[0:02] All right, good morning again everybody. Welcome to Hardin County Commissioner's

[0:05] Court. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. It is 10:00 a.m. and we're here

[0:09] for our regular meeting. All members of the court are present and

[0:12] this meeting is called to order. Everyone will please rise for the

[0:14] invocation and pledge delivered by Commissioner Young.

[0:19] » Lord, I want to thank you for today and all of your many blessings. Thank you

[0:22] for the much-needed rain. Keep your hand of protection over our

[0:26] law enforcement and all first responders. Keep us in your will and be

[0:29] with us as we conduct the business of the county. In Jesus' name we pray.

[0:33] Amen. >> Amen.

[0:35] » I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of

[0:39] America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

[0:45] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[0:49] » Thank you, Commissioner.

[0:54] Item number three, consider and possibly approve the August 25th, 2026 regular

[0:59] meeting and the September 1st, 2026 special meeting minutes as presented by

[1:03] the honorable County Executive and County Clerk.

[1:05] » So moved. >> Second.

[1:07] » Motion by Commissioner Young, second by Commissioner Stokes. Any discussion?

[1:11] All in favor? >> Aye.

[1:13] » Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Ms. Beck.

[1:16] » You're welcome. >> Number four, consider and approval of

[1:19] request to cancel all registered claims from August 26th, 2026 and approval of

[1:23] today's cash statement, both presented by the honorable Angie Smith, County

[1:27] Treasurer. Good morning, Ms. Smith. >> Good morning.

[1:30] I'm asking the court to release me of the liability of $1,866,185.38

[1:38] and to cancel the vouchers related to this matter.

[1:41] These are the vouchers or the county bills and payroll related expenses that

[1:44] were presented and approved at Commissioner's Court meeting held on

[1:47] August the 26th. For the cash report summary, general

[1:52] checking account as of September the 3rd had $290,038.68.

[1:59] First Financial Bank General Checking Special Money Market account had

[2:04] $25,570,259.58.

[2:09] The Tax Pool General account had $379,127.29

[2:16] for a grand total of $26,239,425.55.

[2:24] » That's reported as paid. Motion by Commissioner Kirkendall,

[2:27] seconded by Commissioner Cooper. Any discussion?

[2:30] All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

[2:33] Motion passes. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Number five, authorization pay county

[2:37] bills as presented by Mrs. Candace McKinney, County Auditor. Good morning,

[2:41] Mrs. McKinney. >> Good morning. Pre-approved expenditures

[2:43] for August 26th was $1,345,750.12.

[2:49] Pre-approved expenditures for September the 2nd through the 3rd were

[2:52] $665,091.50.

[2:55] Expenditures for today, September the 8th, are $477,157.50.

[3:02] For a total expenditure and transfer of $2,487,998.67.

[3:09] Gross payroll for September 3rd was $623,935.32.

[3:15] The total transfer for that payroll was $766,845.30.

[3:21] » Move to pay bill. >> Second.

[3:24] » Motion by Commissioner Kirkendall, seconded by Commissioner Cooper. Any

[3:27] discussion? All in favor? Aye.

[3:31] Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Ms. McKinney.

[3:35] Number six is to discuss and possible discussion and possible action to

[3:39] approve and accept for filing in the minutes of the court the district court

[3:42] orders establishing the compensation of the County Auditor, Assistant County

[3:46] Auditors, and the official court reporters of the 88th and the 356th

[3:50] Judicial District Courts for fiscal year 2027.

[3:54] We have the order that's been signed by Judge Thomas

[3:57] and Judge Stover. And Judge Stover and Ms. McKinney have both informed me that

[4:01] these are the rates included in the proposed budget filed

[4:05] by me on August the 4th. >> Second.

[4:08] » Have motion by Commissioner Kirkendall, seconded by Commissioner Cook. Any

[4:11] discussion? All in favor?

