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Home My WebLink About2007-09-17-10:00AM-WORKSHOPF- =u r 12 P 2: 2 2 BRAZOS COUNTY v�o BRYAN, TEXAS NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WORKSHOP SESSION THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF BRAZOS COUNTY WILL MEET IN A WORKSHOP SESSION ON MONDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2007 AT 10:00 A.M. IN THE COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM OF THE BRAZOS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 300 E. 26TH STREET, SUITE 115, BRYAN, TEXAS. 1. Call to Order 2. Conduct a discussion regarding mail collection and delivery for Brazos County departments to include, but not limited to, the addition of new County buildings and relocation of departments, the changes in needs and logistics this creates for the processing of mail, and how best to meet those needs. 3. Adjourn The Brazos County Courthouse is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangements, call {979) 361 -4102. Office of the County Judge • 300 East 26th St. • Suite 114 • Bryan, Texas 77803 • Fax: (979) 361 -4503 Jul 91 I of 24 COMMISSIONERS' COURT WORKSHOP SESSION September 17, 2007 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Workshop Session on Monday the 17th of September, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in the Commissioners' Courtroom of the Brazos County Courthouse, 300 E. 26th, Suite 115, Bryan, Texas, with the following members of the Court present: Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding; Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct l; Duane Peters, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Carey Cauley, Commissioner of Precinct 4; Karen McQueen, County Clerk. Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol L0 I Page 3 2 of 24 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Mail Collection and Delivery September 17th, 2007 Sims: I will call this workshop session to order to conduct a discussion regarding mail collection and delivery for Brazos County departments to include, but not limited to, the addition of the new County building s and relocation of departments, the changes in needs and logistics this creates for the processing of mail, and how best to meet those needs. Mr. Mallard? Mallard: One of the things is that we have been approached by the post office and they're asking if we can set up some mail boxes here in the courthouse. That would be for the incoming mail that we would be receiving. That would be set up, probably, before the move to the administration building and as I understand what you said maybe within... Sims: Supposed to be within the next two weeks. Mallard: The next two weeks. I think keys will be issued. So a designated person from each department would come by and they would need to go to their mailbox and they would gather the mail from that. What is the approximately delivery time that they come by? Sims: I guess it would be the same time. It won't be the same time because he has the rounds of the buildings. Mallard: So it will be somewhat earlier that the mail will be up. He wouldn't have to go to every office. It's a time and cost savings to the post office as well as one way to make sure that the mail gets there ... you have your own key security. I think most of them have a large box ... if someone gets a large piece of mail then they can put it in there. So that's one item that's coming down that we're seeing. The other is that as we're moving and having new buildings come on line, we're seeing a need for some way to deal with postal delivery. One thing that we've looked at is trying to find a place for the tax office ... it may be in a different location than what it is today. Upon that move, handling the mail will change from what it is right now. So what are we Vol 101 Page '� 3 of 24 going to do about that? If they move, we may have them a site locate next door to the appraisal district and both of them move to a location somewhat closer to the center of Brazos County so that all citizens will be able to find them. So if they move, the postage machine moves. And we are going to have the Administration Building across the way, we have IT ... all these things are out in the open. We have another process and I'm glad Mr. DeLucia is able to be with us today to discuss that. Does every one of us have to have a mail machine? I certainly hope not because they're very expensive. Do we have one in each building so we can get it done? And then who's going to deal with it. One thought is to have an outside vendor so I hope you can give us some ideas on what that might be like and what we can do to where we wouldn't have to create a mailroom here in the courthouse to deal with getting the mail out to wherever it needs to go. That's kind of the preface of why I'm here ... for some of the challenges that we'll be looking at in the near future and maybe something we want to try to accomplish. Sims: Let me just say about the mailboxes; I met with the Postmaster or his representative the other day and basically what it is, is like these metal mailboxes all in one bank out in the subdivisions. Basically, it's going to be like that where all they do is open up the canister and then they start putting mail in the slots. If there is, as Commissioner Mallard said, a larger package... as you well know, out there, they have bottom tier big areas like this that they put a key in your mailbox and you take it down and they have