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Home My WebLink About2006-07-07-9:00AM-WORKSHOP4 BRAZOSCOUNTY BRYAN, TEXAS ufnn Gre'eY_._ . NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WORKSHOP SESSION THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF BRAZOS COUNTY WILL MEET IN A WORKSHOP SESSION ON FRIDAY 7 JULY 2006 AT 9:00 A.M. IN THE COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM OF THE BRAZOS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 300 E. 26TH STREET, SUITE 115, BRYAN, TEXAS. 1. Call to Order 2. Review of the Proposed Space Allocations for departments that will be moving to the facility recently purchased from First Baptist Church in Bryan, Texas. 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) 3614102. office of the County Judge • 300 East 28° St. Suite 114 Bryan, Texas 77803 • Fax: (979) 3614503 Vuii PAPL COMMISSIONERS' COURT WORKSHOP SESSION July 7, 2006 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Workshop Session in the Commissioners' Courtroom in the Courthouse in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday July 7, 2006, with the following members of the Court present: Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding; Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct 1; Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol 8 a Page a 2 Proposed Space Allocation July 7th, 2006 Sims: It's 9:01 on Friday morning, I will call this workshop session to order on Friday the 7`h, 2006 in the Commissioner's Court room. The reason that we are here is to review a proposed space allocation for the departments that will be moved to the facility recently purchased from First Baptist Church in Bryan, Texas. Have all of yall been there to look at where the proposed is for each one of your offices, I take it? Ok. Good. Let's start with the first floor or the third floor; which do you want to start gentlemen? Mallard: The first floor. Or I'm not sure. Just in general kind of what we're doing and setting up. Sims: In general, what I perceive is we would start with the third floor and we have commissioner's offices on the third floor, we will have all of the staff that is connected with the commissioner' court and we will also have purchasing, we will have... Guitron: The auditors. On the third floor? Sims: Yes. Guitron: Purchasing, commissioners, and the county judge. Sims: Ok. All right. Let's move to the second floor. Howard: Bill Ballard will be on the 3 a floor. Wassermann: Yeah, the county attorney. Sims: Conner: Sims: Vol BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Yes, the county attorney. He will have an office on the...yes ma'am? I'm just going to start stirring it up right off the bat. Well, stir it up. P Page 3 Conner: Just and FYI, the county attorney has proposed two civil attorneys for next year in the budget. Sims: Two civil attorneys? Conner: And a para-legal. Sims: Bill, we don't have enough room for all those people up there. Ballard: I'll be happy to resign or retire Mallard: What if we just maybe started and look, we have this church building and to decide what should be on the first floor? As far as dealing with the public the most, and perhaps my estimation and I certainly want yalls thoughts on that is; what should be on the first floor? Should we have the people or offices that access the public the most, that the public would be coming into the administration building for? Who are those offices and should they be up close to the door so that don't have to walk all the way through the building and migrate into the upper floors? As far as being people friendly, or to the public, who deals with the public the most that is going to be in the administration building? Sims: All right, we'll look at it that way. I'm going to say this; I'm on the first floor right now, you're on the first floor right now; how many people do you have from the general public... from the general public now that come back to your office? I know mine, they're coming in for jury duty and they stop by my office when they see me there and they visit but nothing has to do with official business to be honest with you. I understand that people come back, in particular, sub-dividers and this type of thing do come back to see you guys. And if there is a problem of any kind they will come. But I don't think that whether it third floor or first floor they would have any problem migrating to the third floor. And then looking at this, I was trying to put it in context of the city hall over here. I mean most of your administration is on the third floor. Isn't that right? You got your city manager, you got your mayor's office, you got your city secretary's office, you've got... Mallard: Well as for the city secretary's records part that deals with the public is on the first floor. Sims: Ok. But your city secretary is housed on the third floor? Mallard: That's correct. Vol Page q 4 Sims: That's correct, ok. Guitron: Of the department that the judge committed to going over there, human resources will have the more public traffic. They are going in looking for open position, filling out applications, and (overtalking). Sims: That's on the second floor. Right. Guitron: ...gong to retrieve records or files. The only other one from there would be purchasing. As far as vendors or contractors that come in to place bids and (inaudible) I haven't heard any further... Sims: Right Mallard: As far as commissioners, I probably have one person a week come in to see me. When people contact me or want to visit, I try to go out and see them just because it's a lot easier from them having to park and they probably walk about a mile currently before they get into my office and go through security and all that. So I usually try to meet them outside the office just for ease. But no, I don't think the commissioners have a lot of traffic coming in to see us. Sims: And I know, like I said, when they come in they're coming in for other things at the court house and they stop by to say hello and this type of thing. Guitron: And that's more for convenience because you're right there on the first floor and the door entrance. Sims: That's right. That's right. Mallard: There as also been some visiting that possibly... even make even more room for the new court building that I would call the court house now. Would be the majority of the county clerk's office could be moved over to the administration office as well. They, obviously, have a lot of traffic. Our concern now is with our current redesign of the courthouse to be a court's building. It appears that we are going to be just barely big enough to house who we have now with no room for expansion in the future. Because of that, I'm concerned that maybe we need to find someone else, some other office that's here now that maybe we could locate over to the administrative. Which there is, obviously, extra space. Karen, is not here, but Flo is here to visit ...so there has just been minimal talk with Karen about that and so it is a possibility, it's not something but we probably need to find maybe another office that we could relocate outside this building just to make room for everybody. I think both the county attorney and the district attorney are going Vol Ya Page 5 5 to be on top of each other on the same floor. So there has to be some accommodations to make sure that people have a little bit of breathing room. I mean the halls are now storage facilities and the closets are now offices that we have now. I certainly don't want to make this move and make this remodel and then within a year have to...we're already out of space. That's my biggest concern. So, that's why I wanted to meet. Not necessarily individual offices but, in theory, figure out if we are where we need to be. And before we actually make this move, do we need to reshuffle a little bit. I'm not suggesting that we...I mean we're proposed now to be on the third floor, I'm not proposing that but I think we need to discuss it to see who has the most traffic and should they be the most accessible to the public coming in the front door. Sims: You know you mentioned the county clerk; I have a real problem because my vision ...and certainly you can throw rocks at this ...but my vision was certainly that this would be a courts building. The county clerk and the district clerks need to be with who they service the most, which are the courts. Mallard: Well, four people in the county clerks office really need to be here and they could still maintain a presence but the majority of the folds deal with public from the outside and reviewing records that are really not from the courts as I understand it. Gallego: They don't even have court records in their office. Generally, it's mostly birth and land and that sort of thing, that yall deal with. Marriage. Workman: Yeah. Mallard: So I know it would make an actual division of her office but it's just something to think about. Not that I'm saying that that's what has to happen but to think about that that might be an opportunity. Obviously, you want to keep everybody that deals with the courts, in the courts building. But subject to remodeling the fourth floor where the jail is after the new jail would be constructed, I don't know that we have enough space where we are right now. The other thing is the timing on that. I understand from our architects that we talked with during our space needs study that that's probably the most expensive space to remodel is where the jail is currently. It would be very costly to turn that into offices. Sims: Well why don't we think about this; you know we talked about this, we are going to have a need for adult probation to be able to operate after the building is down and this type of thing. Why don't we take a look at this way; when they move out of that first floor at the church and we see that maybe the Vol g 2 Page (0 6 clerk needs to be separated somewhat, then we would have an opportunity... certainly it should not happen in the time frame in which, hopefully, the garage is built and space is made available to the adult probation department. But you know, they are going to take a portion of that bottom floor and once it is vacated, then there may be an opportunity to be able to move additional people from here. I don't know. I don't know. I know that adult