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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-11-27-10:00AM-WORKSHOPBRAZOSCOUNTY 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 TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 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. Discussion on the use of the Brazos County Exposition Center for animal sheltering operations during a hurricane evacuation or other disaster. 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 26'" St. • Suite 114 . Bryan, Texas 77803 • Fax: (979) 361 -4503 I of 25 COMMISSIONERS' COURT WORKSHOP SESSION November 27, 2007 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Workshop Session on Monday the 27th of November, 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; absent Karen McQueen, County Clerk. Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol /o-,-.;. Page --;2 yL 2 of 25 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Animal Sheltering Operations During Disaster November 27th, 2007 Sims: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to our meeting today. This is a workshop session for discussion on the use of the Brazos County Expo Center for animal sheltering operations during a hurricane evacuation or other disaster. It is exactly 10:00 o'clock by our clock so we will start this discussion. Who is going to start? Let me put some parameters here; when you get up, give us your name and your address so that we can get it on our tape to be transcribed. So anybody who does speak; give us your name and address, please. Wiggington: My name is Sam Wiggington. I'm the manager of the Large Animal Clinic at Texas A &M. I live out at Edge, Texas. My address is 16556 Pine Tree Road and I am here representing the Large Animal Issues Committee. What I would like to do is read this since sometimes my mouth gets faster than my brain. Sims: All right. Would you like to come up here? Wiggington: Right here is fine. And my eyesight still works. Sims: Ok, Sam. Wiggington: The Animal Issues Committee has been tasked by the State Division of Emergency Management to formulate a plan in case of disaster, be it environmental or man made. To this point we have been meeting with numerous committees both within Brazos County and outside of the county to prepare for care and housing of both small and large animals. Just as a reminder of our past experience during our most recent disaster with Hurricane Rita, the people of Brazos County not only cared for thousands of human patients but also supplied care and housing for thousands of small and large animals. Through our lessons learned in past experience, we have been attempting to improve upon both personnel support systems and our facilities. As you well know both the small and large animal hospital were used to care for hundreds of human evacuees during this disaster. Vol W5 Page a 4 i 3 of 25 In the event of any future disaster both clinics large and small will only be used for the more seriously injured animals. Knowing all of this we need to prepare for animals that require a safe place to be housed and cared for during the disaster. Over the past year and a half we have been working on a plan for a volunteer support system with people throughout the Brazos County to care for evacuating animals both small and large. With the aid of the College of Veterinary Medicine and the local practitioners of the Brazos Valley Veterinary Assoc. and members of organizations, a plan is being developed to care for these evacuating animals. The Animal Issues Committee is composed of personnel from the county office of emergency management and volunteers from all different areas of our community. Our purpose of this visit is to try and establish a location that will adequately house literally thousands of evacuated animals. As you know, our proposal includes the use of the Brazos County Expo Center. The reason for this informational meeting is to determine the answers to two crucial issues involving our abilities to provide for future evacuees: I . Is the Expo Center available if animal disaster evacuation is needed? 2. If it is available, will it always be available at times when there are previously scheduled venues occurring on the center's agenda? Sims: Ok. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak to that? Speak to anything that has to do with that? I know that it does make a lot of sense that we use our Expo Center. Let me make some comments and ask some questions at the same time of people that are expert in this. Number one: we have a rodeo arena out there with stall barns next to it. We could handle some of the large animals, as you well know, out there in the stall barns. We can outfit that where we could put them. The small animals such as dogs and cats and this type of thing ... can they be housed in animal crates by setting up something in that rodeo arena. Where you have them in there ... it will probably get a little noise at times ... but if we are going to use the Exhibit Hall out there for people and they want to stay close to their animals (it's about a fifteen step walk to the rodeo arena out there), and if we have them up off the ground, of course, and have them in crates that we can make that available to the people that are brining their small animals with them. Whether they're bringing small animals or large animals we can handle quite a few large animals with the stall barns. Is there a problem with that? I've heard two different things. I've heard it has to be air conditioned and on the other hand I thought to myself, `Well Vol to 3 Page a 4 8 4 of 25 sometimes we have shelters that are not air conditioned that people stay in.' And just a matter of that's all there is. So I guess what I'm asking; would that be a viable situation? That we could put individual animals in crates that we could stack or put in the rodeo arena? Certainly we will tag them and make sure everybody knows who they are. We don't want to confuse anything. But would that be...? Yes sir? Sam, go ahead. Wiggington: I'll tell you, Judge; we bounced that back and forth multiple times amongst all of us and the consensus of opinion ... of course, you're looking at somebody that's on the large animal side ... the consensus of opinion of cross mixing species is very difficult to do. In other words, if you have some small animals and some large animals in the same facility that can lend to some problems. Especially animals that aren't use to being around larger animals. Even though they are in crates. These animals would have to be taken out, they'd have to be walked through areas and stuff like that. You take a