[0:23] just Rec are we recording we're not
streaming but we're recording we put it
[0:28] on later okay all
right at
[0:33] 9 please arise I Adam
[0:43] Henderson we thank you for today thank
you for the opport to
[0:51] be I pray that you would today even if
James declares or that you would give us
[0:56] wisdom God it says that if anyone lacks
anybody needs wisdom Lord that we should
[1:01] ask you and so we ask for your wisdom
God I thank you that Unity I thank you
[1:05] that peace Lord Jesus is here in this
place and so I pray that this meeting
[1:09] would just be blessed by you Lord thank
you for vanan County thank you for all
[1:12] the wonderful things that you're doing
here and Lord we just ask that you would
[1:15] continue the good work in which you've
started here in this place I pray that
[1:18] you would bless this time in Jesus name
we pray amen amen thanks all righted to
[1:26] the US flag
IED flag
[1:30] the United States
[1:34] ofer stands
na indivisible withy andice for
[1:42] All Tex
hon I Al to Texas one
[1:52] state indivisible thank you you may
[2:04] General
announcements do we have any general
[2:09] announcements I would like to say that
the the debris removal along County
[2:15] Roads began last week and it's in
process and naturally when you start a
[2:19] project like that you start getting rain
which delays it so we delay it was delay
[2:24] two days last week because the rain and
it's uh they were planning to work all
[2:29] weekend and
we had rain weekend so they're out there
[2:33] working right now until the next
rainstorm comes so are there any other
[2:39] announcements uh are there any public
comments did anybody sign up for public
[2:43] comments no right uh we'll move to item
number four consent agenda consent
[2:47] agenda are considered routine items by
the commiss cour enacted by one motion
[2:53] uh there will be no separate discussion
on these items unless the County judge
[2:56] or commissioner request them to be
removed theend so any items that need to
[3:01] be pulled or discussed
separately if not is there a motion to
[3:05] approve the consent
agenda motion is there a second second
[3:12] all right uh all those in favor say I I
propos like sign motion passes item
[3:18] number
five discuss consider approving the B
[3:23] County Historical commission annual
report this report was submitted by uh
[3:29] uh O
Allen went through a 10 your binder is
[3:33] there any
discussion they have been doing quite a
[3:37] bit in in uh the county and I'm very
proud of it they typically get an award
[3:43] from the historical commission for their
work and they have been very involved in
[3:48] getting historical items posted and
available so is there a motion to accept
[3:55] the vanzan county approve the vanan
County Historical commiss
[4:00] annual
report I'll make
[4:06] motion Commission report all right
motion to maor
[4:14] second second all right any discuss all
say I allos like sign motion passes item
[4:23] number six discuss to consider adoption
of a revised Fire Marshall Fe schedule
[4:31] we'll have our fire marshal Kevin Palmer
will
[4:37] present so um if you look at the feed I
submitted as the packet the major
[4:43] changes that I had on there is the first
one where it has type of permit that
[4:49] first item used to say covered buildings
but not all we know that not all
[4:53] commercial projects for covered
buildings I just put I just renamed it
[4:57] as a new construction permit but that
would cover best facilities solar panel
[5:02] facilities all that kind of good stuff
that basically anything that is
[5:06] commercial uh will does have to go
through some type of permanent process
[5:11] through the commissioner cour and
through my office specifically and
[5:14] that's for the health and safety of
vanac County um even if it's on private
[5:20] property once you are inviting the
general public onto your private
[5:24] property for commercial
purposes we we have a duty to make sure
[5:28] it's a safe place to go to uh so that's
one of the big changes another change
[5:33] that we had was down on the last page of
our on-site sewage facility fees was one
[5:40] that was added on there that was kind of
a it been kind of an Unwritten rule that
[5:46] people were paying but I don't like
Unwritten stuff I like stuff to be
[5:49] written and that's the ossf modification
so in that situation you have a you have
[5:54] a SE tank the tank itself doesn't need
need to be moved it's it's working fine
[6:00] but for one reason or another you're
adding sprinklers to the Aerobic System
[6:04] or you're moving them they do have to
submit a permit through T purq through
[6:09] our office to permit and inspect those
modifications so I'm just adding the fee
[6:13] for that as well those those are the the
major changes add this to this
[6:18] particular
St I'm I'll follow up on OS you got OS
[6:26] modification at 200 then you have a
reinspect Fe for 200 yes sir so a
[6:31] reinspect fee would be if um this is for
a a new installation so you you put in a
[6:37] permit for an installation we gave you
an authorization for construction you
[6:42] scheduled a final inspection we went and
conducted the final inspection and you
[6:47] failed that final inspection and so now
we have to reschedule you have to fix
[6:51] all the things and we have to come back
and reinspect the system that fail the
[6:55] first time okay and the late fee for
maintenance contract what is that yes
[7:03] sir so at some point uh when I when I
finish my strategic plan on how to how
[7:09] to get things into compliance so there