probation made the comment that you liked the idea of having ...I mean you take payments after 5 o'clock. Is that correct? Parchman: Before 8:00 and after 5:00. Sims: Before 8:00 and after 5:00. Which I think we were giving some consideration to the temporary building out there, you were going to be able to have some people in there, is that correct or not? Parchman: For counseling services. Sims: Ok. For counseling purposes. Ok, is that going to take the place of this across the street? Parchman: Uh-huh. (positive) Sims: Ok. Parchman: Which we will soon be kicked out of. Sims: Ok. So Arlene, what is your understanding within the garage ...the space that is going to be made available... will you have enough room to put your counseling in there? Parchman: We will have just enough room for current services plus counseling services. Sims: Current operations plus counseling. Parchman: To answer, specifically, the question; about a year ago, I actually did a survey and we average 101 visitors a day. Some days we may peak up to about 200. Sims: Yes ma'am, Kay? You have your hand up. Hamilton: I was just going to ask if there were some long-range plans for what the space that they will have when they move. Sims: It will be something that can be remodeled and that... Vol Fs J, Page 7 7 Guitron: We could reassess the office that are in the church then, to where if human resources has so much traffic that they need to go to the first floor. Sims: Move them in down there? Mallard: Of course that would facilitate... the way I understand it is we would have the majority of the first floor including the temporary buildings would be taken over by adult supervisor. And they would be the first group to move out once the parking garage is constructed. So we're designing where everybody is going to be according to a group of folks that are going to be moving out within a year. No offense, I'm not mad at what's going on, it's just that we'll do this and within a year, we're going to have to remodel and go again? Is that going to be shuffling people? Would it be more efficient to somehow find space that would be outside the...trying to see which building is what, there's actually three buildings there ...to have them where they wouldn't be in the permanent space, maybe they are in the temporary spaces and if we could add more temporary and we could add more temporary space ...and I don't know where we could put that, is a key question on that. Today was the brain storming day that I wanted to kind of just throw these things out there and see if it's more efficient for us to go ahead and try to make the permanent move in the majority of the building, which is that back building where the court yard is and then also where the actual administrative offices are next to the sanctuary. As opposed to having... because we know that the district will provide the cost for temporary housing of adult probation while the parking garage is being built. So it will not be at an expense to the county to house adult supervision in a location. I know that yall prefer to be close to the courthouse because I think there is a lot of interaction that yall have with the courthouse but you prefer not to be in the court building itself but be close by. Maybe we should look at accommodating that and today's the day, like I said, to talk about those things. Not that that's something we have to do but would it be more efficient? Would it save dollars for the county to only have to make a remodel or a move one time for these offices than to have to make it more than once? Sims: Arlene, I think what Kenny is basically asking you is, how much remodeling is it going to take for what you want back here for a short period of time? Parchman: Very little. Carlos actually has the list. It's a matter of adding... Sims: Security. Vol 9a Page 8 Parchman: Security. I think three doors would have to be added and a wall in the temporary building. The temporary wall in the temporary building. Mallard: Of course, you're going to be operating out of at least one of the temporary buildings; I guess the larger of the two? Parchman: Uh-huh. (positive) Mallard: Are you going to be in the other temporary building as well? Parchman: No. Mallard: No? Ok. Parchman: The proposal is for different offices. Mallard: All right. And then you'll be in the portion of where the Commissioner's Court Room is, building where the gymnasium is and those offices there; will you be occupying that space? Parchman: (inaudible) Mallard: And then the space where the administrative offices are now for the church. In there? Parchman: Uh-huh. (positive) And then that other area... Sims: The back side where the children were housed. Parchman: We'll have three or four people in each of those classrooms spaces ...the little nurseries spaces, the classroom spaces now...we'll have three or four offices in each of those offices in order for us to fit in this space. Mallard: And how will we maintain security for the rest of the administrative office? Parchman: Our proposal was; there is one small area that would have to be closed off so that there would be a controlled access to the building other than for employee entrances. We have a metal detector that ...right now our policy is that unless someone is a county employee or currently a certified peace officer, they have to be escorted into the office. So if your spouse comes to the office you either have to call up front and say it's ok to let them in or you have to go up front and escort them in. So our proposal is that if someone came to visit you all, Vol 0a Page unless we had a list of who was coming to visit you, we would have to call up to your offices and say, "Is all right to let Joe Smith in?" without (inaudible) Guitron: What you're looking at on this floor is in this portable building, adding a walk with two doors there to create an isolated classroom there. Metal detector walk through at this entrance here and the only other thing is putting a door back behind this office that is here. To make it workable for them. Sims: So it would be minimal? Guitron: Very minimal. The treasure's office asked that door be put down here at this staircase just to maintain a low noise level and security between the second floor and adult probation's offices. Mallard: So any new prospective county employee is going to come in, go through a metal detector, and have to be escorted by personnel, up to personnel? Every person that comes to visit the judge or commissioners or treasurer is going to have to be escorted up to their... Parchman: We would call you. The proposal is that we would call you all and if you say it's fine to let them up they don't have to go through the metal detector. Guitron: This is the classroom that they are waning to put the doors on, isolated over the metal detector here. This is that classroom there that we want to install a walk along here to create a hallway and an isolated classroom. Parchman: Because the other... Guitron: These are some of the classrooms in that portable building. Parchman: They open up into the main classroom. Guitron: And this would also serve as a waiting room for the probationers that are coming into their probation officer. These restrooms here are ADA. And then we have the green room. Classroom. Mallard: This is an internal class? Guitron: There is an outside handicapped ramp in the front of the building and the back of the building. It can be...there are doors here that go into the church here that can be locked all of the time, after-hours. So if they are having classrooms at night, they wouldn't be able to access the church. The other thing is they wanted to make a window here for collections off of the front doors with a Vol 8~. Page 10 10 back door in case an incident happened here they would be able to go out the back door. Double doors here with a metal detector receptionist here. They would come in and announce themselves and be asked to wait in one of these waiting rooms. The bridal room is where the collections window will go, here. That's the inside and there is an inside restroom there. This is where the metal detector would go to the right side. The receptionist booth would be on the right side and the double doors would be in that opening there. Behind the receptionist booth is a hallway where if she needed to back into the probation office, she could just go down the hallway and have rather than go back into the public area. This next one here is the door that they are wanting in that classroom which would be back here. That's the only thing beside the metal detector that would need to be done to house adult probation on the first floor. Gallego: So once they leave, would we still have metal detectors and things? Parchman: No, those are ours. Guitron: No. The room would still exist if you wanted to put it back up there. Right now there is a closet in this area that was built in and this whole room is a storage room. I'm looking at removing this and put a public elevator here. The employee elevator being number two. Adding a security door to where the public wouldn't be able to come around to the employee elevator. These back doors here go to the back side of the church that faces the city hall. This is the storage to be removed to be able to go to that elevator. This is the storage room that the church put in. The elevator would go in this window and there would be a wall installed here to make another storage room for IT. This was supposed to be for ITs use but they don't want to put their cabling inside an elevator shaft. So there is still debate on what they are going to do with that area. This is the door to the courtyard from the probation area side. Sims: Why would IT have a storage unit over there? Guitron: For their servers or their computer connections to go up to the other floors. A distribution point. Sims: Ok. Mallard: Or cabling, kind of a raceway... Vol ga Page it 11 Guitron: This is the outside of the courtyard where public elevator would go on this to hit the other floors. The opposite side of that would be employee elevator that goes here. The outside doors can be locked that go to city hall. Mallard: I just still see that for a year or length of time that it takes to have the new parking garage and office built, that everyone coming in to the courthouse