[4:14] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[4:16] Motion passes. Number seven, consider and possibly set

[4:20] the salaries, expenses, and all other allowances of elected county and

[4:23] precinct officers for fiscal year 2027. And once again, these are the

[4:27] uh rates that are included in the proposed budget filed August the 4th.

[4:31] » Second. >> Second.

[4:32] » Motion by Commissioner Kirkendall, seconded by Commissioner Cooper. Any

[4:35] discussion? All in favor?

[4:38] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[4:40] Motion passes.

[4:44] Number eight, consider and possibly ratify the property tax revenue increase

[4:49] reflected in the 2027 fiscal year 2027 Hardin County budget.

[4:53] And

[4:58] it shows that the 2026-2027 Hardin County budget will raise more

[5:02] revenue from property taxes than the previous year's budget by an amount of

[5:05] $1,088,328, which is a 4.254%

[5:10] increase from the previous year's budget.

[5:13] The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll

[5:16] this year is $1,533,744.

[5:21] » I move that we ratify the statement that I just read.

[5:24] » Seconded by Commissioner Cooper. >> Any discussion?

[5:28] All in favor? >> Aye.

[5:30] » Any opposed? Motion passes.

[5:33] Once again, I just want to say most of that comes from the Black King Pipeline.

[5:37] New revenue into the next uh budget year.

[5:41] Number nine, consider, discuss, and possibly adopt the fiscal year 2027

[5:45] Hardin County budget. We had a public hearing at 9:00 a.m. and uh

[5:49] I read over all of this thoroughly. I'm going to brief briefly uh repeat it.

[5:53] And so, the amount of the uh total budget for 2027 or fiscal year 2027 is

[5:59] $32,254,118.

[6:03] Of that, $26,403,382 would be from tax revenue.

[6:08] And is there any discussion regarding that? We had no comments at all from

[6:12] the public during the public hearing, but at this time, if anybody would like

[6:16] to make a comment, I'll open the floor again.

[6:20] Hearing no comments, I'll entertain a uh motion.

[6:22] » Uh move to approve. >> Second.

[6:24] » A motion by Commissioner Kirkendall, seconded by Commissioner Young. Any

[6:27] discussion? This requires a record vote, so

[6:31] Commissioner Cooper. >> Yes.

[6:32] » Commissioner Kirkendall. >> Yes.

[6:34] » Commissioner Young. >> Yes.

[6:36] » Commissioner Cook. >> Yes.

[6:37] » And I vote yes. That's a Uh the motion passes unanimously to

[6:43] adopt the fiscal year 2027 Hardin County budget.

[6:47] Moving on to number 10, consider and possibly approve an order to adopt the

[6:51] tax rate of 0.481223 per $100 valuation for the 2026 tax

[6:57] year. The debt service rate tax rate is zero

[7:01] per $100 valuation, and that is because the

[7:05] uh certificate of obligation was paid off during this fiscal year for the

[7:08] annex. And the maintenance and operation tax

[7:11] rate is 0.481223 per $100 valuation. And that breaks down

[7:16] as follows. The general fund is 0.392078,

[7:21] the jury fund 0.015787, and the road and bridge fund 0.073358.

[7:30] » Move to approve. >> Second.

[7:31] » A motion by Commissioner Kirkendall, seconded by Commissioner Cooper. Any

[7:34] discussion? Commissioner Cook, your vote.

[7:38] » Yes. >> Commissioner Young.

[7:40] » Yes. >> Commissioner Kirkendall.

[7:41] » Yes. >> Commissioner Cooper.

[7:43] » Yes. >> And I vote yes. That's a unanimous vote

[7:45] in favor of the of adopting that tax rate to fund the budget.

[7:51] And that is all regarding the budget and the tax rate. Thanks very much to

[7:54] Candace, Steve Smith, Lisa, everybody who worked hard to make sure that we put

[7:58] a budget together and of course all the elected officials and department heads

[8:01] that worked together so well each year to make sure that this is an easier

[8:05] process than it has been in the past. Thank you all.

