Name: Commissioner's Court
Uploaded: 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 h 40 min 36 s
Description: You're in 2027, the proposed budget, revenues that expenditures, using the no new revenue tax rate, brought us a negative $648,997.55, we went ahead or the safety for safety.

[0:40] I'm a clerk, sir.

[0:45] These rise for the pledge,

[0:50] I pledge allegiance to black.

[0:53] I think I have a state to support.

[0:55] To the republic, the resistance, the relation, the power of the guy, the municipal, the government, the justice,

[1:02] the honor of the Texas flag, the rights of the Texas, the state, the honor of the God, the one in

[1:13] It was

[1:17] County Commissioner's Court for today, September 4, 2026, 9 a.m. is now in session.

[1:24] How's everybody doing this morning?

[1:29] agenda item number three public testimony.

[1:32] We have one Mr. General Murray.

[1:40] Please introduce yourself to the court.

[1:52] Raise Commissioner's Court.

[1:53] My name is Gerald Murray. I'm a candidate for justice of the peace and precinct five in order to grow in the surrounding area.

[2:03] I won the primary in election and I am unopposed in the general election in November. I expect to take office in January of 2027.

[2:15] I'm therefore interested in the budget for 2027 when I will take office.

[2:20] I'm concerned about a proposal to limit J.P. office offices to one clerk and limit their salary.

[2:29] I've heard that the J.P. precinct five office very often needs more than one clerk to keep up with demand.

[2:37] Lacing a limitation on salary does not allow for inflation or other economic factors and would make it difficult to hire qualified applicants.

[2:49] I've been told that truncities have gone down in numbers, but how can we know if those numbers will remain down?

[2:58] I have also heard that civil cases have gone up in precinct five and placed an additional workload on the clerk.

[3:07] The clerk needs sick leave has vacation or needs to be put out of the office for training.

[3:15] I believe it would be prudent to have a backup to cover that absence.

[3:20] The current just as a piece has hired and utilized additional clerks during her term to keep up with demand.

[3:28] Why should I be limited in hiring an additional clerk when I take office in January by finding that there is a need?

[3:38] That seems to me like it will only undermine the office.

[3:42] I propose that the J.P. office in precinct five will continue to be allowed to hire an additional clerk if needed as they have in the past.

[3:53] And that salary will not be capped if it allowed to be fair and practical.

[3:58] My goal is to provide the best possible service in a constituents of precinct five.

[4:05] Thank you.

[4:06] Thank you.

[4:17] Anybody else would like to address the court at this time?

[4:26] Good morning, Judge Commissioners.

[4:28] Michael Garra, Jim Oles County Attorney.

[4:30] I'm here today joined by the District Judge,

[4:33] the County Court at Law Judge, the District Attorney,

[4:37] and the Director of Adult Probation.

[4:39] Rubin Oledio.

[4:42] We are here as we move forward with today's RFQ

[4:44] on the jail evaluation to put our position on the record regarding

[4:48] the current jail situation.

[4:50] I have a prepared statement, and this will be posted to our page later this morning.

[4:56] So, everybody can know exactly what is being said here this.

[5:00] Jim Wells County's jail crisis requires an immediate and practical solution. We cannot continue spending more than $100,000 every month to house inmates and other counties, while usable capacity in our own 88-bed jail remains offline.

[5:18] In years past, this jail consistently passed aid inspections, including unannounced inspections, with the same staffing and personnel budget.

[5:26] As recently as August of last year, it housed 74 inmates.

[5:31] Today, it houses fewer than 40.

[5:34] The Commissioners Court deserves specific documented answers.

[5:37] How many beds are unavailable?

[5:40] Why is each area unusable?

[5:42] What repairs are required?

[5:44] What will they cost?

[5:45] How long will they take?

[5:47] And can the work be phased to restore beds quickly?

[5:50] General statements are no longer sufficient.

[5:53] When taxpayers are paying six figures each month, and these expenses are draining county reserves.

[6:00] We also disagree with the implication from the sheriff's recent interview that anyone on the court side

[6:05] has asked him to simply release inmates without appropriate court orders.

[6:09] That has not happened.

[6:11] The courts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and probation officers have worked together

[6:16] to reduce unnecessary detention through lawful bonds.

[6:20] Crete trial supervision, probation, ankle monitors, and expedited case resolutions.

[6:27] Every release must be authorized by a court and supported by the law and the facts.

[6:32] No one is advocating the release of violent, dangerous or high risk offenders merely to create jail space.

[6:39] It was also disappointing that at Wednesday's budget hearing, the sheriff did not request additional funding

[6:45] to repair the jail or restore its existing capacity.

[6:49] Instead, he requested approximately $1.4 million more to continue housing inmates outside

[6:57] of Jim Wells County.

[6:58] That request funds the continuation of the problem and is not a solution for it.

[7:05] At this point, I personally don't believe a completely new jail is necessary, but if the

[7:10] commissioners court eventually chooses that option, the earliest realistic bond election

[7:15] would be May of 2027, even if approved, which is not a sure thing given the amount of long-term

[7:21] debt taxpayers already carry, particularly those taxpayers here in Dallas, a new facility

[7:27] could take another two and a half to three years to complete. Three more years of outsourcing

[7:34] at the present rate would cost our taxpayers at least $3.6 million without creating a single

[7:41] permanent bed in the meantime.

[7:43] Our immediate course should be clear,

[7:45] determined precisely why the existing beds

[7:48] are unavailable, obtain credible repair estimates,

[7:52] fund the necessary work, and restore the gel to its rated capacity.

[7:56] We must fix what we have.

[7:58] Continue delay only transfers taxpayer money to other counties,

[8:02] while depleting the reserves, Jim Wells County may need

[8:05] in the future emergency.

[8:07] The present course is unsustainable

[8:09] time for a documented repair plan is now. Thank

[8:18] you. Thank you. Thank you.

[8:27] You're going to have a chance to respond during budget hearing.

[8:31] So now. Yeah, you will, but I mean, you have your expenses coming up. So you, you can, you can speak during.

[8:38] Yeah.

[8:47] What anybody else like to address all this time?

[8:51] Every nine will move forward, agenda item number four, Norma Salas Grant Administrator

[8:56] 4.1.

[8:57] Discussed to sit or take action to award the architectural engineering firm, one of the most

[9:02] county jelly value mentioned project, number 2026-cj001.

[9:11] Good morning, Judge commissioners and everyone.

[9:14] We're here today with our evaluation of our RFQ.

[9:21] The RFQs were turned into our evaluation committee and Mr. Fettis is here with the report.

[9:44] Judge and Commissioner Schquart, JC Fettis, Jim Wells County Clerk, and also a part of the committee that

[9:52] that evaluates any project that comes to the...

[10:00] To the county. And we did have five

[10:08] different proposals.

[10:15] And each one is listed and the total that they received.

[10:26] The committee has given Turner Ramirez architects with the highest total, as the recommendation from the committee.

[10:48] Motion to approve, Judge.

[10:51] Our motion.

[10:52] Motion to approve Turner Ramirez architects is the

[10:57] second.

[10:58] I have a motion and a second for the discussion.

[11:06] So we do have

[11:11] standard omitis architect as the first one and the recommended.

[11:17] And then we have Brotis associated with the second

[11:22] one.

[11:24] Do we schedule the presentation at some point in this architect?

[11:31] Yes, or we can.

[11:40] We have a motion in a second, just to get this for knowledge or knowledge,

[11:52] if I

[11:55] mean, this is not going to be funded to any grant or anything, this is going to be funded through the county budget, so during the presentations if we feel the commission's court feel like that would be an issue with Turner and Ramirez, we can go to the second one.

[12:15] But I was going to point that out, perhaps it would be good to maybe amend the motion and say

[12:22] because they are ranked, so the next would be brought us, and then frankly, sergeant.

[12:30] So maybe if we could announce the rankings, so that we have it on record that if the negotiations

[12:36] with the highest ranking applicant doesn't go through, then we move on to number two and so on.

[12:44] If number two, the negotiation doesn't work with Brottis, then we move on to Brinkly Sergeant,

[12:49] and then ICE, and then Butler Cohen.

[12:54] So maybe adopting the sheet as presented with Turner

[12:58] Ramirez being the primary, the starting point, in other words.

[13:03] I'll amend my motion and make motion to accept a list that was given to us by Mr. Peters.

[13:11] I'll show you in the turn of the meeting, there's a number one architect, and then wrote

[13:17] as an Associate Second, Brinkly Sergeant, Winnington Architects Third, and then International

[13:22] Consulting Engineers Fourth, but in the Coan Advisory Fifth.

[13:27] Second.

[13:29] Okay, have a minute motion, and a second, is there any further discussion, and we'll try to

[13:35] if that presentation is possible.

[13:39] We need to make a rush on it, but if there's none, all the people say aye.

[13:45] All the full same sign.

[13:47] Motion carries.

[13:48] Thank you.

[13:49] Thank you.

[14:23] Gender item number five.

[14:27] Budget works out number two.

[14:29] Five point one, full twenty twenty seven budget works up session.

[14:39] We're going to go ahead and go.

[14:40] Thank you.

[14:42] We're going to go ahead and go into the Vudget Workshop and

[14:48] review.

[14:54] It's a continuation from the Vudget Workshop 1.

[15:02] You're in 2027, the proposed budget, revenues that expenditures, using the no new revenue tax rate, brought us a negative $648,997.55, we went ahead or the safety for safety.

[15:25] To have a safety net, we approved the proposed budget as 0.787.

[15:35] Does that would bring us $1,474,98.

[15:42] We made a point to have the understanding that we wanted to continue with the goal

[15:53] that we have two years ago.

[15:55] We were able to have the same tax rate.

[15:58] So, approved last two years.

[16:00] We wanted to say one approved this year,

[16:03] which is 0.767.

[16:06] And that would bring us 800,

[16:11] 800,

[16:15] 800, 800, 800, 800, 800, 800.

[16:17] 891, 538, I'm pausing because I'll stick it

[16:27] And that would check that the tax rate is 0.767 and it would bring us the $891,538.

[16:44] The difference is we started this budget hearings in the black $1436 and 72 cents.

[16:53] So that being said, we're moving forward to approving and disapproving the recommendations or the requests.

[17:06] So the first one on the list is the county judges non-departmental.

[17:13] These were the contract maintenance, which was the implementation of a software and case management system,

[17:23] which was eye docket. We now have a case management system that we feel is going to be more

[17:31] efficient. It's going to be able to run our cases a little quicker through our justice and

[17:36] civil courts and our district and county attorneys offices. So that being said, we had an increase

[17:45] a request and an increase of 68,200 to fund that case management system.

[17:54] Now,

[17:59] the other one is sell safety payments, which is an increase in 1,000.

[18:04] So that's 69,200.

[18:07] These are both absolutely needed.

[18:14] increases. So that being said, I entertain a motion. We have proved that.

[18:22] What's the safety pinion for? Safety, safety child is what we get from Mary, Mary,

[18:27] you'd like to explain that a little more about her child safety pinion.

[18:56] It gets this

[18:56] First into several different entities for the y'all.

[19:00] Yeah, I get a go first.

[19:03] This is some days required by law, right?

[19:06] Something that we can avoid.

[19:08] Oh, hi.

[19:08] They're not thinking that it's not.

[19:09] Thank you.

[19:13] Motion to approve item, Mr. Disha.

[19:15] I'll read a motion.

[19:17] Oh, you did?

[19:17] OK, second.

