e
8ye old was going down the and I'm like
man I can't do
the youngest one speed it's fast that's
cool man you say happy new year happy
New Year H where's the rest of our crew
here oh they'll be around he's
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
here
[Music]
all
right
[Music]
I got
see oh that's shiny
new I saw
it good morning welcome to the first
tarant County Commissioner Court meeting
of 2024 Happy New Year to everyone I
will now call the meeting to order T Mo
County Judge present Roy Charles Brooks
commissioner Precinct one present Alisa
Simmons commissioner Precinct
here Gary F commissioner Precinct 3 here
Manny Ramirez commissioner Precinct 4
here thank you so for today's invocation
we have a special guest that I thought
would be nice to have come uh lead us in
our first prayer of the year a South
Lake resident and UT quarterback the
number three ranked Texas Longhorns
quarterback Quinn ERS Quinn come up do
the invocation for
us
[Music]
all right everybody please bow your
heads Heavenly Father Lord we just thank
you for waking us up this morning Lord
thank you for getting us here safely
Lord thank you for waking us up with
breath in our lungs Heavenly
Father Lord we pray that you just be
with the families um that were in the
explosion yesterday here in our own
County Lord Lord we ask that you open
our hearts and fill our minds with your
truth Lord Lord help us to understand
the truth true meaning of what it means
to be a Christ follower Lord it says in
Joshua 1:9 have I not commanded you be
strong be courageous for the Lord your
God is with you wherever you go Lord so
I ask that you just help us understand
the true meaning of that verse that you
truly are with us wherever we go Lord we
love you and we thank you for everything
that you do and everything that you will
continue to do for us it's in Jesus's
mighty name I pray amen amen thank you
please join me for the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of
the United States of America and to the
for it stands Nation God indivisible
withy and justice for all and now the
Texas
flag
St thank you you may be
seated thank you Quinn for coming this
morning uh Quinn is a resident of south
lake like me uh obviously the
quarterback at Texas and this morning uh
the final rankings were released and
Texas came in at number three so
congratulations again to you for
that he represents tarant County
well all right do we have any agenda
announcements Mr Merritt yes sir good
morning Court members and Happy New
yeary New Year couple of quick
announcements uh we have several items
that have been pulled from the consent
agenda the first one is number
a12 the next one is
E3
[Music]
F3
G2 and in your red folders you should
have an updated Court communication for
j6 in the purchasing section that's all
we have
sir a12 D3 F3 G2 and j6 j6 wasn't pulled
you just have an updated Court got j6
remains a12 D3 F3 G2 is it D3 or E
Edward E Edward E E3 my mistake yeah
E3 f is and Frank Three G is and girl
two all right do we have any
Commissioners Court
announcements I do okay um on January
18th we are having a town hall meeting
it's our first town hall meeting over in
Precinct 2 everybody is welcome uh it is
entitled state of the tarant county jail
and our very own Sheriff uh wver will be
on the panel uh along with others so I
think it starts at
6:30 gate 5:30 5:30 on uh January 18th
so everybody's welcome to come
over um on February the 9th we'll have
our I believe our 14th
annual um transportation Summit it'll be
at the um first convention center and
start at 8 in the morning and go till
about uh 1:30 and we have a
are have kind of a unique speaking group
we have a team of U Ross pero
Jr speaking with the president Lori the
president of the Federal
Reserve
um Lori what's her last
[Music]
name sorry yes you what is it on the U
laor Logan Lor Logan CEO of the D
Reserve she's the CEO and president of
the Federal
Reserve
so very excited about uh that team
and I think it's going to be a a great
day excellent uh as you all know Stock
Show season is here and um tent County
CR for this year we're partnering with
the for wor Stock Show Rodeo on January
29th it's Monday for the Taran County
salutes veterans event it'll the stock
show is providing free entry uh to all
veterans that day and we're going to
have an expo there with um you know
hundreds of vendors that will provide
valuable services to our Taran County
veterans so please come out at noon uh
it'll be from noon to about 5 or 6
depending on what what volume we have
we'll have Medal of Honor recipients it
it'll be a really great event so looking
forward to January 29th please come out
all right so everybody knows about the
gas explosion by now there were 21 total
people injured one critically that one
that was injured critically was
stabilized at
JPS and uh then air flighted to Parkland
uh and they're being treated at Parkland
currently fortunately and miraculously
um no casualties nobody died in this and
uh yesterday we sent everybody home in
County buildings down down town just out
of an abundance of caution at around 415
420 uh but they're still working in the
area and still trying to make clean it
up and do a lot of things so please
remember to uh pray for uh those who
were injured and their families uh y'all
may remember last meeting I think it was
I had talked about uh how Maricopa
County came and donated a ton of eggs to
uh the tan area Food Bank as a result of
the World Series bet we made where where
we fortunately won uh they've invited me
they're going to actually do the same
donation to a food bank in
Phoenix uh this Thursday they've invited
me and uh the terrant area Food Bank
executive director so the two of us are
going down there paid for by campaign
funds I might add uh but we're going
down there on Thursday so we'll be
representing Taran County and Maricopa
County for that and if you didn't see
someone vandalized two nights ago the
Old Courthouse across the street so take
a look at the video if you have any
information on who that may be please
contact the tent County Sheriff's Office
so we can uh give that person an all
expenses paid trip to the County Jail uh
next up we have approval of the minutes
do we have any motions Corrections or
any comments on the minutes for appr
second all right we have a motion to
approve the minutes and a second any
discussion there
all right please cast your
vote all right passes unanimously next
up uh we have our proclamations
resolutions and presentations section
the uh first one is our
employee dear Heavens where did that go
our employee
recognition and I would like to say um
to all of our employees we greatly
appreciate you we would appreciate you
even more if I had the list of all the
people that I was supposed to
recognize and I will find that here
shortly uh let's start with our
five-year employees I'm going to call
your name and ask you to stand so we can
recognize you all at once uh Tamara
Alden Mark
adaberry Abu Baba Wendy
[Music]
Buress judge Jason
shanet Annette
Coniglio
Judy
doy Matthew
Duffy Janet
farmer Deborah
Flores Cindy
Grisham a ail
[Applause]
Hanks Kevin
Higgins Matthew
HOSA meline
Jones Jeffrey
kiter Judge Alex
Kim Christopher
lroy Iman
nachawati Joshua nice
wonderer judge Kenneth
nle Brian Ray
Abraham
Sanchez judge Kenneth
Sanders Derek
[Music]
Sutter Tamara
sord Christine
Torres Danielle wesac who help me out
there
Danielle uh and Stephanie zanino those
are all of our fiveyear employees thank
you all very
much
uh now for our 10year
employees we
have Patrick
Bernett Lila
Delgado Rebecca
Gutierrez Pamela
Maples Shayla
[Music]
Moses Patrick n
[Music]
Christine neevis
Medina
[Music]
Prana py
p and Larry
Vermilion thank you all very much for
your all
[Music]
right do does this mean we do not have
any 15-year employees today okay we have
one I don't have that in our none of us
have that in our court
[Music]
notes 15 that's 15 all right we're going
to we're going to find you can y'all
find me a list of the 15 20s 25
oh okay here we go all right here we
are thank you Andy 15year employees
Michael
Barnett Delila Crow
Domingo
Garza Calvin
Jennings Allan
Ludwick Eric metf Eric
metf Isaac
Sano ad doph Taylor Jr and judge Melody
Wilkinson thank you all for
your
Eric you don't like you you don't look
like you returned 15 kicks for
touchdowns on the NFL
so I was in high school he okay
excellent means he's younger than me I'm
getting old all right so our 20-year
employees we only have three today
Kathleen
gon Carol
[Music]
laddins and Wesley
Lowden
thank you all for 20
years now we have some 25y year
employees and yall may know that what we
normally
do for our 25 year employees and 30 and
35 and 40 if we have any in this time
and Bas we have two normally we invite
them to our office uh sit down meet with
them because of the holidays and
vacations and things we did not do that
for January but for anyone who is
interested in coming by and meeting and
visiting and talking tell me what's
going on in the county or just getting
to know me and so I can get to know you
you are welcome to come by this month uh
we do have some uh some folks here quite
a few from for 25 years and we have some
information on them so first is uh El
morce
May
[Applause]
she was born in Fort Worth went to
Terell high school has two kids she
loves to shop and especially at retail
stores um loves to travel and visit
other
states her most memorable moment was
when she received her 25 year award here
at the county and that's right now so
you're you're all
[Applause]
part and she loves going out to eat with
family and friends so thank you very
much for your 25 years we appreciate
you next we have Susan strange Susan
here with
us okay Susan has also been with us 25
years uh she is the Repro Graphics
manager she was born in conquered
California went to high school in
California went to college at tarant
County junior college she has one
son um as a child she collected arroe
heads and rattlesnake buttons that's a
fact no one knows about her two facts um
for fun she loves gardening and shooting
Firearms other job titles she's had with
the county she's had several she's been
Graphics assistant to what she is now
Reaper Graphics manager but all have
been with Facilities Management her most
memorable moment uh she remembers the
flood the snakes the exploding toilet
and Roger the raccoon that was stuck in
our
ceiling and what she likes the most she
said she is blessed to work with a great
graphics and printing team and thankful
for the support that they have all had
throughout the years so thank you Susan
we appreciate you for 25
years next we have Eric Martinez Eric
are you with us there we go hi Eric how
are you welcome uh he is a lieutenant
over the combined narcotics enforcement
team and the SWAT Commander for the tant
county sheriff's office SWAT team so
thank you for that uh born in Fort Worth
graduated from Boswell High School um
has three children one son two daughters
here's some facts that no one um knows
about him he was originally hired as a
clerk and was assigned to be Captain Dan
West secretary at the Green Bay
facility um he is the first and only one
in his family who is in law
enforcement what he likes to do for fun
he loves to play golf he enjoys
traveling to new
destinations uh when he can and when he
has the money uh when the weather is
right he loves to bass fish and he loves
pretty much anything outdoors he has had
a host of job titles with the county uh
Clerk and confinement Jailer release
desk Deputy Patrol Deputy SWAT operator
narcotics detective emissions
enforcement task force investigator
Patrol Sergeant criminal investigations
division Sergeant CID Lieutenant Patrol
Lieutenant Patrol administrative
Lieutenant CET lieutenant and SWAT
Commander pretty remarkable um his most
memorable moment there's so many to talk
about but he was given a small tip uh
about a drug situation on an individual
that suspected of Distributing bulk
marijuana as a result they developed
probable cause and executed a search
warrant on his residents yielding over
600 lbs of marijuana and significant
amounts of US
currency um this was at the time the
largest marijuana seizure in the
narcotic unit's history there was a
media release that aired before he could
get home that day and as he walked in
the door his oldest daughter called him
the Dooby king after seeing it on the
news he would later receive the
commodation bar service award for this
investigation quite a memory I'm sure
what he likes the most is being a part
of leadership and supporting the tarant
county sheriff's office team members as
they grow on their career paths and he
loves to mentor and pass on all that he
has learned uh thank you very much for
your 25 years we appreciate
next we have Michael
Ford how are you sir good good thank you
for being here he was born in Fort Worth
25 years with us went to Western Hills
High School has one daughter this is
pretty cool a fact no one knows about
him his grandfather wrote the song Walts
across Texas that's pretty cool uh what
does he like to do for fun gol and
saltwater fishing um other job titles
he's had he started with the jail when
he was 19 years old since then he's had
various assignments in the Patrol
Division Narcotics Division warrant
division judicial division uh EF task
force and the criminal investigations
division his most memorable moment he
once watched a 16-year-old kid back his
father's new truck and boat trailer into
Ben Brook Lake he forgot to put it in
park before getting out and he bet he
has hasn't made the same mistake
twice um what he likes most is having uh
the privilege to help people when they
need the help the most uh thank you for
25 years Deputy 4 we appreciate
you next we have Tracy
Kirby is Tracy with
us okay so Tracy is a Corporal and
instructor born in Fort Worth went to
Northside High School has five kids four
girls and a
boy so maybe there's hope for me and uh
fact no one knows about him oh this is
really cool uh he's been to 17 of the 32
NFL stadiums I got to correct him
there's 30 NFL stadiums because two
teams share stadiums but he wants to
visit all of them I I I want to do the
same thing I've been I went to my 18th
this year the Buffalo one uh very cool
we're going to have to talk about that
uh what what does he like to do for fun
he enjoys cooking and training in
Brazilian jiu-jitsu other job titles
he's had with the county he started off
as a tech one in the jail in 1999
because he wasn't old enough to be a
detention officer um he's been a
background investigator a security
control specialist he was promoted to
senior specialist Corporal in the first
group when the position was restructured
uh working in booking for 15 years he
moved over to housing as a floor super
supervisor and he's currently the
primary instructor for the jail Academy
um Tracy I'm sorry well Tracy is a
female Tracy's not here so not he she
and she became the first female Hispanic
instructor for the Sheriff's Office and
what she likes the most is traveling and
getting to experience different cultures
and Cuisines Deputy Kirby thank you very
much for your service for 25 years we
appreciate you wherever you
are all right next we have Michelle
Sanders also with us 25 years she is a
legal assistant with the mental health
unit is Michelle
here oh hi there did you think you were
going to get away with not being
standing up there all right she was born
at Carswell Air Force based Hospital in
Fort Worth I went to Polytech uh went to
college at Taran County College and
UTA uh has three kids two sons one
daughter uh this is pretty cool a fact
that no one knows about her she was a
preey and weighed 2 lbs when she was
born so pretty cool uh what does she
like to do for fun shop till I drop then
crawl fishing singing and spending time
with family she has been a supervision
clerk with cscd an Associate clerk with
the District Clerk's Office a legal
secretary with the DA's office and
mental health coordinator with the DA's
office her most memorable uh moment
showing up to work on a scheduled off
day and working with her son Demarcus
and daughter cristani for years while
working with the county What She Likes
most meeting some very nice people
making friends along the way and she
gets to retire to enjoy the backside of
her life with the husband of her youth
while she can still recognize
him so thank you Michelle for 25
years
next we have Carl Cole is Carl with us
hello Carl are you uh he is micro