[8:08] Number 11, discussion and possible action concerning adoption of fiscal

[8:12] year 2027 county payroll schedule as requested by Ms. Smith.

[8:16] We have a payroll schedule here and Ms. Smith, I know there's two items

[8:19] highlighted in yellow. Do you want to talk about those?

[8:22] » Um yes, those two this is basically just showing that the very first payroll of

[8:28] fiscal year 27 that would include the wage increases would be on the October

[8:34] 15th payroll. Okay. Uh because of the gap accrual

[8:38] accounting, we have the payroll period from 9/13 through 9/26 would be accrued

[8:44] back into fiscal year 26. And so therefore in order to have the 26

[8:50] pay periods that we should have, we would have to the the pay would go

[8:54] into effect on October 15th. And this is in line with what we did last year as

[8:58] well. >> So October the 15th, that's when the

[9:01] raise is going into effect? >> That is correct.

[9:04] » Candace, do you agree that's the right statement?

[9:05] » Uh yes, sir. So um what was done last year is we had the conversation of when

[9:10] those would go into effect and the statement was made that uh

[9:15] whatever day is the pay period was that had mostly October dates would be the

[9:20] date cuz we have some limitations on our um

[9:23] in our software as far as uh splitting rates. Um

[9:28] so that goes in line with what we did last year.

[9:31] » And this is good paid every other Thursday except two dates and that has

[9:34] to do with Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those will be a Wednesday payday.

[9:37] » That's correct. >> Did I cut you off, Candace, or are you

[9:39] done? >> No, I'm done.

[9:41] » Okay, making sure. We're good then. Have motion by Commissioner Kirkendall,

[9:44] seconded by Commissioner Young, any discussion?

[9:47] All in favor. >> Aye.

[9:49] » Any opposed? Motion passes.

[9:52] Number 12, consider approval of request by the Honorable Ernie Cook, County

[9:55] Commissioner, to enter into an agreement with the Hardin County Youth Soccer

[9:58] Club, whereby the Soccer Club will contribute or reimburse $1,800 to Hardin

[10:02] County for the use of the Hardin County Veterans Park concession stand, soccer

[10:06] fields, normal utilities and supplies. If approved, this agreement will be in

[10:10] effect from October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2027.

[10:15] Mr. Cook, >> Yes, sir.

[10:17] Uh no, there's no no new information to add on this. This is something that

[10:21] we've done for the past uh numerous years and and before I came into office.

[10:27] So, I'm ready to approve this. >> Motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by

[10:31] Commissioner Kirkendall, any discussion? All in favor.

[10:34] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[10:36] Motion passes. 14, consider request by Chief Juvenile

[10:40] Probation Officer Monica Kelly to authorize the County Judge to sign the

[10:43] Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program and Memorandum of Understanding

[10:47] for the school year 2026 through 2027. Any changes or is just a renewal?

[10:53] » No changes.

[10:58] » So moved. Have motion by Commissioner Cooper,

[11:01] seconded by Commissioner Young, any discussion?

[11:04] All in favor. >> Aye.

[11:06] » Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you.

[11:09] Let's go back to 13 since I skipped it. Consider approval of request from Mrs.

[11:13] Latasha Jones, Health Department Director, to authorize the County Judge

[11:16] to execute a renewal agreement with LIT Beaumont Nursing Program. Um

[11:21] Mrs. Holmes couldn't be here this morning, but she told me this is just a

[11:24] renewal and this allows the LIT uh students going through the nursing

[11:28] program to come here and shadow uh the nurses here at the Health Services

[11:32] Department. >> So, moved

[11:34] » Motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Young. Any discussion?

[11:39] All in favor? >> Aye.

[11:40] » Any opposed? Motion passes.

[11:44] Now, 15. Consider approval of request by Mrs. Misty Sams, Purchasing Agent, to

[11:48] present results of bids received for overlaying approximately 1,120 ft by 18

[11:52] ft of Beasley Drive, located in Precinct 4, and possibly award to successful

[11:57] vendor. Good morning, Mrs. Sams. >> Good morning.

