[0:04] All righty. Let's see if we can get up. And I don't know if y'all will be able

[0:08] to see it or not. That'll tell us whether or not we're uh the public's

[0:12] going to be able to see it or not. Our internet's down. Our web page is down.

[0:16] » Is that what this is for?

[1:00] We're up. All right.

[1:05] We're up. Uh, good morning everyone. Today is Tuesday, November 4th, 2025.

[1:11] It's now 10:01. We're here for a special session of the Hunt County

[1:15] Commissioner's Court. At this time, I'll call the meeting to order. And we have

[1:19] Commissioner Money, Monroe, Smith, and Harrison Pres. Present. I'm Judge

[1:24] Stovoff presiding over the meeting today. At this time, we'll have public

[1:28] testimonies. Uh speakers are limited to three minutes

[1:31] and should conduct themselves in a civil manner. The commissioner's court cannot

[1:36] take action on items not listed on the agenda in accordance with the Texas

[1:40] Opens Meetings Act. Concerns will be addressed by county staff. They may be

[1:45] placed on a future agenda or addressed by some other course response. Is there

[1:50] anybody I know our web page is down so

[1:55] » it's emailed in? >> Okay. All right. Anybody here wish to

[2:01] speak? Being none, I'll close the public

[2:05] testimony. Uh at this time, uh we have no old business, no new

[2:11] business consent. We'll go to B under new business action items. Approval of

[2:18] accounts payable.

[2:23] » Second. >> Got a motion second. All in favor say I.

[2:26] » All opposed. >> Motion carries. Approval of budget

[2:30] amendments. >> Make a motion to approve budget

[2:32] amendments. >> Second.

[2:34] » Got a motion second. All in favor say I. >> I.

[2:37] » All opposed. Motion carries. Uh at this time we're

[2:42] going to move move to item number two and we're going to go into executive

[2:48] session under 571 071. >> 551 071 and 074.

[2:56] » 551 071 and 074. >> Yes.

[3:00] » Okay. At this time we're going into executive session under 551074

[3:05] and 71. I'll ask everybody to leave the courtroom except for HR and Chris and

[3:13] the for work.

[1:19:10] We don't need any. >> Okay.

[1:19:17] » All right. We got

[1:19:24] » Oh, well, I thought you were checking it earlier.

[1:19:26] » Oh,

[1:19:30] okay. Well, I hope we're back up. It's 11:21. We're back in regular session. Uh

[1:19:36] under action item number one in budget fiscal year 2627.

[1:19:41] Commissioner, we talked about uh getting a plan together, talk about reviewing

[1:19:47] some of uh our procedures and all uh before we get into next year's budget.

[1:19:54] So we uh Gary, you have you passed all yours out or

[1:20:13] This was nothing more than just a start conversation.

[1:20:36] When when we had when when we had gone through the budget

[1:20:42] process, we were we were talking about how to prepare for for next year, you

[1:20:47] know, starting today. uh you know looking at you know various types of

[1:20:51] cost and things like that and and um what we could do to prepare ourselves

[1:20:56] today so that we're not having a fire drill you know whenever we hit you know

[1:21:01] June of next summer and start the process again as far as what what the

[1:21:04] costs were. Uh I believe Commissioner Monroe had asked for this meeting just

[1:21:10] to make sure that we were you know headed down headed down a path uh and to

[1:21:15] start trying to get everybody rowing in the same direction. So, so what I I put

[1:21:20] in front of you, you gentlemen, uh is just uh things to start the conversation

[1:21:25] with. These are things that are kind of overhead in nature. Uh things things

[1:21:30] that are bigger ticket items. Uh and but it's truly nothing more than a starting

[1:21:35] point, but I believe it's things that that we could set out as a court and say

[1:21:39] we want to go look at these one, lead the way, start addressing the the larger

[1:21:44] ticket items. uh too, but then start asking the rest of our uh county,

[1:21:49] whether it's elected officials, department heads, uh guys that uh you

[1:21:53] know dump the trash cans, guys that mow the ditches, whatever it is, and say,

[1:21:57] "What do you see out there as opportunities, and we can kind of

[1:22:00] prioritize those and go look at them uh overall. So, just to throw out starting

[1:22:05] points, uh the communications assessment, that's already underway.