are a lot of people that do not pay do
[7:17] not have yearly monthly maintenance
contracts on their on their aerobic
[7:20] septic systems a lot um but right now I
don't have the manpower to go out and
[7:27] Chase all those people down so basically
at some point I will submit my plan to
[7:33] the Commissioner's Court and I will
recommend a a a large race period
[7:37] basically it's time hey I understand not
ignorant to the fact that you probably
[7:43] haven't had a contract for five years
and you haven't gotten caught uh but
[7:47] that time is over so you know whether
it's six months or whatever that grace
[7:51] period is we're going to say hey just
come get it right and it's just we'll
[7:55] just charge you the
$30 but after that um when we catch you
[8:00] not only are there going to be citations
but there's going to be late fees added
[8:03] for every month that you don't have a
monthly Lance contract so it's just I
[8:08] want people to do the right thing I will
give every I will give
[8:11] everyone the most opportunity possible
to come and do the right thing but if I
[8:17] had to do a forcing action to make them
do the right thing um then I'm going to
[8:21] do that through monetary means and so
that would be the that would be the Lely
[8:24] for that so that's per month yes sir
that would be per month for every month
[8:28] that you are behind you have not
submitted your uh monthly maintenance
[8:32] contract and that maintenance contract
is state law yes
[8:37] sir nothing nothing on this me uh I
didn't make any of these numbers up
[8:43] there is a a guide put out by State Fire
Marshall's office on you know what's
[8:48] appropriate what you can charge for what
you can't charge for um I'm very much
[8:54] just do the right thing and uh so no I I
don't make any of this stuff I didn't
[8:58] make any of these numbers up she's all
done from research and looking at other
[9:03] counties uh we are on the cheaper side
to most most counties surounding us and
[9:08] I'm okay with that because I think these
are fair
[9:11] numbers and what steps will you use to
publish this information to the to the
[9:16] public so that's why I say um it'll be a
very strategic plan because I can't just
[9:21] use one medium I can't just use the
commissioner sport I've got I've got to
[9:24] catch all the V at County so I'm going
to I'm going to rely on people like
[9:27] grandon Sun newspaper
cam Herold I'm going to use social media
[9:32] um I'm going to use mailings because we
have a list with for example on the
[9:37] mainten contracts we know who's overdue
we have addresses so we'll do mailings
[9:41] um I'll try to do you know you know
possibly uh interviews on the radio I
[9:46] will use as many outlets as possible to
reach as many people because I want to
[9:50] reach all of B County I don't want
ignorance to be a reason well I didn't I
[9:55] don't I didn't know can't be a reason
anymore so I would use every uh media a
[10:00] medium that I can to get the word out
when that time
[10:04] comes now I encourage people now if you
hear it
[10:07] now let's let's start getting right now
because when that time comes it'll come
[10:13] quick it'll come
FAS so I have a question on the the new
[10:18] installs on
$200 fee for the application and then to
[10:24] come back if they fail the $200 yes sir
is that
[10:30] I guess what I'm asking is is if that
fails if that system failed is that
[10:35] person that paid that installer to do it
is he responsible for that 200 because I
[10:40] don't see that being
so it's kind of like the tariffs what
[10:45] gets passed on the consumer uh the the
the fee is paid by the installer and and
[10:51] I will say uh we're not looking for
Ticky tack stuff if it's if it's little
[10:56] things that can be corrected on the spot
we don't say Hey you failed I'm coming
[11:00] back some other time we just we just fix
it or if it if it's even the same day
[11:04] we'll come back we're talking about like
it was aous you were trying you were
[11:09] trying to get away
with
[11:12] just that's going be on the installer
yeah on the installer it goes to the
[11:17] installer home homeowner should have a
contract yes sir and that contract
[11:21] should be set in stone do that contract
contractor sir so you're just trying to
[11:26] hold contractor that's good
[11:31] and the same on the maintenance fee
contracts the maintenance fee contracts
[11:34] are not being paid because that
contractor is likely not operating in
[11:38] this County any
longer I've had a mix bag so I have you
[11:43] know um gone and try to make contact
with around 10 people that didn't have
[11:50] monthly maintenance contract anywhere
from a year till they haven't had it for
[11:53] 10 years um some of it was they had a
they had someone that was doing the the
[12:00] the maintenance that person that
person's installer left and they had a
[12:05] hard time finding another installer and
they basically just kind of threw their
[12:09] hands up in the area uh I have come to
to the place where someone new has moved
[12:14] in and they were talking to their
neighbor about you know how much you
[12:18] know about their monthly maintenance
installer and the neighbor said man I
[12:20] haven't paid that thing in 10 years
you're a dummy for paying that and they
[12:24] they just stopped paying so some people
know that they're supposed to have I say
[12:29] half people know that at least half
people know that they're supposed to
[12:32] have it and because there's no
enforcement action they're just not
[12:36] paying and there is but there is a good
