Good morning. Welcome to commissioners court meeting of tuesday, July 7th, 2026.
I hope everyone had a safe and restful 4th of july weekend. And I can't resist by saying in the opening go to your to go, Especially in light of the
announcement. I know the spurs came that close to getting a world championship and I'm Extremely
proud of their season. And but for today, it's go to your to go.
all right. Absolutely. So with that who is c mr.
commissioner calvert. You have opening prayer and pledge of allegiance. You have the Floor. Thank you judge. I couldn't be happier to have father jimmy drinan here today.
we didn't know that he would have a house that would be engulfed in a terrible accident When we were choosing this particular date,
but just wanted to say on behalf of a very grateful community, So many people have said that they've been concerned about you,
but you are doing great, and we want to thank you for taking time, Especially after all the things that you've had to go through.
so father jimmy drinan was born in hanau, germany, The fourth of five boys raised by his single mother,
agnes drinan, and maternal grandmother, cecil berry stringer.
father jimmy has 65 godchildren. He has a deep appreciation for the universe and enjoys Astronomy and stargazing.
he is fascinated with the creative spirit of god, Promotes the care of our environment, and loves animals.
he was educated in san antonio independent school district, Graduating from highlands high school in 1983.
he attended san antonio college and graduated from southwest texas state university with a Bachelor of arts and applied science.
completed additional studies in indiana and language institutes in morelia and Guadalajara,
mexico. Attended assumption seminary and oblate school of theology, Earning his master of divinity and being ordained a roman catholic priest.
he graduated from the san antonio police academy and served with the san antonio police Department for approximately eight years.
from his love for the rich traditions of the catholic faith, The example of his mother and his desire to serve police officers,
firefighters and their families, and his continued hope to guide young people away from Wrong choices into a safe and loving relationship with god.
father jimmy drinan answered god's call to be a priest. He served as pastor of saint paul's parish for 12 years and saint joseph's catholic Church,
honey creek and spring branch, texas for seven years and is currently at saint margaret Mary's parish.
currently serving as pastor of saint margaret mary in san antonio. He's also chaplain to the chief of police, william mcmanus.
he serves as well, now a former chief and will miss him, Serves as spiritual director of the shields of christ acts team.
these retreats provide an opportunity for spiritual enrichment, Especially geared toward police officers,
firefighters and emergency medical technicians. He's a leader of cops metro and as a board member of project quest, Father jimmy drinan recently met with pope francis in tome,
italy. He was a member of the u.s. Delegation of the industrial area foundation.
this comprehensive meeting allowed father jimmy to receive the blessing of pope francis in His ministry to first responders in the work of cops.
metro. Father, we'd love to have you. If all would rise and join us in prayer.
lord our god and creator of the universe. We pause for a moment this day and recognize the Gift of the family of nations,
the people throughout our world who helped create the mosaic that truly expresses your Creative power.
we also gather in a very unique way in the united states of america, In the very shadow of 250
years of independence and interdependence with the nations of our world.
lord our god, we cannot celebrate these 250 years without first recognizing the people who Were
in this land before our immigrants arrived. We thank you for the rich tapestry of culture,
of language, and of peoples in the native american communities across this great nation.
we recognize that we build upon the greatness of these people, Lord our god.
we gather and we celebrate all that has been accomplished in the united states of america,
the state of texas, and the county of bear. But we also recognize that there is a danger That exists in
our nation and among our people to hide the scars of our history, To pull from the
libraries and schools books that tell of both tragedy and triumph.
lord our god, our museums are being stripped of the truth, And our people are being denied the
opportunity to see where we have come from so that we might faithfully go towards our Destiny,
inspire our elected officials here in the county of bear across our state and nation to Not strip our children,
our teenagers, and our future of the truth of the pain that we have experienced as a Nation.
slavery abuses to native american peoples, oppression of women, The denial of
rights in the dignity of the human person. For we know as a nation, When we are at our greatest.
when we are able to face the scars of our past so that we might be healed and move into a Future filled with
promise. We recognize the history of bexar county and its contributions to the state of Texas and the united states of america,
and how we have, in a very faithful way within this county, Risen up to address the greatest challenges that we
face. We are not a people of fear. We are a people of hope who can look past the
scars of our past so that we might create a future where injury will be no more.
as we gather here together in this courthouse, We recognize that there are members of bexar county
who are being tracked down, detained, and being placed in warehouses across this state and Nation.
these abuses to our immigrant people are unacceptable.
we know we are better than this. Inspire the county of bear to lead the state and the Nation in addressing the
challenges that we face. We pray that our elected officials here and across the united States turn away from the
dangerous words. We've done all we can. There is nothing more we can do, Because we
know in bexar county and in the state of texas, That there is always more to do that we can place before ourselves
goals that bring dignity to every single person.
may the very challenges we face here in the bexar county courthouse with our judge and our Commissioners
always lift up the needs of our children to protect them from abuse, Violence and neglect.
may the decisions made here today always lift up the members of our bexar county sheriff's Department and
constables who work so hard in our community.
these well-trained, well vetted men and women help guide the security of our county.
lord our god, may the choices made here today inspire the city of san antonio, The state of texas,
and indeed the entire nation into a hopeful future where all people are recognized with Dignity
and respect and that we create a future of hope.
lord, we pray your blessings upon our judge, Upon our commissioners.
inspire them to put our people first. All of our people, Those born here and
those who immigrate here, recognizing that no one of us is better than another, And that ultimately we are all
immigrants here in the world we live in. May this day be filled with hope as we
reflect upon our painful past, the greatness of our nation, State and county, and the hopeful
future we all can create. This we ask in your name.
you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
thank you for that powerful prayer. Thank you very much. If you'll join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United states of america and to the republic for which it stands.
one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right.
point of personal privilege. I have two commissioner clay-flores. You have the floor. Thank you.
judge. I just wanted to take a point of personal privilege to thank our county staff for The wonderful
america 250 show that was put on ken's here. And I know annalisa.
is she here? She's also under parks. She was the point of contact.
and I had gone over to mission county park the night before and saw her working.
she even had her husband out there who's not a county employee. So, Everyone was just working hard and it was I just got amazing feedback.
this is of course, for the whole county, but it was in my precinct, There was a drone show.
if you weren't there, you missed out fireworks amusement rides, Bubble party, live band, photo booth,
face painting for the kids crafts. And it was over 5000 people with all the parks over There and the parking lots on the street.
so it was just really, really beautiful. Park and heritage staff worked this 22 team Members.
I also want to recognize facilities and av. So thank you so much for the work that you all Do to commemorate 250 years of this country.
so if you want to take a couple of minutes to say a few things, Well, it was a great it was a really great event.
the planning on this started back in april of 2025. Well, a whole lot of people put a whole lot into it.
all the heavy lifting was done by annalisa. She even brings out her mom and dad to these Events.
so yeah, her husband got roped in. He's a fireman, So he's in there working too.
but it was a big, big team effort. But the the leading leading the charge was annalisa.
so she really deserves a round of applause for that. So thank you.
that's what happened when you put women in charge. So thank you so much. Annalisa. Is there anything you want to say?
I just want to say thank you to my park staff and to the facilities as well. I couldn't have done it, you know, by myself.
it takes a team to do this. So I appreciate everyone. So we really appreciate it. We've heard really great comments from the community and it Was just really a beautiful show.
very well done. So thank you for the aplauso por favor. Thank you. Let me let me say a few. Ken, lisa, Let me just follow father jimmy's words
and say this to county staff, to the public, To my colleagues.
when we have an opportunity to celebrate, when we have an opportunity to say thank you, When there's an opportunity to express gratitude.
let's take every opportunity to do so. And so I want to say thank you to my staff who put This thing together
along with the park staff. We gave you the allotment of money.
but ken, because that was the big issue. And I understand we use taxpayer money, But I think the use of taxpayer money for events like this.
commissioner. Clay-flores. And thank you. Commissioner. Clay-flores for your leadership in Precinct one.
oh, by the way, it was in precinct one at mission county park in the south side.
and so I just wanted to say thank you to all.
it's been a pleasure working with you. And we will continue to work hard every day to make Better,
better. Thank you all very much. Let's give another round of applause for our staff. Commissioner moody.
judge, since you. Since you brought it up. I brought it up in reference to the prayer Earlier and the money that was spent.
taxpayer dollars. There is a lot of heartache going on in this country right now for for For a lot of people.
and so when we have the opportunities to celebrate the good things about this country, We should.
and seeing 000 people out there of all races, Of all ages, of all backgrounds, something to bring us together to celebrate,
just like the spurs is on the agenda later on. And the spurs is something else that brings this community together. Right now, There aren't a lot of things that bring us together, so I'm so glad that we were able to
do this. So thanks again. Thank you. Commissioner moody, You have a point of order.
point of personal privilege. Well, in keeping with the spirit of bringing us together as a Community,
as military city usa, and also thanking those who've given to our county.
I just wanted to acknowledge. I don't believe they're here today, But calvin henry and then austin craig harris from our bexar county military and veteran
services, they recently went to the texas veterans commission conference.
and calvin henry was recognized as the supervisor of the year for the state of texas.
and austin craig harris was received the top veteran service officer award for the state Of texas.
so I know they're not here, but let's give them a round of applause. Well, Commissioner moody,
let me just say that's the reason why calvin henry should be here, Because he would have gotten recognized and an opportunity to speak. But nonetheless,
you have the floor. Sorry for that interruption. No I we have a great team over there that does a lot of work for our veterans here in our Community.
and I know they'll continue to do that, but we just wanted to highlight some of the awards That they were able to take home from the veterans conference that they recently attended.
thank you, judge. All right. Let's continue the business of the county. Today we got a lot of work to do. Item three, Request the commissioners court identify items for the consent agenda for additional
discussion and to approve remaining consent agenda items. I'll start with commissioner clay-flores. Any items to pull for individual consideration?
nothing to pull. I'll wait for commissioner rodriguez. Commissioner moody. Commissioner calvert. Okay.
commissioner rodriguez. He walked off on the wrong time. All right, we'll come back in case he does have any matters to pull.
is there a motion? Move. Second. Motion by commissioner calvert.
second by commissioner clay-flores. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by Saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.
and we'll reserve commissioner rodriguez's appearance and vote on that.
all right. We need to do presentation item four presentation of ceremonial items.
we're going to recognize 25 plus years of service and both come out of risk management.
so I'm tying you up, pearl hathaway. Tina, do we want them separately?
do you want to do it separately? All right. And then we'll have sylvia diaz after that. So Pearl,
you, your family, your colleagues. Oh my gosh. You brought you brought the whole department.
so how's risk management going to be able to operate with all the people here? Tina, this is this is everybody on the ninth floor.
oh, we have all of our parties together and stuff, So. Well, come on. Everybody wanted everybody to get around.
everybody step up. All right. Tina, you all right?
I'm very happy to be up here talking about two really, Really fantastic employees.
first is pearl hardy. For 25 years, pearl has been a dedicated public servant, Playing a vital role in administering the county's workers compensation
program for more than 5000 employees. Throughout her career, She has exhibited compassion,
which I have seen personally, and dedication, Ensuring that employees who experience workplace injuries recover timely,
recover timely and receive good guidance and support through pearl's tenacity and Attention to detail.
bexar county has consistently met the strict reporting and claims administration Requirements established by the texas workforce commission,
protecting the county's compliance with state regulations. Last, but definitely not least, one of pearl's most important and cherished contributions Is the chicken on the stick booth she has set up
for the county. Pachanga for the past four years.
so I'd like to thank you for your service, and I'm proud to have worked with you for the Past 25 years.
thank you. Thank you, tina, for your generous introduction.
commissioner. I'm very grateful for all the opportunity the county has blessed me with. Thank you for all the friendships that I've made along the way and the
brilliant mentors that I've worked with. As you can see, I come with a full house.
but everyone and everyone else who has supported my career. Thank you, thank you. All right. Would you all come forward to take a
picture and present you your 25 year pin? Pearl, Come on up.
bring your gang with you, please. You want to come in here or just your family?
wow. Half the room. He's got this whole much more balance it, Please.
jennifer. Balance here. We got it. Y'all want to come in more?
guys. Come on, pack it in, guys. Yeah!
thank you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you. I didn't have anything.
okay. Let me have the second employee, sylvia diaz.
bring your. Is it the same group? Sylvia diaz, You're next.
so sylvia has contributed 35 years of dedicated service to bexar county as.
and has served in several important and diverse roles.
she started in 1991 as a pretrial investigator interviewing inmates for pr bond.
she worked in community development on housing projects. She worked in the small, minority and women owned business department, Keeping track of contracts and vendors.
and finally, she came to the risk management and compliance department as a senior Compliance analyst,
where she works on insurance claims. And if you've ever received the email, The annual email regarding the cybersecurity training is coming from,
she's the one that she's the one that sent me that and gave me a warning that if I didn't,
she's going to record her under, gave me a warning, Achieved 99% compliance with that state legislation.
so we're doing really well. So thank you for your service, Sylvia, and it's been a pleasure working with you.
thank you tina. Thank you. Good morning. My my speech is a little bit more different than Pearls.
good morning, commissioners and judge sakai. And to all the bexar county directors and Managers and coworkers for this wonderful opportunity to be here.
when I started working for bexar county, we were still using the dark green screens with The fluorescent letters and manually typing,
writing, and using using our in-house dewey decimal system like a robot.
oh, murphy looking, you know, for clients or inmates or whatever we were looking up.
bexar county has always provided the best education training programs for their employees And created a smooth pathway for me to continue learning and growing in my career.
while employed with bexar county, I raised a family, Continued my education, earned two degrees,
all while working here. And right now I'm not ready to retire.
but I'm looking at the pot, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
so here we are in 2026 and 35 years later, I have been a part of this amazing workplace And I have participated in creating new experiences for our employees.
and now we're using artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and mr.
smith and tina, thank you so much for helping create a better and improve bexar county With our wellness program and our education programs.
and. Veronica guevara thank you for being such a wonderful and caring director.
thank you.
so check with pearl.
check your hands. Okay. Okay. Did I flip it? Well, Thanks for the.
commissioner. All right. That was our risk management department.
thank you. And thank you for the keeping us in compliance with my training and Certification.
I do have to go on record that I was warned that I was going to get reported if I didn't Do that training.
so we have staff that hold us accountable. Commissioner rodriguez for purpose of record.
I left the vote and the consent agenda. Do you want to register a vote?
and is there any matters to pull? Nothing to pull, Judge. I'm in favor of the consent agenda. Let the record reflect.
it's unanimous vote. All right, let's do time. Certain. Barbara schaefer presentation. Discussion appropriate action regarding direction To staff to explore the development of a crisis nursing program in bexar county,
which can support the protection of children by providing a dedicated short term placement Option for minors and families experiencing crisis to identify an
appropriate procurement methodology, as well as potential qualified vendors related to the Establishment of crisis nursery program at the next convened meeting of commissioners
court. I'm honored to have barbara schaefer, Former children's court administrator, now director of special.
what director special. What is your title? Director of strategic planning.
okay. And I believe we have the one and only yolanda valenzuela standing right behind you.
yes. So, miss schaefer, you have the floor. Okay. Good morning, judge and commissioners, as judge said. Speak up.
good morning. Okay. Good morning, judge and commissioners.
as judge said, I'm barbara schaefer, director of strategic planning with the office of the County manager.
today I would like to discuss an opportunity to strengthen bexar county's child safety net By exploring the development of a crisis nursery in our community.
a crisis nursery is a prevention strategy that protects children, Supports families, and provides an immediate resource for law enforcement,
hospitals, and our courts. When families experience a temporary crisis, When families experience crisis.
these crises can be a tipping point to tragedy. A crisis nursery program can prevent that tragedy.
today, I'd like to explain what a crisis nursery is, What gap it can address and highlight a source of funding to establish one in bexar
county. So what is a crisis nursery? A crisis nursery is a voluntary, Licensed 24 hour
program that provides short term care for children birth through age ten while their Caregiver addresses an emergency.
these emergencies can include medical hospitalization, Mental health crisis, caregiver exhaustion,
domestic violence, housing instability, and other unexpected events that temporarily Prevent a parent from safely caring for their child.
the key word here is temporary. Families are not giving up custody, And children aren't entering foster care.
instead, parents voluntarily seek help before their situation becomes severe enough to Require government intervention.
while children receive safe, nurturing care, Parents are connected with community resources that help stabilize the family.
that shift from reacting after harm occurs to preventing harm before it occurs is what Makes this model so effective.
the model itself is built around prevention and family preservation. First, a child receives immediate care in a safe and licensed environment.
second, staff work with the family to understand what created this crisis.
third, the family is connected with appropriate services in our community, Whether those involve housing assistance,
behavioral health treatment, substance use services, Child care resources, and any other community support to the family may need.
finally, once the crisis has been resolved, the child returns home safely.
the goal goes beyond temporary supervision, and it expands to stabilizing the family so They can remain together safely.
crisis nurseries provide four primary services. The first is prevention. Intervening before neglect, Injury or abuse occurs rather than responding after a tragedy.
the second is deflection. Many of these situations we see today ultimately result in Unnecessary involvement in child protective services and our court
systems because they simply don't have another option. A crisis nursery offers a different alternative.
the third is support. Children receive licensed, Trauma informed care around the clock while parents stabilize their situation.
finally, families receive referrals and connections to community resources, So the crisis that brought them to the nursery is less likely to happen again.
the crisis nursery doesn't replace any existing services. This program serves as a bridge between the family's immediate crisis and the community Resources that help prevent the crisis from happening again.
in many ways, this is one of the earliest forms of child abuse prevention because it Addresses stress before stress becomes neglect.
so why is this particularly important to bexar county?
bexar county continues to face several significant pressures that increase family stress And ultimately,
the risk of child maltreatment. Families continue to struggle with affordable child care, Particularly during evenings,
weekends and emergencies when traditional childcare isn't available.
domestic violence continues to affect thousands of families each year, Often leaving children caught in a situation where there is no immediate,
safe caregiver. We see this all too often in our community.
when law enforcement responds to a domestic violence, Homicide officers must immediately determine where traumatized children can safely go when
there is no immediate child centered option. Behavioral health crises and substance abuse Disorders continue to place enormous stress on parents and caregivers.
we regularly encounter situations where a parent experiences acute mental health crisis Requiring hospitalization or an emergency room intervention.
during these moments, children will still need a safe place to stay.
housing instability and poverty further compound these challenges.
according to recent data, more than 22% of children in bexar county live in poverty.