[1:22:09] That was the free assessment by Spy Glass. And I believe uh here in the next

[1:22:13] week or two we're going to kind of get a a brief on you know where that where

[1:22:18] that's headed just as opportunity to look at our our internet our phone usage

[1:22:22] and uh rate applications and you know are there opportunities to save there.

[1:22:27] Um you know since I've been in the court

[1:22:30] we've had conversation about enterprise lease lease you and all those things. Is

[1:22:35] it good? Is it bad? U I think it's one of those things it's it's a large ticket

[1:22:39] item. I think it provides benefit to the county. Does it still provide the

[1:22:43] benefit that it was originally intended to? Uh is there a different structure of

[1:22:47] that agreement? You know, is there a different way to approach that? You

[1:22:50] know, or should we leave it alone? Um now, what I would do is drop over to the

[1:22:55] right side on your next steps associated with that. Uh what what you what you

[1:23:00] have to do is have an independent team. You have you have people that like it,

[1:23:03] you have people that don't like it, people that use it, people that don't

[1:23:05] use it, people that understand it, people that think they understand it. Um

[1:23:10] uh and and I really think we should we should go get a team and on that one

[1:23:14] there ought to be an independent leader. Someone who doesn't have a a stake a

[1:23:18] stake in the ground on on on that just other than is the financial best answer

[1:23:23] overall. Uh utility cost uh this is one of those legacy things for me. Uh

[1:23:29] historically went in I mean I I go to a lot of rooms a lot of buildings in

[1:23:33] various places in the county. Uh we don't we don't have automated sensors.

[1:23:37] We don't have uh any regulatory on the on a lot of the HVAC stuff. Uh we don't

[1:23:43] have LED lights in in a lot of places. U I won't make this a prior job for me. I

[1:23:49] actually from result of what I did at that job. I was talking to another

[1:23:53] business owner. They went in and much smaller. I mean this is a you know it's

[1:23:59] a it's a a small manufacturing facility employee about less than 100 people.

[1:24:05] uh they they went in and changed out everything to LED and it resulted in

[1:24:09] about $1,000 a month light savings on the utilities. So just little things

[1:24:13] where we start just the things that you do every day that actually run the bills

[1:24:18] up. uh copier lease agreement. I mean I mean these things are notorious. Uh they

[1:24:23] evolve lease companies, copier companies, they all have different

[1:24:26] approaches at them. Uh and you also have all the um horror stories about how

[1:24:31] expensive things are, you know, where toner cartridges uh cost more than a new

[1:24:36] printer for your desktop. I I I'm not taking that as folk I'm taking that as

[1:24:40] folklore, but I think we should go assess those things because it's

[1:24:44] countywide. um you know the uh other ideas is the is the key point. That's

[1:24:49] where we're asking everybody else to go hey tell us what we do that's stupid you

[1:24:53] know just to be honest that that's really the idea and uh and so anyway

[1:24:57] those were to get started. You guys have a lot of other things that you know uh

[1:25:01] but this was just to start a conversation and and hopefully judge

[1:25:05] that on these ones that require a group of people to get together and pull

[1:25:09] information. If uh if everybody agreed that those

[1:25:12] would be good things to do, we could go slate those off with a with a schedule.

[1:25:16] I know we're not used to always deadline and things, but I did the next page put

[1:25:20] a timeline. If we're going to do something, we need to do it now. This is

[1:25:23] about getting new things done implemented so that next budget season,

[1:25:28] if you get benefit from them, you can actually incorporate those into forecast

[1:25:33] rather than just always using last year's number.

[1:25:39] » Okay.

[1:25:43] questions of him, question comments. >> I like it.

[1:25:49] » And so, so rumors don't get going and stuff because we had talked about this

[1:25:53] in the last meeting. When you start talking about budget cuts or looking at

[1:25:57] ways to operate more efficient, people automatically think, "Oh, we're about to

[1:26:01] lose our job or we're going to come in and cut manpower or whatever." That's

[1:26:06] not the intentions of these meetings. the meetings are to is just like

[1:26:10] Commissioner Smith was saying, we're looking for ways to be more efficient.

[1:26:14] Just because we've always done things a certain way doesn't mean that's always

[1:26:18] the best or the most efficient way. So, that's just things that we're wanting to

[1:26:22] talk about. So, I just kind of wanted to lay the groundwork on that of people

[1:26:26] don't have to worry about losing their jobs. That's what we're not that's not

[1:26:30] not what our intentions are right now for that.