group of people that are that move from
[12:41] outside of Texas they've never had a
septic tank they have no idea how a
[12:44] septic tank works they buy a house and
they were never told maybe it's in the
[12:49] fine print but they don't they don't
really they I believe they truly didn't
[12:53] know they're supposed Contra that's
that'll be the the part where I I get
[12:58] the word out to everybody um that I'm
building that so to my knowledge I have
[13:04] the ability to the ability to wave some
of these feeds and
[13:10] so uh right now that's what my office is
doing so if someone comes into my office
[13:15] right now Michelle is not going to
charge them a $50 Fe she's just thank
[13:20] you for coming back in and getting right
and she's just charging for the
[13:23] $30 right but when that time comes I
want the ability I want to have the
[13:28] ability
[13:31] charge that's those are the changes on
okay on the occupancy permes yes sir you
[13:39] got all commercial or public uh
occupancies yes sir U is there is there
[13:45] also a requirement for permanent for
residential no sir no no residential
[13:51] okay so the only thing I will say about
about that is
[13:56] um we are still we still have to follow
state law and you know state law
[14:02] requires that residents be built in
compliance with like the National
[14:06] Electric Code National Building Codes
but we don't what we don't have to as a
[14:12] county and for that we can basically
take their word for it that they're
[14:16] doing the right thing um I'm not a big
fan of of enforcing residential stuff
[14:21] it's single family homes in fact even
the state of Texas is been a big fan of
[14:26] because the newest additions of sub fire
codes
[14:29] had a required Sprinklers and all new
new new construction homes and the Texas
[14:34] Supreme Court actually ruled against
that so
[14:38] um question but commercial public do
have requirements for sprink systems
[14:45] right some of them yes depends on the
occupancy so my job as a fire marshal if
[14:50] you come in and you said that you need a
fire inspection one of the first
[14:53] questions I ask is okay what kind of
business are you uh is it an assembly is
[14:57] it a daycare is it a Mercantile what is
it uh because in the in the fire codes
[15:03] there are General requirements things
that everybody has to have like an
[15:07] emergency action plan and then the next
step is when in the code you go to that
[15:13] section that governs assemblies dayc
carees mertile all that kind of good
[15:18] stuff and it goes by it goes by
occupancy so depending on what type of
[15:23] occupancy you are that tells me uh what
you have to have for fire uh Fire and
[15:28] Life Safety so no not all not all new
commercial built properties have to have
[15:33] sprink systems okay and uh you have here
service stations and other flamable
[15:39] liquid or oxidized storage facilities no
sir that gas stations that that would be
[15:44] an example yes sir okay because if
you're going to have to permit all of
[15:50] them you going need more help I okay
you're not going to be able to do that
[15:56] with the St you have right now so I
guess we'll be hearing about it budget
[16:00] time huh yes sir so budget time I plan
on putting a packet together that is is
[16:07] um Justified as much as possible so
y'all see my monthly report you see that
[16:14] this office at the end of the year we
have a budget surplus now I understand
[16:18] that it's not a zero sum game I'm never
going to ask this work for all of the
[16:23] monies that this office brings in
because there are different departments
[16:27] that they do not have a budget circul at
the end of the year but I can look at if
[16:32] I bring on two more people for example
and I'm able to enforce these things
[16:38] that exponentially increases the amount
of what we're bringing in so essentially
[16:43] I'm I'm paying my staff is you know
paying their salary and making money for
[16:48] the county and I will I will do my best
to quantify that and put that into
[16:52] numbers where I submit my packet during
budget
[16:56] time because I I personally have it
loged in to a business in vanac county
[17:02] that has properly permitted REM not
one okay uh and going back to the
[17:11] permits uh on it what on the new
construction permit what what did you
[17:16] what did you base the fee schedule off
of did you use somebody else some other
[17:21] counties or some other uh no sir that
the actual fees itself were the same
[17:27] fees that this this this court had had
adopted last year and it was it was in
[17:33] line with what other counties our size
charge uh and I wanted to put new
[17:39] construction because this process is
supposed to start before you ever move a
[17:46] single piece of equipment onto that
property anything so before you move put
[17:51] a shovel before you do anything on that
property the that process is supposed to
[17:56] start to this court and my office uh I'm
supposed to review the plans and make
[18:01] sure that everything is up to code so
that we're not playing catchup like we
[18:06] are on on some some places today where
they're halfway three4 way done with the
[18:11] construction and I'm just now getting
the plans and getting a chance to review
[18:15] them and finding out that they're not en
code and so it helps that sometimes the
[18:22] businesses don't think but it helps them
too because it's a lot cheaper to put a
[18:27] sprinkler system in
a sprinkler or put in a lot of these
[18:31] Fire and Life safety protection devices