14% of households earn below the poverty, the federal poverty level, And nearly half of households do not earn enough income to consistently meet their basic
needs. None of these issues alone caused child abuse or neglect.
but when several occur simultaneously, a parent loses child care experiences and medical Emergency faces eviction or suffers a mental health crisis,
the risk increases substantially. A crisis nursery gives people another.
it gives families another option before that crisis escalates.
unfortunately, the data also demonstrates the magnitude of the child welfare challenges we Continue to face in bexar county.
the numbers on this slide underscore the prevalence of child abuse in our community.
this is a hard slide to read. The most vulnerable of the children are those under the age Of three.
these are children who are too young to protect themselves. Too young to ask for help, and often too young to be enrolled in child care programs where Others might recognize signs of danger.
the data also reminds us that in most cases, The perpetrator is not a stranger.
this tells us that if we want some different outcomes, We must intervene earlier.
ultimately, our goal is to prevent children from becoming victims in the first place.
if prevention is our goal, it's important to understand why families choose to use crisis Nurseries and what they are trying to address before the situation escalates.
closing a critical gap. It's. It's important to understand why families seek these Services.
nationally, parents consistently report that they can use crisis nurseries because they Are facing a temporary crisis,
not because they no longer want to care for their children. These are parents who need Help for a few hours or a few days while they address any of the emergencies that their.
in their families, they enter treatment, escape domestic violence, Resolve a housing crisis,
or simply just to regain stability within their family network.
a crisis nursery provides families with a safe, Alternative place during that window of crisis.
it allows them to ask for help before the situation deteriorates, To the point where child welfare and law enforcement then become necessary.
in many ways, it removes the stigma for asking for help, And it replaces it with an opportunity to strengthen a family before irreversible harm
occurs. Unfortunately, when a crisis nursery doesn't exist, The responsibility doesn't disappear.
it simply shifts to other public systems. So what is happening now?
children may spend hours sitting in the back of a patrol car vehicle while officers search For relatives.
others remain in a hospital emergency department despite having no medical need or weight,
and cps offices. Until placement can be arranged, A law enforcement officer spending 2 to 3 hours trying to locate child care is an officer
who isn't responding to calls for service. An emergency room bed occupied by a child Needing supervision is a bed unavailable for medical emergency.
a short term family crisis can quickly become a government systems issue, Not because anyone has done anything wrong,
but because there's no immediate alternative. This is the gap a crisis nursery is designed to fill.
national data and research tells us what happens when families don't have this option Available.
when families don't have access to emergency, They often make decisions they never intended to make.
some parents reported keeping their children in an unsafe situation while they had no Other option.
we repeatedly see child death cases in the media where mom's boyfriend is the caregiver And murders the child while she is working,
or her boyfriend murders the child while she is working because she had nowhere else to Take her child.
others left children with caregivers they didn't trust. Some delayed seeking emergency medical care because they couldn't leave their children.
others missed work putting their their employment at risk.
and some ultimately requested foster care not because they wanted their children removed, But because they had nowhere safe for them to go.
a crisis nursery gives parents another option before desperation leads to a decision that Puts children at risk.
when we compare today's system with the crisis nursery models, The differences become clear.
what is a crisis nursery? Children have a safe place. Within minutes, families receive coordinated services, Parents receive education and referrals in our community,
and children returned home when the crisis has stabilized. Instead of reacting to emergencies, we began preventing them from escalating.
this isn't replacing existing services, it's connecting them.
it becomes another tool that allows every agency to do its job more effectively.
those operational improvements also translate into financial impacts for the county.
that's not the right side. Sorry. I also want to emphasize that it's not only a child Welfare issue,
it's a fiscal issue. When a short term family crisis turns into a removal, Multiple county systems become involved.
law enforcement depends on ours. Locating placement, Hospitals, providing supervision that isn't medical care.
attorneys start to become involved in cases. Children enter the court process.
each step increases cost. Every time we can safely prevent that escalation, We reduce demands on multiple systems.
this is why crisis nurseries are increasingly viewed across the country as both prevention Programs and government efficient strategies.
so how does this process work? A referral may come from law enforcement, Hospitals, courts,
nonprofit, or directly from a family in your precinct. In our community. The child arrives at the nursery, Staff completes the needs and medical screenings,
and child receives immediate care in a nurturing environment. Meanwhile, staff work with the caregiver to develop a service plan and connect them with Appropriate resources.
once the crisis has been resolved, the child returns home with a safe and responsible Caregiver.
to better understand the need locally, we surveyed law enforcement.
their responses were remarkably consistent. Agencies reported responding to well over 1000 Calls annually involving children during crises.
the most common situations including arrest, Including arrests, medical emergencies, domestic violence and substance abuse.
when no caregiver can be located, officers describe transporting children to substations, Contacting cps,
or spending valuable patrol time attempting to locate relatives. These statistics become even more meaningful when we actually look at the situations Happening here in bexar county.
on this slide are a few real world examples that illustrate why this resource is needed.
these are not hypothetical situations. They reflect the type of cases our community Encounters today.
in one case, both the mother and boyfriend were arrested during a traffic stop.
there were no relatives available locally, so the child remained at the bexar county Sheriff's office criminal investigation division until arrangements could be made.
or a single mother who unexpectedly requires emergency surgery and has no one to care for Her children.
with the crisis nursery as a resource, the child would be safe.
bexar county has a long history of investing in child welfare. For many years, the county provided funding to support cps family based safety services.
caseworkers because commissioners recognize that strengthening families strengthens our Community.
as priorities evolved, the county invested in innovative programs within children's court,
additional district attorneys, child abuse prosecutors, And the child welfare board pilot program.
these investments reflected something important bexar county has consistently chosen to Lead,
not simply react when it comes to protecting our children.
today, we have another opportunity to continue that tradition. An existing child welfare funding is phased out for the case workers, There is an opportunity to evaluate whether these resources could instead support an
evidence based prevention strategy that addresses one of the largest gaps currently facing Families.
if implemented, we could also establish clear expectations for what we want that success To look like.
so what would success look like for us? First, Fewer children entering foster care simply because a family experienced a temporary
emergency. Second, fewer unnecessary cps investigations when short term support would have Resolved the issue.
third, stronger families through connections to behavioral health, Housing, child care and community resources.
fourth, improved efficiencies for law enforcement, Hospitals and our courts by allowing those systems to focus on their primary missions.
most importantly, success means children remain safe while families receive help before Crisis becomes trauma.
that's exactly what prevention should accomplish. Based on the information presented today, staff is requesting one specific action.
we are not asking the court to approve a crisis nursery. We are asking for your direction, specifically the approval for staff to explore the Development of a crisis nursery for bexar county.
this is an investment to strengthen public safety, Improve system efficiencies, support families and most importantly,
protect children before crises escalate. Judge and commissioners, Thank you for your time today and for your continued commitment to children and families
throughout bexar county. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Judge, I have comments. I'd also like to go ahead and make a motion for approval.
motion by commissioner clay-flores. Second by commissioner rodriguez. Commissioner Clay-flores. You have the floor. So first of all, I want to thank judge sakai. I know
you've been working on this for a while, and so thank you for continuing to fight for our Youngest community
members. I have a couple of questions about the funding that we used to fund cps.
correct? Yes, ma'am. And so that's where this funding is coming from. So it's it's not an increase to our general budget.
correct. Tanya, is that correct? Correct. So some constituents have asked me about this.
so now what's going to happen with the funding we used to support cps?
are they still going to be able. I'm sorry. The state picked up their their they picked Up.
okay. Yes, ma'am. Wonderful. Something that you said in your presentation was really key.
as I talk a lot about preventive health, preventive mental health, Things we need to do.
and you talked about preventive child abuse before it occurs.
and sometimes it's not that parents are evil or they're intentionally trying to do Something,
but in desperation, it's not. It's not an excuse, But it is one of the reasons that plays into it that sometimes out of desperation,
they leave their kids in situations where they where they shouldn't. So I'm happy to Support this.
I'm really grateful for the work that you all have done on it. I also want to recognize yolanda, who's one of my constituents.
so thank you for the work that you continue to do with with, With children in our community.
so happy to support. Thank you. Thank you judge.
good morning barbara. Thank you for the presentation. And I know we had a chance to visit one on one recently about this in more in depth answer Some questions I had.
but I also want to chime in and thank judge sakai for his leadership on this obviously is A common theme throughout your career,
judge, in lifting up those most vulnerable, in particular families and children.
so this is right in in line with that I wanted to ask barbara, I guess more from an operational standpoint.
so the, the the nursery would be operated, I guess by a, By a partner, a, there'd be, I guess,
an rfp process or something. Is that what you're proposing? Yes, sir. Okay. And in terms of those, I know there's a lot of providers in our community That could step up and do this work.
I know yolanda, my friend is involved with a lot of those and do you, Do you anticipate that we'll have a lack of
interest in folks wanting to partner up or, or more, I guess probably more pointedly, it's going to be tough because of the probably the number
of folks who are interested in helping with this work. You're familiar with some of those providers having been at the children's court for a Number of years. Yes.
but capacity wise, do you think there'll be enough folks that will step up to to partner With us on this?
absolutely. 100%. You know, one of the, I guess, Recent headlines the last few years, particularly with respect to the lack of
resources for those in cps care. You had kids sleeping in office buildings and office Spaces.
this is something that will help address some of those more acute needs. Is that right? Yes, sir. Okay. Well, I, you know, I wanted to ask those questions.
I know it's obvious to some of us who've worked in this space, But for those that don't and maybe just read,
read about you know, the crisis that's happening. These are, these are you know, individuals, families, Young people who right now may be serviced by the children's shelter or some other
provider. But, but again and as someone that long, Long ago was on the board of the children's shelter.
those are folks in our community who work every day to put themselves out of business, Because they would hope that there's not a need for it,
but there's always going to be a need when you have the type of deficiencies that we have In our community with respect to housing and poverty.
certainly the substance and mental health issues that you underscored are a common Denominator oftentimes.
and so I think it it also highlights the fact that we've got work to do with respect to Some of those core supportive services that that a lot of folks in our community
need. So I know this is kind of just the beginning of the hard work.
we appreciate your your work on this. Barbara. Yolanda, thank you for stepping up. Sheriff and law enforcement, I know you're already doing a lot of this work out there at child safe and other places.
so let us know what you need in terms of resources to, To continue to, to make sure you know,
we are hopefully more proactive in preventing before it gets to law enforcement and to That need.
we have a lot of folks in our community, I think, That want to be helpful. So thank you for your work on this, judge. I'm happy to be
supportive. Thank you commissioner. Thank you.
judge. Definitely supportive of the goal here, But do have some, some questions and a couple concerns
when the 1.6 million that is what has been dedicated in the past to paying the cps Portion,
is that correct? Yes, sir. Okay. So we haven't issued an rfp at this point, Right?
directing staff to go out and see what a proposal would be. So are we going to be directive in that rfp in terms of is this a fee for services, The number of children,
the number of bed nights that are being provided, Or is it based on a current amount of staffing with a set
capacity? Do we kind of know what that would be? Because obviously it could be a lot less than 1.6 million.
it could be more than 1.6 million. Do we have a sense of that?
no, sir. Not right. I'm sorry. Commissioners a point of order.
I'm going to object into this question. This is an issue dealing with legal issues and the Requirements that the county have in these particular situations.
and I do not wish to bind the staff with any statements that we're not prepared to answer Today.
larry, could I have your way in as far as my objection to the form of the question?
so, judge, I think part of the direction that staff is going to bring back the procurement Method.
I think I heard rfp. We have staff has not decided that there's going to be the mechanism That the the is going to be recommended to the court.
it may be there are other mechanisms that we might use to a select a vendor that are Perfectly available.
so it may not be competitively procured. And I don't want the court to have that Impression.
it's for the court to decide, but we're going to bring back some potential options at a Later date.
okay. So I still don't understand. The objection then is that I think it was I think you Were talking about an rfp,
but that that issue has not been decided at this point.
so I don't want you to have the impression that an rfp is the actual selection method.
that has not been decided. I think barbara is going to bring back methods. That's part of The direction,
is that she will bring back a procurement method as part of the recommendation for the Court,
and it may or may not be an rfp. If that's what the court decides, That's fine, but I don't want the court to be under the impression no issue with the rfp
that was just referring to how we're going to solicit the real question.
my objection is that it's not right for discussion. Okay, then I won't use the term rfp. But the point that I was trying to get at is that Clearly there's different structures in how we would look at
contracts and proposals from potential vendors and trying to understand, Like how we scale that structure that in a way,
whether that's based on individual children's service.
total number of nights or total capacity of a facility.
commissioner. Well, I don't understand the objection. Objection is, I'm objecting that it deals with legal consultation.
if you want to have this conversation, I will put this on executive session and we can Have a full throttle throated conversation on the questions you wish to ask,
but not now. Is that an appeal to a parliamentarian on the objection?
objection is noted. I'm ruling you out of order. Let's move on. Ask your next question. Okay. My point just being we should be thoughtful About how we structure that and how we solicit that in order to
ensure that we're thinking about the cost long term for the county.
yes, sir. Go ahead. I'm sorry. So
do we know whether this is based on operational costs alone or capital costs and Operational costs,
or is that unknown or is that going to be objectionable? I don't know if I can answer it. Yes I can. It'll likely be both, Sir.
a mixture of programmatic and operational and costs that I'll need to to run the nursery.
okay. And I saw a lot of data here talking about the the reasons for use of the crisis Nursery,
but not a lot in terms of length of stay. Do we have any data on that in terms of how Often you know,
are these overnights versus a few hours versus days versus weeks?
I don't know, are there constraints on that front? At this time? No. Nationally, most are within a few days and some maybe a couple of weeks depending on If a parent voluntarily
enters detox, for example, and they have to stay for a week, Then that child would stay for a week.
so based on the need and the reason they're coming in would be the length of stay.
okay. The. And the goal here between the
cps versus the crisis nursery, what are the benefits, I guess, in transitioning away from the cps services versus the crisis nursery?
is it the flexibility that's there or is it it's the cps funding that we that we
allocated to cps was for caseworkers. So for salary and benefits.
and so what we decided to do was to push back and say state, You need to cover your own employees.
and we're going to reprogram this to continue to, To protect children and families, but in a different way.
so the state has picked up those positions. They're paying for them. And so this allows us to innovate and put something together for the community.
not just child welfare, but for those experiencing some type of crisis within their Family.
does that answer your question, sir? So additional flexibility, I think, in the utilization.
is that what you said? Yes, sir. Well, let me just bring one last, Last concern as I was flipping through here.
some of the items mentioned right when it comes to law enforcement, When it comes to who could place a child,
right? Sorry, I'm trying to remember which slide it was on.
hospital law enforcement courts. Nonprofit partners or community self-referrals?
yes, sir. So obviously, I think the the biggest concern question would be around community Self-referrals.
if you go back to slide nine, miss school work or job opportunity 9%, You go back to slide seven.
education 3% parenting difficulties, 16% self care, 26% employment 29%.
my, my concern is just that those things can apply very broadly to hundreds of thousands Of parents.
and as many of us probably here can attest to having been parents, Right?
like how do we not get overwhelmed and get in mission creep into like child care services Versus this is
a true crisis nursery. And we are screening to ensure that we are not being utilized in The wrong way.
yes, sir. And I think that will be one of the criteria that we look like. This is a voluntary 24 hour operation for emergency crisises, Not something that could be referred or handled from
8 to 5 by a nonprofit or a family that could, You know, get on the housing list.
it's, you've got evicted and now the kids have nowhere else safe to stay.