[19:18] I'll second.

[19:19] I'll have a motion, a second.

[19:20] Any further discussion?

[19:21] All the papers say.

[19:22] Aye.

[19:23] On a closing sign.

[19:25] Motion carries.

[19:30] The second one is a county court at law

[19:35] and it was to move a hard time into a full time position

[19:46] and that would cost a total of 34,422.

[19:53] I don't know you want to expound again on a judge or

[19:56] We want to just, we want to request you to come out as a least, thank you very much.

[20:00] I'll judge, I do, I just stated, 34,000. Actually, that would be the total, currently, that would just be an increase of 15,000 is what I'm asking for our budget.

[20:11] Cindy, one of the very part, because that's what's on the 34,000 votes on the sheet.

[20:16] So the 15,000 is for the salary portion to move up being placed a full timer. I do have to add the French benefit to include to the budget, because it's actually adding a full time position.

[20:28] So that's where the additional amount comes in at the 34,000 that you're looking at, 34,000, 4, 20,000.

[20:37] Judge, this position help you expand out more cases.

[20:40] It has helped the office for greatly Mr. Clayton, I'm going with a secretary for the office

[20:47] and she has been a big help to the office.

[20:50] You know why I did provide you guys a Commissioner's Court with a list of her duties.

[20:55] I think she's been in a pretty, an analysis of this office, you know,

[20:58] And this into that, I mean, she would have a little bit more time with the office.

[21:02] I definitely think that office will run a lot more efficient.

[21:04] And, of course, we'll have it turned out to be.

[21:05] This county court of law has been an existence for 12 years.

[21:11] Yes, sir.

[21:11] It's always been under funded.

[21:15] Back in 2016, we took away the secretary.

[21:20] So he's trying to reinstate what we took away eight, ten years ago.

[21:25] It's a very busy court, you know, it's probably what, I mean, you process hundreds of cases every month, you know, to do it with two secretaries, it's really a commend you, you know, because for 12 years, you know, it's it's struggled, and I think it can become more efficient, you know, we have another secretaries.

[21:55] Thank you for that. Yes sir.

[21:56] Or clerk whatever whatever it is.

[21:59] Commissioners, I can I can

[22:02] reaffirm what the judge is saying.

[22:04] The employee he's talking about Mr.

[22:05] Guma has has become the primary court manager for the criminal

[22:09] Docket.

[22:10] As he said, we meet at least two times a month,

[22:13] sometimes more.

[22:14] Our docket's average more than 50 cases each time.

[22:17] So we're and and this is again,

[22:19] this is one of the methods that we're using

[22:21] to address the jail capacity issue.

[22:24] So, this is a very important position and it can help us in more than one way, not just by moving the cases on the criminal document, but addressing the overcrowding situation.

[22:35] Thank you for that.

[22:39] First of all, I would be sure if you were going to ask a question.

[22:43] Hey.

[22:43] I'm sorry.

[22:44] I mean, I don't think I was going to say would be if there's any way, I know we're only supposed to go 29 hours a week.

[22:52] I mean, like, every once in a while, you can go over or whatever because just by adding a new employee,

[23:00] that's already 12, 13, 40 businesses in need.

[23:02] That's like, adding $19,000 for the French benefits if you could, you know, work it in that way.

[23:10] And the only thing also about, I know with Mr. Garcia said was, you know, back when you lost a secretary,

[23:19] But with all new softwares coming in 10 years, it makes things more efficient, more easier, faster, you know, things get done faster.

[23:27] But then, you know, if I'm not for sure, you know, about this jail situation, if that can help.

[23:34] And if it does, if we do have somebody in the jail situation gets better and stuff, then if she's not needed, would be willing to go down.

[23:43] It's always when you go up, you never go,

[23:46] everybody's down.

[23:47] I understand.

[23:47] You see, that's all I was in.

[23:49] Okay, thank you.

[23:50] I like to echo what Mr. Garcia said.

[23:53] It's not really putting in a new full timer.

[23:56] It's just adding it to a full timer.

[23:58] And if it's going to help us process more case loads,

[24:02] I can't see why we can't so you guess to it.

[24:05] It certainly has.

[24:05] And her, she's taken on the,

[24:07] some of the workload of my court administrative court manager.

[24:10] So that allows them to be a little bit more efficient as well in the process in their cases because they all handle

[24:15] This thing boom has to kind of take in the industry to the lead, but she is kind of responsible for all or our criminal

[24:20] Docket so that allows me or I record administrator

[25:00] And all our civil matters as well. And so, and this bed is handles all our CPS cases, juvenile,

[25:06] attorney general cases. And let me also handle the public matter. So that allows him,

[25:12] if he's a mother a little bit to be able to be a little bit better in processing those cases.

[25:18] You have, of course, on a weekday basis. Pretty much just to say.

[25:22] Every week, pretty much. If not, it's very seldom that you don't.

[25:28] Every other week, we definitely have Mondays.

[25:31] We have our criminal jacket on Tuesdays.

[25:33] We'll be our civil day.

[25:35] Wednesdays is our CPS day and Thursdays is our attorney general day.

[25:38] And we leave Friday's open for any visiting judges and need to come in to handle any cases that I may have a conflict on.

[25:45] But within those weeks, that's every other week.

[25:47] But within those weeks, we also have documents for civil, civil matters.

[25:52] When there's visiting judges, your officer has to do all the work.

[25:56] Yes, no they do they they coordinate the they put together the dock in the coordinate with the

[26:00] it in judge and his staff and then getting those schedule.

[26:04] Michael haven't heard all the comments and everything. I'll make a motion to approve the increase.

[26:09] Second. I have a motion in a second. Any further discussion?

[26:14] I'll say aye. All the same sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Judge.

[26:18] Thank you. Thank you.

[26:24] Thank you.

[26:29] collection fees

[26:32] 3000

[26:34] Not here to there

[26:59] Judge are you online?

[27:01] I think I was just omitted. I think I'm good now.

[27:06] Can you hear me sir?

[27:10] Yes sir, we can hear you now.

[27:12] Okay, good morning County Judge Commissioners and all other county officials

[27:15] Judge met JP3

[27:18] Going off of our numbers for this year

[27:21] We're requesting, our office is requesting an additional 3,000 on our collection side as of now.

[27:28] We're at a negative 1540 for the year.

[27:32] That's up to July, 2026.

[27:35] Ultimately, the money comes back to the county, minus a small percentage that goes to the collection agency.

[27:42] So, ultimately, it does come back to the county last year.

[27:45] We finished that negative 122470.

[27:49] So, we're just trying to increase it a little bit to be able to cover those collection fees.

[28:00] Motion.

[28:03] I have a motion in a second.

[28:05] Is there any further discussion?

[28:07] All the things we say aye.

[28:09] All the polls same sign.

[28:11] Motion carries.

[28:16] Thank you.

[28:17] Thank you.

[28:19] Thank you.

[28:21] Just a piece of precinct five.

[28:25] This is the clerical position.

[28:32] I was one that brought this up last time.

[28:35] Whenever it was 87-507, that's when ever,

[28:38] precinct fire was doing all truencies,

[28:42] and they had two full-time and two one-part-time.

[28:45] Right now they have being done with one full-time employee,

[28:50] and that's why we brought it down to 55.

[28:52] And even at $55, there's still $23,000 left in there if you wanted to hire a part-time employee.

[29:03] And that was still leave $6,000 for adequate cushion for future raises.

[29:11] And that's if there was an extra part-time hired.

[29:15] And it's like I said again, I'll say it again about news software,

[29:18] new softwares come up, things get done faster, it's more efficient and we're trying to balance

[29:28] the budget and I mean all I know is getting by with one right now if a part time is well there's money in there for part time at 55.

[29:42] I know that the stock salary was back in 2025 was $32,000 and it reflects the 87,000

[29:54] for this coming cycle.

[29:57] So there's something...

[30:00] And Commissioner.

[30:01] Yeah, they're proposing to accept that before, but it's a talking 25, I'm just going back to what, yeah, the history of spending, and it was not 87, Cindy's going to be.

[30:14] Yeah, I just wanted to clarify. So the expense that you're seeing on there is the actual expense for the one full time position is what Mr. Garcia is talking about. So that's, that's just actual, just because the full time and part time were unused.

[30:29] going on for a couple of years now. So they just have been vacant. So on use. So the 32

[30:34] Mr. Garcia is talking about is the actual expense for the one position that that is felt. Yes,

[30:40] that's what's left is actually for a part time and a full time. Yeah. So what's on the request right now that you're looking at is

[30:50] you're right. It was the request to was to def fund. I guess remove one full time position. So what's left is one full time and one

[30:58] part-time position, plus the JP, of course.

[31:01] And there's cushion, right, right, right.

[31:05] That number that's left in that line item can be interchanged.

[31:21] I haven't seen the numbers, but I haven't seen the numbers, but I just want, I'm just concerned

[31:30] is there enough cushion, because currently the clerk is invading not as well as she

[31:39] should be to cover that entire office. From what I understand, she's practically overwhelmed and

[31:47] needs help like immediately. So this is just a hearsay because I don't go to the JP court

[31:56] because I have not been elected yet, but I would just be concerned that there'll be enough of

[32:03] by comfort zone there and the budget to be able to hire a part timeer and give the current

[32:12] clerk a raise to keep her because in order to keep somebody in a position, of course,

[32:19] you've got to pay them fairly and practically, thank you very much.

[32:23] you will have some wages because you get a full time in a part time limit, right there, which takes a lot of work, you're off of the full time.

[32:31] Exactly. So she has two full time and a part time budget.

[32:43] Zero, a couple miles a week now.

[32:48] Recommendation.

[32:50] So we're cutting it to from me.

[32:55] Get rid of the full time.

[32:58] So get rid of the full time.

[32:59] So we have one full time and one right now neither one of those are filled, so there is

[33:07] one full time time.

[33:08] Besides the ones that are good, there's only a way.

[33:11] So there's going to be one extra full time.

[33:13] Right now there is because we're cutting away that.

[33:18] Because the full time does only be a full time and a part time.

[33:21] With cushion.

[33:30] And I'm taking a motion.

[33:33] So what's the motion?

[33:38] What's the motion?

[33:39] I make a motion for the justice of the piece to be as presented on here for this way.

[33:48] We brought it down to 55,000.

[33:52] We're getting rid of the 32, 445, and French benefits for a full time.

[33:57] Which leaves money enough for a full time and a part time.

[34:03] If needed.

[34:05] Are you removing one full time?

[34:07] Yes.

[35:10] Good. Did y'all vote on the very first portion of that in regards to the J.P. salary? Y'all discuss the clerical but not? Is that all one motion a total?

[35:24] No. We're going to apologize to the million discussed the salary.

[35:31] Salary on JP's when JP's come in, they've been taken down to 50's, so the 50,000 mark and I think it was just over looked so brought it up because four years ago all JP's were brought down to 50.

[35:51] Except for one, right?

[35:52] Well, JT3 was lower than 50 against because of the workload. I'm not for sure why. But then he came back in and we approved it to brought up this year at another commissioner's court.

[36:07] didn't get their office currently not currently they're all at not all I don't have the

[36:15] salary schedule in front of me but I believe J.P. 3 J.K. 4 and 5 are all at the 54 75.

[36:24] That was with them. Yeah, but they started. Oh yes, back started at 50. All of them even J.P. 3.

[36:30] J.P. 3 was a little lower and I believe the next year he got that little bit of increased

[36:37] So where they were all at 50 or whatever I guess 50 was the amount.

