that committees are meeting to address policies.
Knight moves to table until more research can be done
Items 9, 10, 11,12 TXDOT did not provide documents, item tabled due to lack of materials.
Item 13: vehicle search for road and bridge Dept to replace two trucks. Potentially get some Sheriffs Dept vehicles if possible. Aranda says that years back we used grant vehicles declared as surplus to use for road and bridge. Apparently we cannot do that now. Joel Nuñez is going to talk to the head guy in the governors office to see what we can do insofar as what we can do with those vehicles. Wants a little bit of time for more research.
2018 Stonegarden grant is gong to kick in soon. We have so many vehicles sitting outside the Sheriffs Dept. He wants to table this item until next meeting. Judge says that next Stonegarden is not going to provide new vehicles.
There will be an auction in March possibly to sell vehicles and equipment. Possible that money could be used to purchase a new vehicle.
Frances Garcia says there are more worn out vehicles that can be sold.
More talk about an auction and declaring other vehicles and equipment surplus. Maybe advertising in Ojinaga would be good for the people looking for parts. All this stuff is worn out.
Motion to postpone by Aranda.
Unanimous
Reports by Dept
Marfa EMS, Presidio EMS and Presidio Fire received. Detailed reports. Eight runs to Candelaria this month. Stressing budget. Judge will meet with them to discuss budget on the 7th or 8th.
Discussion about the monies given to the Dept’s, are they use exclusively to fund the Dept?
Judge motions to approve reports. Unanimous.
Item 15: Airports personnel services item. No news. Rod Ponton says he won’t work on a contract for the County. He does not agree that moving forward with a sole source contract before receiving an opinion from the AG. Proposes that Chase Snodgrass write the contract and have Allison Bass review and have TXDOT review as well. Brenda said that Chase already did this and tried to have Allison Bass review it. Rod refused to rewrite it. Now Rod won’t do it, This doesn’t make sense.
Rod received and email from TXDOT aviation on Feb 6 that says that contractors and tenant agreements should be separate. Nobody has an issue with this. Agree that Chase basically already did this.
Patty Roach says that Rod is erroneously saying that this is a sole source contract. This is untrue. He is muddying the water. Knight and Bentley agree. Knight and Aranda say that Chase should send his contract to Allison Bass and send it to TXDOT for review and move forward.
Court overall agrees that Snodgrass is being blocked by Ponton, and that county needs to move ahead with a contract. Patty says the opinion he has requested has nothing to do with what is being considered here. Commissioners believe this to be a stalling tactic. Knight says we need to move forward now.
Judge will write a letter to Allison Bass. Aranda says this is going back and forth and back and forth. What does Rod’s mention of Nieto and Hernandez jail sentences have to do with this? Where is he? He said he would do this and now he’s not even here and says he won’t work on it. We need to move ahead and take Patty’s recommendation to move ahead. Knight agrees completely.
We risk losing Chase, we can’t take this risk right now. This project needs to be seen to completion, this could cost us so much time and money. Aranda says he’s fed up.
Knights one concern is where Chase plans on living during this, that is his only concern. Aranda says he does not want to leave until the projects are finished.
No action on this item.
Item 16: approval of Line item transfers and budget amendments.
Riding mower for golf course
Multiple accounts in departments for Cloud computing services. Server is worn out.
Software licensing for Hill Country software. Unanimous
Item 17: payments of all claims (bills)
Vizcaino Park water bill? Very high. Frances Garcia will check on that bill from City of Marfa. Approved unanimously.
Item 18: Announcements from Judge and Commissioners:
Judge says she had a meeting with Mark Pearson with possible oversight from Presidio over Candelaria water system. What is the cost? Discussions being had. New board is working out. TDA training for water manager will proceed at some point. The Candelaria WSC has a healthy budget considering how small they are.
Knight says that Marfa airport beacon got fixed thanks to Eddie Pallarez finding a bulb. Also AEP trimmed trees and took down the Christmas lights at the courthouse. Thanks to AEP.
Judge says courthouse heating and cooling system still having problems. Being worked on now, again.
Changes to TAPS and TASA grants. Cosmico US 67 project 12 ft wide use path. No longer going to be ADA compliant ramp, shade trees, benches. Not enough room, could present a safety issue.
Presidio Bagley project will also lose curbs, shade trees. Walkway may be narrower. Room is an issue there as well. Questions about lighting. Unknown at this point. Aranda says it’s very very important.