I've seen that before where parents are like, You know, we'll stay in my car, but I don't want my kids to live there.
so until I can finalize and let commissioner.
let me add to that the flight of my experience and expertise.
the previous court and I'm not passing judgment on previous court. I do have a comment about the previous court, But the commitment to family based service workers giving money to cps was total mission
creep. The county created its own cps caseworker units that was accountable to the county.
so I understand I respect your comment to miss shafer, But I'm also giving you background as to why we are addressing that specific
issue. We are moving away totally from mission creep, And we are empowering parents who want help and don't have to turn to cps.
is that a correct statement, miss shaffer? Yes, Sir. And is that based on my experience and your experience from children's court?
yes, sir. Thank you. Well, I appreciate the the background there.
I think the concern still would would exist when it comes to screening and making sure That that we're utilizing the crisis nursery,
the right people are getting the services they need. And it's not being abused by bad Actors.
right. And that's my biggest concern. I'm going to reserve judgment until we see the Actual proposal and everything. But I think that that should just be,
you know, front and center as we're thinking about going forward and how we can ensure That that doesn't become a problem.
yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to one of your concerns, Commissioner moody.
so in reference to the previous court since I got here in 2021, And when this every year when this item came,
I was I every. Do you remember barbara I question yes, Ma'am. Sir. Why? It's okay. I'm in a man's world. Why are we paying for cps caseworker?
I kept questioning that and I was like, if we take it away, Cps will cover it.
and so I applaud judge sakai for finally doing that.
so I won't have the same question every year.
and so with that, again, it's not impacting our bottom line.
and we are using that funds to directly help support prevention.
yes, ma'am. So I think I'm, I'm like, why didn't we do this before? Right. I mean, and I also want to ask miss venezuela, If she wants to come forward and say a few words.
so you are really one of the local experts, not just locally. I know you've traveled to speak at different things, Working with, with casa, working with child care world child welfare board.
so do you have anything that you want to add, If I may. Commissioner. Calvert. Ask for permission. Commissioner. Calvert. You have the floor. Then I'll go to yolanda and the sheriff for comment.
commissioner. Calvert. Thank you, judge, and thank you, Barbara and yolanda, thank you so much for bringing this to us.
this is a very good thing. So looking at slide 13 I'm going to infer that there may be a Universe
of approximately a thousand potential folks and children who would utilize this.
is that a safe assumption or I would say less than okay, Sure.
I agree with you. It's less than, but the universe is somewhere a thousand or under.
okay. Talk to me about the because this is new to, To, to me, it's not my area of expertise.
what are some of the benchmarks in terms of these types or benchmark locations where these Types of nurseries are doing well?
the ones that we've studied and I've done site visits with their benchmarks are resolving The crisis,
the amount of days it takes to do that, connecting those families with the right Resources.
because sometimes people just get into the wrong space and they don't come back for help.
so we want to make sure that we can make that connection. And it's, it's real and it's positive and it's really impactful to the family.
and, but where, where are these? I mean, where are these? Oh, saint louis. I did cleveland. There's california.
we would be the first in texas. Talk to me a little bit about what are some of the local Charities
that may or entities that may want to participate in this particular opportunity?
I haven't directly solicited or spoke to several funding sources, But the foundation koronkowski,
the camera peer foundation have always been such excellent supporters of child welfare Initiatives that we'll be speaking to them so that there's continued funding for the
project later on. But I mean, the social service entities, I think most of those are foundations that don't do direct services.
who who might be the universe of direct service providers? Who would open a nursery like that? I would think probably the children's shelter.
I think maybe the respite center, those those kind of people that are a little bit already In the space.
well, I think that that helps me just kind of have a little bit more background.
it does sound like a very important gap that we're filling. So thank you for getting us in, judge. Thank you for helping to move this forward.
we appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you sir. Thank you. Yolanda.
sheriff, I would have called you, but yolanda got called. Okay. Yolanda I have been fighting child abuse for about 25 years now.
I was with caza for 15 years as a vice president, And I was on a child welfare board when you were one of our members for 14 years.
16 years. And about to be put back on. I think it's on the next agenda to be on the child Welfare board.
I think to answer some of grant's questions, This is before it gets to cps, this is prevention,
this is before family based. This is before a motion to participate.
this is before that. It's catching the issues prior.
and once she starts getting those families coming in, You know how word of mouth is this crisis nursery exists for
this particular reason. They won't be afraid to walk in saying child protective services Is going to rip our kids from us.
we need some help right now with this, that and the other. We're stressing out because right now the stressors and I get phone calls.
the man and the woman want to kill each other because they need clothes and shoes and Everything for four kids school supplies.
it gets july as stressor time for these parents.
and so it's just decreasing those stressors, Preventing them from getting into child protective service system.
because once you get in the child protective service system, Even in family based, which is what the county paid for.
it's hard, it's hard sometimes it's hard to get back out.
right? And so what we, when I was on the child welfare board, We started researching this,
but it didn't look like there was funding. And then the talk stopped.
and so it's highly needed in this community. I think bexar county has some of the highest Need because of the child abuse and neglect
that exists, which is the majority of child abuse that takes place.
it's the neglect. It's not the sexual abuse, It's not the medical neglect.
it's the regular old neglect. We need this, that and the other.
we need counseling. The wraparound services are going to be tremendously important for These families because they don't know where to go.
I could tell you a lot of places to go. Tommy will tell you, I know all the agencies, justin also,
but I'm me. I'm in my home. These families don't know these agencies, Right?
and if they walk in even to get two hours one day, Whatever, they're going to walk away with a big old list of wraparound
services. You need school supplies, you need baby formula, You need mental health treatment,
you need domestic violence. They're going to walk away with that. They're going to it's a win win. It's an investment in my mind.
and I, I, I wasn't here to speak, but that's what I have to say.
thank you. Sheriff. Good morning, judge. Morning, Commissioners.
I could just attest to the fact as a as a career first responder that those who are most Affected by all of these situations,
domestic violence situations, crisis situations, The most affected are the kids.
and unfortunately, they're also the least in control of the situation. And so also as a first responder, I can attest to the fact that that's, That's a very frustrating situation for a first responder to be in that situation where,
you know, you've got to take care of this kid, You know, that the emergency room isn't the best place to leave them.
you know that the back seat of your patrol car is not the best place to change a diaper.
you know that taking up a collection from your fellow officers to buy formula, Baby food,
diapers, whatever it is that that child needs in that moment isn't the most ideal Situation.
but it's all we got. And as first responders, We do what we have to do to, to, to, to find the happy ending or as happy of an ending as
you can find in that situation. So absolutely, I'm in full support of this and anything that I can do,
or the men and women of the bexar county sheriff's office can do to support this endeavor. We're on board with it. So,
sheriff, let me and I want to appreciate commissioner moody's comments, Because it's important that the focus of this project in regards to
that, if there is any debate over whether the county should invest in this program.
isn't this mission clarity to get law enforcement, Specifically deputies, out of the social work that they have to do when they come to
a scene? Because unless cps is there or social services there, Then.
and isn't that really the essence? What's our star program?
the mental health program that we bring mental health experts to a crime scene?
smart, smart. Excuse me. That doctor guerrero's smart program that she works with you.
isn't it that an extent. This program is an extension of that directive to what?
instead of calling mission creek, this would be mission clarity. It gets deputies out of social work. Bring those children into a wraparound services that Miss venezuela has expertise on as to what they're providing.
is that really is that what you see with this program? Because I agree from accountability purposes.
are we just creating another social service department of the county?
and is it really going to be effective from your experience on the ground, First responders dealing with the families in the most urgent,
exigent circumstance? Is this program needed?
absolutely. And it solves a lot more problems than than it could ever create.
thank you. I have a just a final comment. If you don't know what I'm talking about, You need to google this.
a couple of months ago in may, there was a woman from the valley came up to san antonio.
her kids were burned. Her two little boys were burned.
alive in her vehicle.
so if someone doesn't think that we need this program for situations like that, Maybe if this was already in place,
maybe when I had continued to question why are we paying? Why are we using this money for cps? We had started this program earlier.
maybe that woman. Could have dropped her kids off, And those two little boys could have grown up
to be contributing members of south texas. And that's what we're talking about.
two little boys were burning their car. And I just need you to sit with that and imagine.
what must have been going on through a woman who gave birth to children and then did that.
what kind of demons did she have in her head?
that's why this program is important. Thank you for doing the hard work that we need done Every day.
any further comment? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of the motion by commissioner clay-flores.
second by commissioner rodriguez, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries.
I want to report for the next meeting, miss shaffer. Yes. Got it. Okay. With the court's permission, I want to advance and bring up an item out of order.
I'm alerting the court, subject to objection. I'd like to take up item number 68. 68. It is a late file.
could I have a motion in order that we do it now to consider all late.
filed motions under 65, 66, 67,
68. Motion by commissioner rodriguez. Second.
second by commissioner clay-flores. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.
I will now call up discussion and appropriate action.
regarding approval of the letter amendment to the non relocation agreement between bexar County and the san antonio spurs amending the non relocation agreement to authorize the
san antonio spurs to play up to four regular season home games, Including playoffs outside the frost bank center during each of the 26,
27, 27, 28 nba seasons and ratifying and reaffirming all remaining terms and conditions of The agreement.
but at this time, I do have citizens to be heard, And I'm taking you out of order so that you're not having to wait till this afternoon or
to the citizens to be heard. I'm going to allow I've got three signed up for 668, And you have three minutes.
rebecca flores, you have the floor. And then I have elaine cummings, And then I have susan strong.
I think she walked out. Rebecca. Then what about elaine cummings or susan strong?
and on lane, you have yielded your time. You can come up with susan, But you have yield your time to susan strong,
or do you wish to take back any time. All right.
I will allow susan strong to proceed at this time. Good morning, judge sakai, and good morning, Commissioners, and thank you for moving this up.
really appreciate getting the rest of my day back. So I am here to speak against this amendment or this motion.
I'm concerned that you're being asked to amend a public contract, Giving up a valuable public right without any meaningful analysis of the cost to bexar
county taxpayers, workers, and businesses. And what troubles me most is not the number of Games that the spurs want to move out of the city.
it's that there appears to have been no effort whatsoever to determine the value of what The county is giving up,
or to negotiate compensation for it. That is not how governments are supposed to negotiate On behalf of their constituents.
the agenda states that this item has no fiscal impact. That is not correct. The county may lose only a modest amount of hotel occupancy tax if Games are moved,
but it does lose hotel tax revenue. Stone planning.
who is the spurs own consultant who performed the only economic analysis for the new Arena,
estimated that spurs games at the frost bank center and other events generate Approximately 21,000 hotel room nights each year.
that produces hotel occupancy taxes that pay for this arena.
more importantly, the fiscal impact statement ignores the much larger impact on bexar County residents,
most of whom live in the city of san antonio. Using the spurs own economic study, each home game represents roughly 3.8 million in Direct local spending for four games.
that's $15.1 million. Total net spending per game is estimated at 5.5 million per game, Or 22 million for the four games
that spending supports arena employees, concessions workers, Security officers, parking attendants,
custodians, restaurants, bars, hotels, rideshare drivers, Vendors and people on the east side who sell off site parking.
the only benefit that they've ever gotten from the promised development around this arena.
it also generates local sales taxes that support city services via ready to work and pre K4k pre k4ssa.
and those may be city revenues, but they benefit the same bexar county residents that the Court represents.
the spurs are asking for authority to relocate up to four home games each each season.
that's 10% of their regular home schedule. So that's 10% of the income of arena workers That is being lost by them moving out of the city.
so if the home games generate jobs and economic activity, That's fewer work opportunities for hourly employees,
fewer customers for neighborhood businesses, Fewer local tax revenues.
and these losses are concentrated on working families and small businesses.
while the benefits from this move flow elsewhere without any compensation.
every relocated game means local sales tax revenue that is no longer generated in san Antonio.
there is fiscal impact from allowing this, and it's not due diligence to claim otherwise.
so before giving away negotiated public rights, This court should know what local tax revenues will be lost.
how many work hours and wages will be lost by arena employees and local businesses.
what is the impact on hotel occupancy taxes that finance this arena still, And what compensation,
if any, is bexar county receiving in exchange for giving up these rights?
I spent 26 years negotiating deals on behalf of the united states.
in all of that time, I never saw a government agree to surrender a valuable contractual Right without first determining its value and negotiating
appropriate compensation. Bexar county residents deserve representation, Not hostages suffering from stockholm syndrome that they're going to leave.
there are all sorts of things to be negotiated here. You could pay. You could ask demand that the spurs pay the arena workers for the missed Games.
make the county and city whole for lost tax revenue. Make the off site parking operators whole. Negotiate that the game moved to be a less Profitable game.
you could even negotiate a rent increase. The current rent was negotiated in 2002 and has Never been raised and is not adjusted for inflation.
that's equivalent. That's equivalent to $644,000 today.
that's a little over a quarter of a single 25% of a single game.
gate receipts that we're losing tax sales taxes on.
I respectfully ask that you postpone this item until the county prepares a transparent Fiscal and economic mic analysis and negotiates fair consideration for this deal
like any business partner would. Respectfully, I believe this is your job.
thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Come back into the court.
rebecca flores. Rebecca flores. Well, if she shows, We allow her to speak.
I went out of order in order to bring up 68. So at this time, Who's making the presentation?
commissioner rodriguez. Not a presentation, judge, But I wanted to ask bobby perez from spurs to come up.
you heard some of the the concerns. Bobby. I also wanted to ask you to, To reset a little bit the the discussion with
respect to you know, how we got here because I think this is a kind of really just an Amendment to what the previous agreement looked like,
I think initially a few years ago it was for a game in austin, And then obviously the international games came into play.
