I'm Good morning ladies and gentlemen, didn't kind of commissioners court for June 29th. It's now in session this morning, an invocation of be given by Charles Emory and our pledges will be led by Scott Auverage Assistant Director of Purchasing, almost promoted. Scott, will you please stand? Would you pray with me please? Father in heaven, we come to you with grateful hearts this day. Grateful for a country where we can assemble and make decisions about our own governance and be free about speech. Father, we are just so grateful for that privilege that we have in a government that you have ordained. Father, we just thank you for the rain, which we were so desperately needing. And we just thank you for making that provision for us. We pray that you'll be with those that are this very day laying down their life for us in this freedom that we experience. And in the lands afar and we just pray for your hedge protection around them. Father, bless this time in this court today and we just pray that the decisions and deliberations that are made will honor and glorify you in a decent way. Ask it. I'm in. A pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And this is over the real public for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor our Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state and I'm better God, one in the middle. Thank you, gentlemen. Members, we have two public hearings on the agenda posted for nine o'clock and it's a couple minutes after. So let's take care of those. I don't know of any controversy. So this can go pretty quickly. I'm sure we'll go to 4A first for a discussion and approval of any appropriate action of possible abandonment portion of St. John's Road located to Dent County Commissioner precinct one. We need a motion to go in a public hearing. Motion by Commissioner Coleman. Seconded by Commissioner E. Zollin favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, sitting. Motion does carry. Commissioner, did you want to talk about this or is this Bennett's? This has really been it's but basically this is a portion that we are no longer using it for our way and we've been requested to abandon it and I think it's generally a good idea. I don't have anything else to add but- C'mon up. All right. Does anyone in attendance that would like to address the issue of 4a, either in the paver of or opposed to? Anyone in attendance that would like to address the commissioner's court on this issue? Hearing none do we have a motion to close the public hearing? Motion by Commissioner Marchin, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Motion does carry. We now need a motion for approval. Second. Thank you. We have a motion for approval by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Marchand. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed to the Senate? Motion does carried. And 4B is the public hearing approval of the reply of Ponderosa Valley Phase 1, lots. 4R1 and 4R2, block A, precinct 4. Need a motion for public hearing? Motion by Commissioner Ead, second and by Commissioner Mitchell. On favor please say aye aye Opposed to the motion does carry Minute thank you judge thank commissioners this Replat is basically the owner owns 10 acres and they're splitting it into two five acre lots Well, have a notice as we're sent out and we did not get any return. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone in attendance who would like to address commissioners court on the issue of the reply to Ponderosa Valley, phase one lots for our one and for our two? Anyone in attendance who would like to address commissioners court on this issue? Hearing none, do we have a motion to close the public hearing Motion by commissioner Mitchell Back in a by commissioner eans Allen favor please say aye aye opposed sinning motion does carry now need motion for approval Proof the replay to ponderosa valley phase 1 lots for R1 and for R2 block A. Second. Motion by Commissioner Ead, seconded by Commissioner Coleman. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed say aye. Motion does carry. Thank you. Item 1 is for private input for items not listed on the agenda. If there's any member of the public that would like to address Commissioner's Court, we ask that you please complete the public comment form. We'd be glad to hear from you. Once you're reminded, please turn off your cell phones and pages. I will find you if it goes off. We have two public comment forms this morning since these items that they want to discuss are not posted on the agenda. Commissioner's Court does give you three minutes to speak and by law, when Commissioner's Court may not respond to your comments. The first public comment form that we have is from Susan Nol. Susan, if you'd like to come up to the microphone and for the record, if you'd state your name and address. Good morning. I am Susan Null, 104 Burley Court in Bartonville, Texas. And I'm here to make just a brief statement on behalf of the Argyle and Bartonville Communities Alliance. I have some cards. Can I give those to you? Even with him and he'll distribute him. I'd like to thank you for the amount of time and attention you've given us in the past six weeks. Working on the countywide task force we asked for, a task force that would study the effects of natural grass drilling in the county and bring some relief to the residents of Ditton County. We're happy to see that you want to keep the task force small and keep its job focused. We want to encourage you to keep the task force focused on two things. First, identifying a legislative agenda that would help us bring true belief. Elected officials in other areas of the Barnett Shale, such as Senator Wendy Davis, supportworth, are already working on some of these legislative and regulatory measures. A consensus report and a minority report from Hinton County on the effects of extraction and production combined with specific recommendation on what measures should bring relief can ensure that all our residents and not just those in big cities are fully considered and respected in the next biennium. Second, the task force should help you identify priorities for local enforcement. Whether that enforcement happens in partnership with state and federal environmental officials or through a county-wide environmental division, we trust that you can work through the appropriate channels of authority. You absolutely must. The Texas Health and Safety Code requires it. Again, we thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you to protect our health and wellbeing. Thank you. The second public comment from have is from Mr. Willough Hutsmith. Mr. Hutsmith, good morning. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. I'm going to go ahead and ask the committee to do that. a comment about the statement that you made in opening the session of comment, public comments. The law does not say you cannot respond to what the people are saying. It does not say you can, you know, you can't respond. It says you can make any action and you cannot debate the issue or any of that, but you can speak to the person, get clarification, and further understanding. That's what the laws intent for the publics, when people speak, and it's not only agenda. The Confederate monument represents different things to different people. But by it being placed out front of which you manage and or placing there as a statement does cause problems for someone like me and what the monument means. Again, it means different things to different people. And we all have our different ideas as to what should be done with it. But by you placing it on county property and in a location that it is, then it communicates something different to the entire county. It's placed on taxpayers' property. It's erected in a place and a way that communicates something different for everybody. It actually says, it has to say this because because if it doesn't, then you should remove it. It's like if I were to want a swastika place there, we frown on that, many of us. The Confederate monument to meme, and especially the wording that's on it, to our Confederate soldiers, it creates problems in that if I were to just look at well what is it represent what did the Confederate soldiers do? What side of the slavery issue you think they fell that came on? What side did they support? Keeping my people in slavery or letting them go free. The message is, I don't think they fell on my side. I don't think they fell on my side to free me. And the thing that I want to share with you about being a slave is I have a feeling that I'm trying to break. I don't know anything about horses. I'm learning. It hurt my heart so badly when I have to tie that filly up and not feed her. I don't know. Maybe there are other ways of doing this. I need to find out another way of doing it because it seems like it's too cool. For six days, for three, now for six hours my filly was tied to a tree, not giving any water or any food. And that's the way the person said, that's how you do it. Sure enough, it broke the filet. The filet no longer pulled back, no longer fought. And I could leave the filet around. That's what happened to my fathers, my forefathers that were enslaved, the same kinds of treatment. That's what the monument represents for me, that kind of thing. premier, we're now going to go to item 3A, which is a presentation of an update on DCTA A trained project, including construction progress for a new service vehicle procurement and a potential lake city station. We'll call on Charles Avery. Good morning, Charles. Good morning Judge. For the record my name is Charles M. Raine. I'm here today as chairman of the Board of the Dent County Transportation Authority. And I won't get in your way. Am I in your way? Okay, very good. Just a couple quick comments before we get started. I'm joined today by four of our board members that I want to introduce very quickly, Charlie Corral, who's vice chair of our board in the represents the County of Benton County. You'll wave at them as I call your name. I'd appreciate it. Tom Spencer, who represents small cities. Pat How Howe who represents the city of Corinth and Bill Walker who is also small cities. And I might just add this right quick and hopefully it's appropriate that one of our former board members, Paul Regiri, Mayor of Corinth is here and Paul served us early on in 0203 somewhere in that window. So we're all here and in in addition to that, Jim Klein, who I'll further talk about in just a minute, President and also Delegate Vice President Communication and marketing. The purpose of our presentation this morning is just to update a family partner. And we call you our family partner. We try to make a practice of this so that our communication and our transparency and our accountability is at its highest level And that's our intent of course is we move through not only the A-Train but all of our bus transit services So we're here to just update you and just a second Jim Clients coming up And I want to just make a comment about Jim Clients some of you know by Public announcement that Jim will be joining the 176 engineering brigade in Afghanistan in about a week and a half, two weeks, will be leaving us for the purpose of participating as Lieutenant Colonel in operation during freedom. Judge, you can understand all about this and know where we're headed with this. But we are happy to tell you also that we have provided for the last month and a half a very seamless transition bringing Jim Witt back in who have to slash here as most of you know in the first part of this year. So we think we're on a good course there and certainly our prayers go with Jim and his family as they make the great sacrifices for our country. So Jim, Jim Klein's coming up and he's going to give you a short presentation being respectful for your time and your long agenda today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, good morning. Thank you, Charles. Some judges, members of the court. Thank you for your time and appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. I want to talk today just real quickly update our service plan. Talk about ridership, some of the different services we're providing. You change this to service and then with the update, the A-Train update and talk briefly about our new member policy. We started earlier this year on updating our service plan. The service plan is a document that