County receives petition

The regular meeting of the Gonzales County Commissioners Court Monday morning was so packed with agenda items, that a recess was called after 90 minutes.
Gonzales County Tax Assessor-Collector Norma Jean Dubose told the court that a petition for a local option election to sell liquor by the drink in area businesses was submitted to her office Saturday afternoon.
The 369 page document contains more than 2,300 signatures.  The goal was 35 percent of the 6,356 county residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election.
“Now we will go through it to confirm that those who signed it are registered voters in the county, and then present it on Aug. 23 to the court,” Dubose said.
To meet the requirements to be included on the ballot in November, the petition must have at least 2,225 qualified signatures.  The document has lines for eight names per page, which would total 2,952 signatures if it were fully completed.
“But some of the pages have seven signatures, so we’ll see how it goes,” said Dubose.
She also gave a status report about taxes collected this year.
“We are where we were a year ago,” Dubose said.
The court then received an unexpected  check from Delinquent Tax Attorney Rashay Shapa in the amount of $1,264 from excess proceeds.
Dubose continued with her report.
“The tax office keeps track of the interest from the sale of official vehicles, and every time we want to spend this we have to get permission and it must be job related,” Dubose said. “We just bought new computers because we are trying to move away from paper maps.
“When a person registers to vote they have to be coded by all of those different districts,” She continued. “If we don’t use all that money we lose it, so we always try to spend it all.”
Rhonda Stastny, Director of local Government Services with Golden Crescent Planning Commission, discussed the Revolving Loan Fund.
“It was initially created in the late 1980s, and since then we’ve had 13 projects totaling 371 jobs,” Stastny said.
She told the court that one of those projects, Hill Country Nursing and Rehab recently filed for bankruptcy.  
Director Tommy Cox told The Cannon that when he assumed control of the assisted living facility nearly 18 months ago, he had no choice but to file for chapter 11 or shut it down.
“When I took over it was a mess.  But we are working very hard to turn it around and make it work,” Cox said.
Stastny also told the court that the Lynn Theater, located in downtown Gonzales, is on the revolving loan hit list.
“The County office has tried to contact him (the owner Cal Collins) for ten months, and a couple of certified letters have come back to us,” Stastny said. “There is no set time to take the next step, but I suggest that we take action to make judgement against them next month.”
Commissioner Donnie Brzozowski asked who is responsible for that loan and Commissioner Whiddon asked her about the creditors.
“It was a personal guarantee on that project,” she replied. “You can make the decision and we recommend that you take action.”
“I’m really concerned he (Collins) hasn’t made a payment in ten months,” Brzozowski said. “I would hate to see the building run down.”
Next, Tim Hornback of the Golden Crescent Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program asked the commissioners to consider the organization for charitable donations.
“Our volunteers make sure abused children get the help and care they need,” Hornback said. “So far this year we are serving 14 children in Gonzales County.”
He said that as of this month the non-profit agency has eight volunteers, but they are always looking for more help, through monetary and manpower.
“People can opt to donate their jury duty payments to CASA, and those who file for divorce can do the same thing,” said Hornback. “This way a good thing can come from a divorce, and the money can help a child.”
A County employee then told him that option is already in place.
“We started budgeting and directing that money to CASA and Norma’s House last year,” she said.
“Well that’s great news, I was not aware of that,” Hornback said with a smile.
He concluded by explaining that CASA is not in competition with the child advocacy facility Norma’s House in Gonzales.
“We are very proud of Norma’s House,” said CASA volunteer Deanie Ploeger. “We pick up where they leave off.”
On another agenda item, Ken Mosher asked the court to appoint a cemetery authority to compile location and burial information on cemeteries and burial sites in Gonzales County.
“We have at least 200 rural cemeteries and we have no official list of where people are buried and who is responsible for them (the graves),” said Mosher. “We need to create an official registry.”
Whiddon asked who is in charge of them now, and Mosher replied, “No one.”
Commissioner Bud Wuest asked about a list of area cemeteries.
“There is no list,” said Mosher. “That’s the problem.”
“About two years ago some guys from Austin came out here from some kind of historical cemetery group,” said Commissioner Kevin LaFleur. “Do we have anything from their findings?”
Mosher said he didn’t know anything about that.
“My wife Pat and I have been working with a global positioning system (GPS) to find cemeteries in the county,” said Mosher.  “But there is no actual central authority in charge of it.  And the problem is people die so whoever is in charge or knows about it will change.”
Mosher explained that according to state guidelines, chapter 7-13 section B regulates county cemeteries.
“But we don’t want to regulate them, we just want to make a list,” said Mosher. “It’s going to take some time.  Some of it is already there but we don’t have recordings of some of the burials in family cemeteries.
“If we could get people to contact us who own land where family cemeteries are located, that would really help,” said Mosher.
The court delegated the job to the Gonzales County Archives Office.
It was a case of dejavu for another agenda item.  The Gonzales County employee Bereavement policy was discussed for the second time in two weeks.
Weist asked the court to change the policy to three days of paid leave for employees to attend to burials of relatives, instead of five days.
“I’m confused, didn’t we just approve this two weeks ago?” Asked Brzozowski.
“Yes, but I just read this whole thing and asked some citizens about it, and I think it should be changed,” replied Wuest.  “I think five days of paid leave will cost us too much.”
“But changing this will cost us money too. We already sent copies of the approved policy out to employees,” Brzozowski said.
“But its going to cost more to pay those five days, three days is enough,” said Weist.
“But what if someone’s wife dies? You think three days is enough to make arrangements to deal with that?” Asked Brzozowski. “I don’t think so.”
Whiddon said the court should leave it up to department heads, and the court voted to leave the policy as it is.
The commissioners reviewed some budget requests.  The current budget is 6.2 million dollars. The requested amount is 6.3 million dollars.
“It’s increased by about 135,000,” Dubose said.
The budget workshops are scheduled for Aug. 2 - 3 at 9 a.m. and open to the public.
County Clerk Lee Reidel commented about the number of oil companies coming into the county office to do research for land rights leases.
“They tell me that (the process of) leases ‘changing hands’ will be speeding up soon,” said Reidel. “These people come in to make sure that you own the property and do their own research,” she said. “Its called due diligence.  And for us that means more work, more copies and more paper.”
She said that the area is going to see something from that revenue, “probably next year.”
Reidel also commented about the upcoming election.
“I’m not qualified to write a Spanish speaking program, and the Justice Department wants a program in Spanish for judges to assist voters who don’t speak English,” said Reidel.
“We hope we’ll never have to use it,” said Judge  David Bird.
“The state gives us a DVD to educate election workers, but it is only in English,” Reidel said.
The commissioners asked about the cost of having a translator in the office.
Bird mentioned hiring a high school Spanish teacher or member of LULAC.
“The election judges don’t feel we’ve had any problem communicating with Hispanic voters,” Reidel said. “We have Spanish speaking judges so I don’t see why this is necessary.”
County Attorney Paul Watkins mentioned hiring a graduate student from the University of Texas to help translate.
“But then I’d still have to train them,” Reidel replied.
In other business, the court spoke about renovation projects, air conditioning contracts, and speaker systems for the courtrooms. Wuest raised the topic of county employee salary adjustments, but was told that would be discussed and decided on during the budget workshops. 

Commissioners also:
• Tabled approving election judges and alternates for 2010-2012 term.
• Approved the deputation of Ross F. Gottwald.
• Approved a certificate of exception from the Gonzales County Subdivision Rules.
• Approved the Victoria County Juvenile Detention Contract.
• Adopted proposed amendments to the Gonzales County On-Site Sewage Facilities.