I want to say, because of the spurs outstanding history in helping expand globally, But it may have something to do with number one
on the on the court as well and his presence. So if you could, because I think what you're asking for from us today is not a significant Departure than what we've done over the past couple of years to
kind of help the spurs expand market in different whether it's austin, Whether it's international.
so if you can just kind of reset the discussion a little bit, So we're all on the same page, that would be helpful. Commissioner. Thank you, members of
the court judge for your record, bobby pettit, San antonio spurs. I will address mr. Owens comments because she's missed, But I'll follow up with that and tell you why.
so if we go back probably 2021 was the first time that we came to this court.
it was a different court in 2021. And we first presented this item.
the request was was twofold. Allow the spurs to play four games outside of their market Outside of their home arena.
the frost bank center and the court agreed. And the caveats were two one within 75 miles, You can play two games.
two. The other two games could be international. So since that time, if we backtrack. Last year we played two games out of the frost bank Center.
the year before that, three games and the year before that, Three games. So there's never been more than four. You know, Point number one.
and the 75 miles is a league rule. It's an nba rule that is our territory and that's what We use.
but that allowed the austin games and then the international games.
what we have seen going forward. And and thank you to the court.
the sheriff was here earlier. All the bexar county sheriffs this playoff run, We had an additional 23 games in
at the end of the season. Our season didn't end on april 15th. Unfortunately, it ended the first week of june.
not the way we would have liked to but very proud of our relationship with the county, The coliseum advisory board,
all the county sheriffs who really showed all those fans from new york how we treat people And how san antonio does it the right way.
commissioner clay-flores earlier talked about how sport and our brand really unified our Community,
and that was a really, really great example of that. The point being, commissioner, as we have evolved and we continue to evolve as a brand, I a couple of data points
this last playoff run, just from a television market side, Was the highest viewed nba finals series since
1998. And that puts san antonio in the spotlight for that period of time.
the social media views the number is staggering 15 billion views focusing, Of course, the team we
played, but also san antonio. Everything san antonio has to offer and the san antonio River walk.
the dollar value and stone planning is our consultant.
we hired mr. Stone to do an economic impact analysis, And I'll call out.
the first thing that mr. Shaun missed is that scope of work was done within the last three Years that counted lesser games at the frost bank center for the last three
years, and she did not recognize that. But I wanted to make sure that the court knew it And that that economic impact analysis posted online
and for the public to see and has been for at least a year. The other point that we wanted to kind of just call out in response to what she is saying Is she missed the extra probably 10 to 12 home games as a
result of this last playoff run, which was not insignificant for the community.
all our staff, the cost of services, I'll just urine budget cycle right now.
and you're looking that every day. All the additional sheriff's employees and staff, All our staff.
that's all at our expense. That's not on the on the county expense. That agreement is set up that all the additional operational expenses belong to the san Antonio spurs and not the citizens of san antonio or bexar county.
so just a couple of those highlights. Back to your question, Commissioner.
the court allowed for games with those two caveats in 21 renewed again in 23 when this Court was convened,
and we're asking for renewal again. The distinction is removing the 75 games in the International piece.
it's been reported that this is an increase in games. It's not. It's still four games. The item is captioned.
it only applies to regular season games. So not playoff games.
and it's basically reauthorizing what this court has already authorized.
on several other occasions. So. So in a case. Thank you for that, bobby. In a case like this coming season, For example, the flexibility for
the spurs to play up to four games again, it's not guaranteeing that, But it's up to us.
in this case. When the spurs, for example, are gone during the rodeo road trip.
it allows you to work with the nba schedulers to potentially do a game or two in austin During that time.
so in a in a sense, breaks up that road trip. And then the other thing that's occurring, I think this next season is two games in Europe,
one in france and one in, I think the uk or nearby somewhere there.
so, so I guess as you move forward and you work with the nba that's what the flexibility Provides you is
to work with the schedulers on filling those gaps, Whether it's during the rodeo road trip or those international opportunities,
which I think my sense is from what I've read, The nba is making a concerted effort to potentially expand or
have a maybe a sister league in those areas. So I think to your point, And I'm, you know,
I'm, pointing this out because it's a. Again, It's been reported that that you're increasing the number of games or we're giving you a
permission to increase the number of games, but it's actually the same up to the same Number.
I want to make that that clear. And it's for the next two seasons.
obviously, you know, and I respect susan. She's a constituent of mine. I always appreciate listening to her great neighbor in river road.
you know, I think we're going to have an opportunity, As we all know, with the discussion on the potential new arena,
to kind of hit the reset and figure out what is the path forward look like.
but again, this is short term. It's the next two years. And again, it's essentially in line with what we've approved over the past few seasons.
that is correct. That is correct. And I just would comment on the competition piece.
that's not insignificant. We are required to remove out of the building for 30 days and The opportunity to play games in austin,
texas, are able to help us manage the schedule from a competition standpoint. It proved some big benefit this season. Yeah, And I remember being on the court back in 21 when we did the initial agreement,
the the calls and emails we got about the spurs kind of inching into the austin area and The threat that that potentially
would cause. I would hope that at this point that is quieted down and there's a Commitment,
and it's not just through what the voters approved in the venue tax, But also what the city's doing,
also what the spurs ownership has committed to. And that is staying in san antonio, at least for the next 50 years, Because I know we just celebrated 50 a few years ago.
so, so I, you know, I just wanted to make sure that we kind of level set a little bit.
I understand the concerns, but I also think the cost outweigh those concerns.
excuse me? The benefits outweigh the concerns in terms of making sure that from a Scheduling standpoint,
you can remain competitive, but also that our fans and our community get what's best here In san antonio out of our spurs.
and I think it's a it's a two way street. So judge, I know my colleagues have some questions.
I want to go ahead and make a motion to approve this. Second, if I have and I have comments, mr. Rodriguez.
second by commissioner clay-flores commissioner clay-flores you have the floor. So I am Supporting this
because it's not a change. It's still the four games.
and as you and I have talked about before bobby, This is also about international branding with international branding.
it makes the spurs bigger and makes more people want to come to san antonio and spend Their money here.
and of course, they come spend their money. As you mentioned, The hotel taxes and all that.
and so this is about more visibility. This is about marketing. This is about more branding. So I'm happy to support it.
and like I said earlier during the playoffs and the finals, It was just so wonderful to see this county come together.
and lately, there's not a lot of stuff that brings people together.
but the spurs did that. And so for me, that's worth it.
I'm happy to support you commissioner. Just briefly, I think it's kind of been said at this point,
but just reiterating the point that it was four games before.
it's four games in the amendment. And so that fact means that what it is the amendment is Tax
revenue neutral? It is frost bank center employee income neutral.
and that doesn't take into account all the additional playoff games and hours that we're Able to be worked there.
so I'm I'm supportive. I think providing that additional flexibility has no impact Whatsoever on tax revenue for the county and
appreciate the the great season you guys had. Thank you commissioner. Okay. Thank you very much.
bobby, I want to I didn't understand your first point of clarification on the on the on The facts as presented by mr.
strom. Can you say that one more time? I just want to make sure I hear you correctly. Thanks, commissioner. I probably wasn't very clear. David stone was a consultant we hired To help the public discussions on the election cycle.
and mr. Stone did an economic impact analysis on the number of games at the arena and Their impact locally.
he took the last three years and the last three years. This amendment was in place. And so mrs. Strong's argument was, Hey, you're costing the community money.
but she's actually incorrect because that was factored in in mr. Stone's report. Well, I think we. Okay. Thank you very much for the clarity.
I think that there there is it's hard for me as a numbers guy, To argue that there isn't an economic impact on folks who are hired and
other ancillary economic folks. I mean, I think that does need to be looked at.
this also started, this amendment started at a time when, Just to be frank, we weren't we didn't have wimby we weren't as strong of a team.
and you know, I don't know if it had anything to do. It probably did with a with a with the negotiations between austin and san antonio.
but let's just say that it was a time that was different for the spurs since we had so Many winning seasons.
and, you know, the team was looking for an opportunity to expand market share.
now, I think that we are now at the top of the most watched teams in the league.
I think wimbiz jersey is amongst the top and and we are, As you just mentioned, in the 15 billion range,
aren't we like the most watched team now? It's it's been exciting this year.
yes sir. I can't I don't know if we are, but it the numbers are pretty high.
so we're up there for sure. So it's harder. It's harder for us to make an argument that It's about expansion of market.
I mean you can certainly expand by being in theater if you will, Are being abroad.
how many does every nba team do such an agreement? So that, for example, if they're playing in mexico city or paris or whatever, That there's the flexibility.
how does this work for other nba franchises? I can't speak to everybody has a different Agreement with their local municipalities or how they're structured is
set up with their counties. But nba teams this summer, Teams will play in or this fall will play in mexico city,
the commissioner mentioned announced we will play a home game in paris, France and a road game in london.
and there's probably about five other teams. So I believe it's different for all teams.
so every team has a some sort of clause as well, I guess to I mean it's something to look into in terms of what what those those clauses
are so that there's flexibility. So that's something I'd like to look at.
we'll just start with the teams that have been in international games before, Because obviously they had to have some sort of amendment to their contracts,
I'm assuming, with the exception of la. I think la what did is their arena not 100% Privately
financed. So it may not matter. Los angeles clippers is 100% privately financed.
the los angeles lakers share a facility with a few other teams. Okay, so it's not owned by the team, operated by the team.
in the case of the clippers, they they can they are not in a municipal or county Arrangement.
okay. So it's it's hard for me to ignore community impact.
I mean, that's why I'm here is to try to make an impact on the community.
and I think it is a fair conversation that more folks in our community are having about What is our benefit?
what is our what is our community return? As you know, I have said with
pride that I had watched the spurs literally when I was on the sea of galilee, Or when I was at one of the national committee for us-china relations
meetings in chengdu, china. I couldn't believe that the spurs were playing on cctv.
it was it was mind boggling to me, to be quite honest.
so I think we have accomplished, and I think coach popovich has been integral in your Management team,
have been integral in the internationalization of our team.
it's bound not only by the players but also obviously around the world in terms of Viewership.
but I do think that when you're talking about such sizable public investments, Return and partnership has to be true partnership.
and so I, you know, I, I don't have all the data in terms of these other arrangements in Terms of some of the impact I think it
deserves. It deserves research and we will work to do that research.
and so on that note, I don't have any reservation about abstaining on the vote today Because I think that there needs to be a deeper look at
the roi and what are the taxpayers getting in the loss of revenue.
and so that will be my vote today. Thank you. Judge. Any further comment? Well, let me take all these comments together, Bobby, and ask you this question.
and it really has been asked. I just want to get clarity from me.
in regards to commissioners calvert comments, And I think they're on point. What is the return on investment or is that something you
have to take back and judge. Well, we'll get you those numbers.
I'm just trying to in a general way. Are we just.
it's just another handout to the san antonio spurs or is, As I've heard, do we really have a partnership.
and if it is, what what what does the county get out of this particular motion other than All the conversations we've had?
just tell me, what are we getting in return? Can you answer that question right now, Judge?
I can give you some concepts that I think address what the commissioner has asked and what You are asking.
I think the obligation of any, any partner with the public or otherwise is to use its Brand,
to use its employees, to use its staff to go out and do the right thing.
I think when you look at the history of the relationship between bexar county and the san Antonio spurs,
and I'll just draw a couple of highlights. You know I think commissioner probably a good Point to go back and look.
but we're talking about agreements that were developed 2829 years ago.
the evolution of the agreements and the evolution of commerce has changed dramatically.
but if we look at the small women minority owned business program that the county and the Spurs partnered in 25 years ago,
28 years ago, that was the creation of the current frost bank. That's right. Then at&t, then sbc center. Yes, Sir.
that dollar number a couple of years ago was $180 million to small entrepreneurs.
that continues today. It started off at a very small component but now runs across all our Organization for all our spending.
and it's not required that it happens across all organizations. It was only required just at the arena when we had 70 employees when we started.
today we have 500 employees and we procure businesses all over the place.
I would say that is evidence of a partnership and a good deal and roi for community.
the second thing I would point to is community impact.
what we do on the community impact side and lots of companies do this. We're not special, but we go out every day. And whether there are financial donations to The children
of our community, whether it's through youth sports, The 1000 to 2000 coaches we train every season for spurs,
youth basketball or the things that we do at our soccer camps.
I would say that is roi, and I would say it's incalculable. Sitting through the presentation that I just got to here earlier, I was a member of the bexar county child welfare board probably 20 years ago,
and probably one of the hardest volunteer positions I ever had to do.
being on the other side of child and youth impact, I think we create memories.
some things that children will never forget. The spirit and community revelry that Commissioner clay-flores talked about.
people will not forget that we all have memories of what we did in 1999 or 2007, Or what that championship time,
or even last month where we were. That is roi.
and yes, as an elected official, you have the obligation to do that.
but also as an elected official and community partners, We have the obligation to go out and do the next right thing.
and that's what we've been doing for 50 years, And we'll continue to do it for another 50 years.
thank you. I'll call for a vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? One abstention.
motion carries. I forgot to say one thing. Go, Spurs! Go! All right. All right, let's get back to the regular agenda items.
I believe we went through consent and there were no individual items pulled.
correct. Kate. Oh, kate, didn't we have a correction to make or is that coming up on Individual?
that's on individual. Individual. Okay. Just know we. All right. We'll take agenda item number six filing for the record the following legal and Administrative documents directing the criminal district attorney's office to take action
if necessary. A through b seven approval of the commissioner's court minutes for tuesday, June 23rd,
2026. Motion by commissioner moody. Second by commissioner calvert.
any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstention. Motion carries. Communications from citizens to be heard. All right.
I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to pull up those that have signed up.
now, some have asked for individual, but that it may be the afternoon by the time we get To y'all.
but if you wish to speak, I will give you an opportunity to speak at this time.
three minutes. First is lydia. Laos. Lydia, are you here?
lydia. Laos. I may well, if they come back in, Please let me know.
I'll try to accommodate them as best I can. Shannon.
shannon. Shannon. Okay. Antonio. Diaz. Antonio.
diaz. And then diana. Arenas has yielded. Antonio.
diana, do you wish to yield to antonio? Where's diana?
no. Okay. She's other shit. How are you? All right.
antonio. Buenos dias. I'm here to speak on item
64. And that would be on the jail. That is a considerable
problem. Are you speaking about endangered youths and all that?
I guess those would be future detainees or inmates at our county jails, Should they survive.
if they have all these emotional problems and poverty and lack of opportunity.
there are at least double digit deaths at bexar county jail every year.
miss rodriguez and I, with the approval of county commissioners and sheriff and
elections office back in 2009 initiated a voter registration drive inside bexar county Jail.
in 2009 and 2010, which had never been done before.
but that was to get the deputies there, the employees there and the inmates, The detainees,
to see themselves as human beings, to see themselves as citizens with rights, Not as animals,
not as caged victims, but as equal human beings, Because most have not been convicted, most have not
been to trial. They're simply there because they cannot make bail for one reason or Another.
and they are treated atrociously because to have double digits death every year, Some within 24 hours of being
there, it's atrocious. It needs to be addressed.
I'm glad the sheriff was here for that. Chance for infants
or small children to be cared for. But to me, That is a
prison state that we are creating in the west side.
when it first started, it was going to be a small footprint.
canal street was still open to the public all the way from commerce to martin.
now you have it all blocked up. It's chained in. There is no public access to commerce street.
it is a prison facility. It is no longer just a county jail.
and I see that the footprint is to be increased. You have the two two deuce warehouse marked also to become some sort of jail.
that is, again, something that really needs to be looked at in our westside becoming just A prison state area.
time has expired. Six minutes. Did you add the second one? Okay. Did he finish his six minutes? No. You got three more minutes.
antonio and I also saw that we are sending our detainees or inmates, Whichever you want to call to
kerr county and burnet county. So more cost to our county so they can be housed there.
somehow it seems that too many people are being arrested, Whether it is because of homelessness houselessness mental
issues. Since those clinics and state funding is cut for mental issues.
it seems jail is the only housing for an overpopulated county, Supposed to be over 2 million now
and continuing to grow. And I see that I brought this up before continuing to just allow Development to go wild
and uncontrolled growth in our county, in our city is not the way to go.
it does not give us more of a higher income from our taxation.
it doesn't. We cannot keep up with it. It's just a dog chasing its tail.
that's just my comment on that. But death at the county jail, And who knows how they're going to be treated at bernard
county. At kerr county, with only paying $85 per per bed there.
and how are the people from here going to be able to visit their relatives once moved over There?
should they be actual residents of bexar county?
all these need to be taken into consideration for all these issues and to those being Considered to be another annexation for the jail.
it needs to be looked at. Too many deaths is very it's it's an eye opening situation.
like I said, in 2009, 2010, there were 16 years ago we went because we had double digit Deaths.
then we're trying to get our county deputy sheriffs to look at the detainees, At the arrested people there as human beings,
and they themselves to have some inkling that they still have rights even though they're Behind bars.
and this double court system that is in place where someone that is detained also needs to Be looked at.
that is, to me, unconstitutional. But it's occurring here in bexar county.
it's occurring here in texas. And I keep saying it. Texas is one of the most racist states ever constructed, Especially the republic of texas,
which much of it governance is still enforced upon us.
thank you, sir. I think, lydia, did you get back lydia la force.
why don't you come back? I'm giving you the opportunity to speak at this time, Even though it's a agenda item.
if you wish to speak at this time or otherwise, You're going to have to continue to wait. So if you wish. Good morning, judge and county commissioners.
thank you for letting me speak. My name is lee delos, Founder of voices behind the cell and co-founder of san antonio.
grieving mothers fight for justice. As a mother of julian, Who was critically injured on july 27th,
2020 and passed away on july 30th, 2020 because of organ donation, I stand.
I have dedicated my life to advocating for families affected by in-custody deaths.