[36:42] So now them three particular precincts are all at a that same amount.

[36:49] Otherwise at that time in that year.

[36:54] Except for using three they all got moved down.

[36:58] Correct.

[37:00] They're all even including six to correct.

[37:03] a precinct one and six are at a different salary.

[37:07] That's right.

[37:08] And that's historic too.

[37:09] Because six used to do trunc before, before five did.

[37:14] So they were already higher.

[37:17] So one and six are a little bit higher.

[37:18] The other three are all at the same level.

[37:23] I'm just going to make a comment judge on this for whatever

[37:26] it's worth it.

[37:27] I've heard in the past somebody decides to run for a position

[37:30] And they realize how much the pay is, that's what you're running for.

[37:34] And I know it's all right here to increase or decrease.

[37:39] But if an individual's running for that spot,

[37:43] at that price,

[37:43] and then we're not going to down.

[37:47] Is it the right thing to first do this?

[37:49] My comment.

[37:55] Well, there's still going to be a Agency of the Court.

[37:58] I think three,

[38:06] I think he doesn't have truancy.

[38:14] Is there any further discussion?

[38:17] Minority.

[38:17] I make a motion for the JPE precinct five to be at 50,000.

[38:26] Over the year.

[38:28] for a second,

[38:39] multi-dives.

[38:48] County attorney, I don't think there was any

[38:52] difference in the bottom line, there were just some changes.

[38:56] That's correct, the state supplement increased, and so that creates a corresponding decrease on the

[39:02] county portion.

[39:04] And we have already, I think that's going to be taken up.

[39:08] Next Friday.

[39:09] The budget member or no.

[39:14] So what you're seeing right now is the for the for next year because we did get that clarification on the state supplement for county attorney.

[39:24] This year it was adopted the same way. So you'll see the next budget amendment on the next commissioner court to correct that.

[39:34] To reflect those numbers for this year's budget.

[39:38] That's what we just submitted.

[39:40] We really have to approve or disapprove this.

[39:42] This is a little bit more only because that's what the numbers need to reflect in the budget.

[39:47] Any time I make a change it needs to be approved.

[39:51] I'm making most of it approved.

[39:53] Second.

[39:54] I'm a multi-dimensional person.

[39:55] Any further discussion?

[39:58] All of them say aye.

[39:59] Opposed.

[40:00] Motion carries.

[40:08] Tax successor collector, $200 on gasoline, all in little goods, make a motion, we're

[40:14] approved. Second, of a motion in a second, any further discussion?

[40:19] All of those there, aye. All the following things on motion carries,

[40:26] this ma'am.

[40:27] Information technology, I think originally,

[40:33] when it was presented, was presented that we were going

[40:36] increase of 292,000, but after Mr. Cindy's meeting with Mr. Silver, that's just an increase of 99,000 to his current budget, not 292,000.

[40:55] Yes, that's correct. I did clarify because what's already in the budget. He just wanted to, with the breakdown, he showed y'all, it's a 292, 878.

[41:06] total to the budget, not in addition, so the increases the 1996 is what he's requesting.

[41:13] Motion to approve item the request from my team. Technology, I get 96 motion in a second.

[41:20] Honourable say aye. Aye. All same sign. Motion carries. That's basically in the facility.

[41:27] I'm going to put

[41:32] out some buildings, rental of space. I know we rent a couple of spaces.

[41:39] I don't for sure we have one rental coming up in December. So that $10,000 is to cover any increases.

[41:54] And if there's no increases, would there not money will not expand.

[41:58] I'll make a motion when you approve second I have a motion in the second is there any further discussion

[42:05] All in favor say aye. Aye. All the post same sign motion carries

[42:14] possible precinct three

[42:16] He's not here today, but I know he we had several

[42:23] Rick West

[42:25] and

[42:25] Once Miss Cindy, when you added the branch, the total amount is $81,659.

[42:39] Yes, Jen.

[42:40] That is correct.

[42:42] I think the initial request that Constable Long provided was just the salary portion.

[42:48] So I did add the fringe benefit.

[42:49] So that's total in your scene on the work.

[42:53] And for that first one, the salary, the only way we could adjust it is if he would

[42:58] and went into the salary, what is it called?

[43:03] What are you going to commit?

[43:05] That's correct.

[43:06] That wasn't done.

[43:06] That was not done.

[43:07] If you did not receive the letter within the five days of the proposed budget being filed,

[43:15] then where the court is not allowed to make any changes to elected official salaries.

[43:23] So what that in essence, what it means is once we file the proposed budget,

[43:28] any elected official that would like to grieve his, his, or her salary, to increase.

[43:35] You have to submit the request within five days and then go to the Grievous Committee, the Grievous Committee.

[43:43] Well, approve or disapprove and present to the Commission's vote.

[43:48] That was not done, so that request cannot be approved.

[43:55] And then we have travel

[43:59] and his current travel

[44:04] that 186, that's all together, right?

[44:08] That's correct. That's part of the grievance amount that he would have to agree.

[44:13] That goes into agreement also.

[44:16] So we can't.

[44:16] We've got to put that on.

[44:24] So we work real hard to get that even out among all the Constables that we are even now.

[44:29] We are even now.

[44:30] At 186 so I would I would recommend against

[44:35] Throwing that out of balance again. I know he's had to go pick up some prisoners. Well, I don't know if he had to

[44:41] But he did go pick up some prisoners out of county and

[44:48] He wants to he wants to be compensated for that, but he's already got that's what the travel allowance is for

[45:01] That travels in on Saturday, which is not so good. It's not considered salary, right?

[45:07] Yeah, I believe it is. If I'm not mistaken the last time.

[45:11] Yeah, I tell this is part of the salary you're just...

[45:15] Yes, that's correct.

[45:16] So back in the year before I came, several salary, several travel were, I make sure I'm saying this right.

[45:32] Yeah, your crevages into your W2 form, right?

[45:36] Yes, it's part of a, yes.

[45:39] It's a calculated amount for the retirement in the taxes.

[45:43] So back then, when they approved it, and went, you went to the views?

[45:48] Yeah, anytime there is an increase, then it goes through the, not agreements.

[45:54] it's just, it was proposed, it already in the budget and as long as the notifications were

[46:03] published in the paper. That was a procedure. It was put in the proposed budget. That's the difference.

[46:09] It was put in the proposed budget. That's the difference. Yes. Okay, so we cannot address that one either.

[46:35] And he has postage of $280 increased by $40 and conference and associations 500.

[46:45] He was a question.

[46:46] Definitely wasn't.

[46:47] We have to.

[46:48] We have to.

[46:49] Oh, definitely.

[46:54] Oh, yes.

[46:55] I see that one on top here.

[46:57] We're questioning definitely for pretty 3, 4,000, 6,000, $4,000, $4,000.

[47:09] I think back on when Maintain was cuts in 2006.

[47:13] the team, all the council's lost their deputy and right now I received a one of them

[47:22] remains without a deputy so I make a motion that it remains that way I make a second.

[47:32] I have a motion of the second, is there any further discussion on the fair to say aye?

[47:37] Aye.

[47:37] post-same sign, motion carries.

[47:54] No, we have to go back to the. So the travel also is

[47:59] to die because we didn't go to the grievance. Postage $40,

[48:07] motion to approve.

[48:09] Turn it. I have a motion in a second. Any further discussion?

[48:14] I'll say aye. Aye. All the post-same sign, motion carries increase of $500 in conference

[48:21] in associations.

[48:25] Motion to approve. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All of

[48:30] there was the I. I. I. Same sign. Motion carries. Okay. I want to make this want to

[48:38] get the straight because on the form that I have, it doesn't. Okay. So we address the two salaries.

[48:50] It was the constable and the travel and then Deputy Constable, we addressed that one also.

[49:02] And then we addressed postage and competencies.

[49:07] No other requests on that one, all right.

[49:09] Got more.

[49:27] Next one is the Sheriff's Department.

[49:37] more than the Jewish commissioners. I'm just got a bigger share for jemals

[49:42] County. First I would just like to say the opening this is attack on on me.

[49:50] It's not founded any. I don't know if any statement I've ever made.

[49:57] I'm accusing the court, accusing any of the jemals.

[50:00] Not doing their job of releasing people, of holding people on lawfully. I don't know where that came from, but I would like to address those. If there's any statement I've ever made, it's just been to show the fact that the prisoner detention is not solely tied, even though it's on my budget. It's not completely determined by me. I've never said anything negative about any of these, the other departments. So I've not to know where that actually came from.

[50:30] whether there are rumors whether there are actual statements I'd like to see them so I can address them

[50:34] because I've never stated anything like that because I don't believe that. I believe that every one of them are doing their jobs appropriately

[50:40] and I've never said anything contrary to that. So that was completely unjust. Now moving forward for the

[50:58] is facing a difficult budget year.

[51:00] Understand that.

[51:01] We want to to help for fiscal 2027.

[51:05] I'd like to commit additional 200,000.

[51:08] That's legally available from the Sheriff's Office

[51:10] As a force response to our computer hardware, software,

[51:15] technology, licensing, subscription,

[51:18] and related law enforcement system expenses.

[51:23] And these are so that these attacks

[51:25] pairs won't have to provide.

[51:27] will help the general funds are 2027.

[51:30] This is a practical way that I can help address the current fiscal situation that we're in.

[51:36] This will provide the necessary services for the jail, dispatch, investigative records, and public safety operations.

[51:46] This doesn't change the legal requirements for what I have to do to use the asset for the funds, but I can't use them for that.

[51:59] And also, this is going to say that we're trying to do what I can do to help the county

[52:06] take the burden off the taxpayers in fiscal this fiscal year, in 2026, I've either spent or

[52:15] allocated around a million dollars from asset for which it funds.

[52:19] And in 2027, I've already got around 500,000 set aside.

[52:24] of additional, like I said, additional 200,000, I believe I can do. I do this in good faith,

[52:33] trying to help solve problems. Again, the statement that we've read in the beginning during

[52:40] public testimony, I don't know what I came from. That doesn't help solve problems.

[52:53] I've never

[52:54] against the county attorney, and it's all I'd like to see it, so I can address it.

[53:01] It's all I have.

[53:05] Okay, so we have

[53:15] a whole small request on two, three, four, three,

[53:30] four, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten.

[53:37] That total $1.9 million.

[53:46] The first one is salary for deputy over

[53:55] time, $35,000.

[54:03] What I'm trying to do

[54:09] is I'm trying to grasp.

[54:11] I'm trying to grasp this.

[54:12] I'm trying to understand it, I'm trying to wrap it around my head.

[54:15] I

[54:20] don't understand how it can jump from

[54:28] nearly three years ago, two years ago, from running the budget, what we had it, to having to increase why I'm almost $2 million.

[54:46] And

[54:49] what we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure you have what you have to do your job.

[55:00] All these other requests that you have is the 1.4 million. Because what we have to do all together

[55:16] is make sure that at 1.4 is not spent.

[55:22] I'm not even talking about the other requests.

[55:24] The other requests, I don't even know if I can even consider approving.

[55:35] We have to do every single thing we can at the shares department to make sure things are

[55:45] getting done as efficient as possible.

[55:50] The 1.4,

[55:56] I don't want to say I understand because I still don't approve, even though

[56:01] I know it might be spent if that makes any sense.

[56:08] Because

[56:12] I'm afraid that if we approve that 1.4, guess what,

[56:18] we're going to spend that

[56:19] 1.4 and that 1.4 is going to be on there a fall on year two.