Imaging scanner operator also born in
Fort Worth we got a run of Fort Worth
folks today uh Brewer high school went
to college at un was it un when you went
yes sir okay all right um fact no one
know oh this is cool in fact no one
knows about him he is a Hall of Fame
member
of the 1989 football team from Brewer
High School very cool what did you play
I play defensive tackle excellent all
right what does he like to do for fun
read history and military books his most
memorable moment he participated in the
2015 Jingle Bell run as a member of the
county clerk's office he was stretching
getting gear ready doing all that that
you do and got a tap uh on the shoulder
from Mary Louise um that told him he had
just missed the start of the event
oh but he was Lumber uh what he likes
the most is to find humor in everyday
occurrences Carl thank you very much for
25 years we appreciate
you next we have another 25 years Dr
Evette Windgate it's Dr Windgate here
hello there uh she is a Community Health
Equity and inclusion division manager
she was was born in Austin Texas uh her
High School St St Stevens Episcopal and
laner high school she went to college at
the University of Texas at Arlington
where she has degrees a master of public
administration Bachelor of Arts and
sociology and Bachelor of Arts in
criminal justice and
criminology she also went to Dallas
Baptist where she got a doctor of
education and educational leadership
which means she is probably the smartest
person in this room uh she has two uh
children to adult boys and her oldest
son is a former student athlete at UTA
her youngest son is a junior at Houston
tilletson University and a published
poet which I bet you're proud of them uh
fact no one knows about you I can see
this this pretty cool she trained in the
long jump to compete in the 1994
Olympics pretty
cool what does she like to do for fun
game night with her sons she has had
other titles with the county health
educator health education coordinator
senior policy analyst and Health Equity
coordinator and her most memorable
moment she managed an award-winning
nationally recognized program for teens
for 15 of its 20 years of existence teen
video Fest um the youth were exposed to
various aspects of Public Health
Community Based organizations and the
professional world of video production
uh there was a competition those who
competed had to identify a health
problem a solution and share health
statistics along with resources one of
those years she hosted a show on the
Fort Worth cable channel to highlight
the winners one of the categories was
physical health and a team of two young
men were the winners one of them was
overweight and he told me that he was
glad that his teacher made his class
participate in teen video Fest he said
that because of what he learned while
doing the research creating the video he
decided to eat healthier and exercise
regularly he stated he understood the
importance of how this decision will
impact the health of future generations
and his family pretty cool uh what she
likes the most is being a servant leader
and being able to meet people where they
are able to improve their quality of
life Dr Windgate thank you for your 25
years all right next we move to 30 years
Bobby D Harden
Jr good afternoon sir 30 years good
morning it is birthplace Pasadena
California home of the Rose Bowl um went
to South Grand Prairie High School uh
went to uh college at UTA also has two
kids both daughters and uh they both
this last year had babies so they became
grandparents two times uh this uh past
year in fact no one knows about him
everyone knows everything about me that
I want them to know I like it that's a
good answer you been my office you
wouldn't have gotten away with that but
you're okay uh what do you like to do
for fun golf camping fishing in hunting
watch old western movies and work on
projects around the house what's your
favorite old western
movie Jud Big Jake yep that's a good one
have you been to the John Wayne Museum
you should check it out it's very cool
uh what other job titles has he had with
the County Deputy field training officer
instructor judges Bay and tcla president
his most memorable moment as tcla
president killing a bill that was going
to alter tcdrs and our retirement
and what he likes the most besides the
people he works with having the
opportunity to do something significant
each and every day so thank you very
much Deputy Harden for 30 years we
appreciate
you Captain Harden Captain Harden all
right Floyd Heckman Jr is Floyd
here all
right Floyd has been with us 35 years so
thank you for
that he was born in Easton Pennsylvania
for the baseball players out there yes
that is where the baseball bats come
from he went to Joshua High School uh he
got a Bachelor's degree and a master's
degree from Lamar University he has five
kids adopted four of them and he's been
married for 32 years very
[Applause]
coolow
fact no one knows about him he's a huge
fan of Rush what's your favorite Rush
song that's mine too all right good what
does he like to do for fun family he
just loves spending time with his family
doing things for his family um and he is
a big advocate of anything that is uh
helping autistic kids or adults anything
autism related he's a big advocate for
other job titles he's had with the
county he's worked in the training
academy started in the jail he's done
Patrol he's done Internal Affairs he's
done SWAT he's done undercover in
Narcotics he's he's been all over the
agency his most memorable
moment uh he helped a lady find her kids
who had been kidnapped and they had been
gone over 2 and A2
years um what yeah that's worth a round
of
applause
and uh those two kids one of them is now
a rocket
scientist and one of them is a very
successful businesswoman two two girls
and he's he's followed them to see how
they're doing which is pretty cool and
then another very remember moment was an
active shooter situation he was involved
in something that I noticed about uh
Captain Heckman is he really does have a
heart of gold a heart of service he also
served in the US Army thank you very
much Floyd for 35 years with tant County
We Appreciate
You Now last year if I remember
correctly we only had two people that
this applied to I mean one person this
applied to somebody that had been here
40 years and she worked in public health
y'all may youall may know who she is
today we have two people celebrating
their 40th anniversary with tarant
County which is unbelievable when you
get right down to it so uh James where
are you James
Mich cor hello did I get that
right I don't think you'll heard me 40
years he is a bayth in County court at
law number one born in cane Pennsylvania
went to high school in Pennsylvania uh
went to college at New Mexico State
University uh University of Pennsylvania
and University of Houston uh has one
daughter and this even deserves a bigger
round of applause this month he will
have been married to his wife for 56
years this is really cool a fact no one
knows about him his final reenlistment
in the US Air Force the oath of offic
the oath of office was administered by
an army officer which doesn't happen all
that often but that officer was his
daughter so very
cool he loves to travel loves to fish
loves sports other job titles he's had
with the county started in
Patrol um he's worked the release desk
classification grievance and
disciplinary bayth and then he's now
he's he's a judge's bayth his most
memorable moment um and not necessarily
the most memorable but the most serious
when an individual came into the
courtroom and fatally shot an individual
in judge Mills Court when he was there
to testify on another issue I'm sure
that's something you don't forget easily
and stays with you forever um he just
wanted to remind folks that shootings
can happen do happen be on guard Be
watchful what he likes the most tant
county is a great place to work he has
worked the last 13 years and nine days
today for judge Don Pearson in County
court at Law at the 1895 courthouse in
his opinion it's the best Courthouse to
work in in tarant county and best of all
he works with a great group of people
James thank you very much for 40
years when uh I'm done with the next one
I would like you James and our next one
to come up to the podium so we can all
take a picture with you that you get
that after 40 years so you get that's an
incentive to hang on another
15 all right our final one to recognize
today 40 years an
Diamond so she is an assistant district
attorney in the Civil Division uh she
was born in Illinois went to high school
in Illinois went to college and law
school at Illinois uh she got an MBA
from UTA via the County's tuition
reimbursement program and yes it has
been useful on the job um no kids but
blessed with multiple nieces nephews
Grand nieces Grand nephews fact no one
knows about her her brothers and an they
spoke French as small children at home
French was her mother's first language
pretty cool her brothers and her
promptly refused to speak French once
they went to elementary school where all
the other kids only spoke English and
she has forgotten most of her
French uh what she likes to do for fun
hang out with friends and have great
conversations uh other titles she has
had with the county she has always been
an assistant criminal district attorney
40 years that's very cool uh I won't put
you on the spot and ask how much longer
you're going to do it but I'm going to
ask you privately cuz that's a that's a
incredible run most memorable moment uh
so many moments good and bad the one
moment that has had the most instant
lasting impact on her was a difficult
one the 1992 fatal shooting in the old
court of appeals courtroom and the Old
Courthouse where a fellow uh criminal
district attorney Chris Marshall and
another lawyer died other people she
knew were wounded that day forever
changed her uh there have been great
moments too but that day is the one that
stands out the most
uh what she likes the most two things
the people she has worked with both at
the cda's office and with other County
offices are amazing as to the cda's
office the Civil Division team members
are some of the most talented attorneys
and best human beings you will ever meet
and it has been great working with them
over these decades she truly appreciates
the opportunity to continually learn new
aspects of Law and apply that knowledge
to resolve complex uh legal problems
ideally without inadvertently creating a
new problem and she says the County
employee benefit are great never
underestimate the importance of great
employee benefits so an thank you so
much for your 40
years I will entertain a motion to
receive and file the employee
recognition so Mo second I have a motion
in a second please cast your
vote all right passes unanimously and
Ann and James if you'll join us up front
please let's take a picture with
[Music]
everybody ask for St
about
[Music]
having
[Music]
you got
picture
[Music]
for any employees that do not
no I it's just
[Music]
unexpect
[Music]
in
[Music]
all right where are
[Music]
we that's
right all right as we continue the
meeting next up up on the agenda is a
memorial resolution um this is presented
by commissioner
Simmons and uh commissioner Brooks this
is a joint
resolution um and before I turn it over
to commissioner Brooks I um want to
say that I had the opportunity to uh
attend congresswoman Eddie Bernice
Johnson's uh wake last
evening
and I had observed her service for
decades um but there was a lot I did not
know uh and so attending the Wake was uh
very eye
openening um and I first had the
opportunity to work with her in
2015 uh we worked together to put a
symposium together and um so I got to
know her well then and I appreciate all
that she has done uh the inspiration
that she has been for me and others and
so uh commissioner Brooks and I thought
it would be fitting um for us to present
a
resolution uh in honor of her work and
her life um so there you go thank you
commissioner if I may read the
resolution into the record
Memorial
resolution honoring The Life and
Legacy of us
congresswoman Eddie Bernice
Johnson
whereas Eddie Bernice Johnson a retired
member of the United States House of
Representatives was born December
3rd
1934 in wo
Texas and whereas M Johnson during a
time of segregation in the United States
earned a nursing certificate at St
Mary's College in
1955 and a Nursing degree at Texas
Christian
University in
1967 and whereas Miss Johnson began and
her professional career in
1956 at the Dallas Veterans Affairs
Medical Center in Dallas Texas and
became the hospital's first
africanamerican Chief psychiatric nurse
and whereas Miss Johnson won a seat in
the Texas House of Representatives in
1972 72 because becoming the first black
woman in north Texas to be elected to
public office and a seat in the Texas
Senate in
1986 becoming the first AF
africanamerican Texas Senator since
reconstruction and whereas M Johnson was
elected to the United States House of
Representatives in
1992 becoming the first registered nurse
to hold a seat in Congress and whereas
during her esteemed tenure congresswoman
Johnson became the first woman to chair
the house committee on science space and
technology and whereas congresswoman
Johnson served on the house committee on
transportation and
infrastructure where she secured more
than $1 billion doar in Appropriations
for North
Texas and whereas congresswoman Johnson
represented Texas's 30th congressional
district whose
boundaries originally included parts of
parent County for 30 years before
retiring in January
2023 and whereas
on December
31st
2023 congresswoman Johnson a Pioneer
Trailblazer
humanitarian and social justice Advocate
died after her brief illness devastating
her
family constituents of her former
district and peers and communities
across acoss the United
States now therefore be it
resolved that we the Commissioners Court
of Taran County do hereby honor The Life
and Legacy of the gentle lady Eddie
Bernice Johnson a strong and valued
leader and call upon all citizens to
celebrate her enduring achievements in
public service
in witness whereof we have here and to
set our hands and caused the Seal of
Taran County to be affixed this ninth
day of January
2024 and just as an
[Music]
aside I have known Eddie Bernice Johnson
since she was elected to the Texas
legislature in 196
72 in her
passing Texas has
lost a valuable
resource and through this
resolution we extend our
prayers to her family and to the very
many people across District
30 and
Texas
for a a life well
lived I move approval of acceptance of
this resolution I'll second on the
motion all right we have a motion in a
second uh any discussion please cast
your
vote all right passes unanimously thank
you for that our next resolution
position is uh will be presented by
commissioner Simmons thank
you this is uh presented to the
Arlington Martin Luther King Jr
celebration committee
Incorporated on its 35th
Anniversary I do think we have folks
here from that celebration committee
let's see okay I see you Aaron and
Pastor um Jo
um so I'll read the resolution and I'll
ask you to come up and uh we'll take
some
pictures whereas the Arlington Martin
Luther King Jr celebration committee
Incorporated was formed in
1989 when representatives from Arlington
businesses faith-based group groups
cultural and educational
organizations joined to create a unique
and special tribute to Dr King and to
honor his dream and whereas the
inaugural celebration was held in
1990 and featured three days of
activities and attracted nearly 1,000
participants and whereas 35 years later
the celebration
continues as a collaboration between the
City of Arlington Arlington Independent
School District University of Texas at
Arlington tarant County College
Southeast Campus and the Arlington
Ministerial Association and has grown to
serve more than 6,000 people and whereas
since its Inception the MLK observances
continue to evolve and now spans 4 days
and includes the 2024
MLK advancing the dream Gayla MLK step
show and talent showcase MLK poetry
meets Jazz MLK Hubert Moss acumenical
service the zeev strong Jr MLK Day of
Service ml MLK day of uh service
Festival MLK youth
Extravaganza and MLK historical timeline
exhibit and whereas the celebration
exemplifies Dr King's vision and purpose
encouraging positive interactions and
and character development while bringing
all communities together to advance the
American dream and there is no other