I stand here today to ask for greater transparency, Accountability, meaningful, meaningful reforms and dignity for every person housed in
bexar county jail. This. This discussion is far more. It's about far more than jail, overcrowding and facilities.
it is about protecting human life. With 130 in-custody deaths during sheriff's javier Salazar tenure.
community deserves answers. Every person who enters the jail is in the custody and care of The government.
the constitutional rights do not end at the jail door. Today, I respectfully ask this court to make jail safety and transparency a priority by Supporting the follow following reforms.
adopting mandatory family notification policy requiring immediate notification when a Person suffers a medical emergency,
is hospitalized or dies while in custody. Preserve all surveillance video, Body camera footage,
radio communications, medical records, incident reports following any critical incident Release public quarterly reports on in-custody deaths,
serious medical emergencies, suicides, suicide attempts, Staffing levels and corrective actions.
establish a family liaison to communicate with families throughout investigation, Process and short term reforms.
increase medical and mental health staffing to provide 24 hour coverage and improve Officer training and emergency medical response,
overdose recognition, suicide prevention, de-escalation and mental health crisis.
strengthen. Strengthen emergency response policies requiring ems activation whenever a Detainee shows signs of medical
distress, conduct independent audits of detention operations, Medical services, and compliance with state standards.
long term reforms require independent investigations of every in-custody death and Critical incidents.
improve transparency through annual public hearings on jail operations, Safety, staffing and compliance.
expand mental health treatment diversion programs and substance use services to reduce Unnecessary incarceration and overcrowding.
modernize jail facilities while ensuring that any expansion prioritizes safety.
medical care, suicide prevention and humane conditions.
as a military city, usa, we must not forget our veterans in custody and ensure they Receive the care,
treatment and dignity that they deserve. These are not expired and I'm sorry, These are not political issues.
these are human issues. Every number represents a son, Daughter, mother, father, a brother,
sister, or a friend. Thank you. Have a good day. All right. Let me go back and see if rebecca flores.
did you return? Rebecca. All right. Pass. Shannon locke, Did you return?
shannon. Locke. Shannon. Locke. All right. I called your name.
all right. Mark. Vojvodich and mark, you have I've.
note 123456. I'll just call their names out. But I think they're all yielding time to you.
so joe hernandez, joel hernandez, ashley martinez, Dougan yi, lloyd brown,
tyler faz, kent novak, and paul guma, are they yielding all the time to you?
constable. They are, sir. All right, you have the floor. Dismiss the officers so they can get back to work. Sir, Please.
you're dismissed.
good morning, judge commissioners. Basically just coming back to respond to some questions That came up on a previous discussion.
there's no actions today. Trying to fill in some blanks of a request that we made on the Motorcycles in the previous commissioners court meeting.
first of all, we had a misstatement on my part, On the cost, and I wanted to clarify that although the costs of vehicles,
the tahoe is still $84,410, that's fully outfitted.
nothing adapted to it. Motorcycles are $51,683.
that's fully outfitted and equipped. Of course, The maintenance and operations costs were a factor,
and that was a question that several people had presented. And we have a 60 month factory Warranty on the motorcycles.
the operations costs are lower than tahoe. So that's just not my opinion.
if you look at the attachment a, this is basically a chart that shows the cost of the Vehicles.
and behind that are the actual cost analysis by department provided by fleet maintenance For bmw motorcycle units,
as well as for tahoes. We provided that so that we would actually have hard data to know That we're talking about the same thing and that we are looking at a savings.
the motorcycles are 38% costs, initial costs, And they're fully outfitted with the costs that we stated and 15% lower in the cost per
mile for operations. These numbers are derived again off of fleet maintenance cost Analysis.
we there were some concerns that we had that costs were going to run higher than they Needed to be.
upfitted. And the costs that we have quoted includes those upfitted motorcycles, Plus an additional amount of money from our budget to cover some safety supplies that are
necessary. The costs and the hearing that we had in the last court session was actually Pretty accurate from by mrs,
you did a good job on providing the accurate costs right off the top of your head, But we did provide the fleet maintenance costs so that you'd be able to see them.
precinct three. Keep in mind, when we were talking about when we make operational Decisions in precinct three,
it's because we see it from the street level and we see what happens on a daily basis and The changes in precinct three,
and we try to respond to those. We are mindful of the fact that the principles that we Abide by include the bexar county statement of financial policies,
section 41 a to d, which in summary, establishes the fees and costs that are related to The cost of providing services,
pursuing changes by legislative means, and collecting all fines and fees and revenue due To bexar county.
these are not mandated to by precinct three. They are bexar county policies and we Institute them.
we're not doing anything special. The money that we're talking about currently right now Is existing in the precinct three budget.
one of the discussions was an assessment for the true cost. And I think those fleet Figures show the true cost of these motorcycles on a lifetime costs,
including lower maintenance and operations costs. And plus, the mentioning part of the discussion was from mr.
robinson on liability and policies related to motorcycles in bexar county.
to a large degree, I think he was correct, as he put it back in one of his last comments, That that is a decision up to each constable to decide,
making an operational decision of how to employ resources. The liability issue is perfectly aligned with the county, But it's not a new thing.
we have motorcycles here. The policy is the sheriff's office has for their motors.
they've been operating for 20 years. So if there's a policy that needed to be made, I think it would have been done probably 20 years ago.
and there's no reason to have a policy to bind constables to on their possible use of Motorcycles when we are the only precinct that have used them in the past and are asking
to use them now to require us to be in agreement in each constable's office.
kind of flies in the face of each elected official and the authority that they have to Operate their, their,
their precinct. I understood also that we had concerns that we wanted to look at Addressing this during the regular budget.
this is not a budget. This is not next budget discussion today.
this is on the operations of the funds that we have in our budget now.
there was a comment that was required that we had that they want to know that why we Haven't coordinated with other constables and they haven't seen those things.
it's not a factor in any way what other constables have for needs and their needs have no Effect on us.
each of us provides a separate budget. And we have those specific needs that we need to Have.
there's no reason to have a consensus between constables on anything.
although I do have two letters up here that were listed in your section b from constable's In precinct two and precinct four,
supporting the use by constables in precinct three of motorcycles. They have different needs. We have different needs. We're just trying to get to that point Where we're performing the best that we can with the resources we have,
and offsetting costs to taxpayers and putting those costs back on the people who have Violated the law.
and the legislature has provided the solution to that, Which is fines.
there was some discussion that brought up what required to appear in their office, Like in precinct three.
there was a discussion, an out of cycle recently, That they needed an investigator for their precinct that was out of cycle request.
that was perfectly acceptable. But that's a need that I would not speak to, To oppose because it's her business.
precinct two's business. By the way, she needs more staff than what she's got now.
she has one of the busiest precincts. Commissioner rodriguez and I hope that's addressed Coming up in the future. There's also commissions that they're in the present budget.
I don't want to tie the present budget to future requests. Those future requests will all be debated in due time.
and we all, all precincts, all county departments, Are going to have requests that are going to have an increase or some change.
so I don't think it's really applicable to the discussions coming up in the future.
also, one of the commissioners had mentioned that they were asking to develop that policy And that she had had comments.
rebeca clay-flores was the one who mentioned that she had been talking to her Commissioner, her constable,
and his her chief of staff, his chief of staff, Regarding that they haven't had any discussions on the need for motorcycles or on my
issue. I couldn't tell which one she was talking about, Whether they were talking about their issue or ours.
but again, precinct one. Precinct. Two, precinct four.
they're all independent. They have no role in what I do in precinct three.
that's between me and my lawful use of the expenditure of funds, Personnel and resources.
they haven't requested motor units. Why would they have to have a policy that addresses That? It's immaterial for precinct three that I didn't discuss this with constable tejeda or any Other officials outside of precinct three.
presenting a budget item to commissioners court. The constables are each. The subject matter experts of their.
their precinct and. They should be consulted. And they should. We should be getting back to that period where we have some trust between County commissioners court and the other elected officials that are taking care of the
duties and the officers that they are elected to. We don't involve ourselves in other Precincts.
the the the liability issue for vehicles, the operators and risk management functions are Identical to those motorcycles that bexar county sheriff's office has and has had for 20
years. So I don't really see that a policy is necessary in that area.
when we're talking about this disproportionate effect on a population or certain people.
that's a valid concern. And we looked into that as well. You have a copy. Number one, we do a little bit different.
if you look at this little flier, this is what we hand out when we do every traffic Citation. This is handed back to them with a copy of the citation in their driver's
license. And it gives them a lot of information that they may not have already had about How they can handle the citation,
how they can appear in court, what options they have besides paying.
we have it in english and spanish, and we have a fine schedule on the back.
we also go back to the fact that of this money that is collected by bexar county in the Past three years in this current year to date,
we've collected $1.6 million in fines this year. Last year was 20 million, 20.5 million. 17 million in the year prior and 15.2 million Prior to that,
about $54 million in that time period for the current court.
54 million. 19 million of. That is the part that bexar county receives.
we also have if that is an issue, we've also watched what the protections are for these Citizens who can't afford these costs.
we don't make an excuse for at least I hope we're not making an excuse to commit criminal Acts because of poverty or indigency.
we have other mechanisms that can be applied there. In the class c court that we have in jp court, There's many protections for people who are unable to pay for whatever reason.
they can have a payment plan. They can participate in community service if they are unable To do physical community service or that kind of area.
they can provide services and there's no jail time for these class c misdemeanors.
so we're not going to be populating the jail and we have alternatives to it. It's one of the very basic tenets of society is that people abide by the lowest level of, Of behavior in a society are laws.
they morals can be higher. Other things can be normal, But laws are necessary for the society to exist.
and it's an implied understanding with everybody participates, Whether they're a billionaire or somebody who's down in the poverty level,
which we have 14.5% of poverty in bexar county. I understand that, but we have protections in place for them in the court systems.
bexar county doesn't set the fines that's set by the state legislature, And it's at the discretion of each of the each of the judges and courts.
basically, the same people that may be disproportionately affected are also within that Population that are going to participate in 47,000 crashes per year in bexar county,
190 plus fatalities and tens of thousands of serious bodily injury.
so we're protecting everybody by enforcing these laws and trying to reduce those Accidents.
those fines and fees are not our choice. They're from the legislature. The same rules apply to a violator. But remember, They have these different plans and protections.
the judges are looking out. They're required by law to do an indigency viewpoint and check And see if they can afford or cannot afford to pay the fines and all that
goes before anything else. They're not committed to jail.
in short, they have operating short guards, safeguards for the executive and law Enforcement and judicial sides of these processes and how they work.
one example within the court system is using data from fy 25 for fines and court costs.
jp one wave $394,000 for indigent. Jp two waived $9,289.
jp three waived 3589 jp four wave $26,000. And I don't want to tie the court up, But I do
want to kind of go through a quick summary. When we have the item e on the back side, We've gone through that before.
when we are allowed to manage our precinct over a period of 17 years or time, We make a better decision than staff does because we have tens of thousands of hours
in precinct three. So that's something to be considered, Including what we have for the losses.
we also have on this. We had requested to use unspent salary funds, Which is not an unusual request in bexar county.
the item d was how we calculated that that figure.
and it comes out literally for. We have that for several years all the way through.
the current year is $186,658, which is more than enough to cover the request that will be Coming.
we've had up to 300,000 that we've had to turn over in the past years, And $253,000 in the year prior to that.
this proposal that we are going to be proposing later on is a summary. It still makes sense financially for the county in offsetting the costs of law enforcement To those who violate the law,
rather than putting the burden on taxpayers. There are safeguards to those who may be Financially or disparately affected,
and I hope I provided those facts. We have two judges on the court, Plus other court members hear legal advice all the time for mr.
robertson. So I think that they're aware of these safeguards that are in presently Alternative in our budget,
analysts had suggested was to use unexpended fleet acquisition funds, And also an alternative that hasn't been explored.
that will be is that we can use transportation code 542402 funds, Which authorizes the use of traffic fine revenue to fund capital costs,
personnel or maintenance, or to defray the cost of an expense of county traffic officers Or to enforce laws and regulation use of highways.
let's see.
okay. I think it's back to work now. My apologies for hitting that.
basically we're looking to only ask for funds in this. Next ask is for funds that are already allocated to my office in this budget.
but there are alternatives I just mentioned. Motorcycles are not new to precinct three or Bexar county.
if you wanted a policy, the timing does seem a little bit off when it's proposed only for Precinct three or at the time we request motorcycles.
the equipment, training and all that exceeds the current training that are provided to Motor officers in bexar county.
the cost factors favor motorcycles by a wide margin.
the incidental revenue, as authorized by the legislature, Offsets budget shortfalls, and those savings can be fund to other precincts or other
critical services that face cuts or being abolished. We're trying to be good citizens, corporate citizens in bexar county, In precinct three, by making sure we cover that.
this is also a further step in building trust between the court and constables and Permitting them the full operational control of their offices,
which is what the design was by the texas constitution. We all have a lane to be in. It's a tough. You have a.
you have to manage 5400 officers or employees in multiple departments from everything from Building maintenance,
fleet maintenance, roads and bridges. We would ask you to rely on the people that have That knowledge firsthand on the lowest levels,
which we'll be presenting later on in august, Preferably on a new a, c, f, and I hope this information provided some fill in and some of
the questions that came up. And if there's any other questions at a future date, Let me know and I'll be happy to take care of the research and present it to you.
thank you. Okay. Point of personal privilege only. Commissioner, please. Well, appreciate you. You coming?
and I appreciate this. Especially exhibit a laying out the answers, I think, effectively on the costs associated with the motorcycles,
35 to 40% less for that motorcycle versus the tahoe.
I support you bringing this back for a fair up or down vote by this court.
I think you've effectively answered the questions that the court previously voiced, So thank you.
all right. That concludes citizen be heard. Was there any citizens that signed up that I Did not call your name.
hearing none. Let's move on. We'll go to individual items.
court. Let me alert you. I intend to call those individuals that are not part of Executive.
unless y'all indicate that you wish to hold back on any of them.
but and then we will. If we finish those, we will then close for executive.
I'm proposing we eat lunch during executive as we did last time, And that we continue executive session in the in the
courtroom with our lunch and subject to counsel and those people that are asked to be part Of executive.
and then we should be able to come out and close the meeting. If there's no objections, that's what I intend to do.
and so I'm alerting the public that we will take up those items that are not part of Executive.
there are a lot of items that are going to be discussed and executive could take an Extended period of time with those discussions.
so in my case, I need help. I understand 58 is not part.
so are we prepared to take 58 up staff? Judge 57 is not part of executive as well.
57 yeah, it's not on there. So I think it starts with 57 okay.
so is that is that correct statement. All right. Let's take up 57 then. I thought it was executive but I'll pull it back.
it's discussion appropriate action regarding approval of following actions relating to Bexar county out of county jail services contracts, a authorizing bexar county judge to
execute a proposed first amendment to the interlocal cooperation agreement between bexar County and kerr county for the purpose of reviving the expired agreement,
extending its term through june 24th, 2026, and direction to staff to place executed Agreement on the next available commissioners court agenda following
execution for ratification and record filing purposes, And to be authorizing bexar county judge to execute
execute a proposed first amendment to the interlocal interlocal cooperation agreement Between bexar county and burnet county for the purposes of reviving the expired agreement,
extending its term through june 24th, 2026, and direction to staff to place the executed Agreement on the next available commissioners court agenda following
execution for ratification and record following filing purposes, And c authorizing the county auditor to pay past due
fy 26 invoices. And I believe we have corrected amounts that I'll ask kate to put on Record once the first amendment to the interlocal
cooperation agreements is approved by each kerr county and burnett county.
kate, what are the corrected amounts to the respective counties?
yes, judge, we are making a correction to the dollar amounts for 57.
see, the dollar amount for kerr county should reflect 383,165, And the dollar amount for burnett should
reflect 1,183,224 and $0.17. Did everybody get those
amounts or do we need to repeat them? All right.
sheriff. Sure. Well, you all will be pleased to know that we're down to zero population in Both of those facilities.
but we do. If y'all have any questions regarding the contracts. I brought chief jansen up here. He's our resident expert on that topic, But we're just basically paying past due invoices that are owing.
and those counties are expecting payment. Correct, Sir. Yes, sir. Okay. And to and to clarify it, it was at $65 a bed, Correct?
yes. Okay. I know we met we met earlier to talk about all the questions I had.
so thank you for taking time for that. And I'm glad to know that there are zero inmates Outside of bexar county right now.
so I know as a summer goes, there's different things that happen. There's some recon, some construction that we're we're doing some electrical work.
but I'm glad that this has finally happened. So hopefully we can keep it as low as Possible.
thank you. All right. Is there a motion? All right, Commissioner moody.
so clearly I assume that based on the the actual build amounts underneath.
see that? That's just from the unused capacity that we have had in those two counties Based on what the contracted
beds versus what was actually utilized. Is that correct?
so I'm sorry one more time, commissioner. Well, Because we we had budgeted for was it 4 or 4.5.
okay. And we're obviously coming in underneath that right now. So those were just beds that were contracted but not utilized.
we didn't put an inmate in that bed to get the $85 invoice.
well, I mean, up to this beginning of june we had inmates there.
but yeah, all the inmates are now gone. And so with this paid invoice will be paid up all The way.
and maybe this is a county staff. So the, the combination of the total cost thus far Versus what we had budgeted
for, how do those compare? So. I believe we budgeted 4.5 million.
and I think at the end of this it will be 3.8 million. Okay. Just off the top of my head somewhere, Those were the ballpark numbers that I was aware of too.
and so obviously that's, that's a good thing. We haven't utilized as many bed nights as we Had expected to.
and I think after our previous conversation that we asked for and drove here, We have kind of brought those numbers down
with those surrounding counties and try to minimize the utilization of those outside bexar County beds,
which is a win for bexar county. And I appreciate the efforts on that front because it's Saving taxpayer dollars.
it's helping with our budget going forward. I do think though, That, that and this will relate to a couple other agenda
items that are forthcoming with 63 and 64. But, You know, we are still obviously spending tax dollars.