[12:00] Bids were opened on August 20th, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. in the Purchasing Department.

[12:04] Stacy Ecker and Pat Boyer were present. We received two bids. CMM Construction

[12:10] at $5 a square yard, and Construction Managers of Southeast

[12:13] Texas for $7 a square yard. >> Commissioner, uh, Cook.

[12:19] » Yes, sir. Uh, while I hate to

[12:23] pay that that much, I know it's gotten become very expensive the last year or

[12:27] so to have a piece of road overlaid, but I move to approve.

[12:33] » Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by

[12:35] Commissioner Cooper. Any discussion? All in favor?

[12:39] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[12:41] Motion passes. Thank you. 16. Consider approval of request by

[12:45] Melinda Harrington, Human Resources Director, to authorize the County Judge

[12:48] to sign the 2026-2027 renewal notice and benefit confirmation

[12:54] for health, dental, vision, and life insurance rates offered by the Texas

[12:56] Association of Counties Health and Employees Benefits Pool, and the

[13:00] 2026-2027 Healthy County County Specific

[13:03] Initiative Program Participation Agreement.

[13:07] Uh, Mrs. Harrington informed me this morning the information that was sent

[13:09] originally that was attached to the, uh, link on the agenda. There's been a

[13:14] slight change in that, and I don't think it changes any rates, but it has a few

[13:18] changes that I think you're going to talk about here before we, uh, go any

[13:20] further. >> Yes, the only thing that was, um, TAC

[13:23] had made a mistake on was our renewal options. They give us, uh, three

[13:26] different options per plan each year. And whenever I was um reviewing

[13:31] everything, I noticed that they they weren't correct. And so, I had sent an

[13:35] email out to the um um this doesn't affect the renewal rates

[13:38] or anything. So, um

[13:41] I mean >> Belinda discovered a mistake about a

[13:44] week and a half ago, brought it to their attention. It took them some time, but

[13:46] they got it fixed. So, uh we received all the new documentation earlier this

[13:50] morning. That'll that'll be uploaded to the agenda and emailed out to y'all so

[13:53] you have it.

[13:56] » And these are the rates that were approved in court, correct?

[13:59] » Yes, sir. >> So,

[14:01] » Is it included in the budget? >> Motion by Commissioner Young, seconded

[14:04] by Commissioner Purkendal. Any discussion?

[14:07] All in favor? >> Aye.

[14:09] » Any opposed? Motion passes.

[14:11] » Thank you. >> Number 17, consider and possibly

[14:14] authorize the county judge to apply to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

[14:18] for the fiscal year 2017 Rural Ambulance Services Grant Program in support of

[14:21] Hardin County Emergency Services District 5.

[14:24] An amount of $350,000 for the purchase of an ambulance, including necessary

[14:28] accessories and modifications. Uh we had a meeting back in January, if

[14:32] I recall. And uh we had decided at that time to support ESD 2 with the

[14:37] application for this year fiscal year. And then we would uh support ESD 5 for

[14:43] the next fiscal year, which uh is the reason we have ESD 5 as the uh

[14:47] grantee, I guess it is what we'll call them. And I think it's taking what, 18

[14:51] months or more to get an ambulance now. So, we're supporting them this year, but

[14:54] they won't get the the ambulance probably till the next fiscal year.

[14:57] » Move to approve. >> Second.

[14:59] » Motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Cooper. Any discussion?

[15:04] All in favor? >> Aye.

[15:05] » Any opposed? Motion passes. Just to uh

[15:09] just to kind of uh tell y'all the one we uh supported ESD 2, got that grant money

[15:15] in, I think sometime in February, and they won't get the ambulance until

[15:18] probably January 2028. So, that money will just have to sit in the account

[15:22] till comes in and then then we'll pay for it, go through the process of

[15:27] getting an MOU entered to uh make sure that it becomes that's their ambulance.

