[0:03] We're going to go ahead and get started on our, on our budget workshop.
[0:07] I don't know that this will take very long. I'm just, I just want to hear from commissioners and staff if
[0:13] you'd like before we start our meetings, just if there's any just
[0:17] overarching priorities. So we're going to go ahead and call the
[0:22] meeting to order thursday, may 28th, 2026 at I can get my
[0:30] phone on. 10:01 am. Commissioners, could I get a
[0:35] motion to skip the invocation and pledge? So move.
[0:39] and announcements. Got a motion by commissioner terrio, a second by commissioner horn.
[0:45] all in favor say aye. Aye. Any citizens' comments?
[0:50] none. No citizens' comments. All right, we'll go to item f1. Discuss current and
[0:54] future caldwell county budgetary needs in anticipation of upcoming
[0:59] fiscal year 2026-2027. And, and, go ahead, izzy.
[1:04] just want to remind the court, and all the department heads that I do have already some
[1:09] departments scheduled for budget talks, so they've already uploaded their fiscal year-end projection, year-end
[1:14] projections, and the department requested for '27. So we have quite a bit
[1:19] of departments scheduled already. If you as
[1:24] commissioners want to join any of your precinct budget talks, just give me a call, ask me, because I have scheduled so
[1:33] many I can't remember who has all done it or not. But if you want to join either one of your
[1:40] constable or your jp budget meetings, I can forward those meetings to you as I schedule them.
[1:46] okay, I'll go ahead and start, commissioners. One item that I, that I am going to ask you
[1:51] for this year, just given the,
[1:58] general overall civil
[2:03] unrest that we're experiencing in, in the country,
[2:08] in the state, and even in the county, I'm going
[2:12] to place into the budget to anywhere where there's a courtroom in the jp's offices or here
[2:18] we've already got the courtrooms covered over at the justice center,
[2:26] but putting in metal detectors, which will require also hiring some extra constables I mean,
[2:31] extra deputies for the so for bailiffs, because we'll have to have at least two, one
[2:36] at the metal detector, one back where they normally sit here, and the same for the
[2:41] other precinct offices. You know, and the reason for that, I think, should be clear. I mean, right
[2:46] now, I just feel like we're wide open in this building and
[2:52] in the other buildings. You know, I'll use precinct 2 as an example.
[2:56] if constable easterling and his deputy happen to be out, there's no security
[3:01] in that building at all. Here we have one person between everybody
[3:05] in this building and anybody with bad intentions. In any other county, you go
[3:11] to their meetings. I mean, they're yeah, you
[3:15] know, I just went through bastrop county and I had to walk
[3:20] through two metal detectors to get to judge klaus. So I
[3:26] 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,
[3:32] but, you know, anybody that doesn't agree that we live in a
[3:37] dangerous world now is kidding themselves. And I feel
[3:44] personally responsible for the safety of people in our buildings. And so we want
[3:49] to make sure that when you come to work, you feel safe and you feel like, you know,
[3:53] there's somebody standing between you and somebody with bad intentions.
[3:58] and the very least we can do is take away pocket knives and
[4:02] guns at the door. So we're going to hopefully do that.
[4:07] we've kind of done a preliminary stab
[4:11] at the budget. We should we're anticipating
[4:15] about $1.5 million more this year. So there's some money to work with.
[4:20] I haven't gotten with purchasing at all to even see what what a metal detector costs. I know what the bailiffs
[4:27] cost, so that, that'd be fairly easy. But, and we'll have, we'll have
[4:32] to add staff. Another route to go would be to, you know, if the constable,
[4:38] we want to hire deputy constables to do the precinct offices and a bailiff here. But I'll have
[4:43] to talk that over with sheriff lane and see which way he wants to jump.
[4:48] but one way or the other, I just feel that's extremely
[4:53] important, and the time has come for us to do that.
[4:58] so that's, that's one of my priorities that I'd like to get done this year, in addition to all the normal
[5:03] funding stuff. I've got a few
[5:08] things, but no, go ahead, go ahead, commissioner. I don't have much.