[56:24] I don't want to approve this,

[56:32] and we let go of the gas.

[56:38] We need to do everything we can, 110%, and what I question, Sheriff, is the amount of inmates

[56:51] that we can house in there.

[56:53] And I know we had a presentation earlier and they made the point, they made good points too.

[57:02] And that's one of their biggest questions that need to be addressed because

[57:12] we should be able to.

[57:17] And especially.

[57:20] With the amount of painters we have right now, which we're almost fully stopped for it.

[57:26] Yes, fully safe with lacking too.

[57:34] It's undermining the inclination that we can do better and have to do better and need to do better

[57:43] to house more inmates here, to cut the bleed because our constituents, our taxpayers need to understand

[57:51] when we house inmates somewhere else.

[57:57] We're not only getting a bill to house them, we're getting medical bills and we're getting

[58:05] prescription bills and we're trying, we're trying, I know you're trying, I'm not saying

[58:12] that.

[58:13] That's not what I'm saying.

[58:17] These are things that have to be done.

[58:21] the more we have here, the less we pay over there.

[58:27] And to

[58:31] approve today, 1.9,

[58:35] let me explain it,

[58:38] the way a county judge is gonna seize this.

[58:41] The way I see it is, we're trying to stay at the 0.767,

[58:47] okay?

[58:48] I'm not just saying this to pool stuff out of my head,

[58:52] or a lack of a better word.

[58:55] I'm saying this because I'm looking forward, we have an evaluation of our gel that's fixing

[59:02] to be completed and we just approve the architects and engineers.

[59:07] So if the recommendation is that we're going to go out for a bond for a new gel,

[59:17] we are

[59:17] looking at raising taxes by three cents, okay?

[59:22] We're at 767 right now. 0.767. If we raise taxes at all right now here by the 25th of September.

[59:35] 1 cent,

[59:41] 0.77,

[59:46] we have to go out for a bond for $28 million to raise it 3 cents.

[59:50] We're going to hit our cap at 80.

[59:55] Sure. This is what I see. This is what I look at. This is.

[1:00:00] Make sure that we stay here because we don't stay here. We can't do this. Any type of catastrophe that we have, we will not be able to address.

[1:00:16] That's the bottom line. Those are the facts.

[1:00:19] I'm not pulling no punches.

[1:00:22] I'm not doing anything if it was the share of department.

[1:00:25] It was the DAs of whoever's department was, I'd be saying the same thing.

[1:00:30] The only thing that's going to save us if our valuations are higher.

[1:00:36] And we get more revenue.

[1:00:40] This is what causes a county judge to lose sleep at night.

[1:00:46] And I'm not trying to be trying to put on this show or anything like that.

[1:00:52] I'm stating the facts and I'm stating the facts about the 1.9 request

[1:01:01] for it.

[1:01:04] I got several things to say.

[1:01:06] One is I don't think that building a new jail given our current situation is a proper solution.

[1:01:14] I've never said we need to go build a new jail.

[1:01:18] And the reason I don't I say that is because housing an inmate across the street

[1:01:23] costs about it's over $300 a day. We're paying $70 a day at my recounting for $75 a day

[1:01:32] at think of a deal and about $73 a day at Jim Hall County. What we need to do is

[1:01:37] need to house as many inmates as we can possibly here because of the amount of money a cost to run

[1:01:42] the facility stays the same. You're correct and we will evaluate that and we'll want to house

[1:01:47] as many inmates as we can but you also get understand that we're having to transport back and forth

[1:01:51] court and all these things we have to make room for for those things when they when they

[1:01:56] happen. So we have to we have to we have to make space to fill the space above for for court.

[1:02:05] And so the daily inmate housing that we can house daily changes depending on what the court

[1:02:11] schedule is and what our transport schedules are. I will operate the jail as efficiently as I can

[1:02:17] staying within the Texas Commission on jail standard rules and regulations.

[1:02:20] When I violate those, you don't want me to because it involves an old county.

[1:02:26] I'm not saying we need to build a jail.

[1:02:28] I'm saying if we're going to keep this jail elite,

[1:02:30] we need a plan.

[1:02:31] We need a long-term plan.

[1:02:34] Until then, we need to, if one door goes down, that 12 inmates I can't,

[1:02:39] if the toilet doesn't flush in one door, that could be 12 inmates I cannot house there.

[1:02:45] Now, I got to get that fixed as soon as I can.

[1:02:47] But then it's something else goes down if they intercom one intercom goes down

[1:02:52] Then I have to move 12 inmates

[1:02:55] You know depending on which dormant it is that's what affects the daily

[1:03:00] amount of inmates I can house in the jail

[1:03:03] I

[1:03:04] We need to estimate we need the assessment so we know how to move forward and a long-term plan

[1:03:10] I'm not advocating building a jail next year

[1:03:12] I'm not advocating raising blood. I'm not advocating any of that we need to repair the jail

[1:03:16] so that we don't have the toilets messing up, the intercombs not working, so that I can

[1:03:22] house as many inmates as I possibly can in that jail.

[1:03:25] But to say, we need to hire additional staff, no, because it is still cheaper to house inmates

[1:03:33] on contract than it is for us to house a mobile cost street.

[1:03:37] But we have to have the facility because we have to book them in, we have to take inmates

[1:03:41] from other agencies, we have to do all of these things.

[1:03:43] So we need to make it that. I agree. We need as many indicators we can house over there. We will we have to comply with the deal

[1:03:52] the test the laws that govern the the operation of the deal that's all that's all I'm trying to do

[1:04:00] Now

[1:04:02] Whatever they didn't pass you know, I don't know if we had

[1:04:08] Someone made a statement judge and I'm not trying to say anything negative about it

[1:04:13] that it was unformed about at one point we had 87 inmates being housed at the jail.

[1:04:19] That's technically that's impossible because we're only rated at 88.

[1:04:23] And if we go over 90 percent, you got to also have outstanding technical commission on jailstanders.

[1:04:28] We cannot, if we have 88 beds, let's just say that they were all working and that we could

[1:04:32] house that many, which we can't.

[1:04:34] But let's say they were, there is still, if you go over 90 percent, you got to have headroom.

[1:04:39] If you go over 80% is where the text commission on jail standards recommends that you stay,

[1:04:45] if you go over 90% and they come down and ask questions,

[1:04:47] just why you're over 90%.

[1:04:49] And then they put into a place to get that number back down.

[1:04:54] So just because you have this number of beds,

[1:04:57] even if everything was operational.

[1:05:00] Now, that you need to, if you want to, the county attorney to look at those rules and regulations, that's fine.

[1:05:09] I don't know. That's why they had.

[1:05:11] I don't, I haven't heard anybody use that number.

[1:05:16] The number I use last on Tuesday or Wednesday was 74.

[1:05:24] because I think last year, we house 74 this year, we're housing this and 4th, and I think

[1:05:34] that's a big disparity where we are at and where we can be.

[1:05:41] And what we would definitely look into that and do the best we can, but like I said, we need

[1:05:46] the repairs done, we talked about doing repairs, you're going out for RFQs, we decided to wait

[1:05:52] those to be got that the RFQ's back is that true is that correct? That's what we decided

[1:05:57] what's the best thing to do? Maybe there's some miscommunication because

[1:06:04] or what's not being used right now we can't wait for that we need if there's some

[1:06:09] if there's some some repairs that we can do now that we can house some that's get it done.

[1:06:15] get it done because that evaluation is going to be done. I am thinking we won't get that for another 90 days.

[1:06:27] So I'm talking about the old jail side and the reason I want to hold on that is because we can only house

[1:06:32] medium of minimum security inmates in the old jail side. So we were talking about repairs on the old

[1:06:39] side with the bars, they're just bars, they're not. We can't use those to house medium or

[1:06:44] high security inmates anymore according to text commission on jail standards. So we may have one

[1:06:50] maybe three inmates tops, the trusty type of inmates that we can put there and we still put them

[1:06:56] there. But to go and fix everything over there to me is a waste of tax dollars because you can

[1:07:03] I can house those other inmates at Maverick County at $70 a day instead of $323 a day.

[1:07:11] So how many can you house on the New York part?

[1:07:15] I'd have to get, I mean, I don't have the numbers in front of me, I'm just over here trying to answer.

[1:07:20] I know that we're definitely what we're at.

[1:07:25] I'll see if we can increase what we're doing.

[1:07:27] I'll look and we'll look at the jail standards rules again.

[1:07:30] I'll reevaluate them.

[1:07:32] It's it's it will definitely do the best we can but it's not going to be

[1:07:38] Enough look

[1:07:39] When you run the arrests

[1:07:42] Reports since 2021

[1:07:45] They're pretty much the same in 2022. They spike for some reason but other than that they've been pretty well

[1:07:50] 1800 arrests per year and it hasn't changed

[1:07:54] Now the what has changed is a violent nature of the rest and I've never said anything about the course

[1:08:01] because when we have, when we go from a misdemeanor and you know, and the judges or whatever

[1:08:08] the J.P. or whatever bonds they sent, I've never questioned that, that's not my lane.

[1:08:14] I'll try to stay in my lane. But the number of arrests have not increased. The violent nature of the

[1:08:20] offences may have increased. And so that could be contributing to a lot of this.

[1:08:30] I don't, once the rest is made, that's all, that's all I can do.

[1:08:36] The rest is up to, and this may be where I'm getting the judges and the courts and the

[1:08:41] probation, they're like, I'm attacking, I'm not attacking them for doing their job.

[1:08:46] I don't want to let anybody go on a person out of jail.

[1:08:49] I'm just saying that everybody is coming at me and attacking me for something that's on my line out on budget that many departments touch that I can't control.

[1:09:03] That's what I'm saying.

[1:09:04] Now, I don't think the judges or the JPEs or probation, I think they have to do their job as well.

[1:09:11] This is something that we all have to face. It's something we all have to come to together and to and work together on, but coming in and attacking me, or saying something I've never said, I don't understand. That's not going to solve anything.

[1:09:24] So let's really back to budget.

[1:10:07] For a side from the 1.4 for President attention,

[1:10:15] we have another 528,527 dollars in request.

[1:10:25] Is that counting the 200,000, I took off?

[1:10:31] So here we have a computer hardware and software that was 128,000 requested, is that what's going to take?

[1:10:41] I'll take that off.

[1:10:42] What 200,000 is what I'm going to add to the budget for a computer hardware software.

[1:10:47] Anything else that comes up for, like for example, replacing computers which I authorized yesterday, stuff like that.

[1:10:54] Okay, so the 528 minus 200,000, 328, 57,

[1:11:11] 328, 527, not

[1:11:17] that.

[1:11:18] Send the on-prisitor detention,

[1:11:27] on-prisitor detention.

[1:11:30] We have a separate line

[1:11:35] item somewhere in the budget other than the sheriff's department.

[1:11:44] If we approve anything of the sort of the 1.4 million, just like it was mentioned earlier,

[1:11:58] it will continue to be on the share of budget, even if we rectify the problem.

[1:12:07] Correct?

[1:12:09] What's the question?

[1:12:10] Okay, so if we add 1.4 million prisoner detention into his current budget and his current budget.

[1:12:24] Do you really want to have a six hundred six hundred six hundred.

[1:12:28] Current budget.

[1:12:30] 8.769 for 2026.

[1:12:33] 8.769.

[1:12:36] Page 33.

