All
right, welcome everyone to our commissioner's court today. Thank you for being here. At this
time we're going to open with our invocation, Commissioner Gray, if you would introduce the
individual who's going to do our invocation, if you'd follow up then with the pledges.
Yes, sir. I'd like to introduce Pastor Andy Hunt of New Cane Family Worship, a lifelong
friend and a great mentor in the community.
All right. Let's all stand together.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing of this new day and this new moment
that we have to conduct business for our county and its citizens.
As we gather here this morning, we ask that you guide our leadership in all their decision-making
and lead them through the process of the oversight of our great county.
Lord, help us to make wise and prudent decisions that best serve those we serve.
And may we walk and lead according to your will.
As we lead, God teach us to always consider others before we do ourselves.
Let us live by your golden rule in Scripture, do unto others as you would have them do unto
you.
I would like to also pray a special blessing upon all the members of this commissioners
court.
Bless each of them with godly wisdom to make the right decisions, even when it
might be hard to do so.
God, allow them to disagree agreeably, giving us unity among our members that might prove
to serve for the greater good in our community.
Teach us always to be slow to speak and quick to listen.
Bless each of them and their families.
Bless them abundantly.
As your word says, bless them coming in and bless them going out.
And Lord, may your wonderful blessing chase them down and overtake them.
them. Continue to give them beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning. Lord, according
to your word, I know you have plans to prosper each of them and give them a hope and a future.
Lord, we pray you're protecting hand also upon every one of our first responders in
our community and bless them. God, we are so grateful for your mercies. They are from
everlasting to everlasting. Guide us, teach us, lead us, speak to us, and help us here
today. Oh, and God, I have a PS to this prayer. Please lead these great leaders to fix my potholes,
dig my ditches, and lower my taxes all in the same day. We ask this prayer in Jesus'
this most precious name, Amen. And can I hear a big Amen? Amen.
Thank you, Pastor. We appreciate
that so much, so much.
Let the record reflect that all are present today. Do I have a motion
to approve the commissioner's court agenda. Move. Move a motion. Is there a second? Second. All in
favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. At this time, we give our citizens an opportunity
to come and make a comment on an item that would be on our agenda. If there's a general comment
you'd like to make, at the end we will have the opportunity for you to do that. But this is a
time for items on our agenda. Please understand that we will give you three minutes at the
three minutes you will hear the timer and we're going to ask you to stop also if
you would name the item on the agenda state your name for the record all right
is there anyone who would like to come forward and who would like to share all
right if there are no citizen comments then let's move forward proclamations
resolution oh okay come forward state your name for the record the item
please be bid 23-15 okay good morning I'm Edward country junior with stripes and
stops company we're a small company based in Houston that provides services
for municipalities and counties alike in our region including Montgomery County
we have striped helipads parking lots the toll road and countless roadways in
the Montgomery County area our services include not only the striping but
but also traffic control and signage.
We have serviced Montgomery County for the past five years successfully and have become
very well acquainted with the directors and staff in each precinct as they have learned
our means and methods as well.
We are presenting today due to a slight and unfortunate technicality with the communication
between our administrative teams.
Apparently stripes and stops did not receive the bid opportunity and time to make it
submission to Montgomery County.
How this mishap came about, is there relevant at this time?
However, the absent submission of the bid for project 23-15 is why I stand before you today.
We're requesting from the court an extension so that we may submit our bid to the county for review
and continue our professional relationship as well as the streamlined operations with Montgomery County
and each individual precinct.
We appreciate your time and consideration for this extension for bid 23-15, and look forward
to serving the county for many years to come.
Thank you for sharing with us.
We appreciate it so much.
Under 22G.
22G.
Yeah.
Bye.
Thank you.
All right.
Are there any other citizen comments?
If there aren't none, then let's move forward in our agenda, proclamations, resolutions,
and presentations.
a presentation of Employee of the Month.
Good morning, Judge and Commissioner.
I am Ken Washington,
Recognition Coordinator for the Montgomery County Employee Committee.
We come before you today to present a plaque for Employee of the Month
for April and a gift certificate
from Dragon Bowl C. Noodle and Bloor in downtown Conroe.
There were six Employee of the Month nominations submitted for consideration.
All the nominations are well-deserved for an award,
but there is one employee we would like to recognize this month.
Can we have Judge Wayne Mack with JP1 to come forward to present this award?
Thank you, and we appreciate the opportunity to do this.
