Tom Hornseth, County Engineer, stated a letter was received from TxDOT advising the

Transcription

1 TERM MINUTES OF THE COMAL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT MEETING STATE OF TEXAS COUNTY OF COMAL ON THIS THE 3RD DAY OF FEBRUARY, A. D., 2014, THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF COMAL COUNTY, TEXAS, MET IN SPECIAL SESSION AT 8: 30 A. M. IN THE COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM LOCATED AT 100 MAIN PLAZA, NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS. MEMBERS PRESENT WERE: Sherman Krause, County Judge Donna M. Eccleston, Commissioner, Pct. # 1 Scott Haag, Commissioner, Pct. #2 Kevin W. Webb, Absent Commissioner, Pct. # 3 Jan Kennady, Commissioner, Pct. # 4 Joy Streater, County Clerk UPON: THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDINGS WERE DISCUSSED, CONSIDERED AND ACTED NOTE: Commissioners Court reserves the right to hearing any of the below described Agenda Items that qualify for an Executive Session in an Executive Session by publicly announcing the applicable section number of the Open Meetings Act (Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code) that justifies Executive Session treatment. ACTION AGENDA ITEM # 1 Discuss and consider the creation of a County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zone and direct the County Engineer to take necessary action. Tom Hornseth, County Engineer, stated a letter was received from TxDOT advising the County that grant funds are available. In order to qualify for $ 192, 727, the County would have to comply with TxDOT' s grant application process. As part of the grant, application process the County would be required to create a County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zone CETRZ). Mr. Hornseth stated he had found out that TxDOT has moved the deadline from Page 1 of 5

2 February 14, 2014, to March 14, Mr. Hornseth explained the reason for today's meeting is that the County was under the impression the grant application would have to be submitted between February 7-14, Mr. Hornseth explained the reason for today' s meeting is to consider whether the County wants to go forward with the grant application process. If so, then the county would be begin creating the documents and paperwork necessary for the creation of the CETRZ. The CETRZ requires several components: to create an advisory board, develop a boundary of the CETRZ, and develop a transportation plan. The transportation plan would include a prioritized list of transportation infrastructure projects, description of the scope of each listed transportation infrastructure, the total amount of grant funds requested, and a road condition report. The advisory board consists of up to three ( 3) oil and gas company representatives performing activities in county being local taxpayers; and two public members. Mr. Hornseth stated he had received an last week from Paul Miles of TAC advising that the board exists to advise the County and does not have direct authority over the CERTZ. The Court discussed the boundary in the last meeting. Mr. Hornseth showed the Court what a CERTZ boundary would look like and pointed out the roads that the County believes are potentially impacted by the Eagle Ford activities. Mr. Hornseth looked at Wald Road, Solms Road, Algelt, and potentially portions of Krueger Canyon. What needs to be done within the next 30 days to recreate the CERTZ? One thing that came up in the last decision was: are these roads truly impacted by oil and gas activity? Mr. Hornseth showed the Court a map indicating materials coming from Comal County and where it is going. Many of the materials are coming from Comal County but go to Eagle Ford. Judge Krause commented the state is trying to make sure local counties that are applying for the funding will actually put some of their resources toward a solution for these problems. He feels this is creating more bureaucracy than is needed. Judge Krause stated the last thing he wants to do is to turn down money that the County might be able to use to improve the roads in the County, but creating this sort of bureaucracy especially over a minimum of 10 years time, he wonders, is this something the County should pursue. If the state wanted local buy- in, why didn' t they use a matching grant program? Judge Krause stated he did not support moving forward with the CETRZ. Commissioner Haag commented that he would hate to explain to the taxpayers that the County left almost $ 200, 000 on the table and just virtually wiped it off. He understands that the County has to go forward and spend some of the County Engineer's time on this but $ 200,000 is $ 200, 000 that could be spent toward the project. He agrees with the Judge on how the state did this but they were in a rush to hurry up and take some type of action because of being Page 2 of 5

