>> a very good morning to you all. Look at this beautiful room full of beautiful faces. I love it. I just have one request.
these I get it because of sunlight. But can we open those blinds at least someone please volunteer to open those back
ones? We've got to let the sunlight in. Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it. All right. So I'd like to call this
meeting to order. This morning's invocation will be led by our very own pastor darius todd if you will please
all rise. Just under the wire. Come on in.
>> let us bow. Heavenly and gracious father, we thank you for another day you have made. We honor you and thank you, lord
god for giving us another opportunity to come together as
a community. To celebrate, to uplift, to connect and also to
hear those who have needs today. We also pray, lord god for those
who are unhoused, unseen, those who have marginalized and those who may not have a voice in this space. We offer our ear to hear.
we offer our hearts to move. And we thank you for another opportunity to come together as one. We give you thanks for it
all in the name of jesus I pray. Amen.
>> amen. 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. Honor the texas
flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, texas, one state under
god, one and indivisible. >> please call the roll.
comments portion. I will be making this announcement and I've asked the county clerk's office to remind me to make this
announcement every single time we meet until november 18th.
after covid, I left as the chair of the court running this
moment, running this meeting as my job. And so I have the
distinct privilege of helping to shape it. Andso I've asked
after covid that people would still be allowed to submit their
e-mails in writing so they wouldn't have to come into this room. If you roll the clock back, whether you believe covid
was real or not, this wouldn't have happened; right? This
shoulder to shoulder, full courtroom was not a possibility.
the governor wouldn't allow it. The president wouldn't allow it and anybody else in government wouldn't allow it. But now
we're starting to take a shift and so we're buttoning it down just a little. I pushed back a lot of pressure. Many wanted me
to delete it altogether and I said no. We are here for the
people. We work for you. So I said no against all odds I'm leaving it in and even if it's a black eye on me, I don't
care. We want to hear from you. It's important. But there is an
edit taking place to that program, to that effort. So I
asked our county clerk to give me an opportunity to give everyone a heads up, give them ample planning, give them ample
time. Most people don't have the privilege, the lucky moment that you in this courtroom have right now which is to be here.
many things are happening in peoples lives and lives are going on. They deserve access as you have today. So starting
november 18th, 11:59 p.m. The night before court will be your
cutoff to submit something to the county clerk's office to be
read in court. That's it. That's the edit. That's the
compromise. I just wanted you to know if you intend on having your statement, whatever it's for, your three minutes under
the sun read in court it'll have to be the day before as
your cutoff starting november 18th 11:59 p.m. Did I miss
anything? Did I catch it all? All good. Perfect. So you could
still do it the morning of and whatever, but until then I would
just suggest practicing. Do you mind reading out the e-mail they should send it to? >> yes. That e-mail will be
publiccomment publiccomment@hays countytx.gov.
>> that's it. We've printed them and handed them. No more.
our aim is to be consistent, to be fair, to be unified and
predictable. Which is my favorite. So that's your e-mail. That's your timeline. And that's your cutoff date.
all done. So we're going to go through this now. Do we have
public comment or are they all just for agenda items? There
they are. Got it. So three. So there's two ways to sign up for public comments. One is for the agenda item when we open it and
you speak then and then there's also the other way which is at
the beginning, not specific to the agenda item. So public
comment signed up number one is debbie e-g -a-n. You will have
three minutes to speak if you'll approach the podium.
>> thank you. As you know my name is debbie egan and I live
in the saddle ridge community of wemberly. I would like to thank
morgan hammer. She has been very hopeful and positive in our
situation. What we're looking at is having an emergency exit
for saddle ridge. I say hopeful when I speak of morgan in that this has been requested several times over many years. It seems
to just be either shut down or ignored. So to let you know our
situation, we logistically at least three quarters of our community could not get out if there was a fire in the first
one quarter of our subdivision. I say that because it would be
approximately 200 or more people, children, who could not
get out. Having lived in oregon, I've seen how quickly wildfires
go through. We have a niece who lives in lahaina as a
pediatrician. She was there for those fires. We know situations of other communities have people have died in fires. It is not
dissimilar to what happened in kerrville in terms of we have no
emergency planning. We have no warning systems. We have no way out. I do want to say that numerous public people have
already -- public employees have helped us. Morgan. Mike johnson.
aaron jones and members of the hoa. We are here to support them
in any way we can. It's just very concerning to our community
that we were at high risk and that mike mike knows and aaron
knows and morgan knows there's an easy remedy to this situation. It just seems like there's negligence and
inappropriate to have this project not completed in a timely manner over many years. So I have also worked in as a
public employee for 30 plus years. I understand all of the problems you have to deal with. We appreciate you helping us
with this situation. I believe mike has something to say. Thank
you. >> just 30 seconds. Part of the
saddle ridge hoa. If I recall correctly, this month of
september is the worst driest september in years. Which just
adds fuel to the situation, the sense of urgency. I know our
particular issue we're almost there. We're not going to give
up. We're not going to let this one die like it's died before. >> thanks a million. Next up we have -- that was one. There's
number two. John leonard. Come on up, mr. Leonard.
>> thank you, judge. Good morning, judge and commissioners. I'm here to seek your support in upholding the
united states constitution in protecting the rights of the people whether here in hays county or anywhere in our
nation. I recognize that this court doesn't routinely take up
federal constitutional issues. However, every member of this court has sworn to preserve, protect and defend the
constitution and laws of the united states. Which brings us
to the recent supreme court decision in the case of kristie
noem. This has put tremendous potential to harm individuals particularly in border states like texas and direct contra
invention of rights and protections guaranteed by our
constitution. The decision upheld the action of the department of homeland security and by extension the united
states of america to detain and question an individual's
immigration status based solely on four factors. Their apparent race or ethnicity, whether they spoke spanish or english with an
accent, the type of location where they were found such as a car wash or bus stop and the type of job they appear to work.
that sounds like racial profiling to me. Racial
profiling is not consistent we quality treatment under the law. Sounds more like the words of the classic movie casablanca.
round up the usual suspects he ordered. In the current case the government didn't dispute its reliance on de facto profiling.
rather in a cavalierly dismissive manner justice brett
kavanaugh held the plaintiffs did not have standing to contest the actions of the government. Why? Because said kavanaugh it
was unlikely they'd be wronged in a similar way. That's
complete nonsense. Factors leading to the violation of rights of these individuals factors tied to birth,
upbringing and economic standing are not going to change overnight if they ever change at all. In fact the likelihood of
harming these individuals again actually increases every day as antiimmigration efforts are supplemented by massively
obscene budget increases and the support of the military. Supreme
court justice sonia sotomayor in her dissenting opinion pointed
to an earlier decision in this case. That court said the four
factors alone or taken together could not satisfy the fourth
amendment's requirement of reasonable suspicion of illegal
immigration. Breathtaking flaw in the government's argument is its assertion that an individual's constitutional
rights take a backseat to the level of emphasis the government may be placing on its program of the week. They do not. The
constitution is the supreme court of the land. Not kristi
noem's immigration quotas. That's why I ask you to join me in this denunciation. Thank you. >> thank you, mr. Leonard for
always being a magnificent contribution in our community and I couldn't agree with you more. I happily and gratefully
swore an oath to defend and protect our constitution. Thank
you, sir. So our next speaker is larry jackson.
>> good morning. My name is larry jackson. I work for the
edwards aquaphor authority. I know that our organization works
with the county on many different levels. As an executive director I can offer my assistance and help for any
kind of water issues or anything dealing with the is aquifer
authority. There's a water summit in the area. If you haven't received an invitation it's going to be october 22nd.
I'll send that out to you too. I look forward to seeing you if you can come out. Thank you very much.
>> thank you, sir, very much. >> does I'll see you there. I'll be speaking. >> great.
>> same. >> our final speaker at this moment and then there'll be an e-mailed one but that'll be for
f4. Mr. Rodrigo amaya. >> morning, judge. Court. It's been a while since I've been here. I have been keeping up
with some of the headlines y'all be making. The allegation of
violating the open meetings act that cost $440 million, you
know, that's quite a boo boo to say the least. I've been out
kerrville area and one of the reasons I came today, I was in the tunnel actually digging out there. That's why I'm dirty.
apologize for that. That clearly exposes what I've always told
this court is when you appoint people to positions that they're
not qualified for, human lives are what cost us. If you look at
the situation in kerrville. A bunch of finger pointing in all
directions. That don't do nothing for the families but frustrate them. Same thing with the uvalde shooting, stuff like
that. I was following that little story about the
transportation director. About allegations of not cooperating y'all did what needed to be ad - done and got rid of her. I'm
glad y'all listened. You guys were going to start looking at
other ways to appoint leadership. I really do hope
y'all do that. A lot of positions that are filled by folks that are not qualified. I know y'all hired some lady,
she's the one that's overseeing some of these departments and some of these departments are being shrunk. My
question is, some of these departments that are being shrunk is the salary going to be adjusted because if you're not
over four, five departments why should you still be getting paid
so much money? From what I'm hearing, praise for what she's
doing it. That was a good decision. Some folks are not confidentable with her appointment. Which, you know, if
you know what you're doing, shouldn't be worried about it.
that simple. The other thing, please be careful with these
appointments. Kerrville was -- serve I've told you in the past about some of you guys appointing friends and, I mean
it's all right to be friends. But don't mean they're
qualified. I've been frequenting the commissioners court and one of the things about them is they have a
meeting every week. People are asking why is hays county have a
bigger budget but y'all meet on scheduled days and stuff. They do it every week over there and stuff like that. That's one of
the problems we're having over there with their quid pro quo
issues appointing friends and stuff like that. Doing favors. A lot of that stuff is being looked at right now. Thank you,
guys. >> thank you, sir. Please open
f1. >> presentation of september 2025 service and retirement awards.
>> all right. Batter up. >> good morning, commissioners
and judge. I am in the hr benefits assistant with hays
county human resources. We are honored to recognize and celebrate employees who have reached significant milestones
in their years of service. We'll have a smaller attendance because they are most of them are hard at work. But we will
begin with one year. >> hold your applause until the end, please. When she calls your name, please come on up.
>> all right. Courtney adams with the sheriff's office. John
hunnicutt. Noah goforth with parks. Kameron burgess with
parks. George aguilar with transportation. Korey thornton
with county clerk's office. Joseph palacios with
transportation. Martin castillo with the sheriff's office.
xavier araujo with transportation. Carolyn silva with emergency communication. Emma sharber with juvenile
detention center. Caylie houchin. Alyssa saenz. Alexander
rangel. Benito castillo. Ashley wilber. Luis moreno with
judicial services. Dora villarreal with juvenile detention center. That is all for one year of service.
>> let's give that a round of applause.
>> with five years of service we have angelina vargas with the
sheriff's office. Marissa currie with the auditor's office. Kayla spencer with the sheriff's office. Blaine
schafer with the sheriff's office. Miguel simpson with the sheriff's office and kimberly murchison with the tax office.
that is all for five years of service. With ten years of
service we have amanda dirst. Cameron mitchell with the
sheriff's office. Leslie facundo. Gwen hochdorf. Adam
halstead with the sheriff's office and that is all for our ten years of service. >> beautiful. Thank you guys.
>> with 15 years of service we have beatrice moreno with the
sheriff's office. Allen bridges with constable precinct 5 and david tatum with the juvenile detention center.
>> thank you. >> with 30 years of service we
have eugene carranza with the sheriff's office and gilbert hernandez with the sheriff's office.
retirees already retired and living their life so donna with
the sheriff's office with seven years, angelina cruz with the
tax office with 18 years and jo ann mcneil with the juvenile
detention center with 19 years. >> wonderful.
>> that is all. >> well done.
>> f2. Presentation to the hays county office of emergency services to include a recap of the 2025 preparedness fair and
to announce the winning department for the best overall basket in the employee raffle basket contest.
>> thank you and we have mike jones our director of emergency
services to inform us. >> office of emergency services director. I want to thank you all number one for helping and
assisting us with this. Special emphasis to commissioner cullen for helping us with the tastings. And also, by the
slight of her showing up she found herself also tasting too because we had a runoff. Thank you so much for your basket as
well. We had 47 different baskets come in for the auctions
and the raffle ticket. Before I get into that, I'd like to announce and really thank our sponsors that really kind of
brought all this to help make this happen. And first off I'd like to publicly thank the city of kyle for being so gracious as
to come forward and offer up not only the facility services but bring in several assets to assist us in making this
possible. Outside we had a larger footprint as you all noticed. We went from a small performing arts center over hcsd
to not only just that location but we spanned to la verde park.