already loaded that larger package or whatever it may be in the bottom tier down there. So, we'll probably have it lined up ... as a matter of fact, we looked at it ... I took all of the Commissioners out there to take a look at it ... underneath where we have the listing of the courts there. It will be under that. It will be put in there and bolted to the floor out there and so it will be very convenient for someone to pick mail up. How often you want to pick it up is up to the department that you're working in. But as you come in, in the morning you can go over there with your key, open it up, pull the mail out, get on the elevator and go to your respective departments. Yes sir? Conner: I was going to ask if the mail man still going to come up to the third floor to get paid for postage due? Sims: I'm sure that they want their money, so I'm sure they will. I think it makes it very convenient. Yes ma'am? Deno: Judge, what do we do about certified mail? Do we just sign? Did they say anything about certified mail? Vol ( ° l Page 6 4 of 24 Sims: I'm sure they will have... certified mail, they'll have to come up and get it. But this is just for general mail that comes through. Deno: Ok. Sims: But I think they were interested in that as Commissioner Mallard said, it's time savings and money ... it saves the post office money. Because right now they're going to every single department themselves and dropping it off with whoever handles the mail in that department. So, I think it's going to be that we're going to get two sets of them (set of boxes) so that when we do move over there... we're covering all the offices here in the courthouse... and then when we do move over there we're taking a lot of offices with us so they can take one of them (set of boxes) out, take it over there and install it over there or whatever. He said, "We'll do whatever you want to do." But I think it will save some time ... it will save us some time. You guys will know exactly ... of course, they're going to just load it, close it back up and your key gets you in your post office box. So, I think it's a good system and I think it will work well. It will take a little bit of getting use to as to what time of day they deliver and I don't know that. But I would assume that they will start loading those things about the time they start hitting the offices here in the courthouse. So, it's just going to be up to them what time they get here. I said, "Well, what if they don't even know who gets this mail ?" He said, "It's the same guy that's been delivering and he knows the offices so he knows where it needs to go in that box." McLeod: Judge, I think the keys have already been delivered. Sims: Ok. I think they have too or they're coming, anyway. Conner: The letter said it starts tomorrow. Sims: Does it? Well, we don't have any boxes out there yet. Maybe he's coming today. Female: There are assigned boxes ... our's is fourteen. They are already assigned. Sims: Well we have to set them in. I guess it doesn't take long just to bolt them to the floor out there. We tried to stay off of that terrazzo... which we did... because we don't want to ruin that and put it over there where the brick is inlaid. So, hopefully, they'll get in here today and get it going. Vol 1 6 1 Page 5 of 24 Now we need to talk about the overall picture of mail deliver, how to send it out, how to get it to Mr. DeLucia and this type of thing. Yes ma'am? McLeod: I have one more question. Currently, the mail man goes to the tax office does he not? Are they going to have a box here or is he still going to go across the street? Sims: We'll have to ask that. Saladin: We get an awful lot of mail during certain times. We get like two or three trays of mail sometimes. McLeod: Did they bring you a key? Saladin: No. McLeod: Ok. So they'll still go to the tax office. Sims: Ok. Hinton: Well, what about Road and Bridge? We've been getting our mail out there. Sims: Well, you'll continue to get it out there. This is just for those offices here in the courthouse. Mallard: Yall actually have a separate ... I'm assuming that if you would have a courthouse address is the only mail that's coming here. So it wouldn't be that. But, on your outgoing, you handle all of your own stamping now of your mail? Hinton: No, we bring it to the courthouse. Mallard: Ok. So then yall will be part of the next process not the mail process. McLeod: So the Extension Service brings theirs here ... I don't know about the JPs. You stamp your own, don't you George? Boyett: We stamp our own unless we have a mass mailing, and then we bring it down here. Sims: Ok. The interoffice memorandums will still go in the box out there ... the one behind the reception desk. Vol i o I Page '? 