[1:26:33] » I think we also have to look into, you know, somehow or another

[1:26:38] you know, how do we direct the elected officials, the department heads, make

[1:26:42] sure that they understand kind of Commissioner Smith, what you were

[1:26:45] talking about in here. How do they how do they need to look at their budget

[1:26:49] going forward as well? What do they need to be looking for? Ways to cut, ways to

[1:26:53] reduce, ways to save money as well. Uh because it's going to it's going to take

[1:26:58] everybody, department heads and elected officials to help make this work. Uh we

[1:27:02] can't just have certain departments working on this and trying to come up

[1:27:06] with ways to help us save money. It's got to be everybody at the county level.

[1:27:14] » I agree. >> I agree.

[1:27:19] » Well, I you know, Gary, I appreciate what you've done. I think this is a a

[1:27:24] good start, a good idea to start. It's uh

[1:27:29] it's certainly some of the biggest ticket items we have uh

[1:27:34] that we we can see some improvement on. Uh

[1:27:39] you know, of course, I've always, you know, complain, fuss, or whatever the

[1:27:46] right word is about. You know, we all we got is 100-y old buildings around here

[1:27:49] we're trying to maintain all the time, which is extremely difficult. and and

[1:27:54] with uh you know trying to improve them is it makes it even more difficult

[1:28:00] because you you don't have good bones on a lot of things you're starting with you

[1:28:04] know one of the things that you know we've wanted to do for since I've been

[1:28:08] here is replace the windows at the courthouse would save us probably more

[1:28:12] money than all the le LED lights you can put in but uh the cost number on that

[1:28:17] thing is so high because of the uh being a historical building the historical

[1:28:23] commission is making it so difficult and expensive that it's going to be millions

[1:28:28] of dollars to replace or fix the windows in the courthouse.

[1:28:33] » They won't let us do a replica of it. They're going to we're going to have to

[1:28:38] take it out, sand it down the frame, replace any part

[1:28:43] of it or fix it, repaint it back the original cutter color. And they say they

[1:28:48] want us to put in the the re original paints that were in it. Well, I can I've

[1:28:52] told them over and over I can I can tell you the first floor there's not original

[1:28:57] window paint on that first floor. They've all been broken sometime through

[1:29:00] the years and probably on a lot of the other floors. There's probably not any

[1:29:04] original pl panes of glass. So, they won't even

[1:29:07] let us put in energy efficiency glass.

[1:29:12] So, that that's another one that's on the list. Uh you know, Gary, that we can

[1:29:17] talk about. I don't know how we attack that deal, but

[1:29:19] » facilities. >> Facilities. Yeah, there's, you know,

[1:29:22] that's one major deal. I know at the courthouse, I know they've had a program

[1:29:26] going to replace all of the lights with LEDs

[1:29:30] in the courthouse floor by floor. Now, I don't know how far along that has

[1:29:35] gotten. I'm pretty sure they've done it in my office. I don't know if they've

[1:29:39] done it in the commissioner's office or not, but

[1:29:41] » I don't think so. >> No, still. But I know they they had a

[1:29:43] program going where they were replacing, you know, on they had a schedule where

[1:29:47] they were trying to do so many offices at a time and put LA. Has your clerk's

[1:29:52] office been replaced? >> I think they have.

[1:29:54] » Yeah, I think some of the courtrooms have been done and all. So, they've got

[1:29:57] some of that. >> Was that all done through facilities?

[1:30:00] » Yes, they did on their own. >> Maybe we could ask Commissioner Monroe

[1:30:03] to ask for a status of that and then maybe get it expanded across all

[1:30:07] buildings and >> Yeah. see where they're at on it cuz I

[1:30:09] know I know Chris had a plan and they were working it at one point in time of

[1:30:13] replacing them >> uh on some kind of schedule. I just

[1:30:17] don't remember what that schedule looked like.

[1:30:21] Um, >> I will say on the enterprise side, I've

[1:30:24] spoken to them and asked them in the next coming month or so to actually come

[1:30:28] to court and give us a presentation of where we started, where we're at, what's

[1:30:34] benefited us, where we're at financially, vehicle-wise, and all that.