guides us and provides the framework for all our discussions and the service we provide and how we do business. And so we want to take a look at where we go next. And so this is really what this is all about. And it talks in really two time horizons, the five year and then the 25 year horizon, and how we go about making that happen. So that should be done in March of next year. as we go through that process it'll tell us a lot about where we out ahead and again how we can be good stewards of Not only the the monies and the finances that are provided to us by the citizens of Denton County, but also To make sure that we provide the very best service that we can in the most efficient way possible We have a great story to tell on our bus ridership and I think this is something where we've achieved over 2 million riders per year. Last year, across that threshold, and we're well, we're on track to exceed that next year. And with the 15% growth that's projected right now was 63% from 2005 to 2009. So this really, this provides a great deal of service for those who truly depend on transit. And the way we're setting this up, we'll talk about it in a minute, but this is what will feed the train and provide that door to door service that we want to provide for our citizens here in Denton County. Now, one other thing that we've got, as we go forward, is there's a lot of areas of the county they're not specifically addressed by transit and they're we want to provide an option for folks to be able to do that and that is in the form of the commuter band pools. Really basically boils down if you've got between eight and 12 people who are either starting or ending their trip in Denton County there's a way for to grant through COG that about half the cost of that can be provided through DCTA. And this provides some good opportunities particularly Alliance 35W quarter as we look to proceed forward with that. Some rural areas. And again, when you look at sharing the cost of $400 to $475 a month to be able to go there, that's a pretty good deal in terms of how you can work that with folks that have schedules that are pretty predictable and again starting and ending in the same area. Now when we talked about the train and the bus is one of the things that we want to do with this is make sure we address our bus routing so that the bus routes match the train and so we can again provide that good linkage between the two particularly here in downtown Denton we'll move everything we'll come in and out here in downtown Denton, we'll move everything, we'll come in and out of the downtown Denton Transit Center. And so the link to the train provide good access to all the community in the school. And we'll do that also in work with that in Lewisville also and adjust routes in our RSVP service in how in village to make that happen as well. And then in December when the green line, dark green line starts operation, we'll shift our commuter express to move to that location and drop there and then provide that access in the town. And that would be the link to the whole dark system. And also as we look forward to a regional fair policy, that would tie it into the whole dark and port-wortee system as well. So we're trying to, when we've had good luck and good discussions with both those agencies on providing a seamless transition between all three of the transit agencies in an area. We certainly have one of the things we have is certainly there's different service areas and different funding mechanisms, but for the rider that should be pretty transparent. You shouldn't have to buy a different fair just because you cross the line and be able to move further south or north or to the west. Now one of the, we talked about our successes in the buses. We want to talk about where we are on the A train. And we're well on track to begin a full revenue service to downtown Ditten, honor before June of 2011. We have made some couple of decisions we're going to not we've moved forward to not have in the phase service and a couple of reasons for that. Primarily is to make sure we communicate well to our riders and we can tell them what not have to go through a couple iterations of teaching them how to ride the train or to come and it also has some good enhances our financial viability. So when you put all these things together, it's a good prudent decision to be opening in no later than June where hopefully we've worked with our contractor. Maybe as early as in the Maytime Frame, we're optimistic but we're focused on June and make sure we can deliver that issue and they've got no problems with that. So construction you've seen, if you've been a downtown, old town Lewisville, you can, we've got vertical elements of the station going and it's starting to look like a train station. So we're we're proud of that. And the loop 288 bridges in, we've got a lot of crossing improvements in the Biceman pedestrian trail. And then our railroad and facility right in your railway, railroad park, which is very fitting, will be gaining completion and will get, that will be great to start supporting our operation, we'll be going to Revenue Service with Final Completion in August of 2011. So the other part that we're leading the way on, and even at a national level, is when we're looking at our trains, the statler GTW trains that we're purchasing. Now, we're going to start with the RDCs, those, the silver, bug cars that dart operates now on the TRE. We'll do that for the first year, and that'll allow us to start operation, again, full operation between churny mills and downtown dintin, but without having to wait for all our cars to come in the final ultimate car that we want to have in place, which is the, again, this new generation diesel motor unit. We'll get our first vehicle in August of 2011 with final delivery in June of 2012. And one of the real bright spots of this is that when we have, in our particular section, we run with the DGNO for part of the link from the lake south. And so in order to be able to operate both of those we have to get a FRA compliance. And one of the things that we've got here is we've been working very closely with the Federal Railroad Administration. And we believe we're going to have the first alternate compliant vehicle. In other words, one that looks more like a light rail vehicle, but meets the FRA requirements. And if you've, we had the opportunity or staff did to go down to Austin and ride an earlier version of this train on the cat metro system. And it is, I think you'll be very pleased when you see it. It is a lower floor loading. It is like riding in a light rail vehicle in Dart. And it is a very comfortable ride. And certainly, we want to make sure with the salt and compliance that we fully protect our passengers and our crew members. and it is a very comfortable ride. And certainly, we wanna make sure with this alternate compliance that we fully protect our passengers and our crew members. And one of the things we did see is that we've seen the experience of this with all the analysis that's gone into it. It's proven up. Now there wasn't this happen with one of these that somebody ended up parking on the tracks of large truck. It performed great. No damage to crew compartment, no intrusion, the passenger compartment, all of our folks, all the folks that were safe. And so that's exactly what we wanna do and provide them for our citizens. Now, when we look at ongoing coordination, we've done a whole lot with this and the quiet zoning implementation. Again, as a professional engineer, I'm always concerned with public safety. That's at the very top of my list. And we wanted to make sure also improve quality of life. And so when we were able to, quite zone all of our crossings, and it will have to get the cities to adopt that, and we'll help them with that. But by doing this, the trained whistles, as we go through the residential areas, will not have to sound those. We'll still do the bells. And that the loud whistles, whenever the train's operating, will not be there. So it certainly is an improvement in quality of life. And from a safety perspective, the additional improvements for making those crossings to allow that to happen is also has been demonstrated nationwide to be a safety improvement. So it will enhance the safety of the crossings at the same time for enhancing the quality of life. So very positive. We talked earlier about the reciprocal fair agreement and working closely with Dart and the T. Now I've met with Gary Thomas and Dick Radell, both the senior folks at those two agencies that are very comfortable with that and we're moving forward with that to again provide that seamless transition for our citizens to use these systems. And working closely with Federal Railroad and when I talked earlier about being good stewards of the citizens dollars, we worked closely with Federal Railroad. And when I talked earlier about being good stewards of the citizens' dollars, we worked closely with Dart in our operating agreement to where we can save a lot of money on insurance and things like that by partnering with them and saving well over a million dollars a year just in insurance alone by partnering with them, compared to what our friends at Capital Metro are having to do. Because we're able to, again, safety wise, Herzog and the agency that's now doing the TRE has a great safety record and we're able to take that experience and bring it to Denton County. So we're real pleased with that. And among other things with dispatching and things, so that we can again be good stewards. Now, the new member policy, we are looking at that. That's an item for it's being discussed by our board. Looking at a tiered membership structure where we have, and then looking at how we can do the different funding sources as it could be. Traditionally, and by the statute, we're a sales tax based funding. We should, we are looking at options and other ways that could do that for an agent, a city that wanted to join in, that was capped out on taxes and their sales tax. And we have to look at how the capital component and how that can, it's really contingent on the project status. If a, if a station is along an existing rail line, we're already having service that's one set of circumstances. If it's in a future quarter, that's another. And we certainly want to make sure that whatever the circumstance that come in under that any before any project implemented we have to have I want to make sure that they are full members of the organization. So with that Charles has said we'd be brief so I have been and I'd be happy to take any initial rail card that you're using is not as pain-to-cap compliant, you might say, as the newer version that's coming later. Is that a correct assumption? It is easier to provide accessibility on the staff of the cars. We will have an accessible system with the RDCs. And you do that with ramps and different ways to make that happen. But it, I want to make clear, it will be an accessible system. The GTW does so and we think a little bit better way. Okay. And the other thing I wanted to, and you touched on it and that is service to the new complex on Luke 288. Dr. Burton is here this morning. I don't know if you know him, but that's who you need to be communicating with. It's when you get to that point and you're making those plans, be sure to communicate with Dr. Burton so that he can get the word out to the clients at the health department. I'll give you some users, some writers, right quick. I would imagine. Yes, ma'am. Well, one of the things we look at is trying to serve. We serve a number of different clients and a number of different customers, some of which are dependent on transit and receive those services. A lot of those folks are. And those, that's one thing we're definitely factoring in and we want to look at how we re-rear out our buses to match the trains and do some other changes at the same time to respond to the county. The new location is going to be a much safer location for the bus to pull over and passengers to get on and off. Yes, ma'am. Look forward to providing services over there. But just wanted to make sure that you knew who Dr. Burton was and make sure that you all communicate on that subject. Yes, ma'am. Okay, are there questions or kind of members of court? I have some. Can you flip back to the slide before this? Yes. Okay, you talk about a tiered membership structure. And