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We're going to go ahead and get started on our, on our budget workshop.

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I don't know that this will take very long. I'm just, I just want to hear from commissioners and staff if

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you'd like before we start our meetings, just if there's any just

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overarching priorities. So we're going to go ahead and call the

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meeting to order thursday, may 28th, 2026 at I can get my

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phone on. 10:01 am. Commissioners, could I get a

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motion to skip the invocation and pledge? So move.

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and announcements. Got a motion by commissioner terrio, a second by commissioner horn.

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all in favor say aye. Aye. Any citizens' comments?

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none. No citizens' comments. All right, we'll go to item f1. Discuss current and

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future caldwell county budgetary needs in anticipation of upcoming

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fiscal year 2026-2027. And, and, go ahead, izzy.

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just want to remind the court, and all the department heads that I do have already some

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departments scheduled for budget talks, so they've already uploaded their fiscal year-end projection, year-end

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projections, and the department requested for '27. So we have quite a bit

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of departments scheduled already. If you as

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commissioners want to join any of your precinct budget talks, just give me a call, ask me, because I have scheduled so

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many I can't remember who has all done it or not. But if you want to join either one of your

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constable or your jp budget meetings, I can forward those meetings to you as I schedule them.

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okay, I'll go ahead and start, commissioners. One item that I, that I am going to ask you

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for this year, just given the,

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general overall civil

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unrest that we're experiencing in, in the country,

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in the state, and even in the county, I'm going

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to place into the budget to anywhere where there's a courtroom in the jp's offices or here

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we've already got the courtrooms covered over at the justice center,

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but putting in metal detectors, which will require also hiring some extra constables I mean,

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extra deputies for the so for bailiffs, because we'll have to have at least two, one

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at the metal detector, one back where they normally sit here, and the same for the

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other precinct offices. You know, and the reason for that, I think, should be clear. I mean, right

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now, I just feel like we're wide open in this building and

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in the other buildings. You know, I'll use precinct 2 as an example.

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if constable easterling and his deputy happen to be out, there's no security

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in that building at all. Here we have one person between everybody

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in this building and anybody with bad intentions. In any other county, you go

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to their meetings. I mean, they're yeah, you

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know, I just went through bastrop county and I had to walk

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through two metal detectors to get to judge klaus. So I

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think it's important. I think it's time that we did this. There's, you know, in the past there's been some pushback,

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but, you know, anybody that doesn't agree that we live in a

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dangerous world now is kidding themselves. And I feel

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personally responsible for the safety of people in our buildings. And so we want

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to make sure that when you come to work, you feel safe and you feel like, you know,

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there's somebody standing between you and somebody with bad intentions.

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and the very least we can do is take away pocket knives and

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guns at the door. So we're going to hopefully do that.

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we've kind of done a preliminary stab

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at the budget. We should we're anticipating

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about $1.5 million more this year. So there's some money to work with.

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I haven't gotten with purchasing at all to even see what what a metal detector costs. I know what the bailiffs

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cost, so that, that'd be fairly easy. But, and we'll have, we'll have

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to add staff. Another route to go would be to, you know, if the constable,

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we want to hire deputy constables to do the precinct offices and a bailiff here. But I'll have

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to talk that over with sheriff lane and see which way he wants to jump.

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but one way or the other, I just feel that's extremely

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important, and the time has come for us to do that.

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so that's, that's one of my priorities that I'd like to get done this year, in addition to all the normal

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funding stuff. I've got a few

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things, but no, go ahead, go ahead, commissioner. I don't have much.

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I applaud the effort, judge, on the security too. I don't, you're not going

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to get any disagreement out of me on that. The only other thing that I thought, we

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discussed this last year a little bit, and I don't know exactly where it stands, just

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on the, just looking forward on any, I know this is not going to be really budgetary related,

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on where we're going for office space and things of that nature.

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so I've been talking to a place called americas, and

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I got this idea from we were remember when we were

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at conference and judge jimmy silva, they went out, they had to go out for an rfq and they

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ended up hiring this company called americas. And it's very similar to what we've done with the road bond where you hire a

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general engineering consultant. You can hire a general

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consultant and they would then, once we got them, they would do

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all the procurement hire the contractors, and it speeds the process

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along quite a bit. And so they can go

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out and do this procurement in a way that it would be done outside

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of the governmental world. Chambers county did this

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on their jail, and it brought the jail in under budget and early. And so

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I've had some conversations with them.