[5:14] I applaud the effort, judge, on the security too. I don't, you're not going
[5:19] to get any disagreement out of me on that. The only other thing that I thought, we
[5:24] discussed this last year a little bit, and I don't know exactly where it stands, just
[5:30] on the, just looking forward on any, I know this is not going to be really budgetary related,
[5:34] on where we're going for office space and things of that nature.
[5:39] so I've been talking to a place called americas, and
[5:44] I got this idea from we were remember when we were
[5:49] at conference and judge jimmy silva, they went out, they had to go out for an rfq and they
[5:55] 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
[6:00] general engineering consultant. You can hire a general
[6:04] consultant and they would then, once we got them, they would do
[6:09] all the procurement hire the contractors, and it speeds the process
[6:13] along quite a bit. And so they can go
[6:20] out and do this procurement in a way that it would be done outside
[6:25] of the governmental world. Chambers county did this
[6:30] on their jail, and it brought the jail in under budget and early. And so
[6:35] I've had some conversations with them.
[6:40] we would obviously have to do an rfq for that consultant,
[6:47] whoever that wound up being. There's not, honestly, not a lot of people in that space. As a matter
[6:52] of fact, as far as I know, they're the only ones in texas really doing it, but we still need to go
[6:57] out and seek somebody. But by doing that, they would hire an architect,
[7:03] they would take care of the architects and the contractors and all those things.
[7:08] but we could then start looking at what's it going to cost for a jail? What's it going
[7:13] to cost for extra office space over at the justice center?
[7:18] you know, we have that piece of land there and we've had that conversation. I did have an
[7:23] architecture firm, architectural firm take a first stab at that.
[7:27] and they kind of designed the taj mahal. It was $45 million. And I said, I will be burned in effigy on the courthouse
[7:33] lawn if I even suggest that. So we got to do something less fancy. It
[7:38] was really nice. But, you know, we've talked about rodeo arena and a show barn out at the
[7:45] expo center. I can think of a number of
[7:49] projects that we've discussed. Animal shelter. Animal shelter. Thank you. I was like, I'm
[7:55] forgetting something. I'm just going to keep rambling until it comes to me.
[7:59] thank you. That was it. And but, you know, we can then get
[8:04] the cost on those. We can prioritize them,
[8:08] decide whether or not we need to do can do it with the co or if we need
[8:13] to go out for bonds. But I think until we go through that process and hire a firm
[8:19] to help us with that, then we're just going to kind
[8:25] of sit here and spin our
[8:29] wheels. And this way we can get some hard cost assigned to it. Prioritize it during this
[8:33] budget session and then figure out how we're going to tackle it. And, and, you
[8:38] know, jail probably looking at $150 million easy. The
[8:42] that building over at the, at the, justice center, I'm gonna guess, would be about
[8:47] $30 million. The rodeo arena, so barring probably looking
[8:52] at $10 million by the time all in by the time you do that.
[8:56] animal shelter. I can't remember. I got somebody look at that, commissioner, and I don't
[9:00] remember what it came in at. But it seemed like $15 to $20 million. Yeah, $15, $20
[9:07] million. And so, but we're getting to a point where we need all these things. And the, you know,
[9:12] the only way to start is to first figure out what the cost is going to be and put an escalator
[9:18] on them so that we know that if we kick the can down the road,
[9:23] every year we kick that can, it gets more expensive. There's never any time cheaper
[9:28] than right now to build something. And I know I sound just like a general contractor,
[9:32] because I am, but it's true. Cost of money today is less than the cost
[9:37] of money is going to be this time next year. So I would hope that we can get that
[9:45] in the budget. And get the rfq done in
[9:50] october and kind of start down this path. I mean, we could start the rfq now,
[9:58] you know, and at least get somebody teed up. And so if we do pass it in the budget,
[10:02] then we can do that. Something else that I think is
[10:08] important, and we're going to have to do an rfq for this as well,
[10:12] but we need a strategic plan in this county. We don't have one. We fly by the seat
[10:19] of our pants. It's pretty much whatever pops in my head and goes into the budget is what we do every
[10:25] year. And I can tell you that my wife would tell you that that's a terrible idea. And also, you know, a lot
[10:31] of that stuff just resides in my head.