we've talked and I represent the area, a big portion of the area that the DCTA goes through. And I'm very interested in having a new train station for the big cities. So can you explain to me what do you mean by tiered membership structure? Well we look at the different membership. We've got really two categories and two subcategories of the full member. When you look at, this is again, this is a draft policy that's being considered by our board, that we look at a member of whether they're going to be either on and existing or near located on a near term fixed guideway, in other words, in this particular case is it on the A-train line or is it on a longer term fixed guideway route, maybe something on the BNSF quarter of 35W. And what that does is it factors in how your capital recovery works, it's specified in statute, how that works, and so how the different funding mechanisms come in. And so that's been a lot of the discussion about how we bring in new members and how that comes to pass. There isn't a, we have another category called an associate member that's being discussed. And this is more for shorter term projects, maybe a bus service or a shuttle service, something that if it didn't have, say, a sales tax base or some other real perpetual funding base, you know, a bus service can be turned on and off pretty quickly. And so if we could make that happen. And so they wouldn't, you know, an associate membership wouldn't amount to voting rights and things like that. It would be more of a contractual relationship on how we do that. So in other words, like if you were to put the train station in Corinth and or Lake Dallas, you'd have them put a buy-in and then pay a sales tax. But if you wanted to provide bus service to little L across the lake bridge or some other community like that that they'd be an associate member They wouldn't have them contribute sales tax that would be a possibility They could choose to be you know, there's there's a couple of different options for something like that The best options be Yes, well the two are one is the best option is for Community to be to come in on the sales tax The best option is for a community to come in on the sales tax, you know, sales tax election come into the community and be a full participating member with DCTA. That's the best way to do it. That's that long term of funding mechanism that we need as an agency, again, to be financially viable. If a community wish to do something very discreet, say to run a shuttle back and forth to some point for some reason we were close to with TW and or tech university nor Texas and so contracting those kind of things would be an option also. That's one of the things I think would be great for the communities particularly with the new light bridge is that if you put a new station in the Lake City's community which you know I wholly support and I'm trying to secure funding for to open up that area of service into the little realm in that area in the 380 corridor. Okay. Now let me ask you this. What do you mean by comparable perpetual funding sources? Is that just mean either sales tax or a tariff or a tiff or something like that? It really wouldn't be equivalent what we're looking at options. and this required change in the law. But the idea is that some of our communities because they have already committed their last cent of sales tax to 4a, 4b and with that that removes immediate option to come in with the sales tax. The option would be to come in and say is there a way you can get that same amount of money just like anybody else in a different way. And again, we're trying to figure out what does that look like in terms of how exactly that would be implemented and it could be a TIFF, could TURRS. I mean, there's a bunch of different ways to do that. But it has to be the muster by the board and certainly stand the test of time in terms of what would it really provide that long term funding mechanism. What we don't want to have is something where we make a large investment and I think this is the citizens of Denton County make a large investment and say a train station or something like that or an extension of a rail line. However it might be, a large capital investment based only on an annual appropriation. It needs to be something that's going to transcend fiscal years and be able to fully support that capital investment that our citizens are making. You need to guarantee funding source year to year. Yes, sir. Okay. Which is the laws that the enabling act that makes it where you can't use a tip for a task? It's 460 on that right now is based solely on, as I understand it, the research we've done is based on sales tax alone, and we wanna take a look at there are options that are being discussed. Again, this is a topic for discussion at the DCT board, and we're looking through that right now. That is transportation code. No, I'm not forgetting. That is transportation code. Okay, because I'm very interested in expanding the service and to other parts of the community. So I wanted to, since you're here, I just figured you'd get time to get the answers from. Problem. We're happy to talk about it. Okay, so you talk about capital component contingent upon service plan status and service plan year term or long term. What do you mean by that? I mean, that's kind of a transportation speak. Well, could it more clearly if a station was to be added, say a station was added to the, you know, the, the, the at train, that whatever capital improvements are required, say somebody's coming in new. The current vision for that is that that whoever's adding that station would pay for everything to do with adding that station. And we've done a lot of, you know, we've done some, some first cut it analysis on this and so you're looking at what does that mean in terms of equipment, station, sightings, things like that that are required to run the train system. And as we go back through there and look at those things, that would be what the capital reimbursement. We'd want to make sure that those things were paid up front so that the previous investment by other citizens that have been paying the sales taxes for that period of time Would not be used to make that happen. So it's kind of an offset is to keep a good good parity and fairness in the system for those that have had the long-term Commitment to to our you know to the agency Okay, so in other words if Corinth or Lake Dallas could find the funding to build the station you would take that is basically They're buying is that would be that would be the first cut at that. We'd also have to look and make sure there was, after that was done, that still was good parity with other agencies, you know, other communities. And so a lot of this is going to end up being, and this is where we get to the real, the crux of the issue is what does right look like on that. And so that's a lot of the discussion that's happening right now. That kind of where the tiered membership structure comes in or weighted voting or something like that? Well, no, we have not been taught. That has been, that topic has come up, but that has not been an element of the policy drafts today. The tiered structure might mean, really, doesn't might mean, does mean that if you're in a longer term in rail line, I'm going to use the BNSF as an example. If a state, if you were trying, coming in and you would be served by that line, then you're in at the front end. I know that your contributions and sales tax for other funds would then be built into that system and that you would have the ability to join on at that point. Now let me ask you this. You say that full memberships can be required prior to project implementation. What do you mean that you would have to whatever city or community that wanted to join would have to come up with the comparable funding source and the capital cost expenditure before y'all would allow them to join as a member. Well, you got to run two steps in that one is you come in as a full member. Part of that whole process is going back to and looking at what service could be provided so that we're very upfront with the citizens of the community and what does that mean when you sign on in terms of is a gestation is a bus service is it Whatever those things are but we need that commitment before we could look at investing in a project Because again if we if we make an investment if the citizens of Denton County make an investment in a project There's only based on annual appropriation Then I don't believe that's that's really not fair not fair to the other citizens that have been paying into that. Well one of the things I'd like for you I mean I like the fact that you're explaining this because you know I'm a big fan of mass transit I think it'll be good for the community anything we can do to get you know cars off the streets is I think it's a good idea but you know having you explain these more fully allows me if I go to a little album or other areas I guess to sell them on your services because I think, you know, the area that I represent, which is, you know, the Lake City's a great portion of the line that this has served. And the North part of the county I think could really, you know, be, you know, it really served the community for us to have enhanced services to the North part of the county and the lake cities um not any particular lake city but i you know i think the serving the community college would be a great great way to enhance ridership for your help for the i mean the community college is just tremendous for the community and it's used by all parts of the county well that decision provide new service like a three-legged stool right got a balance. The impacts of the needs and the service to the existing community. What does it do to the folks that are there now? You have to look at what the cost is to provide that service and then what are the improvements to service and the improvements to revenue to go with it. So we have to balance all those together as we look at it. So you know like that analogy the three-legged stool and all three of those legs have to be working on that stool in much use. So I have to make that happen. Please come back to me. Just for clarification. So if Lake City's community who had not opted into the program wanted to opt into the program based upon either a full membership or associate. Let's go with full membership. Then they would have to come to you with a capital component. Is that correct? Yes sir. Not only a capital component, but they would have to convince the board or give proof of the board that there will be a comparable funding source that's perpetual. Which the legislature doesn't allow some of those now according to the transportation code. Is that correct? In a form of tears or whatever. So if a community like Corinth wants to come in and buy into the full membership that they would have to prove up to the board to be a full member, to either come in with a comparable source if the law then allows it or to have another sales tax election to prove there's a perpetual funding source? Yeah, let me just make a couple of comments because there's maybe one or two other steps. I want you all to understand that. First of all, we have for all those cities over 17,000 we have a board member. So Commissioner, I think that kind of answers. We have a little lamb, Frisco, all of those are members on that board and you know that. So we certainly encourage communication with those as well as the board's whole. But the board's policy says, and this has been in place for quite some time, that two-thirds of the member cities have to vote for any change in the service plan. So you just need to know that that's a step that we haven't talked about. So that means that didn't lose the holland village. Two of those three have to vote for any change in that service plan. At this point in time, in the A-Train corridor, there are five stops. And so that's a step. I just want to mention that has to be concluded. And we are going to attempt to make a legislative fix this coming session for the alternate funding source. It's not in place right now. And certainly we want to open that door. So that's already on our agenda, and we're talking with legislative counsel to do that. And I think you mentioned this, Jim, but it must be said, we are in the process quite a ways down the road in the process of updating our service plan for all the quarters