[1:12:41] That was estimated for 2026.

[1:12:43] only 27, the proposed budget is $770,000,000, $1,140,500 and $12.

[1:12:55] So if we add the 1.4, that's going to increase it to 8.5.

[1:13:03] So if we

[1:13:08] do that, I'm just going to be like that every year.

[1:13:15] come here. We put that in a different spot or it doesn't increase his budget by the bottom line.

[1:13:25] Because if we do that, is it be harder to take it off later on down real quick?

[1:13:30] Not necessarily. I mean, every budget year you all have the, they have the room to it.

[1:13:37] It will be a freezer decrease. But as far as a prisoner detention, I mean, that particular expense

[1:13:42] is a Sheriff's Department of Experts.

[1:13:45] So we're financial and accounting purposes.

[1:13:47] In principle, is it does have to be in there?

[1:13:49] Now, can I, and I know this Sheriff's question,

[1:13:52] he had asked before if we can item my prisoner,

[1:13:58] transport, prisoner, what was the other line item?

[1:14:02] I wanted to separate detention from transport.

[1:14:05] Yeah, so I mean, I can create those two.

[1:14:06] I can split them up.

[1:14:08] Could you put in any reserve and contingency

[1:14:10] for the Sheriff's Department?

[1:14:12] that would be another option because I could do that as well. I mean, but it's still going to be in the

[1:14:17] sheriff's department as it should be, but yes, we can do a reserve for contingency just in the

[1:14:21] sheriff's department. Well, it's not we'll let affect the SB 22 money and understand what you're saying

[1:14:27] judge and and I agree with you. We don't want to raise it where if we can get this under control and the

[1:14:33] prisoner attention shuts comes down that the role is from year to year if we lower the sheriff's

[1:14:39] was budget we lose SB 22 money, which I don't want to lose. That's I think that's what the

[1:14:43] just concern. It would be my concern. We would not because right now it has not been. We

[1:14:51] haven't decreased it, but we could if we did put it aside in a reserve for contingency in the

[1:14:59] There's department.

[1:15:00] And that estimate of 1.4, and we go from 600,000 to 2 million, what the 1.4.

[1:15:09] That estimate is what we need.

[1:15:16] Based on the 2020-6 projections, it's at 2.23, but I believe that we can, again, try to increase

[1:15:26] me looking at what we can increase before I even came here. Try to increase. More inmates

[1:15:32] we house over there trying to separate the transport. We're doing a lot of transport ourselves

[1:15:38] with overtime, but we're obviously running out of overtime too.

[1:15:43] But I think that we can maintain. I'm trying to try to maintain.

[1:15:47] Don't do the best I can to maintain at that point.

[1:15:51] So I just commissioners, I don't think, if you, you raised it by 1.4 million, it was going

[1:15:57] to happen next year, 1.9 to 2 million.

[1:16:00] I don't think we should increase any amount and of that detention funding,

[1:16:10] you know, along

[1:16:11] with being an elected official, come to responsibility and the problem is to come with it.

[1:16:17] So I'm against any increase

[1:16:28] in Brazil.

[1:16:30] I just like to say just one thing, which I've said over and over again, which still

[1:16:34] remains true, is I am statutorily obligated to accept all the inmates that come into this

[1:16:42] county jail.

[1:16:44] That's the least one no matter.

[1:16:45] I know that we're not the only county facing these issues.

[1:16:51] I think there's start county.

[1:16:55] Maybe a couple of other counties.

[1:16:57] I think we need to collaborate with them

[1:17:01] to see what they're doing with the rest

[1:17:05] with different type of offenses.

[1:17:08] Maybe we can adopt some of those procedures

[1:17:12] and alleviate some of some of the issues that we have.

[1:17:17] I think if it oozes to call the different counties and collaborate with them,

[1:17:25] to save as much as we can.

[1:17:28] Every single penny that we could save by adopting any of those procedures

[1:17:33] that they're doing.

[1:17:39] I'd like to say a few other things, you know, we have expenses from Joe Detention and Joe

[1:17:45] Medical expenses from year 2020. 23, 24, they started going up. 23 was 3,067 for

[1:17:53] attention 24 they bumped up to 454,000 okay 25 I'm double to 725,000 or

[1:18:02] inmate housing then 2026 1.739 I could understand there was a gradual increase

[1:18:10] but a dramatic increase of almost over a million dollars that's just too much

[1:18:16] for me to swallow. Also medical expense is been a consistency to the year 2025, 206, it doubled

[1:18:28] 437,000 dollars in medical expense, hospital medical expense. Only 5 was 173,000. So those

[1:18:37] numbers to me, they're just too extremely high, too extremely of a jump.

[1:18:43] I agree with you. I don't like the numbers either. The simple hard, just honest answer

[1:18:52] to that is that statutorily the county has to pay those funds. They have to take an

[1:19:01] inmate, take care of the medical costs. If they're in our custody and they have to have a

[1:19:13] would be liable if we did not.

[1:19:15] Uh, we, I mean, I don't like them either.

[1:19:19] Uh, I can make sure I get all right.

[1:19:20] I don't, I don't, I wish we could bring them down.

[1:19:22] If there was something I could do, I'll tell you what, you guys don't, probably don't know

[1:19:26] maybe I should, uh, make a log.

[1:19:29] I have hospitals building me every time.

[1:19:31] I have a curve that checks every bill, uh, Mr. Smithwick, and I, I sign a denial on payment

[1:19:39] two or three denials every single day from

[1:20:00] Do we owe this bill or would we not? I'm already doing that. I've been doing that. I don't know if it was being done before, but I am doing that. If they were in our custody and we took them there, we owe the bill. And I can't legally not provide the medical care.

[1:20:19] I don't know. I don't know how else to say it. That's, that's a law. I don't, I don't not the numbers either.

[1:20:27] And I said, we're not the only county dealing with this.

[1:20:32] There was changes to the law on the court side, when it has to

[1:20:35] do with certain violent offenders and then being able to get bond, they have to buy by those

[1:20:45] rules and those new laws that were established. I understand that. I agree with it.

[1:20:53] But a lot of these things are what contributes to this. It's not one day I decided to spend

[1:20:59] more money. It doesn't go in my pocket. It's not like I decided one more day just to keep

[1:21:04] everybody in jail,

[1:21:08] you know, we need to come together and find the solution, I agree.

[1:21:13] But blaming one person and telling them what's on your budget and I know I'm so you need

[1:21:16] to fix it.

[1:21:17] That's not going to solve it.

[1:21:35] We don't have a lot for any money for the prison or detention and, like the sheriff said,

[1:21:42] you know, it's not up to him and he doesn't know how many people are going to cause problems

[1:21:46] in Jim Wells County and they're going to come.

[1:21:49] If we don't a lot for any money in the extra money, then where are they going to go?

[1:21:54] What are we going to do?

[1:21:55] That's, some has to be done, you know, yeah, we're going to get the gel fixed, but I mean,

[1:22:05] you know, he has no control.

[1:22:07] How many people are coming in every day that the JPEs take care of or, you know, how fast the

[1:22:15] the courts are going through or whatever, I mean,

[1:22:20] we can't also have an open checkbook

[1:22:22] either. I said, we can't have an open checkbook either.

[1:22:31] I'm just making that statement, not

[1:22:33] to me off what you said. I just, I know understand what you're saying, but I'm just saying

[1:22:36] that the county cannot have an open checkbook for every extreme expense at everybody. I mean,

[1:22:44] some departments go over. I mean, we all stay with under budget and it's, it's hard,

[1:22:49] it's complicated. But you know, we do what we can and I think every department should do the

[1:22:57] there's no doubt that you're going to spend over $600,000. There's no doubt that

[1:23:02] the exact amount we do not know.

[1:23:07] I think, you know, setting aside a

[1:23:09] reserving contingency would be an option, but I just don't know. You're saying

[1:23:18] something about, you can house somebody out of the county cheaper than you can

[1:23:27] we need a million tour.

[1:23:32] Because there's, I've looked at several different models

[1:23:35] that we can go to, but it always boils down to,

[1:23:42] we have to have a booking area.

[1:23:44] So unless you shut down the entire jail,

[1:23:46] which cuts out all of the maintenance,

[1:23:49] all of the electricity, everything that goes

[1:23:54] with having a facility, you're not going to really

[1:23:57] save enough money because you still have to book them in, they still have to be a place for

[1:24:01] you to hold them, you still have to feed them, you still until you can, and then you can

[1:24:05] try to look at, maybe just having a booking is holding in that transport amount.

[1:24:10] This is not a long-term solution because what if something happens to one of our contracts?

[1:24:15] You know, so I decided that's not the best option to go.

[1:24:19] Now, we need someone to do an assessment for us.

[1:24:23] the like I thought or they are if you've ever been doing it I don't care but we need

[1:24:28] professional to do that assessment to see to get a long-term plan that you guys can

[1:24:34] agree on and work with. In the meantime I think we need to give it to jail that we have

[1:24:41] operational because the amount of money it costs to have the facility open your

[1:24:48] You might as well house as many inmates as you can over there, even though it costs us, you know,

[1:24:53] I said over three hundred dollars a day, it's still, that cost is still going to be there.

[1:24:57] Whether you have five inmates there or whether you have seventy inmates there.

[1:25:01] The House 75 prisoners within our budget. We've always had it, and it's hard to understand why all of

[1:25:11] the seven we don't have enough money in the budget. I know what you're saying, but you're wrong

[1:25:19] in the fact that whenever the ADP went from, it was about 65, when it went up to 65, they started

[1:25:26] They already started housing out of county and when it out to 75, they were already housing out of county.

[1:25:32] So even though you're seeing an ADP number there, there was still contracts with those out of county.

[1:25:37] For any of them, the open to, yeah, I don't understand that part of it, but up until, you know, way back when when you had 40 inmates,

[1:25:49] Yes, our facility was there was there was there was even the expansion was done in what 2004. I believe

[1:25:56] You know up until then there was 40 inmates in the jail

[1:26:01] I could still hold 40 inmates in the jail, but when the ADP started rising

[1:26:05] Before before even I became sure of contract for already made 2017 there was a contract made

[1:26:10] I don't know how much it was used

[1:26:11] But I know for a fact and and 2024 there already when I came here there

[1:26:16] that they were already housing inmates outside this county.

[1:26:19] This is not something, this was, this is a trend has been going

[1:26:22] uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, not just one I became sheriff, and that's what it's been betrayed.

[1:26:26] That's not true.

[1:26:27] This trend was already happening.

[1:26:29] They were already housing out of people out of county when I got here.

[1:26:32] When I was left the sheriff, it was already on the rise.

[1:26:47] We go with, uh, with your, your proposal.

[1:26:50] We, we, we, we're, we're certainly we're not going to be able to hold, uh,

[1:26:53] light on the text rate.

[1:27:04] The reason we have our goals and objectives

[1:27:07] we're keeping the text rate. The way it is is because in the past we have a

[1:27:15] proved up to a negative two million dollar budget without having to go to the

[1:27:23] text rate. And right now I do not want to go to the text rate right now. I do

[1:27:30] And not only because I don't want to do that to the taxpayers,

[1:27:37] but also because of the thresholds that I spoke about earlier.

[1:27:42] So,

[1:27:46] it's 1027.

[1:27:48] I'm going to recess for 10 minutes.

[1:49:42] Your most County Commissioners Court, for today, September 4, 2026, went to recess at 10.27 a.m., it is 10.48, and we are coming back to regular.