would have to be treated as a probationer until proven otherwise. And everyone coming in seeking employment, they are not there to see any one person; they are just looking for personnel so you call personnel, "Is it ok to send them up?" Personnel is going to say, "Well, I don't know, who are they?" "Well, they said they were seeking employment." So I can see where this is going to lead to difficulty and I have a real problem with that. Sims: Well, let me ask you a question. Does not everybody pass through our security out here in front? I know they don't make phone calls, they... Mallard: They do but they don't find out what office they're going to and find out if it's ok. Sims: I understand that. I see that. Guitron: With working on the jail part of this, it's just that... Mallard: Which maybe we don't want people come seeing us. We just look like you come up. Gallego: It does sound like a long process? If you're calling for one person and there's three other people waiting and they're having to wait for you to call for that one and then hang up and call for the next one and then hang up and call for the next one, it could be a long process if there's lot of people gathered up there. But, I don't know what the alternative is if there is no other place to put adult probation. Guitron: Well the receptionist has been around long enough; she can almost identify who's a client and who's just a visitor for the commissioners. Mallard: I hear you but I'm real concerned about that. If we could, however we do it, I would like to have adult supervision set up and they would have their own space and they wouldn't have to interact with everyone else that was coming into the courthouse. That that would be somewhat segregated. Gallego: I separate entrance for probation. Vol 00a Page /a 12 Mallard: A separate entrance. Somewhere where we could keep that physically separate. I don't know if it would mean where we could add some more temporary buildings there that they would all connect together with these temporary buildings. I haven't looked at the actual space, I know it seems like this is pretty close to the curb. We may not be able to function that way or on a temporary basis. I don't know. I'm not an architect to look at that but it just seems like we're co-mingling everything and it's going to be very difficult to keep it separate. Sims: It would be difficult; I guess if you get down to it, it would be difficult until probation moved. But once probation moved, there wouldn't be any difficulty. Mallard: Well, for a year or a year and a half it's going to be a problem. Guitron: Construction on the parking garage is supposed to start in March of 2007 and end by then end of that same year if not the beginning of 2008. Mallard: So they're hoping for just a year's time period. And that sounds reasonable. But things can get delayed or whatever. But I... Sims: It has, hasn't it? Mallard: Just like the exposition center, sometimes get delayed. Hopefully there are no creeks or rivers on the parking lot site. I just feel that maybe we need to look and see if there is an alternative; one that is financially feasible to accommodate that. Judge, you have a question? Sims: Yes? Yes ma'am.? Stephens: Is there anyway to make a public access to the building other than through adult probation? Conner: Problem is, if you let them in at the door of the day care then people can come out of probation and walk down there. Sims: That's right. Mallard: In the day care ...they are also working on the portable buildings which are opposite of the day care. So that, in fact, the whole first floor has to be somewhat open for their access because of the office space that yall need and I want to accommodate that. You need X amount of space for your people so that you can operate. But if we could add some more space on that floor and Vol SSa Page ► 3 13 keep that open then we could go ahead and have that space prepared for whoever needs to be on the first floor today and not have to do it a second time. In your space, you say you're not having to move the walls, but you are going to have to wire it all for the additional electricity and the computers that have to be in those offices. And then we have to move the walls and that wiring has to be done again. I don't whether that's a minimal cost or a big cost. Parchman: It's my understanding that the district would pay for those renovations. Is that correct Judge Sims? Sims: There was going to be no cost to us when we donate that land over there. All of that will be in the contract. Parchman: And then it's my understanding that the district also will likely pay the county for us to be there for that year. (inaudible) Sims: They are going to have to find a location for you anyway. And it can either be there on somewhere else. Parchman: It could either a null, zeroed out amount by us going somewhere else or potentially earning some revenue for the county. Sims: That's right. Parchman: By being there for a year. Mallard: It's a little fuzzy. There has been no...the comment was; yes they'll find space for you and during that time period, but I mean there is no contract that I know of. And I'm assuming they want to do the right thing and do all that as well, but we haven't made those request of them on those spaces. And they are probably not going to be wiling to remodel it after yall move out. I wouldn't think that they would do that. So I just would like to see a little bit more thoughts on that. Guitron: I think the list that the county judge has given me, as far as the offices that are going over there is the auditors, the commissioner's office, the county judge, human resources, purchasing, risk management, treasurer, and direct reports. In those departments going over there themselves, it still just only took up room on the second and third floor. And I think everybody agrees they have more than enough room in there than they have here. What other departments would look into to move over to the church? Vol $a: Page I'- 14 Mallard: The only one that I've had some conversations with was the county clerk's office because a lot of what they do is not dealing with the courts; it's dealing with the public on all the public records. I believe they have four of their employees that need to be here in the courthouse to deal with the court portion of what they do. That was just from a conversation I had with County Clerk McQueen, and visited with her about. It's something that she said; something to entertain, to look at. She didn't definitely say yes or no, we'd just have to look at it and make sure that that would work. But she was amendable to looking at that situation where we could do that. That in the hopes that we could find enough space for everybody we have. I think we've looked at the county attorney and the district attorneys are both on the same floor and they are both sandwiched together. I mean they are expanding into the spaces being vacated and I think it's still not quite enough to get done what they want to get done and even if it is, it's just to handle it for today, not for tomorrow. So I want to make sure that they have enough space to operate in so we don't have to put people in closets again for at least the near future. Don't want to have to do that. And in that point, something may have to be done with the fourth floor, to deal with that. So, I just hate to do all this and then end up with just enough space for today without some room for growth. Because the only way to grow this building is to add on to it or build it and that's a lot, a lot of money to do that. Gallego: Speaking of closets I know I talked to you, Kenny, about it, but Lynn actually is in a closet now. Mallard: And now we're starting off that way. Gallego: It was only because she's a new employee and Carlos wasn't sure if she was going to be moving over with us or not. But I, just so you guys know; I talked to Kenny about possibly giving her the room that was empty for a while that we talked about for storage, Carlos? Sims: Where's that? Gallego: On the third floor, it's ...let me see, which one was that? Help me Carlos; is it this one that says 260 storage room? Mallard: This one right here Judge. Sims: Oh, ok. Gallego: Because she's actually in this ...well wait until he gets it up there. It's 309, I believe, Carlos, isn't it? Where you show it? Vol 8a, Page 16 15 Mallard: Well, it's right next to 308. And then there's 309 which is, that's right, it's the files. Gallego: Yes, I think you're right. And right where she's listed for right now is the one says Temp. on it. Sims: Bill, there goes your secretary. Ballard: Well, I'm moving up. I'm moving out of a closet. Gallego: And the other question I had is all the storage rooms that are on this third floor, I'm not sure who they belong to or what they are because I am going to have to some storage but I know one of them belongs to the county judge and we have our stuff kind of together mostly now, anyway. So as long as I could put a few boxes in yalls storage closet, it would be ok. But there's several storage rooms... Sims: Let's go back to where we were just a minute ago. Lynn, what is most of your work? What department do you most of your work for? Allen: I would say that it's a pretty even split between the sheriffs office, the county attorney and the district attorney. Sims: Ok. Allen: It's a fairly even split. Gallego: But the Sheriff's Office is not going to be in this building anyway. Sims: That's true. That's true. Gallego: And she also does work for us... Allen: For the commissioners. Gallego: ...and if she is going to be listed under our budget, I would prefer her to be over there with us. Now if you want to list her under a specific budget and have her assigned to the sheriff and have her follow the sheriff somewhere, but if she's going to be for the entire courthouse... Allen: County. ho Vol 8a Page 16 Gallego: ...or I mean the entire county, I would think it would make most sense for her to be over there with us because it's not...I thought the majority of her work was probably with the sheriff and if he's not going to be in this building anymore after the administration building is built; she is already going to have deal with it being out of the building anyway. Sims: Out of the courthouse, yeah. Gallego: Otherwise, I would have