and course anything that might come along in the A-Train Corps. So I just wanted to mention that for you. I really appreciate all the hard work you're doing. I just think it would be, you know, it's, I think it's vital to our community to at least get some strain station in the Lake City's. That's, you know, but we've got to, I guess like you said, we've got to get one of the communities or all the communities down there to participate. There's a tremendous need and a huge ridership at the community college and I think it would just be full hearty not to try and serve that community. I think well this Charlissa said well as the service planning goes forward we'll be able to analyze that and make sure that's done correctly. And I think the other important part is that there is nothing that's being done along the line to preclude in the construction today to preclude placing the station, either in Lake Dallas or in Corinth right now. There's a couple of locations where it would work and those locations are going to still be candidates as we move forward into the future. So certainly not to preclude that, we want to make sure we make improvement decisions and keep the good stewards of our citizens money. If commission ease. Yes sir. Thank you all for coming out this morning and for all y'all do. And for your upcoming service overseas, I agree that in the perfect world and ideal world it'd be great to have stops in the Lake City's area. But those voters have rejected that. Could you walk us through, I think if I had one or two elections, it was a Corinth and has Lake Dallas had one and where are they at with their sales tax capsules. Designed to understand, and do you have any of this? Quarant has capacity in their sales tax? No. No, currently do not. I don't believe either has capacity right now. That's correct. That's correct. So neither one of them has capacity right now. Trust me. As you may recall, we had an initial sales tax election in 03 that involved eight cities, the only eight cities that had sales tax cap left. Cranth was one of those that was turned down then. We gave in 06 Cranth another opportunity to enter into the DCTA with the capital buy-in and they chose not to do that. And that doesn't diminish our effort at all in trying to get other members. I mean that has to be our focus. And I won't, just the history does not dictate our future for us. So we've continued to spend a lot of time with the mayor who understands this very well, serving on our board. So that's kind of been the history. I don't think. No, they don't. No. Neither do they do have a transit plan. They do have a transit oriented development plan though. But no, it's going to take the 82nd legislature probably to get this fix that we need. And I think that'll help a lot of cities. And it could be maybe issue and tip bonds, fund it with tip money and proceed along those lines. So we're trying to be very creative. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Thank you very much Judge appreciate the opportunity to come talk to you. Thank you for your time thank you for being here and thank you for the service to your country. We'll do it. That's been. Yes ma'am. Well while we have DCTA folks here, I think we should also go to item 14A. 14A is approval of the interlocal cooperation agreement between Denton County Transportation Authority DCTA, Denton Independence School District, and Denton County for fiber optics system as recommended by Kevin Carter, Director of Technology Services. Chair is gonna move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. Other questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Motion to scare you. That was painless. Thank you. That was painless. Thank you. And a lot of guests here this morning I'm trying to be considered a people's time. It's just can't get to everybody first. Members at this time I'd like to go to item five. We go to five A, which is approval of the bill report payments from CSCD, Community Corrections, TAP, Shares, Trini Shares, Forefature, VIT Interest DA, Check the NDA, Forefature Funds are all presented forward recording purposes only. And we also have the Auditor's Monthly Financial Report for the month of April 2010 that is presented for recording purposes only that will be approved with the bill report. Good morning, James Wells. Good morning, judges and commissioners. Ask approval of bills as presented. Taking note of three deletions that are detailed on a separate page. It had a processing problem or documentation, problems one kind or another. Three additions from the general fund for small payments for post office rent. One is actually it and then the next the other and is a court ordered bond for for for for for refund. And then actually five payments from the sheriff's for for for for for for the fund to the US Marshall per their contracts. It's all questions I have. Thank you. I have a question. So, members of the court, do we have a motion for approval? Motion by Commissioner Marchant. Second. Second by Commissioner Coleman. Here you know. Questions or comments? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Question carries. Formed favor, one opposed. Actually, the one I intended to go to was three C. I'm sorry, I jumped a little bit far. Three C is recognition of the Texas State Comptroller Leadership Circle Gold Award that was awarded to Dayton County for Excellence in Financial Transparency on behalf of Financial Records, made available online by the County Auditor and County Budget Officer and the County Treasurer. Good morning Cindy Brown. Good morning Judge Commissioners. I'm very pleased to be before you today to make recognition of this award that has been achieved as you mentioned by our County Auditor James Wells, our county budget officer, Donna Sturt and myself. Exactly what this ward means is that the state controller back in 2009 put in place a program to recognize local governments across the state who have voluntarily come forward to make their financial records more transparent and accessible to our constituents. As such, we have worked together to combine a new web page on the Ditton County.com Internet site that consolidates all of our efforts to achieve this award. The award that we have been given is the highest level of recognition offered by the State Comptroller for our efforts. As such, our constituents will be able to go to the Internet site located at DINCounty.com and under E-Government Services, there is a new link to financial transparency. Having this information on one website or one page was a requirement for the State Comptroller to achieve this award. Although much of this information was already made available by our offices, we have now brought it together on one convenient page for easy accessibility. One new function that has been made available, the county auditor and his staff worked with the Department of Technology Services to develop a new accounts payable check register that's online. One of the nice features about this is that constituents and or vendors and or yourselves or our staff and other county employees can go here to look at vendor payment information for goods and services. The special feature about this is that it actually is a drill down application, which is a requirement that has been discussed in the past legislative session under House Bill 2743, although that died in the last session, it was going to mandate that our local governments have this top of technology on their financial websites. So in this capacity anybody can go to this website and actually put in let's say you want to see any vendor payments made payable to a brown. Then they can use the filtering techniques to say that it contains, starts with, ends with or is equal to greater than or less than to achieve the information that they're searching for. Once that determination has been made, it will return the findings. Well, I didn't put, let's do contains. It'll come back and come back with the information that contains all vendor payments for goods and services that have the word brown in there. Additionally, this information can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet and can be used for whatever means someone is interested in. So you can see here that I have just done that with some slight modifications to the Excel spreadsheet that came up. It is an usable format. So that's a great, great, and to my knowledge, we are the only county within the state that has this specific type of application available for our vendor payments. We can probably thank her. I'm sorry. We can probably thank Kevin Carr for the. Yeah, that's where I was going next is I think he made a lot of friends. I think he just looked at Kevin Carr and certainly his application development staff was instrumental in bringing about this application as well as combining all of our efforts on the webpage. Certainly I tell Kevin every chance I get, he makes us look good. And he really does. And they're very resourceful and very helpful. Anytime we approach them with ideas and helping us achieve our wishes. Let's see. Some of the information that's new that has been added, Donna Stewart and her staff have always made available the adopted budget and the operating budget. And James has always made available the fact that you can easily access our financial reports. But I have recently added some information to my webpage such as my monthly Treasurer's report, which is conclusive of our cash in position at the end of each month. So constituents now can see our cash position at the end of each month. So constituents now can see our cash position at the end of each month. Once our books have been reconciled to the general ledger. Additionally, I am starting to add information about our county investments that gives the law that governs our specific abilities under Chapter 2256 of the government code have now our investment policy out online as well as I will start adding our investment reports as they are approved by Commissioner's Court. So in brief, this is just a snapshot of the award that we have been given for the information that we are now making accessible. It's worthy to note that this information that we're providing is already available under public information request, but we are being forthcoming and making it readily available to our constituents and any other interested parties without having to go through the formal process of making that request. We just think that this is good policy and good government to be forthcoming. I'm very proud of our financial status here in Denton County, which is a contributed to not only you and your goals, but of all of our department head and elected officials working together to make it happen. So I just thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. Well, thank you to you and to James, of course. And also technology services department I'll get used to seeing that eventually. But we have had a lot of this available, but it hasn't all been consolidated like this before so that that's a good move. And I appreciate you all's effort in getting it done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We don't need any action on that. Let's start at the top, shall we? Let's go to item two, the consent agenda. Members of the items on the consent agenda that you need to pull for discussion to consideration. Do we have a motion for approval? I'll move. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Marchant. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion is carried. Consent agenda today consists of 2A, which is approval of the order making appointments. We have a promotion in the elections administration. New hire in the tax office. Two new hires in the county jail, two promotions in juvenile probation services, and two New Hires in the Health Department. To be as approval of the Inter-Departmental Transfers, to see as approval of specifications and 30 to advertise for RFP 06-102036 HEC controls, Charlie J. Cole Building, appointment of the evaluation committee to include Danny Bernley-Beth Lane. And 2D is approval of award for forensic equipment, bid number 0 4102031. Item 1 through 5 to BAE Systems AH for 48,353 dollars and 77 cents. Item 6 to arrowhead forensics for $43,200 and item 7 to savage range systems incorporated for $21,595. Two E is approval renewal for a paper vision software license renewal. This is bid number 05081903 to position products incorporated. Two F is approval for pharmaceutical services public health, bid number 06091983, with Denton Prescription Shopped for Denton and Avia partners for Louisville. 