barking Rottweiler and a horse that's right there and the horse is spooked by the Rottweiler as he comes through the barn and the horse spooks and runs through different things ... you can have all kinds of wrecks. What we try not to do out at the clinic is cross mix the species. We're very careful even with our clients that come in to visit and have a dog on a lead rope. We've had issues even in those aspects. So as far as where I'm coming from, I don't feel comfortable in mixing the two species. Sims: How much separation would we need? Sheffield: I was going to say... Sims: Yes ma'am. You're name and address please? Sheffield: My name is Cynthia Sheffield and I live at 11067 Forest Drive. I am the co -chair for the small animal community. Sims: Ok. Good. Sheffield: I agree with him that if you had both large animals and small animals in the arena that that might be an issue. However, if you had the animals in the stalls and the small animals set up on crates in the arena, I don't think that would be an issue. Basically, you have access to outside areas that we could walk them away from the large animals. Sims: That's right. Right. Vol l o-� Page 2-49 5 of 25 Sheffield: And as far as having them outside in crates; basically, that's how we did it... Sims: It's under roof, of course. Sheffield: Right. Last time we had them in Lewis Pearce Pavilion. We had them on the ground there and we had them on the concrete there. I don't see a problem with that. We already have a plan that talks about putting them in crates and that sort of thing. The only concern would be like the cats and really, really small animals. Because you mentioned cats and dogs but last time we got everything from parrots, snakes, frogs, and ferrets and things like that. Sims: Right. Sheffield: So the very small animals, I think we would have an issue with. We would have to find a way to accommodate them. Perhaps if there's a storage building that we could use. Or I know that there is a kind of a cafeteria area adjacent to the arena. If we could have access to that to put certain smaller animals in that then I think we could work with that arena space. I don't think that would be a problem. Sims: Ok. Sheffield: I think my conversation with you about a week or so ago ... I think that sometimes I get a grander vision than what we're going to end up with. And when we talked about the issues that come up ... there may be issues that I haven't thought of. Certainly the issues that we talked about in terms of trying to house animals in the exhibit hall and the contamination issues. Those are real issues. And that was something I had not thought about and don't have a real good answer for that. So if that's the case then we just adapt the plan. We just back off using the exhibit halls for the animals and we'll adapt that plan so that we can house the smaller animals in the arena and then the larger animals in the stall barn. That limits what we can do in terms of the number of large animals but I mean, this is a very dynamic plan. So, we just need to know what we're dealing with. Wiggington: Right. Sims: Well I know that ... God bless 'em ... the auction barn helped us out last time and I appreciated that too. Hopefully within the next two years we'll have another stall barn out there. Because the way we look at it is if we're going to ever compete for large events ... we're going to have to have another stall barn. So that's just something that we have been discussing to a degree. Vol 103 Page 05-0 6 of 25 Let me read some thing in here; I was looking at this FEMA disaster assistance policy and it says, `Household Pet', it's the definition of, A domesticated animal, such as a dog, cat, bird, rabbit, rodent or turtle that is traditionally kept in the home for the pleasure rather than for commercial purposes, can travel in commercial carriers, and be housed in temporary facilitates. Household pets do not include reptiles (except turtles), amphibians, fish, insects, arachnids, farm animals (including horse) and animals kept for racing purposes. And I think that limits the reptiles anyway. But I understand where you're coming from and I think really and truly it would be ... hopefully, we never have to use this thing ... but let's be prepared for whatever happens. But I think if we do ... if, in fact, it's two years from now, three years from now when we do have the other stall barn, we can certainly handle a lot of large animals. It'll be set up, as you well know, so veterinarians can get in there, if necessary, to be able to treat the animals and this type of thing. I'm just visiting with all of this because I know that we're going to have to do a few things out at that Expo Center. Number one, we're probably going to end up having to lease a generator so that we make sure we have lights ... not only in the Exhibit Hall but also out in that area. That is an expenditure that will be reimbursed if we lease a generator. They were very careful... and I know why because I know what a generator cost to operate that whole thing out there, it's about a half a million dollars to put generators out there that will run lights, air conditioning, and everything else. So that's something we have to look at if we're going to house people out there. So with that in mind ... but we can lease generators and FEMA will reimburse. But go ahead. I'm sorry, I kind of got off base there. Yes sir, Tom? Quarels: Judge, let me make some comments. I think from a personal stand point ... I'm going to get up here; not that you're going to have trouble hearing because I have a loud voice ... I think I have personal and professional obligation and responsibility not only to Brazos County Commissioners' Court but also to the Animal Issues Committee because I am the professional person that's been hired to manage the Brazos County Expo Complex. Let me just say this and I hope I don't speak too long on this ... but I have great empathy for the mission that this committee and the responsibility that they have. From a personal standpoint, I'm a large animal owner and a small animal owner and have been all my life so I'm looking at it from that standpoint. I'm also looking at it from a professional standpoint and what I think is Vol 103 Page a-5-I 7 of 25 best as far as my responsibility goes for Brazos County and that Expo Complex out there. I'm going to say the committee has worked hard. They have done their due diligence. This isn't the first time that they have brought this up and visited with us as a professional staff. They got with us, probably, a year ago not long after ground was broken and initial construction started and started