I don't think anybody believes that. We're not going to have to utilize these contracts Going forward,
because we don't have the capacity and space today. So just highlighting again that, you know, 3.8 is better than 4.5 and a lot better than $7 Million
spent in this regard, but it's still $3.8 million that come from taxpayers.
so over the mid to long term, the problem still exists.
we're doing a good job in the short term, I think of trying to, To, to manage this and minimize it.
but we can't look the other way over the mid to long term. I know we had the head of the jail commission, Previous head of the jail commission for the state of texas here.
and talking about the growth in bexar county and what the expectations are in 2040.
and depending on what you assume the incarceration rate is, That'll be 5500 to 6000 inmates.
and clearly, we'd need hundreds, if not up to a thousand additional beds in order to to Accomplish that task.
when when our county has grown that much. So I hope as we we cover these other items, We can continue to dive into these these issues that are pressing and are
clearly county responsibility. But that's all I have on this side.
any further comment questions? Is there a motion?
and I think we have to take it. Larry. Three three motions. So yes, judge, I just want to say on the corrected amounts, Can you add up to the amount the corrected amounts because there's they were just
submitted to the auditor's office for review. So we want to say up to the amounts the corrected amounts if we can add that to the Motion.
any objections on the amendment of 57 c for the correct amounts and include the language Up to those set amounts.
can cate read those amounts again? All right. Let's let's get 57 c locked down. Let us put the specific amounts and the specific Language as recommended by counsel.
yes, judge. So 57 c should reflect authorizing the county auditor to pay past due fy 26 Invoices up to the amount of
383,165 for kerr county, and up to the amount of
01,183,224 and $0.17 for burnet county. That's the motion.
so who moved? I make that motion by commissioner rodriguez, Second by commissioner moody.
any further discussion? So what we're going to take up, What are we going to take up.
what was the motion. Well, we kind of went backwards. Okay. We did 57 c. Okay. Let's do. We're doing 57. C is it clear on the record, Mr.
robertson? We're taking up 57. C with the corrected amount and the corrected language as Moved by commissioner rodriguez,
second by commissioner moody. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.
can I have a second motion for 57 b and we'll go backwards.
so moved. Motion by commissioner rodriguez, second by commissioner moody.
any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. We will now take up 57 a. Is there a motion? So moved.
motion by commissioner rodriguez, second by commissioner moody. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Thank you all. And so, mr. Leo carrera, do you have what you need to take care of our Bills with our neighboring counties.
and would you also express our appreciation for their cooperation?
and thomas, obviously will be coming back on any new contracts that will be considered.
is that correct? All right. Tell me. So. 58 kate, What are we going to do on presentation discussion.
appropriate action regarding approval of amendment to administrative policy. 8.1 procurement of goods, commodities, equipment, Information technology, professional personal services,
maintenance and construction. Are we moving forward on that?
thomas judge, I think we'd like to defer this item.
we need to work a few administrative items on the background. So we'll continue to work with the purchasing agent. So are we tabling or we're just Pulling it.
oh we'll table it recommending tabling motion by commissioner calvert, Second by commissioner calvert to table any further discussion.
all right. We got everybody on 58, which is procurement of goods, Communication equipment,
information technology, professional and personal services, Maintenance and construction.
but it was going to be presented by mr. Galloway. So I'm sorry for table 59. No, I just we're bringing 59 is not being brought up.
it's 58 tabling 58. Yeah. Right. So who did I have a motion from?
that was commissioner. Calvert. And who second. And second by commissioner rodriguez. Any further discussion?
hearing none. All those in favor of the motion to table item 58 signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries the table.
and can I get a sense or feedback, thomas or mr.
galloway, will this be on the next agenda or. We just don't know at this time. Judge, I believe we can have this ready by the next Court.
I would encourage. I want this issue wrapped up, Please.
and commissioners, I think y'all's input is important on this particular agenda item.
all right. 59 discussion appropriate action authorizing purchase. Agent to advertise a request for proposal to combine inmate video visitation support Services,
public coin and inmate phone services as requested by the bexar county sheriff's office.
mr. Galloway, good afternoon, commissioners. I am gregory mayor county.
miss mary beth stolte from bcit, who's worked tirelessly on this agenda item.
this one is the the inmate video visitation support services and public coin and inmate Phone systems,
which was a combination just reminding the court for context, A combination of two services that we've combined into one firm scope of work.
there was multiple changes to the scope of work during the process of building this rfp, And we are now ready to move forward requesting the court's support in moving
this rfp forward. We're glad to take any questions or concerns that you may have regarding This particular agenda item.
commissioner. Calvert. Does this include the tablets I see in the first page, It has it in the scope of work,
but if you want to address it does. It does. Yes, Sir. Go to the mic, please. Can you elaborate a little bit more about the tablets and in terms Of how many and what the
I don't actually have the numbers off the top of my head. I know that the, the bcso was looking at innovations maybe in, In the, in the environments for,
for the inmates. So I believe that the tablets were looking to be made available for for Future use in that
they are one in each kiosk. I believe there are 64. Okay, y'all can have this discussion. You're talking to mike or pull to the side.
so commissioner there were six, I believe. And don't hold me to these numbers, But we will get you for.
in fact, I think there's 64 kiosks and each one should have the tablet, Which would be 64 tablets.
I don't know if they buffered in extras for damages or these things.
yes, sir. Commissioner moody. Well, I'm glad to see this this item make it back to court.
the intent and the background here was obviously trying to save the county money by Offering the ability to bundle these
services for both the phone and the, the video services.
correct. Yes, sir. As we've discussed with that, You know, intent coming from, from the court.
and, and the idea here would be that as you go forward trying to provide that flexibility,
whether it's bundled or the individual services in a partnership for their solicitation.
so I hope we can provide as much flexibility there as possible in order to ensure that you Know,
we, we have vendors at the lowest cost to the county that, That are effective in providing those services.
yes, commissioner. Commissioner rodriguez thank you. Judge. Mr. Galloway I know I think the current vendor is, I think on a month to month or some extension.
what is your proposed timeline for this? Rfp no longer than six months.
we're going to do the 30 days post. Post and post. Once we receive the approval we'll close that down.
we'll start the evaluations of the actual proposals and then move forward with the Recommendation,
bringing that back to commissioners court with the overall scores and the recommendation Of the vendor,
which meets the best value. So I think I think you said no, No more than six months.
is that what you said? Okay. So by the end of the calendar year I don't want to hold you To that,
but your, your aim is to have some recommendation to the court. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Judge. Anything else?
yeah. Quick question. So in the meantime, is there a contract month to month?
yes, commissioner. Yes, ma'am. So it already expired and we're just renewing month to Month. We have. We brought that I believe it was last commissioners court to extend.
so that's the one that was extended. Okay. All right. Thank you. No further questions. Any Other comments?
questions? Hearing none. All those in favor that I get a motion on the floor.
I need a motion. All right. Motion by commissioner calvert.
second. Second by commissioner rodriguez. And we're item 59, Correct?
all right. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?
any extension. Motion carries. All right. I believe the next individual that does not fall In executive is 65.
is that correct? 56. 056. Yeah. No, that's an executive.
okay. So I'm pulling up. 65 then we'll go to 66 and then we'll go to
67. I believe we will then break for lunch, but we'll continue with executive.
so just letting staff know you may have you may be eating lunch or you may be asked to Come in executive.
so please confer with staff as to who may be needed for executive session.
so taking up item 65 discussion appropriate action regarding and we have approved late File.
correct. Yes. So discussion appropriate action regarding approval of request by Commissioner tommy calvert to appoint the following individual to the listed board of
commissioners. Vacancy for the term specified appears to be sheriff civil service Commission.
peter vice chair commissioner. Calvert. I'd like to move approval of the applicant motion.
second by commissioner. Second by commissioner. Second by commissioner rodriguez. Any further discussion? I support this.
I'll call for a vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.
we'll now take up late file 66866 a. And corrected in the written agenda.
it's listed as 68 so I'll just note the correction. It's discussion appropriate action regarding approval request by commissioner justin Rodriguez and his name needs to be corrected.
little typo rodriguez precinct two to appoint the following individual to the listed board And commission for terms specified.
also for civil service commission. Michelle robledo.
is there a motion motion to approve? Judge with the correction to my first name spelling There.
second. All right. The motion with the corrected spelling of the name which is very Fundamental.
thomas. So let's not let's not have that happen again. All right. All right. And second by commissioner clay-flores.
all those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed any abstention. Motion carries. Last for individual and then we'll go to executive is 67.
that has been approved. I believe that needs to also be corrected in the number 67 a Discussion appropriate action regarding approval,
execution of professional services agreement between bexar county and bexar county Hospital district.
dba university health for the county to contribute $1,257,654 in general funds to identify And provide mental health support,
to divert persons from incarceration and to facilitate treatment and continuity of care Upon release into the community.
doctor guerrero. Yes. Thank you, judge. Commissioners, This is just to approve the contract for the work that the that university health has been
doing in the gia, which calls for mental health screenings and then mental health Assessments under the 1622 process.
they've been doing this work since october 1st. And so this is just codifying that work. All right.
any questions, commissioner rodriguez? I'll make a motion to approve judge. But quick Question doc.
so this is part of the intake. Is that right.
yes. So the screening and I guess any assessment done for health reasons is now being done By university health or it's been done
by university health. So this is just covering that contract.
has it been not quite a year or. No. It's been since october 1st since they took over Operations.
yes. Okay. Great. Motion to approve. Motion by commissioner rodriguez.
I'll second that. Thank you for meeting with me earlier. Or was it last week, last week to discuss some of the questions I had about that?
so let's push forward. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner moody.
just a couple questions. So you said october 1st was when took took the reins there.
yes. Was there background or reasoning for. Obviously it's been what, 8 or 9 months now?
yeah. So originally this is budgeted for $4.8 million.
in previous years that encompassed not just the mental health assessments, But diversion work and some other programs that were being conducted by chcs.
we wanted to offer a period of transition with chcs to hash out some of the other pieces Of that contract that excluded the mental health assessments.
that took several months, and we were not able to come to terms with them.
and so we kind of had to wait a few months so that we would know kind of what we were able To budget for,
just the mental health assessment piece. Okay. And is anybody from here? They're not. Yeah, We, we've been back and forth, but because the fluid nature of the agenda
today, they had some other meetings they had to attend to at okay.
obviously it's probably a broader discussion with leadership, But I guess a question to county staff again,
is that the medical health assessments and health
care that's provided within the jail. Is there any reimbursement policy with for any of The medical care they provide our
inmates? It's not a contract within my department.
I defer to county staff. I believe we have a contract with us for that.
okay. And yeah, for medical care. I don't think we pay for that. Okay. I guess I've never seen that come across in court.
I think that's an old, old contract. I don't have a copy, But I could do the research for you on that.
what? What contract do you mean? You mean a contract directly with us?
what my point that I'm trying to get at is the, The traditional medical care versus mental health care and whether we are paying for for
one, but not the other, because we've talked a lot in this court about mental health care Is medical care,
right? Why are we differentiating the two? That's that's the point of my question.
oh, well, keep in mind that the us is the county hospital.
so I think their specialty is medical care, not necessarily mental health care. We have a local mental health authority. We don't have a contract with us there.
they were created pursuant to an election and they're taxed.
the residents are taxed for that care that they provide, That indigent care, which includes detainees in the mostly.
and I think they cover all that care. There's not a contract for that. Well, it's it's funny that you're mentioning the mental health authority, But at the same time,
we're utilizing now going forward for those mental health care services in the jail, I think it's something we can take up offline directly with.
but I just think it's something we should, we should explore in conversations going Forward.
well, you have to understand the specific responsibilities of those entities. Us has a duty. The mha does not necessarily have that specific duty as far as the vis a Vis the jail.
so you have to keep their actual responsibilities in mind when you're considering those, Because us has a specific obligation to treat
indigent persons in bexar county because they are supported by tax revenue.
so just keep that in mind that their specific obligations are very different.
so they're funded by the mha is funded by the state, Whereas the us is funded directly with tax dollars of people living in bexar county.
so just there's a quite a bit of reasoning behind why they do what they do and how they do It.
so just part of the record, I think fundamentally, Historically, we've looked at mental health care separate from physical health care,
but those lines are going away. So anyway, it's worth a future discussions.
thank you for your comments. I do doctor. To understand the contract and we had a brief Discussion from a legal perspective,
but just in functionality and what it means. And we've had comments today public comments About how services are delivered at the jail or lack of services.
and so we need to be very careful with this as we look at the whole process and regards to How things are handled at the jail.
and I think, mr. Roberson, you will have that discussion in executive, But I want to focus in on what we're doing today.
this agenda item focuses on the expert screening for mental health, Behavioral health, and intellectual and developmental
disabilities, often called the id patients or people incarcerated because of their Disability.
is that correct? Yes, although it is covered under a separate contract with acog.
but for this specific to mental health services and there is some level of substance use Screening that is also performed by staff.
so the purpose of this agenda item for purposes of payment to us, Is to the
result of the programs to identify individuals at jail intake who are eligible for Relevant diversion programs.
correct? Yes. And we know that what 6000 people who come to the jail each year, I mean, they're coming in and out and they're probably duplicated with
people that come continue to go in and out. Only a fraction is eligible for diversion Programs,
correct? Yes. So it's very crucial that this program be very succinct, Concise in order to truly create a diversion
program for people at the jail. Correct? Yes.
and this is backed up not because of what you or the court wants, But this was a recommendation by doctor testa and the report we continue to rely
upon on the gia, which is the old magistrate's system.
and you've heard comments about that in regards to how. So this ultimately streamlines screenings, enhances diversion.
is that a correct statement? Yes. And I want to go on record even though they're not here.
but is editor barnes for his leadership in university health.
and we have ongoing discussions on how the operations at the jail are happening, Even at this time.
correct? Absolutely, yes. And I also want to thank you, Doctor andrea guerrero, for your leadership with the bexar county public health
department. Although we have we've had this discussion of mental health and medical Support.
the reality is we're dealing with the same person. And so what we have found and what we're hoping to accomplish at some point is the Integration of all those services so that all these services don't live in
silos, which creates gaps. And, and sometimes people fall into gaps and they don't get the Services they need because the systems,
the silos, the bureaucracies don't talk to each other. Is that a true statement? Yes. It has been an issue in the past and has been cited as a Barrier.
yes. So what would you say succinctly today? Short sentence here, Mr.
doctor. I know you like to explain it. What are you trying to accomplish through the Public health department in regards to to the issues there at the jail?
without getting to any specifics. Give me an overall high level statement specific to this Contract.
the critical finding that you spoke about with doctor testa's evaluation was, The recommendation that medical care and mental health screening and assessment
be brought under one provider specifically to address gaps in communication, Siloed services,
because it would create a more efficient process so that folks would have greater access To mental health assessment and then subsequently diversion and appropriate care once they
leave the jail. All right. Any further discussion?
who who moved on this one? Motion by commissioner rodriguez.
second. Second by commissioner clay-flores. All those in favor of the motion to signify Saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.
one more time. Staff is there. I believe we have concluded all those items except for Those that will be discussed in executive.
before we do that, let me alert staff that we have councils that are on retainer
and they're getting paid to sit here. I believe we have two agenda items that have that Dynamic.
so I'm going to ask larry, in regards to executive, Can you kind of line them up and tell me which ones we need to.
but I would like to get the lawyers out of here so that I can stop the clock. Sorry, bill, but yeah, I really I want to be have be compensated, But I need you in those.
I need the legal advice and not you there. So, Larry, can you give some direction before we close for executive speaking of mike.
what was that item 7070. Yes. Oh, okay. Got it.
let me now take up item seven. I need I need a okay.