2G is approval of specifications and authority to advertise for guardianship program, RFP 03102023 for the Denton County Prolete Court, Appointment of Evaluation Committee to include Paula Flourde, Gene Manion, Missy Rainey, and Beth Fleming. 2-H is approval renewal for Tax Statement Preparation Mealings Service. This is RFP 05071835 with myriad systems incorporated. 2-I is approval specifications of 30 to advertise for RFP 05102035, automobile liability and physical damage insurance, appointment of evaluation committee to include James Wells, Amy Phillips, Donna Stewart, Gustavo Hernandez, and Beth Fleming. 2J as approval of renewal for voice and data cabling, RFP 0608191111 with superior fiber and data services. 2K is approval budget amendment quest 101 330 for contract road work for road and bridge precinct 1 in the amount of $31,500 to L is approval budget amendment quest 101 370 for code appointed attorneys family for the 367th district court in the amount of $10,000 to M is approval budget amendment 101-380 for road maintenance equipment for road bridge precinct 1 in the amount of $137,110. And lastly 2M is approval of building usage of personal Andrea Simmons to seek the attorney's office to use the central jury room at the Denton County Courts Building on Friday July 23, 2010 from 80m to 4. for a blood drive. Okay, 3B is approval resolution of proving the draft DEMCO area 911 District Fiscal Year 2011 financial plan pursuant to the Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 772, as amended and providing an effective date. Do we have anybody from Denko on one one? I don't believe we do. Just to make it official, I'll read the short resolution. It's a resolution of the Denko County Commission's court approving the Denko, the draft Denko area 9-1-1 district place, school year 2010 financial plan pursuant to the Texas Health and Safety Code chapter 7-7-2 as amended and providing an effective date where the Denton County Commission's Court has been Presented the draft and code area 911 fiscal year 2010 financial plan for consideration and accordance with section 772.309 Texas Health and Safety Code is amended now therefore Denton County Commission's Court of Texas hereby resolves section one that Denton County Commission's Court hereby approves the financial plans Section 2 that this resolution should become effective from and after its passage. Does Cheryl move for approval? Seconded by Commissioner Marchand other questions or comments? You're none on favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name? Motion does carry. All right. 5v is review and reapproval of the Denton County Tax Exam debt compliance policy. We can probably take all three of these together. 5c is review and considering changes to the county's general fund, the unreserved fund balance policy. And 5d is reviewing, reaffirmed the debt management policy for Denton County and will call on James Wells for all three. Thank you Judge. Commissioners, I'll just hit the highlights on these real fast. These policies have been in place for some many years and some only a couple years. These are all brought forward at the recommendation of either bond rating agencies or bond attorneys either help our bond rating or to protect the insure us that we keep our debt issue that it maintains its tax exempt status on the bond compliance policy. I think we want to We want a very first local government to actually adopt the policy. This is the direct recommendation or Almost more than a recommendation by the internal revenue service And all the policy, very distinctly sets out how we will handle the funds we receive and report on those funds when we issue debt. There are tax exempt debt, has numerous local, state and federal requirements that have to be met. The Internal Revenue Service has very openly said they're going to increase their audits of local governments, particularly those that have issued Bill the Barracks of Bonds, which we will be issuing. We actually are issued. I think we're getting funding on those today. Again, many of these things we in this policy, in this particular policy, these come up all the time, we always have, and we'll just hit them real quickly, we have to do separate accounting for every bond issue. And that may also means not mingling funds. Our counting records have to very clearly show the receipt and use of all bond funds. And we do that. Following down we can only use bonds for approved purposes. Many times people will say, we want to do, we have excess funds. Let's do this with it. And we say, no, we can't do that with those bonds they have to be issued for those purposes. Villing bonds cannot be used for roads, road bonds cannot be used for computers only now. We always further intend we sign that we intend to use the proceeds in three years. We will always comply with the post issuance reporting requirements which include reporting directly to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then there's further requirements on our debt service fund and general requirements to maintain our tax exempt status. This policy was adopted in 2008. We're not asking for any changes. Although we will be looking with Bill America bonds, we may need to come back with some changes specifically for them. Again, we're asking for no changes right now. The unreserved fund balance policy was first adopted in 2005, it has not been changed. It sets a general, a level of general fund balance at the county will always strive to maintain. We set that at 12% of budget expenditures were well and excessive that. We could increase it, but probably don't think at this time with state of governmental finances, although ours are fine, it probably no reason increase that right now, although we could easily go up to 15% or higher if we chose to. And the important thing about the general fund balance policy, it specifies the level will remain paying when we exceed that level, the appropriate uses for these excess funds, which we all, and which basically is we don't use fund balance for ongoing expenses. We use it for one-time capital expenses. And it also allows, though, if times get tough, like they might be now for many governments, it really understands the policy allows the fact that there may be years we just can't maintain that much fund balance. We may have emergency expenditures, gosh, we could have a building flood even. Or bridges wash. I think any number of things. And it said that's okay. We have to get below that. That's all right. But we do have a plan of procedures in place to build that back as fast as can. Thanks. Before you go any further, could we use that portion of that one time, for one time to supplement our budget? Absolutely. Okay. Again, the question is, yes. He is one time expenditure. Yeah. He is one time. I think it is, yes. And any good policy has to recommend that while we need a minute we absolutely need require half to have a minimal amount of reserve funds. If they build up higher then there's been, it does no good habit setting. We also can use it money. What we've been doing is we've been using, the court has adopted budgets the last two or three years, two years and will be asked to adopt a budget this year, where we transfer some of our ex, our fund ballots in general fund over to our capital replacement. Okay. We do that. We use it for one time purchases that are usually a two big, two large purchases to work into the regular budget, but it also allowed that policy and procedure allows us to avoid the smaller issues of tax notes, the two and three million or three or four million dollar issue tax notes. We haven't really issued tax notes in over two years now because we've had this policy. We absolutely can. But the policy would restrict, would be to say to just supplement the operating budget. Salaries, benefits, utilities, and things like that with fund balance. Because we can only do that one year and then we would even a bigger hold the next year for did that. So you're saying that we cannot supplement maybe raises out of that? maybe raises out of that. Not by policy. Because those policies, those raises would have to be done in ongoing expense. Well, but they won't be ongoing out of that particular budget. We, to me, that would be a one-time thing. If we take two million out of there for this year to supplement salaries, that's a one-time thing. That's not. Well, you know, but they have to be. It's the one time for that year but it's a two million impact on the base salary and in the next year they have to be funded and there's no ongoing revenue to fund those so that's actually what we recommend again and the policy is in place against but for buildings major building repair major capital asset acquisitions is what what the policy would say to use fund balance for Our the final policy in front of again has no no changes to it. It is the debt management policy which may sound like same as the debt compliance, which is actually very different this policy sets out of framework For our whole capital improvements program and the way the county will issue debt. And it sets guidelines for when we issue debt, how much debt we can issue the type of debt, how fast we'll repay it, and what we'll use it for. Again, this policy is service very well. It was adopted in 2006 very quickly. Again, rather than go over on page 348, the policy consists of statements on conditions for that issuance, conditions for refunding, actually issuing refunding bonds. The types of that instruments we can use, which include general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, tickets obligation, tax notes, capital leases, not variable rate bonds, not other kind of other bonds that have balloon payments entering or anything like that. And again, it says that debt issued will not be used for ongoing operations. We have a limitation on amount of our debt services related to our total budget. The amount about standing debt actually is limited by the Texas Constitution. Characteristics of our debt structure, this talks to how fast we will repay our bonds and our overall. So we don't actually, we don't just confiscate bonds and push the payment dates further and further into the future future thereby raising our cost. Which basically is a sign of financial weakness to the bond rating agencies and to the underwriters. It states it will use whenever possible we use competitive bidding process for issuance of the bonds. Although in certain instances as in our last sale of Bill America bonds, the GOCHED sales were fine. And again, it also speaks to maintaining and now actually not improving now, but only maintaining our bond ratings, to minimize our borrowing costs. There is also backup in all of these to show you that these policies closely conform to best practices, recommendations, things like that. That's all, that's the presentation. I can answer any questions, but again we're not asking for any changes to our policies. Are there any questions or mayors of court? I had one question, James. Could we use the money that we have extra in our reserve to offset any tax increase that might occur as a result of a selling bonds is here. Would that be in compliance with the policy? You know actually, you have to spend it for some capital expenditure. That's my point is where you actually reserve. Reserves funds. Once again, that's why I was trying to think because I think we could because we're actually, I think actually not per our general fund policy because that's an ongoing expense that we, that's going to have to be replaced the next year. Furthermore, when we issue bonds, we actually record a prudence and signs documents that say, at the time of issuance, that you will levy attacks to service those bonds. So I don't know how, you know, obviously there's funds in the general fund, that that service fund itself has reserved funds also. And we definitely make use of those funds when they're in excess of what we need. We actually use that in setting our tax rate. So... That's a tough question to answer. I understand where you're going with that. It seems to me that it probably would be for the court to decide if that is indeed an ongoing expense that would be policy with non-lal. Well, I think it probably, I