[10:36] you know, if I step off the curb and get run over by the beer truck, I mean,
[10:41] we got a great staff, but, you know, I talk to people all day, every day,
[10:46] and I don't always share everything with the staff. And so I want to, you know,
[10:50] have some conversations around what a strategic plan would look like and what it's going
[10:55] to cost. They're not inexpensive, but I've had some conversations with one firm, and, you know,
[11:00] to get a good solid 5-year strategic plan, probably looking
[11:05] at a quarter million dollars. To do it. Of course, we'll go
[11:10] out for rfq on that and see, you know, what other firms have to say.
[11:15] but I think that's really important.
[11:21] the city of lockhart has a strategic plan. I guarantee you most, most of the counties in
[11:26] our msa have a strategic plan. And along those lines, I'm also going to suggest I
[11:32] don't know what we would call it, county administrator
[11:38] position, something of that nature that would, that would work hand in hand
[11:44] with richard and I and danny and purchasing and grants so that there is continuity.
[11:50] if I lose the election, something happens to me or any future judge, you
[11:55] have that person there that's that's sort of apolitical.
[12:02] they don't— they're not affiliated with a party. Their job is just
[12:07] to manage the budget, manage the procurement, manage all those things,
[12:12] and work with staff in both auditor and legal and
[12:17] purchasing and grants. And they would always be there, and they would be a consistent
[12:22] person because we know that people lose elections or, you know, something happens
[12:27] to people. So, you know, I know, you know, 2 years
[12:34] commissioner terrio, god bless him, is going to retire, at least from this. I doubt
[12:39] he'll quit working, but he's going to retire from this.
[12:45] but same here, you know, I don't want to do this forever. I like my job, but, you know,
[12:50] I've got some grandkids I'd like to spend a little more time with. So someday I'm going to they stop.
[12:54] so I think that's important, that position. So I'm going
[12:59] to bring it forward, and it's up and it's, you know, as always,
[13:04] commissioners, it's up to you guys whether or not we do that. But I think it's important.
[13:08] and so those are some, some more
[13:13] of mine that I'm considering. Donald, where are we at
[13:19] on the miles
[13:26] of road that are still unpaved?
[13:32] with the ones that we're in the process of, once we get those paved,
[13:37] we'll be down to 18. 18? 18 miles.
[13:44] wow. Yeah, we're almost done. We're so close to done, we can taste it.
[13:49] and the rain's been slowing us down a little bit. If everything goes good,
[13:54] 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
[13:58] of roads that we're going to have to start rehabbing and, uh, level up and then chip seal.
[14:03] and that's a probably I'm glad you brought that up because now
[14:07] we're going to have to switch over from, you know, dump trucks hauling gravel
[14:12] to roads to asphalt zippers and and pavers and, you know, things like that. So we gotta
[14:16] we're gonna save some money, but we're just moving it around. We're swapping spits,
[14:21] so to speak, because we're gonna have to buy some different equipment.
[14:26] yeah, a couple of the brush cutters are like 10 years old this year, and we're having troubles
[14:32] with them. So that's those yeah, cut the brush
[14:37] off the sides, keep it back. I know we both of them were
[14:41] in the shop this year, and one of them, the backhoe there was like 3
[14:50] or 4 pieces of equipment that's major expenses.
[14:55] okay, would you just do me a favor and work with purchasing
[15:02] and get some quotes on those so that when we get into our budget meetings,
[15:11] we can kind of have a list of those things and try to prioritize them and get you
[15:15] what you need. All right, so, so, donnie, so with,
[15:19] with the roads in each precinct,
[15:24] you have the ability to understand what percentage of the roads has been done
[15:29] in that specific precinct? Like 80% precinct 4, 90%? Do you have that ability? Uh, all of them should be. I mean,
[15:34] right now right now we're down to about 28.
[15:40] and like I said, we've got like the ones that are almost ready. I think rusty's got a couple.
[15:44] the longest ones are my precinct. Yeah. We have biggs and salt
[15:49] flat. Yeah, we're just with the rain, we're finishing touching them up and then we got to oil them and then chip
[15:55] seal them. We've got the rock and everything. So then
[16:00] like I said, that leaves one in each precinct that's
[16:05] over a mile. Yeah, well, two.