when you're first building it as opposed
[18:35] to when you've already got the walls and
the ceilings and everything else up and
[18:39] then you got to come back through and
tear it all down because you got to put
[18:41] sprinklers in it so it also helps the
business as
[18:45] well okay and uh a lot of these permits
are they uh like the the fixed pipe
[18:53] system and the fire alarm system are
they onetime permits or do they have
[18:58] renewed every year or how does that work
uh so they uh it's on a case-by casee
[19:04] scenario so the way that I I class the
way that the fire code and the way that
[19:07] I look at occupancies I classify them as
low risk medium risk or high risk all
[19:12] highrisk facilities will be uh renewed
annually and I will get eyes on a good
[19:17] example on that is so that like fixed
pipe system sprinkler systems that could
[19:24] be covered if they're new construction
permit but for example just last week
[19:28] Martin's Mill High School in the old gym
put in a new fire alarm system that I
[19:33] had they submitted plans for I approved
the plans they installed the new fire
[19:38] alarm system and I went and inspected it
that's
[19:41] where okay and I would consider schools
schools are considered high risk so that
[19:47] is something that I go reinspect every
year okay
[19:59] judge I think on this that we we've got
a lot of questions on this and I would I
[20:06] would be in favor of doing a workshop on
this so that because this this is a lot
[20:12] of questions that needs to be asked and
thought about a little further on our
[20:20] part yes sir so I will say that we we
have one that is uh at run by fiscal
[20:26] year so there was one that that was
approved by this court last budget cycle
[20:31] so there is already a fe scheduled and
there has been one for some time the
[20:35] only thing that I'm adding is I changed
the name of on the top on the top left
[20:41] where I think it says like covered
buildings or something like that I just
[20:44] changed that name to two constru new
construction so that it um it covers all
[20:50] commercial properties and I added the um
the
[20:54] modification
modification but I I I am welcome to
[20:59] having a workshop it's just all the
questions about that so far most of the
[21:03] questions that I've gotten those fees
are already in place what we're talking
[21:09] about is enforcing it yes sir that's
what we're talking about yes
[21:14] sir now there there is a good word is
starting to get out that there's a new
[21:20] fire marshal and there's a new
commissioner court and so I we are
[21:23] getting a lot more permits to our office
and we're charging these fees already
[21:29] um so we're starting you get out so
that's phase one just usually when
[21:33] there's a person that does random dropin
they called business owners no other
[21:38] business owners they're like d Fire
Marshal came today better get stuff
[21:42] right so you know the word of mouth is
already getting out there that's phase
[21:47] one I will come back when I have the
resources and availability properly
[21:52] enforce go out and do the
[21:56] rest would you be opposed
commissioner to uh adopting this uh
[22:02] since there's not really any substantive
changes and then still having a workshop
[22:06] uh to to get people aware of
[22:12] it I think we could do that I just think
that if if this is all the changes
[22:17] that's being changed on it you know I
think we could do that but but I think
[22:21] that uh this could be an education the
workshop agreed for for a lot other
[22:27] people absolutely
i'
[22:37] welome question
[22:41] absolutely all right is there a
motion I'll make a motion to uh adopt
[22:46] the revised Fire Marshall fee
schedule is there a second I'll second
[22:51] it is there any further
discussion all those in favor say I I
[22:58] oppose like time motion passes item
number uh seven discuss consider a
[23:05] Community Education period for outdoor
burning yes sir so I want to start off
[23:12] with uh at first I was I was working and
um I actually thought about requesting a
[23:20] burn band and so I got a lot of funny
looks because it's you know February
[23:24] March and uh the weather is on that but
I want to bring people's attention that
[23:30] weather is the not is not the only
indicator that I look at for a burn band
[23:35] I look at drought index but I also look
at uh the number of fires so I hope that
[23:41] that you got my packet and that you
looked at those numbers so
[23:46] and Holly at the Sheriff's Office ran a
report for me and uh because I had to
[23:52] have this submitted on on March 6 I had
to run it from January 1st to March 6 so
[23:57] that was 65
days in at 65 days we had 146 grass
[24:03] fires that fire departments had to
respond to 146 to 65 days and when you
[24:09] break that down you can look at when the
good weather was so for example from 14
[24:14] to 25 January we had 49 fires in 12
days February 1st and February 8th we
[24:22] had 20 fires in 8 days and then February
21st to March 2nd we had 63 fires in 10
[24:30] days those are 63 fires that the fire
department had to respond to were they
[24:37] were but were they 63 they were out of
control out those are out of control
[24:41] because they because they got called on
me one time it wasn't out of control yes
[24:45] sir so I so I scrubbed the list there's
actually two missing from this list that
[24:50] uh they came in as structure fires
because there were grass fires that were
[24:54] started got out of control and burned
someone else's property down
[25:00] so these are not these are not um brush