6 of 24 McLeod: Jeff, where do you get your mail? Jeff: Well, I get it over there some and I get some here. McLeod: Ok. Did you get a key? Jeff: Uh -uh. (negative) Sims: You didn't get a key? Gallego: Usually if we get something for him, we'll just put it in his interoffice. Mallard: One other question I hadn't thought about; is the box number that we're going to have down here ... is that going to correspond, are we still going to get mail to our suite number? McLeod: I have no idea. Mallard: Well we just have to ask the carrier that because are we going to have to change our address to this box ... and I would assume not. Sims: That's what worried me when I asked them. He said, "It's the same guy, he knows what suite number they're in, he knows what box they are. But it will probably all go there. Mallard: Well all employees do move on. Sims: I made that comment too. And he said he will have somebody trained to take his place. Mallard: Good. I wonder if we should get one of those little labeling machines and on our own put who that is and what department that is. Sims: Either that or we can ask them to do it. They probably would. Mallard: Yeah. That wouldn't hurt because a lot of times I assume we all get mail that may have your suite number on there but it goes to somebody else. Or you get the wrong suite number on it occasional... that occurs. So let's all be courteous to our other departments so we can try to get their mail back to them. McLeod: We may not want the suite numbers on those because of moving departments. Vol I b I Page 8 7 of 24 Mallard: No, I was hoping we wouldn't have to go to whatever box number that they had corresponded out there in the mail box that could be a problem or something. Anyway, that's a minor side of it. The other is, I guess, what we do when things begin to change. This is a few months out but we're looking at probably in May the administration building should be completed by then. Once the Sheriff moves out of this location, they won't need a mailbox anymore. But they will move out and then we're going to see people here in the courts building start to move. That's going to begin to shift around. Because people will probably move, temporarily, into the Sheriff s office while the remodeling goes on. We don't know anything more about that until we get some architectural plans and we haven't even gone out for architects to be chosen yet. So that's a process but I can see that this courts building is going to be in a pretty good turmoil with people moving around to different locations... some of them temporary until they can get their permanent location affixed. So that's what we're doing. The other is how do we get the postage done? How do we get that done? I don't know if Mr. DeLucia has any thoughts on that or how an outside vendor could serve the County and take care of some of our problems as far as collections of outgoing mail. DeLucia: Be glad to. My name is Scott DeLucia and I own a company called DeLucia Mail Service. We've been the mail vendor /provider for the County for about 20 years. There are companies in town that we do their entire mail operation. They found that it was not worthwhile for them to have a designated employee, pay the lease, pay the supplies, and the expenses that were necessary to maintain a machine that they are basically using for, maybe, an hour a day. So what we did is we took that over so that you would be able to ... and in your case; if you own your postage machine and meter equipment and you decided you want to have the Sheriff have that or some other remote location then they could have their own postage meter. But I would agree that it's probably not cost effective to have more than one postage meter because you have to pay a lease and maintenance agreement on all those things. So we took that over for a couple of different organizations; one hospital and some doctor's groups for that reason. And, basically, what we would do is meter your mail at the lowest possible rate that we could. We'd still have a service charge that we have for putting the bar code and all that on it. Then there would be a per piece charge for the mail based on the amount of postage. So that postage ... I don't want to be real confusing with numbers ... but full postage is .41¢, we're about .38¢ and then if we Vol l o t Page 9 8 of 24 charge ten percent that would mean that your end cost would be about .410 per piece because we add that surcharge. But then again, you have no lease involved, no maintenance involved, no employees involved. The only thing we would ask is that you have that mail at a central location so it can be picked up. So there might be some collection situation around the city or remote location and if you wanted us to do that then we could certainly talk about that as being part of the agreement. But everything we're talking about would be based on all that mail coming to one location, still be dropped at approximately the same time that it is now. And then my employees will just pick it up without postage on it and take it to our location. The other side of that is the money, obviously. The postage, how we handle that. And what we do with our customers is we go through and ascertain what the average amount of postage is. Let's say $10,000.00 a month. Then what we do is we get an advanced check payable to us for $10,000.00 that goes into our postage meter. And then your statement that we send you each month would be different because it would show each day, the amount of postage that was spent and then what you're remaining balance is. Then when we get close to the amount, we just get in touch with whatever official and they just make a wire transfer into our account. And it, again, shows up whatever that needs to be. So we don't tie up your money any more than it would be right now sitting in a postage meter. But we do ask that, obviously, the money be there in advance since the post office doesn't give us credit. Are there questions that anybody has? Sims: Questions for Mr. DeLucia? Mallard: I know that there was one comment that somebody mentioned and I can't remember who it was but it may have been up in the Treasurer's office or something. There's some mail that's very sensitive and they feel like, `I