thought that it would make sense to stay if we were the only ones that she was not. Allen: Right. The other thing that I don't know if this is relevant at this time but we've been working with IT really closely in anticipation of the split of all of these different buildings including the sheriff's office to make sure that there is one single place where the entire county can submit their wav records for me to transcribe. So that they are trying to make sure that all of those are linked together so that if they are out at the new sheriff's building or they are here, or no matter where they are within the county network, they have access to that. So, it's kind of... Gallego: Their only problem will be if they need some sort of hard copy... Allen: Right. Gallego: ...they have some cassette tape or something that they need to deliver. But a lot of your stuff is electronic. I mean they'll... Allen: Right. Gallego: ...give you a wav file that's already... because they use those digital recorders and it's loaded onto the computer so they can just drop it in her folder and she can do what she needs and send it back to them or drop it in another folder that they can access. Mallard: Well that's a matter of just making sure and probably requiring that everybody operate on a certain way to make sure it's all electronic and it can be transcribed. Allen: And we are moving in that direction. Some of the groups, that's all they have are the little recorders so that's what we work with. Sims: So basically, what you're telling me is she could be anywhere. Vol Fsa Page 117 17 Gallego: I think so. I mean if she were here, the DAs office work that she does of if she does any for CA or someone here, she'd be here but the bulk of what she does is electronic anyway. And if they come down to see here, it's generally to ask her questions or something and they can pick up the phone and... Turner: We don't need close association for the work we do. It's not that big a problem for us to go wherever we need to get it done. Sims: Ok. Now let me ask; I'm glad you mentioned that, let me talk to you and I need to visit with anybody that is representing Kuboviak? Who might that be? Gallego: Theresa. Sims: Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Good. Good. Good. You're going to pick up the JP office up there? Diaz: Uh-uh. (negative) Sims: Is that correct? Conner: Not in the beginning. Not until the sheriff's office moves out. They're just going to pick up ours and treasure's first. Sims: Ok. Ok. Conner: That's the plan. Sims: I guess what I'm asking is once you pick up the space on the third floor, I'm hearing Kenny say there is not enough space for you guys? Turner: I have some pictures of it. If this would be a good time. If it's not, I'll wait. Sims: Let's do it. I'd like to see it. Mallard: When it's just enough space for today and no room for any expansion. Sims: Well, when we expand, we have to hire people. Mallard: Not necessarily. Sims: The tax payers don't want us to hire people. Mallard: Well. Vol S-a Page 19 18 Mallard The bad news in the criminal justice systems is business is good. Turner: I didn't bring some place to hold this thing. Gallego: Oh, we have one. I forget about that little one. Turner: We can stick it over there, maybe, where you were standing Carlos so everyone can see. I don't know how to turn that off. Gallego: Yeah, there's a cap, I just have to get it. Turner: How long will it take to come back on? What we have done is we took a chart and color coded it. I just wanted to let you know what the situation is that we are in right now. I have been talking to Carlos and I understand how difficult our situation is as far as the amount of space. I talked with Rod and I also understand that are in a huge problem. Rod and I have also talked about trying to also provide better services for the people who are called in to testify. Specifically police officers for him and specifically victims for us with a program that both of us think is badly in need. And so part of this quick talk is also about that. This is the third floor was we see it. The orange is what is the current DAs office. Then what is in yellow is what this expert that came in said we needed based on current space. We've had some problems and changes to that but I just wanted to let you know by looking at this as to where our current problems are. So I kind of color coded it to tell you what we've done to make do as space gets cramped for us. I've started with these purple dots which are our full time people and where they've had to go into kind of odd situations. Starting here in the bottom, this really is a storage closet, it's where we kept note pads and stuff and that's where one of our investigators is. It's a tiny, tiny spot. And then we have taken our library away. Our library is gone and so now the library is just in the hallways and some of it's in the grand jury so you can use it if the grand jury room is not being used or if you can find the books in the hallway. Sims: That's hard copies, right? Turner: Yes. Used less now and we're planning on finding the best way we can to reduce it but there are...I talked to Doug Howell, our appellate lawyer and there are times that you can only get things from hard copy. So we had a wall there and we put two people in there, our first assistant and an investigator. Voles Page 19 This is investigator is also in charge of interns and we have an average of two of those in our office at a time. So we have three people cramped into one small office. The next red dot up is a second person, a clerk that assists our intake secretary. So that's and extra person also. I'm just kind of showing you as we've taken up that we're accounting for one, two, three, four, five, six people are actually in places that aren't really offices. We had to gut a library and we had to use a closet. And then as we move over across to here, this office was actually designated as a special waiting room early on for victims and witnesses to testify as opposed to a general lobby. That has had to be taken up by an investigator, so it's taken away one of our services to the community. Then this is a storage room where there are three people that are currently supposed to be working out of that. Right now, it is our second intake secretary and in addition to that, the reason I have it in blue, is because we believe that this blue person is in the budget this year. It was approved last year ...there are some budget issues to talk about, but we believe that person is in the budget this year. And the red person is a volunteer. This is an assistant coordinator who has typically worked out of there who now they just... Sims: What do interns do? What does an intern for a DAs office do? Turner: The two interns that are working for us right now go to school at A&M and are trying to figure out if they are going to be a police officer or if they are going to be working as lawyers. They are going to do those kinds of things. And so primarily what they do is they serve subpoenas that are non- threatening kinds of subpoenas. They can deliver them to police departments, they can deliver them to doctor's offices. Some will be assigned directly to a lawyer so that can see what lawyer work is about and they'll help gather up evidence. Maybe they'll go deliver photographs to get them enlarged; maybe they'll do copying, maybe they'll help organize the trial. We may have a list of eight witness and we say, "Would you set up a calendar for those folks to come in and talk to us." They get to see what preparing lawyering and doing lawyering is and they get to watch trials too. I mean it's a trade off. We get some of their work, but they get to see if they really want to be in law or law enforcement. Some would rather stay with the investigators and some would rather stay with the lawyers. But they all work. And investigator assigned them for us and takes care of them and make sure they get their school work done as necessary for them to report back and kind of monitors them on that. And finally here, this was just immediate growth. We have a plan this year to ask for an appellate lawyer. So as we go down here, you can see that we have Vol 8~k Page ;10 20 intake secretary, investigator, investigator, investigator, and intake attorney. These are all, let me count them this way, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven people that if we were going to return to normal we would need to be able to house eleven people somewhere else. Mallard: That's just today? Turner: That's today. And that doesn't even count ...that would mean we would get our library back but we have also asked for a kind of war room and work room combination. The specific need for that is, specifically when you have violent crimes, there is typically evidence of violence. Whether it be photographs of violence or clothing that's blood soaked or weapons and what happens as you prepare for trial is you have to gather all that evidence so that you have it and have it marked properly and it's ready to go. At the same time you have to bring in the witnesses and you have to interview them so that you can get ready for trial. And it makes it extremely awkward if the wrong witnesses comes in and see the family member's bloody clothing or a blood picture or...it can really cause some really inconvenient things. That's something we're constantly on top of. Know where to put things and truly a room ...a trial could fill up this desk with stuff. And so we've always dreamed of having a room where you can go lay all of your evidence out and if you've got to go talk to the police and show them the evidence we can do that. But you're room is always secure and clean so that when the family of a victim comes in, we can talk to them. So that's that work room. Mallard: And that evidence room has to be secured too. Turner: Yeah, just locked. As long as we can put a lock on it, we can do that. And the last thing I wanted to say and then I'll show kind of where we are. The last thing I wanted to say was I explained to Rod kind of what our whole goal and idea was about victims. When witnesses are called to trial it's different that when they are preparing for trial. When they are called to trial they could actually have to sit there for two or three days. They're whole family