I think it covers almost 20 acres. But anyway, one of our
title sponsors for the chili cookoff. We really appreciate
them. Our music sponsor. Premiere cuts was our photo
booth sponsor. Salon in san marcos and kyle and san antonio and I believe also in round rock too. Twisted x brewery. I know
what they sponsored. >> bottled water. >> sure. Little hops and barrly. Tds. Sponsor one of our traders
out there. As well as duty calls. The call it group and the
voc. The big heavy lifters out there was our cert team. They
garnered 17 unsuspecting volunteers to help play that
day. Will soon find themselves in certain forms as they take the classes coming up this october. Go to find out when the
classes occur. On top of that our chili cookoff winners. We
had an out of saint winner, ladies and gentlemen. I know. H%
made great texas chili. When philip came down from arkansas he didn't just come down to win the chili cookoff. He brought
down a $500 check and presented that to the kyle esd 5 for their
response to the floods there in kerr. So thank you philip for
coming and participating. Second winner. And then esd 3 south
hays fire was our winner. They are also the top dog winner. They were the number one fire esds that won. The people voted
for esd 32. They thought the chili was the greatest. If you see one of our firefighters, give them a handshake. Like to
thank the transportation department. Without them we would not have had the visibility they put out all
those mission boards throughout the entire county to assist us with that. Along with our health inspector who came out to ensure
the chili you were taking was going to be health ready. Thank you very much. Along with that, our esds participated. San
marcus. Hayes. Em s. Along with san marcos fire. Performing arts
center assisted. Even though they're closed they helped with a lot of logistics. Hays county sheriff's office and their fine
team. I think you heard his name earlier. Cameron mitchell. They did a lot to help us. Then austin bomb squad came in early
to do a sweep to make sure it's going to be safe for all
citizens coming in for that event. Now we're down to who
won the trophy. Drum roll. >> oh my gosh.
>> great pleasure to announce hays county health department
second year in a row. >> this is traveling trophy that
goes throughout the county. Top basket that wins the peoples
choice. You want to say something? >> yeah. So the health department every year we have a
public health emergency preparedness coordinator. He did a great job helping with mike and our group. So every year we
lock in, really on what we can do. We know we have a lot of
floods and freezes which prevent people from basic cooking you
tensiles at times. We try to focus on things that cook up
food during freezes where power may t have access to water. >> congratulations.
>> congratulations. >> thank you, mike. Thank you very much. >> wonderful summary. Please
open f3. >> f3. Presentation by david
baker the water shed association and jennawalker the meadows center regarding an update on the blanco-cypress water shed
protection plan interlocal agreement program. >> if you'll read those comments then I'll call him up.
>> this e-mail public comment from jeff in wood creek. He
writes my name is jeff and I served a mayor of wood creek. In
this role I am proud to serve on the executive committee of the
blanco-cypress water shed protection plan and the city fully supports the work of this group. The interlocal agreement
formed it brings together mayors, major stake holders in protecting the most valuable resources we have in our water.
we have some of the brightest minds focused on ground water in
the valley serving and supporting the water shed protection plan. Our work is really just beginning. Keeping
the blanco river flowing clean is of utmost importance of
economic health department in the area. We've had jacobs well
closed far too long. As jacobs well goes so ultimately goes
cypress creek and everything it brings to the area. We can't
ignored the interconnected water web. Uniquely suited to help
guide policy to preserve and protect this invaluable resource that nourishes us and provides most limitless beauty and
recreation. It is my hope the city of wood creek continues to
support the bcwpp for as long as it takes both financially and by bringing the voice was our citizens and their ideas and
concerns to the team. We hope the county and others and other
stake holders continue and perhaps increase their commitments. Water is life and the life blood of our county.
thank you. >> perfect. Thank you very much. He's not running for reelection but he's a wonderful mayor.
thank you for all you've done for our community. Now you can
approach the podium. >> state your name and title. >> I'm david baker. Executive director of the water shed
association. Good morning. Thank you all for hosting us today. We're honored to share this update on the blanco-cypress
water shed protection plan. We're entering our second year.
this is part of the strategy to ensure aquifers, springs, river
supply remain clean and flowing not just for today but future
generations. I want to thank the executive committee. Thank you
and mayor jim childs I believe is here. >> he is. >> we heard from mayor pro tem.
I think I saw you walk in. Good to see you. We have mayor
proteem. We heard from jeff rosco. We have chris grummert.
thank you all for being here. I do want to give a shoutout to
commissioner shell on helping to initiate this program and to
bring in jonas rosenthal who is here today and all the county
staff. We're going to recognize you all later. Tammy and jay and
kaylie just for the collaboration we've had. So
let's see. Next slide. David baker and I'm with jenna walker
the director of the meadows center. We're the managers of
this project working with tammy and jay. Jen and I as we were
talking about this, I also want to recognize and thank jason
pinchback who is here and I saw nick I think walk in. They were
former water shed coordinators for the cypress plan. Jason
helped us with this. We were talking. We said really we feel like with water we have that flood drought cycle. We want to
take a moment and just of silence and really remember all
those folks from the guadalupe river flood and give them our
prayer. Thank you. Water gives life but it can take life and
it's just tragic to see that. We experienced that. Next slide. So these are the hays county water sheds. This plan focuses
on the blanco river water shed it serves the county by integrating water shed protection into the parks and
natural resource department with the goal of keeping all these
waterways across the county meeting clean water act
standards. Next slide. So the blanco river. It sustained
people for 15,000 years. We had the apache. Today that river
flows 87-miles. Drains 275,000 acres and we have 55 river miles in hays county. This is really fuels our economy. Our tourism.
and parks. And property values. It also recharges.
>> did you also say camanche. >> yes, sir.
>> I saw a lot of signs. I was like camanche were here too.
that's good. Sorry about that. >> well, I did want to say their
names out loud. Thinking of people living here. Really
protecting this river is really protecting that heritage and our
future. Next slide. So this for generations, this is right at the square in cypress creek. It's been the life blood of
wemberly. The later families like the harris they were right
at the wemberly square. They found renewal and livelihood at
its banks. Very identity are tied to the springs. The treasures that remind us why protecting water is protecting
our way of life. Next slide. Over time, you know, this scene, this is looking at jacobs well from downstream. It may change
but the services provided remain the same. Jacobs well is the
iconic head water to cypress creek. It was the first hays
county nature preserve and the 81-acre natural area was
purchased in 2010 by the county. Now has been doubled in size
with canyon preserve we did earlier this year. It protects
that critical recharge land. Together these preserves are intended to safeguard water, wildlife and recreation.
ensuring the clean flows and healthy ecosystems and the
treasured hill country experience. There are over 995,000 visitors to wemberly last year. Little town, it's
such a huge part of our economy. And the well is such an
attraction. Even with it not flowing it's bringing millions of dollars into our economy. We are grateful to the county for
that. Next slide. Y'all seen this many times. I don't have to tell you that this is the fastest growing counties in the
u.s. By 2040, you know, we're experiencing this tremendous
growth throughout land use change. Will put enormous stress
on rivers and aquifers. How we protect public health, safety
and quality of life getting ahead of threats with smart, local water shed planning. Next slide. So this is showing that
by 2070 we're today using 41,000-acre feed. We're going
to need 108,000-acre feed. That's going to require more than half a billion in infrastructure investment. The
population growth and drought, these land use pressers make this urgent. I did want to bring some good news. The legislature
did pass senate bill 7 creating the texas water bill fund that
will be proposition 4 the constitutional amendment this
fall. Will bring dedicated $1 billion for the next 20 years from sales tax. Administered by water development board. These
funds will be projects ranging from conservation to reuse to
new supply. With your leadership through the blanco-cypress water
shed protection plan and new waste water agreement we can align the state funding with smart local action to ensure
reliable water for generations. So next slide. So really since
the 2000 we've seen the temperatures lotter than you see the drought on record there. That red line. And then back to
the dust bowl. So now our temperatures are hotter than both of those really monumental droughts that we had next slide.
so this is showing the droughts back to and rainfall back to
1895. So that yellow band in the middle is the drought in the 1950s then you see on the right side the 2011 and our 2020 till
now. We are most likely in another drought of record. You can see that trend line going down. That is part of why we're
seeing such strain on these water resources. Next slide.
this is a county wide map showing the draw down of the
aquifer. This is over 100 feet of draw down in the aquifer. In
the wemberly area we saw ten feet average. 2.4 feet of drop
stops jacobs well. That shows you how sensitive these systems
are. This rapid growth is straining the aquifers. It was a
big wake up call for us. As a sense of the creek's health and
the aquifer's health it shows that clean water can sustain
health and tourism and property values. Since 1996 we've been working to try to protect this place. The county really stepped
up. I think and, you know, has now taken over this. But
wemberly was incorporated in 2000. After that well stopped I said we've got to do something. Reached out to meadow center and
I said we need to start monitoring this water. We need
to get proactive with a plan. I'm going to turn it over to
jennawalker to explain the water shed protection plan. The crp,
the clean rivers protection program. Then come back to finish up. >> okay. Perfect.
>> good morning. It's an honor to be here as a seventh
generation native to the texas hill country and a mom of young kids. I'm really proud to be part of this. I know the meadows
center is too. It's been a real honor to serve as a technical
leader. As david mentioned, you know, we started monitoring in the early 2000s and with leadership from the meadows
center and the water shed association, wemberly, hays county and its partners began gathering data. Identifying
pollution risks and building a community-led strategy. Tcq
awarded the meadows center a watershed protection plan development grant by 2008 and the result was a federally
approved watershed protection plan in 2014. With a shared
vision. Preserving water quality through collaboration, data and
sustainable development. Next slide. Have to stress how unique
this plan was. To include a ground water component. To be a
proactive plan. To keep the cypress creek flowing. Next
slide. As you can see so many different partners we're really standing on the shoulders of giants here with this plan being
rooted in decades of community-driven leadership. You see philanthropy up here. Government. Academia.
volunteers. Private businesses all playing a role. E launched a
major conservation effort protecting over 39,000 acres. Including more than 10,000 acres in the blanco river watershed.
creation of the jacobs well and management zone. Adoption of
water quality-related ordinances. The first one water
school in texas. The nation is looking to us for this leadership and guidance with that school. Local action that
has delivered a long arc of leadership to allow this watershed protection plan to remain a model not only for the
county but also the hill country, texas and beyond. Tcq
stress these types of plans are supposed to be seed money for the community to then carry the torch forward. By 2023 the
federal and state funding was winding down and part of the end
of the watershed protection plan task was to create an interlocal
agreement and so by 2024, hays county, city of wemberly, city
of wood creek, watershed association and the meadows center at texas state signed this interlocal agreement. And
it became a three year pilot program for the blanco-cypress
watershed protection plan. It provides funding and governance.
ensure as full time watershed coordinator. David recognized
jonas is now serving in that role. It supports special
studies and water monitoring. It's built on transparency,
measurable outcomes and community-based leadership. Next
slide. I also want to recognize a few other people within the
parks and natural resource department that support jonas in his role as the watershed coordinator. Tammy, jay and
caylie, the natural resource coordinator. Joe has hit the
ground running. He's been serving in this role for just over a year now. Next slide. That coordinator is the engine
driving daily progress. This bridges the gap between the science and the policy and you can see him here. Meeting with a
school group. He's already connected with thousands of residents, trained dozens of volunteers and plays a key role
in education, identifying best management practices for implementation and permitting support. But, you know, that
type of picture really captures the magic behind the ability to
bring students and visitors to the well to understand this
fragile and very precious natural resource. One of them
within the larger watershed. Next slide. So here you can see
this in action. Since the federal plan has been completed
now we've continued on, we're reaching over 12,000 community
members within the first year. We have workshops. Lots of
signage and education campaigns. Meeting with stakeholders. Next
slide. All of that to say it's really increasing awareness and
empowering community members to protect our natural resources. So I'll move on to the data quickly. This is, well, we have
three main water quality monitoring programs. The clean
rivers program is facilitated by the meadows center with the
support of the county on the blanco-cypress creek. We have
community and science programs collecting water quality data. Including the wemberly advisory group and the texas dream team.
and really our decisions are guided by this data. We've
collected over 368 samples within on an annual basis. And
have over 43 sites. It can be technical but most importantly
it's proactive economic protection and helps us avoid costly fixes down the road. I'll go to the next slide. So here
you can see the clean rivers program sites. Mostly around
wemberly and a couple below town and some above town on the
blanco. More recently we've incorporated more testing sites up in the town of blanco and blanco county. It's really
helping us understand these critically low conditions we're experiencing that we have been experiencing since 2022. We see
several nutrient spikes, dissolved solids from waste
water discharge. And low flows and nonpoint source pollution.
cypress creek shows elevated e. Coli levels and we continue to
respond with not only, you know, these studies but additional
research, that are prompting ground water pumping curtailment and other targeted bmps. And it's these kinds of actions we
can only take when we are watching the data closely and
working together. And I'm going to hand it back to david from
here. >> thanks, jenna. I think one thing to note about that clean rivers program too is that's --
it's ensuring we're meeting the federal clean water act
standards. That program we've been doing since 2003. So we got
a lot of data there. I do think in the future it would be great
to have a workshop with y'all so we can dive in to more detail
about this information because we have a short time here. But maybe that's something we can do in the future. Next slide.