want to make sure it gets into the mail box.' DeLucia: Certainly. Mallard: And they're reason, whatever ... it has to get there and so... DeLucia: Doesn't offend me. Don't have any problem with that. No postage employee is bonded. No postal employee is bonded with the exception of postal inspectors because they are the only ones who can legally open the mail. And I certainly understand and if there are departments that are uncomfortable with that, that's fine. We've been doing this for 22 years. You guys pretty much know where I live and the idea is that we need to Vol 1 o, Page 10 9 of 24 get the mail where it needs to be. There's no advantage, obviously, for us to delay the mail or do anything that would cause any kind of impropriety. But, obviously, for that mail that is sensitive, geographically... yall are in pretty good position. You have a post office a couple blocks down the street. The main post is office right up the road. So if you're employees felt like they wanted to do that themselves, then we certainly understand that. Mallard: It's not only somebody stealing the mail or something like that but also about the process on making sure it gets out. DeLucia: Sure. Well, again, expediting the mail is all we're about. When we start slowing the mail down, we lose business. We wouldn't do that. Again, if this was something that yall were interested in ... it was a bank, they're not here any more. Course that could be a lot of banks ... but we did registered mail for them. Well, actually, you must take the book because a fiduciary instrument and you must take the book in and get it stamped across the counter. And if there's mail, that there are documents that have to be done in a registered way then we can certainly do that too. We can talk about that. Mallard: So you can... DeLucia: Sure. We don't have any ... if that's something that you want to include in the service then that's something we can do. Mallard: And I don't know... some of the departments where yall have a lot of registered mail or some registered mail that you're having to get out ... how do yall deal with that now? Sweeny: We take it over and we stamp it ourselves and then we take it to the post office the next day. Mallard: Ok. So you go ahead and do all that registering there at the tax office? Sweeny: Yes sir. DeLucia: The only difference, for instance, if we did it and yall got rid of your postage meter ... they would have to go to the post office and have the postage affixed there. But you still have documentation that you received it from the post office. Sweeny: Yes. Vol j 01 Page I I 10 of 24 DeLucia: A band that was stamped received at that point. So they'll still have to go to the post office ... the only difference is that they would purchase the postage across the counter there as opposed to if you're doing it over here where you affix postage. Mallard: So is there some way you could do that? DeLucia: Well, I can affix the postage ... we can do that. If that department or any department feels comfortable with us taking the mail. What happens is, we have a registry book that says, these pieces go into this place and were posted on this date. When they go there, they stamp that book with the date and then they stamp the piece with the date. This has to do with registered. And then they have that. There are certain cases that are return receipt certified mail. I don't know how much of that yall necessarily do but it would be handled the same way. Saladin: Some days we have a lot of that. Now the other day ... I'm the one that processes the mail across the street ... we had a whole box of certified return receipt. DeLucia: Ok. Saladin: And it just goes through and puts the postage on it. DeLucia: Reeves: What we do in a case like that, if that happens ... then our courier that goes to the post office, because we go to the post office every day ... they get those all date stamped and then what we will do is we will bring them back to you the next mail day or the second day. So that yall still have your record that you... Saladin: Oh they don't leave... DeLucia: Oh you don't want that... ok. Saladin: (inaudible) put to me, anyway, that's why they do it. DeLucia: Ok. I got ya. Well, registered is a different creature. Again, but that's ultra secret. They moved it from city one to city two under a locked box. But again, those are usually fiduciary instruments and that's the reason that they want to do that. And you do have to have a ledger book for registered, right? Saladin: Ours is mainly certified. Vol (o q Page r A 11 of 24 DeLucia: Ok. Ok. Well all right. Then you may not be interested if that's what you're doing. Mallard: So that's not something that's impossible to do? DeLucia: Oh no, no, no. We have a courier that goes everyday. What we do is we have a chance to ... we kind of have a special place where we can go in the post office that the regular customers can't. And so we have a clerk back there that can stamp those certified and we can bring the receipts back. Mallard: So you would get your receipt that it had been done, it would just be the next day. Is that a problem; the delay on that? (inaudible) Sims: Yes sir. Sennett: I work at the Health Department and we send out canisters with samples in them. DeLucia: We do canisters. Sennett: So that wouldn't be a problem. DeLucia: They're pre - postage paid in most cases? Sennett: No. Not... DeLucia: Ok. That's fine. That doesn't matter. Sure we can do those too. We do those now. Sennett: And then bulk mail that we leave unsealed? DeLucia: Bulk mail? Sennett: Yeah, like a bunch of mail and they all have ... the envelopes are all unsealed. DeLucia: Oh yeah. Sure. That's fine. Sennett: Ok. DeLucia: If you're comfortable with that then we're fine with that too. Vol 101 page l 3 12 of 24 Mallard: Is there some sort of sorting or pre- sorting that would need to be done by the departments. DeLucia: I would need to know a little bit more about yall's accounting system. Accountability by department, how you do that, what kind of records, do they keep up with a ledger over at the Tax Office saying this department ran this many pieces of mail. None of that? Ok. If that's the case, then it doesn't matter. Yall are one customer as far as we're concerned... you're Brazos County. Mallard: So yall actually do all the sorting and pre- sorting or whatever? DeLucia: Yeah. Exactly. Everything that's necessary. The only time that we would probably... and I don't know that there's any ... if yall have any situations where you so ... you said "Bulk rate." That's actually a different rate of mail. It's called pre -sorted standard. If you do something that is a lot of pieces that is not first class mail, it takes a special permit and things like that. We'll be glad to do that for the departments. I just don't know of any County departments that necessarily do that. But that's something that's available. That's the only mail that would actually be physically handled differently than the mail we're talking about. Because this mail actually would go through a postage meter ... the pre -sort mail or bulk mail usually has a permit imprint or something like that on it. But if those occasions arise, we can talk about it. Sweeny: Does your mail go to Houston first and then... DeLucia: Yes. Yes. Sweeny: Even the local mail? DeLucia: Now if these have jury summons, for instance, don't. They stay here. The reason it goes to Houston is that's where the bar code is affixed which gives us a lower price and the mail comes back here every day, Monday through Friday. Now yall may not know that mail is not processed in Bryan on weekends. Sims: Right. It takes a little while to get it... DeLucia: It does. Yeah. Then you know. Right. Now the whole idea, the whole lynch pin in this deal is the mail has to be turned around and brought back. And that's the reason the postal service is wanting to do this. They don't want a guy walking all over the building. It's much more efficient for him to come in and drop that mail some place and he's off and gone. Vol t o I Page I I 13 of 24 They're trying to do an economy of size and efficiency thing too. So that's what this is all about. Conner: So right now what are we getting per piece? .38¢? DeLucia: .410 ... you're end rate is probably about .39¢, you're probably saving about .02¢. Conner: So to eliminate the person who's doing and the postage machine, it'd probably go up to about .410? DeLucia: Yeah, (inaudible) I don't know exactly how you use your employees or if they have to come away from some place else to do that, but, it's basically your maintenance and your lease which are going to be your expense. But I believe you'll end up saving money. I'm going to be honest with you, we do well on certified mail because the postage rate is so high. We don't do so well on the single letter piece mail. But when you start talking about your maintenance and your equipment it's a deal that's been cost effective, certainly, for some of our customers. We've been doing one hospital for about six years now. Mallard: I was wondering... someone's here with the tax office that handles that? Yes ma'am ... would the tax office, I assume, still need to handle their own mail. Saladin: No. Not if he picked it all up at one simple location. Mallard: Ok. I guess that if, in fact, this move does occur ... I don't know that it will ... but if it does and the tax office is moved to a different location further away from the courthouse then I didn't know if yall would still need to do that. Saladin: Well, we could bring our mail here or wherever the central location is. Mallard: Or maybe we can make arrangements for a second pick up. DeLucia: Yeah. Obviously yall are going to come up with some geographical situations that we don't have right now. And that's why we'll be more than happy to talk to you about ... I have couriers on the roads everyday. What we want to try to do is make it cost effective and time effective most importantly. What we have found with our customers where we do all the mail is if one of them is going to have a ton of mail that day then they let us know. Again, let's say the hard and fast drop time is 3:30 or whatever... well if they've got their mail ready at 1:00 o'clock, fortunately, this is still a small enough area that we can come down here Vol 101 Page 15 Sims Saladin: DeLucia: 14 of 24 at 1:00 o'clock and we can get their mail and get started and then come back at the regular time and pick up the regular mail. We're certainly flexible when it comes to something like that. The bulk at the tax office would be voter registration, would it not? Only during mass mail out. Our taxes are done by whoever we are paying to prepare the tax notices. Yeah, your tax stuff comes out of Austin now. Saladin: Yeah. It's just once in a while we have a little more mail. But it's not like it used to be. The only time is when they do a mass mail out of the voter registration cards when we change over. Like at the end of this