[15:31] They'll insure it and all that kind of stuff. There is a difference there. If I

[15:34] remember right, it's around $40,000. ESD 2 will pay that difference.

[15:40] Item number 18, discussion on any other non-agenda item without taking action

[15:43] including announcements which may be of interest to the public. Uh one big

[15:47] announcement is today is Aaron Tupper's birthday, so happy

[15:50] » Birthday, Aaron.

[15:52] » 39, is that right? >> Yes, or somewhere in there.

[15:55] » Somewhere in there. >> 44.

[15:58] » That's not bad, either. Uh

[16:01] next we had a little storm last week and uh that was that board. It was not

[16:04] supposed to have much effects, but it had lots of effects on Hardin County.

[16:08] So, just want to remind everybody that had any damages to their house or their

[16:12] car, uh even fences or anything like that, please enter that information into

[16:16] the TDEM iSTAT. That's uh can be found on the uh Hardin County Emergency

[16:20] Management Facebook page and on mine. Please go in there and enter your

[16:24] information. Uh we do have some volunteer organizations volunteer

[16:27] organizations active in disaster. They are in Hardin County now.

[16:31] And Aaron and I have a meeting with one of them at 11:00. And that information

[16:35] that comes through the state is filtered down to each county and we take that

[16:39] data and provide it to them and they do reach out to each of those locations.

[16:42] They go by there and look at the damages. If there's anything they can do

[16:45] to help, they're doing that. Unfortunately, a power outage which

[16:48] caused lots of people to lose their food, that is not covered by any type of

[16:53] uh volunteer programs, but it may be

[16:55] covered by your insurance. So, check with your insurance agent to see if

[16:58] they'll cover that. It may or may not. Uh I know back during Rita, everybody's

[17:02] insurance covered it, but nowadays everybody's don't. So, check with your

[17:05] insurance agent and uh talk to them about it. They may cover that.

[17:09] Uh I did issue a disaster declaration uh probably during the middle of the storm.

[17:13] There's no governor's day uh declaration as of this moment and is is there one

[17:17] coming, or do we know, or are they still working on assessments?

[17:22] So, uh Chief Rail, of course, uh provided quite a bit of assistance

[17:25] through TDEM. We also had offers of assistance from Jefferson County, uh

[17:28] Commissioner Erickson. And

[17:31] Representative Holt reached out to me numerous times during and after the uh

[17:35] event. So did uh Representative Ashby and Senator Nichols, and uh

[17:41] Congressman Babin. Senator Cruz's uh assistant was here in

[17:45] the EOC with us. We didn't really have our EOC stood up, but makeshift EOC, we

[17:49] had that going Friday. He stopped by for about an hour and visited with us, made

[17:52] sure we were okay. We sure appreciate all of the uh assistance that we had and

[17:56] the offers of assistance that we had. >> And Judge uh Commissioner Marks from

[18:00] Jefferson County reached out to me and offered assistance as well, too. Yes,

[18:03] sir. Appreciate our neighbors. >> Judge uh

[18:06] Sylvia in Chambers County, all the county judges locally had reached out to

[18:09] me and offered to come do anything that we wanted. Of course, all I told them

[18:12] was we wanted the power back on. Energy stepped up and did a great job.

[18:17] Uh communication is not like it used to be,

[18:19] and that is nobody's fault here locally. That stems from uh corporate-level

[18:23] communication. But as far as getting the power back on, I think they did great.

[18:27] So, uh anybody want to add anything to to

[18:30] anything regarding the storm? >> So, we're still picking up trees from

[18:34] the roadways uh that fell across the roads. Uh that's today, and

[18:39] we're uh grading all the dirt roads and roadways starting today.