I'm going to talk a little bit about the benefits of having a
nonprofit and an institutional -- academic institution. Beyond the watershed plan we've achieved some major wins. We
stopped a rate increase in the ruling ordered them to pay back $4.7 million to our local rate payers. We were in a new rate
case with them that the county has joined along with the city
of woodcreek. So that achievement of conserving over 39,000 acres is just an incredible achievement for the
parks and open space program. Then the one water resolutions you all passed the city now has passed that. It's subdivision
rules and working on subdivision development rules. Mapping. Advancing green infrastructure. Rain gardens and integrated
storm water and waste water planning. Next slide. Then we
are happily through this three year pilot. Small but mighty
team. Our next steps are continuing the coordination with
the executive committee. Open gauging in the subdivision rule
revisions. Mapping the storm water systems. Targeting sensitive areas for bmps. Launching a water wise program
that starts the end of october. With more events and workshops.
really addressing citizens concerns. The city has indicated
they may want to join us in this effort. Preparing a budget request for the next county cycle. So we look forward to
continuing to drive the sustainable water management
through this collaboration. The expertise we're bringing
together. You probably heard us say this many times. Let's keep
our springs, streams and rivers clean, clear and flowing. That
is our mantra. That last slide so irthank you. We look forward
to continuing this partnership and hearing your feedback. Any
questions you may have. Thank you. >> wonderful. Thank you. Since this is headquartered in your
precinct, commissioner, do you want to start the conversation? >> yeah. Well first I want to say thank you everyone for
coming and showing support. We are just so, to have the meadows
center here. To have the watershed association and have
support from wood creek and wemberly. It's important. I
believe we are blessed and proud to be able to have such a unified front on our water issue. To understand hays county
is to truly understand our water and that's what we're doing and we're making steps forward. I know lon wanted me to say how
former commission aeroshell wanted me to say he truly appreciated all the support from the court on this. It doesn't
just benefit the valley. It benefits all of hays county. I wanted to say thank you so much and we'll continue to move
forward in that direction. I know when we talked about this
back in february I just thought it'd be great for everyone to
know all the good things y'all are doing and how important it
is to us. >> it's always amazing whenever you figure out exactly what each one of your individual
organizations do. It's been a pleasure working with
commissioner hammer now that she's on the court with us on this. Really loto work with the former commissioner. I know how
close y'all are with him. We appreciate all you do.
>> thank you. >> thank y'all for the
presentation. Thank you, commissioner hammer. It's always great to learn about what's going on with the water
work and all the data. I've had conversations about those areas
that fall into the east side and what can we do to, you know, ramp up those effectives that we're really concerned about on
the east side as well. I note in one of your slides the data, it
gets to san marcos. I was just curious about like data efforts
within those areas. If that's kind of on y'all's agenda to
look at eventually or. >> yes. We work with the
guadalupe, blanco river authority.
>> great. >> our hope is we'd have full
water shed protection department within hays county that covered the whole county. There are efforts in certainly dripping
springs as well. Such a precious resource. We have the smart
start local with what we had. >> that's great. It's how I
see things here. It starts small then grows bigger and bigger.
>> commissioner. >> I just want to thank y'all for all the work. It's wonderful to see the
collaboration with so many entities participating in what is so important life for all of us. So many times we don't
think about the need when we turn on the water faucet water comes out and we think everyone's fine. There's so
much more to that. I just appreciate all the work y'all are doing. David, I've known you for many years. I just thank
you for your leadership and all you do. Jenna, thank you also. I
wants to thank our county staff also. Tammy, jay. Yeah. Have
been doing a lot of work too for many years. So thank you all for
the efforts. >> great collaboration. Almost
every decision you all make water is involved in it in some
capacity. Whether it's a subdivision. A road. The jail.
everything needs water. So it's, you know, we feel like if we can bring capacity to the county to focus on this that that's a
great service. How you all stepped up to the legislative session and really standing up for our ground water district I
really appreciate the leadership you all have shown. We feel
grateful for this partnership. Thank you. >> thank you. I think next week commissioner we're going to a
judge and commissioners conference and that's one of the spaces where I get to see what folks are doing statewide.
254 counties and there's 254 different ways with which to run
them. It's good because we learn from one another and there is no one way to do anything. But I will say that very often
people will complain to me about oh, they're going to build this and we don't want it. My response is simple because of
our parks bond that we passed, if you don't want such and
such, well then buy it. Step up our shut up. It is a truth. I
know it's a little insensitive in framing, but just the reality
that we're in a state where people protect their property rights and it's a business to put rooftops and we need
rooftops. So whether you believe in global warming or not, fossil fuels, whatever you believe in. Who cares. On that front the act
of responding to the drought can be conditions and what we're
facing today doesn't care what you believe in, it's what we're dealing with. We've planned and leaned in hard on asking
development people investing in our communities that we need to
be conscientious. To do zeroscaping. To not plant big large lawns and water sucking devices. We even leaned in like
you said to do one water design in our county buildings that we're going to build. It's so spot on and timely but it
requires elected office holders with courage. And so we can all
belly ache, it's easy, you know, monday morning
quarterbacking. When you step up, coming here and being a part
of it you guys doing the presentation that's where the rubber meets the road. Not everyone's going to be happy
with what you're doing. You'll do it anyway because you know
it's right. That's powerful. We passed, how much was that
bond? $100million. I even forgot it was so much money. >> over the three bonds it's $108 million. But that's been
leveraged to probably another 250 million.
>> to do conservation and all this green space, open space to
create a stronger sense of place has been compounded and as a
probusiness individual here on this court I will tell you that
developers have realized the more you put in it to creating a sense of place in your developments the more you can
sell your property for so we all win. It's important. We have to
realize that it's important that we understand. They're
going to build this subdivision. Yeah, there's nothing we can do about it. We can suggest. We can encourage. If they don't like
the city the way the state's stepped in this, people can get out of the city limits. People can do whatever they want. We
have to deal with the outcomes. If people understand I think we
all benefit. What you're doing is so important. I couldn't be more grateful. I know this whole court supports it. Honestly,
good job. >> I mean I just look forward to seeing hays county be the county in texas that takes the lead and
charge in this water issue and really steps in and creates these departments that just hone in on those data collections. It
does start with understanding the problem before we can start fixing the problem and I'm so supportive of the one water
resolution this court passed. I know everyone here is as well. Same with the city of wood creek. Same with the city of
wemberly. We are in a great place to take control and to understand all of these issues and how we can fix them from
subdivision regulations and things of that nature. So thank y'all so much. >> in closing we are the central
park of central texas. Thank you so much. >> thank you all. Appreciate it. In
>> please open f 4. >> adopt a proclamation
recognizing october 10, 2025 as world homeless day in hays
county. >> so moved. >> if you'll please read the proclamation.
whereas, october 10 marks the annual observance of world homeless day, a global event dedicated to raising awareness
about homelessness and advocating for solutions to this critical issue; and whereas, homelessness impacts individuals
and families across the globe, affecting approximately 150
million people across the world including an estimated 771,480 people in the united states which includes an estimated
27,987 people in texas; and whereas, hays county recognizes
the inherent right of all individuals to safe, stable, and affordable housing; and whereas, hays county is committed to
working with their community partners to address the needs of those experiencing homelessness and to explore and implement
effective strategies to prevent and end homelessness in their
community, such as coordinating a collaborative plan of action with the homeless coalition of hays county, developing
affordable housing, and advocating for policies that support a path to stable housing for all; and now, therefore, be
it resolved that the hays county commissioners court does hereby proclaim october 10, 2025 as: world homeless day in hays
county be it further resolved that the hays county commissioners court encourages all residents to learn more
about the challenges of homelessness, consider ways to support local organizations to end homelessness, and advocate
for policies and programs that promote stable housing and dignity for all members of our community. Adopted this 30th day
of september, 2025. >> well done. Please call the
roll. >> >> then we have someone to speak. If you'll approach and
state your name. >> good morning. I'm nancy with the homeless coalition of hays county. Thank you, judge. Thank
you, commissioners. We appreciate the proclamation. We also thank all of the cities across hays county, wemberly be
being one of them that did a proclamation for us in advance. We're doing it early. We had multiple events leading up to
the 10th and we wanted to help people have an opportunity to
participate. So next week is a busy week. We have a lunch and learn on thursday the 9th of october. That's going to be in
kyle. The city of kyle has gotten the location and is
helping with the meal. We're appreciative of their support.
tomorrow will be the final day for preregistration for that. I hope you've had the chance to look at paperwork and maybe
we'll see some of you there. Friday south side community
center is doing a full day of services. Not a lot of additional services they normally do, but they're doing
it all day. They'll have a full day of meals which they don't
normally have. They're also adding other support. I know that public health will be there with immunizations and they'll
have haircuts. We've been inviting people to volunteer and help them. One of the things not publicized but we appreciate the
commissioners that have been invited and are participating
we're doing coffee and conversations in three of our
districts that agreed to have them. One in dripping springs
october 6th. Wednesday in well october 8th. So the
commissioners that relate to those districts were invited. I know some of you worked it into your calendar. Some are hoping
to. We really hope that your presence will be appreciated
because we are a countywide coalition. The goal is to help
everyone take a look at what's being done around resources.
what are unmet needs in every area across our county.
everybody thinks of san marcos but it's happening all over the county in different levels and different ways. But homelessness
is not going away. You saw the statistic about how fast our
county is growing. Exponentially homelessness will grow with that. And so people that are at risk now with things not
changing and the economy and workforce, you can anticipate that more people will be challenged with unstable
housing. And unmet needs. We appreciate the opportunity to come before you and to just call it to everyone's attention and
you'll hear from us again I'm sure. We'll especially see you back in january for the annual point in time count.
>> I did want to add for the viewing public we have monday the 6th, wednesday the 8th and october 9th. What time and
where? >> those aren't open call. Those are not public invitation. Those were by invitation. We've
invited key providers and key city and county leadership for a
very concentrate. We have 90 minutes in the time that we're meeting and so we have to really be on track with people that
have already been relating to this in some way.
>> looking forward to the 6th. Thank you for the invite. >> thank you. >> I think it's going to be
interesting. We've tried to do some of these things in that dripping area and it's always been more focused on the
corridor. So I think engagement out there is going to be good. >> good. Thank you. >> commissioner.
>> thank you for coming and presenting. I mean we need organizations like y'all to do these types of things and we're
supportive and appreciative of everything that you do. Thank you so much. >> thank you.
>> the decisions being made impact us. So what do we do as a
county to deal with that; right? And I know, you know, getting
somebody a place to live is just the beginning because then we
can further give other resources. You know, mental health and medical and all these other things that people need to
stay housed. And I'm always thinking, you know, the first
time somebody will, you know, have to go through possibly
losing their home is during our jp courts. Going through the eviction process and from what I'm hearing from our jps is
that the number of conviction cases that are coming before them is just growing. Right? And so our judges are doing the best
they can with the resources we have. You know, I know there's some judges that, you know, really try and work with
property owners and tenants and trying to find resolutions and letting them know about the resources that we possibly have
here in the county and our nonprofits. What they can do. But it definitely opens up, you know, a space where okay, what
more can we do at that level? What other programs can we, you
know, mirror that maybe other counties are doing that we could engage at that early stage to keep people housed. Real issues
we're dealing with in our county. So what is the solution.
I think bringing people together, you know, these organizations and county leaders and the county government. I
know how passionate you are. We are too. We want to address it.