[1:50:01] I had a concern here on the jaylers, the request for overtime. And my concern is that if we're not, the

[1:50:13] jails not fully,

[1:50:16] it's full with the inmates, which maxed out at what is it, 70, we only have 33,

[1:50:24] and why would we need an overtime for it?

[1:50:30] That's one of my concerns there.

[1:50:36] The deal is not messed up at holding 33 in late the overtime, you have to understand it too.

[1:50:46] I've already explained this.

[1:50:48] We sometimes have to clear out inmates and bring other inmates in to the court.

[1:50:54] They would bring those inmates back or keep some of those here depending on what the court has determined.

[1:51:03] Some inmates we house here because of, you know, I'm going court processes.

[1:51:09] The overtime is for when people are doing, trying to limit the number of contract,

[1:51:13] transports they're doing, they do.

[1:51:15] And plus, to be honest with you,

[1:51:18] the MHMR transports, the juvenile transports, it's more

[1:51:22] than just inmates, those can't wait for me to set up with a contract to do those transports.

[1:51:30] So the overtime is spent on doing covering shift,

[1:51:36] or doing transports that we do ourselves.

[1:51:39] We still do that.

[1:51:41] I've, it's not that we only use contract transport.

[1:51:49] I'm sure if I know you committed 200,000.

[1:51:55] For the computer hardware software,

[1:51:59] is there any more of that you can use for OT for overtime?

[1:52:02] I have been, I will continue to do whatever I have to do to keep the community safe in public safety.

[1:52:09] These are what I'm asking for.

[1:52:13] Like I said, if that is my requested budget, whatever you give me, I'm gonna do my best.

[1:52:22] I'll come back to you if any more.

[1:52:24] But I have used, I have used, like I said, it's probably over a million, but right about

[1:52:31] close to a million, and July was 930, over 930, $3,000,000 out of that simple for

[1:52:38] your funds for law enforcement related expense, that I have used to try to offset taxpayer

[1:52:44] dollars.

[1:52:44] I will continue to do that as much as I can, I have obligations, I have to, you know, vehicles,

[1:52:49] I have to pay for all of those things, I just have to make sure I can complete those

[1:52:53] obligations. So it's not that I'm not already doing it. I am.

[1:53:07] President attention, we cannot ignore it.

[1:53:11] We know it's an issue.

[1:53:16] And if we ignore it,

[1:53:20] then we may hear

[1:53:22] have some backlash when we do our audit.

[1:53:25] Have our audit completed. So that was the question that I have for

[1:53:30] natural advisors.

[1:53:36] So we have to do something on the, on the, on the, on the, on the

[1:53:43] prisoner detention and whatever we do there,

[1:53:50] we will put in a reserve for

[1:53:54] and keep a close eye on it and do valid transfers or budget transfers to address them.

[1:54:07] Now, the issue at hand is

[1:54:18] how many of these are from a prisoner detention.

[1:54:22] and so we have prisoner detention, prisoner hospital, and prisoner detention hospital

[1:54:34] and those are the only two, sure?

[1:54:40] And then for the prisoner detention?

[1:54:44] Yes.

[1:54:46] Right now, the prisoner detention is also,

[1:54:49] We'll include it in the transport, yes, in the rest.

[1:55:00] Further further prisoner detention?

[1:55:03] Yes. Right now the prison detention is also included in the rest.

[1:55:17] So, that being said, we do have to do something about the prison detention.

[1:55:23] And my recommendation for the court is still remaining with the same tax rate, 0.767

[1:55:40] because with the 767 anything other than President attention is going to lower our negative

[1:55:49] from last year.

[1:55:50] That means we're making tremendous progress.

[1:55:52] The only issue is the prisoner detention.

[1:55:58] So that being said will remain the same tax rate

[1:56:12] where we'll address the prisoner detention.

[1:56:17] And at the end of the year, next year,

[1:56:20] where over it's going to hit our fund balance.

[1:56:25] And we won't have to raise taxes right now

[1:56:27] or do anything of the sort to go to our tax predicts.

[1:56:34] So what we got a figure right now is that number.

[1:56:41] And if we want to approve any other of the requests

[1:56:46] aside from President or detention.

[1:56:49] Judge, I'm kind of question, and it's a two-part question,

[1:56:53] because I just was reminded of this, if you do increase

[1:56:57] that amount, and even if you call it a contingency fund, and this probably a question for Cindy, does calling it a contingent budgeting take it out of the SB 1022 consequence, and because once we put that in, if you, if next year we don't need it and try to reduce it, it could have a consequence on SB 22, and the second part of my question is,

[1:57:24] What if that happens? Is that consequence only to the share of the department or would it affect me?

[1:57:31] Because I also get and so does Carlos has been 22 money or would it affect all three of our office?

[1:57:37] So in response to the first question, I think it'll go into the second question. So the first question.

[1:57:44] I think the solution in I-Journey research is what judges kind of alluding to is on the 1.4 million

[1:57:52] that it just will not be put in the sheriff's department line item, but essentially in a

[1:58:00] reserve for contingency in general fun. So it's not even touching the sheriff's

[1:58:04] department budget. So obviously still an expense to general fun. But once he has

[1:58:12] reached his threshold, if y'all leave it where it sits right now, it's 600,000. So as he

[1:58:19] reaches that 600,000, let's say April, he reaches a 600,000, or June, or anything after that.

[1:58:27] He would have to request a budget amendment from reserve for contingency, because that money

[1:58:34] will be sitting not in his expense, but in the general fund reserve for contingency, bring

[1:58:40] it's a court and court approves as it is necessary.

[1:58:46] So that way it will not affect, because yes, it would affect all the other entities

[1:58:52] as far as S.B. is concerned.

[1:58:56] So that would be the solution to put it in general fund reserve for contingency.

[1:59:01] Okay, and but as the year progresses and we are moving money from the reserve to the

[1:59:10] And let's say in 2028, we don't need as much any more budgeted in there and we try to come down.

[1:59:19] That's what triggers because you can't use, they don't want SB 22 to offset to create a savings for the county.

[1:59:27] Yeah, so the safeguard would be to keep it in the reserve for contingency.

[1:59:31] And that will keep it free of the SB 22 current.

[1:59:33] Correct.

[1:59:34] Okay, because I have three employees that completely depend on, I know yourself, Carlos, and, of course, the

[1:59:42] Sheriff's Department has a big chunk that goes to his employees as well.

[1:59:48] We're not going to totally approve this, I'm sure, the point for you.

[1:59:52] Well, you would have to approve, if that's about y'all want to go, you would have to approve the one point.

[2:00:00] We need to call, uh, representative from the SB-20 to a verifall.

[2:00:04] Yeah, we can definitely, it's still a moving budget. I mean, we don't finalize and y'all don't adopt the budget till 28th.

[2:00:11] I believe we had a little bit of a change on that, yes. So, yes. So, if we need to call in another workshop to discuss updated numbers, we can, we can do that.

[2:00:23] Okay. Now,

[2:00:27] the question is, what are we going to prove and what are we not going to

[2:00:35] do?

[2:00:35] I

[2:00:40] think the 1.4

[2:00:44] is non-agosible,

[2:00:51] the prison detention hospital that brings us up to 1.7.

[2:01:12] I have a question. Can the prisoner of transport be excluded from the prison or detention

[2:01:18] reserve or contingency?

[2:01:24] Can you exclude the expense of a prisoner transport from the reserve

[2:01:31] content you see when you need the money for prison retention?

[2:01:37] So, in other words, just to signate it to prisoner detention and not transport.

[2:01:43] I mean, I can create a prisoner transport expense line item, but as the proposed budget

[2:01:51] there would be zero dollars in there right now.

[2:01:54] So if you would want to split that 600,000 of that,

[2:01:58] that's in his detention and split it out,

[2:02:02] like 200 for transport and 400 to detention,

[2:02:06] y'all would have to make that decision now.

[2:02:07] I think I was out of that reservant contingency,

[2:02:10] would have to be approved by the court anyway.

[2:02:12] That is correct.

[2:02:13] I really didn't win the...

[2:02:17] But is it going to be limited only to detention, though?

[2:02:19] We'll be trying for anything else.

[2:02:22] That's correct.

[2:02:23] Right.

[2:02:23] Okay.

[2:02:24] So anything that falls into tension and currently what falls in prison or detention

[2:02:27] are the transport bills and the housing bills.

[2:02:32] And just as long as it goes to the court.

[2:02:34] Yes.

[2:02:35] Yes.

[2:02:35] So it would be the.

[2:02:38] And it will have to.

[2:02:39] I'd like to.

[2:02:41] Yeah.

[2:02:42] It's probably this it's sort of.

[2:02:45] Just just for my.

[2:02:46] My.

[2:02:47] understand and you know like when we have a commissar score meeting, could you provide the

[2:02:54] number of preserves you have housing here in Alice and the ones that you're transporting?

[2:03:01] That way we can we can I have an update of how the expenses are occurring, right?

[2:03:12] So starting maybe the next couple of commissar score meeting at

[2:03:17] at the beginning you can, in public speaking you know, just tell us okay, we're housing 35

[2:03:23] prisoners here, 60 over there. It would be something that I would like to have, you know,

[2:03:30] just just to, uh, joker, the expense.

[2:03:37] So I'd give it to the judge, but I know that there

[2:03:39] could be a rolling quorum kind of issue with those kind of emails I've been told.

[2:03:43] reason I don't send it out to everybody that that one that I send breaks it down how many

[2:03:50] amateurs are elsewhere.

[2:03:54] I mean we could he just want to know like each commissioner's court

[2:03:59] for that day. I may be able to help Sheriff because we get from from Sergeant Salas we get

[2:04:09] So every Tuesday, for the past couple of Tuesdays, I've been sending it out to basically

[2:04:15] everybody and the criminal justice stakeholders for the same reason, I only copy the

[2:04:20] judge because I can't copy the whole court.

[2:04:23] Right.

[2:04:23] That's right.

[2:04:24] So if you all want, you can come to a judge's office and Isabelle can print one out for

[2:04:29] you.

[2:04:30] But we do that every Tuesday and it has it broken down by total number of inmates, total number

[2:04:35] inmates here. Recently, it's been fabricated in Jim Hogg because I don't think we're using

[2:04:40] geo at least recently anymore. Not as I said, they're more difficult to deal with this.

[2:04:45] Yeah. So, but that comes out every Tuesday. Usually we get it before noon and by five o'clock

[2:04:51] that day, it goes out to all the judges, clerks, staff, probation, everybody can get copied on that.

[2:05:20] I recommend

[2:05:25] that we,

[2:05:38] one point

[2:05:47] for President attention and President of the hospital, and we keep a close eye on it.

[2:05:54] We'll put that on the paper for continues.

[2:06:00] As far as the other ones, I can't approve those or I can't approve those or I can't approve those or rules.

[2:06:21] So you want to approve a million five the server constituency

[2:06:27] which would be available, you know, in case we need it, you know, right?

[2:06:34] And

[2:06:36] And the

[2:06:36] the rest judge for what, what are you talking about?

[2:06:39] Yes sir.

[2:06:45] Well, yeah

[2:06:47] that

[2:06:48] kept a lease payment.

[2:06:52] What is that, Cindy?

[2:06:55] It looks like I guess the Sherkin explained better, but it looks like he was just trying to deduct that and maybe allocate it to some other line items, is that correct?

[2:07:06] So I bought all the vehicles for the Sheriff's Office through Acid Fortressal to try to help this work.