[1:30:38] So, everybody has an update on that program as well. So, hopefully here here

[1:30:43] pretty soon we'll get them in court and can can uh look at that presentation.

[1:30:48] Well, I my com I guess my comment would be if with them doing that, I think we

[1:30:53] should get somebody talking to every department that has the vehicles and see

[1:30:57] if they're happy with what's going on. >> Yeah, the the biggest thing on on the

[1:31:01] enterprise thing is getting a total cost of ownership. You you you have to you

[1:31:06] have to get it beyond just the price of the car. You got to get into the

[1:31:09] maintenance. You got to get how it's maintained. Uh you know, there's a fleet

[1:31:12] management aspect of it, you know. So making sure that we when we're comparing

[1:31:16] apples to apples, they're not apples and oranges. And so because I I there's

[1:31:21] probably a lot of cost that we gain out of having that program that if you don't

[1:31:26] include that, if you didn't have that program, it's not a fair comparison.

[1:31:29] That's why I I think that I agree with you that it's just we we got to make

[1:31:34] sure we're getting all the cost in or it looks lopsided,

[1:31:36] » right? Yeah. And it's uh you know the there's so many elements to that that it

[1:31:41] it's'll be it'll be kind of a everybody may have a different opinion whether

[1:31:48] it's good or bad because right >> what's what's important

[1:31:51] » to somebody might not be important to somebody else but if it's important it

[1:31:57] could be really important to to do it. Uh so we just need to

[1:32:02] » and there might be some places that it's the best answer for them, but it's not

[1:32:05] the best answer for somebody else. >> It may not be all-encompassing. That's

[1:32:08] correct. Uh >> so judge, I guess my my my question from

[1:32:16] trying to understand how the process would go in something like this, the the

[1:32:20] three items there in the middle, you know, you're really talking about groups

[1:32:23] of teams that are pulling data, you know, and compiling things and and

[1:32:26] information. How do we go about that? Do we do we appoint names? Do we ask for

[1:32:31] volunteers? I mean, I >> I think we'd have to ask for volunteers.

[1:32:35] And of course, we you know, we can't have but you know, two people from the

[1:32:38] court on it. >> I think a lot of this is outside the

[1:32:40] court, right? There might be >> Well, I think you're going to have to

[1:32:42] have one member of the court at least give them

[1:32:44] » a PLC. >> Give them some leadership, get tell them

[1:32:47] what we're looking for. May not have to be involved in all of it, but they're

[1:32:50] going to have to be some kind of a a go-to person to answer questions that

[1:32:54] they have. >> Yep.

[1:32:56] So the one that might be controversial, does anybody have any issue if that if

[1:33:00] we could uh identify an independent leader, maybe even not part of the

[1:33:04] county government on enterprise?

[1:33:09] » Sure. I >> as long as they had a resume that

[1:33:11] matched the >> I don't know who that would be off top

[1:33:14] of my head, but that's a good idea. I mean,

[1:33:16] » you got somebody in mind. >> Well, I I wanted to make sure that the

[1:33:19] idea was good and then we'll see if we can bring names to

[1:33:22] » starts with a J on a lot of this. I think a lot of times outside vision is

[1:33:27] better than internal vision sometimes because you have a different perspective

[1:33:31] of it and so I think outside source is great great idea.

[1:33:36] » I'll check on that one. Like I said that one I thought is so large and so

[1:33:39] complicated an independent look might be the others are the internal expertise is

[1:33:44] the best. >> So then you then if you had an outside

[1:33:48] lead would be leading it. Is that what you're thinking? Be leading it. So then

[1:33:51] we had to make sure that his team members are some that have a lot of

[1:33:55] insight in their department with the vehicles and how it operates. Okay.

[1:33:59] » Absolutely. >> I think that's all great ideas.

[1:34:04] » So when you're you're saying on the 18th, are you saying that on the 18th

[1:34:09] we'll have the the announcement of all the members?

[1:34:12] » Here's who it is and and and what and what their charter is. And then we'll I

[1:34:16] assume that somebody from the court if they're not on the team would have to

[1:34:22] give them some direction or we're going to have to ask them to come to court to

[1:34:26] give them the direction from the court is what are you thinking of that?

[1:34:31] » Um I think we could do it either way.