>> thank you for your leadership. I want to applaud the efforts the homeless coalition have made. I know
they've worked in collaboration with many of our nonprofits and
you be it's putting a strain on our nonprofits. I know there's a lot of requests for financial participation because of their
homes and rents that are needing to be paid. Working together we
can all come to a solution and we'll continue to do that. When
you're ready to spend money. We're a good go to group. We
have about 35 organizations that are partners in our coalition.
we're really getting to know each other and know the work
that they do. So we hope you'll look at the coalition as maybe
we can add some input for advice when you're making those types
of decisions. Thank you so much. We appreciate you.
>> please open. You want to take a picture? >> sure. >> okay. Let's take a picture.
>> k12. >> that's teamed with a
different executive session item. >> so don't do it? >> if possible. >> and the same while we're there the same rings true for k
19 as well. >> k 19. >> I had a note for you and I just haven't gotten it you yet.
>> okay. Got it. K19 we will hold. Let's do the one on the
certificates of obligation. >> I-1.
>> let's do that one. I've got the audience. Let's do that.
>> I-1. Discuss and take possible action on an order authorizing the issuance and sale of one or more sears of
hays county texas combination tax and revenue certificates of obligation in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed
$240 million for the construction, design,
improvement, extension, expansion, upgrade and development of county roads and the acquisition of land and
right of way therefore, levying a tax in payment thereof and
further securing said certificates by a lien on and the pledge of the pledged revenues of the solid waste
management system. Providing for the sale and delivery of the certificates in accordance with specified parameters including
the approval and distribution of an official statement delegating
the authority to certain members of the commissioners court and county staff to execute certain documents relating to the sale
of the certificates, authorizing the execution and delivery of documents and agreements in connection there where, and
enacting other provisions relating there to. The road projects include certain of the road projects in the 2024 road
bond program, including approximately 30 road projects related to safety, mobility and connectivity and are further
described in the list of road projects posted herewith. The
county estimates the tax levy will cause a tax rate increase
of two cents per $100 assessed value. >> so moved. >> second.
>> all right. So commissioner, would you like to start this conversation? >> I think dan, judge.
>> you'd rather have dan? All yours, my friend. >> thank you, judge, commissioners. Dan with
specialized public finance financial advisor to the county. As you all have authorized previously through the notice of
intent to issue cos, this is setting the delegation to price
the issue which means closing would occur three weeks after
that. That's when you would receive proceeds from that. As
you also authorized previously I believe one or two court meetings ago you also authorized the application for bond ratings
for investors to use to assess the credit quality of the
county. The s&p and fitch both affirm the outstanding aa plus
bond ratings independently of each other. Those will be used by potential investors to I a syces credit worthiness. Aa plus
is one notch from aaa. That's almostas high as you can get.
the good news is county staff, and vicky and jordan all put
together the responses on behalf of the county. The process was
so smooth because they had reviewed the credit last year as
well. They did not request any follow up information or call.
some discussion of upward pressure. Strong economy. Well-managed debt levels and management of the county. So we
are set with this delegation. Would set the parameters as just
laid out in the lengthy agenda item. To move forward with the sale of the certificates of obligation.
>> you went kind of fast so I'm going to repeat it and restate
it for emphasis. Well managed debt. That's us, folks. That's
the commissioners court. That's the leadership that's helping
this have that magnificent rating that has an upward pressure to even potentially go to aaa which is the best you can
get. Thank you for that. >> absolutely. I'm glad you mentioned that because one thing to add on to this is this rating
reflects their understanding that there's a bond election
that was held, that was passed by voters. You're in the process of court in the courts with an appeal. So when they
look at the debt level, they also look at potential debt
level. So they're recognizing that those portions of what was approved by voters that you're still in the courts over may
come back and impact this. They're taking into account the
full potential as well as the vertical projects we've discussed. So thank you for pointing that out.
>> thank you. Commissioner hammer. >> I want to say thank you to all of our staff. I know that we
have been taking our due diligence and doing everything very much calculated. Recording it all. Being able to push
forward and get what the voters approved done. Thank you to everyone that has helped in that process.
>> and jordan, do you have an agenda item -- a motion craft sod we can make sure we cross every t and dot every I?
>> yes. Absolutely, judge. Whoever is willing to make a motion when that's ready, it's going to be a long one.
>> sure. >> whoever is ready to take a sip of water and read. Would be to adopt an order and reading
that agenda item back out. >> very good. You okay with that when the time comes? >> yes, judge, I am. I had one
question. Thank you, dan and marisol, vicky who is not here
today. I appreciate there were no follow up questions. I'm
sure it's fine and I meant to say something earlier to staff.
but I failed to. But on page two it says the proceeds of
certificates was submitted to the voters of the city during
the proceeding three years. Oh, no, that no -- I'm sorry. But
anyway it's the third. It says city. I just wondered is that correct? It had not been the county?
>> yeah, that should say the county. >> at the microphone. At the microphone. State your name and
title. >> my name is julie houston. I am the county's bond counsel. I'm trying to find what you're
pointing to. It should say the county. The situation is that if
the voters disapproved these projects at a prior election you have to wait three years for bringing cos. That's this
representation. >> right. It does say no bond proposition to authorize the issuance. But it does on the
last sentence it says voters of the city.
>> that should be amended to say county. >> okay. >> good catch.
>> this is a long time coming. My voters have waited for years. We're at a point I can't express how concerned I am over
getting these projects on the ground in a timely fashion. I know y'all are tired of hearing me say I'm going to have 5000
kids on one road by 2028. But we are. And this is an important
step in getting us through that process. Can't wait to work with local leaders who have pushed to ensure that these move
forward. >> I'm glad we're at this
point and looking forward to moving forward on all of our what we can on our projects. Thanks.
>> and moving forward, can you double check the agenda items to make sure they don't say city and say county. Those are low
hanging fruits for us we can easily wipe out. I'm embarrassed to say a commissioner found it and that's not the way it
should be. >> yes, sir. We'll make sure we do that. >> if there is nothing else,. >> I just want to say, just really quick. I just want to say
for all of the -- we have a lot of citizens concerned from
environmental perspectives on some projects. What we'll do as the county is we'll make sure that all of our due diligence is
done. All of the environmental feasibility studies are done. I will take extra time and effort to make sure those things do
happen just so it can ease some concerns people might have.
>> commissioner you ready for the motion? >> yes. >> it's going to be yours. Just
stating the very first part to say you move that then you reread that whole item. >> okay. Judge, I'd like to
make a motion to -- I move that an order issuing the issuance or
sale of one or more series of hays county texas combination
tax and revenue certificates of obligation in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed $240 million for the
construction, design, improvement, extension, expansion, upgrade and development of county roads and
the acquisition of land and right of way therefore; levying
a tax in payment thereof and further securing said
certificates by a lien on and pledge of the pledged revenues
of the solid waste management system; providing for the sale and delivery of the certificates in acordons with specified
parameters, including -- let me make sure here -- the approved
distribution of an official statement delegating the authority to certain members of the commissioners court and
county staff to execute certain documents relating to the sale
of certificates; authorizing the execution and delivery of documents and agreements in connection therewith and
enacting other provisions related there to. The road
projects include certain of the road projects in the 2024 road
bond program, including approximately 30 road projects related to safety, mobility and connectivity and are further
described in the list of road projects posted herewith. The
county estimates the tax levy will cause a tax rate increase
of 0.02 per $100 assessed value. >> second.
>> and that 0.02 was cents. Just as a clarification. And jordan,
do we need to articulate for those documents or is that
enough? >> it's further articulated in
order. Please call the roll. >>
>> thank you. We'll start on this said. Agenda item. >> we're going to clear the courtroom of the people that are
here waiting first and then we'll keep going.
>> I-2. Discussion and possible action to authorize the execution of an access easement agreement between the hays
county and hays consolidated independent school district related to road improvements along beacon hill road.
>> so proved. >> second. >> this is an agreement with hays cisd at one of their new
facilities. Pretty straightforward if you look at the background documentation. Just provides access easement.
>> please call the roll.
>> I-3. >> discussion and possible action to call for a public hearing on october 14th to
establish no parking zones along tubman drive. Smithsonian lane
and niagara falls lane. >> so moved. >> second. >> please call the roll.
>> I-4. >> discussion and possible action to consider the acceptance of road construction
and surface drainage improvements, acceptance of the
maintenance bond pb 03016801216 in the amount of $2,499.87 and
the acceptance of the revegetation bond pb 03016801028
in the amount of $7,777.00 for the caliterra subdivision phase
2 section 7. >> so moved. >> please call the roll. >> so we can knock out
subdivisions then go to consent? J 1.
>> pln-2511-pre. Discussion and possible action regarding the
ellington subdivision preliminary plan. >> mr. Pacheco. >> good morning, commissioners.
we passed the exclusion of a development agreement. This is
the request in the approval or regarding the plan. The prelim
snare plan is the overall plan for the subdivision which is
approximately 1100 residential lots. This is over 218.92 acres.
the proses alongside the road in precinct 2. For the subdivision
water utility will be provided by special utility district and waste water treatment is going to be accomplished through the
guadalupe blanco river authority. At this time it is recommending approval of the ellington subdivision
preliminary plan. >> please call the roll.
>> j 2. >> pln-2746-pc. Discussion and
possible action regarding the cliffs at onion creek lot 1 a
and lot 1 b cancellation. >> so moved. >> second. >> mr. Pacheco.
>> thank you, judge. So the cliffs at onion creek is an
existing recorded plat that's a two lot subdivision plat. In
this request court the owners of both lot 1 a and 1 b are
requesting a cancel. The plotted lots. The cancellation request
does meet provisions found in local government code chapter
232. Which relates to cancellation of subdivisions if court does approve this the cancellation will revert lot 1 b
and to the original configuration. Staff has
reviewed the request and staff does recommend approval of the
cancellation. >> okay. Please call the roll.
>> j 3. >> ratify approval of the hays county oaks section 2 lot 1 replat.
>> so moved. >> mr. Pacheco. >> thank you, judge. This is just the simple ratification of
an already administratively approved plat for the replat.
>> I like those explanations as concise and as 30,000-foot as
they can be and I like that you did that and I said this before, you understand it but I'm saying it for the viewing
public. People following along have no idea so your tiny recap
is perfect. The other benefit is when you don't say if you look at the backup people on the viewing public don't have the
backup. Thank you for that as well. >> commissioner smith. >> yes.
>> commissioner cohen. >> yes.
>> open. Consent. >> g 1. Approval the payment of
juror disbursements. G 3. Approve commissioner court minutes of august 19, 2025. G 4. Approve the payment of united
healthcare and texas association of counties healthcare claims and authorize an additional disbursement in an amount not to
exceed $500,000 to the healthcare claims account. G 5 approve the payment of the october 15th payroll
disbursements in an amount not to exceed $4, 4.5 million. G 6.
accept the delivery of the auditor's office quarterly
internal expectations record. G 7 accept the delivery of the county auditor's monthly report for august 2025 pursuant to
texas local government code chapter 4.023 and 114.025. G 8.
authorize the execution of social service agency contracts as approved in the fiscal year 2026 budget. G 9. Authorize the
submission of a grant application to the fy 26 texas
comptroller rural law enforcement grants sheriff's office program in the amount of $500,000. G 10. Accept donations
totaling $3100 on behalf of the hays county child protective board and amend the budget accordingly. G 11. Authorize the
commissioner precinct 1 office to support centr cultural
hispano desan marcos in an amount of $1000 in support of community activities. G 12. Approve out of state travel for
the county administrator to attend the international city
county managers association annual conference to be held in tampa, florida from october 25th through the 29th. G 13. Approve
out of state travel for crime analyst to attend the operation
sentry conference on november 6, 2025 in new york, no. Authorize the execution of an agreement between axon enterprises and
hays county effective october 1, 2025. G 15. Authorize payment to
bis consulting llc in the amount of $2,475 for the truth in
taxation software used by the tax assessor where no purchase
order was obtained prior to the annual renewal as required by the hays county purchasing policy. G 16. Authorize payment
to theranest llc in the amount of $505 for their annual
software subscription and their monthly fee for telehealth subscriptions where no purchase order was obtained as required.
g 17. Authorize payment to rcm equipment company related to
replacement part for the transportation department paving
machine unit 9731 in the amount of $14,301.46. And amend the
budget accordingly. G 18. Authorize the execution of a contract extension for rfp 2020-p 08 election form printing
services with amg printing and railing for a period not to exceed 54 days effective september 7th, 2025. G 19.
authorize the execution of a contract amendment with jm
engineering llc removing the maintenance of five traffic counters, reducing the overall contract by 17% pursuant to to
rfp 2020-p 15 traffic counter inspection and maintenance. G 20
authorize the execution of a contract amendment 2 with si
mechanical llc pursuant to rfp 2024-b 06 hvac preventative
maintenance and repair services countywide to remove the paren ative maintenance and air filter replacements from eight county
buildings, reducing the overall total contract by 18%. G 21.