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we would obviously have to do an rfq for that consultant,

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whoever that wound up being. There's not, honestly, not a lot of people in that space. As a matter

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of fact, as far as I know, they're the only ones in texas really doing it, but we still need to go

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out and seek somebody. But by doing that, they would hire an architect,

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they would take care of the architects and the contractors and all those things.

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but we could then start looking at what's it going to cost for a jail? What's it going

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to cost for extra office space over at the justice center?

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you know, we have that piece of land there and we've had that conversation. I did have an

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architecture firm, architectural firm take a first stab at that.

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and they kind of designed the taj mahal. It was $45 million. And I said, I will be burned in effigy on the courthouse

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lawn if I even suggest that. So we got to do something less fancy. It

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was really nice. But, you know, we've talked about rodeo arena and a show barn out at the

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expo center. I can think of a number of

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projects that we've discussed. Animal shelter. Animal shelter. Thank you. I was like, I'm

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forgetting something. I'm just going to keep rambling until it comes to me.

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thank you. That was it. And but, you know, we can then get

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the cost on those. We can prioritize them,

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decide whether or not we need to do can do it with the co or if we need

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to go out for bonds. But I think until we go through that process and hire a firm

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to help us with that, then we're just going to kind

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of sit here and spin our

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wheels. And this way we can get some hard cost assigned to it. Prioritize it during this

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budget session and then figure out how we're going to tackle it. And, and, you

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know, jail probably looking at $150 million easy. The

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that building over at the, at the, justice center, I'm gonna guess, would be about

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$30 million. The rodeo arena, so barring probably looking

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at $10 million by the time all in by the time you do that.

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animal shelter. I can't remember. I got somebody look at that, commissioner, and I don't

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remember what it came in at. But it seemed like $15 to $20 million. Yeah, $15, $20

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million. And so, but we're getting to a point where we need all these things. And the, you know,

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the only way to start is to first figure out what the cost is going to be and put an escalator

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on them so that we know that if we kick the can down the road,

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every year we kick that can, it gets more expensive. There's never any time cheaper

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than right now to build something. And I know I sound just like a general contractor,

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because I am, but it's true. Cost of money today is less than the cost

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of money is going to be this time next year. So I would hope that we can get that

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in the budget. And get the rfq done in

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october and kind of start down this path. I mean, we could start the rfq now,

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you know, and at least get somebody teed up. And so if we do pass it in the budget,

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then we can do that. Something else that I think is

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important, and we're going to have to do an rfq for this as well,

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but we need a strategic plan in this county. We don't have one. We fly by the seat

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of our pants. It's pretty much whatever pops in my head and goes into the budget is what we do every

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year. And I can tell you that my wife would tell you that that's a terrible idea. And also, you know, a lot

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of that stuff just resides in my head.

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you know, if I step off the curb and get run over by the beer truck, I mean,

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we got a great staff, but, you know, I talk to people all day, every day,

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and I don't always share everything with the staff. And so I want to, you know,

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have some conversations around what a strategic plan would look like and what it's going

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to cost. They're not inexpensive, but I've had some conversations with one firm, and, you know,

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to get a good solid 5-year strategic plan, probably looking

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at a quarter million dollars. To do it. Of course, we'll go

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out for rfq on that and see, you know, what other firms have to say.

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but I think that's really important.

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the city of lockhart has a strategic plan. I guarantee you most, most of the counties in

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our msa have a strategic plan. And along those lines, I'm also going to suggest I

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don't know what we would call it, county administrator

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position, something of that nature that would, that would work hand in hand

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with richard and I and danny and purchasing and grants so that there is continuity.

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if I lose the election, something happens to me or any future judge, you

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have that person there that's that's sort of apolitical.

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they don't— they're not affiliated with a party. Their job is just

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to manage the budget, manage the procurement, manage all those things,

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and work with staff in both auditor and legal and

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purchasing and grants. And they would always be there, and they would be a consistent

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person because we know that people lose elections or, you know, something happens

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to people. So, you know, I know, you know, 2 years

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commissioner terrio, god bless him, is going to retire, at least from this. I doubt

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he'll quit working, but he's going to retire from this.

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but same here, you know, I don't want to do this forever. I like my job, but, you know,

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I've got some grandkids I'd like to spend a little more time with. So someday I'm going to they stop.

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so I think that's important, that position. So I'm going

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to bring it forward, and it's up and it's, you know, as always,

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commissioners, it's up to you guys whether or not we do that. But I think it's important.