talking about this. And we met with them. And that time we listened to what their mission was and what they were trying to accomplish and we pledged to do our best to work with them as closely as we possibly could. At that time I had, in all honesty, we had lots of things on our plate and it was hard for us to really get focused on this because we had total construction ahead of us. And believe me, there's been a lot of challenges and there is a lot that has happened since then and we finally have the facility up and running at this point. We still have some things that we're working on but we have just now in the past month or so had an opportunity to really get focused on this a little bit. Knowing that we were going to have this workshop and for us to really brainstorm and do some thinking about it as a staff. With all that being said, I feel like ... and, again, I'm trying to look at it from every angle that I can possibly look at it. I feel like that both the stall barn or the Pavilion (as we call it) and the covered arena both would serve a real important purpose in trying to meet the needs of trying to put together a plan at the Expo Complex. I know, as Sam mentioned, again, not only being a small and large animal owner, but I was at Houston Livestock Show for 20 years and all the rules that we had to deal with down there in terms of having small animals on the grounds when we had a livestock show going on. There was some pretty important rules that we had to follow for good reason. I think that we would have to get organized but I think that we could get organized and divide the facility in such a way were ... I can't remember you're name, but as you mentioned a few minutes ago ... I think that that could be structured and we could get organized and we could make that work. We'd have to partition part of it off and we'd have to plan it in advance but there's doubt in my mind that we could make it work. And I want you to know ... I don't want the Commissioners to think and I'm sure they're going to tell us what they think but from a management standpoint ... I don't see any reason from our standpoint that both of those facilities couldn't be made available. My only concern is what we would do if we had events scheduled and going on and this happened. And that's the only thing that I'm concerned about because we have a contract ... we contract with the people that have Vol to- 5 Page as-1, 8 of 25 those events going on out there. And I don't know, from a legal standpoint, what we would get into if all of a sudden we had to cancel somebody's event. Because many times a lot of these peoples whether they're horse show, livestock show, dirt shows, or whatever... they schedule these events as much as two, three, four years in advance. And they spend a lot of money on advertising. So for us to all of a sudden tell them ... and we would have very good reason ... but for us to tell them that they couldn't have their event because we were going to have to use if for a shelter ... I can't answer that. I don't know what we would get into legally or a situation like that. And I guess our attorneys would have to look at that and see whether we could do something like that. And maybe we have to structure our contracts where we put in the contracts that if a disaster happens that this is a complex that would be used for a disaster or hurricane or whatever type of major emergency would happen and if that happened and it was necessary we would have the right to cancel the event within a certain number of days. And then we get into a deal; well what would that number of days be and how much lead time are we going to know in advance. I'm just throwing that out. I certainly think that both of those facilities could be used. I think that we could organize and structure it and plan it so they could be used efficiently and effectively. We would be on board to work with you and to make that thing as successful as we could possibly make it. My only question is the legal part of people that have events that we have contracted with. The Exhibit Hall; I have a little different feeling on and I don't know any other way ... I'm just going to be honest with you. I'm a straightforward person anyway and I just kind of tell it like it is and hopefully I do that diplomatically but I'm concerned about small animals in there now. This thing has evolved so much from the first time that we talked. I mean we did an upgrade on the floor, we've gone in there with a ceiling ... it's not a full ceiling but it's Tectum ceiling where we have sound board up there. And I'm really concerned about putting small animals in there and the contaminants, the pet dander, the smell that potentially could be absorbed into the Tectum panel, into the insulation, into the ventilation system and where we'd be. The main purpose for the Exhibit Hall is a clean ... where the other two facilities aren't what you would call clean facilities in our industry ... the Exhibit Hall is a clean facility and it is for banquets and conventions and meetings and parties and receptions and trade shows. And we've electrical floor boxes in it and I'm just real concerned about ... it's not that Vol tio,3 Page 9 S3 9 of 25 it couldn't, potentially, be cleaned up, if we couldn't get money to do that. How long would it take to get it that way and what do we have to go through to get it that way and how is it going to impact us on all the things that we are contracted to have. You know, just being totally honest about it and up front with you... after we've had time to really think about it we've got concerns about using the Exhibit Hall for that reason. I'm just throwing this out, I don't know whether it'd be a possibility or not ... don't even know whether we want to go there but if we use the other two buildings and we got it organized and structured and planned and we used part of it for small animals and the rest of it for large animals and we could use the Exhibit Hall maybe for owners. Maybe that's an alternative. I don't know because I haven't been there and done that like yall ... I'm just throwing that out. I don't even know whether that's a possibility. We don't have showers out there, really. And anytime you have the people out there, you've got to have the facilities to take care of them. I know that shower units can be rented. We rented them in Houston. We put our rodeo cowboys out on our 288 property where we housed our rodeo stock and we put tents and pens and panels up and horse stalls up out there. We put comfort stations up. Not just portable restrooms ... we put actual comfort stations up where they were heated and