authorize the execution of an annual service support plan with conference technologies inc. For the audio-visual system located
at the jail and training center in the amount of $6,425. G 22.
authorize the execution of a three year renewal agreement for the hays county criminal district attorney's office
related to their hotdocs user licenses for document assembly
software related to child protection court cases,
effective september 25, 2025 and authorize a waiver to the purchasing policy of obtaining three quotes. G 23. Authorize
the execution of contracts for the hays county court at law
mental health specialty court program with a better boat llc,
axis of mental healthcare pllc -- evoke wellness, hiatus
wellness, horton house, lisa hinson, moonstone counseling
pllc, nova recovery center, philip carolina, revive recovery
sober living and youth advocate programs inc. Toe l aing
$242,180 for the fiscal year 2026. G 24. Authorize the
execution of a memorandum of understandings for the assisted
outpatient treatment program with texas oaks psychiatric
hospital, bda austin oaks hospital, axis of mental
healthcare pllc, evoke wellness and philip carolina for the
fiscal year of 2026. G 25. Authorize the execution of a
renewal agreement with thomson reuters-west publishing for
westlaw patron access online legal research services for use by hays county law library patrons with funds budgeted for
fy 2026. G 26. Authorize the execution of a renewal agreement
for westlaw remote patron access for use by hays county law
library patrons conducting limited online legal research outside the law library with funds budgeted for fy 2026 and a
monthly commitment of $1,395.45. G 27. Authorize the execution of
a renewal agreement for $36,774.72 westlaw online legal
research service services for use by hays county court, judges and staff. G 28. Authorize the acceptance of a continuation
grant award from the substance abuse and mental health services
administration, assisted outpatient treatment grant program in the amount of $499,722. G 29. Approve use of
county grounds by the hill country cook off association for
additional 2025 events. G 30. Designate tuesday of every week as the regular term of the hays county commissioners court for
purposes of convening in fiscal year 2026 with the exceptions of
october 7th and 21st, november 4th, 11th, and 25th. December
9th, 23rd and 30th, 2025 as those dates have previously been
canceled by the court. G 31. Approve the cancellation of the hays county commissioners court on the following day dates in
2026. January 13 and 27th. February 10th and 17th. March
3rd and 17th. April 7th and 21st. May 5th and 19th. June
2nd, 16th and 30th. July 14th and 21st. August 25th. September
8th and 22nd. October 6th and 20th. November 3rd, 17th and
24th. December 8th, 22nd and 29th. G 32. Approve utility
permits and g 33 approve out of state travel to new york, new york for the county auditor and commissioner debbie as the in
other worded officials to attend the pricing of the combination tax revenue certificates of obligation series 2025.
>> motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> commissioner smith.
>> this is I think the first court I've been to in almost
eight years that I don't have a single consent item. Which is
shocking to me. I did have one question, judge. On your item
for usage of the courthouse lawn I don't see an issue with it, but in the past we've done these when we know the date of
an event or know what the events are. This just says for
additional events in 2025 and there's no real background. Do you know when these events would be or anything related to it?
>> I do know off the top of my head he's got the tamales on
november 1st. I saw the writing of the agenda item too and I
thought it was weak. I think that might be it. Aim not sure. It's a loop of whatever they've done in the past.
>> thank you. >> you bet. Commissioner hammer.
>> make sure my office has ago says to that renewal. I had a
conversation with commissioner ingalsbe. Please call the roll.
>>
>> discussion and possible action to adopt an order authorizing the sale of fireworks beginning the five
days before the first day of diwali and ending at midnight on
the last day of diwali and also adopt an order prohibiting the
sale or use of restricted fireworks in the unincorporated area of the county. >> so moved.
>> second. >> thank you all for supporting this conversation. It's important that we support the
responsible use that this organization has showed year
after year after year and many folks don't know this, but mass
gatherings, I pride over those and make sure the sheriff's department, the health department, all the other
departments, the fire marshal all have seen their plans. Checked off and approved their road maps. Including egress.
these guys are so responsible. They've been this way for so
many years. They even have a brush truck with firefighters on
site. So I am comfortable granting this effort. And mike, do you know by chance if the fire marshal has met with them.
it was in motion while I had the mass gathering hearing. >> mike jones, office of emergency services director.
aware of the event. He's good with this. >> that's good. Very good. You guys are okay. Anything else?
>> one quick question. I know we talked about this before. I cannot remember but what is the cap for the need for a mass
gathering permit? What's the number? I got that request this
week. Is it 500? A thousand? >> looking it up to give you
that answer. There were more common years ago and now they're
less common. >> okay. Got it. Quick search for you. So it's an event that attracts or is expected to
attract more than 2500 people or more than 500 persons if 51% or
more of them may reasonably expected to be younger than 21
years of age and it is planned or made reasonably be expected
that alcoholic beverages will be sold, served or consumed at or
around the gathering. And there's also a -- not all the
details. There's also a link of the gathering. A certain amount of hours. There's additional restrictions. Those are the
people numbers for you if you want more information I'm happy to give it to you. >> that'd be great. Thank you.
>> please call the roll.
>> now it's customary for me to pluck through the court for your agenda items. What's yours in the far back? You. You're it.
what agenda item? >> k 18.
>> okay. Let's -- >> k 18. Discussion and possible action to adopt the hays county drainage criteria manual.
>> so moved. >> second. >> we have a motion and a second? And I'd like to hear
from mr. Pacheco. >> thank you, judge. So for k
18. The drainage criteria manual this is an effort that has been worked on for several years now. Both between our development
services department and the transportation department. The county identified a need several years ago to establish district
drainage criteria manual for some in the general public want to know what is the manual? So best way to memorialize it and I
do have representatives who started the endeavor with us several years ago. We recently contracted with a few months
back to finalize the last revisions for the manual. The manual essentially is local policy. Where the aim is to
establish uniform criteria and standards related to drainage improvements for public and private development matters in
unincorporated hays county. With the efforts to evaluate counties
in hays county but also consider factors and other engineering
standards and principles. We took a look at when it comes to
identifying these standards and uniform criteria. Storm water
quality management. Also infrastructure related to the improvements we see quite often when it comes to developing
construction. Roads, bridges, culverts, you name it. The benefit of having the manual ultimately court is having a
uniform design practices across countywide for development and construction activities. Also to protect the promotion of public
protect public health and safety and also environmental
considerations given we just had agenda item previously about
being considerative of our department. Which we hope you do
approve the adoption of this manual which will go into effect
immediately and have as a tool for county staff to use with any development that comes our way. >> I'd like to pull associates
up to see if they can give additional feedback. >> yes, sir. >> batter up. You called for it.
let's go. Chop chop, baby. So if you'll state your name and
title. >> good morning. I'm with happ associates. Thank you judge and commissioners for this to talk
about this and we work with the county initially back in 2018,
2019 time frame to have this draft manual. But it was never
adopted. Now with last six years there have been some changes in
precipitation. New modeling techniques and standards. To
have uniform standards that they can use. That includes
everything about drainage way. Creeks. Any new channels.
drainage ponds. So that's -- and this will be also for any
new construction projects. >> the development community,
have they been weighing in on this process of yours? And if
so, what was said, how was -- what was their contribution?
>> in this one we can also working with other standards
that county had such as the development regulations. Then we
are also using other typical standards such as tech star
standards and other area like county standards and using those
as a reference and guide then also to getting feedback from
county staff from transportation and development services.
>> city of austin. Nothing against mayor watson. He's my
friend. I don't want to become the city of austin. I know all
too well that it takes too long to get anything done through
that municipal bureaucracy. So I've always told mr. Pacheco in my office every time we meet we work for the people. We work for
the community. Our government should be nimble. Our government should be small. What are you working on? How can I help and
get out of the way. My fear is mr. Pacheco, this is for you
both. My fear is that we are rolling these things out -- I'm
not saying anything negative. You are a great organization. But I'm just going to say it in a way that's easy to catch in
my mind. Copy paste austin policy into hays county I'm not
comfortable with that. I'm not interested in doing things that are going to be so restrictive that it is prohibitive, cost
prohibitive and ultimately affordable housing goes out the window because everything that a developer needs to develop is
going to be passed on to the homeowner. I have a real concern
with us fighting for affordable housing, for example, and now we've just added $100,000 in bureaucracy to someone's house.
so I want to be real careful in this space. This is a space that I'm so concerned with and your answer didn't come from me at
all to the point that I wish we could table this so I could
review it further. >> appreciate the feedback. I guess I will do my best also to help paint the picture broader
here of how we got here. To answer your initial question
about stakeholder feedback. That effort was accomplished. We went through this aspect. The manual before you is something that has
been unfortunately been on the shelf for like the past four
years. Years longer. During the initial phase we did have stake
holders making feedback on I want to say a good majority of
the content you brought before you in the draft you see today.
it was to make minor tweaks and revisions. Critical needs
currently. Majority of the other documents, other information and document has been that it has been gotten feedback through
initial phase of the project. I'll also say that doesn't
necessarily mean that there will not be any pushback or concerns. The good thing about this being a policy is we can't as a court
make adjustments and revisions as we see fit as you judge and the court members do see fit when we start enacting enforcing
this policy. >> here's what I'm going to ask. >> working document. >> I hope the court -- I don't want to thwart or diminish. If
there's something this is dependent on I want to be
helpful too. Commissioner smut I know you agree about being efficient. I do want to ask that you guys give me just a small
window of time to talk to the construction, to the development
community, just bring it to the very next court. Let me have a meeting with some folks and see what we can do. The last thing I
need is a new fight because we didn't hear from people. That's all I want to do. That's all I want to do. Give
people a chance to personally weigh in with me. I want to make
sure the development community has a moment at least to my ears so I can bring it forward with confidence. Right now I don't
have that confidence. >> I'm fine with -- I'm okay with that. I mean I think that they are aware I don't know
that we've gotten any negative feedback. I'm good with giving
you the time to. >> only thing I will note is if we do table it entirely, that's an option we can consider but
our contract with happ does terminate relatively shortly. If
there's any changes or anything else that we do need to revise that we'd need happ's assistance.
>> I will create an event for the end of the week or the
beginning of next week. I will not foot drag anything and I will have my hope is maybe you'll be there since you're
on contract anyway to hear. I don't have a dog in the hunt except I want people to feel herd and understood. If anything
comes out I want you to help me articulate this is here, this is
there. If you'd work with me on articulating. I'll call it out to the general publy. Whoever wants to come we'll talk about
it. I want that one moment. >> in. I'm here.
>> I would just say if you -- did you are have time or did you
look through the document in the background? >> that's my point. >> I would just say whenever
we're talking about the standards in here and the
standards specifically related to roadway construction. Just
general construction issues. It's really whenever we talk about our this drainage manual it's something we've be
looking at for a long time specifically. I think there might be a misconception that we're talking about how a house
is built or how a building is constructed. We're looking at
the overall drainage facilities. It's quite literally the placement of manhole covers. >> and?
>> the depth and width of culverts that have to be put in place. Those kind of things. The specifications believe me if you
want to sleep, try to do the calculus in this document. It
really does try to manage the flow of water where we're in
flash flood alley. This is the best we can do. I would just -- I don't have any problem tabling it. But I would say take
some time because I well remember when we had public meetings and this is something both our transportation
department and our development services department have worked on for a long time. I'm glad to see it off the shelf.
>> I'm so glad, commissioner smith that you hit the point I was referring to. It's beyond manholes and culverts. That's
dictated and predicated by fire code and the other parts. I'm covered on that front. I'm referring to what you said
right, the flow of water. I'm referring to depending on the
topography and how much you cover p how much determines how much you have to have as runoff and how much retention pond you
have to have. That's the piece. A tiny job can become $100,000 more just because of a tiny edit in it a paragraph sentence. All
I want is a moment. The commissioners are okay with it. Thank you and I will ask that you please e-mail my office and
I'll create a very quick meeting. Make it public. Whoever wants to come. We talk shop. I want to give everybody a fair
shake at what's going on. It's ultimately tried to affordable
housing. Thank you so much. We'll table this item. >> not only tied to affordable housing but it's really tied to
public safety. >> what else? >> it's really tied to public safety.