event in the nation that honors Dr King
the way Arlington the Arlington way and
whereas the Arlington Dr Martin Luther
King Jr celebration success is due to
the committee's dedication to keeping Dr
King's Vision alive and inspiring others
to fulfill their dreams now therefore or
be it resolved that we the
Commissioner's Court of Taran County do
hereby recognize and congratulate the
Arlington Martin Luther King Jr
celebration committee incorporated as
they commemorate 35 years of preserving
the legacy of Dr King and the
significance of his inspiring work
further we encourage all citizens to
attend and enjoy the festivities of the
2024 Arlington advancing the dream
celebration that begins this Friday
January 12th
2024 in witness whereof we have here
unto set our hands and cause the Seal of
teren County to be affixed this 9th day
of January
20124 all right uh I move approval of
acceptance of this resolution all right
we have a motion in a second to approve
the resolution any discussion right
please cast your
vote all right passes unanimously okay
picture
time so we have let me see we
have okay Dr Aon parales from Arlington
Independent School District what's your
title now Aon because you've been up up
I'm the executive director of Engagement
equity and access with Arlington I and I
have the honor of serving as the chair
of the celebration committee this year
okay did you want to add anything just
on behalf of the 4-day celebration
committee I like to thank joj joare
commissioner Simmons and and additional
Commissioners for this resolution and
recognition and do invite our tan County
Community to come out and celebrate the
life of Legacy with of Dr Mark Lu King
with us this week okay thank you and we
have Pastor Jones with us are you still
president of the Arlington ministerial
Alliance yes sir and president of the
Arlington
NAACP yes sir and uh you serve on this
committee yes I do absolutely and are
you over The ecumenical service on
Sunday yes I am okay he's the speaker
I'll be there and I'd like to invite all
of you to come out for this occasion
especially since it was uh been this is
the 35th Anniversary and what we uh like
to uh reflect on greatly in Arlington is
that Dr King was a member of the clergy
he started out as a Baptist preacher and
so especially the uh am May the arm
Ministry Association and engage all
takes a special pride in this year's
celebration and we' like to invite all
of you out for The ecumenical services
at Trinity United Methodist Church uh
5:30 on Sunday afternoon where all of
you will be honored for being there
thank you who's The Speaker uh the
speaker is the uh Bishop of the north uh
Texas and Central Conference of the
United Methodist uh Church Dr Reuben
signs
okay all
[Music]
right we have
[Music]
two here the next
[Music]
I'm fixing after some of the stuff I
can't read
anymore
all right thank you gentlemen for being
here uh the next item on our agenda is a
proclamation uh be presented by
commissioner Ramirez yes thank you um
with us to accept this Proclamation is
Bishop Keith akan and father Rich stogin
from the Anglican dases of forworth um
this is a proclamation honoring the life
and the legacy of Reverend Dr Martin
Luther King Jr whereas the Life and
Legacy of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King
Jr has left an indelible mark on the
fabric of our nation promoting Liberty
Justice and unity and whereas Martin
Luther King's iconic I Have a Dream
speech continues to resonate inspiring
generations to strive for a society
built on Justice impartiality
Brotherhood and instilled the wisdom
that individuals shall be judged by the
content of their character and whereas
in recognition of his unparalleled
contributions to civil rights and his
tireless advocacy in
1983 President Ronald Reagan signed into
law the designation of the third Monday
in January as a Federal holiday in honor
of Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and
whereas in celebrating the birthday of
Martin Luther King Jr we honor an
American who recognized the great
Injustice of segregation and
discrimination and made his life's
purpose to write these wrongs in favor
of Freedom fairness and Reconciliation
and whereas Dr King rejected violence
relying instead on his eloquence and the
moral force of his convictions changing
not only laws but hearts and minds and
whereas on January 15th
2024 the Anglican dases dasis of Fort
Worth is hosting its inaugural mass for
MLK at St Vincent's Anglican cathedral
representing more than 10,000 members
and whereas we encourage others to stand
with the Anglican dicese of Fort Worth
in remembering the words of Dr King the
ultimate measure of a man is not where
he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience
but where he stands at times of
Challenge and controversy let us unite
and be true to the American dream he
loved and strived for and now therefore
be it resolved that we the Commissioners
Court of Taran County do here Bri
Proclaim Monday January 15th 2024 is a
day of reflection and Tribute to The
Life and Legacy of Dr Reverend Reverend
Dr Martin Luther King Jr in witness
whereof we have here unto set our hands
and caused the Seal of Taran County to
be affixed this 9th day of January 2024
i' move for
approval all right we have a motion in a
second any discussion here I please cast
your
vote passes unanimously father stogin um
Bishop aeran if you would please come
forward if you have anything to add to
that I would love to hear some
words first of all thank you judge
O'Hare County Commissioners and
particularly this morning commissioner
raris uh the bishop has asked me to say
a few words before he renders a a
blessing and words of appreciation as a
uh
22y old who had come who was born in
Texas and had gone to University of
Wisconsin River Falls matriculated to
the gam Theological Seminary in all in
um Atlanta Georgia I went to 334 Aubin
Avenue and there I met the third
President of thec the Southern Christian
leadership conference who was a founder
of that organization he invited me
eventually to his office and I didn't
realize in the beginning but then as I
sat there I saw several books I saw
several shelves but the chair was
different and so were the some of the
photos it was the office of Martin
Luther King Jr and I worked for them as
an undercover operative forc while in
seminary and then moved to kesco
Mississippi where I lived across the
street my family and I at the time from
the Grand Dragon of the cuas clan and I
called upon SCC and Dr low and a team to
help us with some of the issues that we
were doing and as a Baptist educated
Minister that he was and I never met Dr
King but I met his father I met his
widow I met his children I met his
nieces and nephews and I met Julian bun
I met those people and they were very
interesting commissioner rarez as you
read so eloquently about moral standards
and about being about family and about
Justice for All Americans and so this
this morning on this very glorious day I
wanted to share those quick stories with
you to let you know that I had a
personal interest and a personal
involvement and they taught me about the
necessity of having moral standards and
not being uh people who were pickle but
people who stood in moral situations
that are not always easy as we witness
sometimes in our County and so with that
I want to thank you all for rendering us
the opportunity to breathe This
Magnificent um
uh Proclamation and I want to thank the
staff your staff particularly
commissioner raris for being very uh
very very engaged in this whole process
and I want to thank the people for doing
this because this is an honor and we
give you uh our praise with that I would
like to introduce Bishop Keith aaman our
suffering Bishop of the Anglican dasis
of Fort
Worth thank you very much it's a great
privilege to be with all of you and to
new friendships and relationships and
likewise to be able to make new ones on
a very personal note I'm the priest who
was called in over three decades ago to
anoint the bodies of those uh attorneys
who were shot and killed and I had the
privilege of being able to minister to
all the families there the survivors and
the staff so this is a very special
moment for me because that time I was
able to see Taran County come together
and to be able to take care of what was
important in a very special way so thank
you I also uh am very honored because as
president of the Arlington Ministerial
Association 20 years ago uh we started
what you heard about earlier and I am
thrilled that this has continued to be
the case thank you that says a great
deal about all of you who are present
here and I can never thank you enough so
it is with great joy that I'm able to on
behalf of the dicese of Fort Worth
accept this
remarkable um these remarkable words
have been articulated but also with the
promise to let you know that for us it's
not merely a matter of receiving uh the
recognition of doing this but rather
that is purely symbolic of the ministry
and our resolve to make sure that those
things which have divided people in the
past will not divide people anymore and
as we worship uh the one true God let us
pray Mighty and everlasting God we thank
you for loving us so much that you allow
us to live in places where we can serve
you where your name can be
uttered where we can join
together where we can be brought
together by those things which unite
us and we thank you Lord for putting
people in leadership who are aware
of the fact that the gifts have been
given by you and for them always to
acknowledge those talents as they do and
to depend upon your
grace Empower them strengthen and
console them in all times especially
those who are working to make us one in
the name of Jesus Christ we
pray thank you Bishop stick around down
there for a photo right
okay
your way
[Music]
sorry
[Music]
all right thank you both for being
here now we move to our consent agenda
the consent agenda is amended a12 E3 F3
and G2 removed do we have any comment
comments discussion or motion on the
consent as amended move approval of the
consent amend we have a motion and a
second to approve the consent agenda as
amended any
discussion please cast your
vote all right it passes
unanimously which takes us
to item
A1 Mr Merritt yes sir uh again good
morning Court members this is a request
for the approval of amendment to the
agreement between Taran County Hospital
District dbaa is JPS Health Network and
HJ wrestling company for the JPS
temporary parking project East Campus
the only additional comment I'll make on
this is this does represent the final
guaranteed maximum price for this
project and it is within budget uh as
set by the hospital District board move
approval second all right we have a
motion and a second to approve this
amendment to the agreement between JPS
and HJ Russell and Company for the
temporary parking project any
discussion right seeing none please cast
your
vote passes unanimously item
A2 uh again Court members approval of a
work package authorization number two
between Taran County Hospital District
DBA JPS Health Network and Beck uh puter
joint venture for design build Services
related to the new parking garage
located at St Louis and Magnolia Avenue
this is only work package number two of
this designed build but is still
anticipated that this project will be in
budget as well move
approval we have a motion of a second
any discussion on this
item all right seeing none please
vote this too passes unanimously thank
you next up is item A3 which is approval
of out of state travel
requests move approv second we have a
motion a second to approve these out of
state travel requests any discussion on
these
items I seeing none please cast your
vote passes
unanimously from consent we now have
item
a12 uh we do have speakers on this also
so item
[Applause]
A2 good
morning I'm seeking approval of an
interlocal agreement between Taran
County and the University of North Texas
Health Science Center concerning Taran
County's burial program now do any
Commissioners have any questions
comments on this
item um so I just want to be
clear
these the
deceased do we have permission from
their families to donate the bodies yes
we do and I also have Claudia yellow the
will body director um represented from
un and Dr Rustin Reeves director of
Center for anatomical Sciences if you
have any
questions all right any other questions
from the
court all right we have two people
signed up to speak to this item first is
lon
Burnham good morning everybody and hope
you have a great new year um I'm L bham
I live here in Fort Worth and I've
spoken to you on a number of occasions
I'm particularly concerned about this
the morality of the current policy and I
want to speak to it this way uh my late
father-in-law was a medical doctor I
have every intention to put my deceased
body to good use uh for academic study
but that's my choice my concern here is
that you're not giving the choice to
these deceased poppers in fact you may
be denying their basic religious rights
it is a cultural tradition in this
country that we bury our cremate people
that's not what I want from my body my
parents had difficulty making that
transition from bury to Cremation
because of traditional religious values
we are not in a position to know what
these deceased people have as their
religious values we should not violate
those religious values we should find a
better way I'm not the articulate person
on this issue the good ethics Professor
who signed up to speak after me is much
more articulate but I want to raise this
as a moral and ethical issue we should
be willing to spend the money that's
necessary to spend to respect a person's
religious values which they may or may
not have and we're not in a position to
know thank you thank you next is Eli
[Music]
shup hi
there so I am a professor and a medical
ethicist here in tant county and I'm
here speaking in opposition to the
renewal of this agreement in its current
form and my issue with it is basically
this so contrary to what you just
heard the family the next kin of the
deceased they do have to consent to this
use of their relatives body if they can
be located in cases when the deceased
has no NEX of kin or the NEX of kin
cannot be located currently under the
interlocal agreement those bodies are
just given to the medical school to be
used for medical teaching and research
which amounts to
dissection okay so and in the past the
court you know hasn't been insensitive
to this issue and that's the reason why
the current agreement stipulates that a
person who was known to belong to a
particular religious faith that
precludes this kind of use their body
shouldn't be used okay but like my
friend L Burnham said we don't always
know the faith of the deceased sometimes
we have very little information and
religion is far from the only reason not
to want to be naked on a slab after you
die cut apart by
strangers okay my own view is that
nobody's body should be dissected
without either their prior consent or
permission from their next ofkin if
there are no next ofkin or if next ofkin
cannot be located then I believe that
that person's body should not be used
for medical teaching or research period
it will cost the county more to do what
is right by these
people but that's money that needs to be
spent so medicine in north Texas has a
dark historical Legacy of grave robbing
particularly in poor and vulnerable
communities and what the county has been
enabling with this ongoing interlocal
agreement with un Health Science Center
is tantamount to grave robbing without a
middleman these people just don't go in
the ground first nobody's asked their
permission to use their bodies in this
way after they die and nobody's nobody's
been asked at
all so these cadavers they are
essentially these medical students first
patients that is an important right of
passage and I think it's important that
these first patients have been donated
not merely taken and used so I myself am
a wed body donor with un Health Science
Center I will go there after I
die I don't want my next door neighbor
in the anatomy lab to be somebody who
died in poverty in this County and had
no next of kin or loved ones to see to
their
Arrangements thank you thank
you all right any questions from the
court
members any comments I would just like
to
comment that
uh there is an OP opt
out for those with religious objections
and other kinds of rection objections
to
the use of of these bodies for uh
medical
training when persons