and everybody. Right now they are stuck with all the other witnesses. Now what that means is if you're grieving for a loved on or if you a victim of a sexual assault or if your child has been assaulted you get to sit out there with everybody else. And it just doesn't make sense. As far as security goes, as we have violence, we've gotten member of both sides of gangs having to testify. And we're going to put them together for three days, basically unsupervised. It seems to me that it's a real challenge for us. And so what I'm asking you and I know that we're so crunched but I really wanted to also include that we do need room for expansion to take care of what I believe to be necessary Vol gd\ Page 91 21 community service. That is taking care of the people that get called in for jury service. So I had talked to Rod and that's kind of what I wanted to share with you. Carlos has been very gracious, he has explained to me that we don't have room but with those things that I told you that we needed extra, we have this area. He agreed to knock out a wall and we could get some more people in here. Turner: But the dream that we had and what I wanted to make sure I expressed to you today is we thought that this area would be kind of wonderful to take care of that victim issue. We thought it would be wonderful to have this first room for police officers. The police officer I haven't even talked about. Rod was terribly concerned about and rightfully so. Police officers, especially DWI police officers work all night. Night shift a lot of times. That's when they catch DWI. Mallard: They get off at six o'clock. Turner: They get off at six o'clock and last they have a subpoena. And then they get to come sit with everybody else. We think there should be room for police officers so that if they need to, quite frankly, kick back and relax, they can kick back and relax. I think they need a computer in there so that if they want to do police work and finish reports than can do police work and finish reports. There is a lot of down time and quite frankly, police officers live in a rough world, have to do rough things, and for them to be housed up together, I think is a good idea for them to do that. So, I haven't talked to you specifically about it, Rod, but Rod brought up the idea that police officers need that kind of a room too. We thought that this area which is now the auditor's office would be great for the police officers to have the front room as far as waiting or resting or catching up and the next room would be for the victims. It's kind of nice because then they have that secure feeling that if anybody is in a room next to them, it's police officers. Thought that would be a good idea. And then your victim's coordinator and assistant out here in a general room that would also kind of be a place if these families have kids. Right now we take care of them in our lobby but that means that if other adults are there or waiting to do other things, we are all getting to baby sit and do those things. So the significant thing that I thought we could do, recognizing the limited space, is if we could claim or reclaim that to take care of our victims and put our victim's assistance people with those people. That would leave room for other attorneys for us or meeting rooms and those kinds of things. So, that's what I wanted to share with you. Granted this may not be the time to talk Vol 0, Page 2O- 22 about new operations but it seems like something that is overdue for talking. And with the limited space, if this is our only growth, it's one, two, three, four, five, if this turns into offices, six, seven, it is eight offices. And I think I showed you eleven or twelve people that we have to find places for. Granted two of the interns can work it around and they just need a long board with a couple of chairs in front of them and they can get a lot of things down. So we can squeeze people in some places but I think I've listed as much as fifteen folks to take care of; which some of them can double up and some of them... Sims: Well in taking up all that new space from, I'm assuming, the treasurer and the auditor, ok? Well... Turner: Originally the experts came in and said that the treasurer, auditor, I think this was the JP room and, for some reason, part of the county attorney's office was for us. We understand from talking to Carlos that we can't have all that room just because we're all in a crunch. So we were hoping we could give up these but then save the auditor's office to take care of this victim issue. But now the plan is; correct me if I'm wrong, our only expansion is the county treasurer. Sims: Ok. What does the county attorney get for his expansion? Turner: The horrible thing is, I'm not trying to fight and say the county... Sims: No, no, no, I'm just trying to visualize because I know that whole floor is crunched even with the auditor and treasurer leaving. Anderson: Yes sir. That's our problem. That's our major problem. Without this space for us, right now, we actually have attorneys in closets. We have an attorney in this closet right here. Plus just the cramped space for all of our people in here. We essentially have the same number of people, I think, as the district attorney's office and right now we're sitting in about... Guitron: Actually the district attorney has 32 employees and the county attorney has 34. Anderson: And right now, I think we're sitting at about 4,900 square feet and the DA's is 6,900 or something like that. Turner: Does that include the grand jury room? Anderson: That would include the grand jury room which is some of that room. I don't know how much that takes up but our problem is the people that we have all over the place. Right now, honestly we are to the point where we have all of Vol ga Page a 5 23 our files out here in the open public hallway which is no good. We even have current, brand new files out there because we don't have room for them in the offices. We are concerned about a place for the police officers to come and stay. There is no place in our offices. Sims: Would you use that space up for if you had a police officer that had to come and stay? Anderson: Well, you know, we wouldn't mind using space up here but my preference would be up in this part of it for the police officers so that we can use the space down here that was allotted to us just to kind of catch up from what we've been behind for so long. We don't have any place for family violence victims to come and stay. When we have people from the public, or our victims, they either have to sit in our attorney's offices which are already very cramped and at most have room for two people. Or they sit in the open hallway out here in the public. There is no reception area, no nothing, for our victims to come in to. Same kind of thing with our family violence situation back here; they either sit in a secretary's office or the attorney's office. There is no waiting area or anything. We also have a problem because with all of the DWIs that we try, we have attorney's that are bringing their clients in there constantly to look at video tapes and watch their client on the video. We have no location here for them to sit. They wind up sitting right here in the middle of all our support staff and our attorneys. They set up a TV right there and half the time you can't get out of the back door because we have attorneys trying to watch videos with their clients and that kind of thing. So I don't see how we can do with anything less than this and our problem is that this is not even enough to accomplish what we need to accomplish. Our additional problem is moving out of this space so that this part can be renovated that has all the bad pipes and everything in there. And there was one mention, I know Carlos brought it up, about trying to move us out here in sections; I have a real concern about that health-wise. Trying to partition this off enough since there is a main entrance here, how you are going to keep all of this clean enough for all of our other employees that are back here. It seems to be like this all needs to be done in one section. Move these people out and then back in just for health wise and also the contractors being able to get in there and get it all done instead of trying to piece meal it. Guitron: There are three doors into the county attorney and we've sectioned it off to where you're still using those three doors or your using the other two doors to Vol _ Page a 24 enter into that area while that's being renovated. The bottom left side is being done, there's two doors that goes into that area to the right side of that. Anderson: Then there's no room for our secretaries and our receptionist and everything. Guitron: So depending on how fast the remodel goes is how long you'll be doing... Anderson: We kind of hate to have stuff going on in this part of the office and all these people having to breathe and deal with all the crud that's upstairs above us that we've been dealing with so long. It seems like the best plan there would be to get us all out, at least in this main portion. And then get it repaired and get us back in there and open that up. I don't know, I see this part here going up to where maybe this hallway would be taken in and we can use some space in this hallway, enclose to open up our offices. I don't know if you've looked in the remodeling or removing walls or doing things... Guitron: The only problem I have with that idea is the fire staircase. You won't be able to access that as easily. Mallard: And the restrooms. Anderson: I think those restrooms are pretty much malfunctioning. Gallego: They have been taken in already. Diaz The restrooms don't function anymore. I mean they leak. We've been told not to use them so we use them for storage. All of them on both sides. They leak and they've not been repaired so... Sims: So all of these down here, women and men, are used for storage? Anderson: These are used for storage of boxes and things. Guitron: There is a public break room with vending machines. Those were public restrooms but when those were taken in as offices they weren't being used anymore. Mallard: Well like I said, the county attorney and the district attorney need more space. Parchman: Point taken. Can I propose maybe a solution? As the red-haired step child of the