The 2022 Kerr County Bond Propositions consist of:
- Earl Garrett Courthouse Annex campus at 424 Earl Garrett St., to house the county’s tax office.
- Remodel Kerr County Courthouse with a 12-person jury room for County Court at Law per unfunded mandate, extension of IT office & renovated space for other offices.
- Updated security at Kerr County facilities.
- Updated Kerr County Courthouse grounds & parking.
- New storage facility on County’s 16-acre property behind the County Road & Bridge office on Spur 100.
- West Kerr County Courthouse Annex at Texas 39 adjacent to Ingram Tom Moore HS. $14,966,515 for all the above
- New animal control facility off Spur 100 behind the county road & bridge office. $5,782,992
- Renovated indoor arena at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. Three options have been proposed at: $7.47, $8.28 or $9.28 million
Total cost for all three propositions: $28-30 million
- These three bond propositions will be on our November 2022 election ballot.
- At a time when inflation is spiraling out of control, I do not support this level of expenditure which would further increase our taxes.
- As a professional engineer, and having been a project manager, I am a big advocate of Front-End Loading (FEL). The concept behind FEL is that you invest heavily (time and engineering) in the front end of any project by identifying the desired goals of the project, who the key stakeholders are, what the economic benefits of the project are, and identify all available alternatives and/or options. Once the preferred option is selected and a clear Scope of Work (SOW) is defined, front end engineering and design are carried out and a detailed cost estimate is prepared. All key stakeholders and appropriate experts then make a final review of the design basis and engineering to identify any required corrections or changes. The project’s economic or other benefits must then be re-evaluated to confirm that the project cost is still justified. At that point, the SOW is “locked down” and the project would receive preliminary approval to proceed for detailed engineering and design and with that in hand after final technical review, tenders would be issued for competitive bids. Once all the bids are received and evaluated, the project may then be put forward for final project approval based on the pricing obtained from the tender process and assuming that the project’s economics or other benefits are still justifiable. I acknowledge that the Capital Improvement Planning Committee (CIPC) has done some front-end work for each of the three proposals. Unfortunately, I have not been able to review that work and more importantly, to ask questions and challenge assumptions. Given the opportunity for detailed review, I am confident that I would find extremely cost-effective solutions to address the most urgent needs. As an example, after touring the County’s Animal Control Shelter, I do not see the need for a new $6 million facility. There are some very specific things that I have already identified and recommended that would reduce the cost to a small fraction of what is being proposed. With inflation currently out of control, it is highly likely that the cost for these capital improvements, as proposed by the CIPC, will significantly exceed their budgets and additional taxpayer funds will be required.
- Before you vote on these big bond propositions, you should know that the projects have been clearly defined, alternatives explored, the project SOW locked, cost estimates obtained based on firm tender pricing, and the cost / benefit analysis still valid. This is what we demand in the private sector. I would insist on nothing less before I endorse or approve any significant capital expenditure. My opponent clearly does not have the experience necessary to do this.
The East Kerr County Center Point Wastewater Collection Project is an example of a government capital improvement project that was approved without a clearly defined and locked down SOW. The original cost estimate was $12.6 million for 400-600 sewer line hook-ups. Over 10 years later, it is now a $63M project to connect ~900 customers in the Center Point area to a wastewater plant in Kendall County. Fortunately, this Economically Distressed Areas Program (EDAP) is funded by TWDB & Texas DoAg (20% paid by loans, 80% of funds via forgivable loans and grants), however it is still Texas taxpayers who are paying. I want to ensure that none of the County’s future projects are managed like this one.