year when they expire. And that's when there will be a whole lot. DeLucia: When that happens we'll sit down and talk with them. We're the providers... we'll say, "This is what we'll do for you." That's a different animal. McLeod: Sheriff, you want to talk about what you're going to do with the mail when you... Kirk: When we vacate the courthouse? We've just had rudimentary discussions. We realize that we'll probably put a deadline on our group and then move them to wherever we need to. McLeod: Ok. The mail that comes from the jail; do you transport that in everyday anyway? (no audible response) McLeod: Ok. Mallard: Sheriff, are yall going to start trying to get your mail moved over to your new address location or are you still...? Kirk: Yes. Mallard: Ok. So eventually, all of your delivery will be coming to you direct. Sims: You know, I didn't even broach that subject with the post office but they would probably be excited because as many people as you have in that building now ... they would probably much rather put some mailboxes in your building. Vol 101 Page I (0 15 of 24 Sheriff: Right. Sims: And provide you with keys. I will broach that. I will give them a call. DeLucia: Let me touch on the mail going to Houston for just a minute. There are customers that prefer that we drop the mail in Bryan at full postage at .410 and don't care about the discounts. Generally, I think, treasurers are usually the ones that want to make sure that happen because somebody looks at that check or whatever. And if they're comfortable with it being at .41¢, we'll go ahead and drop that at the post office. Any departments that feel like they want to do that, that's not a problem as far as we're concerned. Sims: That was a real time consuming deal; taking it to Houston to get it taken care of down there. I know my wife got an invite to Michelle over at the TV station, her wedding shower showed up here about three days after it happened. DeLucia: It's tough. It's tough. I'm not going to deny that. Sims: You don't have to make excuses for the United States post office. DeLucia: And what they're trying to do is they're trying to start running it like a business and we hope that they will. But the idea is that that is the whole reason we got into the business of putting bar codes on mail because we can automate and we can save them money. We're actually friends of the post office, we're not adversaries. The idea is to make it more efficient for them if we can. So that's the whole purpose of the company. Sweeney: So my understanding is that if we take it to the mail here on William Joel Bryan post office that they will deliver it in town and it doesn't go to Houston. DeLucia: I didn't say that. Sweeney: That's not so. DeLucia: I said if you're more comfortable taking the mail with full postage to the Bryan post office then that's fine. Sweeney: But their's still goes to Houston? DeLucia: I didn't say that either. I'm not gonna get in trouble with those folks. Vol 101 Page 1-7 16 of 24 Sims: In answer to your question, I'll tell you what the told me; yes, it does go to Houston. Sweeney: It does go to Houston... even the local service? Sims: Yeah. DeLucia: It becomes a situation where you have ... it's amazing equipment ... it will read a bar code, excuse me ... it will read an address, it will access a data base, it will print a 13 digit bar code on the bottom and read it at the rate of 25,000 an hour. It's pretty amazing. It'll take your handwritten or type written address, it'll read it, access a data base, figure out what the zip plus four is, print that plus two other correction digits on the bottom, and then they have second machine that reads that bar code and then sorts it, again. At 25,000 pieces an hour. So it moves. It doesn't sit around in bags in Houston. And while I'm talking about that, any time we can have type written addresses, that's great. Handwritten we see less and less of it now that we don't do what we call jail mail ... which use to be very entertaining, those guys can draw pretty well. They could ... they could draw a better Garfield than the guy who designed it. Sims: I get several of those a week too. DeLucia: But anyway, any time you can not have hand written then that helps out. Anything else? Sims: Questions? Conner: You said about 10 %? DeLucia: About 10 %, yes. Mallard: I can see that this could be a real benefit to us, probably even cost effective wise, to have an outside service to go ahead and provide... and you're providing service for us now but I think that ... but there are other restrictions, aren't we supposed to bundle that or...? DeLucia: No, you don't really have to do much of that anymore. What yall are doing is yall are affixing the postage on it. There's not anything, really, that you have to do from that standpoint now. There was a time but now it's pretty well taken care of as far as all the County mail and so forth. Mallard: And then the time that you normally pick this up is what time of day? DeLucia: Well I don't know ... I wanna say that we pick up around 4:00 o'clock? Vol i d l Page 19 17 of 24 Saladin: 3:45. DeLucia: 3:45, right around there. So we try not to change your universe too much. We want to keep it in a pretty good situation because, obviously, people get into a routine and we want to be able to keep as close to that. Saladin: No, they pick up the mail here in the courthouse and take it over to me at 2:00 o'clock. DeLucia: At 2:00 o'clock, ok. McLeod: The man comes at 2:00, takes it