group, I can already tell it looks like we're being pushed out. There are a couple of properties that I can sit here and think of off the top of my head in the community that are probably within about five miles of the courthouse. Voles Page a5 25 The old HEB property and the old Kroger property and potentially the Albertson property too which, I guess, is about to close down. They would require extensive renovations but if the district has the fund to do that and they essentially promised that they are going to do that, then those might be options for our department. We would have to have transportation, continual transportation for our employees to the courthouse because if we didn't, I can tell yall that I don't have money to pay mileage for the number of officers that we have in this courthouse today. Every courtroom requires one officer a day and then when we have a 50 to 100 person dockets that we have increasingly had, we have three officers in court at any given time. So we would have to either have money for mileage for the officers but I'm also concerned about our liability that would be raised because we will be having people driving back and forth where they normally wouldn't be doing that. So if we had a bus, a continual bus that could take people to and from the courthouse, I would be all right with that. Because I know I have repeatedly said we have to be close to the courthouse or have continual transportation to the courthouse. I can live with that. Mallard: With the district, that's their business and they have promised that wherever they locate parking for the county, they will have busses and I assume that if they rent one of those spaces then that has a parking lot in it and maybe that would be a remote parking lot. Parchman: And then, potentially, if we weren't in the first floor of the church, I would envision human resources, purchasing, and then if you've been in discussion with the county clerks office for a portion of that office, we could free up space for you guys which would free up space for you guys. If there are negotiations that go on along those lines, I would request that we need 20,000 square feet. As I recall HEB has something like 24,000, I think. Mallard: Yes. Parchman: That's just from driving by and seeing the sign. Sims: Let me ask a question in the prosecutor's offices. How many of those people have to be in the same location as the courts? Anderson: As the courts? Almost all of ours ...I guess the only part of ours that possibly would not have to be is our hot checks, although we do have things that go back and forth. Our main problem that we wont' about with our hot checks and family violence, of course family violence has to have access to the courts. Our hot checks, one of our big concerns there is security. Because of the volume of dollars and stuff that we handle through there, we need to have Vol S1 Page ale 26 them with our...we try to keep them with our investigative section where we have almost constant security that way. Of course that then runs over into our investigative section needs to have access to our courts and our attorney's people because they are interacting serving subpoenas, arresting people doing things so that's where our problem fits in. They kind of all have to be together for security-wise but really the only section that would be, and it's a small section itself, is hot checks. And that was... Mallard: But if they were on the first floor next to security at the entrance then that may provide them with some assistance in that matter. Anderson: If they have access to security there. There is a lot of interaction between them and the investigators because they are constantly working the same files. That's where it all dovetails. They are working out of the same files and then our investigators, beside their hot checks, are at the same time working on the subpoenas and working with our court secretaries and our attorneys on things. Sims: So they need to be in one location; all of them? Anderson: They just about have to be, just because of the way they work with the same amount of information. Turner: Let me just finish with our end of it. I'm sorry, I didn't meant interrupt you. From the DA's office point of view there is what I believe to be, I need two appellate layers. Sims: We can't afford any more people. We have no space. There is no room at the inn. Turner: I just tried to slide that in. Sims: I noticed that. Turner: The appellate section probably could be moved from outside of the same house. The two juvenile attorneys, they have to go out to juvenile facilities anyway so they are on the go back and forth. They could probably... Sims: Is that full time? I mean do you use them once they come back or that is just strictly juvenile? Turner: They are still just working on juvenile. I mean they go over there, they do their work, they come back and they work on office work for juveniles. So they are and their files are completely different from the adult files. So that Vol U Page a`1 27 section does not have to be housed. But as far as intake investigators and trial attorneys, that interaction in the county attorney's office is all pretty regular. Sims: So how many juveniles you have? Turner: Two. The only problem is the secretary does both juvenile and CPS work. We'd have to figure out how to do that. But if it's not too far away, they can still walk over there and get that work. That would be my suggestion is that anybody that had to go appellate and juvenile might be able to. Mallard: Still want it to be maybe on a different floor? Turner: I think that would be manageable. I think if we got into a different building, the appellate would probably survive wherever the library is. They could probably actually survive on their on even in a different building. Juvenile could survive if I could figure out a way to make sure that secretary could serve as both the juvenile attorney's and the CPS attorney's. I might have to rework the organizations. I'll try to figure out a way to maybe having to put that secretary (inaudible) juvenile. I could try to make it work. Sims: I think what we're finding out right now is secretaries are more important than attorneys. Turner: No question. Guitron: With what Rod and Mr. Turner were talking about; the third floor fire exit staircase is right here. There was a fire exit hallway between these two departments, the treasure and the DA, I talked to the fire marshall with the DA encompassing that whole area, that fire exit hallway wouldn't have to be there. In remodeling that, that would add three more offices to that section there. Doing away with the fire exit staircase here, would give us another three and a half to four feet to add three more offices on that wall along the fire exit so that the DA could just walk through and actually both of those offices there. And put in a wall here dividing the DA from the county attorney. It doesn't give the county attorney any more room. But what we were talking about sectioning off sections to remodel and repair. This part of the wing here where the county attorney is at has been there since the 50s and a lot of that needs to be redone. Vol Page gg 28 It can be sectioned off to where there are filters in place. We can section it off to where air quality remains the same and other than the noise the remodeling shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience. Anderson: Again, my concern is the air quality. The other part of it is if there is space ...and I don't know how long you anticipating that remodeling to take with going in there and removing that stuff. If there is other space in the courthouse on the first floor after some of these other people move out that we can move in to... Sims: Temporarily. Anderson: for two, three, four months, however long it takes just to get in there and get it all done and then move us back up. We would prefer that as opposed to trying to filter us off or separate us from the other part. The other concern, again, is this hallway here. It's just dead, lost space that really separates our office into four different offices and makes utilization of the space very inefficient and horrible. I know that the DA's takes in this part back to the other staircase up here, is there not a way to...like it was on the drawing here, to enclose this space and give us some space in that hallway. The other thing that I had mentioned to you, Judge, about it is coming up with something in the way of a high density filing system to be able to handle all of these files. Since they take up so much of our space and we're dealing with five to six thousand new cases a year, you have all of these active cases to have to get into. We have to have access to them. But if we can look into, possibly, one of those high density things... Sims: Have you looked at juvenile out there? Anderson: We have not. I have not been out there... Sims: Ok. Because they've really done a good job with those. Anderson: If there's a location and we can get this, get something like that in place where we can access and not have to run off. Like now with having to go out in the hallway. We have to keep those files close so every time our secretaries have to go look into a file they have to take a set of keys, walk out in the hallway, unlock, which is a bad situation. Mallard: I guess scanning is not a possibility? Anderson: Not on all of these active files. These are active files that we're in on and off. Vol Page 9-`1 29 Mallard: So only the adjudicated files. Anderson: After they are disposed and totally adjudicated, they're off probation, and then we can look at other options. And we move them away from those spaces. It's just that at any given time we have just so many active. Guitron: With the sheriff s office buildings should be done by June of next year. So by July of 2007, they should be out of the building all together. That will open up the room down here where the investigators and the sheriffs office is at right now. One of my ideas was to move the JP 2.1 down there. And move the constables over there closer to that office. That would open up the third floor to where the county attorney could occupy the JP's office. This JP office 2.1 here could be sectioned into eight other offices. Removing this wall and giving that all to the DA. This