[2:07:17] Traditionally you've given a $50,000 a year for that that purpose

[2:07:22] This year I took and

[2:07:24] The stupidity that to help balance the budget, so if you if you if you prove and did not all the rest of that

[2:07:31] They did just you just come into 50,000, but if you if you

[2:07:38] You know

[2:07:39] Again, I'm trying to do the best. I can I all the vehicles that I need to be replaced about them all out of asset four hundred funds

[2:07:47] but I could use that $50,000 for Deputy overtime if you're going to cut everything else because right now you don't have enough money in there to pay for the holiday pay.

[2:07:58] There is no there really is no Deputy overtime. It's whatever staff is working the holidays that every other county employee has to is off.

[2:08:07] Then that's still fall short even paying them their holiday pay.

[2:08:14] So, there's going to be 1.5 in contingency, the bills come in, he exceeds whatever you have there on your budget.

[2:08:25] The bills are still coming in.

[2:08:30] Do we approve this approve?

[2:08:34] You know, it's just, we only approve the transfer and that's it.

[2:08:38] The money's still going to be there.

[2:08:41] Yes, the money is, if you do approve the 1.5 in the reserve for contingency,

[2:08:45] that's placing the money in the budget to where if and when he needs the amount then that's

[2:08:53] when it would have to come to commissioner's court for approval but I mean I get what you're

[2:08:57] saying the services are already rendered at that point and it's hard for you know to deny it.

[2:09:07] I mean, the goal is not to use the two million, but I mean.

[2:09:16] Yeah, well, if you, surely, we're going to use up the 600.

[2:09:22] And then how much of that?

[2:09:23] So you're saying 1.5 in addition to the 600?

[2:09:27] Or does that include the 600?

[2:09:30] That's in addition to the 600.

[2:09:32] Because we're saying we're going to spend $2 million.

[2:10:00] Now, I really need to answer to that question, because this becomes the floor from here on. And in 2028, if we want to, we say, okay, we got under control. We need to come down. And we cut that could, that could, we could be punished for that under Senate Bill 22 and that's why that's why we have it in the reserve. Well, that's my question. Is that calling it something else? Because it really, that's just a, yeah, that's just a name.

[2:10:30] that does, does the, does the comptroller care?

[2:10:32] Yeah, we'll have to clarify it with the SB representative.

[2:10:36] Well, otherwise, it correct me if I'm wrong.

[2:10:40] I mean, the one point, the reason I say 1.5 is because the request for President attention is 1.4.

[2:10:48] And then we're given another 100 to the, the President attention hospital.

[2:10:53] But the, the one, if you're going to do a 100 or an entertain the additional 100 for

[2:10:58] attention hospital. That's that's totally separate that's its own line idea.

[2:11:03] Okay, so so then it'll be 1.4

[2:11:06] 1.4 for the

[2:11:09] for the reserve of contingency

[2:11:14] and then 100,000 for the

[2:11:21] the prisoner detention hospital.

[2:11:25] Now that's why I asked earlier that $2 million is accurate

[2:11:31] as we can make it right.

[2:11:35] Okay

[2:11:46] anybody else have anything

[2:11:51] Yes, if the Commissioner Court approves that amount,

[2:11:57] I'm concerned because whatever you

[2:12:00] approve that amount and next year you have a bigger problem. I understand that, you know,

[2:12:05] you're going to put this amount, but from what I see as far as the track record here, I don't

[2:12:11] see no decline in anything, it's just increasing, increasing, increasing, you know, so you guys better

[2:12:17] compared it for next year. So the reason why we have to do this is because we know we

[2:12:27] have a problem. If we don't, if we ignore it and not put it in the budget, then we're

[2:12:35] taking a risk on getting the right up and our audit. You know, this is why I say when

[2:12:42] when one mistakes happen or when things like this happen,

[2:12:48] it's much more than just a commission's court

[2:12:51] making a yes or no.

[2:12:53] There are some things that can happen with our audience.

[2:12:57] There are some things that can happen with other things

[2:12:59] that if we don't address them now,

[2:13:07] let's go and pay, we're gonna pay later.

[2:13:09] And that's why we utilize our financial advice,

[2:13:14] or CPAs to give us these answers, because I don't want to not do this and it looks like we're

[2:13:23] ignoring the problem. We know we have a problem, we know we have to address it one way or another.

[2:13:30] And the way we're going to do that is we're going to put it in the reserve for a contingency.

[2:13:36] We're going to keep our same tax rate, not putting it on the taxpayers' backs.

[2:13:43] And if we go over next year, it's going to come out of the phone bound.

[2:13:50] Is that what we want to do also?

[2:13:52] No, we want to keep our phone bound.

[2:13:55] But we have this persistent problem we have right now.

[2:13:59] And we have to address it this way.

[2:14:03] So we could satisfy all avenues of our systems.

[2:14:11] So, I just want to say something.

[2:14:14] By no means am I saying that I'm against the deal, I know we have a nation and then we need

[2:14:19] to address it.

[2:14:20] I just don't agree with the number that it's that we're, there's so many other things that

[2:14:30] we need to address to be able to create more space here, all of us together, not just him,

[2:14:37] not just this guy, not just all of us,

[2:14:40] something needs to get changed,

[2:14:42] but we all have to come to a number of words.

[2:14:45] Not so high, I mean, you mean, I mean,

[2:14:48] I've always said to my family,

[2:15:00] Five and you're spending six, you don't need another job, you just need to spend less. What are we doing? We all went through that. I went through that. I came in with 32 employees. I have 17, 18 right now to try to increase their pay. And we do our own roads, or we can't sub it out. There's so many things we can do. And I'm not saying that you're not doing it. I'm not saying that I'm doing it. I just say that all of us in Jim was counting have to do our part and all the way in other. And figure out what can we do? There's a lot of areas we can cut. We have to try something different.

[2:15:30] just throw money at it. I don't agree throwing money at it. It's, you know, I wish with the number

[2:15:38] wouldn't increase a lot more than what

[2:15:42] we did last year. But that's my opinion. Okay. Okay.

[2:15:49] Should I number? I mean, that this could be a baseline number. If we think if you want a

[2:15:58] a smaller number would you consider something on that number there on the one before.

[2:16:06] So based on 2026 projections, when I gave my budget, I didn't want to ask for everything.

[2:16:16] We were looking at a projection of 2.23.

[2:16:18] I'm already expecting to try to mitigate that number,

[2:16:27] the two million, I mean, the things

[2:16:33] continue the way they are, that's where it's going to be.

[2:16:37] I don't, I'm not going to lie to you, and that's just the truth.

[2:16:44] Now the projections are just a projection based on what we were at in 26 when I created the

[2:16:50] proposal. But that projection was at 2.23 million. So I cut that out because I think we can try

[2:16:57] to manage that to keep it at 2 already. So I've already cut that part out. I mean,

[2:17:08] that's where it looks like it's going to go. And if it's in contingency, and it doesn't go

[2:17:14] there great, right? I mean, I'm going to do the best I can. I'm not going to spend the 2 million

[2:17:19] I don't even, like I said, I don't tell the DPS or APD or any other agency to go rest more people.

[2:17:31] That's, you know, we're just operating the way law enforcement operates.

[2:17:36] And this is what we're at.

[2:17:40] Like I said, the number of arrests that stayed consistent.

[2:17:44] You know, it's not just Jim Wells County Sheriff's office inmates over there.

[2:17:49] It's every agency that operates in this county.

[2:17:53] In fact, we don't even have half of them, or do most county,

[2:17:56] not even half, or do most county inmates.

[2:18:00] Glad to be my guess.

[2:18:01] I mean, I haven't run a number of foods.

[2:18:03] I have looked at them a while back.

[2:18:10] And as far as I understand, if it's in contingencies and we don't use it,

[2:18:15] that's good.

[2:18:18] And it doesn't affect, if it doesn't affect as between two, which was my concern.

[2:18:21] And the amount we have on there, if you don't use it, it remains there, and it's not affecting our current tax rate, not affecting our current budget per se,

[2:18:41] and if you don't use it, basically do it, and it don't get, it don't hit our phone balance.

[2:18:49] So,

[2:18:52] I just don't want to put that we're going to add a half a million dollars and what's

[2:19:01] needed is 1.5 or 1.4, you know, now if that 1.4, I just didn't come up with it, I mean,

[2:19:10] I think, Cindy,

[2:19:14] would you agree that that 1.4, it's the mark or if it's last, let me know and I'll recommend it last.

[2:19:25] I just need to make sure that it's going to hit the mark with the information that I've been providing.

[2:19:31] I mean, I think you're getting the 1.4 from the sheriff's request because he has $600,000 in there.

[2:19:38] I think his goal was to get 2 million because the sheriff is projecting that. I mean, if you're asking for estimates, the way the expenses are going, that's the way he's going.

[2:19:51] Now we're looking for solutions to decrease that expense. If the sheriff is going to commit to that increase, hopefully we have a

[2:20:00] It's been $2 million.

[2:20:01] We don't.

[2:20:03] Well, I don't want to.

[2:20:05] The fact is, if we can house more inmates over there in the world, I mean,

[2:20:11] I've been thinking about ways to reduce this for a long time.

[2:20:16] And I'm working to continue to do our best.

[2:20:19] And it, I would hope I could.

[2:20:22] I mean, I can't sit in a promise you, yes, I can.

[2:20:24] Because I have laws that I have to follow.

[2:20:25] But at the same time if you know, depending on the transport and everything there's so many things that are unpredictable

[2:20:32] I don't know how many people are going to be arrested next month

[2:20:35] Because too many people too many agencies involved

[2:20:38] But all I can do is run the gels efficiently as I can and

[2:20:43] And that and

[2:20:46] That's pretty much all I can do and I will do that

[2:20:48] I mean that this is a request.

[2:20:49] We

[2:20:50] We, you know, if we go back, you know, and nobody has, you know, the estimate, what's

[2:20:57] the reason for estimate, I'll go back to 500,000 if you ask me, but the projections

[2:21:04] that I gave you is on is basically estimated based on what we spent in 2026.

[2:21:12] So, when I got to, when I got with the auditor and got the, the most updated.

[2:21:23] So, in August, our year, well, year-to-date expense, true numbers for 2020-26 is 1.2.

[2:21:33] And that's what I had to think, 1.2 million through August in actual prison or detention.

[2:21:40] And so that's a combination of the housing and transport.

[2:21:44] OK, so an relaxuality, the 1.4 is a conservative number then.

[2:21:48] Yes, right, because I did back off 200, not to say the 0.23.

[2:21:55] If I've rejected it, it's 2.23, and I saw one with a conservative number.

[2:22:00] So at the projected expenditures through the end of this year,

[2:22:05] you're looking to make it up to true it up and be 1.62 million.

[2:22:08] And there's no reason to believe that that's going to go down next year unless you put some money in that line item for repairs.

[2:22:15] Otherwise it's just, if you don't repair it, if you don't spend money repairing some of the cells, there's no reason to believe he's not going to have to spend that much next year as well.

[2:22:25] Understand, understand completely.

[2:22:26] I mean, we can redirect, I mean, and that's, you know, court.

[2:22:30] I know this is just the shares request, but absolutely, if we're looking to, you know, repair the gel,

[2:22:35] but many are repairing the gel, which is the goal to house back to the 70 or whatever the number is.

[2:22:44] That's not in here as a request though,

[2:22:49] but it's.

[2:22:50] I've been making repairs to the gel.