cooled and had toilets and sinks in them. And we also had shower units. And BFI or Waste Management built those for us. So we were able to handle that. But you're talking about a certain number of rodeo cowboys as opposed to probably a larger volume of pet owners. I just don't know where they would fit. And I don't know the availability. I know the Judge was talking about generators; I've no idea about the availability for us. When generators are demand, could we even rent those generators? Can we even find them to rent them? Maybe we could through FEMA. I don't know that, Michelle, whether we could or couldn't ... or Chuck. But on these others, I know that when you get into the portable comfort stations, the showers stations and so forth ... there's going to be a lot of other people. Those kinds of things are in demand. Maybe that's something we want to get and have on hand ... I don't know whether it's feasible to even do that or not. Anyway, I've said enough and I just wanted to kind of share with you my thoughts and kind of where I'm coming from. But I want yall to know ... I mean I think yall do ... I know several of yall in here and know you very well and I sincerely respect what you're trying to do and what your Vol 103 Page a25q 10 of 25 mission is and in whatever way we possibly can, we stand ready to work with you and help you every way we can. And I mean that. Sims: Thank you Tom. Appreciate it. Any other ... I know some other people would like to speak on this. Mallard: I'm just wondering if we had an idea as far as the large animals we took in last time ... I assume you can put horses and cows in those pens, separated but in individual pens and they'd be in close proximity to each other; I don't know if that's a problem. But I was wondering about how many animals we had the last time we had to deal with this and would the stall barn area, pavilion, be able to handle all those animals that we had last time and with some room left over for next time ... it being more. Wiggington: I tell you, we know for a fact that we found places for about 1,200 head of large animals in different spots in the County and things like that. Your (inaudible) track was used to, I believe, to house some show cattle and stuff like that. The small animal side of it, I believe, they were close to 970... somewhere in that... over in Pearce Pavillioin. So that's kind of the numbers that we dealt with last time. Mallard: 1,200 large animals, wow. I had no idea. Wiggington: That's spread all over the County. Male: How many were at Tabor? Because that would be kind of the ... those were the ones that didn't have... Wiggington: I can't speak to that. Sheffield: We didn't end up with that many at Tabor because we ended up getting the Pavillion anyway. Mallard: So there would have to be some sort of determination on what animal gets inside a shelter and what animal just goes out into somewhere? Wiggington: That's correct. Mallard: And yall have a plan to make that separation? Wiggington: The only thing about liability has come up. And we've been visiting with some other management personnel that have been telling us that the use of private facilities with the animal being hurt and stuff like that ... that that is going away. The possibility of, say like I did, had people come up and bring some horses and stuff and put them on my place ... if that horse Vol 103 Page ass 11 of 25 ran through a fence or something like that then I'm liable. As I understand it from what's coming about it as far as law suits and stuff like that. So the ability for us to do what we did last time and utilize the people that we had in the County that stepped up to the plate, I think, is going to be very minimal now because of some of these issues. And I think there's some major law suits going on in Florida is one place and I believe Louisiana is another place where there is some major suits going on where animals were brought into a private facility, they were injured or died and then a law suit ensues. Sims: These are very expensive animals I take it. Wiggington: Or any dog or cat or horse that dies is the best on that ever lived. Mallard: Well then we need to work with our legislature or if we have to go to the Federal government to get some sort of relief on that. Like a Good Samaritan law or something like that there where you are offering your place... and I don't know if these people were charging for it or at least being reimbursed for the feed and things like that ... but I assume most of this is people would be volunteering their land to allow people to put their animals out there to get them out of harms way. But they need to have some sort of assurance that if that animal dies or gets sick or something while it's on their property that they would not be sued or that. So that's an issue we have to deal with on the government side. Meade: I think we're just trying... number one; that was incredibly labor intensive for the two individuals that oversaw the large animals last time. Too labor intensive. And I think we want to just take the County out of having that responsibility for trying to come up with a list of private facilities that are willing to have those animals. That's not saying that those animals won't be here. That's just saying we're taking the County out of that. Mallard: Ok. So just send out a postcard to everybody and say "You're on your own. "? Meade: Well there are a lot of people that have already pre - planned. For instances the Houston P.D. horses were at the Parson's Calvary. Dick Freeman arena was full. There were horses, literally, all over this County. Animals that were all over this County that we didn't have anything to do with. We didn't make those arrangements. Those are people pre - planning with friends that they know here or they've showed here or whatever. Or housed here before. They will come. Vol / 0 3 Page as(r 12 of 25 Mallard: But if the Pavilion which is probably the only facility that we know of other than, I guess, the sale barn ... to do that, we would be overwhelmed. So, do we have a plan to say, "You get in and you don't. "? Meade: Well... Mallard: Or first come, first serve or...? Wiggington: First come, first serve. Meade: I think the thing... absolutely first come, first serve. Mallard: Ok. Meade: The other thing that we have to remember is that because the Legislation that has passed in the last couple of years, our priority is the small animals. We can do a pass through on large animals if we have too, because we just don't have... Mallard: What do you mean by pass through? Meade: Just tell them to keep going. Mallard: Oh, keep going. All right. Meade: The priority is the small animals. They will come and because of the Legislation, we have to come up with a plan to take care of them and to shelter them. Mallard: Because we're sheltering the pet owners so we'll shelter their animals. Sims: Yes ma'am. Name and address please. Darling: Kit Darling, 9103 River Stone Court, College Station, Texas, I work at Texas A &M, Veterinarian Medical Teaching Hospital. I just wanted to make a few comments... this group got together and worked the last hurricane. One of our thoughts in the beginning was to have the owners close to the animals and I think that's a good concept. I do know from the experience of the past one... some people said that they were just going to keep their animals in the cars because they didn't want to be separated from them. We end up with heat issues with the animals in cars. So I think if there is a possibility of sheltering owners in the exhibit hall and using the arena that I think people would welcome that. I just wanted to make that comment. Vol I o 3 Page a57 13 of 25 Sims: Ok. Thank you. Thank you. Yes sir? Bissett: I'm Wesley Bissett, I'm with A &M's Large Animal Clinic. My address is 663 Koppe Bridge Road in College Station. I actually have a question for Tom; one of the things that we worked through this planning process ... the arena was where we were planning on food animals; show goats, steers, pigs and that sort of things. And we had real concerns about mixing, like Sam said, housing small animals with our food animals. Especially the show steers that are just going to be (inaudible). Do you think that that can safely be accomplished? Quarles: If we have the equipment, yes. What we need to do is we are going to have to get together and look at the panels, the equipment that we have out there and to make to see whether or not we have enough of that equipment to be able to partition it off to where we can safely make it ... there's no doubt in my mind. When you have that many people, you have to have some rules to make this work. No doubt that we're going to have to have proper supervision. And people are going to have good communication to where they understand that to make it work. But I certainly think that it can work if we plan this in advance like you're going to do anyway. You're all professionals and you know what has to happen and we have to come up with a plan that will work. But I do think it can work and if we don't have enough equipment, we either need to look at getting it or knowing where we can get it in a short period of time. I know yall worked through that before and you got some from Producers and from other places. But I do think it can work but certainly we have to have it paneled ... the panels up ... and we have to have boundaries. And the people and the animals are going to have to stay within their areas. We have a lot of room out there ... that's the good news. We can panel them off and have on side or one part of it for small animals and then we could have a large ... we've got the doors ... the exits and the entrances to where they can move out and they walk them and they can stay separated from large animals. So I do think it's going to work. Is it going to be easy? No, it won't be easy but if it's all planned, we can make it work. I'm convinced that we can. I'm saying that from just from experiences all my life with both but also from Houston ... we really didn't allow small animals on the grounds but small animals ended up on the grounds and we had to manage that and we had to try to make it work. And it wasn't only because of having the small animals there with the large and the barking and the possibility if one gets loose and chaos that could it happen. It's also safety for the people from potentially biting somebody. Vol 103 Page ;2 s?- 14 of 25 But I do think it can work but there's always... certainly you're working with kind of a hard thing and some potential problems with it. But I do because we have a lot of parking lot area, we have a lot of land there and we can ... if we had the equipment, we could even put stalls on the parking lot. There's nothing wrong with doing that either if we needed to do that. We always have a lot of shavings. We use shavings on asphalt out there on the parking lot if we had to do that. We don't have any cover for them ... down there we always had an opportunity to use large tents. It just depends on what kind of condition we're in as far as weather -wise in this area. Yall know all this so I'm sure you've thought about all of those things. But I think we can make it work because of the way we're laid out out there and have the amount of space we have. It's just that we have to have the number of panels and equipment to get it sectioned off and make it work. And then communicate and have rules and cooperation from everybody. Sims: Anything else? I would like to ... my understanding, what you said earlier, that the Vet Clinic is going to be for animals only. You know, we used it as a surge center if you'll remember last time. And I will apologize, apologize, apologize that we did not get full reimbursement for that. And I have told many of them with Emergency Management and the State of Texas and also FEMA ... I said, "You did us a disservice when you would not come up and reimburse that Vet Clinic out there when they were handling... because my understanding is you've got to generate X number of dollars of income and then the State comes in and puts in X number of dollars with it. Is that right? Wiggington: That's correct. Sims: And I said, "The Vet School out there has no income. There's people out there, there's no animals out there." So with that in mind, I apologize for that. We tried, we wrote letters, and contacted FEMA asking them to be very liberal with their monies with that Vet School out there because of what yall did for us with that surge center. Thank you very much because that was an atrocity there. They should have stepped up and said, `We understand.' Part of their revenue is gone and consequently the State only matches whatever they come up with and I think that was wrong. Quarels: Judge, one other comment... one more thing that I can throw out that I think is going to help is that we have (and I will thank the Commissioners' Court for doing this), but in the Capital budget that was originally approved, we included lots of different things that I felt like we needed and we've already used most of it but we included water Vol 103 Page 2 69 15 of 25 barricades... you know what water barricades are; ours are orange and white and they're kind of A- shaped and you put water in them and it makes them