[16:13] and bj wants us to do his laugh. So, probably answer your question, commissioner,
[16:18] 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.
[16:26] yes, sir. I mean, by the end of the year for sure, every one of them will be paved.
[16:33] but that, by the way, that's quite an accomplishment, donald. Thank you. If the weather holds
[16:38] out, like I said, hopefully they should be done by the end of the year, by the end of the summer. How
[16:43] many miles were unpaved when we started this? It was north of
[16:48] 200, right? Uh, when I started, we had 200 and 230, 240 that were gravel roads.
[16:52] now we're down to 18, and that's been about 5 years. Pretty good. That's been a
[16:58] mighty effort. About the last 2 and a half years, I think this year here
[17:04] we've gotten almost 60 miles so
[17:09] far. That's great. And that
[17:14] equipment that you got us, the new chip spreader, the distributors, that made our job
[17:20] a lot easier to get them done a lot quicker.
[17:25] good. Well, hopefully we can keep getting you the equipment that you need so we can
[17:29] maintain them. Now that we've done all that work, we've got to maintain them.
[17:33] so, and those pieces of equipment we'll still be using because once we level up the roads and we'll be chip sealing
[17:38] them after that to put a good fresh coat
[17:42] on top. Good deal. All right, yeah, the other,
[17:51] item and I don't know if this is something realistic,
[17:55] but looking at the revenue side
[18:00] of the budget, it you know, we have the potential
[18:04] to get some windfalls, you know, as these big things come in, whatever they may be.
[18:09] and that has a big impact
[18:13] on our tax rate, you know, or can. Yeah, right now we're
[18:18] it'll just go down normally because of the 312 agreements. Yeah, but,
[18:23] and we've talked about this, and I think it's a great time
[18:29] to bring it up, is we're rapidly reaching the point because we've done some 312
[18:34] agreements with pilot payments back, just the two that we've done,
[18:39] the pilot payments back are going to be in the neighborhood of $20
[18:43] million a year.
[18:47] we won't real, prime will start getting those payments, but that's a small amount,
[18:52] and it's just depending on when they start. And we still we're making some
[18:57] changes to that 312, so it's yet to come through court.
[19:02] and well, if we if I think if we get to a point where we
[19:07] start seeing those mid-budget cycle, I'll need to check
[19:13] to see what the process is, uh, if we know we're going
[19:20] to start getting these, these payments. But more than likely, those pilot payments are going
[19:24] 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
[19:29] have to, you know, we'd have to wait to budget for that till the next cycle.
[19:34] but I will say, with all that said, if prime were to start tomorrow,
[19:40] we would probably in january be looking at getting a pretty
[19:44] chunky check,
[19:51] a couple million extra dollars.
[19:55] and then going forward, theirs is a smaller portion of that $20 million than, say,
[20:00] edge would be. But theirs doesn't say starting upon
[20:05] commencement of construction.
[20:10] however, we're also waiting around for them to close. So,
[20:15] but their pilot payments would begin, though,
[20:20] when they complete you know, a building, and theirs are significant.
[20:24] they're huge. It's about $14 million neighborhood every year. So, you know,
[20:30] I know there's been a lot
[20:35] of pushback about data centers, but I guess this is one of the pros of them,
[20:40] is that they do spin off a considerable amount of revenue with very little drain on
[20:45] on county resources. And I understand citizens concerns about health and safety, and
[20:53] hopefully those will get addressed
[20:59] at the legislature this year, and we'll figure
[21:03] out what that's going to look like. But in the meantime, those are here,
[21:08] and we've done agreements with them. So I was thinking maybe I don't know if this would be something the
[21:12] strategic plan could address but, you know, if we are in situations where we're not
[21:17] doing 312 agreements and, you know, planning in advance how
[21:24] to minimize that financial impact to us, because I mean,
[21:30] caldwell county, you know, is like it or not, it's a going to be under that type
[21:35] of growth pressure,
[21:41] not necessarily from those specific uses,
[21:45] but manufacturing type uses. And having a plan, you know,
[21:50] going forward on the revenue side, you know,
[21:55] might be useful on figuring out and planning for
[22:01] for our budget. Yeah, and so, and I do plan
[22:06] to have a conversation with jennifer ritter this year because of those pilot payments
[22:11] starting. Once those start in earnest and we're seeing $20 million a year,
[22:16] then the pressure for a 3-12 agreement goes down
[22:24] as far as the tax revenue side somewhat, but and it would be
[22:28] really beneficial to our taxpayers because they would have a much lower rate and we'd
[22:33] still be realizing some pretty significant income. So,
[22:39] but having said that, they may still be important because unless something happens
[22:43] at the legislature and to give us more local control, and we're going to try
[22:48] to bring a bill through, I'm going to spend all day in austin friday trotting
[22:56] around the capitol with one in my hand trying to get support.