die
without loved ones that we know about or
anyone to step forward and take
responsibility this program has worked
well uh in terms of
providing an opportunity for medical
research that benefits the entire
community at
large
uh so I move
approval of this
program second all right we have a
motion to approve in a second um further
comments or discussion what does it cost
the county to vary
Lisa about
$1,200 I think we did this a couple
years ago
[Music]
okay are you about to answer that
question yes okay
yes so um for unidentified uh varials uh
we spend
approximately um
$2,100 to bury
unidentified how many total people are
we talking about during the course of a
year oh so for 2023 fiscal year
2023 um there was 146 cremations uh at
un reimbursed to un and then there was
three
unidentified so what now there
were
146 cremations reimbursed to un Health
Science Center and by saying that are
you saying there's 146 that were bodies
used for medical science that were then
ultimately cremated no they were they
were cremated those were not the numbers
of how many were a will body let me call
146 unidentified no no no three
unidentified I believe it's what you
Dr come up
he has the numbers uh the statistics for
all that were donated and then the ones
that were
[Music]
cremated last year we received around in
fact we received around 200 a year from
the county and of those that we received
we we use about onethird of those uh for
either medical research uh teaching or
or uh in our education programs some of
those are not disected in fact about
half of those are not dissected you
receive 200
what donors from these would be
unclaimed bodies unimed bodies thank
very
much we received 178 in 2020 195 in
2021 203 in 2022 and 205 last year so it
average is about 200 a year of those 200
bodies you said approximately a third
end up being used for medical science
okay of the ones that aren't used for
medical science you then cremate them
yes sir okay of the ones that are used
for medical science what whatever is
done with them is done with them and
then are they cremated yes sir okay of
those that are used in medical science
how many of them do you get permission
from someone to do this
to yeah I I don't have that
number who has that number we can get to
you that number yes sir okay well I'm
sure we can get it does anybody have it
who who would who is the one seeking the
permission un or Taran County for the
well it's staff that's requesting the
court to approve the agreement so it's
inter local between un and yeah what I'm
asking is
when someone contacts the family and
says do we have permission to do this
who is doing the contacting un or tarant
County both there are instances where
the county is contacting the family
there saying can we use the body for
medical science for the family to step
forward and make arrangements or donate
yes sir but of the ones that that I
don't I'm not sure how to say it but on
the ones that are used for medical
science you nobody here can tell me
today how many of them are given
permission by Family correct okay I'll
that
okay last year we used 73 total
okay uh other questions comments3
unclaimed bodies got
it okay all right other questions or
comments from the court we do have a
motion in a second is there an urg
for us to pass
this or I would have to ask Dr crowns
because the typically the the bodies are
kept at the medical examiner's office
till they're transported over so we
would just have to ask from a capacity
standpoint if if he could continue to
hold it and Dr crowns is
[Music]
here
did you ask
about so yes if Dr Crown says we do have
space available at the work so if we
need to hold two weeks to to work
through this we certainly
can okay thank you um can we go back to
the cost of
burial does that include what does that
include us finding the the plot or is
there or so um the body is at the
medical examiner's office uh the
investigator does his due diligent to
locate family members if it's
unidentified uh the medical examiner has
a uh Funeral Home rotation and usually
typically the major um picks up the body
so it starts with the uh actual
Transportation picking up the body
transportation to the facility and then
preparation and uh burial um and like I
said major funeral home is the one that
has responded to the
unidentified and they use uh Sky
View for the
interment and by law unidentified bodies
cannot be
cremated and then it looks like we're
charged we have to pay a fee for those
deceased to can't be used that is
correct through un they um invoice us
and that's $300 part dece
there so we give them a an unclaimed
body if it can't be used we have to pay
yes to have given them the unclaimed
body
$300 per
deceased
okay um
all
right all right any other questions or
comments from the court
members all right seeing none we do have
a motion in a second please cast your
vote all right it passes 4 to one thank
you thank you next item on the agenda is
[Music]
E3
and E3
is a request for the court to receive
and file a fully executed copy of the
contract for Legal Services between
tarant County the district's attorney's
office and the tarant County Hospital
District we have two people signed up to
speak to this item judge oare members of
the Court good morning uh the criminal
District Attorney's office is asking the
court to receive and file a fully
executed copy of the agreement between
the CDA
and uh JPS the hospital district for
Legal Services back in September of 2023
this court approved the agreement with
JPS for Legal Services at the time the
court considered that agreement the
hospital Board of managers had also
approved it however there was no
signature page that had been transmitted
to Taran County from the hospital
District at that time uh this now what
the court is being asked to do is simply
a belt suspenders measure to make sure
that there is a fully executed copy of
the agree on file uh in the
Commissioner's Court records and our
criminal district attorney approves of
this contract yes judge he does and he
has signed it all right any questions
for Mr kaville any comments from the
court all right our first speaker is L
[Music]
Burnham
[Music]
I really have more questions than
anything else I'm concerned about the
continuing way that we're doing this
process and U maybe I need to address
that to the DA's office in a private
conversation thank you all right next we
have Nan Terry
good morning thank you for the
opportunity to speak I'm not opposed to
this payment but we all all have bills
to pay but are these costs included in
the cost to the jail and I understand
we're building the hospital District but
sometimes those Hospital District might
not be the right person to build for
example I believe JPS should not be the
responsible for the cost of treatment
for the injuries due to Cory Rodriguez
he was injured by the result of a
beating by Taran County jailers in the
Taran County Jail should the hospital
District really be on the hook for the
surgeries the treatment and the
hospitalizations and could we somehow
ask the auditor and the DA's office to
look at these costs instead of just
blanketly asking the hospital to pay for
these costs and attribute some of these
costs to the jail if they are actually
costs that should be incurred by the
jail
okay thank
you okay so I will make a motion to
receive and file a fully executed copy
of the contract for Legal Services
between tarant County the cda's office
and tarant County Hospital District
second we have a second we have any
discussion all right please cast your
vote all right passes
unanimously next
[Music]
up
is
F3 and
F3 is something with Michael
Amador good morning my members of the
good morning what is F3 it's approval of
change order number two there it is K
industry LLC contract for the Scott more
Juvenile Justice Center juvenile project
in the amount of $
34,7 is this a generator rental is this
a a rental or a permit it's a permanent
but we're waiting for the arrival of the
new generators Comm commissioner so
we're renting the temporary until they
arrive they're scheduled to arrive next
week so this is you want us to approve
the temporary that's correct the the
rental price for that temporary for the
months of November October and
November okay I I've seen these
generator rentals on several Court
communic Cas it it seems um and I'm glad
to see
that you know we're this is in support
of a permanent solution at the Juvenile
Justice Center um so I appreciate the
effort
um make me understand the rentals
um do I understand correctly that many
of our Taran County
buildings were built without backup
generators uh we have some buildings
that do not have generator backup
systems that is
correct and do I understand that we are
on year two of renting generators how
long have we been for juvenile for
throughout the county it vares your
honor it vares commissioner I apologize
uh at the Mansville Sub Courthouse this
is the second second year we'll be
Renning uh generators for the winter
months at the election center we uh
bring in a backup generator during the
election season the two SE the two
elections for approximately three weeks
each time at the preed maintenance
center 2 precin maintenance center four
we'll bring in backup generators during
the winter months as well that protects
the fuel Islands so that fuel is
available for the crews that have to
work during the winter months Etc
so given the number of rentals and the
fact that the cost is recurring annually
until we get permanent
installation is it time for the county
to put together a
comprehensive prioritized permanent
generator installation program uh we've
done that uh commissioner we've actually
evaluate all the generator emergency
Power Systems in all of our buildings
and as uh we be including backup
generators as part of our um capital
budget submissions each year for various
buildings Etc okay it just doesn't seem
economical to keep renting these things
how are we paying for the rentals uh we
pay for out of operating funds or
maintenance funds it's not ARA or
anything like that they're just
operating funds okay I've heard that
there are possible um Federal earmark
funds for building additions like
generators which um can be said to
accommodate some form of of an Emergency
Operations Center have we explored that
at all like can a building be designated
an
EOC I help with that we the
administrator's office is actually aware
of some of those grants and we are
looking to pursue some dollars so there
to to Mike's Point we've been working on
a longer term Capital Improvement flame
for the entire County inclusive in that
is the more permanent installation of
generators of facil that don't currently
have them okay yeah it just doesn't make
sense to to keep renting okay thank you
thank you Mike this I am
a matter of priority for me because
during my first
election for
commissioner the power went out in the
early voting
Center at the Miller Avenue sub
Courthouse five
times during the election
cycle and that's a very heavily used
site it made no damn sense
to to cut the voting period
short because there was a backup
generator
so I guess I'm I'm
responsible for
um the demand for backup
generators for County build buildings
and
I proudly bear that
weight um I I want all buildings to have
a backup generator I I want us to stop
renting them is is my point um and the
Mansville subcourthouse I've been here a
year uh and so we've had numerous
problems in the winter and summer months
so I would like a permanent solution um
instead of us renting these things but
so that's my point I I want every
facility to have a backup
gener thank you Mike yes all right do we
have a motion on item F3 for approval
second we have a motion in a second to
approve F3 which is approving a change
order change order number two to the K
industrial contract for the Scott deore
Juvenile Justice Center generator
project any further
discussion all right please cast your
vote passes unanimously thank you next
up is item G2 no no is G1 receive and
file the Personnel
agenda Mo to receive and file the
Personnel agenda second we have a motion
in a second to receive and file the
Personnel agenda any discussion there
all right please cast your
vote passes unanimously then from
consent we have item
G2 we do uh good morning Happy New Year
uh thank you so with item two we're
asking the court to approve uh changes
to the table of
organization for the uh County
administrator's office as well as the
county Judge's office this is a two-part
uh request the first part uh is that the
request is for the
HIV uh Consortium from the county
administrator's office to move over to
the county judges uh office the court
may recall in September of last year the
HIV planning Council coordinator
position moved from uh the county
administrator's office to the county
judge's office and so this this uh most
recent request then would uh actually uh
Place both those um or or place the
Consortium um along with the planning um
Council coordinator position in the
county judges to the second part of the
request is to retitle uh the community
in court leaza that's Natalie roses uh
vacancy Natalie retired and so the judge
is requesting that her position be
retitled or and position be retitled to
operations uh
assistant uh and then of course that uh
position would reports to uh Andy W in
the county Judge's office um if I didn't
give you an effective date the request
is that both uh things uh be made
effective January 16th there is no
fiscal
impact okay so I um I just wanted to
comment on this this
item because I admit that I have some
concern and I'm hoping that by making
this reorganization move um you know we
realize that we are out of federal
compliance uh with Ryan White procedures
in some
cases and the PIV pival importance of
this funding um I I've done some
research I've had my staff do some
research on the federal requirements of
the Ryan White
funding
and you know I've learned some things on
some of the central elements where we
currently don't seem to be in
compliance um so hopefully this new
judge will be you'll handle this since
it's going under but first let's talk
about the legislatively required
planning Council and per the legislation
the planning council is intended to be
an organization that is reflective of
the communities in our County most
impacted by HIV in fact it is a
legislative requirement that
33% of the planning Council be
unaffiliated clients of Ryan white
meaning people with HIV and receiving
services from what I am aware you can
correct me or your new staff can um it
does not appear that we are in
compliance with this 33% requirement in
any way shape or
form also the federal guidance also
repeatedly emphasizes that the planning
Council quote look like the epidemic of
HIV and AIDS in the eligible area in
Taran County per the AIDS view.org map
76 12% of HIV positive individuals are
men and yet that based on my reading of
one of the agendas that I was actually
able to find um the planning Council or
seven of nine planning council members
were women um so that doesn't sound like
it's reflective of the of the population
that is federally
mandated um
but it also makes sense because I
believe that was also the meeting where
the planning Council bylaws were changed
I think that was in
October October 20 October
26 and the planning Council bylaws were
changed in the previous bylaws it stated
that quote particular consideration
shall be given to disproportionately
affected and historically underserved
groups however in the updated bylaws
that language was removed entirely even
though it came directly from the federal
program guidance um and finally I'm I'm
concerned about transparency the Ryan
White part a manual clearly states that
detailed minutes of each meeting of the
council shall be kept meetings must be
public and announced and should be
available to the public within 6 weeks
after the meeting date and yet I went on
to the north Texas North Central Texas
HIV planning Council website where all
of our meeting minutes were previously
displayed and found nothing there since
March of
2023 um I can still see the
agendas um because they were filed by
her tan County Clerk but there seems to
be no minutes um at from these meetings
showing what was discussed so judge I I
think this is a good move
um I'm confident you'll
oversight and um get these
non-compliance issues rectified and I'm
here to help in any way and would be
happy to assist in reaching out to um
