[0:00] All
[0:18] right. Good morning. Um, all right. So,
here's what we're faced with this
[0:23] morning. Um,
[0:27] I I'm not going to try to go through all
the legal in in intricacies of this
[0:32] situation because I'm not an attorney.
Um, [clears throat]
[0:37] public notice was not given of this
meeting today.
[0:42] 72 hours notice to the public that we're
going to be having a meeting, coming
[0:46] together, doing our thing, passing
things. There's arguments that we could
[0:52] have the meeting and it wouldn't be an
issue. There's arguments that we should
[0:58] not have the meeting.
Um,
[1:03] I tend towards leaning on the side of
being safe. I mean, we are a
[1:08] deliberative body. We are a committee of
the quorum court. Um, we are making
[1:14] decisions with the public's money. Um,
and I feel like
[1:23] they should have now we we did post it
on Facebook. We did do other things, but
[1:27] we just didn't make our typical meeting
notice that we normally do. I don't feel
[1:33] necessarily comfortable having the
meeting today. I know it inconveniences
[1:38] a lot of people. I mean, it
inconveniences me, you know, it
[1:41] inconveniences all of us, our elected
officials, everyone who's prepped and
[1:45] prepared and to be here today and to
talk about their budgets today.
[1:50] But I feel like
we deserve to do our duty by the public
[1:55] to do, you know, to uphold that.
[2:01] Questions from committee members. This
is not a committee meeting. We have not
[2:05] convened, but I'm just asking you for um
comments,
[2:11] thoughts.
>> Not be a working session.
[2:14] » I'm not
>> We don't We don't make any final
[2:16] decisions. We're just able to ask
questions, think about things
[2:22] that actually beic. We could ask our
questions and reconvene later to make
[2:26] our final decisions.
>> Yeah. Um I don't know the answer to
[2:30] that. I don't know. Let
>> me chime in, Mr. Chairman. And again,
[2:34] I'm not Justice Allison whose seat I'm
sitting in right now. My name's Alan
[2:39] Dodson, County Judge here. Uh, Chairman
Laoski, um, asked my opinion. We visited
[2:47] with [snorts] county attorney Phil
Murphy. You know, look, legal argument
[2:52] could be made. If you were if you were
looking at black letter law, we could
[2:57] make an argument that we could have the
meeting still complying. There would
[3:01] also be a legal argument that we did not
setting aside black letter law with
[3:08] where
our society is today.
[3:12] My advice to Chairman Laoski was laser
on the side of building public trust
[3:17] rather than giving a a public which
seems to have an appetite to distrust
[3:22] the government.
Let's heir on the side of building trust
[3:28] with them. And that is not a legal
argument. Um that's a reality argument
[3:35] with where we're at in society today.
And so my advice is appealing as it
[3:40] would be to have a working session.
Those are discussions that somebody who
[3:45] may choose to show up today, didn't have
the opportunity to would I mean just
[3:51] turn the TV on. I mean it is a blood
bath out there on social media.
[3:58] unfortunately, but I think this is an
opportunity to grab the moral high
[4:02] ground and say, "Hey, we're going to
approach this with great caution and uh
[4:05] just air on the side of full disclosure
and transparency." And so that was the
[4:11] advice I I applaud I applaud Tyler for
making a difficult decision to do that.
[4:18] I think it's the right thing to do.
[4:23] » Thank you, Judge.
Um,
[4:29] anything else?
I I hate that we're in the situation
[4:33] we're in. You know, I know I know we've
all made sacrifices to be here today and
[4:37] to and to get this work done and to do
it. Um, like I said, I think just to to
[4:41] heir on the side of transparency and and
safety and
[4:47] doing the best we can for the taxpayer
and the public. Go ahead, Johnny.
[4:52] So, chairman, if not today, when?
>> That's the next question. If not today,
[4:58] when? Because I don't think I I don't
think it works in people's schedules
[5:02] again, and I don't want to put it on
y'all to have to come back and to meet
[5:05] again and to take another day off work
and to be here all day again. Right? So,
[5:10] then we So, then we shift to evenings.