[23:00] but unless we get that local control, we're still going to have to get them into the das to get the things
[23:05] we're getting. And so it's really hard to get somebody
[23:11] to go down that da path without giving some concessions on appointments. It's almost
[23:16] impossible. And we all know that. And so,
[23:22] you know, so it's just, it's going to, this,
[23:26] this is going to be one of the most critical legislative sessions that has happened
[23:30] in this state in probably 100 years. And, you know,
[23:35] so depending on what happens there, well, you know, it'll kind of direct
[23:41] our course and we won't know that until may of '27, if we even know it then.
[23:46] there may be special session after special session. So, and it does not look like there
[23:51] will be any special session called prior to the start
[23:56] of the regular session on data centers or,
[24:03] anything else, you know. And they I got a lot of flack
[24:07] for even bringing it up, but in our region, which is the austin msa, and we are part
[24:12] of that there are two users that samsung uses 5.5 billion gallons
[24:17] of water a year, and tesla uses
[24:24] 500 million gallons of water a year. We're holding
[24:29] data centers to 20,000 a month, so that's 200, and if there's 10 of them, that's 2 million.
[24:34] if there's 20 of them, that's 4 million. So compared to tesla and
[24:42] samsung and what micron would have used might, when micron was looking here and we were
[24:48] courting them and nobody protested micron, 7 million gallons a day was going
[24:54] to be their water usage. And so and chip manufacturer is
[24:58] not going to go away. I think data centers will get some guardrails put around them,
[25:03] hopefully during this legislative session. But it will be around water usage and power usage and
[25:08] transparency. I think that's going to be what you see is the
[25:13] legislature is going
[25:17] to tell them, you're going to have to tell us how much water you plan to use and how
[25:21] much power you plan to use. And I honestly believe that's
[25:26] all that's going to come from it. But that's better than nothing.
[25:31] than what we have right now. So the last thing I had was to, I think make sure we're taking
[25:36] into account the matches for these potential grants. We've got that safe streets
[25:41] grant where we're going to be looking at maybe $1 million on a match. And so if
[25:49] that, I think, can come out of a bond, our bond proceeds. Yes.
[25:55] but, we'll need to make sure we're coordinated
[26:00] on that. And then the 2720 project, that'll,
[26:04] that'll have a match associated with it also. I know there's some money that we've collected
[26:09] from private entities.
[26:13] yeah, we have about $15 million coming from trac to help, but
[26:18] that's dropping the bucket compared to that. Whole project,
[26:23] but still it could help with our match a lot. So, and
[26:28] then there it looks like likely that the moving project on 183 at magnolia, we might get a late funding
[26:33] on that later this year. So could that be through campo? That's true,
[26:38] campo. Okay, that's actual construction, and, so we'll have a match
[26:43] associated with that. Okay, all right. And I think most all those matches can come
[26:47] from the bond, but still we need to make sure we're, we're accounting for that
[26:53] during the process. What else, commissioners? Anything?
[26:59] okay, well, if not, we can
[27:03] go ahead and have a motion to adjourn. I'll move
[27:10] to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by commissioner westmoreland. Do
[27:15] we have a second? Second. Second by commissioner horne.
[27:19] any discussion? Not. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, we're adjourned at 10:28.