>> we have so many facilities. I know aaron is looking at me. I can't tell you how many culverts and other facilities we
have massive drainage issues in our county just because they were never built correctly in the first place or we have
people who decide they want to do that connection to the county roadway and we find out about it six weeks later whenever their
neighbor's front yard floods or there's water at their front door. That's what the purpose of this is to prevent those
situations.
>>> you agenda item and your focus.
anything for you? All right let's move on. Let's move on
to what's next, miscellaneous. >> k 1 discussion and possible
action to adopt hays county fy 2026 holiday calendar.
>> so moved. >> second. >> we have talked about that a little bit do you want to expand
further? >> I hope the court has had opportunity to review basically the same as last year.
>> what I really like commissioner, you have always taken this role and I'm not sure if you are currently board
member or not but as a member involved in these organizations,
you know when the calendars are coming out in the planning so
your ability to put this together is so helpful. >> thank you for recognizing that. I did work to ensure we
are not canceling or setting anything , that was for the
cancellation, but anyway we coordinate to make sure.
>> please call the roll. >>
>> discussion and action to authorize renewal amendment and
order form with fifth asset debt book for subscription-based
information technology arrangement management software
for compliance services related to the government accounting standards board statements 87 and 96.
>> some of it. >> second. >> well-written no further discussion required. >>
>> discussion and possible action to modify the one a 102
equal employment opportunity policy of the personnel policies
effective september 30, 2025. >> so moved. >> second. >> good morning judge and
commissioners, as a look to the personnel sorry, human resources director. As a look to the personal policies living
breathing document I have started to make some revisions
to bring to the court starting with equal employment and
unemployment policy. Policy revision 3 from the county
commitment to replace discrimination harassment retaliation clarifying procedures to hr and civil
division as well as ensuring compliance with federal and state requirements. >> as straightforward as we can
get. Questions or comments? He is lining up with state and
federal policy, well done please call the roll. >>
>> discussion and possible action to modify the one a 111 dress code and conduct policy of the personnel policies effective
september 30, 2025. >> you will need to explain this
one please state your name and title for the viewing public every time. Open agenda item. >> hr director, this policy
updates clarify the authority over expending definitions and
array separable conduct inhibiting bullying one is not
formally included and professional behavior providing clear guidance on workplace concerns through management
and/or hr. >> can you explain, you don't realize this , maybe, a lot of coworkers are working watching
court right now understanding another working in multitasking.
we thank you and we love you you're being productive but to have one ear to the court going on please make it easier for
everyone to articulate further what the department head or
supervisor or elected official has authority over in reference
to this item tied to the dress code? >> so you know the departments have authority to dictate with
the dress code is for their departments, there is not one size fits all for the county. You may recommend shorts might
be essential maybe work outside in the summer heat so it's good
in one department may not work in another so we want to leave
discretion up to the department heads to dictate how they determine what is acceptable dress code in their department. >> to recap department heads and elected officials have
discussion of choosing the attire for their office is correct? Perfect, commissioners questions or comments, please
call the roll. >>
>> let me tell you why I love that and fell in love with the idea so effortlessly because I believe I continue to believe
government should be small and within the government a
department head has been chosen and if we trust them, they are
functioning productive department and they should be
able to make decisions to run the department. When we find they are no longer a good fit budgetary or otherwise then we
need to address that and not lean into micromanagement so
thank you for helping us be more efficient. Please ope k5.
>> discussion and possible action to change fair labor standards act classification for identified positions effective
october 1, 2025. >> so moved. >> second. >> granjeno hr director. This is
part of my recent reorganization with retirement I have revised
job description for risk benefits manager for a new scope
of work which expands decision-making authority and
expands professional responsibility reclassifying them as exempt and interest complaint with fair labor
standards act with administrative exemption. And religious empowering them to grow in their roles with more
decision-making authority in their roles. I would like to change this . >> beautiful, well said.
questions or comments? Please call the roll. >>
action to authorize execution of agreement between hays county and actuarial services related to retiree drug subsidies.
>> explain this one. >> hr director, we do this
agreement every year , we authorize the retiree drug
subsidy testing and attestation basically shows we offer
retirees coverage acceptable and comparable to medicare and in doing that we potentially get credits back to help offset
retiree prescription cost. >> full, well done please call
the roll. >>
>> k7. >> discussion possible action to
authorize execution of the texas association of county 2026
employee health benefits renewal agreement pursuant rfp 2024- p
11 employee group health dental and employee assistance plans. >> so moved. >> hr director eric granjeno.
you have a presentation I will be sharing on the screen.
and this is our first renewal with texas association of counties so there are changes I recommend to the court in this
presentation. So the first one explains the need for changes
for 2026. Health care costs nationally have projected to rise over 10% with the highest in 15 years according to the
international foundation of employee benefit study driven by
catastrophic claims, specialty prescriptions and costly injectable. Hays county premiums increased by 11.5% and that is
what was come back with as part of the renewal recording 1.7
million transfer from health savings to reserves. Renewal light with benefits and recommendations to manage
long-term cost. Some plan and complains updates I recommend to
the court. Expending tobacco cessation program to be required
be a blue cross blue shield or web m.d. With requirement of proof needed to avoid the surcharge and form to be
completed with supervisor. Annual physical requirements so with 11.5% surcharge we do want to pass it on to employees who
do not complete annual physical , by april 1 of 2026. This
supports wellness and early detection so physicals are preventative and covered 100% by insurance providers , there is
no co-pay so it would not cost anything to the employees, the annual physical would be completed between march 5 of
2025 and march 31 between march 5 of 2025 and march 31, 2026 so the goal is if someone had a annual physical during the time
between march of this year and march of next year we will honor that we don't have the surcharge passed on to them as
of april 1, 2026. This is only for employees not covered
dependence, the waiting period a benchmark of 74 counties with 50%, 37 counties falling below the 31 day waiting period's we
feel that's more competitive for the new hires and we have received feedback during the new hire orientation that it is a
little bit of wait time so we are recommending dropping down from 55 days to the first of the month following 30 days of
employment. Coverage extension we want to continue until the end of the pay period, we end coverage on date of separation
so this would help reduce administrative burden on payroll and we have to calculate those premiums on a daily basis so
extending coverage to the pay period would help with lessening the administered a burden and compliance with irs guidelines
2026 recommending we increase health savings accounts 4400,
for individuals or 8750, for the family coverage. The next slide
shows what potential cost to the employees would look like should
employees not get their physical and again this is a wellness effort to help employees know their numbers, catch things
before they become something bigger. So really, the
difference is going to be highlighted in the pink starting from three types of insurance plans from ppo, epo and high
deductible health plan in the end. You can see the savings per
month varies from six dollars , for just yourself up to
86-year-old dollars on the ppo plan, on the epo plan from three dollars, to $44 per month and the high deductible health plan
from $11-$32. The yearly savings really sticks out here so employees can be saving from $79 employees can be saving from
$79-$1042 just for getting the physical. We don't want to pass
on 11.5% to employees but we do want you to know your numbers
and be ahead of that, we are self-insured which means when we
have a good year we can save money on that and give money for other illness initiatives. When we do have high claim years we
paid dollar for dollar so it is important for us to do our part
to know our numbers to get ahead of those early detections for things that come into bigger claim costs.
>> a quick question. This is a big change for employees so I
want the information to go out and that they truly understand.
>> so we would start the education early on and what it means. We can enter their getting their physicals
completed in a timely manner. >> thank you for this. Along
with the education, what other things can we do to make sure
people , trying to help them get those physicals? Thinking about
matthew right now we do employee flu shots, where can we find
some space where it might be easier to allow employees to be able to go to their physical and time off and it will take to get
those physicals? And I want to brainstorm around that.
>> revenue nurse practitioner coming on so potentially qualified to perform those physicals. We also have wellness
money where we can bring biometric screenings on site to different areas and locations to help with employees to know
their numbers so making it more accessible for employees who
might not be able to o away from work and looking at other options as well.
and the next one, so we are recommending to exclude cvs
pharmacy. Aetna owns cvs and they're no longer passing on
discounts to blue cross blue shield subscribers so in doing
so employees would be paying more essentially since we are
self-insured we would be paying more out of self-insurance funds
swear recommending excluding cvs pharmacy which there are less of walgreens which there are more walgreens and cvs 's we
recommend exclusion of cbs that would save $225,000 annually.
>> do you know how many employees choose cvs? >> there's 130 members which also includes dependence, so
there's more walgreens users then cbs. >> we should use which one more? >> walgreens, sam's club , heb,
albertson's and so we will be sending out if approved by the
court a letter to all employees who have recently failed
subscriptions through cvs you know they can transfer prescriptions to other pharmacies so they don't have
to worry about calling the pharmacy, and getting it transferred. >> they are accessible as gas
stations are , so I agree with saving a quarter of $1 million
by modifying where we build our prescriptions , so smart, thank
you. >> we are recommending potential
premiums to change for just the employee only coverage from zero
dollars to month, to six dollars per month, still very competitive compared to other counties and entities and helps us to make up for the difference where we are short on ensuring
that benefit. >> great.
>> so an overview. Changes per county finances while keeping
plants competitive, encouraging employee wellness , small adjustments like dental with improved fairness and reduced
administered a burden , so the goal is to manage claim costs
now so we can contain affordability in the future
years. >> commissioners, any questions on this item? >> I appreciate you looking into
that, I know it's difficult at times for employees to come up
with even six dollars or whatever but it is minimum and appreciate the hard work. >> thank you.
>> with my comment earlier about where can we find some space for
the physical piece of it and we've been there. So thank you
for that. >> matthew has something he
wants to say real quick. >> thank you for putting the
presentation together. I think this cvs savings is great. Thank
you for that. >> I can say looking at the
overall cost , 11% or 11.5% is a lot but I will tell you that in
my private business and other folks that I sit on boards with where we have to make decisions, everyone got hit a lot worse
this year. The average in the groups I'm working with is
between 16 and 22% to 11.5 sounds horrible, but we are still doing much better . >> could be worse.
>> matthew gonzales hays county health director. We were
speaking about what it would look like for the health department to potentially offer employee services to help reduce
cost we pay co-pays to private providers and benefits it is one
of the benefits of hiring a nurse practitioner to have a higher scope of practice we can offer residents and employees.
we will continue to push on how we can deliver those better services to employees. >> that's beautiful and one of
the first things I asked candace to work on was, I make no secrets about it . I'm a fiscal conservative so I think it is a
good investment to create a health care district for the
county, that goes in line with what you have been in the meetings with me, we are all on board with things you are
discussing so this is perfect and thank you. Anything else? Please call the roll. >>
>> good job, keep up the good work.
>> discussion and possible action dissolution of the hays county benefits committee. >> let's get rid of it.
>> as we grow it is important we streamline processes and return
committee members it can be difficult to schedule something
with everyone's busy calendars so we involve the key stakeholders myself. We bring back recommendations to the
court that make sense for the whole county.
>> perfect, please call the roll. >>
>> discussion and possible action to approve benefits managers unused vacation time t% roll forward into fy 2026 with a
requirement that it be used by march 31, 2026.
>> some of and second. >> any questions about that?
please call the roll. >>
>> discussion and possible action to approve the revised to
hays county travel policy. >> so moved. >> second. >> name and title for the
viewing public. >> good morning, administrator. So staff is requesting approval of the
amended travel policy as you know this policy outlines the
guidelines for county business travel and interest trips are legitimate with accountability for employees and officials.
this policy was originally approved by the court back in
march 1999 and we wanted to ensure the policy was updated to
reflect the court's intent and address traveling needs of
today. I will highlight the major changes, first the court,
we are asking that the court name the auditor as the county
official who will be responsible for the interpretation and enforcement of the policy. Our rationale for this is based on
local government code 112.006 and it a test the auditor with
ensuring the enforcement of laws governing county finances. At the staff level we believe travel claim is ultimately a
financial compliance question and texas law assigns that
gatekeeping roll to the auditor. And I will try to be a little bit quicker on the other ones. The additional language we added
was with the out-of-state exemptions. It allows personnel
like the emergency services team to conduct out-of-state travel
without approval from the court or prior approval when they are in a deployment situation. We also address the gsa mill rates
to reflect the standard, the current national rates. For
breakfast now $16, it was seven dollars for lunch, now 19 and it was 13 and for dinner it is now 28 and it was 16. Lastly for
employees who have dietary restrictions due to health or religious reasons and there is no suitable alternative that is
provided in the conference registration fee, we have added language and the county will be reimbursed for those services,
if changes are approved, by the court the policy will go into effect tomorrow october 1. >> questions or comments
commissioner ingalsbe. >> I appreciate you looking into this and looking at tasking the auditor's office with the
approval. The interpretation. That is a good way to look at
it. Not the approval am I right? >> interpretation and enforcement. We are the
approving body commissioner. The viewing public wants to hear the
right comments, anything else? >> only I am glad, that's a
long time to wait, especially because of the reimbursement, I
do know that stephanie does have concerns so I want to address
that and talk through that concern.