piles in someone's backyard these are
[25:05] they got out of control the fire
department had to respond and had had
[25:10] the fire department not put it out it
would have caused Great
[25:15] Hab well there seems to be a lack of
Common Sense we're losing it as
[25:20] a as a people you know that's and you
know when we do burn bands we punish
[25:26] people with common sense if we're not
careful because of people that don't
[25:30] have common
sense you know so that that brings me to
[25:34] the next three things that I submitted I
submitted the Texas administrative
[25:40] code I submitted an outdoor burning in
Texas that was published by The tcq Who
[25:46] is the administrator of the the
administrative code and this is a guide
[25:50] to outdoor burning and i' I'd like you
to look that this was revised this isn't
[25:55] anything new this isn't within the last
six months
[25:58] this guide was published in February of
2015 so it's been around for a decade
[26:03] and then I also had I also submitted a a
small some some questions to Bernie so
[26:11] what a lot of people don't know is that
the state of Texas tcq in
[26:18] particular is trying to get rid of most
outdoor burning in Texas they do have
[26:24] they do have some
exemptions um and so
[26:30] um it does not include the main burning
of on-site property was such as Fallen
[26:35] limbs branches or leaves or other ways
from routine property cleanup activities
[26:40] nor does nor does it include prescribed
burning or burning following clearing or
[26:45] ecological
restoration um if you if you want to
[26:49] read through this guide it's pretty
lengthy I I I
[26:52] do um recommend that people read through
it but I'll kind of give you the the
[26:56] cliff notes on it is that is that
basically these huge brush piles that
[27:01] are two stories tall and 300 ft in
diameter we're not supposed to burn
[27:06] those those are actually supposed to be
pered by
[27:09] TC um what was the size again I was
giving I was exaggerating that was that
[27:15] was a bad how big is how big is it so
the six foot in diameter that can be
[27:23] considered a warming
[27:26] fire uh and again this isn't this isn't
something that I'm I'm making up um this
[27:32] is this is state law that's already out
there and for good reason because just
[27:37] like you said Texas we have to realize
that you know we talked about it I've
[27:42] burned my whole life I have uh anytime
that there's a storm I'm doing clean up
[27:47] of my property I've cut down a tree
whatever put into a burn pile and I burn
[27:51] it I can also tell you I've never had to
call the fire department and I I for
[27:55] sure never L got out of control and burn
my neighbor shed down like I had just
[28:00] two weeks ago that's happened those
those those are a lot of fires and you
[28:07] know the fire departments they do not
have a budget surplus the taxes that
[28:13] this County that the county get gives
the money to the fire departments just
[28:17] look at any average Gap grass fire count
the number of firefighters count the
[28:22] number of trucks the hoses the equipment
the water add all that up and see if if
[28:29] your tax is paid for your for your
mistake it doesn't and so again I'm not
[28:35] asking for anything out of the ordinary
for vanz County to do anything different
[28:39] I'm just asking us to follow state law
and I'm asking it because those are a
[28:43] lot of numbers there's a lot of
resources and it was wet but what people
[28:47] don't understand is that when there's
wet
[28:50] ground even if the ground is wet but the
grass that's 6 in tall is dead and it's
[28:56] got leaves and dead branches
with within one hour after it stops
[29:00] raining it's it's just as flammable as
it was when it's August and it's 100
[29:05] deges
[29:07] outside did you find these Firs were
were they a lot of uh maybe new
[29:13] residents or or uh like for instance you
know I I had one called on me the other
[29:19] day it was under control yes sir but it
it was a brush fire but you
[29:23] know a lot of these people in this
agricultural Community they have the
[29:27] equipment and it's not control they get
called on yes sir but then you may have
[29:30] all these new people come in you know
they started they don't have to if it
[29:34] gets out they don't have anything to to
to put it out or anything yeah so some
[29:38] some of the big things that I look for
and that's in the administrative code
[29:43] and in that burning guide is there's
some general guidelines is that it can
[29:47] never be left unattended uh you can't
burn at night and you got to have a
[29:51] water source those those are things that
you have to have um and those things
[29:56] aren't happening so to answer your
question whether they're new residents
[30:00] old residents I would say it's a mixed
bag I would say that the the the
[30:04] difference in this county is the growth
so where in the past they kind of had
[30:10] yeah maybe they they only owned 20 acres
but outside of their 20 acres was a
[30:15] th000 Acres of nothing when now there's
houses there uh because we're also
[30:19] talking about uh I've gotten quite a few
calls where people are new residents and
[30:24] these new residents they they don't get
to sit out back porch and and enjoy a
[30:30] nice evening because their their
neighbor Burns 24 hours a
[30:35] day weard and the smoke comes onto their
back porch so I kind of go back to you
[30:41] know the health and safety code with the
batement and things like that I'm not
[30:45] trying to infringe on on your individual