immovable. They're barricades for parking lots and highways and those kinds of things. We purchased water barricades, we purchased a lot of steel barricades, we have five entrances and exits into that complex and we're buying more water barricades and steel barricades as we speak right now that's in this year's budget. Those things can be rented also. Party Time has some of those kinds of things and there are other places that do too. All I'm saying is that in trying to get organized for an operation like what we're talking about. We can certainly designate certain gates for small animals and certain large animals, both entrances and exits. If we need to do that we can use water barricades and steel barricades to section off the whole complex. How ever we want to do it where we can physically... if we can manage the entrances and exits and put people at the gates and turn them around and put them in the right place; we can separate that whole complex using these barricades to where we can keep them separated. We've got some of that kind of equipment that will be a real plus and we're getting more of it. Sims: Yes sir? Wiggington: Through working with Tom, we have put together a real comprehensive plan as far as how we're gong to use pens, set pens up ... we know exactly how to set pens up through working with him. So we have a plan as to how many animals we know we can handle in both the Arena and the Pavilion. So we've got a real good idea how to set the security up and how to bring people in. We've got a really good plan that we can put in place if we can find out if the Expo Center is going to be available. And the big question is to be available at all times. Sims: Uh -huh. (positive) Wiggington: That's what you guys have got to be able to tell us. Because if it's not available at all times then that changes everything. Sims: I was talking to Commissioner Mallard just a few minutes ago who was formerly an insurance agent here in Brazos County and was just wondering if, in fact, there is a way to write a policy that, number one, we're wanting to protect our clients that are wanting to come in. Ok? And consequently, if we have a hurricane come in on the coast and we're starting to set up all of this for our evacuation... is there a policy that can be bought either by the owner or by us or whatever the case may be ... that Vol )v3 Page .2(00 16 of 25 we could write off with FEMA. Because as you say, these people are marketing and they're advertising their events. And consequently, all of a sudden ... I men these hurricanes don't' say when we're going to hit the coast. Consequently, here it comes rolling in here and we're saying to our clients, `Don't come this way. We've got animals coming off the coast of Texas and some out of Louisiana and we've got to use everything we have out here to house these animals.' So I don't whether there is any type of a policy that they could get some of their money back for their marketing. Get some of their money back for whatever the case may be. Surely ticket sales wouldn't be impacted because they're going to sell tickets probably at the gate. And nobody's coming if there's a hurricane coming through the south part of Texas. But we'll have to check that out. I know you don't have an answer right now but is there something that might be available for that. Mallard: Well anything is available but at what cost. And so that's the problem with specialty policies like that. What my curiosity is; what was our duration for the large animals? How long of a time are we going to end up housing them? I know there are some that for whatever reason may end up staying for a long time but... Male: If you're wondering about some of the worse case scenarios in Louisiana, there were a lot of animals that never got claimed. Meade: Keeping in mind that Louisiana was pretty different. Mallard: You mean people that came up and stayed with us during Katrina? Wiggington: No. No. No. Female: (inaudible) Sheffield: From the small animal standpoint, I don't think there were but maybe two that never got claimed. Meade: Two that didn't get claimed. For our 900 something that we dealt with. Sheffield: Counting those at Pierce. Around seven. Meade: Yeah, we were in Pierce probably about seven getting the last few out. Mallard: Seven days? Meade: Seven days. Vol 103 Page a&I 17 of 25 Mallard: Ok. So to me, that's a fairly short duration. Now what about on the large animals ... they were out pretty quick. Wiggington: I think we were seven days. Mallard: So in a way, we're talking about a huge surge but it's a fairly short duration. So if we missed two weekends, that would probably be the duration. Plus, obviously, they'd be a lot of work on yalls part to kind of get things sorted out and back to normal like they needed to be but I guess you do that for every event. Quarels: That's part of it. Mallard: So I think we're dealing with a fairly short duration and probably we might just need to put something in there `In event of a natural disaster...' .. . Sims: A declared disaster. Mallard: ... declared, natural disaster, whatever the proper term would be that this event could be cancelled. And probably will be cancelled whether we were putting animals in there or not. Quarels: Well, you would hope that if this was going on that nobody in their right mind would really want to come here. Mallard: There's a hurricane outside... let's go to this event. Quarles: But you know how that goes. Mallard: Well I understand but I'm thinking that probably I don't know that that would be as big a problem as we might think. And if we just write it into our contract that this is a designated shelter and... Quarels: We can certainly do that. I mean I don't see any reason why we can't do that. We can write a statement and we can put it in there. It really doesn't change the ones we've already gotten contracted. Mallard: Well but what kind of event are you going to have... Quarels: Maybe if you weighed the other side you can look at it too ... if you're weighing what our priorities are, certainly, unfortunately cancelling an event if it ever came to that... hopefully we would write this in or do whatever is necessary to protect us from that. And we don't want that to happen but if we have to make a decision, certainly, cancelling an event Vol 103 1 age ato a 18 of 25 is something that if we had to make a decision to do that; having the facility for a disaster is more important than the fallout from having to cancel an event. Mallard: I just can't imagine the event going on... Quarels: I can't either. Mallard: ...during that situation. I don't think people would be thinking