[1:34:34] Probably the individual uh you know that gets the intent just so it doesn't

[1:34:38] become a something tied to a court date. Um, you know, the the whole thing is

[1:34:43] like on the enterprise. Well, I guess the big thing is the court would

[1:34:47] probably like to see what the charter would look like, I would imagine.

[1:34:50] And everybody just be in agreement about what what it is that's going to be

[1:34:53] looked at, how they're going to go about it. So, we would we would need to bring

[1:34:57] them to court to to say, "Here's what we're doing. Make sure everybody's on

[1:35:00] the same page." And that's and that's really what that 129 date would get you.

[1:35:09] We identify everybody by the 18th. Everybody goes and and does

[1:35:12] Thanksgiving. The the people that were identified, you know, write down what it

[1:35:16] is that we're going to go after by 129. And then we ask them by the end of

[1:35:20] January there on the 27th to report out what they found.

[1:35:24] » Okay. >> Would you be willing to be the head of

[1:35:27] that team, Gary? >> What team's that?

[1:35:31] » Over the budget team. >> Oh, just getting this organized for

[1:35:34] everybody. I'm happy to do that. I'm happy to do that.

[1:35:39] I would like any input though on various people that you know you know have

[1:35:44] experience in with this or that. Just make sure

[1:35:47] » Steve has been the most involved in enterprise. He understands it probably

[1:35:49] better than anybody. So >> I think Steve ought to be

[1:35:54] » you all right with that Steve? >> I'm fine.

[1:35:56] » Yeah. >> Especially if Gary's got a good

[1:35:58] recommendation from an outside person to recommend.

[1:36:03] But I think you understand the overall >> workings of it.

[1:36:09] » I think I can get them into context with with everybody and all that.

[1:36:13] » I I think you know it's you know accounting and how to pull information

[1:36:17] and data on that. Uh any legal interpretations on the enterprise lease?

[1:36:22] You probably have most of that on your own. Uh I'm sure the sheriff would have

[1:36:26] an interest in somebody being part of that if I had to guess.

[1:36:29] » I would think so. But Steve's been through a cycle of it

[1:36:34] where he's had lease, sold them, kept one, kept one. They recommend not to

[1:36:39] sell. So he he knows the workings of it. So he'd be real valuable, I think.

[1:36:45] » So I I've kind of already started just as I'm just talking about as far as

[1:36:49] court PC's. I've already started obviously on the comm on the

[1:36:53] communications assessment. I would just stay tied to that unless somebody wanted

[1:36:58] to step in and >> and pick it up where it's at.

[1:37:01] » Um the only other one at this point I'm

[1:37:06] going to say that Commissioner Monroe uh basically is the the utility cost

[1:37:11] because that's tied through facilities. If if if he would be good with that,

[1:37:16] » that'd be fine. >> And Darren, I know I know you're you're

[1:37:21] new to the to the court. uh the the copy lease. Would would you be interested in

[1:37:26] doing that? And I would provide any assistance.

[1:37:28] » And I I can assist you on that, too. >> Okay, good deal.

[1:37:31] » I'll help him cuz >> Yeah,

[1:37:33] » I was the one that got started. >> Help.

[1:37:34] » Yeah. >> Yes.

[1:37:35] » I'm the one that kind of got that started. So,

[1:37:40] » I'll kind of tell you where we came from and what what we've done, what we're

[1:37:43] looking for. >> Okay.

[1:37:46] And so the so the big thing would be for to to help identify who the uh who the

[1:37:51] players are that would be on those teams and then make sure we all understand

[1:37:55] what we're asking each other to go do. The big thing on on these teams is is

[1:38:00] really two questions. Why and what if? I mean that that's that that's really why

[1:38:05] do we do it this way? And what if we did something different? I mean, that that's

[1:38:09] really what we want to start asking all of our folks in the county to do is when

[1:38:13] we when we do something, why do we do it that way? What if we did it this way?

[1:38:18] Would it make it better? Would it make it, you know, more efficient to go do?

[1:38:21] Just the things we want to start asking oursel, but we don't want to say ever

[1:38:25] because that's the way we've always done it.

[1:38:27] » Correct. An example that uh Gary is just a couple

[1:38:31] things I've dealt with in maintenance since I've kind of inherited that for a

[1:38:35] little bit as of now is a lot of things uh they were I noticed that they were

[1:38:40] subbing work out a lot and I so I asked why are we doing this and that's that's

[1:38:45] the way we've always done it. So I'm I'm like okay well can our team not do that?