3 pressured. There could be some changes in 2015 through the Legislature. Commissioner Haag stated he would hate to see the County not receive the funds from the beginning and wipe 200,000 off the table. Commissioner Eccleston commented that she agrees about the awkwardness and unnecessary bureaucracy. She stated that the roads are being impacted. The consensus is there will not be very many counties that can participate, so the potential grant could be larger. Commissioner Kennady commented she could not make up her mind and maybe that means the County needs to pursue it more. By pursue it; Commissioner Kennady believes she could make some kind of determination about whether or not it is worth it. Commissioner Kennady stated she is not excited about this because the County is not in a position to do busy work and this may end up being busy work. Commissioner Kennady asked Mr. Hornseth about the money ( tax money) that comes in afterward. Mr. Hornseth replied his understanding is that when the CETRZ is created, the County has to identify at least one project that is within the zone and other projects can be outside the zone. The money that actually goes into the CETRZ could be used in places outside the CETRZ. The grant money is over time in the next ten years. There is a requirement with the grant money that the project be related to oil and gas. Mr. Hornseth stated there are two things going on: ( 1) the grant money and ( 2) the future CETRZ money that is generated by the increment. Commissioner Kennady commented then after ten years it goes back to the way we are now? Mr. Hornseth replied that a decision would be made after ten years as to whether to keep the CETRZ going or dissolve the CETRZ. Commissioner Haag asked for clarification on once the County is in for ten years, the County cannot say it is out. Tillman Roots, Assistant Criminal District Attorney, replied the way the statute reads it automatically terminates on the December 31st of the tenth year. He stated he did not see any way around that. Mr. Roots researched to see if it can be terminated before that and could not find anything. Commissioner Kennady asked Mr. Hornseth how he feels about the CETRZ. Mr. Hornseth replied a boundary has not been created and that is something he would start working on if the Court decides to go forward. He did identify some of the parcels in this area that would potentially make a CERTZ boundary that would be the more or less industrial areas. Mr. Hornseth stated it is not a huge amount of money. The few tracts that were selected in this area, last year's increment would have contributed about $ 50, 000 to divert away from the general fund and placed in the Road Department fund. Mr. Hornseth stated the funds depend on how the boundaries of CETRZ are created and trying to forecast the estimate and increment that would be going for the next ten years. He would be working on some sort of financial Page 3 of 5

4 analysis to try to forecast and guess how much of an increment may be diverted in the future to bring to the Court. Commissioner Kennady stated the Court couldn' t make a big decision until the Court knows more about what is going on. Commissioner Kennady made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Haag that we direct the County Engineer and his staff to proceed with investigating whether or not we want to participate in this program. Discussion followed. Judge Krause stated the things that bother him about the CETRZ are: 1) As soon as the Court started discussing this, the Court heard other counties trying to come up with a way around some of the requirements. For example, when the discussions first begin want was talked about was the fact that a CETRZ could be created, get the money from the state, and automatically abolish the CETRZ. Judge Krause stated what bothers him is when there is a state program set up to meet a local need, especially in our area and then have counties talking about ways to cheat the system. Judge Krause stated he did not want to be part of that. 2) We received solicitations from a lawyer firm. Judge Krause stated it bothers him that there is a conflict of interest with this particular law firm offering services to help set these CETRZ' s for the individual counties for a certain amount of money. Commissioner Kennady interjected the fee is $ 5, 000. After the discussion, the votes cast were as follows: AYES: Commissioner Kennady, Commissioner Haag, and Commissioner Eccleston; NAYS: Judge Krause. The motion carried. ATTACHMENT # 1 Page 4 of 5

5 ACTION AGENDA ITEM # 2 Discuss and consider approval of a budget amendment, FROM: General Fund Reserves, TO: GBRA Phase II Flood Feasibility Study, to fund the County' s portion of the study approved in court on August 15, Judge Krause explained that last year the Court took a vote to participate in the flood feasibility study that GBRA was part of and did not take any action to fund the County' s participation in the study. Commissioner Eccleston made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Haag to approve Action Agenda Item # 2. All voting " AYE," the motion carried. ATTACHMENT # 2 ACTION AGENDA ITEM # 3 Citizens' Comments. Judge Krause asked if anyone would like to address the Court. Hearing no comments, Judge Krause recessed the Court. Court recessed at 8: 47 a. m. on Monday,. Page 5 of 5

6 STATE OF TEXAS COUNTY OF COMAL I, Joy Streater, attest that the foregoing is a true and accurate accounting of the Commissioners Court' s authorized proceedings for the Term of February 3, 2014, Regular Meeting. Date: February 11, 2014 le 1 s' li,'` 44. COUnr e off,, oyw reater, ounty er Clerk of Commissioners Court Comal County, Texas