about going out for entertainment. Quarles: No. Mallard: Most of them are out trying to buy cases of bottled water. Sims: Yes, that's true. Mallard: Yes ma'am? Sheffield: Cynthia Sheffield again. I just want to make sure that you understand that seven days ... the hurricane didn't happen. So I don't want you to think that seven is the maximum because if Rita had hit really hard, it may be longer than that. So I just didn't want you to get the false impression that that's what we're looking at. It could be two weeks depending on the severity of the event. That is just what we experienced. Mallard: The Rita event is probably a more longer duration because their property was basically destroyed and I don't know that we got that big of an influx of animals on the Rita? Sheffield: No, it was Rita that we got the animals from. Mallard: I'm sorry, Katrina. On Katrina, we really didn't get the animals on that. Sheffield: I think the animal shelter went and got some but they didn't come here for Katrina. Our event was when we housed was for Rita. Mallard: When Houston evacuated. Sheffield: Right. And Rita didn't actually devastate them. So they were going home a little bit quicker. So I just didn't want you to have the false impression that in a week it will be over. It depends on the severity, obviously. But this last time that is what we experienced. Vol 105 Page a&3 19 of 25 Mallard: But at that point, wouldn't they... especially with the large animals... they' going to get them out of a pen because they don't want them in a pen for a month. Sheffield: I was only speaking of the small animals. Mallard: So they're going to find an alternative place even if they have to go further down the road or something else to find some sort of open area where they can get their animals out. So even if their location was decimated, they probably would find a friend or somebody where they could get them out. I mean I'm not a large animal guy, I don't know anything about it, but I'm just assuming that. But you don't want to keep those animals in a l Ox 10 or 12x 12 pen. Sheffield: Yeah, I was only addressing the small animals. Mallard: Right. And the small animals; if they're not going home, their pet isn't going home.. Sheffield: Right. Right. Mallard: I understand that but at that point we began to get them out of the shelters pretty quick and we got them into some apartments or thing like that. And that was occurring so those pets would reduce anyway. Sheffield: Yes. Mallard: Because you're trying to get those shelters closed down. So I think if it ran to two weeks, I still don't see it running as far as that without us trying to go to some sort of alternative housing. Unless we get hit and at that point, they're going to be moving further down the road to find places where they do have rooftops. Sims: Let me ask a question. You know when you get animals put together, you're going to have problems with health and everything else of the animals. I was just wondering if we have any problems with that with Katrina and Rita? Sheffield: Not in our experience we didn't. And quite frankly, we have a very in depth and elaborate plan that we've put together. It's quite detailed but we didn't feel this was the arena to talk about that. We have pretty much everything like that addressed. We have how we're going to handle screening, some pre- vaccinations. This is like an over a hundred page Vol 1 o 3 Page `� 20 of 25 document about all the different positions we need and staffing and training. So we've got that but we didn't think this was the right place to try and introduce... Sims: Well I was just kind of curious about that because if someone would bring a race horse in and... Sheffield: Well I'm not large animal. I'm sure... Sims: Well ok. I'm talking about a very expensive race horse. Sheffield: I'm sure they have the same thing or probably even more... Sims: Yeah.Ok. Sheffield: ...because like I said, they're probably... Sims: And they contact something while they're here... Sheffield: ...(inaudible) horses (inaudible). Sims: ... and this type of thing. That's very concerning. Because they have a lot of race horses down around Shreveport I know that. Been there, done that. Mallard: Well they may put them on an airplane and fly them... Sims: Well they may do that too if they got time to do it. Mallard: Well if they were going to go out with everyone else, I would think that they would have some sort of plan. I would. Sheffield: The other thing that we plan on doing is having everybody that shelters animals with us to sign a waiver. Sims: I'm assuming that they bring their papers ... on the small animals too ... that they've had their vaccinations. Sheffield: Well we request that but that doesn't mean that it happens. Sims: Ok. Sheffield: But ideally, yes, we would like them to but we can't turn them away just because they don't. Vol I o 3 Page �2 105 21 of 25 Darling: I do disease prevention out at the Vet School. Anytime you have animals in close contact in a small space, there's going to be more chance for disease. But, again, we've been trying to address that. And plan to get those sick ones out quickly to like the Vet School or local veterinarian. Sims: Taken care of elsewhere. Darling: Taken care of elsewhere. But we're hoping that most of these will be the healthy animals. And again, they will be checked so that once we see somebody getting sick that they're moved on to a place where they can be properly taken care of. Sims: Good. Good. Questions? Statements? Quarles: Judge, if yall would like for us to write a clause that would be included in future contracts that would designate the Brazos County Exposition Complex as a ... I don't know the right terminology... but a designated disaster shelter because of a national disaster, hurricane, major emergency, or whatever, that this contract would become null and void. We could add that too and then, I think, Commissioner Mallard has made a good point; I think we at least need to take a look ... not that we would do it, but at least take a look... at what a policy would cost the County. You have trip cancellation insurance that people can buy when they decide not to go on a trip whether it be a cruise or airplane or whatever. You know, certainly, you'd think that they would have somebody that could come up with event cancellation insurance. And we may not ever need it. But that would be something that I would see that would be our responsibility if we had to cancel somebody's event. It's the money that somebody has already sunk into it because of marketing and everything else. It's what we would want to be able to try to recoup and