70 is pursuant to section five. 51.0725 deliberations regarding contract being negotiated A to deliberate business and financial issues
related to negotiated development agreement. Similar document proposed to be negotiated Between bexar county,
texas political subdivision and coliseum advisory board. San antonio livestock exposition, inc., a texas nonprofit corporation related to the Redevelopment revitalization of the freeman coliseum complex grounds and facility
so long as. Before convening the closed meeting one. The court votes unanimously that deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental Effect on the position of the commissioners court negotiations with third persons and two.
the attorney advising the court issues a written determination that deliberation in an Open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the court in negotiations
with third persons in regards to agenda item 70. Can I have a motion? Motion by commissioner calvert.
second by commissioner clay-flores. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Do we have a unanimous vote for you, mr. Robeson.
I don't know. Yes. Are you
participating in the vote? Yes. Okay. So you haven't been addressed.
all right. All right. So let me also put in the record.
the court will now convene executive session. Executive session items may be discussed and act upon appropriate and open session Pursuant to section 55107.
one of the texas texas government code executive session will be held for consultation With the courts attorney for advice regarding a pending or contemplated litigation or
settlement offers and the matters of ledesma and guerrero versus bexar county and gonzales Versus bexar county be a matter in which the duty of the attorney to the governmental body
of the texas disciplinary rules of professional conduct of the state bar of texas clearly Conflicts with chapter 551 of the texas government code.
specifically one legal issues related to requests by the bexar county appraisal district For bexar county to intervene in pending litigation related to a suit filed by bcd
alleging a failure by certain housing finance corporations operating bexar county to Maintain tax exemptions required by texas law to.
legal issues related to the receipt of a notification of appointment of a court Coordinator and demand for release of funds by judges of the two 25th and two 85th
district courts, as well as consideration of the potential staffing resources needs of the Remaining 12 civil district court judges.
three legal issues related to collective bargaining agreement with the deputy sheriff's Association of bexar county entered into pursuant to chapter 174 of the local government
code for legal issues related to the redevelopment renovation of south beach pavilion Facility located at fort sam houston joint base san antonio
in support of the defense health agency. Five legal issues related to processing or Housing of detainees at the bexar county detention center and pending cases
naming bexar county or bexar county sheriff in his official capacity as a defender.
I believe we have taken up the matter in regards to the coliseum advisory board.
san antonio livestock exposition and the vote is the court has voted unanimously.
so at this time, the time is 1151. The court is open.
court is closed. Larry, who do you want in regards to certain agenda items?
so we're going to do first we're going to do 71st david council from the houston lawyers.
and then we're going to do the judges second. Then we're doing the judges. And who needs to be in there beside you?
so, judge, I'm going to request that each commissioner chief of staff be included in the Conversation,
not in the conversation, but to actually observed successful policy on the court.
I think this issue they should hear this conversation. Which item? The. The. 225282. No. The. What what what?
he said they're contacting her to come down. Okay.
okay. Well, then I'm putting this.
I know we're going to. Let's let's take let's take those that we get a vote on.
so what. 61, 62, 6061, 62, 63, 64.
6056. 60. One. 64.
you know, I, I, I know, I know. Which.
time is 2:21 p.m. We're back in open session. I believe we're going to take some action on certain items and we'll see.
so let me pull up item 63. And then I'm going to follow that with 64.
so. Mr. Roberson. 63 I believe was
discussed in executive. Was there going to be any action to take.
and his staff prepared to make any recommendations to the court on 63?
no, judge. I think we're clear. I think we'll bring an item back for august 4th meeting.
okay. So there's a discussion on a motion to table. So we can just drop that item judge or just drop it.
just drop it. All right. 63 is dropped. All right.
what about item 64. Is there a motion. Judge, I'd like to make a motion to table 64.
I think there's been some discussion about bringing this back.
august the or some version of this. August 4th is our next meeting.
it's the fourth. August 4th. So I make a motion to table it to august 4th.
second. All right. There's a motion second. Any further discussion? Yes. Table commissioner. Moode. There's many items here.
as we said in the the background on the slide, We had a conversation regarding some of the challenges and opportunities
regarding facilities at the jail, diversion strategies and many other items back in april.
that was, was sought for many months. I thought it was a good discussion.
and as I was going to highlight today with item 64 we had some goodness come out of that, Including the understanding that the applewhite facility
was not being utilized the way it could because they didn't have prescription meds.
from that conversation, we actually were able to successfully start moving individuals Over into the applewhite facility,
just highlighting the value of having that discussion.
but we didn't cover everything, which is why, First of all, we want to come back and have this discussion today.
highlight the applewhite success. Get an update on laurel ridge, Which we've had our friends from strack here waiting for five hours,
six, six hours now, as well as to to cover the previous studies, Which would be great review for this court.
the strategic studies we paid for spent a quarter million dollars on.
regarding the meadows study doctor testa's study.
the sash study, which would be of great value to this court as we go into an august Session
and hopefully get more towards alignment on what potential solutions are available.
but I would challenge, you know, this court to identify what those strategic Recommendations from meadows are that are in this powerpoint that we were going to
discuss today. So we would know what some of those recommendations that are on the table As we go forward and direct staff to bring something back in august.
there's many slides here with recommendations from those studies that we paid for, Some of which have been implemented,
some haven't been implemented. But without that knowledge, What, where, where are we going to go forward from here?
I'll just bring up one more point because obviously the, The die has been cast here politically.
but the unfortunate thing is we were asked a couple of weeks ago to to go up and testify In the state
legislature before committee. And it was an opportunity.
and, you know, there was there was a desire for me to go.
I could talk about, you know, need for mental health beds. I could talk about opportunities for regional psychiatric hospital.
there are a lot of things I could talk about, But we don't have a strategy and a game plan on that front.
and without having these open discussions, whether that's in a work session, Whether that's in open court or whether that's in task force behind the scenes,
we don't know what we're advocating for. I can't go and advocate if I don't know what our Strategy is.
so I'll leave it there. I hope we can have a productive discussion in august.
this has taken too long. I'll call for a vote.
all those in favor of the motion to table 64 signify by saying aye.
aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? What was that?
motion carries. Motion. What's that? Oh, yes.
we do have some citizens be heard. Let me call you up. Give you an opportunity. Understanding. We're bringing this all back in august.
so I just want to be fair with you. I also want to put on record alerting county.
let's make this a time certain so that people don't have in light of and I'll be honest, I wasn't aware that people were being summoned.
and I'm going to be real blunt. This is process of communication.
had I known we have professionals there who spent five hours, I would have brought this up earlier and we would have been able to tell them this
morning. Either you could stay at this time certain or you could leave or we're coming Back.
so with all due deference to my colleagues, I would ask for better communication to better Help us understand the needs.
and also, pursuant to executive session advice of counsel, We've been asked to please be very careful with these
particular issues, and we're going to have a full, Robust discussion on august the 4th.
the people want to walk off the dais, I understand, But then they can't hear me, can they?
and that's the problem. So let me just make it real clear that the court.
yeah. So noted. You're off the dais. So let me be very clear as the as the a county judge And larry
roberson, I have the ability to help the court with this agenda, With the discussions and
to help staff so that the staff has direction as to how they're to proceed.
is that inherently in my authority, or am I overstepping my authority by asking and Supporting a motion to table?
I think that was the motion that was made judge and the court voted on it. So there's nothing inherently improper with that.
thank you. All right. Evan, is it marcus? Marcus, Do you wish to speak at this
time or do you wish to come at the august meeting? Go ahead. You have three minutes. It's my first time, So please excuse me.
commission court. Thank you for hearing me out. I am a custodial parent of a 12 year old who is five foot six and a half and 190 pounds.
he's an autistic child that is that's delayed.
he also has been abused and sexually assaulted three times.
so besides his explosive behaviors, now he has these new problems to cope with.
I have become his punching bag for years for this, For what the state offers, for reporting and seeking help for such incidents.
you get bexar county sheriffs with guns out, Guns drawn out at a mental health crisis instead of a smart team.
then they will arrest your child and tell you that their hands are tied up.
hours later, the juvenile detention center asks, Why is your child there and he should be at a hospital.
meanwhile, cps closed cases. Not looking into it and ignores not just you, But others calling.
for acog and c, c, c, c, s or 211. They will tell you that it's not any of their business.
did you call cps? Did you call the police? After checking all their boxes, They will tell you.
they will tell you that there's nothing that they can do. You also get also told bad Things.
you must be mistaken. That can't be. That's not right. Do you have the documentation of our long conversations?
then then when they ask you such documents, then when you ask them for such documentation,
there's answers. Was I. We can't do that. It's a legal thing.
and, or you need to go online and get an application and then not get it.
after that, they will start questioning you slash me, Why you called cps or bexar county while violating your rights.
telling you it could have happened anywhere. You can't protect your child everywhere from Everything.
the moment you get upset and you start reporting them for violating your rights and them Telling you such things,
you'll get a letter of being labeled as hostile, Intimidating, not keeping staff safe as backlash following the suspension of your child
services. Then you'll get cps knocking on your door, Investigating the moment someone makes a report.
you slash me. A lawyer costs $4,500 $10,500 as a retainer.
that's not happening. I can't afford that. The local help is already overwhelmed.
just for everybody. These organizations are corrupt, Lacking integrity and dishonest, and they're structurally biased.
I am asking you to hold them accountable by providing more training.
stop. Stop them when they're acting poorly and providing them with more resources and not Closing things down like laurel ridge and other facilities.
h. H. S health and human services manages most of most of these programs, And they should be more involved.
that is all. My name is evan mattis. Thank you.
good afternoon. My commissioner is gone. Mr. Murray.
oh. That's okay. I'm just joking. Well, we need a mental health facility for autistic Mentally challenged people with behavioral disorders.
when a person has a behavior episode and the police are called.
the police take them to jail where they mistreated by guards because they don't know how To work with them in any training.
there's only one living center in san antonio, And this individual san antonio, said assisted living center.
and it takes years before you can get accepted. Only one place for so many kids like my grandson.
my grandson is 21 years old, weighs 200 pounds. Five. Seven. He can beat the lights out of me, But he doesn't come.
he doesn't have the comprehension. And I noticed that a lot of people and police officers,
they don't comprehend that this ability, that he has a behavioral disorder, He's not crazy.
he's not a drug addict. And he's not a sex offender.
he doesn't kill anybody anyway. So laurel ridge is closing.
so it would be good if they can open the place for for kids like my grandson, Because we don't have nothing.
just just half of it. Because I know you have a place for a mental health, The regular mental health,
but mine is not is different. If you don't, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I invite you to come to my house and spend the day with me,
or go visit the facility, which is a new brantford street and as a as a mother, Grandmother and guardian of the boy,
I have witnessed the police abuse firsthand. My grandson and I've been abused by the Police,
and I know I've been coming to talk to you so many times. I talked to even the governor. And there's only 13 hospitals for kids with severe Disabilities,
like my grandson. And when he was incarcerated, He's one of the 3 to 5 year olds.
so he's not right. He needs to go to a place like texanna is in houston.
they have a place over there and they have a building for growth and a building for growth For boys.
and over there they trained them with medicine, With everything. So when they go over there, they can send them to a group home because a group homes, You have to check on them because they're nothing but a fraud
group. Homes make about 5 to $6000 for each child, And that is a rip off.
and I thank you so very much. You have any questions? My number is there. And and I hope you I hope things will change because I'm not talking For me,
mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez, I'm not talking for me. I'm talking for all of them. You know me forever.
I've been coming to you since you were in austin. So please, I'm talking for many kids, not just mine.
thank you very much. Thank you, miss wilson. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. And god Bless your grandson. I just want to professional courtesy,
I think. Judge nita, are you you've asked to sign up, Or is she.
is she here? Do you wish to speak at this time? I have not called it up, but if you. If you're on a time, You're free to talk or I'll call.
I'll call it up when we address agenda item 60. But that's we're not doing that right now. 60 minutes 60 is next.
oh. No, I'm trying to accommodate. So if you need to get back, I'm giving you.
but otherwise let me wait for you to call. We'll call the agenda item.
all right, all right. She might. Yeah. Let's let's go back to 56.
right. Well, let me just let me call up agenda item number 56.
presentation discussion appropriate action regarding the south beach project, Including a submission or pro offer.
letter by bexar county city of san antonio concerning the redevelopment renovation of South beach pavilion facility located at fort sam houston joint base san antonio in
support of defense health agency operational objectives, Military medical readiness and the continued enhancement of joint base san antonio as the
nation's largest, most complex military medical market. The letter offers $25 million in improvements to joint base san antonio, Fort sam for the core and shell renovation of the south beach
pavilion to serve as the future home of the defense health agency.
10 million of which will be funded by the county, 10 million by the city and 5 million in state of texas grants.
the submission of the pro offer letter is the first step towards project implementation, Be.
direction to staff to move forward with bexar county as lead entity project director Related to the redevelopment renovation of the south beach pavilion facility
located at fort sam houston joint base san antonio, In support of the defense health agency and authorizing the facilities management director
to prepare project delivery plans for court review. Mr. Curry. Thank you. Judge dan curry, director of facilities for bexar county, And I always appreciate you reading the motions for me at a time.
you don't need to repeat it. I will not. Let's move. So in the efforts of time, I'll give you a little bit of background.
the south beach pavilion. South beach pavilion is located on jbsa fort sam houston.
it's 130,000 square foot building built in the 1930s. It's had numerous different functions, whether hospital, Dormitory, other things.
and recently the rest of that quad has been developed into administrative offices in Support of other agencies for the military mission.
it does require upgrades and modernization for future use.
so again, there was an effort through the city and the county to provide some needed Funding to get that project off the
ground. The end goal of this would have dha consolidate some of their leases and bring Additional staff up to 650 to that site,
generating some economic impact for sure. So the funding and grants summary is this.
the city of san antonio is offering $10 million, Just like we were offering $10 million.
the city of san antonio was successful in march in receiving a grant from the state of Texas for $5 million.
there is another open enrollment for that grant application in september that the county Plans to submit their own to try to obtain an additional $5 million for the original $30
million commitment. So right now, our proffer offer to the jbsa is the 25 to 30 million, Not to exceed at least 25,
up to $30 million in improvements on the on the campus. So just a quick update. Efforts to date, we've done through pre-design.
this project has kind of been in the background for a little while. We grabbed the old plans that we had. We validated the scope of work.
we did the threat assessment on the basis required by base staff. We coordinated with their civil engineering division, And we developed a really good cost estimate and what the scope of work is going to be for
this project. So there'll be two phases. The first one is the core and shell, Which basically get the outside of the building ready,
fully restored to historic standards and ready for the finish out. Phase two will be fully borne by dha, so they'll pay for the finish out, Which means the sheetrock,
the carpet, floor tile, all those other things, Including furniture and moving costs.
there are other requirements on the base. As you know, There's something called the unified facilities criteria and threat assessment levels,
which when you're on a military base, building construction is wholly different than Commercial construction.
we believe we have a good handle on that. So the proffer is technically an offer of a gift Of construction.
so the county is offering to do $25 million in construction to a facility on jbsa fort Sam.
we have to provide this offer letter jointly with the city and the county, And it will go up to jbsa command staff.
and then once the command staff accepts that offer, Since it's over $750,000, it'll go for congressional approval at the in washington,
d.c., we have all those kind of paths lined out.
and so again, we're executing the proper first here. We're providing it to the city of san antonio, Hopefully for action in august. And then it'll it'll go on its way to those federal
entities. So again, we're asking today permission to to submit have the county judge sign That proffer letter so we can provide it to the city for its next
step, and then offer it to jbsa for confirmation. And b, allowing the county to be the project lead on the project, Which will allow me to work in the background and bring you guys back.
agreements and plans and commissioners court, Hopefully in august so we can get a good path forward. Are you asking for a motion just on
I need it on a and b, a and b move for approval and and any objection to merge those two Agenda items.
put them please put it back on as long as no other commissioner has an objection.
what's that? As long as no other commissioner has an objection to either a or b, Any objection on the merger of a and b as one joint motion?
hearing none, we have a motion by commissioner rodriguez, Second by commissioner clay-flores the other way.
sorry. Commissioner clay-flores and second by commissioner rodriguez.
I stand corrected. Any further discussion? Commissioner moody?
well, dan, I just want to thank you for all your work on this because I know this has been A long time coming and this is unique,
the work that's being done. But this is a huge value add for our community.
just at this facility likely 600 additional day jobs. But this is also a key that could potentially unlock hundreds more day jobs as we continue To expand our military medicine presence here.
so I just want to make sure you understand how much we appreciate your work on that and The rest of the team.