rights but when your individual rights
[30:50] start to infringe on your neighbors that
that's a problem I agree with that so I
[30:55] mean I would think if if I had if I had
recently moved to Van County and bought
[31:00] a nice property and I wanted to sit out
on the back porch and enjoy a nice
[31:03] evening and I couldn't because I would
get I was getting smoked out every
[31:07] single night I wouldn't be happy about
that so I think you know when I'm
[31:12] thinking about it and I don't have the
answer I can't answer your question
[31:15] straight up it's just my opinion this is
my opinion my opinion is is
[31:20] that we we are still rule rule but more
people are coming in there's new houses
[31:26] being built all the time so where when
people for the last 10 15 20 30 years
[31:31] they've been burning no problem at all
now they've got neighbors they've got
[31:35] property that that that they've got
fencing up that's getting destroyed
[31:39] they've got sheds that weren't there
that are getting burned up and they're
[31:42] doing things like they've always done
it's just that their environment has
[31:46] changed does that kind of make sense sir
so so what you're saying is is our
[31:50] choice of country living in life is no
longer there it's diminishing we don't
[31:57] have that Freedom anymore so I am a
reasonable man so I'm not I'm not
[32:06] um I'm not out chasing smoke so I'm
driving around like I'm not looking for
[32:11] ples of smoke to go put out Mitch Curtis
or R Brandon's fire that he's got in his
[32:17] backyard I'm responding to these numbers
right here are where they were out of
[32:22] control the fire department had to
respond and the fire department had to
[32:27] put it out because the person that
started it no longer had that means so I
[32:31] would I wouldn't say that that our
rights as a rural community are being
[32:35] infringed upon you can still burn as
long as you're doing the right things
[32:40] six foot six foot on the honor system
because again I'm not out there chasing
[32:45] smoke you can continue to do it and talk
to your neighbors what I'm asking a lot
[32:49] of you do make sure that you once that
smoke leaves your property and gets on
[32:53] someone
else's just look at it from from my side
[32:59] of it I've just had some fence RADS
cleared off and I've got piles bigger
[33:02] than 6t they're not 300t long and
they're not two story building yes sir
[33:08] but the only way I can afford to get rid
of it is burn it yes sir but the Pils
[33:14] are bigger than six foot you know you
got a you got a dead tree at the same I
[33:19] mean you got a big at the same time I
have the equipment to take care of yes
[33:24] sir where probably most people does
I 100% agree with you
[33:31] and it's kind of like where my personal
opinion there's plenty of laws in the
[33:35] books that I don't I don't agree with
right it's just my job as a fire marshal
[33:39] whether it's popular or unpopular to
inform people what what state law is U
[33:44] because I will say that I basically
have I have four options when I show up
[33:50] and you've destroyed say someone else's
property let's go with that I basically
[33:55] have four options
I can uh you know with talking with you
[34:01] know a district attorney or somebody say
these people have been neighbors for
[34:06] years they've done it to each other they
would like to enter enter into a a civil
[34:11] agreement and they're going to basically
they're going to pay everything off once
[34:16] I leave it's a civil
matter uh the lowest citation I can give
[34:21] is for illegal burning if I issue it
it's a it's a classy misdemeanor much
[34:26] like a speeding ticket
but if it is a large burning pile that
[34:30] has
couches mattresses oil like a bunch of
[34:35] bad stuff in it and I feel like I need
to call tcq that's a b um there's also
[34:42] the charge if you destroy somebody
else's property of criminal mischief and
[34:46] criminal mischief ranges everywhere from
a Class C Mis meter to felony depending
[34:51] on how much the the property was valued
at when it was destroyed I also have r
[34:58] because one of the statutes of arson is
you intentionally set a fire and you
[35:03] recklessly destroy the property of
another and that's a thir degree filon I
[35:07] don't I'm not out I'm not I don't want
to make filings out of our citizens
[35:13] so this apply to like the solar form too
because I think we're 75 out there 773
[35:19] can we uh yeah I'm gathering that data
now I'm having a for some reason I'm
[35:24] having some difficulty working with h on
on getting address but yes yes sir it
[35:29] does apply to them as
[35:34] well so the agenda item says discuss and
consider a Community Education period
[35:41] for outdoor burning What specifically
are you requesting or suggesting or so I
[35:47] would like to put these three documents
that I submitted the Texas
[35:50] administrative code the um outdoor
burning and Texas field operations guide
[35:56] and the little dos and for outdoor
burning I'd like to put these on the
[35:59] County website so that people have e
easy access to
[36:05] them I'll also be publishing them on my
Facebook page so people have them that
[36:10] way and I'll also reach out to the local
newspapers
[36:15] count I can put a link in there
[Music]
[36:19] something okay we need a motion to that
I I think they're they're I don't think
[36:25] it's necessary I don't think we need
you have permission because that's your
[36:29] job absolutely all it is is
education again I know I know it's not