would give the county attorney more room once all of the remodeling is done also. This is with one of the master plans... separates this floor into the DA occupying of that space and the county attorney the bottom. Conner: They can't close off the hall because of the fire exit. Diaz: But with that suggestion that when the SO moves out, could we not be temporarily moved down to the SO offices so that all the plumbing... Sims: So that the remodeling can take place, could we not do that? Diaz: Because Jim had mentioned that, that he was told when we were having constant leaks... for about two months we were having a leak at least every week or every other week ...that he was told we would be temporarily moved when the SO offices moved out so that everything could be redone. Guitron: And yall said yall couldn't be separated. Diaz: No, we said we would temporarily be moved; that's fine as long as we're all done on the first floor. And you had mentioned at one point, moving our hot check department down to the first floor leaving the rest of us up on the third floor and we can't operate like that. Because we basically need to be all together. Because we work out of the same hot check files, same active criminal cases, same disposed criminal cases, and things like that. Guitron: So we're still back to the same concept where the hot check department takes over the auditors while it's being remodeled. And we're looking at this being Vol 8a Page 30 30 2007; next year at this time. In March of 2007, if the remodel is done at the church then a lot of the offices in the courthouse are moving over there. The contractors; we need to get the same contractors. Once they finish the courthouse they're moving over here to start remodeling on this building. So by March of 2007 when these are offices are vacated, they're knocking out the fire exit hallway, installing the walls for the DA and county attorney to occupy that space. Once they finish with that, they are remodeling the exiting county attorney and redoing those pipes. And if it's just redoing the pipes then it shouldn't take that long. It should be fairly quickly. Unless Kuboviak wants to remodel the offices to make them look different, then it would take longer that way. And that's something he's looking at right now. Anderson: Well that would be a concern if we were to get this other hallway down here. Guitron: Otherwise, in the next few months, all of that is being remodeled to where by June of 2007, the sheriffs building should be done and by July ...we're talking three months there ...the sheriffs office is gone. If they are done remodeling the pipes or anything that Kuboviak wants in the county attorney, then they are remodeling down here to occupy the other offices that are upstairs. JP 2. 1, remodeling the sheriffs offices that have been down here. So in that time when they are finished and they go back up to remodel the JPs office, so we're all talking the next year within a few months. Diaz: You've mentioned three entrances into our office. Where is the third entrance? Because we only have two entrances into the main portion of our office. We have two front doors because of the receptionist sitting out in the hallway and the new office has been made. That's two entrances and then we have one in the very back. So? And then, of course, if you count the doors, the entrances into the separate offices where family violence is, where the attorneys are across the hall and then Jim's office where we are at. But there are only two entrances into our main section. Guitron: If you want to look at that blocked off. The drawing here ...right now your receptionist is...the one where it is highlighted down. Diaz: Because there are three doors but one of them is blocked off with filing cabinets and a secretary's desk. Hamilton: Let me just make one comment while you're looking here. We also have problems in our office right now; we're having a leak right now and it's Vol g~ Page 3/ 31 probably all these same pipes. So once all of those are being repaired, it may not be possible to have someone in those offices as well. I don't know. Guitron: The problem in your office now is an inmate problem. That would go back to the 80s. The problem's with the county attorney's is the pipes themselves because of how old they are. Inmates caused your problem. Theirs is just structural. The door entrance here into the county attorney; there's one there... Diaz: But that's the one, the second one right there, that's the one that's blocked with filing cabinets and a secretary's desk. Guitron: It'll have to be moved. In order to use this entrance if you don't want to use this entrance. Gallego: Where we going to move them? Diaz: That's the question. Where would we move them? Guitron: And we're talking a period of about maybe four months. Diaz: I mean that's the question: where are we going to move them. Gallego: Four months or four days.... Diaz: If yall are working in the hot check department, we can't use that space because we have to be closed off over here and we're cramped now. I mean if you walk through our offices, we have a path between the desks to be able to get to our middle section. I mean that's what I'm just saying... Guitron: I can't see holding up remodeling for one or two file cabinets. Even if it it's bypassed. We can find the space. Diaz: That's what I'm saying, wouldn't we be able to be temporarily moved downstairs to some office that are going to be vacated; which was told to Jim that we would temporarily be moved so that all of that could be redone all at one time and then move us back upstairs. Guitron: Downstairs, the only areas that will be open will be the commissioners, personnel, purchasing, and the commissioner's court. Gallego: Unless you wait until, because the sheriff's... Vol 8"~k Page 1 32 Diaz; We're use to going in and out of doors, that's not a problem. We do that every day, all day long. Mallard: The other is do we have to have a justice of the peace in the courts with them? With the new remote sites that we're having, with each JP being able to operate out of their existing facility or out of their remote facility, to do the jail run. Anderson: Oh no. They don't have prisoners brought down there anymore. The JPs do all of the jail runs in the jail. They go to the jail. Mallard: Right. But eventually though with the new computer hook ups in all the JP offices, they'll be able to do that. Anderson: They'll be able to do that right in their office. Mallard: On the video. Anderson: Right Mallard: So do we have to have the justice of the peace office, the one we have now, in the courthouse? Could we move that to an outside location, freeing up more space? Turner: The only concern I'll just share with you is when warrants are received, maybe in the country attorney's office too, they come to our office, the paperwork is done, the police officers then have to hand walk it to some magistrate and currently it is the JP. That may change with legislation or something. Mallard: Don't we have legislation now? Turner: I don't think that magistrate can issue an arrest warrant so right now it is the JP. So the police officer hands carries that, gets the arrest warrant, and then takes the paperwork back. So it's just the convenience of the police officer at this point. I know that Judge Langley is trying to get a magistrate the ability to issue warrants which would, in that situation, you're right, it wouldn't be as critical to the police officers that they be housed in the courthouse. Guitron: The sheriffs office being right here. This is the secretarial pool for the sheriffs department right now. If the JPs courtroom is put down in the sheriff's office down here for the first floor, booking is right. It would go Vol g-a Page 33 33 through these two doors to the back of the courtroom or the JP's office, magistrate warrants issued and then back into booking. Just through two locked doors. Right now they are going up and down the elevator to the third floor to get to this courtroom. So moving the JP on the first floor in the sheriffs space and the courtroom being in this position could handle booking going back and forth and any other jail staff that stays behind to handle the forms would be right there with the JP office also. The back part of this would be the constable so they'd be right next to their JP with a backdoor access here to the parking lot. Conner: Time for my chicken little dance? Budget's coming, budget's coming we need to decide. I know, but you can't plan if you don't know what you're going to do. Some have asked for furniture, some haven't, some have planned, some don't know, some... Mallard: So do we need some professional help? Conner: I will need a psychiatrist by the time it. Mallard: I wasn't leaving any profession out. Conner: If you're not going to do what the professional is going to tell you then it's a waste of money. Sorry, but, we're really good at coming up with our own ideas and no matter ...I mean, that's kind of what happened with the space needs. They said, "Build a building out here," and we said, "Oh no, let's go here." Which is ok, but... Mallard: Well there was enough savings in that to take care of Conner: And that, ok, I'm not, I think it was a good idea, but we have to make a commitment. Mallard: They changed their minds when they saw what the cost were going to be to do that. So they agreed with our decision on that. But we probably need to either have them or someone else assist us just to figure out where everybody is going to be when the dust settles. Because there's a lot of moving around. Gallego: It's not a bad idea really, with Wigginton and all them. They know, they've already talked to everybody and they know the ins and outs. Sims: Is the school district planning on moving any time soon? You know we talked about that years ago. Vol 9 9~ Page 34 34 Mallard: Off and on they have mentioned that many times. Sims: Well, I don't think anything is going to be solved today but I think maybe that's a good idea. We do need to maybe take a look and see if we can't move some of the clerk's office over there. Mallard: Well on first blush she said, well I don't see... Sims: We'll talk to her when she gets back. Mallard: Right. That's what I mean. So it's an opportunity to look at that and she said in