I hope we can get this other 5 million from the state of texas this fall.
but regardless, we'll go forward with the 25. If we can't. And you know, I had the opportunity to meet with assistant secretary, Department of war for health affairs,
keith bass at the facility here a week ago and a week or two ago.
and he's, he's very much still supportive of the project. There's other leaders in the pentagon behind this project, But we needed to show traction.
we needed to show we were making movement. And we are with this proffer letter. So I'm excited to support and we'll continue to try to move this project forward.
thanks. Thank you. Yes, commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner, for your work.
and, dan, I just wanted to touch base on the owner's rep here.
were they originally procured by the army or were they procured by the city and the county Or.
so that's just one of the ideas we have. Commissioner. We're not bringing forward the authority to execute any agreements today.
so we can, we can definitely make sure that you're comfortable with whatever that Procurement process is.
we know that if we're going to select more than likely select someone to represent us on This project day to day to make sure that it goes properly and to coordinate with those
federal requirements. And I think there's an opportunity for dha to, To use that same firm,
but again, it's, it's totally up to them. My only inquiry was really related to whether What was the experience working on a military facility?
I mean, obviously there has to be background and security checks just to make sure.
so I don't know if you know that information. Well, so when we bring an agreement back to you, It'll have justification on why we selected them.
and again, we wouldn't recommend somebody that just, You know, joe blow off the street.
they're going to have to have the credentials and the requirements and the engagement on This project specifically to make sure that we deliver a good project. So,
dan, let me put on the record for those electeds or department heads looking at me going, Judge,
I just wanted some positions today. And you know, You're given $10 million away and it's not giving it away for for one.
and I want to make that point very clear. This is a capital project.
so it comes out of a specific budget that doesn't come out of general revenue.
correct miss tina? Yes. And so understand that we're not making a binary decision today Going,
oh well, buildings over people or employees or services.
this is a specific bucket that has been budgeted, What, two, two budget years ago?
and we've been sitting on this and we've been working with the city of san antonio.
god bless them. But at the same time, we have not been able to move.
and I want to express my sincere appreciation to commissioner moody because he stayed on Top of this.
we've had discussions with greater sac, we've had greater discussions with the city.
and. And what I want to put on record is we need to move it, And I want to move it as quickly as we can,
because this is another game changer for our community.
and commissioner moody, let's make it real clear, This is not moving the headquarters because I think that was a misunderstanding.
but this is a consolidation of services. And as I understand it, In your world of military talk,
this is basically bringing some missions or some positions to this, And they'll be medical compositions,
and presumably they will be high paying positions. And so what we lost in the consolidation of army north, Army, south I think we're regaining a significant amount of
investment by and we have collaboration with the city and the state of texas.
so this is a win win for our community. Much like when we opened the meeting with the Expansion of toyota,
I see this as an expansion and a general economic generator. Is that a correct statement, mr. Curry? Wholly accurate.
yes, sir. Commissioner moody, is there anything you want to add because you've been really Involved in this and I appreciate your efforts there.
no, I mean, I think you you covered it. This is a great opportunity, A great economic development opportunity.
we think about supporting joint base san antonio, But it is bringing 600 high paying jobs here and the potential for more.
right. So I don't think 600 is the end of it. But we'll continue to advocate, I think san antonio and the military medicine we have here Is a differentiator for our community.
so, mr. Curry, you have the end of the year to get things done or else figure it out.
we're going to we're going to run as fast as we can, Judge. You got it. All right. There's a motion on the floor. All those in favor of the motion expressed by Saying I,
I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion unanimously carries.
all right. We're getting to it. 60 discussion. Appropriate action related to the receipt of a notification of appointment of a court Coordinator.
demand for release of funds by judges of the two 25th to 85th district courts, As well as consideration of the potential staffing and resource needs of the
remaining 12 civil district court judges. Review of operational staffing resources, Consideration by the budget department and make proposed recommendations to
commissioners court. I'm going to allow judge neta, If you would, mr. Guevara judge, you have the floor. And although we have time limits, I probably let you go.
but don't we got other business. Okay. Judge, I understand. Got it. All right. I don't I don't intend to be here very long.
keep it on the clock. But let the judge finish her thought or statement.
all right. Thank you for your hospitality. Honorable commissioners.
judge sakai, it's a pleasure to be here before you. I stand here today to respectfully request the funding necessary to support a dedicated Court coordinator for my court.
the two 85th district court. I know judge sakai introduced me.
I am judge nadine ethell of the two 85th district court.
I believe in the principle honorable commissioners of one case, One judge.
and pursuant to the supreme court's directives. I am now in full compliance. In fact, I have been for the last four months now.
I left and decided to operate my individual docket as of march 2nd of this year, And I did so before the supreme court's
directives became effective on july 1st, because I knew that I could effectively manage my Own docket because I had
complete confidence in my team in what we could accomplish together.
since march 2nd, I have been operating without a coordinator.
this is very difficult because my clerk is doing the job of a court coordinator on top of Her duties as a district clerk.
those don't go away. And so she has been working overtime in the evenings and on the Weekends.
and she does this out of loyalty to my court. It is high time. Honorable commissioners that she be compensated.
the government code gives me the authority to appoint a court coordinator.
and I have made my clerk the court coordinator. I am happy to say that that is who I have appointed.
she has earned it. And when I say that she has earned it, I will tell you that I did review the clearance rates for the courts
of the civil district courts here in bexar county, And I am proud to say that last I checked,
we ranked number one, surpassing all of the other civil district courts, And that is without a court coordinator.
now, I believe that this clearly demonstrates that an individual docket can be more than Successful.
we surpass the other courts. I ask you to consider what you would do if all of a sudden You
lost your chiefs of staff, if you lost your executive assistants in all of the other People that work for you.
because in one person, my clerk who I want and have appointed as coordinator, She's all of those things rolled into one.
and I suspect that if you lost even just one of those essential personnel that you have And you should have that,
that would be rectified immediately, if not sooner.
all I'm asking is that I receive the essential personnel that the court deserves, And not be treated any differently than any of the individual courts here in bexar county.
I ask that the county compensate my clerk and that she go through the hiring process as Necessary.
I believe that she's qualified. She's earned it. Like I said, she would meet the qualifications and to immediately vote to grant this Court.
the two 85th. An individual dedicated court coordinator.
I thank, by the way, the deputy commissioner, Thomas guevara, and his team for coming to my court.
they had an opportunity to review it and to observe, And I appreciate all of their hard work.
so, commissioners, thank you so much. I ask that you appoint the coordinator.
thank you. Thank you. I want to correct he's a deputy county manager, Not a commissioner.
I did, I did, I give him a raise or. Yes you did. I just wanted to correct the record. Thank you.
thank you so much. All right. Thomas, give us a report on behalf of the manager's office.
judge commissioners thomas guevara, office of the county manager.
again, this is this particular item is based on a request that we've received from the two 25th and two 85th civil district courts requesting an additional two court
coordinators following their withdrawal from the presiding court system, Effective march 1st,
2026. As a. As a result, both those courts will independently manage their dockets, Including case scheduling,
hearings and trial settings between june 12th and as early as this morning, The budget office of bexar county information technology staff and myself.
we conducted an operational review of both these requests of this request.
I would like to thank both judge and judge nieto for their cooperation and time to meet With the team and answer our questions.
as judge nieto mentioned earlier, she did invite us to observe her docket as she ran it.
so that was very helpful in our in our review. I would also like to thank civil district administration as well, Judge jimenez and the team there for taking time to answer some of our questions,
as well as the district clerk office. Again, Commissioners, we focus on the process staffing technology to include existing and
projected workloads, workflows, staffing responsibilities, And resource utilization.
what we did not do is evaluate the judicial decision, Their judicial decision making, their discretion or nor did we review their case
outcomes. So just again, a little background, The civil district courts currently operate under a rotation system in which judges
alternate between the presiding and monitoring courts. They currently have two court coordinators overseeing that rotation.
the presiding court coordinator oversees the presiding docket, While the civil jury assignments coordinator maintains the master docket for all jury
cases within the system. As of may of 2026, the presiding court coordinator manages an Active caseload of approximately
67,000 cases, with about 4700 cases per court across those 14 civil district courts, Reflecting a setting of 100
to 200 cases each day. Additionally, the civil trial settings coordinator handles around 800 settings,
trial settings, motions and dockets per month. And this is what we evaluated. The information we use to evaluate.
we obtained this information from the office of court administration.
so with the courts electing to opt out of the presiding system and now managing their own Dockets independently,
each court will receive approximately 4700 active cases and will continue to receive new Case filings as similar to the other civil district courts within the presiding system.
the decision results in the transfer of approximately 9400 active cases from the Centralized presiding court system to these two courts.
meanwhile, the remaining 12 district courts will. Civil district courts will continue to function under the presiding system.
so in conclusion, after a thorough comparison of the current workload of the civil District court coordinators and the proposed individual court coordinator position,
it indicates insufficient workload to justify creating an additional coordinator role for Each.
so the data indicates that the workload in these cases is insufficient to justify existing And relative to the existing resources in the civil district courts.
so staff will not be recommending to commissioners the additional court coordinators.
I'm available for any additional questions court may have.
commissioner rodriguez. Thank you judge. Thomas, Let me ask a couple questions related to the the workflow numbers.
I know you said that they just reflected case numbers.
not necessarily dispositions, outcomes. Did any of the evaluation take
into account, I guess, the additional administrative functions that the courts are going To be asked or have been asked to take on?
I think there's, there's some new july 1st reporting numbers.
did you take that into account in any of your evaluations at all for this particular Request?
commissioner. No, that part we were evaluating the court coordinator job description and, And workflow in that area,
what we have done and we just to be clear, we do have a separate request from the civil District court administration for additional
staffing resources that does touch on that aspect. We aspect. We are still working with civil district court administration. Again, I want to thank judge jimenez, ryan anderson, for taking time to meet with us,
to walk us through their resource requests to better understand there's, Again, new requirements,
both from the the amendments from the texas supreme court, As well as existing requirements from state from the state legislature.
so we're evaluating that at the moment, and we're looking to bring back a separate Recommendation on that,
on that sense. So but for to focus on the two 25th and the two 85th, We're looking at active caseload per court coordinator.
okay. Got it. Okay. Well, I don't want to belabor this.
I think that in, in the spirit of compromise and trying to get to a place maybe where we Can,
we can all live with I'm going to make a motion judge to approve one court coordinator Position to serve jointly the two 25th and the
two 85th judicial district court, with total compensation to include salary and benefits Not to exceed $81,986.
the position shall be shared equally between the two courts and shall be subject to review By the commissioners court during the subsequent budget cycle to evaluate its operational
efficiency, effectiveness and workload. I'll second.
there's a motion by commissioner rodriguez, second by commissioner clay-flores. Any Further comments or questions?
so the budget department manager's office is recommending you made a
recommendation today? Yes, sir. And I apologize. I stepped out to personal business. Yes. But your recommendation was what?
no additional resources. No additional resources based on the active caseload currently Being handled in regard to the request for a court coordinator
each for the two 25th and the two 85th. Yes, Sir. You've indicated, and commissioner rodriguez has highlighted, That there will be additional responsibilities imposed on all judges,
correct? Correct. And for the record, we have, As I last remember, I don't think it's changed.
14 district court judges. Correct? Yes, sir. The current system and I believe this is a Discussion in.
executive that perhaps the public may not. And I know the public does not understand the Legal system,
but there appears to be maybe a misunderstanding that the presiding system has been done Away with.
and that is not a true statement. Correct? That is correct. We actually have a presiding system. Yes, sir.
and it still runs the same way. Yes, sir. And as I understand it, They have what two court coordinator type positions that assist.
12. Yes, sir. Okay. Understanding that the additional requirements may require some Reporting requirements,
have you all had an analysis of whether it should be a court coordinator, Or does it need to be somebody that would help do the tracking for that data
that's required of them by the texas supreme court? Understanding that the texas supreme court has done this by an administrative rule, By the court,
and obviously, the texas supreme court oversees the entire state court system, Being the district courts and county courts at law.
correct? Correct. Our initial findings would also recommend no additional court Coordinators.
however, we do recognize, based on the needs for.
compliance reporting, other data requirements that we would continue to work with them to Identify the appropriate resource resources necessary
to be in compliance so they could. The courts. I'm talking about the entire 14 judges will need additional resources in light of the new Rules.
although it's not. It's your recommendation not be a court coordinator. So what would be an alternative? We are looking at the moment they're titled currently in Our systems data tracking specialists.
we would look at something in that function role based on the job descriptions that could Meet the requirements needed by the judiciary to be in
compliance, and for those report to handle those additional reports.
I see. So am I to understand this is a assessment y'all have made in real time at this Time,
but that in light of some of the questions or comments that there'll be further assessment And further discussions with the entire civil section.
that is fair. Yes. District courts. That's a fair statement. Yes, sir. But understanding. We have 12 judges still remaining and doing the same thing That 14 judges do.
but we have two judges that now, in simple layman's terms, Run their own docket.
correct. And they do not assist or help the presiding system.
or is that a thing that we need to get clarification at the next conversation?
do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. My understanding is they would be operating Separate from the presiding system unless I'm told otherwise.
that's my understanding. I'm just I'm talking to the judges and to the public.
we need to understand what the system is, because the existing system has a presiding System built in that is always
performed. That's children's court, correct? We have child support courts.
it's a presiding system. We have many individual, I think, and we run individual dockets.
now, I understand that two judges have pulled all their cases out, But I want to know have they have those decisions.
and this is an instruction to you have those decisions impacted children's court.
child support court what the family violence. There's all these separate dockets. So this is a very complex, Complicated process that we need to understand because
the civil district court system is not identical to the criminal district court system Where they do have coordinators,
correct? Correct, correct. And as I understand it, For 26 years, the criminal courts run and are and have to have support staff to
run their dockets. Correct. Under the old presiding system of 14 judges.
they were able to run a docket, their entire docket.
well, apparently right now with two, I would assume that was over a period of time.
right. So we need to keep this apples to apples, Apples to oranges.
and we need further assessment. Is that your commitment to the judges here.
we're going to continue to talk. That is my commitment. Got it. So I believe there's a motion and a second.
is there any further discussion? Comment. If not, I'll call for a vote.
and commissioner rodriguez, that was one court coordinator for the two district courts.
285225 is that correct? With the set salary? Yes.
and that's it. And understanding. We have other requests coming.
all right. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries.
y'all have a good day, judges. All right. I think we're getting to here.
60 one discussion. Appropriate action regarding settlement offer in the matter of gonzales Versus bexar county.
mr. Robinson, is there a recommendation? Thank you. Judge. During executive. The court considered a settlement offer in the matter of julio Gonzalez versus bexar county,
texas, in the amount of $25,000. Motion. Motion.
motion. Second. Motion by. Commissioner. Second. By commissioner clay-flores. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries 62.
discuss appropriate action pending litigation or settlement agreement. In the matter of ledesma guerrero versus bexar county.
is there a motion for mr. Robinson? What is the action?
thank you. Judge. During executive. The court considered another settlement offer in the Matter of amanda ledesma and vincent guerrero versus bexar county,
texas, in the amount of $35,000. So moved. Second.
motion by commissioner rodriguez. Second by commissioner clay-flores. Any further Discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carried. Thank you. We cleared the dock. The agenda for today. I just we've been kind of going a little fast Here at the end.
all right. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Motion by commissioner clay-flores. Second by commissioner rodriguez. Commissioner Clay-flores, I'd like to adjourn in memory of cresencio castillo.
abigail lynne espinosa and fernando espinosa and laura marie espinosa, Who just graduated from harlandale
a couple of months ago. Also in memory of montserrat martinez maldonado and bruce duane Anderson of bon ami,
who worked at the somerset senior senior center.
commissioner. Moode. Commissioner. Calvert. I would like to move an adjournment for julie Beth flatt.
parker. She I knew her, she is the mother of judge laura parker and son in law, Doctor fred reagan.
granddaughter catherine raymond, spouse two I believe it was george parker, An attorney.
and also, I don't know if we did this before raymond rogelio tejeda, Who was part of the tejeda family and related to robert tejeda,
frank tejeda and was a very close friend of judge edmundo zaragoza.
his granddaughter, marissa cordova, continues to work here in bexar county as the court Clerk in probate court one.
so I wish that to the family my sincere condolences on their loss.
all those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.
meeting adjourned. Thank you very much.