Marfa - not doing the Austin to Oak project because of railroad track. Will spend more money on the bridges by the school.
Funding for next go around coming up.
Judge will not be able to attend Census meeting on Feb 26. Commissioner Bentley agrees to substitute.
Judge provides pictures of new roofing options for jail roof repairs.
Judge says that a proposal to lease the golf course by a movie set may ind up being very time consuming, including a performance bid, etc etc. Bentley says that she thinks this person may be a small operator and it may not work out.
Knight says it would be a multi step process, good bit of work.
Judge met with the Red Cross regarding emergency management and sheltering. Discussed how to run a shelter. Possible immigrant scenarios.
Aranda says there are some Hondurans here staying at the Catholic Church Hall. Donations are being accepted.
Two buses of Hondurans showed up yesterday in Ojinaga. Red Cross can help if they come here. County has 150 cots at the Marfa airport. Presidio has some space at old school district building if emergency.
Adjourn at 2:16 pm
Commissioners present: Aranda, Bentley, Knight, Judge Guevara.
Absent: Jose Cabezuela County Atty Ponton not present
Meeting called to order at 12:20 PM
Citizen Comments: none
Approval of payroll Feb 4-17
Treasurer says nothing extraordinary.
95,229.70
Dispatch overtime hours total 57.
Judge motions to approve. Second by Aranda. Unanimous
Item 6: no action for Item from Trey Gerfers, not present to present to commissioners. Judge says no action.
Item 7: discuss and approve contract between county and hospital district. Natalia Williams presents. This is a three month proposed contract. Will get all entities to approve at the same time. County Atty was sent docs, did not respond. Natalia says these are the same terms as prior with three and half percent increase.
Court would approve, then send to hospital district. Aranda motions to approve. Second by Knight. Unanimous
Item 8: Discussion to remove all non Presidio County employees from health insurance policy. Presented by Treasurer Garcia.
Says we are trying to find out how long we have been paying for policies for Juvenile Probation Dept, two people, and also for the District Court reporter
For a couple of years they have been trying to get these out of the county. There is some reimbursement from other counties. Hudspeth Brewster, Culberson and Jeff Davis counties. Our retirement policy says that if they retire county will have to continue to pay their health insurance for life.
Knight asks if she is considered an employee of Presidio County. No. Does that make us liable for her continuing insurance? Why was this the first place.
Back when tri County probation Dept was established Presidio County was chosen because of the reduced cost of Presidio County insurance.
Judge says this is still the cheapest way for the County to cover our share since our coverage is cheaper.
Frances says that the liability here is that the claims go against us. Judge says these people are employees doing a job. We shouldn’t hold this against them that they work for multiple counties.
Bentley wants to know what the actual proper way to do this would be.
Concerned with our policy of paying lifetime insurance for orders who work for the County for twenty years.
Discussion about who really would have to pay if they qualified under our policy for free insurance for life. Other counties can’t be forced to embrace this and or pay for it.
Bentley says that commissioners are the ones who choose to pay, the obligation to make a decision is with us.
Advocates for the actual fiscal agent to administer and pay.
Patty Roach says that an issue of being the fiscal agent for another agency the personnel policies of that agent apply to the employees beneath the administering agency. Are we getting into an issue with assuming a future and or current liability for another agent?
Judge Beebe mentions that the entire policy of providing lifetime free insurance obligates future commissioners courts and could be illegal to begin with. Judge Guevara interrupts and says this is not on the agenda and that committees are meeting to address policies.
Knight moves to table until more research can be done
Items 9, 10, 11,12 TXDOT did not provide documents, item tabled due to lack of materials.
Item 13: vehicle search for road and bridge Dept to replace two trucks. Potentially get some Sheriffs Dept vehicles if possible. Aranda says that years back we used grant vehicles declared as surplus to use for road and bridge. Apparently we cannot do that now. Joel Nuñez is going to talk to the head guy in the governors office to see what we can do insofar as what we can do with those vehicles. Wants a little bit of time for more research.
2018 Stonegarden grant is gong to kick in soon. We have so many vehicles sitting outside the Sheriffs Dept. He wants to table this item until next meeting. Judge says that next Stonegarden is not going to provide new vehicles.
There will be an auction in March possibly to sell vehicles and equipment. Possible that money could be used to purchase a new vehicle.
Frances Garcia says there are more worn out vehicles that can be sold.