[36:36] popular um but my job isn't to be
popular um but I am a fair men so I
[36:44] didn't write 165 tickets last year I did
a lot of Education lot of education so I
[36:51] just want people to learn from their
mistakes and do the right thing we don't
[36:55] have the opportunity to be subjective in
it though when you I when there's a law
[36:58] involved I mean it's like you don't you
don't have the ability to be subjective
[37:01] where you can evaluate each one no sir
it depends on it depends on the scope of
[37:06] the there is Officer discretion and all
that you know depending on on the things
[37:11] but I have called Tonda and you know
make sure I'm not talking in an echo
[37:14] chamber I don't I don't like making
those decisions on my own so I do call
[37:18] somebody hey this is what I've got what
are your thoughts and we come up with a
[37:24] solution so you think if you drove up on
a guy that seemed to be he he's dug a
[37:30] 40ft hole with a bank all the way around
it and he's burning yeah you know you
[37:35] can tell that he's trying to do the
right thing well he's not by law because
[37:41] if it's six foot more than six foot he's
not doing the right thing according to
[37:45] law but according to you know Common
Sense you'd say he's probably doing the
[37:50] right thing here but then there's a
difference between a guy that's piled up
[37:54] everything in his house out in his front
yard
[37:58] but is that is it possible to be that
subjective that's where in a litigation
[38:04] Nation like we are is it possible like I
mean you understand what I'm saying I do
[38:08] understand what you're saying I would
say yes um I would say yes that you have
[38:13] that discretion because uh the the a big
part of criminal law is
[38:18] intent so you you can you get the
ability to to determine the intent of
[38:24] the individual that was that was out
there and what they were they were
[38:27] trying to
accomplish well it's the same thing with
[38:32] the free on that we talked about earlier
and everything that I do in my office I
[38:37] will always start out with an
educational period I want to give
[38:40] everybody the benefit of the doubt I
want to educate the public because there
[38:44] are genuinely people that I walk up on
that genuinely did not know that those
[38:48] things existed and I know that they
didn't so I want I want to part of the
[38:53] fire marshal one of the pillars of the
fire Marshall's office is public
[38:57] education so that's what I always start
out is education but Bobby knows Bobby
[39:03] knows and he's got brush piled up
everywhere yeah I got it now he knows
[39:07] I'm burn it it's just difficult it's
difficult to walk that that line you
[39:12] know what I'm saying because if his
neighbor calls in Smoke is running
[39:15] across their that becomes a nuisance
smoke
[39:19] y see where gets real tricky for us to
say I you know the more you know it's
[39:25] like our our Liberty ends like I can
swing my fist anywhere I want to but if
[39:29] it gets in the Cliff's nose over here
then I've lost that's that's the extent
[39:32] of my Liberty you know and so did your
Liberty um yeah and then something else
[39:37] happens but um so it's difficult for us
as a nation I just want to make it clear
[39:43] because our County's changed so much you
know my neighbor burned his barn down
[39:47] three times when I was a kid like you
know his own his own barn but our
[39:51] neighbor our county has changed so much
and the older people that live in our
[39:55] County are not up to speed yes sir um
and they've Lo they feel like they've
[40:00] lost their Liberty including me I'm an
older person in in the community but
[40:04] also understand that you know I had a
neighbor the other day that just moved
[40:07] in and he put a board up and took a 30
out six and started doing target
[40:11] practice with houses all around like he
thought the board you know so I
[40:15] understand that there's there's a
balance and everything but most of the
[40:18] time we're out of balance on everything
like I'm a less government type person
[40:23] you know I I want less government but it
seems like the more Lawless we are the
[40:27] more government we have to have how does
this affect burning pastures that's
[40:32] that's part of Agriculture
management and there's a there's a
[40:37] section on in the guide it talks about
when you're doing that where you have to
[40:41] put fire Brakes in and all that kind of
good
[40:45] stuff but when I say fire break that's
using your your your tractor with see
[40:51] bricks work no no no no no no talking
about a fire break where you're taking
[40:56] it down taking taking it
you can't burn your neighbor
[41:02] pass okay so we're not decid anything
today we're just talking about you
[41:06] trying to educate the community yeah
because originally I my original
[41:09] introduction when I when I when I saw
these when I saw these numbers was
[41:13] that's in the future that will be an
indicator where I will request a burn
[41:17] man because it's gotten out of control
well we had a beautiful day on a Friday
[41:22] and and people set fires and sat
Saturday the wind blew 56 mil hour and
[41:27] that's when you had 40 fires prob surely
nobody started fire Saturday no but the
[41:32] ones that were burning Friday got out
because that wind picked up and blew
[41:36] them out of wherever they were at yeah
there was there was one that I went to
[41:39] where there was property construction
where they had H someone that started
[41:43] the fire on the Monday thought that it
was out and then on Saturday when the