qualified individuals to help populate
that planning Council if if you need
help um that's we talked about this last
time and closed and so I decided to go
take a look at it and and became
concerned so I'm I think this this might
[Music]
be that's all I had the without
addressing Point by point there are now
12 members okay
um when I took this office on January
the
1st uh as we've discussed the uh Federal
audit of the planning Council called
this without quoting the exact words the
biggest disaster they've ever seen of
any planning Council okay and so we
reconstituted the planning Council uh
and are still in the process of doing
that and and probably interview someone
for that
board certainly on a monthly basis maybe
even a bi-weekly
basis uh as far as the 33% requirement
you referenced I think we are one short
at this point uh we have sent text
messages to every single
recipient in tarant County that has a
cell phone number uh didn't get a lot of
response we have reached out to nurses
hospitals uh JPS nonprofits
churches um and uh but we are we're one
short of that one particular requirement
but it's been a work in progress trying
to clean it up once uh the planning
Council came under our supervision and I
believe that took effect the end of
September or the beginning of October so
uh someone on the planning Council staff
had
resigned uh left uh I would tell you
that was the person that should be
posting the minutes um they're they've
now been replaced by someone that I have
confidence in and this whole way this
was set up where the County Judge is the
CEO of the program but all the employees
report to the County Administrator is
just nonsensical so our first step in
the process was to move the planning
Council director to my office we have
done our next step in the process which
GK was in support of and so is chanler
obviously because it's here was to move
it all under our office and we will make
sure we comply with all rules and laws
and make sure things are done correctly
once they're all under my office thank
you
yes okay any other questions or
comments all right do we have a motion
to approve
G2 so move all right we have a motion do
we have a second second all right any
further disc discussion on item
G2 all right seeing none please cast
your
vote all right passes unanimously judge
if I can take just uh a moment please to
remind our employees um those who may
have uh
concerns uh after the explosion uh
yesterday um we have uh gotten some uh
we've received some
um uh reach Outreach from employees uh
who were a bit shaken up by what
happened yesterday and so I just want to
remind employees that the county does uh
offer an employee assistance uh
program that's available at no cost to
employees so if employees um feel like
they need someone to talk to um please
uh reach out to our payroll and Benefit
Service Center we're here on the third
floor of this building you can reach
them directly at extension 2861
and we'll be happy to um provide you
information on our employee assistance
uh program and there is um a feature of
our plan that allows if a department is
so interested we can certainly have
someone come on site and talk to groups
of employees at the same time if any
Department believes that that's
necessary so anyway just wanted to
remind employees that that benefit is
available at no cost hey thank thank you
next up we have item J1 uh purchasing
section I would ask the Commissioners to
take a look at items J One 2 3 4 and
five does anyone have any individual
specific questions on J 1 two 3 four or
[Music]
five no all right I will make a motion
to approve the requests in J 1 through 5
Second we have a motion we have a second
any discussion on any of these
items all right seeing none please cast
your
vote all right passes unanimously next
up is item j6 yes this is an approval of
of an exemption from the competitive
bidding requirements for the purchase of
use Ford police interceptor vehicles for
from Auto Nation Ford for
wor vote for approval second have a
motion a second to approve item j6 any
discussion there all right please cast
your
vote passes unanimously next up j7 and
the last item is permission to take bids
U for the purchase of a mill opener and
opener system and annual contract for Co
Milling
Services move
approval all right second we have a
motion and a second second to Grant
permission to take bids on these two
items any discussion
there right please cast your
vote passes unanimously thank you thank
you next up M1 is an interlocal
agreement Precinct one commissioner
Brooks yes sir
[Music]
um it's an interlocal agreement with the
town of Edge Cliff Village for the
overlay
of couple of
streets uh it of approval on item M1 A
and B second we have a motion at second
to approve item M1 A and B any
discussion there all right please cast
your
vote all right passes unanimously do we
have any appointments to any boards
committees or Tiff districts today than
yes your
honor uh I've got
to to Fort Worth Tiff number
eight uh I need to reappoint
myself and to Grand Prairie Tiff number
one I'd like to reappoint Janette
Martinez okay I'll second that so we
have a motion in a second to reappoint
commissioner Brooks to one board and
Miss Martin is to another board any
discussion
there please cast your
vote right passes unanimously any other
yes um I need to reappoint uh Joanna
Cardoza to Arlington tur number
seven and that's a motion that's a
motion we have a motion in a second any
discussion on that
item all right seeing none please
vote all right that passes unanimously
with no more board or commission
appointments we move to bonds or
certificates of social insurance there
are none uh now we go to various claims
and addendum move approval of the claims
including the addendum second we have a
motion of a second to approve the claims
and the addendum any discussion on that
item all right seeing none please
vote all right that passes unanimously
which now brings us to a criminal
justice update and I believe Mr
Schaffner is going to start this
presentation
we do have a speaker on this
item good morning judges and juding
Commissioners so today we have a
criminal justice update from you the I
will be leading uh the first half of the
presentation and then uh judges uh
hegerman and nikol will come up and
present a a couple slides and then Mr
Sher will present a slide and then I'll
be back to uh close us up finish us up
and uh ask for any
questions
so we would like to there's been an
increased um interest in the criminal
justice system from Court members from
uh various County departments and staff
as well as uh from the community and so
we wanted to address um several issues
that have come up and kind of give a an
overview and set a baseline of uh
conversation regarding the tan County
criminal justice system so first off and
this is something that we talk a lot
about in the criminal justice
coordinating Council but the the goal of
what we're trying to do is balance
Public Safety Community safety with jail
population and how do we strike that
balance um and then also wanted to
discuss a couple of item so Taran County
um has been undergoing a um Criminal
Justice Reform if you will as well as
pretty much everybody uh in the rest of
the state since 2017 up to 2019 is when
it all kind of kicked off there were a
number of different litigation uh pieces
of litigation throughout the state from
um Harris County's O'Donald
case in the Galveston County case as
well as litigation in Dallas County all
about um ranging from misdemeanor bonds
to the ability to pay um actually a
separate Dallas County case was resolved
yesterday with the US Supreme Court so
there a number of different pieces of
litigation around bonds and the criminal
justice system that began the county of
process with work with Commissioner's
Court and the judicial system the judges
the CDA and the sheriff on what we need
to do to be prepared to handle various
issues so one shift that we made was
centralizing magistration to where
instead of there being um various
Municipal judges setting bonds it was
more or less Consolidated within um tan
County underneath our um judges trying
criminal cases second pre-trial shifted
and was split pre-trial used to be under
the county administrator's office it was
then split part cscd to supervision and
the judge judges do um the portion
related to
um Services related to um ability to pay
and and those types of things the part
leading up to to bond setting and then
also in my slide is in correct it's
supposed to be S sp6 from the 87 session
the state legislature uh went in and did
a number of of um Bond and criminal
justice changes to the system including
restricting what PR bonds could be used
for uh which has greatly impacted
so maybe just set a baseline regarding
the approved fy4 budget um so this is by
function area so the first page of the
approved roll up of the budget which is
the thick book that you get from the
budget office that Helen produces the
first page of that is the budget
approved budget by functional area and
you'll notice on this that judicial
constitutes approximately 20% and Public
Safety uh constitutes approximately
27% so 47% and these are high figur
years it's by functional area so it's
it's broad categories 47% of the
approved tan County budget goes for to
the criminal justice system the judicial
that's only the criminal side it it it
also includes several so civil so we're
looking at again broad Strokes so just
to make sure I'm clear that
$11.4 Million number includes civil Does
it include probate yes Does it include
family yes so 47% doeses not go to
criminal justice
it would be underneath that number yes
right
okay so if you look at historical trends
of approved budgets from fy19 to 24
again looking at the public safety
functional area the judicial functional
area with um taking in consideration
your comments judge um you get the
general percent of on the far right hand
coln percent of the total approved
budget so in 2019 we're at
51% were those two functional areas in
2024 that approved budget was was
47% um part of the reason that you see
the numbers declining in 21 and 22 is
based on the co relief funds that we
received U because that added in and and
made some of the percentages smaller and
changed some of those
percentages so let's talk a little bit
about the constitution of what of the
individuals that are within the jail
What charges we have so there are 18 um
classifications of folks in the Taran
County Jail
um you'll see this and this was just
took a date December the 5th of 2019 uh
to start with so if you go from 2019 the
gel population was 4100 you'll notice
that the unsentenced felons which
constitutes the largest portion of
57% uh and also you can kind of go
through unsent misdemeanor at 7% I'll
show you some Contracting but this gives
you the broad Strokes of what the
composition of the jail was on that date
if you look to the next day Jael total
population of
4256 and this is on December the 5th of
2023 you'll notice that unsentenced
felons have increased substantially to
63% unsentenced misdemeanors has
decreased substantially by to 3% and
again those other compositions and I've
got a side by side to make it easier
because it's difficult when you're
looking at the pie
charts
so we have um the classification and
then on December the 5th of 2019
December the 5th of 2023 again just a
snapshot in time and then the percent
changes so unsent spell we went up a
little bit if you go back to and compare
December 3rd
2019 to December 3rd of 2029 or 2023 um
it's flat it literally Depends for uncs
on what day tcj comes and picks up
prisoners on what that number can look
at so these numbers can swing 70 80 80
people um a particular day but I want to
call your attention to a couple of them
that are important Court exam uh is up
two 2% and this is important the state
has really struggled hhsc has struggled
with with the weight list to State uh to
state hospitals ours our catchman area
goes up to witto Falls and it has
struggled to um more or less stay
current with it and we've have over um
150 people on that weight list at any
given time just for ours the state
during Co actually had to shut down a
couple facilities uh due to lack of
Staffing and at one point only had like
2third of the beds available on uh
actually online for that so that's why
those that number is elevated
unsentenced felons um again has
increased by
6% uh unsentenced misdemeanors has
decreased by 4% and I think that's
directly related to some of the um
reforms that we've seen since 2019 U
going forward and but the gel
populational notice has increased by
3.8% again this is a snapshot in time if
you run the numbers back to to um
December the 3rd it's 2% up so again
just looks but broad strokes and ter
County population has increased by 8.1%
so I think a lot of combination needs to
happen to the sheriff and the da and the
judges for being able to even though our
population is going up 8.1% over this
time period jail population has only
increased by 3.8% so that's something we
should continue to look at so we're
going to cover these uh six areas today
um so first off the criminal justice
coordinating Council so this has been
reconstituted after Mr Merritt I came
aboard as County Administrator we have
monthly meetings it's a Roundtable style
uh you can see the membership that we
have there and we are working through a
number of different issues that are
brought by the group um as to discuss
and work through various items sometimes
they're handled during the meeting other
times they hand take a meeting or two to
resolve but we are actively working
through and trying to do system
improvements uh to the criminal justice
system so
dashboards
so we've been working the T County
administrator's office as well as it I
know that Criminal Courts administrator
Administration separately has been
working on a different project trying to
get dashboards updated and these are
public fent dashboards we have internal
dashboards but we need better public
facing information so the Jael dashboard
and the bond dashboard which you see
snapshots of there the public facing
version of those dashboards we plan on
um having online available to the public
by the end of the month um which will be
a real um great opportunity as part of
that uh information we will have
explanatory notes uh that'll be there
that you can click and see all sorts of
different information and explain what
you're actually seeing on these
documents because it is complicated the
court CDA and mental health Dash boards
are all still in development um and we
will continue to update you as those uh
are
developed middle Health jail diversion
Center so of the items within the
criminal justice system that
Commissioners court and all of our
stakeholders have to work work through
during 2024 the middle Health Diversion
Center is one of the top priorities of
what we've got to work through first off
the contract that we have with
MHMR is up on December 31st of this year
uh and that's for the operation of this
it's a $17 million contract uh We've
expended approximately 59% of those
funds um as of the last uh invoice that
we received for November of last year so
we need to work through um how we
continue to increase usage of this
facility so mhm more estimates that the
monthly that our monthly bed capacity is
about 400 we'd like to have a Target
capacity of 330 if we were to set a goal
what does that monthly look like um and
we are not hitting it we have not hit it
uh since the beginning of this project
uh we have you'll see started very low
uh but you'll an significant uptick
starting in May June and July of last
year those were based on changes that
were made um to eligibility
criteria to allow people to go to the
center and we have seen that uptake also
the sheriff's department and the CDA has
been working um laboriously to screen
individuals as they come into the jail
so someone from Arlington is um picked
up and taken into the Arlington's
Municipal Jail that could have been a
good fit for the mental health gel
Diversion Center but they the again just
is an example they went ahead and took
them to the Municipal Jail that
individual as they work through the
system the sheriff's department will
come pick them up you know within 24 or
so hours uh and they get in our jail go
through booking they are
identified um and a tremendous amount of
work goes from once you're identified as
part of that process and then getting