More talk about an auction and declaring other vehicles and equipment surplus. Maybe advertising in Ojinaga would be good for the people looking for parts. All this stuff is worn out.
Motion to postpone by Aranda.
Unanimous
Reports by Dept
Marfa EMS, Presidio EMS and Presidio Fire received. Detailed reports. Eight runs to Candelaria this month. Stressing budget. Judge will meet with them to discuss budget on the 7th or 8th.
Discussion about the monies given to the Dept’s, are they use exclusively to fund the Dept?
Judge motions to approve reports. Unanimous.
Item 15: Airports personnel services item. No news. Rod Ponton says he won’t work on a contract for the County. He does not agree that moving forward with a sole source contract before receiving an opinion from the AG. Proposes that Chase Snodgrass write the contract and have Allison Bass review and have TXDOT review as well. Brenda said that Chase already did this and tried to have Allison Bass review it. Rod refused to rewrite it. Now Rod won’t do it, This doesn’t make sense.
Rod received and email from TXDOT aviation on Feb 6 that says that contractors and tenant agreements should be separate. Nobody has an issue with this. Agree that Chase basically already did this.
Patty Roach says that Rod is erroneously saying that this is a sole source contract. This is untrue. He is muddying the water. Knight and Bentley agree. Knight and Aranda say that Chase should send his contract to Allison Bass and send it to TXDOT for review and move forward.
Court overall agrees that Snodgrass is being blocked by Ponton, and that county needs to move ahead with a contract. Patty says the opinion he has requested has nothing to do with what is being considered here. Commissioners believe this to be a stalling tactic. Knight says we need to move forward now.
Judge will write a letter to Allison Bass. Aranda says this is going back and forth and back and forth. What does Rod’s mention of Nieto and Hernandez jail sentences have to do with this? Where is he? He said he would do this and now he’s not even here and says he won’t work on it. We need to move ahead and take Patty’s recommendation to move ahead. Knight agrees completely.
We risk losing Chase, we can’t take this risk right now. This project needs to be seen to completion, this could cost us so much time and money. Aranda says he’s fed up.
Knights one concern is where Chase plans on living during this, that is his only concern. Aranda says he does not want to leave until the projects are finished.
No action on this item.
Item 16: approval of Line item transfers and budget amendments.
Riding mower for golf course
Multiple accounts in departments for Cloud computing services. Server is worn out.
Software licensing for Hill Country software. Unanimous
Item 17: payments of all claims (bills)
Vizcaino Park water bill? Very high. Frances Garcia will check on that bill from City of Marfa. Approved unanimously.
Item 18: Announcements from Judge and Commissioners:
Judge says she had a meeting with Mark Pearson with possible oversight from Presidio over Candelaria water system. What is the cost? Discussions being had. New board is working out. TDA training for water manager will proceed at some point. The Candelaria WSC has a healthy budget considering how small they are.
Knight says that Marfa airport beacon got fixed thanks to Eddie Pallarez finding a bulb. Also AEP trimmed trees and took down the Christmas lights at the courthouse. Thanks to AEP.
Judge says courthouse heating and cooling system still having problems. Being worked on now, again.
Changes to TAPS and TASA grants. Cosmico US 67 project 12 ft wide use path. No longer going to be ADA compliant ramp, shade trees, benches. Not enough room, could present a safety issue.
Presidio Bagley project will also lose curbs, shade trees. Walkway may be narrower. Room is an issue there as well. Questions about lighting. Unknown at this point. Aranda says it’s very very important.
Marfa - not doing the Austin to Oak project because of railroad track. Will spend more money on the bridges by the school.
Funding for next go around coming up.
Judge will not be able to attend Census meeting on Feb 26. Commissioner Bentley agrees to substitute.
Judge provides pictures of new roofing options for jail roof repairs.
Judge says that a proposal to lease the golf course by a movie set may ind up being very time consuming, including a performance bid, etc etc. Bentley says that she thinks this person may be a small operator and it may not work out.
Knight says it would be a multi step process, good bit of work.
Judge met with the Red Cross regarding emergency management and sheltering. Discussed how to run a shelter. Possible immigrant scenarios.
Aranda says there are some Hondurans here staying at the Catholic Church Hall. Donations are being accepted.
Two buses of Hondurans showed up yesterday in Ojinaga. Red Cross can help if they come here. County has 150 cots at the Marfa airport. Presidio has some space at old school district building if emergency.
Adjourn at 2:16 pm
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