[41:48] winds picked back up it caught it back
up and went back over
[41:54] here okay I'm good with the education
thank thank you very much sir I
[41:58] appreciate you apprciate all right
there's no action on that item item
[42:03] number eight discuss consider
authorizing the County judge to sign a
[42:07] resolution to apply for Indigent defense
grant program propose you unaware
[42:12] Indigent defense is something that the
that the county re required to provide
[42:18] to uh people who get arrested and cannot
afford it's part of the Miranda Rights
[42:24] if uh you cannot afford attorney one
will be appointed Ed for you well that's
[42:28] what we pay for that's what you pay for
and uh to the tune of a little over
[42:33] $600,000 a year for this County and uh
this is a grant that uh gives us just a
[42:40] little bit back and uh the auditor's
office goes through a great amount of
[42:46] recordkeeping in order to do this grant
so that we can get roughly 40 to $50,000
[42:52] back so um and it's in there is there a
is there a motion to approve allowing
[42:58] the County judge to sign a resolution to
apply for the Indigent defense grant
[43:03] program so moved is there
second second is there a further
[43:10] discussion all those in favor say I
I oppose like sign motion passes item
[43:17] number nine discuss consider RFQ for
engineering study for the current jail
[43:22] facility one of the uh things that we
need to do uh in order to move move
[43:27] forward with the jail is to actually see
what the condition of our current jail
[43:33] is that was built in
1992 and the engineering study uh as
[43:38] opposed to structural analysis like we
did on the other building but the
[43:44] engineering study needs to go in to look
at the mechanical the plumbing
[43:48] electrical security Plumbing is is
primary one well they're actually going
[43:53] to scope the pipes and uh it's a pretty
intensive you know to see if it's uh
[44:00] what the condition is if it's uh worth
trying to add to it or if it's not and
[44:06] so what what I'm requesting is that we
allow us to go out for a uh RFQ for
[44:12] engineering firms and I have several
names so that we can submit it to to uh
[44:18] to to RFQ as a request for a
quote and I would propose that the uh
[44:25] the jail committee be the one to to
working
[44:29] this I'll motion okay I'll second all
right motion made second is there any
[44:35] further
discussion all those in favor say I I
[44:40] all those opposed like sign all right
motion passes item number 10 discuss to
[44:46] consider authorizing the sale of
fireworks for S jeno day which is April
[44:51] 21st 2025 and I assume I have Marshall
still here didn't talk to me about that
[44:59] uh we have to actually approve the sale
of fireworks for Sano day and this is a
[45:07] resolution that does
[45:11] that
you I guess I should have asked you
[45:15] before I put it on I thought I did maybe
I did I don't remember I I did the one
[45:20] yeah Texas which I didn't really see
any in in March for Texas I think the I
[45:29] don't think the the word got out very
very well on the text of I see a lot of
[45:34] sales fireworks I see a lot of fireworks
stands open
[45:39] so well I think they need time to order
and all the rest of that business before
[45:43] so well they they know the you know they
know all the dates the state has set all
[45:47] the dates for for when when they can and
cannot
[45:51] sell the de so is there a motion to
authorize sell fireworks extend your s
[45:56] day
April 21st 2025 or there's a rain sir
[46:01] there's a
motion I'd make that motion authorized
[46:05] to S the Firework s and is there a
second second all right uh any further
[46:12] discussion all in favor say I I oos by
time motion passes item number 11
[46:18] discuss consider appointing jet plon to
the net RMA board of directors to
[46:23] represent vanzan County Chad is our
current representative and he uh for the
[46:28] last two years and he needs to be uh
reappointed and I talked to him uh asked
[46:34] him if he would be willing to serve
again he said yes I motion second all
[46:39] right motion to made second all those
any further discussion all those in
[46:43] favor say iOS like sign motion passes is
there a motion to adj can I say
[46:49] something first no can you or may may I
you may about number nine I know we've
[46:55] moved past it
oh go
[47:00] ahead we're doing an engineering study
on our current jail correct well we're
[47:05] requesting for a quote to get some
engineers then we to see if it's
[47:10] feasable to to work on it
correct so I think that's the right
[47:18] decision I just think it was should have
been done I
[47:23] know before we did all the other stuff I
just want to state that I think we're
[47:28] out of order on a lot of things and some
and it's you know I know we're trying to
[47:32] recover and get and get our stuff
together but this probably should have
[47:38] been done a long time
ago is there was there that's my
[47:44] statement your was yeah on the
adjournment yes sir who who who motioned
[47:49] to adjourn Brandon did now second all
right and Bobby and uh before you rudely
[47:54] interrupted yes sir yeah okay all those
in favor say I like time
[48:02] motion no you but I can I have
theability of being but I
[48:15] won all right we start the workshop in
five minutes on economic development
[48:56] work
well I
[48:58] was oh yes sir yes I want to make sure
you understand because I understand as a
[49:03] commissioner
[49:09] sit then I'm here I'm just thinking I
got
[49:25] big here