[18:42] » Glad you brought that up, cuz I meant to say the county is not big enough to pick

[18:45] up any debris from uh like we have in the past. If there's a uh presidential

[18:49] declaration and we get FEMA assistance to pick up debris, we initiate a debris

[18:53] contract, which is several million dollars to go pick up debris. You also

[18:57] have to monitor the debris, dump it at a site, and it's got to be

[19:00] carried from there and disposed of properly. There's a whole process for

[19:03] debris pick up. And it's millions of dollars to do it,

[19:06] and the county does not have the money to go pick up debris. If we don't get a

[19:10] uh the assistance or federal assistance, we can't pick up debris. So, I know that

[19:14] I got beat up pretty bad for saying we can't pick up debris, but we're not. And

[19:18] then other cities are in Hardin County either to my knowledge. I've talked to a

[19:20] few of them. And they're not picking up debris inside the cities either. If any

[19:24] of them change that and tell me they are, I'll let you know, but

[19:28] uh we're not picking up debris. So,

[19:31] if you set in the middle of the road or in the county right-of-way, it's not

[19:34] being picked up. All right. Some of them did say they were going to set set it in

[19:36] the middle of the road, and if they do, we're going to call the sheriff and

[19:39] handle it that way cuz that is a crime to do that. I don't think anybody will

[19:42] do it, but you never know.

[19:45] Anything else regarding the storm? Aaron, did I miss anything?

[19:49] » No, sir. >> Sheriff, your guys came out and did a

[19:51] lot of work during the uh before, during, and after of the storm,

[19:55] and we really appreciate all the assistance there. And I'll tell you

[19:58] something you always do when we have a storm is you send uh Captain uh Sanford

[20:02] to work with us, and that is always a big help as well. He's very

[20:04] knowledgeable and has a lot of experience with uh

[20:08] rising waters and things like that, and we appreciate that very much.

[20:12] » Representative Hope said that she expected that if that uh Governor Abbott

[20:16] was going to claim a disaster, he would have done it by now.

[20:18] » Yeah, that's kind of what we see as well.

[20:22] I did ask you to pick up the debris, and I got a no.

[20:25] I expected that. Didn't hurt to ask. >> It never hurts to ask.

[20:29] » All right, any other announcements which may be of interest to the public or any

[20:31] discussion items? Sheriff?

[20:34] » Can you Can you go back to number 11? Cuz I'm going to be asked as soon as I

[20:38] get back to my office, when will the employees see the new rate, which

[20:42] paycheck? >> Angel?

[20:43] » Top 10 of 15. >> The 15th paycheck? Okay.

[20:48] » Good deal. And that is the same way we did it last

[20:51] year, I think? The year before, right? >> It's We did it this way last year.

[20:55] » Okay. >> The year before, we it was going into

[20:58] effect the first payroll cycle, but really and truly those days were

[21:03] like you were accruing a new adopted budget rate back into a previous fiscal

[21:08] year. >> All right. And so it was the numbers

[21:11] were off. >> It always causes problems with the

[21:14] audit. That we had to enable.

[21:18] Uh one other question that's probably going to be asked is longevity pay. And

[21:21] so the plan on that is to take action on longevity pay at our first meeting in

[21:25] October, which is October the 13th.

[21:30] So October the 13th we'll take action on longevity pay. It's budgeted.

[21:33] Everybody's going to get longevity pay, but they will not get it

[21:36] their first paycheck in October the way we had done in previous years. We're

[21:40] going to pay it in a lump sum, at least that is the plan.

[21:43] And uh on October the 13th we'll take action as to what date that's going to

[21:47] be paid. Engine and I've had some brief discussion about that and talked about

[21:50] paying it sometime in November, but that law come to court and action will be

[21:54] taken then. We can't take action on a budget that we're not we're not in that

[21:57] budget year yet, but we will take action at our first meeting in October.

[22:02] Any other questions about the budget or any other discussion regarding anything

[22:06] that's not on the agenda?

[22:10] All right, we'll go to that last line item.

[22:12] Move to adjourn. Have motion by Commissioner Cook,

[22:16] seconded by Commissioner Kirkendall to adjourn. All in favor,

[22:20] we are adjourned.

September 8, 2026 Commissioners Court | Regular Meeting

Transcript