them to the mental health gel Diversion
Center so there's and that's why we are
seeing that uptake in no the November 23
data 36 of those 102 individuals were
deferred directly from the jail um which
is really the center data is going to
show even more so this is for so the
mental health Diversion Center has two
components of the contract we have the
actual operations of the contract and
then secondarily we have a transitions
program that MHMR works during the
transition program is for those folks so
you go to the Diversion Center you stay
your 48 hours you're stabilized and then
it's what next so when you're enrolled
in the transition program they help you
um find uh the necessary community
resources to help get you stabilized
more long term so that's a component you
can see our monthly enrollment it's
increased decreased a little bit but um
it has kind of kept aligned itself with
um the general uh enroll involvement of
the criminal justice Coordinating
Committee so with this slide judge
Hagerman is going to come and discuss uh
Bond setting with the court and then
judge Nik is going to talk about a
mental health PR Bond program and and uh
Mr shuger will give us an update related
to remote video
magistr good morning Court
um Judge David hegerman of the 297
District Court talk about magistration
and setting of bonds this morning I have
uh I have some of my cohorts here some
additional judges as well as staff
counsel so I I hope you'll allow me some
leeway if I get something wrong during
this
presentation one thing that I am
absolutely certain of that I am not
wrong about is the fact that the changes
that we have made to mag to the
magistration process since 2015 and
2016 have saved this County from a major
lawsuit uh Russell talked a little bit
about the litigation uh that has gone on
in Houston and Dallas and I believe Bear
County as
well
um we knew that we were being
targeted by uh the person or persons who
filed those lawsuits Taran County itself
was being targeted for a
lawsuit and uh the changes that we made
to the magistration process to
centralize it and um do the things that
had come out of that lawsuit
saved us from from being sued we know
that because they told us
that prior to 2015 and
2016 Taran County had not followed the
law in regards to
magistration probably for about 50 years
1517 of the Texas code of criminal
procedure mandates how a person is to be
magistr
and basically everything was
decentralized prior to to that um
probably that was done to ease jail
overcrowding back in the early 70s and
80s but it was illegal and when it was
discovered we realized there were some
changes that we had to make hence we
began the process of central
magistration magistration is a very very
important process uh it's the initial
portion of the criminal justice system
and many times it's a person's first
contact with the criminal justice
system basically after a person is
arrested uh there are several things
that have to be complied
with uh not just with the code of
criminal procedure but also certain
reporting
requirements that uh your state
government in Austin requires of every
magistrate that touches a bond prior to
meeting the defendants the magistrate
reviews a lot of information this takes
several minutes not just the PC
affidavit which they need to review they
have to
review uh but the PSA risk assessment
which is a requirement Now by uh the
office of Court Administration in Austin
there's a financial interview as to what
to determine whether or not that person
is entitled to an appointed counsel in a
family uh violence case there is a
danger assessment and the state mandated
also uh Public Safety reporting system
has to be complied with I'll talk about
that in a moment the magistrate reviews
all of those
documents and all documents um are made
available to in the tech share
magistration portal at that time the
magistrate punches a button says it's
ready for magistration and determines
what the Bond's going to be
um that data has to be entered into the
public safety Reporting
System um which basically is a reporting
system to OCA in Austin it's highly
detailed if it is a shity bond that has
to be entered if it is a personal bond
that has to be entered if there are Bond
conditions each and every Bond condition
has to be entered every time a
magistrate or a district judge or a
County Judge touches a bond in any way
shape or formed that p uh Public Safety
reporting system has to be complied with
and it has to be entered and it's fairly
time
consuming once the case is marked ready
for magistration the next case is
reviewed by the magistrate and so on and
so on once the person is brought before
the magistrate to be magistr there's a
list ly that that most magistrates go
through they introduce themselves they
say I'm your Magistrate Judge uh we're
going to talk to you about your rights
and what we're going to be doing today
obviously all the rights that a person
has under 1517 the Texas code criminal
procedure have to be read to them and
they have to make and the magistrate has
to make sure that person understands
there's a question regarding citizenship
under magistration and under the code if
that happens and they are not body
citizen there are certain additional
warnings that have to be given to that
person um a conscientious magistrate
actually goes so far as to give them the
warnings under the Vienna convention are
you um are you a citizen if you're not a
United States citizen here's what can
happen do you want us to tell the
government where where you are from that
you are incarcerated and so on after
that the person is asked about an
attorney whether or not they want to
hire their own lawyer whether or not
they feel they are entitled to a lawyer
once that gets done if the financial uh
assessment has been completed a person
can be appointed attorney at that
time they tell what their the person
accused is told what they are charged
with and the bond conditions that the
magistrate imposes are also uh told to
the accused person at that time certain
additional wrinkles if there's an
emergency protective order that is also
gone over with the accused person at
that time and if the law allows and if
the facts warranted a personal Bond can
be issued also uh under the
code we have delved into remote
magistration that is uh allowed for by
the code now and we've had some success
with that uh remote magistration is a
little bit more time time consuming just
because it takes time to
get the the the software up and running
and to have all the documents in place
at the right time but we are moving
forward with uh as much remote video
magistration as we can
um we magistr I've got a couple of
numbers
here
the um the the magistrates that we added
as I as I
[Music]
stated were added and done not because
we wanted to increase our
footprint but because we believed it was
constitutionally
required and to avoid the the
unnecessary litigation that has plagued
some of these other counties um and we
did avoid that total magistration
between
we
average about 177 a day is that right
177 bonds are set day about 125
defendants 125 defendants are magistrate
every day 177 bonds per day are set why
are there more bonds than defendants
defendants have multiple charges
sometimes
um we magistrate 24 hours a day 7 days a
week uh there is no on call magistrate
because we have chosen to uh do that
process all the time anybody have any
questions okay thank you
[Music]
J good afternoon members of the Court
bear with me I have a little bit of
laryngitis when we are setting mental
health bonds we have to go through that
same procedure that judge hegerman just
explained but there are a few added
twists as Russell explained when we are
dealing with mental health individuals
there's a different process in that we
have jail Navigators who work with
MHMR that work with these individuals
determine whether or not they fit the
code definitions of someone who may be
eligible for mental health
treatment or diversion and once those
jail Navigators have review those
individuals they will verify their
criminal
history and they must determine whether
or not the person is willing to
participate in a mental health
program as you saw our participation in
sending individuals to the mental health
Diversion the Justice Diversion Center
is increasing monthly in December we
actually beat all of our records by
sending and maintaining 60 individuals
in December now there are only 40 beds
so clearly these are cycling through and
not staying for the entire month for
certain MHMR programs they have to show
the need of housing available to them
but some of the MHMR programs such as
the mental health Diversion Center they
do not have to have stable housing that
is one of the things that they work with
them to help provide stable housing drug
treatment mental health treatment
substance abuse treatment and other
things that these individuals may
need cscd reviews the conditions of
their bond their treatment plan and
other conditions that the individual may
need prior to their being released and
there is an individual who works with is
a an employee of cocd who does this
evaluation prior to a bond being set
when the bond is set the individual is
released to supervision through cscb and
MHMR so there are essentially two
different groups that we're discussing
here we have individual and Navigators
who are reviewing people to go to the m
Health Diversion Center and we have
recently started a program we reviewing
individuals for their ability to be
released under the code of criminal
procedure
17032 bonds and those include
misdemeanors and nonviolent
felonies if they qualify to be released
under
17032 those are the ones that have the
dual supervision through CSC and mhr now
please focus on the fact that these are
nonviolent individuals and they are
receiving dual treatment as of I think
it was Friday of last week Commissioners
we identified 23 individuals who may
qualify for
17032 bonds who are currently in custody
they were being reviewed by Cheryl
Bennett Wright and shaqua burns in the
mental health program to make sure that
they qualify under the code to be
released under that
Bond so I'm very proud of the fact that
we're really working very hard to get
the mental health Diversion Center
filled with appropriate individuals
those individuals can only at this time
be charged with certain misdemeanor
offenses they cannot be charged with DWI
they cannot be charged with any form of
assaultive offenses or any type of
violent offenses right now there are
only six to seven offenses that qualify
for diversion into that center now those
people have to volunteer and they are
not required to stay but if the DA has
determined that they qualify for
diversion to that program and they agree
to go to the center their cases end up
being dismissed it is a a little bit of
a revolving system where we know
individuals may not stay but the hope is
that if we get them there often enough
that they will engage in the services
that are provide provided and stop
coming through the jail which is a
revolving door for many of these
offenders the 17032 bonds are a little
bit different in that they do have that
dual supervision and as long as they're
competent their cases will will either
be pled or go to trial if they are not
competent They will receive different
types of services and
dispositions now do remember too there
are three different mental health
programs in tant County we have the
enhanced Mental Health Services Program
who are mostly for people with low level
offenses that are not competent and
we're trying to help them regain
competency we have the jail-based
competency restoration and the
outpatient-based competency restoration
and we have the mental health diversion
Court which does accept many different
types of misdemeanors and felony
offenses right now we're trying to plan
to have two mental health diversion
courts and perhaps expand the type of
individuals that we serve but that is
still in the works do you all have any
questions all right thank you very much
thank you judge thank
[Music]
you I'll be real quick um with
partnership with County Administration
Criminal Courts have been able to expand
video magistration throughout the county
uh what's important is that 70% of
defendant that get magistr remotely book
out uh book out remotely and never get
book back in jail and the reason for
this is as we evolve the program it ends
up being the lowlevel risk defendants
that end up being video magistr
defendants that require any type of
electronic monitoring or or have an have
a mental health issue get Shi get bust
and where the treatment is where C can
supervise them or MHMR can do a more
comprehensive review uh over this last
year just counting book in and book out
that 70% say uh was some soft Savings of
$600,000 a year of not actually
physically booking these people in and
out of jail that figure each day we're
actively Ma you all can read a
PowerPoint but we're we're actively
magistra in our larger cities where our
regionals are we have some on demand
cities and we're continuing to expand
and right now we're actively working
with great find White Settlement and
Ulus White Settlement and Ulus are
becoming Regional jails uh due due to
Central magistration and how we're
handling things uh local police law
enforcement agencies are shutting down
their holding facilities and and they're
being centralized Ulus will handle heru
with Bedford and White Settlement is
handling that part of Taran
County any
questions thank
[Music]
you the legislature has made some
changes last session and commissioner
rire and speaker Garen and Senator King
all played a huge role in getting HP
2620 across the goal line which allows
for the state to reimburse us for
prisoners held over 45 days so if it is
a state prisoner that's held over 45
days we're entitled to State
reimbursement for that individual um as
always just because the law is passed
doesn't mean that the law is passed and
it happens we have gone through the rle
making process um and so hopefully
within sometime within this fiscal year
we'll see
those opportunities but what that bill
also did not just allowing us a
mechanism for reimbursement but
encouraged um T TDCJ to be very active
in picking up prisoners and so across
the state Statewide um the number of
State Prisoners has decreased in county
jails because no one wants to have to
reimburse counties for that funding
compy restoration beds as we mentioned
previously in the presentation um State
the state weight list to go to the State
Mental Health hospital is long and and
they it State continues to struggle so
the session they authorized $ 150 beds
at the cost of $92 million for the buy
Anum of local compy restoration beds
MHMR received 23 of these beds so and
they're currently in the contract with
or currently in the process of contract
negotiations with hhsc to draw down
those funds and then be able to in local
facilities have folks that are meet
certain criteria to come out of the jail
and instead of going to W Falls or
Vernon well it be only which to Falls
they could go to a local uh facility for
contract for competency restoration
again reducing the load in our jail
getting some of the most complicated
individuals that we have in the in the
in our gel facilities out and getting
the help that they need and then finally
we continue to work with hhsc on the
State Mental Health Hospital study for
Taran County um going back and forth and
in various issues so that'll come to a
head next legislative session so next
steps for
2024 increase uh Municipal remote uh
video magistration participation as well
increasing usage in the mental health
gel Diversion Center implementing the
pre-booking system with law enforcement
agencies and that's a system to where um
law enforce leas before they um or more
or less before they uh put someone on
the bus to go to the county jail have to
enter in more information so we get more
information on the on the front end
rather than on the back end Contin to
develop the public criminal justice
dashboards uh renovating the cold
springs facility uh from a low security
to medium security facility and then
continue to develop those system
enhancement through the criminal justice
coordinating Council and with that we're
happy to take any
questions any questions for
Russell I've got a comment that I would
like the judges present to
hear and that is that from the various