[1:38:51] Well yeah but we've just always subbed it out. So I said well let's start doing

[1:38:54] this this and this in house. I don't want to put anybody in over their level,

[1:38:59] you know, skill of level skill, but we have got a lot of projects taken care of

[1:39:04] in house and and I imagine that's saved us a lot of money because we're not

[1:39:09] subbing out, you know, the work. We're already paying maintenance guys to be

[1:39:13] here doing work. And uh so those are just little things. I was always told

[1:39:18] you take care of pennies and the dollar will take care of theirel. And so if we

[1:39:22] start looking at little things and not focus so much on the big things all the

[1:39:26] time. I think that's where we get into a lot of trouble sometimes. We focus on a

[1:39:31] we go after the big things and we do need to take care of big things. But if

[1:39:34] you take care of the little things and start there, those little things start

[1:39:37] adding up and turn into big things. But I think that's the goal of this whole

[1:39:42] whole meeting is just to start focusing on the little things and then let those

[1:39:47] go into bigger things and just be more efficient. But that was just one example

[1:39:52] of like just one thing we changed in the maintenance department is just start

[1:39:56] doing things in house and talking about the why do we do it or what you know

[1:40:01] what if you know so we went from that's because we always did it to the what if

[1:40:06] and we're saving money. So, >> well, I think something else we also

[1:40:10] need to look at going forward with this budget stuff is is department heads as

[1:40:15] well. uh you know I can't remember how many departments we actually have or

[1:40:19] department heads that work under the court's discretion you know be it

[1:40:24] veterans or health department it whoever it is but I think we need to you know

[1:40:29] somehow break that down as well maybe amongst commissioners and judge as well

[1:40:33] but try to try to get uh some more more appointment there with the department

[1:40:40] heads so we understand and we have a point of contact with that department

[1:40:44] head of what do they really need and what are they really doing? Uh, you

[1:40:48] know, and I'm not picking on Ted or the veterans by any stretch of the means,

[1:40:53] but I don't know if we if we have monthly meetings with him or buy by

[1:40:57] monthly meetings with him and knows what's going on or, you know, how many

[1:41:01] veterans are we serving, what are we doing here or what are we doing there?

[1:41:04] And I think that's another way that we might be able to, you know, understand

[1:41:08] the budget side of it is when they do come in there with a budget or what they

[1:41:11] actually do and what what are we >> what are we paying for?

[1:41:14] » What are we paying for? Yeah, there you go. And again, Rodney at the health

[1:41:17] department, you know, how many inspections, you know, we don't we don't

[1:41:20] ever see any of that type stuff. And so, it's hard for us to understand the

[1:41:24] budget as well whenever it comes to us. So I think somewhere along the line

[1:41:29] maybe we need to sit down and look at you know Gary take a department and you

[1:41:34] know the judge and David and Peanut me you know we I think we all need to look

[1:41:37] at that as well and have more of a a more of a direction from the court to

[1:41:43] the department heads as well and let them know you know hey this is if you've

[1:41:47] got a problem or send a reports to us or something like that as well.

[1:41:52] » Sound like a good phase two. Yeah, >> especially if we're going to start

[1:41:56] moving to a more merit type system, you know, merit based or goal based and

[1:42:02] things like that. Though that that would alignment would help.

[1:42:05] » Yeah. >> All right. Anything else? Any other

[1:42:09] comments?

[1:42:12] » All right.

[1:42:16] So, we don't have any action on this uh other than just organize and to, you

[1:42:21] know, bring back >> Yep. you bring bring back the the

[1:42:24] leaders and and who's going to be on the teams by the next

[1:42:28] » Correct. Yep. So, I think everybody's got their assignment.

[1:42:31] » I think so. >> Yep. All right. Daniel, we got anything

[1:42:35] else? >> Comments.

[1:42:38] » Okay. If there's not anything else, uh I entertain a motion to adjurnn.

[1:42:44] » Motion. >> Second.

[1:42:46] » A motion second. All in favor say I. >> I.

[1:42:49] » All opposed. Motion carries. We're journed at

Commissioners Court Special Session 11/04/2025

Transcript