to reimburse them for. I don't know if we can get that and if we could what it would cost. But if we could at least check into it and see. Sims: I think if we tie that to the Governor's declarations that there is an emergency, I think that probably, basically, give us some cover. Because I mean, he's declaring there is an emergency and this is a disaster and it would lend some weight with whatever we do with an insurance company and this type of thing. You know, in other words, that insurance company would want to know we're not just going to cancel it just to be cancelling it. Mallard: Well most even contractors... if it's a large enough event ... if it's an outdoor event, they're going to buy rain insurance. They're going to add that into their cost of doing business. So I don't know why we would Vol t o 3 Page a 22 of 25 need to provide that. Just let them know in that contract statement. Put it in there... Sims: And they can buy it if they choose to. Mallard: That's right. And it's available to them. But they would add that to their expense ... but that would just be their decision if they wanted to. Sims: Wonder what happened in Houston? Surely they had events scheduled down there and they had to close down. Quarles: I can make that phone call ... I know all those people. Sims: That would be interesting to see what happened there. Quarles: Well they used the Astrodome. I don't know what it spent. They used the Reliant Center. The Astrodome was available. So I don't know whether they used Reliant Center or not but they housed some people on the floor of the Astrodome. We need to make that phone call and see what did they do? That's a really good question; what did they do? Because I guarantee you, they're pretty much booked around the clock. I mean they've got one or more events almost every day down there. Male: (inaudible) Quarles: And they would have too. Mallard: I'd just check with them and see but I imagine there's some clause in there. Quarles: I bet you down there as close as that was to it, even more so than us ... there wasn't anybody that wanted to go to that event. There was mutual consent and they were going to cancel that ... take care of people. Sims: I'm sure they expended a lot of money... Quarles: Well yes. Sims: ...if they were advertising an event down there... Quarels: Sure. Vol 10-3 Page �- 0 23 of 25 Sims: ... and all of a sudden four days before it's going to happen here we got Rita coming. Quarles: Yeah. But I can make ... the general manager that operates that complex year around and I are good friends. We work together so I'll find out. Sims: That'd be interesting. Quarles: I'll call him. Sims: Chuck you got something? Frazier: Commissioner Mallard made the point; I use to do air shows in my old job and I knew we always had rain policies and they really weren't that expensive. And it was on the producers ... it was their responsibility to buy it if they wanted it. I would think that something like this would be possible. I wouldn't make the mistake of tying it to a federal declaration because those can get kind of hard to come by and you can out there in limbo for two weeks waiting for that decision to be made. Sims: Right. Mallard: Should it be just a State designation? Frazier: Local or State at the most. Local, you have total control over. Mallard: I would say local then. Sims: Yeah, but FEMA says we have to have a State declaration or something. Yeah, that's what I thought. Frazier: State is not usually that hard to get. Sims: No, the governor's pretty good about, `Hey. Whoa. It's time that we got a declaration out there.' Frazier: It can be a few weeks before they make their decision sometimes. You might not want to give that as a condition. Sims: Yeah. Yeah. Ok. Any other comments, questions? Yes sir? Wiggington: I tell you; we really appreciate you guys taking the time to listen. We've got a really good plan that we think will work. I think Brazos County has set a very high standard and we would like to be able to maintain that standard. We have, I think, the personnel that will certainly step up and Vol [0-3 Page a c0 3 24 of 25 help us during another evacuation if one happens. What we would like to know, the decision we need from you guys is, is yes, we can use the Expo Center. And if we can use the Expo Center then as soon as we know that we can go ... we've got a plan in place and we're ready to have something that we can give you guys saying this is what we can do. Sims: We can't take a vote today because this is a workshop session. Wiggington: Right. Sims: But I'm going to say this; 1, for one, being the Chief Executive Officer of Brazos County, yes, you can use the Expo Center. Now when we get this all put together we'll all have a vote of the Commissioners' Court saying yes. Then it's really done. But I'm going to say if it happens within the next ten days, you have got the opportunity. Use it. Ok. Anything else? Well I appreciate you coming. I appreciate all the work yall have done. I think it is extremely important that we all work together on this thing and make it so much beneficial not only to our local people but also those that are coming in from ravaged areas down on the Gulf Coast. I was born and raised in Houston so I know what that looks like down there and how many times ... man, we had to move. I had water standing four foot in my front yard when I was a kid. And that's a long way from the Galveston beaches. So, I know what can happen. But I do appreciate yall putting this together and we will stay in touch. As you well know, hurricane season comes about... because we're not exempt from that, for sure. But I appreciate it. If we can do anything else and help you in any other way just let us know. We stand ready. And I appreciate Tom and his staff out there for stepping forward and saying, `Hey, let's do what we can.', because that's something that's important. Ok? Nothing else, we will adjourn this workshop. Thank yall. Vol 1 0 3 Page 02 to g 25 of 25 The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Workshop held November 27th, 2007, have been examined and approved in open Court this the day of fir; 20&)g , in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. Duane Peters Commissioner, Precinct No. 2 Carey Cauley, Jr. Commissioner, Precinct 4 Attest: Karen McQueen County Clerk Vol 13 page ? 70 Lloyd Assermann Commissioner, Precinct No. 1 t Kenny Mall r Commissioner, Precinct No. 3 Brazos County Commissioners Court Meeting on 200 7 at Name Organization/Department v ix c e r. L S C.. r 64 c B 1 zos County Commissioners Court - Meeting on 206 )7 at 1 Name Organization/Department AMA &III0,11K v