dashboards that we get on a regular
basis there appear to
be a number of persons in our County
Jail on a DA daily B
basis with
bonds
under
$5,000 charged with nonviolent
misdemeanor cas
es it appears to me that anybody who
fits that
description and is still in
jail is there simply because they're too
poor to write a check to get
out that
is an Abomination as far as I'm
concerned judge
negam shouldn't we do our little best to
give
sorry you and I both have squeaky voices
this
[Music]
morning it's my by-ear bout of
laryngitis um we do our level best to
give as many personal bonds to
misdemeanor defendants when they hit the
jail they certain offenses that do not
qualify um we are still under the orders
that assaultive and demestic violence
offenses do not apply uh for personal
bonds I've seen personal Bonds on
everything from DWI Misa repetitions on
down so I would love to have any list of
those offences brought to my attention
and I will personally look at them and
see what those bonds are set at because
5,000 is generally way too high for a
misdemeanor nonviolent
offense I'm happy to review them and I
personally will reset the bonds or see
if they're eligible for personal bonds
I'll take that task
on my point judge
negam is
[Music]
that and anyone
who
qualifies for
a personal
Bond should be given a personal Bond I
agree sir and should not just be laying
up in the jail I agree sir um it is
possible that some of those folks have
pending felonies and that may be
withholding them but if all they have is
a nonviolent misdemeanor I agree with
you sir they shouldn't be sitting in
jail well I'd certainly be interested in
sitting down with you and going through
the list so that we can both
understand what's at play here I'd be
happy to do so
sir just name a time and we'll do it
thank you all any other questions or
comments I have some
um so
um thank you Russell that was
informative and the judges uh quite
[Music]
um I appreciate some of the data and
statistics that you used as I have found
that criminal justice data and
statistics are very hard to come by at
least for
me in this County at the moment and I'll
I'll touch on that in a second so you
had your data comparing predominantly
2019 and 2023 with regard to our jail
population and two aspects stood out to
me
there first a positive aspect our
unsentenced felony jail numbers dropped
from 3% of our jail population in
2019 to 1% of our jail population in 20
three and that's
fantastic um as you guys have heard me
say many many times we do not need to
have people who are accused of lowlevel
misdemeanor sitting in our jail so I I
commend the judges handling misdemeanors
for doing things like improving
clearance rates um as well as issuing
more personal recognizance bonds that
are likely res resulted um in that
reduction so I see what you're doing and
I I thank you guys
um so that's that's the positive and
then the not so positive our unsentenced
felonies are actually they they've
actually increased between 2019 and
2023 by
6% and that increase is representative
now of a whopping
63% of our jail population
so if you think about that for a minute
63% of our jail population is
pre-trial accused of felonies but not
yet convicted of
anything um and you know some people
will tell me that's just how it is
there's no other way to do it and we as
a county simply can't bear the risk no
matter how small uh our risk assessment
says it might be of some some
people uh being released pre-trial to to
Rampage around our County and I I say
that's nonsense and it's completely
irresponsible
fiscally um you know I'll quote
Harvard's Malcolm weiner Center for
social policy that says despite
significantly lower crime rates than
what existed in the United States in
1970 current rates of pre-trial
detention are five times higher than
they were 50 years ago and that's the
domestic historical
context now if you look at the Modern
Global context currently the United
States pre-trial detention rate is the
highest in the world it's 50% higher
than in Russia which is the second worst
um so I don't I don't know about you
guys but um I don't consider Russia any
great liberal Bastion of confinement
policy and being dead behind them is is
pretty sad so bottom line it sounds like
we need to do better than 63% of our
jail population being
pre-trial felony confinement in this
County that's bad by comparison with our
own history and that's terrible in
relation to the rest of the world now so
that's what I'll continue to strive for
here um and on that note I do have a
couple of questions and these can be for
whoever feels best place to answer them
given that our trend lines seem to be
going in different directions with
regard to pre-trial confinement and
misdemeanors and felonies what is
attributable to the reduction in
pre-trial misdemeanor
confinement did they leave you
commissioner Simmons simply put personal
bonds yeah yeah that's what I thought do
we
um have better clearance
rates with we do okay we do
um you have several brand new judges who
are working very hard the judges who
have been here are working very hard um
as a team our clearance rate has gone
considerably higher than it was in the
past few years Co hurt us but most of us
have caught up or are very close to
catching up to the numbers we have
previously um just as an example my
contest do ET which are triable cases
that attorneys have asked for jury
trials I have about 20 cases total of
attorneys asking for trial and I have a
pending number of
2200 oh okay so I there's a lot at play
commissioner but I think the short
answer is that
okay um all right so I I have another
question gets my earlier comment about
data in this County I I think it was
back in October maybe September I asked
my staff to research the clearance rates
for courts handling felonies versus
misdemeanors they they couldn't get a a
good fix on that because following the
TCH share migration I'm told that we
don't have that
data um I'm also told that we had been
unable since the texure migration to
provide our statuto required OCA reports
to the state I'd like to first ask
County Administration if that is
true if we have not reported to OCA
since the uh go live court that is
correct we have not reported I believe
that uh with where we are on the cleanup
of that data uh I think Tech Shar has
actually made the recommendation to the
clerks uh to report what we have uh I'll
see if either of the clerks want to
comment on that but my understanding is
the the 40 categories with regards to OC
reporting have been CED up they have I
believe validated that data and uh to
the best of their ability and I think
the recommendation has been made to
start transmitting that data okay so we
went live was that end of April May one
yes
ma'am and okay we've
not reported OCA to the state since then
that's correct we went through a similar
transition uh last time we did a
transition from how we reported to OCA I
think it was also 7 to9 months in that
same transition so very similar in U in
scope okay tell me again when we expect
that to be resolved uh I would hope
within the next 30 days or so that will
be transmitting clerks again if y'all
received any different information from
me that's the last i' heard from our it
department is it here or should the
clerks answer that or or
it let's see Russ do you have any
[Music]
comment come on up bruss Russ holds a
weekly meeting uh on wday with regards
to where we are on Tex share so but uh
the latest that we have from the tech
share development team is they are
anticipating getting the final Kinks uh
in the reporting worked out in the next
30 to 40
days today is the 9th so February 9th
February 20th they're meeting they're
meeting almost daily uh with the uh
Clerk's offices uh to work through the
issues and clean up the data
okay well I I for one just don't feel
great about being out of compliance with
the state Mandate of that kind or any
kind especially when it relates to
transparency we'll comment ma'am on that
just so you know we've actually
discussed directly with OCA on this
issue and they have assured us they want
us to make sure that the data is correct
before we transmit and they said that
the delay that we put in there they are
they are certainly okay with uh The
District Clerk's Office on a monthly
basis sends an email to the fact that
they are still working through it and
OCA responds and lets us know that again
please transmit when the data is correct
oh okay thank you and my final question
pertains to the mental health aspect of
this brief and I think judge Nim
probably hit on it I was processing some
things I'm going to ask again um and
maybe this is for Mr schugar or or judge
n is there anything we can do pertaining
to magistration that would dreamline the
mental health
process
I'll
okay
well commissioner that specifically we
do have some projects in the works uh um
that could streamline the mental health
process we I think it been sitting on
the it steering committee since 22nd
which is a tech share uh merging the uh
mental health alert system and the Tex
share magistration so that those are two
disparate systems that if they were
merged into just Tex share magistration
we were able to um quickly route people
in the system uh through texture
Integrations to the the dockets that uh
judge Nim talked
about so what does a timeline look like
for what you just suggested a texture
merger of mental health alert system we
went through the uh crimin the crimin
courts went through the it steering
committee process and it is uh I don't I
will don't get I use the terms
incorrectly but I think it's been
removed off the backlog and it's
currently being investigated I know that
it we have an IT steering committee
coming up at the the end later this
month that it'll be addressed again but
it's in cue to move forward but it
hasn't moved
forward all okay so new timeline I've
been told about mental health parabond
and I'd like to know what is needed to
improve our
efficiency refie eligibility for those
well again that's where right now we
have two dispair that's where the where
if was all merged that the magistrate
was aware of everything that is going on
with the defendant at the time of
magistration is that we uh there
statutory requirements for the law
enforcement agency or the jail as a law
enforcement agency to notify the
magistrate of the mental health uh right
now we have two disparaged systems that
don't talk to each other so the
magistrate may not know about the mental
health uh alerts that have been put in
front of them when they are doing
magistration they may learn about it
later by looking at the mental health
alert system so the idea of those two
items being tied together will expedite
to those defendants into the proper
dockets and when you look at the
Timeline I mean the longterm timeline to
get us in line to get to the state
hospital the sooner a defendant that
needs to get to the state hospital if we
can recognize them early get them to the
right path and into our compy dockets we
could either not go to the state
hospital or we can start getting them
treatment prior to that or get them on
the list sooner so as as I don't as to
as judge hegerman said the the critical
point in the criminal justice system is
first time you deal is at magistration
where where they can be routed and the
more information the magistrate has to
make a better decision about that
defendant the the the best chance chance
of of success for that defendant system
or also expedited into the criminal
justice system as well if if they need
to be prosecuted so all that happens at
magistration and the more information is
happening at magistration uh it's in the
best interest of the entire system thank
you sir we to my fellow Court members we
we just cannot continue to um turn a
blind eye toward the software and IT
issues with
regard to
texier and criminal justice um
management um we we've got to we've got
to do something um but thank
you all right any other questions a
comment would seem to be focused
on
[Music]
magistration when it comes to getting
people to the mental health jail
diversion
Center
ideally the system is set up and it
works
best
nationally when the officer in the
field makes the
decision to take that
person to treatment
rather than to
incarceration it the system when it
works
properly saves the county
money it saves US money
on book in book
out
daily care and feeding
costs that's if
the
arreste never
hits the sally port at our
[Music]
jail we can go at it as at
work and make it
work but by doing it that
way we're occur we're
occurring costs that do not need to be
encouraged and we
are not giving the
arrestes the benefit of
treatment there's not enough treatment
in the county jail for the number of
persons that are there and the
state's
emphasis seems to be
on restoration of
Competency rather than
treating
persons on an outpatient
basis
[Music]
um whenever we encounter
them if we're going to use all our
state mental health
bids to get someone restored to
competency so that we can try them for
their
offenses that that's a model
[Music]
for
continuing the county
jail as the largest provider of Mental
Health Services in the county which is
where we don't want to
be so let's take a look again at the
mental health jail diversion
Center and see if we can make it work
the way it's supposed to
work that will lower our jail
census it
will have more
direct
benefit
quicker to
the mental
health
patient save us
money commissioner uh just to maybe
clarify a couple things from from your
comments um I'd be a Miss if I didn't
mention the um
incredibly the amount of effort that the
criminal District Attorney's office has
put into engaging and educating our law
enforcement agencies across Ross the
county and it's not that they have gone
out for one meeting at each one it's a
continual effort that they have going to
meetings going to shift changes
educating trying to make sure that the
officers the police Chiefs um the
sergeants all of the the folks within
Command Staff are aware of this mental
health gel Diversion Center um so I
don't think it's a lack of awareness
within the Lea's because the DA's office
has done a tremendous job and I think
what we're
seeing with the jail with the Sheriff's
Office being the the ones that are
shifting the folks over to the Diversion
Center that are diverting um two
thoughts on that one the sheriff's
office when someone comes into the jail
the sheriff can't release them once
someone comes into the jail it's either
the judges or the DA's office are the
only ones that can get them um somebody
to to be released that's not the
sheriff's decision so the sheriff Works
tirelessly and his and Chief eer and
others to get those folks identified and
through the system and even back up as
part of stuff that's already been done
um to get them shifted over so yes the
way that it's currently working is very
laborious but with the center being
there and the impetus to make it work
everybody's doing double time to get
this thing to get the center um as full
as we can get it and and we have some
real challenges as we move for well I
recognize that the criminal District
Attorney's office
has performed a
Herculean uh task of trying to
get police agencies up to
speed but it's going to be a longterm
process uh as you indicated it can't be
just a one or two time
hit the more comfortable we
can get the local command
staffs to be with the jail
diversion
concept the more
successful the program is going to be
and we just have to keep at
it all right any other questions or
comments from the court we do have a
speaker on this I just want to applaud
you Russell uh and the rest of our staff
for doing what you've done thus far I
know that you're working hard on
publicly facing dashboards that we asked
for you're working hard on a lot of the
things a lot of the information that the
court has asked for and in context in
the grand scheme tan county is doing a
great job when you look at the
population increasing by 8.1% but the
jail population only increasing by 3.8
that's great when you look at the fact
that Harris County's jail population is
about 23% or 2% of their
population bear counties
22% Dallas counties 23% Taran counties
.19 we're lower than all the other major
counties in Texas in our jail population
relative to our population uh and that's
something that should be celebrated I
agree we should always try try to get
better um but at the end of the day it's
personal responsibility that matters and