think I can see it being both way. I can see it follow. I can see it as an ongoing expense where you're just delaying funding, providing funding for it. I can also see, but I can also see that if you're saying it's one time, you're still faced with a tax increase the next year if you say if you do that. Well, why do we, I mean, one at a time please, Commissioner Marchen. Big question Mark, if there's a requirement by policy, first of all, the commissioners set the 12%. Is that correct? That is not a mandate through the state or if it's a mandate, what's about it all? By wall there's no mandate at all. Right, so 12% and you said that we are really in reserve funds of an excess of 15 and above. Is that correct? Absolutely correct. Why do you have those to begin with? Is it to maintain a good bond rating or is it for the government to utilize those those monies in times of need when the economy is doing exactly what it's done. I mean, you know, it's hard to explain to a citizen out here. You know, we've collected all this money here on you, on all these years, and we have the excess of this amount of money here. And now instead of dipping into those, we go back, I mean this is just general discussion question. I'm saying, I mean, and we go back to them and say we want more taxes, we want more money, so we're going to tax you more because we're not willing to dip into those unreserved funds. I just need to understand that. The question is a very apt question. I mean, there's certainly no no surprise it would arise. And the policy actually speaks to that directly. The purpose of the policy, you know, is not only to get a good bond rating because of it. That's worthy of its own. But it's also the policy is in place, particularly to speak to the questions you've asked because because one, we all know we recognize, the counties's always recognized, that taking money out of the local economy from our taxpayers and just having it sit is not really good stewardship and it really does, at a certain level it doesn't serve a great public purpose. At the same time, we absolutely, from a practical basis, from a bond rating basis, from a budgetary basis, we have to have reserve funds to meet, to address exactly a bad economy, unforeseen, emergency expenses, or all of those happening at once. We've actually had that. And so we've had our, actually had our general fund balanced draw down to just a mere, to four million dollars, which is only about five percent of budgeted. It wasn't adequate. We have cash flow needs because most of our fiscal year starts in October. Our revenue really starts really coming in in late December. We actually just have playing cash flow. We have to have a certain amount of reserve funds to pay pay roll and pay these bills. We approve every week. There's a level for that. We need money for emergency expenses. We've seen, you know, in the in the last decade, we've seen gasoline, triple in price. If you all feel triple in price, we've seen workers compensation, triple in two years. We've seen our health insurance. Oh, God, I don't even want to say how far it's going, but it going up tremendously expenses. You know, we've seen our retirement expenses go up. We've seen building expense, building insurance expense after 9-11 tripled. We've seen the state of Texas come out of county prisoner expense. We've seen going from receiving housing out of other county's prisoners or state prisoners and receiving $3 million to switch in two years when we're paying $600,000. All count, I mean, there's a law, any long list, reasons why we need emergency. We need funds to meet emergencies. Exactly what you put the question you've asked. So there's the reason to have the money. And the policy itself does say the general fund balance policy specific sales when the funds are in excess of $12,000. That's number five of the procedures in the policy on page 341. It specifies the ways the funds may be used. And it specifies one time non-recurring expenditures such as acquisition of capital items and specifically says excess funds will not be used to fund recurring operating expenses. The reason is that is we have tried that. Many many other governments have tried that. We have a neighboring county just to our south that's tried that. And problem is there's no replacement. Again, we take $5 million out of fund balance just to balance the budget for recurring expenses for salaries off you know operating fuel utilities that balances the budget this year but that means we need five million next year to balance just to balance the budget and that with the fund balances depleted so you don't have to do that on capital no no no and that's exactly right. So the bill they for made you know our major computer equipment acquisition such as the at the tax office at the criminal justice system all those those are expensive expenses that last one time and they're not repeated for many years. We and that's it. And that's more appropriate use. Purchasing land, purchasing a building, as we've done this year, as we've done in many past years. Those, again, those are one-time expenses. And rather than treating them as an extraordinary item in a current budget that puts a strain on the court, we do use reserve funds for those and that's exactly why we have our capital replacement fund. The budget office is very wisely recommended that and that actually puts a lot of order and a procedure in place to decide which projects merit using the capital replacement fund, which really is funded from General Fund Reserves. So again, we're not, as I've seen other in great years, I've seen neighboring counties have General Fund Reserves that equal their operating budget. Have a hundred million dollar budget and a hundred million reserve. That gives them a triple A bond rating, but really, I think we said that's probably way excessive. That's taking gives them a triple A bond rating, but you know really is that you know I think we said that's probably that's way excessive That's taking more way well more money out of the local economy and out of the systems pockets. That's really necessary So by our policy really is to try to help the county the commissioners court as the decision policy makers to basically do that balancing act, to give us enough funds to avoid, you know, to actually handle these bespikes in the budget, in our budget preparation. And as we said before, again, like, you know, we've been able to have also in the last three years handle the fact that we've lost $6 million in investment earnings because we can't. Rights have gone from 4.5% to 1.5%. We've allowed we've been able to factor that in and still balance our budget out. And still fun. We've funded probably now five or six million in the last two years of capital projects out of the capital and put replacement fund, which is funded by reserves, that's six million dollars of debt, long-term debt we have been able to avoid. Also six million dollars of tax increases we've been able to avoid. So that's policy is really to put order and a structure in place to manage our reserve fund. Commissioner Coleman, I believe we've got to be careful to know. And maybe my wife answered it in water. But it's no, it's a complex issue. He was talking about was debt service and you talked about reducing the overall tax rate, which is there's two components. No, I understand. And the number nine is, in essence, we've done with exactly what you're suggesting. Right, now I'm using the Capitol Improvement Committee. My point was, in the past, you've told me, and I've heard from Mr. Wells many times, that when we would go out for a cell of bonds, because we have such a need for infrastructure in that in county, because we are sustaining such growth that our infrastructure is insufficient, that the properties that would come new onto the tax roll would support those bond issues. They would offset each other. Well we still are recovering from our tremendous amount of growth but we don't have the new properties coming on the tax rolls they have in the past and that's going to require us to raise taxes. To me I guess my point is we're paying how much on the bonds that we let? 3 to 4% 3 to 1.5% and what are we getting on our fun balance? My point is is that although I mean believe me, I'm You can ask my wife. She says I squeak I walk, but I think I'm thrifty. She thinks I'm fairly cheap, I guess, but I think, you know, it'd be, we would be good stewards of our money when we're only getting half a quarter percent. And we're paying bonds at 3.5 percent. If we can remain with liquidity, we need to use money that we're not getting very good interest on to pay off debt that we're paying. I understand that. Actually, it's one of the things that's just when we had, along those lines, we had the presentation from the representative of our retirement system. As you mentioned, we are funding an unfunded liability for Fedure. I would maintain that using fund balance one time to pay that down is a much more fiscally. You get the same if not greater impact by paying that liability down and you have no obligation to fund it next year. That's the difference in using it for debt versus using it for retirement. Since the retirement system. That unfunded liability we will pay. If we extra funds into that system, we can make a lump sum. We'll earn 9% a year. That's what the TCDRS earns versus our half percent. At the same time that we could do that this year, if we chose to, or the county can do that, it will indeed pay down the debt that we will have to pay, but there is absolutely no responsibility or no obligation to make that payment anytime again in the future. It lowers future expenses, but it is the classic one-time expense. Versus that service, if we use fund balance for that service, we delay. We do not collect that same amount of tax revenue this year, but we will collect it next year. Absolutely. I would hope that the economy would recover a little bit. That's to me, that's a contrasting. But again, there is, again, this policy is presented for the court. It's our recommendations. Court may amend it as they see fit. And money in the treasury can be used by the commissioner's court through its budget process as it sees fit. We'll say this policy has served us very well. You will remember we saved $8 million on our most recent issue, the combination of using Billed America bonds and having a AAA rating. Just being able to get AAA on our own says about half a million because we don't have to have bond insurance right off the top. So, anyway, again, but that's exactly each question and I don't mean to be argumentative about, in my response is at all, but this is specifically why we put the policies on here. We want the court to be aware of them. They are indeed your policies. So they need, and I think occasionally they, if we just adopt them and put them back in my notebook, then they're not particularly doing a lot of good. So that's why we're putting it forward. Okay, with that, I'm going to move for approval of five BC and D. Seconded by commissioners. Okay, with that, I'm going to move for approval of 5BC and D. Seconded by commission. Eads, further questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name? Motion to carry unanimously. Thanks, James. Thank you. Good information. 6A is approval of revisions to purchasing policy 3.2. Dallgating change order authority to certain circumstances to the director of purchasing. We had good information in the backup on this from Beth Fleming, but Scott will try to answer any questions that you all may have. Are you okay with it? Do you have a motion for approval by Commissioner E. Seconded by Commissioner Marche. Questions or comments? Your none. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Cine? Motion does carry. 6B is approval of renewal of medical laboratory services, jail, public health, RFP 050 91976, to clinical pathology laboratories. Motion by Commissioner Marchin. Seconded by Commissioner Coleman. Questions? Here none. On favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name? Motion carries. Six C is approval renewal of medical laboratory services. Human resources. RP06061766 to pinnacle health. Technology is incorporated. Motion by Commissioner Marchin. seconded by Commissioner Coleman. Other questions? No, no, in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposite. No, motion is carried. 