over there, and then he (DeLucia) picks it up. Saladin: And then I process it and he picks it up later. DeLucia: Ok. Right. Mallard: So, you would handle more but yet you would be able to save some on the postage by doing it in bulk so, therefore, it may just kind of average out? DeLucia: We try to end up making it a wash on your white letter mail ... you're number ten envelopes and things like that. Probably where our revenue stream is, is when it comes to the certifieds and things like that. But, also, we have a high volume machine. I have employees who are doing that all day rather than you take somebody from their job that they're specified to and then go off and do that and have to deal with the annoyance of...you get all sorts of mail, don't you? Saladin: DeLucia: Sims: DeLucia: Sims: Vol I do still process jail mail everyday and it wads up in the machine because they have a big sheet that goes in a little envelope. You sell them on it. You're talking to people who have to deal with it. What do you do with different sized envelopes? Yeah, well, that's our job. We have to do that. We take that and... Because they've started to charge more for different size envelopes. l I Page L� 18 of 24 DeLucia: Yes sir. Well just a paper, .17¢ a piece. So anytime you can keep it down to thin there's a .17¢ surcharge. I'll leave this here for your department heads. Gallego: We need to buy the standard envelopes... they're sending out those little bitty ones. Mallard: They're too small and it always jams up in the machine. DeLucia: Yeah. That's also true. Absolutely. I'll leave that there for your department heads ... that's a way to save money. Mallard: You may want to pass that along to the inmates. Saladin: It takes me quite a while to sort the mail because we do get the bulk rate and we call it `white mail' and it's .34¢ or .48¢ depending one ounce or two ounce. But I have to sort it and keep it separated because your different departments put the fat ones in with the skinny ones and upside down and right side up. But it takes quite a bit of time to do that for me. And I am the receptionist and the supply clerk over there. And it takes me away from my job so that means I have to pull somebody from their job to sit at my desk to answer the phones while I'm doing the mail. Gallego: Sheriff, do you sell the envelopes to the inmates that they use? Kirk: They can buy some. We have to provide some too to the indigents but yeah. Gallego: I was just wondering where they get those little bitty ones ... is that what they bring or is that what we're selling. Because maybe we need to be selling the standard size. Mallard: Yeah, we probably need to check that because it's a whole lot more expensive to do the small envelopes. DeLucia: Yeah, .17¢ a piece. Mallard: Yeah. Sims: Yes ma'am.? Saladin: Because the jail mail gets .41¢. Where if they were in #10 envelopes, they would get .34¢. At least right now. Mallard: Sounds like #10 envelopes. Vol 1101 Page 90 19 of 24 Sims: Yes. Gallego: Uh -huh. (positive) Mallard: I would use that since it's cheaper. Guitron: At the courthouse, up front here... everyone comes down to drop it off before 2:00 o'clock because maintenance transports it over to the Tax Office. If that's not needed any more, I'd rather they pick it up here at the courthouse. We're taking mail outside a secured building and across the street which I always felt uncomfortable with. Sims: Ok. McLeod: Well if it's not going to be metered and postage put on it across the street, I would assume you could pick it up here as well as the Tax Office. DeLucia: As long as I have close access parking for my people. I don't want them to have to park across the street. I mean if it's in this building we just want to be able to have access. And again, we'll have a flag... Sims: You want a drive through window is what you're saying. Ok. Mallard: So how do we do between the tax... Saladin: Well they would have to haul our mail over here which is less mail than hauling all the courthouse mail over there. Mallard: Ok. I didn't know how much yall were putting out. I assumed that yall were putting out more mail than the County but that's not true. So it will actually be easier to bring it over here. Saladin: Yes. DeLucia: How is that mail collected now? Is it in buckets or how does that work? Saladin: It's your buckets. The white buckets. DeLucia: The white buckets? Saladin: Yeah, and he brings it over here and I sorts it. DeLucia: Ok. All right. Vol 1 6 1 Page P- I 20 of 24 Mallard: So we could do that now. Sims: Maybe we can get one of our commissioners to do that. Mallard: So if we just started reversing the process now, would that be of a help to you? Saladin: Well they come over everyday to pick up the interoffice mail and the checks that we have for the auditors or treasure's office. So I could bring it over when I come. It's not that heavy. Mallard: I don't know ... does that make sense now, to do that now? Ocon: But where would you place that mail? I mean even though you say you're going to bring it over because all of the mail is out there up front on the desk. Saladin: I'll bring it to the desk. Ocon: You just going to leave it up there with all of the rest of the stuff? McLeod: But you don't have that much except when you do voter registration, do you? Saladin: That's correct. McLeod: Ok. Guitron: Or receipts, receipts for property tax. Saladin: Oh yeah. Receipts, yeah. At that time we do. Maybe have a maintenance man help when we send out tax