folks that are committing crimes that
are dangerous to our society we can't
just let them out because we want to so
I I applaud what y'all are doing I
applaud the delicate balance that our
judges have to have to exercise whenever
they're setting bonds because ultimately
Public Safety must come first uh so
those are my comments I think that we're
doing a good job and it should be
celebrated thanks for the
report all right thank thank you Russell
thank you
all all right speaker for this is jyn
Jackie
Cox judge if you could wait to start my
until distributed would help me because
I'm going to be speaking in reference to
these okay the first page of the handout
that I made for you can you hear me now
thank you much fa thank you the first
page of the handout that I made for you
came to me from the DA's office in
response to a public information act
request I think it is the update of the
dashboard for the chil which was
referred to in one of the
presentations and what you can see is
that it's for a date certain it's for
Wednesday November 22nd
23 and it shows an inmate count in the
jail of
3,751 if you flip down to the next chart
which was the one that was presented to
you uh or was prepared by Mr
Shatner he shows an inmate population on
December 5th of
4,256 and that's 500
off and that's a big deal because 500
off is the price of the Garza contract
which is almost $100,000 for two year
I'm sorry almost $100 million for two
years it's $10 million a month or $12
million a month it just kind of ranges
but it's a lot of
money so we need to figure out what
happened to the 425 inmates and it looks
like if you flip down to the back that
really if you added 465 inmates from
Garza to the numbers that bring the
state to a total of
3,751 you come out with something a lot
closer so I think it is the Garza
population that just got not put into
the the the population statistics that
we get on the dashboard what I can't
tell is how those population statistics
translate into into the cost per day
figures one of my requests here is for
more specific information about sources
of data and sources of
cost uh I I think I know what some of
this stuff means but I spent a lot of
time looking at it and wondering well am
I right or wrong you know is for example
category number 16 court exam 316
inmates
actually the people who are waiting for
diagnosis on mental health issues or is
it something else if 307 inmates is also
a very high price tag at $85 a day times
30 days a month you see how that one
rolls up into big numbers and so what
I'm hopeful for is that someone who
prepares your dashboard will be able to
provide me with a list of what the very
variables really mean because when I
asked for it I got it we don't keep that
response thank you thank you all right
do we have any announcements or comments
from the Commissioner's
Court all right seeing none we move to
public comments I have four people
signed up to speak first is Katherine
[Music]
Godby
[Music]
thank you good morning or afternoon uh
today I simply wanted to remind us of
this story January 15th
2020 a young woman 21 years old four
months pregnant is having a mental
health crisis it's bad enough that her
mother becomes concerned for her
grandchild growing in her daughter's
body following the protocol she's been
given the mother calls 911 requesting an
involuntary commitment of her daughter
to JPS she needs mental health treatment
and this is exactly what you were
talking about commissioner Brooks when
the officers arrived the mother's
concerned that what she's requested will
be ignored and she was correct instead
of help this 21-year-old woman is
arrested and taken to tan County
Jail during her five months there she
does not have a single court date
apparently the mental health treatment
that she receives is if any is in compl
completely ineffective because she
decompensates and her condition
deteriorates so severely that by the
time she gives birth she is actually
nonverbal my understanding is that jail
staff was told they knew that when the
time came she would not be able to
communicate or perhaps even herself know
that she was going into labor May 17th
2020 alone in her jail Cale she goes
into labor She Bangs on the window to
get a assistance but no one comes the
baby girl is born on the floor of this
jail Cale her brain is severely damaged
from lack of oxygen May 27th 2020 the
baby is declared brain dead and at just
10 years 10 days old this newborn baby
dies the young woman's family requests
that she be allowed compassionate RS to
attend the funeral of her baby the
request is
denied Kent County reasonably enough is
being sued for what happened the young
woman is Chassidy conas her baby was
zenora it's possible that not every
aspect of this story is completely
accurate I took the details from various
news reports but as a whole I think it
is completely it is accurate so what
will the ending of this story be you our
elected officials have the power to do
the right thing for chassid and her
family to settle this case so that her
family can provide her with the medical
and mental health care that she needs
she's not a criminal from what I can
glean she did nothing wrong but because
of the actions and inactions at an
institutions that you're responsible for
a baby is
dead my understanding is that U you're
refusing or yeah refusing to settle this
case I urge you to do the right
thing I don't know the amount of the
lawsuit that what the lawsuit's asking
for but whatever it is in my view it's
not enough thank you thank you it it's
case
settled nothing is final at this point
judge but okay there will be something
for the court to approve when if when
there is a settlement yeah all right Nan
Terry is
next
Russell I want to Echo the commissioner
Court the Commissioners who've spoken
about the wonderful job you've done on
the presentation for the costs in the
jail it's difficult to go through that
data and I appreciate you presenting it
in a format to this court thank you
um
as you can see from the chart that um I
just handed Russell the numbers are
close I took three statistics classes in
a college two an undergrad one in uh
graduate school and my favorite uh
Professor had a a book that he loved how
to lie with Statistics
and but it but it does show you that you
know numbers are numbers but I I don't
think these are statistically
significantly different there are some
differences uh one I'd call you I think
we're using different databases the
unsentenced felons um your numbers are
2681 but it's a 272 difference between
the open records act request in October
or in November 13 days and 272 seems
like a lot of people to have unsentenced
felons in that short time I think we're
maybe pulling data from a different
place um but the thing
I come about with this is references and
consistency and omissions um the
references I really applaud you Russell
on having a your dashboard have a place
where you can click and get more
information um I'd
also offer up when I in my prior career
before we would go deploy a system to
the public we would try to quote break
that system with people who didn't know
anything about it or volunteers and I
don't know that you'd ever accept it but
I would offer my uh re if you want you
know how to find me I'll volunteer to
help break the system before you go live
if that would be beneficial um the other
thing I'd like to note
is the uh references which I did and the
omissions um we don't know the image
alar costs we don't know the cost of the
settlement costs we don't know the cost
of legal cost that I spoke to in my
earlier presentation today so there are
a lot of costs that I don't think are
covered by these costs for the jail and
until we can get a real number on what
the costs are we really don't want to
know what that number is this and I
really appreciate you putting up the
dashboards for the other dashboards that
are out there I I actually pulled these
two pages in uh that I just handed out
this is from the public safety report
system at the very bottom is a citation
if you can pull it up for yourself uh
you can I just chose Taran County and I
chose two month one month and then the
last year what I'd really like you to to
see is this bottom number Class C
misdemeanor thank you why are we
spending 136 for Class C misdemeanors
which have a $500 time time is up we're
confing thank
you uh we'll have we'll just start
turning off the microphones we have to
please respect the time um Daniel
Bennett is
next Daniel Bennett White Settlement uh
judge uh
Court let's review the Tad election
shall we we had seven candidates one
candidate argued values for homeowners
with as far as I could discern uh
through open records request he didn't
file agent uh of record form and receive
donations for his efforts potentially uh
sending it to a nonprofit another
candidate elected as an elected official
potentially used his office to earn
their position on the Tad board which is
against the government code then we had
a gentleman school
system uh Arlington ISD who cast their
ballot on their third open meeting which
is a violation of property tax code and
their 453 votes shouldn't count but I
understand through Janice Joplin the
mayor of kennel showing me her letter
yesterday all of Arlington's ISD votes
counted how nice and then we had a
sitting director at that meeting on that
third meeting asking for those illegal
votes which which is shocking because
they're they pledge of fidelity to the
property tax system they're sitting on
the dis we go to these meetings with the
understanding they're protecting our
rights because you guys elect them all
right not Stellar for the incoming
directors we're trying to restore
transparency and accountability here
this is not a very good start gentlemen
but let's move forward because we need
to restore confidence in our appraisal
district that's why I'm here today not
to bore out all the inconsistency and
lack of fidelity that I've witnessed
over the last seven years we're going to
start with the DA's
office back in February 23 of 2018 I
asked for
four interviews four
whistleblowers it was in the summer of
2018 I asked for this uh in 2016 they
gave interviews in 2018 I asked for the
interviews they shot a letter to the
Attorney General's office that
78846 was the Attorney General number
given to the request it was to
suppress the documentation from me so I
could not make it public they sought
relief under
tigation that did not result in a
conviction or defer adjudication they
didn't investigate it they never opened
an investigation so they falsely sought
relief from the Attorney General's
office on a false premise so my
my my beest of you
today have the District Attorney's
Office release all four 16 hours so we
can say a snapshot in time what was
going on at the appraisal district and
we can start to become transparent and
accountable to the people that pay our
taxes and hold property values thank
thank you uh next and last signed up is
lon
[Music]
Burnham good afternoon I want to back up
to 10:00 this morning it's the Court's
custom to congratulate people on their
anniversary date and I don't think
anybody's congratulated the three of you
on your first anniversary date so I want
to thank you for your service
um I particularly want to thank uh the
Applause is
deafening you took seconds away from me
judge so let's get on with it look I
hope your first year has been as
interesting to you as it's been to me I
started to come to the court last fall
before you be began your service here
talking about my concerns about the way
the sheriff's department has run talking
about my concerns about the excessive
death rate concerns about excessive
incarceration over excessive period of
times uh we all know it's used is the
largest Mental Health institution here
which is really
unfortunate I really appreciate
Russell's work I think this represents
progress for all of us I really
appreciate commissioner Simmons uh
public town hall meeting I hope my
commissioner will do the same thing um
because I think we need some broad
public discussion about the problems in
our jail not cutting off citizen
participation after 3 minutes I want to
make it real
clear I'm pissed about the waste of my
time on October 30th when I went to the
central Jury Room with over 200 other
people when I was informed that oh your
services are not needed you're dismissed
because there are 30 judges that are not
holding court today that speaks to the
very real issue that a lot of people
know the judges are not working a
40-hour work week and they're getting
paid way too much for the the time that
they don't spend on the bench getting
the job done I also want to make another
point that self-evident to most of us
that if tried to deal with a loved one
or a friend who has a drinking problem
you cannot get an alcoholic to recognize
your problem and do something about it
until they're willing to admit there is
a huge problem here I want you all to
recognize that you are not doing an
adequate job admitting that we have a
huge problem here and we are not going
to fix it until you guys get more
serious about it because the citizens
can come up here and talk for three
minutes and be rudely interrupted at
about three minute
point from now to Kingdom come but we're
not going to fix the problem till the
sheriff's department and Leadership
recognizes it we're not going to fix the
problem until the judges recognize
they're not doing their job and we're
not going to fix it until the
commissioners Court recognizes the same
problem I'm going to give you 15 14 13
seconds
back all right that's all that we have
signed up to speak is there anyone else
in the audience who would like to
[Music]
speak good afternoon my name is Billy
Wilson from Arlington
Texas humans be
human a fact of life while we are
capable of great Humanity we are all
equally capable of great inh Humanity to
govern with these two capabilities we
create rules laws and institutions our
democracy rest on the government by the
people and for the people you are the by
the people we are the for the people you
are uh there should not be enity between
the two groups we come recognizing it is
our duty to engage with you to inform a
more perfect union in that Spirit we
have come and will continue to come and
we will not not just as critic but as
partners we wish to engage you in the
dialogue of problem solving problems
like chasty kanes she was implematic of
the property of our County Jail
Administration who on April 17th was
granted the right to proceed with a
civil rights lawsuit against Taran
County Jail it began with the person
diagnosed with mental disorders was
instead of being transported to JPS was
jailed in several months without
adequate care or mental treatment a
child named z CH in court document died
after birth in the jail cell the mother
was then denied the request to attend a
child's
funeral humans be
human we feel that this is not just the
failure of our protocols but Community
oversight of our institutions I'm very
happy to see the work that you're doing
and we hope to work with you to try to
work through all this data to come up
with Solutions so we've come to do our
part raise concerns and offer Solutions
we ask for a shift from investment to
prisons into an investment in programs
my research shows that 30% of the
offenses in our are fall into two
categories DWI and Family Violence We
Believe to focus on addressing the
mental health issues fully implementing
the diversion program efficient
magistration and proper attorney to
discretion uh district attorney to
discretion will go far in eleviating our
jail overcrowding and we have we can cut
off the flow but we need less buckets we
can do better we Dem man to do better
and we will do better thank you thank
you is there anyone else who wishes to
speak all right seeing
[Music]
none uh we will please remain silent
while I read the following statement the
Commissioner's Court will now recess the
Open Session and proceed to close
session to discuss items exempt under
55171 072 074 076 087 and 0725 of the
Texas government code we are in
recess
e
all right good afternoon we are back
from executive session there are no
items that need to be addressed now that
we've reconvened so I'll entertain a
motion to adjourn so move have a motion
a second please cast your
votes all right we have our three at
least so passes three to Zero from those
present we are now adjourned happy New
Year thank you for
watching all
right