>> thank you, thank you. Sorry guys I have a process, stay with
me. >> thank you for looking into this, I agree 25 years is a long time, I don't know if you can
get a meal, for seven dollars. Yes, thank you for doing the due
diligence. >> commissioner smith anything
to add or contribute? >> I do have a couple questions here and I am probably the one person come I can tell you I
never submitted or requested so not one, so these are questions
that I view with a lot of business travel and these are
issues from the past and looking to hear there are a couple things I do want to note. A number of conferences that I
know each of the individual employees and even us as
commissioners go to , there is for example the state convention
was at round rock. If we look on here it specifically says it
says hotel and health club charges, entertainment and expenses are not included, spa and recreational hotel charges.
my concern is a number of those have a required resort fee. You don't have a choice, so therefore I want to make sure
that those would be included because they are not only
allowed. >> commissioners comment is so
one point, let me tell you why for the viewing public. As employers it is our duty to make sure it is not cost employees
money to work your. And if you do make that adjustment, then it
is costing them money to work your. So please consider that at
it. >> I want to point out on page 7 at the bottom it says a general certain item will not be
reimbursed however it is at the discretion of the auditor. When
we see there are fees we cannot get around that obviously we
will work to get that reimbursed.
>> I would like to leave discretion to a smaller window
so please edit all of the fees like sometimes you are stuck with valley because there's no other parking. Those types of
realities you are stuck with so it is important we incorporate costs that commissioner pointed out as policy.
>> absolutely we can do that. >> the other item I wrote down
was airline tickets specifically airline earlybird fees. I would say that, I fly the cheapest airline which is southwest in
general. >> spirit?
>> at times the least expensive ticket available is , you have
to do the earlybird fee to get the cheapest ticket available at
times. So I would have some type of discretion in there.
especially if you can show the other tickets are more expensive. So I want to make note of that and the other thing
, I have a concern with it and if I had to guess it's going to
be the same issue that commissioner cohen brought up, I
know whenever we've done credit cards and we signed those credit cards to individual departments , I know those are all in
purchasing agent's name. Some of them are, correct?
>> those tied to the purchasing office. I have gotten calls from
employees, where's the person on this card because I'm trying
to check in somewhere. I just want to make sure that I want to
make sure whatever the policy is, if you're the one signing off on it I don't necessarily want somebody spending on the
card with her name on it is that fair? >> 100% fair and I believe we have a solution to pull
purchasing , cut purchasing tie to that because that's totally
valid. We can fix that I'm sure and the other thing on my mind
that the commissioner brought up, sometimes we go to
conferences because that's what we do and how we learn so much. Something is booked up and I would like for you to have in
there if you get something else because nothing was available at
least you can say this was a dollar allocated applied to this in another setting since the place was booked. I'm sorry I
want to get that. Is that worded? Can you make sure if it
is it is a lateral not interpretation?
>> I will get with marisol to incorporate the changes we are
hearing. >> I'm glad it is being recorded. If I'm given $100 to stay at the red roof or whatever
and it is booked the holiday inn I will pay the extra 20 apply
the 100 and move on. >> I do have a follow-up
question to make sure. My understanding is when the court approves travel there is an estimate so if it is reasonable
like the example the judge gave that the office would go ahead and approve because it shows the environment was booked but we
can make sure it is clearly defined or stated.
>> let's just say next month marisol retires in the new
person sees it differently so the more we concrete the policy
and the less interbred than the last problematic 1200 employees may become. Anything else before you go?
>> one other item in this has been an issue with constables
and deputies that have gone to d.c. Or we have conferences with
multiple employees going at times the cost for four hotel
rooms is much more than the cost of airbnb to request
reimbursement for those I want to make sure flexibility is in
there so we continue to do that because it is cheaper.
>> that's the new way we spend. People that make the most money
from hotels don't own one hotel.
>> we had this conversation at the committee level and discussed it is usually cheaper but the issue is the liability
of the employee changes the reservation or they cancel it, most airbnb's require that you pay a portion up front and we
would not be reimbursed for that so if the court feels
comfortable and we want to leave the discretion for the auditor
to say if the trip had to be canceled and there's a dollar
amount you feel comfortable with. >> is the reason why it had to' any type or department anywhere
in the years we have been on the court that we had to pull people
and we have run through without canceling stuff so I like the flexibility here is a better deal because we have people who
are good physical stewards with the policy counterintuitive.
please incorporate but lock it down. So does not vary from use
and interpretation. Now purchasing.
>> stephanie hunt purchasing agent. A lot of concerns you
brought up. We had a committee for purchasing policy and we
have a whole section on travel and all of those things were
addressed in the purchasing policy for travel because
typically that comes into them purchasing registration and hotels and rental cars so the details you were asking for are
out laid in the new policy. I heard this was coming so I
waited to some of the policy because obviously you approve
this one and it was not noted if this policy gets approved this
exempts them from going through purchasing. So I have a concern
because there will not be checks on those which we always have when we go for purchasing when it comes to purchasing we
review, marisol 's checks and balances to make sure I did not
overlook something or missed something and checks and balances are there. Regarding airbnb charges, it's the same
thing as if we put a credit card on for hotel. If they cancel
within a certain timeframe we are still out money on those and it's usually the whole entire night so there are those no
matter when you book the hotel you have to look at cancellation
policies. Also regarding the , there's two credit cards in the
purchasing office, one specific for travel so if you approve
this I would request the court move the credit card to her name
because we are personally responsible for what we put on
the cards and I will be taken out of the approval process that I need that with her. >> very fair and perfect and
I'm grateful you shared those concerns. Commissioner you and I
sat on the body. >> what I would like to do is
table the travel policy today and so you're able to go back
and amend per the feedback given to the court and to have
discussion with stephanie because I don't, I know she has
been working on that for a long time and I don't want to
contradict each other. What I would like after this is have a
conversation with stephanie and see how we can make this a line
and come back with recommendations on what makes sense in regards to the credit card.
>> that's beautiful. Marisol is asking for a moment.
>> I want to clarify. That not all travel expenses go to the
purchasing office. Employees have the right to pay for their
own travel and then turning a reimbursement form, some employees will use those methods because the office does not have
a credit card. For example I do not have a credit card assigned
to it. 's we will travel and then come back and submit the
travel expense form, travel expense forms are not reviewed
by the purchasing office those are reviewed in accordance with local government code 113.064. Requires the auditor review all
claims and bills and invoices submitted to the county for
expenditures. The county auditor must review every bill and every
expenditure before the commissioners court that is a check and balance is the auditor is reviewing, commissioners
cannot pay without auditor review, auditor cannot pay without commissioners court review so there is a check and
balance so we have a lot of trouble expenditures that is
reimbursed to the travel expense form. The credit cards used by
departments that have credit cards those are part of the travel expenditure forms, so the credit card from the purchasing
office and I want to make clear their travel expenditures not reviewed by the purchasing office that go through
expenditure forms. >> thank you for clarifying.
whatever we can do to streamline like I told eric it's the same
philosophy I live with and I'm grateful we have is a court, we have to generalize how is that for a catch 22? I don't want to
overburden department heads with the same idea. And create additional bureaucracy we have the system this is an additional
reason why and whatever we can do to give the purchasing department emptying of their pockets of the policy review
task force , double check , see if there's anything to be
transferred over , for the final presentation with edits and recommendations and then roadmap the planning for credit card
ties that is a valid point, anything else to add? Did I
leave anything out? And we will bring it back to court, table
this and bring it back whenever you're ready. >> on the 14th. Have a question. Is it your intent to remove the
review completely so I can take all travel out? >> very good and thank you. Where are we next? 13.
>> 11. >> 11, yes.
>> k11 possible action to pay compensatory hours for fire marshal to be in compliance with federal labor laws and amend
budget accordingly. >> some of it. >> second. >> question or comments please
call the roll. >> given the work of their office over the last 6 to 8 months the office has been
extremely overburdened and the fact of the matter is we try to address it in the budget, but this is a minor step.
>> 100%. Please call the roll. >>
>> k 13. >> no no no I'm sorry. I
skipped it okay. >> k13
discussion and possible action authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding between hays county and the city of kyle related to the development of a county
administrative facility, participation in a city-led animal services facility, and investment into the kyle vista park improvements. >> all right commissioner what
are you thinking? It's a good idea. >> good morning commissioners and judge, matthew gonzalez
local health director hays county health department. Agenda
item to prove nominations and members of the public health advisory board, we had the agenda earlier this year to
approve the creation of public health advisory board, we decided as a group to see participation of municipalities
and school districts to give representation from local leaders and/or appointed officials with a vested interest
in public safety and public health for constituents. We are
focused on creating a collaborative approach toward public health and all aspects to ensure we can approach these
problems and create collaborative solutions, hopefully through joint funding and other means , but we want to
be methodical and strategic and we believe the public health
advisory board will help to do that because the more eyes that can review the better in the more shared knowledge there can
be. So, going to the municipalities and districts,
first of all the municipalities were excited to have the opportunity to participate with the county and there was a lot
of questions about what a health department is, what does it do
and how do we help them and collaborate. So as we discuss
everyone seems interested in making sure that can happen so we have shared guidance on what their community needs. I believe
the councilman from drippings rings had a good question about
what you offer and how we get more of them and dripping
springs and that's the type of questions I would like to see pondered in the public health advisory board. School districts
are very excited, they have a lot of back-and-forth
conversation and dialogue, this would allow them to have more specially with the nurses on board
>> good, as we form this thing I would like to make sue , not
make sure, but I would like to be included in the conversation
to be on this body. >> we have two already.
>> I would like to be included in this because I am the director of public health and safety on the emergency click so
the more am involved in forming this effort which sounds awesome
I would like to figure out a way whatever makes sense whatever
you think it is literally my lane to be included. Whatever
you guys think. >> I think the concern legal
brought up with the members that were very lenient with me. They
did emphasize us getting down to one quart member, but again the two court members if you don't want to remain you have voted on
that originally and judge if not we could set up one on one after
the meeting. >> I don't need to be in the committee to do that, but I do want to be on the pulse of
whatever comes because it is absolutely in my wheelhouse.
>> why don't we just go ahead and schedule on the agenda the
quarterly updates on outcomes and that way all of us , we can
all give feedback. >> thank you I was going to
mention that. If we have one on ones.
>> right after you had these presented to the court and 10
minutes tops then you are good that's the best way to take it. >> I want to clarify through labeling and discussions we did
come to an agreement that this would need to be a board that adheres , so there will be public postings of the agenda
with minutes so that fits perfectly into doing the quarterly updates. >> where we worried about court
members? >> we are trying to avoid going into the walking quorums in case there are other bodies you may
be part of a new representative role. That's the main thing trying to avoid that conflict. >> matthew I want to thank you,
I know you made presentations throughout the schools and cities and I have heard a lot of positive feedback so I
appreciate you taking the opportunity to go and let everybody know with the health department is doing so thank you
for the leadership. >> I appreciate that and I want to thank you and commissioner cohen for supporting the initiative. We talked about it a year and half ago so it's
exciting to see this come to fruition with approval of the rest of the court members and happy to get it going.
>> I'm excited I know municipalities are excited about being part of this. We are the only health department in the
county so we will be able to help, the school districts
specifically and also the city because they're trying to
navigate their own health needs. How can we as a county be a partner , in the future maybe there is benefit to the health
department for the services so we definitely want to explore that and I think this is a great start to that, getting everyone
together to get that representation and here issues
regarding health. >> you have a list of people?
>> correct. It is in the backup material. >> please read to the public. >> nobody has the backup that is
watching. >> these were people nominated
by individual boards to serve in this role. >> that is correct. Okay so I will go ahead. Do you want me to
read the entity and the member? The city councilmember terry
cummings, city of dripping springs councilmember city of kyle councilmember loralee harris, city of san
marcus city manager alonzo anderson, city of wimberley
councilmember david cohen, city of woodcreek councilmember
name ] dripping springs isd director
isd director
director and hays county commissioner morgan hammer.
>> very good, motion to approve that light above positions not
the names. So they will be interchangeable in the future. >> it has to be both position and the names because again
it's the same for toma so the nominating entities will submit
names as people roll off, good example city of butte a councilmember cummings she will have to resign.