Right? Now, I'll say this. the um we've
[5:16] done a good job in the past. Um
these these committee meetings used to
[5:21] take place the first week of December
every evening in the first week of
[5:25] December. We pushed that up a month
because I didn't think it was acceptable
[5:28] to be passing our budget, you know, um
in December when we can do it in
[5:34] November and and have room to breathe
and not be on such a tight deadline. Um,
[5:39] we can we can look at evenings. We can
look at couple evenings like next week
[5:45] and a couple evenings the week after
that. Um,
[5:50] that's the next thing I want to talk
about was what kind of when the
[5:52] committee wants to meet. Um, I think we
can make those decisions, judge and
[5:56] attorney, we can make decisions on when
we meet outside of a public meeting,
[5:59] can't we? Okay. Um, so that's the next
thing. And then I was also also going to
[6:05] ask November 12th our or November 11th
our normal budget and finance committee
[6:09] meeting is um on Veterans Day. Really
just wanted to ask y'all's opinion if
[6:14] y'all wanted to meet that normal day or
not. I I'm um I mean most people are off
[6:20] work that day but we meet in the
afternoons or the evenings
[6:24] anyways you know. So comments questions
during the day.
[6:34] » No, just meeting the evening of the
11th.
[6:36] » The 11th.
>> Yeah.
[6:38] » Yeah. Okay. So, y'all good with holding
our normal budget and finance committee
[6:42] meeting on the 11th. All right. That
sounds good. All right. Uh so, if y'all
[6:46] want to, we can look at meeting the
evening of the 5th and the 6th and maybe
[6:50] the 10th and the 11th to knock these
budgets out.
[6:57] » You're out of town on six. All right. I
know we need a we need a quorum of at
[7:00] least three and I would love for
everyone to be able to participate.
[7:03] » What dates I'm sorry?
>> Uh let's look at fifth and sixth and
[7:06] 10th and 11th.
>> Sixth is I won't be able to do. My son
[7:10] has a football game.
>> Okay. So you and you and Jake are out on
[7:13] the sixth. All right, that'll work.
>> Yeah, I can't do [clears throat]
[7:17] » Okay, Johnny's out Wednesday nights.
[7:22] We can do 10, 11, 12,
13.
[7:33] Okay. Okay.
>> Yeah, I can do 10 11
[7:39] 10 11 for sure.
>> Yeah, I can do 10 11 and 13.
[7:43] » 10 11 13.
[7:48] » 131
[7:53] 13.
>> Okay. Just codes.
[7:58] Okay.
[8:03] » Okay.
[8:06] » What's a good meeting time? Uh, Justice
makes 6 6 p.m. 6:30 6 p.m.
[8:12] » 6.
>> Okay.
[8:13] » Yeah. If you can clear clear 40 or
whatever, [laughter]
[8:20] [clears throat]
>> just have to show me the part of
[8:24] your responsibilities,
>> chairman.
[8:30] » I think that's fine. It gives
>> Okay. Okay.
[8:36] » 6 or 6:30 is
>> all right. We'll set for 10, 11, and 13
[8:39] at 6:30
and then we'll figure it out from there.
[8:42] If we need to meet more, we'll figure it
out. We hopefully we can get the budget
[8:46] passed by the full court meeting on the
18th would be the goal.
[8:50] » Yeah.
[8:54] Let me ask it one day completely off the
table.
[9:00] » I I know Justice Tyler is
>> booked at work.
[9:13] » Um
[9:16] » Okay.
>> Okay.
[9:21] Is this y'all good?
>> Okay. I appreciate y'all being here
[9:26] today. I'm sorry we couldn't do what we
normally do. I'm sorry we're airing on
[9:29] the side of, you know, public trust and
and and just trying to play our cards
[9:35] safe here today. Um to uh do our best
for the public in the roles that we
[9:41] serve.
Anything else?
[9:49] » Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we'll send out I'll
work with Randy. We'll send out
[9:53] something and we'll work we'll work
through that and we'll work you in where
[9:56] your availability is. Yeah, absolutely.
All right. Thank y'all. Not going to say
[10:02] meeting adjourned because we didn't have
a meeting.