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and so those are some, some more

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of mine that I'm considering. Donald, where are we at

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on the miles

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of road that are still unpaved?

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with the ones that we're in the process of, once we get those paved,

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we'll be down to 18. 18? 18 miles.

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wow. Yeah, we're almost done. We're so close to done, we can taste it.

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and the rain's been slowing us down a little bit. If everything goes good,

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I'm hoping by the end of summer the weather holds up, we should be just about done. Okay, but then we got a bunch

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of roads that we're going to have to start rehabbing and, uh, level up and then chip seal.

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and that's a probably I'm glad you brought that up because now

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we're going to have to switch over from, you know, dump trucks hauling gravel

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to roads to asphalt zippers and and pavers and, you know, things like that. So we gotta

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we're gonna save some money, but we're just moving it around. We're swapping spits,

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so to speak, because we're gonna have to buy some different equipment.

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yeah, a couple of the brush cutters are like 10 years old this year, and we're having troubles

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with them. So that's those yeah, cut the brush

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off the sides, keep it back. I know we both of them were

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in the shop this year, and one of them, the backhoe there was like 3

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or 4 pieces of equipment that's major expenses.

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okay, would you just do me a favor and work with purchasing

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and get some quotes on those so that when we get into our budget meetings,

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we can kind of have a list of those things and try to prioritize them and get you

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what you need. All right, so, so, donnie, so with,

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with the roads in each precinct,

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you have the ability to understand what percentage of the roads has been done

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in that specific precinct? Like 80% precinct 4, 90%? Do you have that ability? Uh, all of them should be. I mean,

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right now right now we're down to about 28.

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and like I said, we've got like the ones that are almost ready. I think rusty's got a couple.

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the longest ones are my precinct. Yeah. We have biggs and salt

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flat. Yeah, we're just with the rain, we're finishing touching them up and then we got to oil them and then chip

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seal them. We've got the rock and everything. So then

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like I said, that leaves one in each precinct that's

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over a mile. Yeah, well, two.

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and bj wants us to do his laugh. So, probably answer your question, commissioner,

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it's hard to put a percentage on it, but I'd say they're all about 95% done. I know they doing a good job.

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yes, sir. I mean, by the end of the year for sure, every one of them will be paved.

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but that, by the way, that's quite an accomplishment, donald. Thank you. If the weather holds

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out, like I said, hopefully they should be done by the end of the year, by the end of the summer. How

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many miles were unpaved when we started this? It was north of

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200, right? Uh, when I started, we had 200 and 230, 240 that were gravel roads.

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now we're down to 18, and that's been about 5 years. Pretty good. That's been a

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mighty effort. About the last 2 and a half years, I think this year here

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we've gotten almost 60 miles so

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far. That's great. And that

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equipment that you got us, the new chip spreader, the distributors, that made our job

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a lot easier to get them done a lot quicker.

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good. Well, hopefully we can keep getting you the equipment that you need so we can

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maintain them. Now that we've done all that work, we've got to maintain them.

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so, and those pieces of equipment we'll still be using because once we level up the roads and we'll be chip sealing

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them after that to put a good fresh coat

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on top. Good deal. All right, yeah, the other,

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item and I don't know if this is something realistic,

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but looking at the revenue side

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of the budget, it you know, we have the potential

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to get some windfalls, you know, as these big things come in, whatever they may be.

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and that has a big impact

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on our tax rate, you know, or can. Yeah, right now we're

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it'll just go down normally because of the 312 agreements. Yeah, but,

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and we've talked about this, and I think it's a great time

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to bring it up, is we're rapidly reaching the point because we've done some 312

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agreements with pilot payments back, just the two that we've done,

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the pilot payments back are going to be in the neighborhood of $20

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million a year.

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we won't real, prime will start getting those payments, but that's a small amount,

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and it's just depending on when they start. And we still we're making some

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changes to that 312, so it's yet to come through court.

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and well, if we if I think if we get to a point where we

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start seeing those mid-budget cycle, I'll need to check

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to see what the process is, uh, if we know we're going

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to start getting these, these payments. But more than likely, those pilot payments are going

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to be just like when we get our tax payments, and we'll get them in january. In the lump sum. And so we'll

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have to, you know, we'd have to wait to budget for that till the next cycle.

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but I will say, with all that said, if prime were to start tomorrow,

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we would probably in january be looking at getting a pretty

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chunky check,

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a couple million extra dollars.