>> what I was hoping to do , to be light on the touch and have
them appoint replacement and it flows instead of going to the
voting process that are wasteful so I was saying voting and
approving the position instead of the name it does not have to be both. >> you are saying like these
entities have a spot on the board and they can appoint.
>> it would be the elected official or whatever we are
creating, but when cummings runs for reelection and she comes off
then whoever else sent forward will automatically be that seat.
instead of tying to a name and crating more agenda meeting
items for us. >> it won't be because this advisory board is the board, they are the ones to do the
appointment of the newest member.
>> my hope is for this not to come to court so if you say just on the advisory board to accept the new board members than
perfect my aim is to not come to court for approval.
>> does that need to work that way?
>> it depends on the charter is set up for membership and what
authority lies with the board versus what lies with the participating entity. I think the charter dropped form so that
is something we could clarify . You know, for example if a study
has a councilmember not running again what is not want to do it
whatever the case may be that entity would appoint the replacement and perhaps depending on the charter either
the board could approve that replacement that subject entity
instead of coming back to the court is what you all are saying but I would make sure it's clear in the charter as we
update the draft charter. >> specifically for the
commissioners court , that would have to come?
>> that's perfect. >> the court members we would
vote for our representation so the expectation is each entity
will be doing the same so it is my hope that you guys don't
create another approval of a already created and approved set up. >> I reviewed our charter , the
one we went over illegal with and we do have it where the entity will just appoint a replacement to the board.
>> that's the best way to do it in my opinion. >> include if there is anticipation that they will be
rolling off, we all serve on boards people have not shown up to, in two years or one year, but ensure you maintain
engagement with members of the court will represent the area because we can twist arms at the local level with isd's in those
cities to ensure they maintain appointment. >> my aim is to be as light to the touch as possible that was
my only goal. I don't want to undermine I just want to keep it
off. >> that's how we have it set up. >> motion to approve positions
from those agencies without names.
>> for the first term we will want nominations of positions and names. >> they have already been voted
on? Okay, got it. He just called those names and we have heard
them so please call the roll. >>
>> thank you very much, appreciate you working with us.
I have been asked for the viewing public reminder not to open k12 until after executive session , so I know signing up
to give comment we won't open k12 will have executive session
and then come out and open and move on with it just for the viewing public understanding and thank you for being here. If
I'm not mistaken next, 14. >> discussion and possible
action to approve assessment and collection agreements with hays county mud number 11. >> please call the roll.
>>
>> k15 discussion and possible action to award rfp 2025- p 08
countywide printing amg printing and mailing and authorize staff
the purchasing agent and district attorney civil division to negotiate contract. >> so moved.
>> second. >> these call the roll. >>
>> discussion and possible action to authorize execution of
professional services agreement with
provide assessments in therapy for first responders employed by hays county after and as a result of critical incidents
requested by the hays county sheriff. >> very well articulated please call the roll.
>>
hold 19 until after executive session so as to please open m
1. >> discussion related to the hays county inmate population to include current population
counts and costs. >> the sheriff's office send my
office a weekly report of jail population, county maximum jail capacity is 410 inmates, jail standards recommends holding 10%
of that capacity open lowering actual capacity to 368, the jail
daily average was 568 and peak was 576 on september 25. The
estimate calls for outsourcing inmates this week 128,000
$535,000. I'm so floored by the number. $120,535. Anyways, a ton
of money and we have 195 male outsourced and zero females. 39
paper ready inmates. My head was spinning when I heard the
number. Anyway, onto executive session. Looks like we will open
them all. >> executive session pursuant
section 551.071 of the texas government code texas government council regarding status of litigation in hays county texas
cause number filed in the 126 judicial district court travis
county and legal process for issuing certificates of
obligation possible discussin with action to follow in open court.
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.087 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation regarding economic development negotiations associated with project avsm & project disco inferno. Possible
discussion and/or action may follow in open court. L3
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.072 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation regarding the purchase, exchange, lease and/or
value of real property located at or near the
intersection of dacy lane and bebee road in precinct 2. Possible discussion and/or action may follow in open court.
l4
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.072 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation regarding the purchase, exchange, lease and/or value of real property located at 111 e. San
antonio street, san marcos, texas. Possible discussion and/or action may follow in open court. L5
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.072 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation to consider a resolution determining the
necessity and authorizing the use of the county s power of
eminent domain to acquire fee simple interest in 0.1681 acre, owned by ring co. Inc., and which is required for the construction of the proposed windy hill road improvement
project in precinct 1, and take other appropriate action
(parcel 5). Possible discussion and/or action may follow in open court. L6
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.072 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation to consider a resolution determining the
necessity and authorizing the use of the county s power of
eminent domain to acquire fee simple interest in 0.0318 acre, owned by marisol castillo ortega., and which is required for the construction of the proposed windy hill road
improvement project in precinct 2, and take other appropriate
action (parcel 20). Possible discussion and/or action may follow in open court. L 7
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.072 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation to consider a resolution determining the
necessity and authorizing the use of the county s power of
eminent domain to acquire fee simple interest in 0.0633 acre, owned by 4303 medical parkway, llc., and which is required for the construction of the proposed windy hill road improvement
project in precinct 1, and take other
appropriate action (parcel 41). Possible discussion and/or action may follow in open court. L8
executive session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.074 of the texas government code: consultation with counsel and deliberation regarding the employment and duties of the
director of parks & natural resources. Possible
discussion and/or action may follow in open court.
>> please cleawe are going to t that order, then we will have
some motion for executive. All right, we are back online. We
are back from executive session. Please open k-12. >> k-12, discussion and possible action authorizing the execution
of memorandum of understanding between hayes county and city of kyle related to the development of a county administered a
facility, participation in a city led animal services facility, and investment in the kyle vista park improvements.
>> moved. >> second. >> motion and second. I would like to make some tiny
clarifications. There are several pieces in motion. Today
is purely a discussion for a memorandum of understanding. What that means in government talk is that we are saying to
the city of kyle and general philosophy in general terms, we
agree with the road map and we agree with the trajectory.
let's keep discussing further. It's not a momen where we say
in a finer granulated space with finer granulated details, we
have our agreement in place or we have a lease or purchase or
anything else in place. This is purely a memorandum of
understanding that we are in support of partnership with two
structures -- location. Later, we will come with more details.
how is that? Is mike that's great. I would just add that we
are talking three components of this. It is the eastside campus.
the regional animal services facility and public park infrastructure to kyle vista park master plan. I'm really
excited about those components. As you said, we will continue to
work with the city of kyle and staff. >> there are many people in our community, rightfully so,
waiting for the pet resource center. Waiting for a place to
work with and interact with. We understand that social media is
a place where we get information. Commissioner was bringing up some points. Want to talk about that?
>> I have received several emails, calls from facebook
community forum and things of that nature regarding the issue
and where the things that they had questions about are not
stated. How are we going to be answering questions moving forward and making sure the general public does understand
where the barriers or surface area is and things of that
nature. >> exactly. What we have done is give a space to our county administrator, thanks to your
conversations and direction that we have asked our county
administrator to spearhead this conversation on our website. How
about you take over of what you will do and be ready as soon as friday. Tell us what your plan is pretty
>> yes. County administrator. We are working at the staff level
to get those questions that you have received on social media. We will create a q&a that will address any concerns. We will
have contact information for staff if they would like to further the conversation or provide input. You will have
that available by friday on the county website. >> thank you for that. By friday, she will have a q&a
session up, so you can have the information on what a memorandum
of understanding is, interlocal agreement and a contract with
representation of words. There is a lot to do. At this stage, I
want to make sure and we all want to make sure that we have the opportunity to get truth and facts, because it's too easy to
play broken telephone. Not intentional, but that's the
outcome. Where the support of memorandum of understanding, I'm calling the roll. >> I want to make one comment
for clarification. As we are looking at this property and memorandum of understanding with the city of kyle, I want to
reiterate to the public, because we had this conversation before.
this is part of our overall plan for that community. This
property will be part of that. Probably the largest part of it
and we are still exploring opportunities on the west and east side to address anywhere that would not fall into the
area of what this facility will take. I want to reiterate that.
>> thank you so much. I want to add reinforcement that
commissioners ingalsbe and cohen have been working with the city
of kyle's leadership and articulating the footprint being discussed and they have pushed hard to make sure that the
footprint is as big as it can be for the contract. You are right. We are responsible for the whole thing, so we will make sure that
you are covered. Commissioners? >> was just going to be asked if
be given an opportunity to share. >> matthew, then after you. >> health department director
animal services is part of our department and new division. I
want to expand that we have been working closely on a lot of numbers and services that we will be offering as a division
as we are working with commissioners on detailing of plan that fits for our county as commissioner said how this is
one huge part of our plan , but we don't want to forget the
remaining components and geographical boundaries and constituents that go along with animal services. We are trying
to create the best situation for us to be ahead of the game and not behind are trying to play catch-up, but how to set up for
future and success and all of the lessons throughout this journey, clinical services, sheltering services and all of
that sort. We think we will set ourselves up for the right plan for that. >> I just want to reiterate what
commissioner smith said regarding the westside and making sure that we haven't forgot about wimberly and
driftwood and all of the areas that still need some type of
services out there, so we are exploring those options. We will
make sure that we are proactive. If anyone has questions,
comments or concerns, let one of us know and we will send those
to the county administrator candace and she will put those into the faq portion of our website. I will be posting on
all platforms that I can, the link to the faq.
>> perfect. We have four commissioners each charged with precinct and they are all looking out for your footprint.
just know that the cohesiveness is in motion and I stated several times, this is important. This is just one of
the four or five moving parts to this transaction. Call the roll.
>>
>> discussion and possible action related to the office space for the texas alcoholic beverage commission, the county
administrator's office, the siddle civil division of the
hays county criminal district attorney's office, and veteran services at 111 east san antonio street, san marcos, texas.
>> moved. >> second.
>> we have had a conversation about this for years now and they hold a valuable space in this ever-growing county. I met
with joe from tabc who may be represents statewide and tabc
has shown a real interest in this footprint and working with us through that. When one piece moves this puzzle, then the rest
shifts, so moving tabc out and one of the leading conversation points was to provide better services that we are responsible
for and that is our favorite veteran services director and
his department to the first floor, so veterans can access
veteran services without having to go through an elevator or more hindrances. That just ripples into other things.
conversations and I'm just setting the stage and want to see what commissioner wants to add. >> I do have a detailed motion that I can make.
>> go ahead. >> authorizing the location of
offices located in the historic courthouse at 111 east central
street, san marcos, texas. Texas alcohol beverage commission from
suite 100 to historical classroom 101 -- room 101.
veteran services from suite 200 to suite 100, the current suite.
county administrator's office 204 to 200, the current veteran
service suite. Precinct 3 satellite office from suite 303
to 204, kern county administrator's suite. We added
suite 302, the current space. Suite 303, current commissioners
precinct as additional office space to the civil division on criminal district attorney's office and this is in addition
to their current office space. Suite 205 will become flex
space. The employee break room will remain as is unless otherwise needed in the future.
>> that's the road map we all have tossed around in our heads.
is there anything missing? >> this is effective january
30th. >> effective january 30th. You
got it. >>
>> next, executive session items that require a motion.
>> this is concerning l6, motion to adopt resolution authorize
these of eminent domain to acquire title 0.0318 acre for my
soul -- proposed windy hill roadway improvement project
increasing two and take other appropriate action, parcel 20. >> second. >> please call the roll.
>>
>> I knew there was a pocket of them. This is l4. I make a
motion authorizing countywide operations and administered his office to negotiate a lease agreement with the texas alcoholic beverage commission related to office space located
at 111 east san antonio street san marcos, texas, 78666.
>> please call the roll. >>
>> this is l5 and I would like to make a motion to adopt
resolution and authorize the use power of eminent domain to acquire the simple title to approximately 0.1681 acre, owned
by ring company inc. And required for the construction of
the proposed windy hill road improvement project in precinct
1, and take other appropriate action, parcel five.
>> please call the roll. >>
>> then, judge, I have this concerns l7. I would like to
make motion to adopt resolution and authorize the use of the power of eminent domain to acquire fee simple title to to
approximately 0.0633 acre owned by four 303 medical parkway,
llc, and which is required for the construction of the proposed windy hill road improvement project in precinct 1, and take
other appropriate action, parcel 41. >> second. >> please call the roll. >>
>> moved to adjourn. >> was there something before eight? >> no.
>> moved to adjourn. I