[2:22:53] If we keep that same line out of them there, we should be able to make some of those repairs.

[2:22:59] We also need to, obviously, we need to estimate the assessment done, but we're still making repairs to the gel all the time.

[2:23:08] I have that in the budget and I've been doing that since, you know, I came in.

[2:23:13] So we're continuing to do that, it's just, it's an old, old game.

[2:23:19] I need to know, it's the 1.4 conservative number.

[2:23:26] If you're appropriating money, just that's a number.

[2:23:38] Okay, so

[2:23:41] does anybody have any else on the app

[2:23:49] or recommend?

[2:23:56] So, I'll make a motion that we have through the 1.4 and the reserve for contingencies, for President attention,

[2:24:07] and 100,000 to the President's attention.

[2:24:15] All the other ones are denied.

[2:24:18] And you put it in contingency, right?

[2:24:20] Senator.

[2:24:32] That would have to be brought to a commissioner's court.

[2:24:39] When it's in reserve for contingency, it's just sitting there.

[2:24:43] So anytime it gets moved out, it has to be brought to court.

[2:24:46] I mean, whoever submits the request, more than likely, county judge would have mixed the

[2:24:53] request because it's in general fun, I mean, it can go out to a line item and expense line

[2:24:59] Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.

[2:25:01] The reserve for contingency isn't just for terrorist partners.

[2:25:07] We're going to have for the lack of better work control of where that money goes if one is requested.

[2:25:14] Right.

[2:25:15] And it's going to be up to us to approve or disapproval on whichever way we want to, not whichever we want to use it.

[2:25:22] If the intent is for his retention.

[2:25:30] Judge Commissioner, let's say Turner Dominguez gets the bid, his award finally awarded the bid.

[2:25:37] It makes their recommendation, hopefully by the end of this year, where is that going to get paid from?

[2:25:44] This year?

[2:25:45] We've got a pay from this year's budget.

[2:25:46] Not them, whatever they recommend as the fix, where is that going to get paid from?

[2:25:52] Well, that's what we're going to have to see.

[2:25:54] We're going to have to review what they recommend.

[2:25:58] how much it costs and like like we said earlier, it's not going to be a quick fix unless

[2:26:05] it's it's it's minor repairs that we have from courthouse and buildings that we can we can utilize.

[2:26:12] So we don't have a line item for whatever right now there's no line item so if if we do

[2:26:18] if we do want to add money for that we can we can add it to this and understand that it's

[2:26:28] The intent is for President 1.4 for President attention and we add something for that.

[2:26:35] It is the intent is for that.

[2:26:38] But we don't know.

[2:26:40] We don't know how much.

[2:26:43] That's the whole issue.

[2:26:44] We don't know the amount of money.

[2:26:57] Sure.

[2:26:58] If you have a line item amount for the repair and maintenance of jail for $130,000.

[2:27:03] So you used other than money only 44,252 to do repairs roughly?

[2:27:14] I don't know that I know that we have done a lot of repairs.

[2:27:18] I've replaced a few units and everything else that's what I was saying is that we do use the money

[2:27:26] to further repairs.

[2:27:28] the issue would be that of the old side of the jail whether I mean because there's

[2:27:35] plumbing and other more expensive costs there but yes we use that money to prepare the

[2:27:43] jail. I don't I believe we probably spent more than a last year we spent more than that.

[2:27:50] I don't know if that's exact number that we have right now.

[2:28:00] But I thought that repairs were under your ear.

[2:28:04] We have hold.

[2:28:05] You guys, you got his line, I don't know for repairs.

[2:28:07] And I got six hundred thousand and four

[2:28:17] hell.

[2:28:17] For that matter, for the fact that that matter is

[2:28:23] some of the repairs that we're doing this year and some of the ACs

[2:28:27] and stuff like that that we've done this year.

[2:28:30] We're not going to have those expenses.

[2:28:31] They're expenses next year.

[2:28:34] So, I mean, I'm very tight.

[2:28:35] I'm very concerned with that budget line item, so we will have someone, or that.

[2:28:45] I just don't know what the final number is, like I said, there's 600,000 in it.

[2:29:03] Okay, so I have the most on the table, or the 1.4 and 100, I'll be for the second, I'll

[2:29:14] change that.

[2:29:15] I have a motion in the second. Is there any further discussion?

[2:29:22] I'll have a favor to say aye. Aye. Aye. I'll have a poll safe sign. Aye. Motion carries.

[2:29:34] Thank you. Thank you.

[2:29:50] You would now probation department.

[2:29:56] Okay, we'll go with the adult probation department.

[2:30:02] What are you guys doing, Commissioner?

[2:30:04] Audit sir.

[2:30:05] Basically, I guess the request we made was to benefit a program that actually addresses the issues that

[2:30:10] have been discussed today, the gel over crowding.

[2:30:13] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:14] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:18] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:19] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:21] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:27] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:28] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:31] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:32] Rubin Valedio.

[2:30:33] COVID limitations were taken away, and resources that we provide for our clients when the magistrates

[2:30:40] or the judges request county pay or CSD pay for monitors that have increased in prices well.

[2:30:47] That's the justification right now. Like I said, the number that was provided was based on numbers

[2:30:55] when this program began. Now they've tripled or caught group. We have 1596 to be precise and

[2:31:02] 1,400.

[2:31:06] Thank you for the discussion.

[2:31:11] There we say aye.

[2:31:12] Opposing sign.

[2:31:15] Opposing carries.

[2:31:17] You know probation department.

[2:31:29] I have nothing.

[2:31:31] You just basically what I had.

[2:31:33] As far Wednesday.

[2:31:36] As far as the increase.

[2:31:40] Nothing.

[2:31:40] Nothing else.

[2:31:42] Make a motion.

[2:31:42] We approve.

[2:31:46] I'll post the same sign, motion carries.

[2:31:50] Thank you.

[2:31:52] County agent, yes, for $500.

[2:31:56] For the.

[2:31:58] Uh, remember, what was it?

[2:32:01] Expense.

[2:32:01] What was it, what was it, exactly?

[2:32:03] Agent, uh, have.

[2:32:06] Vehicle.

[2:32:07] You know, just $500.

[2:32:09] I would recommend second, second, motion, and second, I would say aye.

[2:32:16] Aye.

[2:32:17] On a full height and sign.

[2:32:19] Also carries.

[2:32:23] Missioners, I think.

[2:32:24] Delper based on the answer?

[2:32:25] Yes, we have a doubt.

[2:32:30] That was only one.

[2:32:33] The freezing course.

[2:32:34] Yes, sir.

[2:32:35] And all the changes are within my budget to just transfer.

[2:32:37] and for I don't think we need to approve that.

[2:32:42] It seems concept is Michael, would you like some pictures?

[2:32:44] I make a motion with approval.

[2:32:46] Second.

[2:32:47] I will motion a second, any further discussion?

[2:32:49] All the people say aye.

[2:32:51] All the full same sign.

[2:32:53] All the areas are

[2:32:57] done.

[2:32:59] I'd like to say something.

[2:33:06] I think it's just trying to get together in a form of committee

[2:33:10] to complete them getting salaries.

[2:33:12] For all positions, they're elected officials.

[2:33:15] All I'm going to get an example here on

[2:33:18] to say you have a constable and just about every four years they get a new electric

[2:33:25] official electric official. And say it's at 43,000. Then you have a hospital that's been there

[2:33:30] for 30 years. He's got his raises in his races in the 68. Well just because you're running

[2:33:37] for that position, you're going to get 68 because it doesn't make sense. You're doing the same thing

[2:33:44] that is possible, stay at precinct one, precinct six,

[2:33:50] because this one's been there for 30 years,

[2:33:53] getting all the bumps and bumps.

[2:33:58] That doesn't make sense.

[2:34:01] And I don't understand, you know,

[2:34:03] when you say this, you're running for that position.

[2:34:06] You're running for a position,

[2:34:08] to me, is running better.

[2:34:11] You know, it's the change thing,

[2:34:19] I don't understand why four years ago, it was automatically down, and then this one's not because well we're running for that, they're running for that position, they're running for that amount.

[2:34:35] And then this just makes sense, you know, I think, you know, maybe I need to put on a

[2:34:42] pressure for something, something easy to be done about salary. And that means even

[2:34:46] commissioners, you know, just everybody else, but that's everybody. You know, there

[2:34:56] It's been there for twenty-five thirty years, got all their bumps in.

[2:35:00] And then somebody runs for this one that every four years has been changing and changing, so it's the difference, say 43 and 68.

[2:35:09] It's a big difference. Same job.

[2:35:13] Lot of money. And that's tax care money. I can tell that I need to get that on the board.

[2:35:19] Sure.

[2:35:26] Okay,

[2:35:32] so I know we originally said that we would come on the 18th and we moved it to the 21st, but we did have a have a meeting or a

[2:35:45] Cindy did with Carlos Rodriguez, our supervisor, and he had a post our

[2:35:55] rate newspaper and it has to post for 10 days.

[2:36:05] So what we got to do is we're going to have to wait until the 28 to a crew.

[2:36:17] Monday the 28th. So in our schedule, we have Tuesday the 29th and Wednesday the 30th

[2:36:28] as if needed dates. So I guess the 20th is that Monday,

[2:36:40] right? September 28th is that Monday.

[2:36:43] We all have to be present, so I want to make sure that everything is good.

[2:37:09] So I give the text from,

[2:37:17] did you get it wrong?

[2:37:23] Founders are going

[2:37:29] to have to make any changes or just for you.

[2:37:51] This thing fell off. Okay. Can you hear me? Okay.

[2:37:53] So it looks like, and this is going to address, I think,

[2:37:56] which was concerned is that y'all can, and this is from our independent auditor

[2:38:02] that was texting judge.

[2:38:06] In regards to the reserve for contingency, there it is, that's a difference, but that you can, I guess, put the specifications as far as only for emergencies or unexpected costs for the sheriff's department.

[2:38:26] basically are in the perspective of.

[2:38:28] So, if that's the wording that I don't know if you have to go back to it.

[2:38:35] Well, that's what he's saying.

[2:38:36] We're not naming it reserved for contingencies.

[2:38:38] No, but you can put like the disclosure on how to be.

[2:38:43] Not just.

[2:38:45] Yeah.

[2:38:45] All right.

[2:38:46] Okay, so we're good there.

[2:38:49] The.

[2:38:49] So we'll be adopting the 2027.

[2:38:53] 2020, Jim Wells County budget will be ratified in the property tax for 2027 and set the tax rate for 2026 on Monday, September 28.

[2:39:10] Correct.

[2:39:11] Yes, 9 in.

[2:39:15] At that time, Cindy will have all the changes that we made today and we'll have the total.

[2:39:28] Well, we all have to be present, sir.

[2:39:32] All present, and we have a record vote.

[2:39:36] So, we'll have all the final numbers.

[2:39:40] And I'll give a review before we complete everything we need to complete.

[2:39:53] Other than that, I think the budget hearings have served their purpose.

[2:39:59] We trust it.

[2:40:00] Keep the same tax rate. And whatever was approved has been approved, it's needed. It's not something that

[2:40:11] wish this or anything like that. So that being said, I commend everybody. Thank you all very much.

[2:40:18] Anybody else want to just court this time?

[2:40:24] Hearing none, can I entertain a motion?

[2:40:27] Second, I will most in the second, in the further discussion, all together see I, I will oppose some sign, ocean carries.

Commissioner's Court

Agenda

Transcript