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and then going forward, theirs is a smaller portion of that $20 million than, say,

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edge would be. But theirs doesn't say starting upon

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commencement of construction.

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however, we're also waiting around for them to close. So,

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but their pilot payments would begin, though,

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when they complete you know, a building, and theirs are significant.

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they're huge. It's about $14 million neighborhood every year. So, you know,

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I know there's been a lot

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of pushback about data centers, but I guess this is one of the pros of them,

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is that they do spin off a considerable amount of revenue with very little drain on

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on county resources. And I understand citizens concerns about health and safety, and

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hopefully those will get addressed

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at the legislature this year, and we'll figure

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out what that's going to look like. But in the meantime, those are here,

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and we've done agreements with them. So I was thinking maybe I don't know if this would be something the

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strategic plan could address but, you know, if we are in situations where we're not

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doing 312 agreements and, you know, planning in advance how

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to minimize that financial impact to us, because I mean,

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caldwell county, you know, is like it or not, it's a going to be under that type

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of growth pressure,

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not necessarily from those specific uses,

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but manufacturing type uses. And having a plan, you know,

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going forward on the revenue side, you know,

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might be useful on figuring out and planning for

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for our budget. Yeah, and so, and I do plan

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to have a conversation with jennifer ritter this year because of those pilot payments

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starting. Once those start in earnest and we're seeing $20 million a year,

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then the pressure for a 3-12 agreement goes down

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as far as the tax revenue side somewhat, but and it would be

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really beneficial to our taxpayers because they would have a much lower rate and we'd

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still be realizing some pretty significant income. So,

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but having said that, they may still be important because unless something happens

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at the legislature and to give us more local control, and we're going to try

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to bring a bill through, I'm going to spend all day in austin friday trotting

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around the capitol with one in my hand trying to get support.

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but unless we get that local control, we're still going to have to get them into the das to get the things

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we're getting. And so it's really hard to get somebody

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to go down that da path without giving some concessions on appointments. It's almost

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impossible. And we all know that. And so,

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you know, so it's just, it's going to, this,

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this is going to be one of the most critical legislative sessions that has happened

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in this state in probably 100 years. And, you know,

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so depending on what happens there, well, you know, it'll kind of direct

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our course and we won't know that until may of '27, if we even know it then.

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there may be special session after special session. So, and it does not look like there

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will be any special session called prior to the start

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of the regular session on data centers or,

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anything else, you know. And they I got a lot of flack

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for even bringing it up, but in our region, which is the austin msa, and we are part

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of that there are two users that samsung uses 5.5 billion gallons

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of water a year, and tesla uses

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500 million gallons of water a year. We're holding

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data centers to 20,000 a month, so that's 200, and if there's 10 of them, that's 2 million.

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if there's 20 of them, that's 4 million. So compared to tesla and

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samsung and what micron would have used might, when micron was looking here and we were

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courting them and nobody protested micron, 7 million gallons a day was going

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to be their water usage. And so and chip manufacturer is

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not going to go away. I think data centers will get some guardrails put around them,

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hopefully during this legislative session. But it will be around water usage and power usage and

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transparency. I think that's going to be what you see is the

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legislature is going

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to tell them, you're going to have to tell us how much water you plan to use and how

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much power you plan to use. And I honestly believe that's

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all that's going to come from it. But that's better than nothing.

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than what we have right now. So the last thing I had was to, I think make sure we're taking

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into account the matches for these potential grants. We've got that safe streets

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grant where we're going to be looking at maybe $1 million on a match. And so if

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that, I think, can come out of a bond, our bond proceeds. Yes.

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but, we'll need to make sure we're coordinated

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on that. And then the 2720 project, that'll,

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that'll have a match associated with it also. I know there's some money that we've collected

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from private entities.

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yeah, we have about $15 million coming from trac to help, but

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that's dropping the bucket compared to that. Whole project,

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but still it could help with our match a lot. So, and

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then there it looks like likely that the moving project on 183 at magnolia, we might get a late funding

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on that later this year. So could that be through campo? That's true,

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campo. Okay, that's actual construction, and, so we'll have a match

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associated with that. Okay, all right. And I think most all those matches can come

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from the bond, but still we need to make sure we're, we're accounting for that

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during the process. What else, commissioners? Anything?

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okay, well, if not, we can

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go ahead and have a motion to adjourn. I'll move

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to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by commissioner westmoreland. Do

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we have a second? Second. Second by commissioner horne.

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any discussion? Not. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, we're adjourned at 10:28.