7A is approval budget amendment request 101 320 for computer equipment, including the transfer of $4,789 from the District Clerk's Records Management Fund and appropriated contingency fund for a total of $4,789 motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Marchant. Questions? Here none on favor. Please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Sen. Motion carries. 7B is approval. Budget amendment, quest 101-3-4 4 0 for repairs and maintenance including the transfer 25505 dollars from the sheriff's forfeiture unappropriate contingency 500 for a total amendment or 25505 dollars in note that this is for recording purposes only Thank you motion by commissioner Coleman seconded by commissioner marching. I'll in favor. Please say aye Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Marchand. All in favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed to any? Motion does carry. 7C is approval, budget member request, 101-350 to increase revenues and advocate expenditures for the criminal district attorney. Federal seizure fund for operating equipment and cleaning the creation of a new line item for contract purposes for fiscal year 2009-2010 for criminal district attorney IRS task force in the amount of $2,200. Chair, move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Eads, other questions? Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name? Motion carries, 7D is approval of budget amendment request 101-360. For part time salaries, for death investigations, medical examineriner in the amount of $3,000. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Marchion. Any questions on favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Posting motion to carry 9E is a memo to increase amount of Department of State Health Services. It's the IFE for Central, I'm sorry, for service contract and number of clients served. You have Dr. Burton with us this morning, Dr. Burton. I'm just going to observe for you. This is a 45,000 in additional funding. I do my best to time this with the annual evaluation. Good timing. Good timing. Other questions from members of the court? No, no. Motion by Commissioner Ead, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. I'm already done. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, Cine? Motion does carry. 10A is approval of preliminary acceptance of the Robson Ranch Reconstruction Project. This is in Commissioner Precinct IV. Members, as you'll know, this is a county road that buffers between the city of Didden and North Lake. And I'm pleased to say that this came in under budget in the head of schedule. And I appreciate Bennett and his staff's monitoring and inspection and project management of the project. And we've expanded what was a two lane asphalt road to a four lane concrete. What's that I'll move for approval? Mr. Mayor, my Commissioner Ead seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. You have no comments? Okay. Well, thank you for all your hard work. On favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye opposed any motion is carried. 12 a is public notices here by given that didn't kind of as a designated applicant is preparing an application for grant under the Edward Bern Justice Assistance Grant program for $77,524. The hearing regarding this application will be held on August 10, 2010. I moved to have the hearing on August 10th 2010 Motion by commissioner Coleman seconded by commissioner Mitchell questions or comments Hearing none on favorite place. I I oppose to name motion carries 12b is approval of the 2010 burnjag Grant application and the memorandum of understanding between Denton County and the city of Denton and the city of Louisville I'm moved for approval motion by commissioner Coleman Seconded by commissioner merchant. I'll in favor please say aye aye opposed seen in Motion carries 12c is approval of the interlocal cooperation contract with the Texas Department of Public Safety for contract with the Texas Department of Public Safety for in Toxializer Supplies. Approval. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Coleman, Second and Bank Commissioner Marchions or comments. Any none? On favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name. Motionless Carrie, 13A is approval of disaster declaration executive order for the mitigation of potential threat of wildfires due to drug conditions. Jody, when you posted this, we didn't know we were going to get all the rain we got last night. How are we doing? I actually stood up here in the rain. That's what it's supposed to be. Maybe we should have posted this sooner or later. That's right. As soon as you posted, it will start raining and then more anticipated rain possible today tomorrow. And if we get the hurricane, pins on where the hurricane moves north and south of a Rio Grande landing. With that being said, I'd like to ask the court to, we are dry. It is serious conditions that we keep moving toward. I actually ask the court to repost this next Tuesday. Give us seven days without a burn man. I just like to repost it and revisit Tuesday. And we'll take no action on the table. Take no action today. We still have the- Just in case next week. Yeah, just in case we do that. That's a good question. Yes sir. We've not qualified according to the technical calculations that I use from the forest servers, whoever. So with that rain, we would not. Technically, the numbers do not roll up from the four service actually until about 11, 30, 12 o'clock. So all the calculations we did yesterday, we met the scope of be able to put in a burn band and regulations and restrictions based off of outdoor burn. With today's rain, I would say that it's going to reduce those numbers down to either 500 to 490 area, which is borderline. So really I can't really make that determination until I actually look and look at those numbers once they roll up from the fourth service based off the rain that we received last night and this morning. With that being said we can still take action if the judge deemed so for a seven day period without commission court authorization. So if we do find ourselves Thursday Friday seeing a lot of grass fires and that sort of things then then simple call to the judge say let's go ahead and put the burn man on and then we revisit it Tuesday. My only opportunity to be queen don't take it away from me. Mary and what about if we did have a burn ban with that limit the use of fireworks if we did have a burn ban? The burn ban that I have in front of you now does not include fireworks are specifically written without fireworks included into that burn back. There are specific numbers that legislative numbers that we look at based off of the Texas Forest Service data that you cannot really do anything with fireworks because of some legislative protective measures that has been put in place to protect fireworks from regulation. So you really have to go down a fine line with the Forest Service approval, certain calculations to meet certain thresholds of numbers legislatively to ban the use or sale of fireworks. Okay, well we'll take no action on this day and leave it on the agenda for consideration next week. We're going to pull 13B, there'll be no action on that. Need to do some more work on that before it's ready to go forward. 13C is approval of a waiver or denial of a waiver for penalty and interest on property tax accounts for the 2009 tax year noted on the accompanying paperwork for each, and I'm not gonna read all these names, members. I asked Michelle French to put together a little synopsis of one page sheet, which unfortunately didn't copy very good for your agenda book, but Kate printed you off one here that is side by side. These are people that for various reasons are asking the court and not just commissioners court but the various cities in the school districts and perhaps even the first water supply district do away the penalty interest on their delinquent taxes for various reasons and different laws governed course, different circumstances. The only two that I would recommend that, let's see here. It should be not as judge if the tax assessment was here. Yes. I think there's some personal issues here with the definite family. You know that? I don't know that. There you go. Somebody from the... Well, I asked Michelle to put this together here just for that very reason. I will tell you that the very bottom one here where the taxpayer did pay by credit card and the digital confirmation of card acceptance, but the transmission never actually took place. So there's documentation there that proves that the taxpayer took action at the appropriate time. Just one second place. And then I'm actually I'm recommending free. They took no position on the one concerning the post office stating that a theft had occurred. That's the David Renaldi, the second from the bottom one. I'm going to recommend that we do take action on that. I can tell you and all the years that I've been with the county, not only is tax successor but in this position. I have talked to the Post Office on numerous occasions when there have been some questionable things concerning tax payments. And this is the only time that I've ever known the Post Office to put in writing in a letter that theft had occurred that required or should say, prevented this person's payment from being timely received. And then there was an error in the Becker case where the deed was missed by the Central Presidice District and not picked up until May, which prevented the appropriate taxpayer from getting their bill. So there is a provision in the tax code when you can prove that there was an error made that the governing body, as long as the taxpayer makes the request before the 181st day after delinquency date, and that is in state law law taxpayers can request the jurisdictions to weigh the penalty and interest the jurisdictions have the right to say no or yes as long as the request is made before the hundred and eighty first day so with the information that all the back I was provided to you by Steve and Michelle and then this sheet that gives the snowsies of the whole thing I'm going to make a, and I'm ready to make a motion unless you all have questions. I have a discussion. Okay, well let me make a motion. We'll get a second and we'll have discussion. How about that? Is that okay? We need to just go ahead and discuss it. Okay, let's discuss it. Let me share Mitchell with great. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to eat I mean, I don't remember us doing this before. Am I right? You are right. Well, it's been on the agenda one time before this year, but it was just for one or two cases. Now, you have to understand, by say law, taxes go to Lincoln after January 31st. The tax offices required to send what they was referred to as May notices. Before the Delinquent taxes are turned over to the Delinquent tax attorney on July 1, they are required to send these May notices to give the taxpayer time to react to pay for it before the attorney's fees are also added. That is state law. And so when you see somebody refer to that, the main notice, the main notice was mailed in some of these circumstances to the address of record at the principal district. The taxpayer may or may not have received it, but the main notice was done. And what I'm seeing is that principal district did is required by law, the tax harvested is required by law by law, and by the way whether you get a bill and your little hot hand taxes are still due by January 31st. But as far as your statement about not doing this before, in the last legislative session, the property tax division and the state comptroller was moved out from the state comptroller to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. How they're administering the law with the tax assessors is different than how the comptroller's office used to do it. I know when I was in the tax office and situations would come up, I would appraise people of their rights under the law. You can take your situation to the county, to the city, to the school and ask them to wave your penalty and interest, you know, and here's all the information on your particular circumstance. But you need to understand if you go to the city, to county school, they have every right to say no. Okay? And that's usually where it ended, especially when I point out the business of your outside the 180 days to make application. So that's usually where it ended, but