her estimation that she had four people that needed to be here but the majority of the folks wouldn't... Sims: Well, elections wouldn't have to be here would it? Workman: No. McLeod: Not if she's over there. The elections would be over there. Sims: Right. McLeod: Flo, what all do you do? You do appeals, probate... End of CD 1. CD2 begins in mid-sentence. Mallard: ...to free that up so I... Sims: We will have another one, two, three, four, five of these. Mallard: And we need to get going on it. Sims: I know we do and I know you're ...we may just... Conner: I don't want you to come up and not have enough money. That's the worst answer to everything is, "There's no money." Sims: If you'll give me carte blanche we'll make sure you've got enough money. Conner: Talk to the people out there. Go to seventy-five cents. Vol $a Page 35 35 Sims: No, no, no I'm just saying... Conner: That's carte blanche. Sims: Put it in the budget; don't leave it out of the budget. Conner: Budget is not some wild guess. Sims: I know that but that's basically what you're saying. Just make sure the money is in the budget that we can do these things. Conner: Help me make sure it's there. Mallard: Help me to help you. Sims: I'm not talking about raising tax rates and this type of thing; I'm just saying to use what we already have or what will be generated next year. Conner: If I don't know to put it in there, you can't... Sims: Guys don't go putting any more people on. Number one, it cost in space, number two, it cost in salaries. That's all I'm saying. Anything else? Mallard: No, just perhaps we should look at engaging someone to help us sort through this. Sims: Like? Mallard: Well, I don't know. This is just to talk about it, I know we can't make any decisions today at all but perhaps we should get it on the regular agenda so that we can make a decision on trying to find somebody. I mean we had one group work with us on space needs. I don't know whether that's necessary that we would engage them again or if we were to find somebody else. But it's just a matter of having somebody either the engineer's side or the architect's side to go through there and help us make sure the space is going to be right. And get it done. Also to find out probably a little more information on the fourth floor. About how that (inaudible). But that's, you know how many years out is it that we would be looking at moving the jail off the fourth floor. Conner: We're full now. Mallard: It's full? Vol9 J~_ Page 34 36 Conner: It's full. Mallard: Sometimes that goes up and down according to what the state does. But that's probably the key, I mean, that's the only other space we have left. It's very expensive to remodel is the information we got from them because it's built as a jail and it's very difficult to clear all that out and start over again. They recommended that we not disturbed it to try to make offices out of it if we could help it; to just turn it into storage space. So I assume they know what they are talking about as far as cost are concerned, but is it cheaper to take that out than it is to build a new building? And then maybe not. So maybe that decision will have changed since we decided to build an addition on to this building and we purchased that other space. The sanctuary over there is not allocated for space and that could be turned into two full floors of offices. So we are going to have an inordinate amount of space that's fairly easily reconstructed into offices. It's just a matter if we want to keep everybody in the courts business here in the courthouse and everybody in administration over there. But at some point if we have the connectivity that we're suppose to have between the two buildings and we may have to move some folks over there that just have a little bit further to go to get there. Sims: The next thing on our agenda is, basically, to build two more pods on the jail out there. That's imperative. The state is not building any more prison space. They are slowing down in taking our...because they don't have any more space either and so they are slowing down in taking the ones that are paper ready and it's only going to get worse. So that has to be plugged in too. At least two more pods. Howard: Are you going to put the tax office in the puzzle too)? If they are relocated then somebody would have that space and remodel it. Conner: The JP and the constable. Stick them over there. McLeod: Good idea. Howard: Is that not going to be in the... Sims: Yeah, that should be. Yeah. If we can find some place that we could move the tax office in conjunction possibly with the appraisal district. McLeod: Has the appraisal district come up with a new location for them yet? Howard: They did an RFQ. They went out for an RFQ and put the qualifications in. Rod and I have been working on this and we came to the conclusion that we Vol $a Page 3-7 37 do not have to do an RFQ for location space so if they get a space or can stay in the same space and get it increased then we could go next to them. And, or close to them. Aren't yall working together Lloyd? Wassermann: Yes. Yes. Howard: And so I talked to Rod yesterday and he said that it was ok to do that. Or remodel the same space for them. I don't think that's what they want to do but they said something has to be done. Sims: Yeah. And that certainly would help parking during certain times of the year, that's for sure. Wassermann: And they are looking at available areas or locations that could serve even just their purpose or in combination with us. Howard: Right. Wassermann: But we have to be within the county seat. We have to be within Bryan, Texas so that puts a little bit of a stipulation on it but that's about all. Outside of that it's pretty flexible, what they're doing. Howard: Can they not increase the space that they are in and... Wassermann: They are looking at that as one of the options, yeah. Howard: Ok. Wassermann: Every time we've met over there, Mike Ball, who manages that or either owns it has been in our meetings with us. The realtor, so. He sits right down and listens to everything that's being said. But they are considering a lot of different options, I think. Howard: Will the county have any input? Will you work with them on that committee when they decide the space? Wassermann: Oh yes. Buddy Winn is on that committee and two of us. Vol ?,;k Page 3~ 38 Sims: Well the tax assessor collector and the chief appraiser are all one and the same. Wassermann: Same person. Howard: But Kristy said they had to have a lock between the two offices. Sims: Yeah, sure, sure. Yes.Yes. Mallard: There needs to be a physical separation. But they could share some common space for the public. Howard: Right Guitron: Commissioner Mallard, with respect to the annex building, I know your views on adult probation and IT is moving to the Maxwell Building. There are two other county employees in that building which is Art Dixon back there with veteran's services and legal aid. I've got them moving into the church also. That was some departments that the judge hadn't indicated. They're going to need to vacate that building also. Mallard: Right. They would be... McLeod: Legal aid is not a part of the county. Guitron: Right. Mallard: But we provide space for them. Sims: We've already provided space for them. Mallard: And we're not going to kick them out. Sims: We're not going to run them out. Parchman: So yall are kicking us out but not them. I've been pretty quiet. Mallard: And we're not mad at you, we're just trying to figure out how to put it all together. Parchman: Yall just don't like our people, I know. Vol 13a Page '3~ 39 Mallard: Well. Sims: I think he said that didn't he? In a round about way. Gallego: It's not the staff Sims: All right. If you don't have anything else we can do today, I think we need to maybe take into consideration may take a look and see if there is somebody that can come in and give us some; I think there are some people here in town that know more about this building that you and I do that might be able to give us counsel on what needs to be done. And maybe even give us a dollar and cents amount. Conner: We've got three months. Sims: Thank you. But I would like to have some more meetings set up on a regular... depending on what we need. If we can find somebody, let's bring them in and say, "Hey, what would you recommend? What do you think? What do you see?" Conner: Technically, we've got budget hearings posted for the next three weeks so... Sims: I guess we can meet anytime. Conner: Can't we? Sims: Yes. Yes, we can. The news media is going to be alerted to the fact that we are going to have budget the next three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, whatever it takes. Mallard: I just wanted to compliment Mr. Guitron for all his work and putting all this together. I really appreciate all you've done on this and have done in the past for a long time. So thank you. Sims: Done great. Wassermann: I want to say the same thing. I appreciate your work. Sims: Yes sir. Wassermann: Vol Sa Page 146 40 Long, tiring, and in some cases maybe even thankless. But I want to thank you personally. Sims: In most cases, thankless. Guitron: I wanted the departments to know that I was assigned this from the commissioners and it's always their prerogative on where they are going to put their offices. Not mine. Mallard: Absolutely. You're just the messenger. Sims: Yeah. Don't kill the messenger. Ok. I will adjourn this workshop session of the Commissioner's Court. Thank yall for coming. We will get back together. End of tape. Vol -Fa Page 4 I 41 of 41 The foregoing minutes of the Workshop held July 7th , 2006 , Commissioners Court have been examined and approved in open Court this the ~U day of , 206, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. L1 yd Wassermann Commissioner, Precinct No. 1 c Duane Peters Commissioner, Precinct No. 2 Kenny a lard Commissioner, Precinct No. 3 14 rey Ca ley, Jr. Commissi ner, Precinct 4 Attest: ~L GLC- Karen McQueen County Clerk Vol 2 a Page 4a BRAZOSCOUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT DAY OF , 20Q~ AT ; O Name Organization ~,u~c=tom c- c eA ltv ~'A Lc L i s G Ofd VOL P PAGE. *3 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT DAY OF 20 AT q~e) v Name Organization ( ~nS ~L ,t:ZQQll) "-T)( VOL &a PAGE 4~f