receipts. Mallard: So do we have something we want to change now maybe? DeLucia: It's still going to end up across the street, because that's where the meter is. Sims: That's where the meter is. Mallard: Ok. So, no, we're not going to change... that's right. So we still have to put the meter... ok. Sims: Yes? Vol I O1 Page � 7- , 1Z 21 of 24 Conner: I think if you wanted to change it to him affixing the postage and everything, you have to go out for bid. DeLucia: Oh sure. Sims: Who else does that in town? Anybody? DeLucia: I don't know. Maybe. Sims: You're not going to tell me? DeLucia: No. No. No. Jack might do an ad mail but I don't think so, simply because then you have to put together a vendor agreement in Houston. I mean I don't know. I'll be glad to bid it though. Howard: We've only spent $11,000.00 so far this year so we have it on contract right now. Conner: But we'd spend way more than that if he was doing the postage too. Howard: Yes. If he were doing the postage, it would have to have it very specified. DeLucia: How do you mean very specified? Howard: In the specifications of the bid about exactly what we need. DeLucia: Oh sure. Be glad to help you with any kind of specs on that. McLeod: What are we spending on actual postage? Sims: What was the question? McLeod: What are we actually spending on postage? Sims: Oh, ok. Conner: We run every two months. Saladin: We've been doing about $10,000.00 every two weeks. DeLucia: Yeah, I bet. Conner: Twenty grand a month. McLeod: How long is the lease for? Vol 101 Page 22 of 24 DeLucia: Your lease is probably $1,100.00 a month and I don't know what your maintenance is. Mallard: To me it seems like it's going to be a whole lot cheaper to have an outside service do this? Sims: Do it all? Mallard: I mean if he does it for ... I think there is some economy not only to have an outside service so we're not having our employees doing double duty on mail plus their regular job that we may be saving money. Wouldn't that be neat? Howard: We own the machine and we pay $75.00 a month for maintenance. Female: Well for the lease of the meter. Mallard: I don't think you really own it. You just kinda borrow it. DeLucia: You own the mailing machines ... you can't have the meter. Mallard: I know. I know. DeLucia: They belong to the postal service. Mallard: But it would get us out of the postage business. I ran one of those when we had them and it messes up and you had to put a tape in there so, I mean, you're losing postage too because of the way the mail hangs up in it every now and then and doing that too. DeLucia: Well they also mentioned jury summons. Are the jury summons people in here? Yall currently put scotch tape on those to seal them ... they are by post card. And we have a tabbing machine that will do that real quickly. And so if we end up doing that, obviously, you can just give those to us already burst or we have a bursting machine too and then we would tab those and put them through a postage meter. Gallego: But I think they were the ones that you were remembering had the issue or the Judge might have an issue with tampering with the jury if there was too much public knowledge of who was going to be called to jury. DeLucia: Oh I see. I understand. Gallego: There was some issue there. I can't remember. Vol 1 b 1 Page y 23 of 24 DeLucia: When we first started people were, "Well you mailed me a letter yesterday... did you notice ?" Sims: Any other questions? We'll get this thing arranged properly. It may take a little while and a little trial and error. But I think we'll get it done because I think once we get the system set up I think it will be advantages to all of us, personally. Mallard: Yeah. Sims: But it's just something we're going to have to work with. Any other questions? George? No? Ok. McLeod: You said you get stamps? Boyett: We're still getting stamps and we get a budget block for that. And if we have to have a very, very large mail... then we bring it down here. Conner: I have to interject there ... just so everybody knows ... I think I sent a memo out probably a year ago ... if you buy stamps and you sell them to your employees, that money had to go back to the general fund. Sims: Thank you. Yes. Conner: Not sit in a desk drawer. Boyett: The easy way is ... we don't sell stamps to employees. That's a no -no. Sims: Ok. Commissioners, any other questions? No. Mallard: Just really appreciate you coming today. Thank you. Sims: Thank you Scott. DeLucia: Glad to do it. Sims: Appreciate you coming down because we want to get this where it works for both of us and so I will adjourn this... Audio ends mid - sentence. Vol 1 D 1 Page a-5 24 of 24 The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Workshop held September 17th, 2007, have been examined and approved in open Court this the day of T6n• , 200 in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. Duane Peters Commissioner, Precinct No. 2 C rey C uley, Jr. Commissioner, Precinct 4 Attest: 1� Ka en McQueen County Clerk Vol 10 1 Page a y4yz X -4-'4 4 Lloyd Vassermann Commissioner, Precinct No. 1 Kenny Mal rd Commissioner, Precinct No. 3 B RAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT DAY OF 2(�`_� 0, "vim AM f Name (PLEASE PRINT) 'it -�v s utf-�l u� td � Smoak- C) Organization (PLEASE PRINT) K� TP z Z-- �(ct f c G�aS -,(- Z- 101 �2--1 1'g of BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT DAY OF �� , 20� Name _t VuNnI � ��Il��- L �K �O1J Organization (PLEASE PRINT) C I Z. be pC 1'9 u f �I 101 z,g