with the change from the comptroller's office to licensing and regulation, it's a different role for tax assessors to operate in. And how can I politely say this? Some are breather than others. And anyway, that's why this is being presented this time in the numbers. And you have to understand, out of the 400,000 statements that went out. That's really very few problems. Only ones who responded. That's not to say we might get some more. These who responded within the 180 days, and out of the 10 or whatever they're recommending two, or three. Or silent on one. Or silent on one. The silent on one, but my recommendation, like I said, is to do it because we've got documentation from the post office alleging that there was theft. Any questions? Yeah, comments. Because every time I have a citizen that has a problem with the tax office and asking for a reimbursement of interest and penalties. I'm always told that there is no way that can be done, that the law doesn't allow for us to waive those penalties and entries. So I'm surprised that we have this before us. I guess my other question is, is why isn't the tax assessor collector making this decision? Can't make that decision. If these people request that it goes on to the governing bodies of the city county school, the tax system, or can't say no. Well, he has never told me when I called to ask, was somebody can't get the penalty and interest rate. He's always been told that it's the law and he cannot do anything about it. I've never been given the option. He cannot wait penalty and interest rate. I've never been given the option that it can come to me and I can look at it because there are many people out here that have had situations probably similar to these that we've actually just said no to. They were told no at the Texas Census Office and they didn't check it any further. And I think because they don't know that they have another avenue, not saying that unnecessarily won't that responsibility of looking at everyone of them because I think it should be at the Texas office. But I'm just I'm just very curious Steve is absolutely correct. He by law does not have authority to waive anybody's penalty. Okay. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are. Okay. He doesn't but can he but can he come to us and ask us to wave us as the entity. And that's it. That's essentially what's happening here. Okay. But, and we can, you know, just because somebody maybe makes a request outside the hundred and eighty first day, we could do it, but it wouldn't be very smart to do it. Or you're going to have him lined up from here to King to come. You better follow the law in every single circumstances. So everybody is being treated very equally and the same. That's very, very important. I'm just, you know, as a commissioner can't do it, this body can't end the school district in the city. That's an excellent point. But it's within, one of us can make a policy regarding this. But you know, I just wish I'd been told about this. Because I had no idea until we got this on the phone. Well, it depends on the circumstance that the person, you know, they might be saying, oh gee, you know, I had a terrible fire in my house burned down. I've got so many expenses. You know, won't you wait this for, I'm just giving them hypothetical here. And people can have some very, very sad situations, believe me, I've heard a lot of them, but you can't do it. You've got to absolutely, positively go within the framework of the law. Now, if you don't like the law, you go work on changing the law, but you absolutely need to follow the framework of the law. We have as a policy, is this your policy or is it as a commission? Do we have a policy that we do not request or consider request made after the 180 days? That's state law. That's not policy. That's not policy. That's the press. That's not policy. That's the press. That's the press. That's the press. We should follow state law and I'd say that everybody in every circumstance does. Somebody might say, oh gee, you know, we're the governing body. We have authority to make a determination on that. But we can deny it based on state law that request was not made before the 181st day. The law says that we can only consider the request made before the 180 days and we can't after 180 days. The request for the waiver must be within that 180 frame work. Now whether or not we comply with a lot is up to discovering money. Well, I would suggest that we should. All right. Any other questions? Dylan Clear saying it's a state law basically state so we cannot consider requests made after 180 days. Yes, okay. Yes. Did you have any work with different governmental bodies? No, but sometimes they don't always like to follow say law. Do they? Okay. Are there any other questions been certain any of these I'm gonna make a motion that we deny all of them with the exception of the last three the Becker Renaldi and Daniel accounts I wish I had a question about the second one for the owner was seized and they were out in Georgia and North Carolina. I guess the is the up. Are we the taxes are still do. Yeah I know are the banks seeking the overage? Is it still I mean generally the property taxes run with the owner and so would the bank be responsible for paying the taxes or would the state be responsible for paying the taxes? Whoever's handling the estate. But the taxes wouldn't follow the property that was foreclosed on by the bank. Yeah, banks do pay the handling interest from time to time. I'm just wondering why we didn't have what we had a appeal from the state as opposed to the bank. Maybe they were seeking the overage from them. I believe in. Okay, my motion is to deny all of them with the exception of the last three. Is there a second to the motion? There's a second to the motion. Seconded by Commissioner Eads, any further discussion on this issue? I don't know, I guess I'll vote for this but I really don't have to factor how this was handled because I'm filled with many citizens that there are no recourses because that's what I've been told. I've had to tell the people the same thing over the years. But I want to provide relief for these people. If a motion is second is a further discussion or are there other questions? Do you know my favorite police say aye? Aye. Posting. Motionless carry. Okay. We've already done 14A. We've got a 14V, which is a prologue of the interlocal lease agreement number 0, 0, 3191. Between Denton County of State of Texas. Specifically, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for Lisa, approximately 31,062 square feet of space at 535 South Loop 288. Suite number 2001, Denton County Administrative Complex, Denton, Texas. I was just to a five. I was recommended by the Director of Public Facilities. I want to take a moment and thank Jennifer Stout and Danny Bromley and certainly others that worked so hard to get this pulled together and questions answered and things put in and things taken out and Kim Gillis also for your time. This has been months in the making and I'm glad to see that it's finally pulled together. Are there questions and members of court? I move for approval. We have a motion by Commissioner Ead, seconded by Commissioner Marche. Here are no questions. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Cine? Motion carries. Thank you. 14C is approval. Addendum number one to the letter agreement dated November 7th 2007 between city of dendon dendon municipal You tell electric and dendon county for the transfer electrical outlets located on the courthouse on the square property is recommended by the director of public facilities The motion by commissioner marching By commissioner Coleman. we have a question Gany they're handing them over to us You okay, okay, he got it He answered his own question all right. We have a motion. The second all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Cidane. Motion to carry. 14D is recommended approval of service agreement renewal. Notice with a priest incorporated through the state of Texas. Officer, they turn the general for the Denkaniinding Service and approval of the S-A-V-N-S. It's probably Saturn's maintenance contract between Attorney General and Denton County. Second. Motion by Commissioner Marchins. Seconded by Commissioner Coleman. Questions? Any none? No. In favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name any motion is carried. 14E is approval of contract for professional engineering services between Dan County, Texas and Lockwood, Andrews and Newman Inc. for the Boom Branch Road Improvement Project in the mind of $126,570 with funding to come from commissioner precinct 1, 2010 PNI, PI bonds, boom branch road funds, audited a lie 9, 8, 5, 7, 4, 9, 2, 9, 0, 5, 0. If we're approval. Motion by commissioner Coleman, second by commissioner Marche, and other questions. Here you none only favor please say aye. Aye opposed to name. Motion carries. 14F is approval of the International Local Cooperation Agreement between Denton County, Texas and the town of Ponder, Texas for the East Doyle Streets and Eddie's Street Improvement Project located entirely within the town of Ponder, Texas. Denton County Commissioner in Prisoning 4th, the county green to contribute an amount, which will not exceed $250,000. The Funded to come from Commissioner Tribal Aid, East Doyle and Eddie Street Improvement Project Funds. And there's a correction on this line auditor line item. It is 8574219070. This is in Commissioner Pritzell. The motion by Commissioner Eads. Seconded by Commissioner Marche and other questions. Very none all in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed to name. Motion carries. 14G is approval of supplemental agreement number seven to the contract for engineering services between Denton County, Texas and Freez and Nichols Incorporated for the FM 544 capacity project in the amount of $38,152 for a total revised contract amount of $1922, I'm sorry, $199, $199, $945 and $50, so funding to come from Commissioner Prissing to triple for FM 544 capacity project, auditor line item 7673999010. Motion by Commissioner Marchins, seconded by Commissioner Coleman at a questions. You're none on favorably say aye. Aye. Opposed to name? Motion is carried. 14H is approval of additional services in the contract between Denton County Texas and the Innovative Transportation Solutions Inc. which will provide a comprehensive speed study on the El Dorado Parkway from in New State Highway 35E to FM 7 720 at a cost of $9,800. The funding to come from Commissioner Prisinkblan, Miss Lane is project funds auditor line 9M8574769070. Motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Marchand other questions. Yes. That's swisher road. Because that's that's from us swisher over the bridge up to 380. I 35 that way. Yeah. We can do that before the Lake Bridge. That's right. All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. He's looking at me. We didn't have a motion. We didn't have a motion. Yeah, we had a motion by Commissioner Coleman and Commissioner Marchion Second. All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oppositing. Motion is carried. We've had this funny look. I thought, all right, I had a motion. Okay. Earlier. Want everybody to notice the future meetings in item 17. We've got a lot of workshops set up. Don't get schedules yourself for things other than workshop. We'll now go to item 15, which is executive session, 15A's consultation at the attorney pending litigation, pursuant to section 551.0711A, the government code, Welch versus Janreth at all in the 393rd District Court, Denton County CAUSE number, case number, 2010, 60193-393, and 15B is under Texas government code 551.0711A, consultation attorney in closed meeting when the government of bodies six the advice of attorney about pending litigation regarding the contest of the election held May 9th, 2009 and didn't kind of precinct two for the sale of alcoholic beverages, Gibson versus Stanton County at all. And 15C is executive session pursued to Texas government code 551.074A personnel matters, close meeting to deliberate. One, the evaluation duties discipline or dismissal didn't kind of vehicle maintenance manager and two to hear a complaint against it and kind of vehicle maintenance manager and with that we in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the next session. I'm going to be in the everybody have a very safe, fourthed July. you you