We're thankful to the employee committee and all that they do for our county employees.
And like every elected official here, we're blessed to work with the very best.
We have our names on the doors and buildings and so forth,
but it's our people that do the work.
And I'm blessed today to have just about every one of our staff here today in recognition of this individual.
Only two people in my office actually know who's getting it, so the rest of them are like, why are we here?
And so we appreciate what every one of my staff does on a daily basis.
Justice courts, as you know, are the highest volume courts in Texas.
We see thousands of people and generally nobody coming to our office is happy to be there.
Occasionally somebody's getting married. They might be happy to be there, but that's the exception to rule.
This person has distinguished career working for the county for almost 10 years and she is very well respected in our office.
Not only is she a master of her craft, she's one of the few justice court clerks in the
county that has both certificates for civil and for criminal.
She always goes above and beyond.
She's an inspiration to everybody, and she really enjoys what she does.
But in addition to doing her job, when we started our chaplaincy program, she was one
of our staff that stepped up in a large way to help us recruit chaplains to be a part
of our chaplaincy program which has been very successful over the years and
being there for families when they get the worst news of their life. On on call
we have three to four chaplains on call 24-7 and then four years ago this
month we launched a behavioral health suicide task force and I asked this
person to step up and help me be able to navigate that and now we have 12
working group work groups over 250 volunteers uh want uh been told often that in our county it's
one of the few that is so diverse and has so many people involved and could not do all that work
without this individual and um and then also in addition to that she's very involved in the
Montgomery County Historical Society and um and and preserving our history of our county
and is very involved with Larry Foster, who couldn't be here today.
Dr. Brenda LeVar, who with WellPath is very involved with NAMI,
and our task force also wrote a letter on behalf of this person.
And I'm going to be in so much trouble right now.
I can see her face in the reflection of the screen right here,
but we're honored to have her husband and her sons here,
and she doesn't know this.
Her mom's stuck in the back door.
Her mom is also here as well.
And so I'd like Missy Ringo to come forward,
And we honor you Missy.
Congratulations Missy. We appreciate you so very much and all that you do.
I like
the family to come forward please. They tricked me.
I'm in here. Come on in. That's my baby.
I'd like all my staff to come up here because we're such a great team and everyone here is
in support of Missy getting this acknowledgment and we're just so blessed to do this.
And again, thank you to the Employee Committee.
Commissioner, thank you for supporting Justice Courts and all that we do.
We couldn't do it obviously without you.
The
only one that couldn't be here is our bailiff because he's letting people in
our courtroom right now.
Thank you commissioners.
Great job.
Appreciate you all so very much.
Congratulations.
Thank you all.
Appreciate it so much.
All right.
The next item on our agenda is consider and approve resolution order regarding the acceptance
of donated books as you recall in our last commissioners' court.
Michelle Nichols came forward and was thanking our librarian, Rea, for putting
certain books into the library, mentioned that there was a cost to it.
He also recognized as we put these good, nourishing, positive books into the library, our district
attorney, Brett Ligon, came forward.
He jumped up out of his chair, came up to the front, and he said, I would like to donate
to that.
Since that time, what we have done is, and we wanted to memorialize this, is we're
required to, since we are accepting some resources from Brett Ligon, also from BD.
Judge, I didn't want to, it's hard for you to brag, it's hard for you to brag when you're
in the position that you're in, but there were several people in the community that came
forward and said, hey, I want to help in that effort.
We met Brave Books, the books are illustrated wonderfully, they're great stories, they're
good readers.
BD actually came up first, I know that Commissioner Gray had offered help, Judge,
and you actually joined in the effort as well in buying the books and so all the
county libraries in the community now have it. And one of the things that BDNI
recognized is, you know, it's a cliche, but readers are leaders. And we decided to
take a position of inclusivity and putting good materials into the county
library versus going through the fight of, okay, what's appropriate, what
should be sequestered, or whatever, and try to go to the light instead of
fighting in the dark all the time. So BDNI, I want to thank you for standing
up immediately, Commissioner Gray for the offer, and Judge, thank you for
for joining that effort as well.
So gentlemen, thank you.
Thank you so much, Brad.
Appreciate that.
Can we have a motion to approve the resolution?
Move.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Judge, I can't help but think that you must think
that I don't say enough in court with the Unmuzzle Me
Please book in front of me.
See you at hand, I need to say more.
When Kimberly was putting these out,
I said make sure you put this in the appropriate place.
But again, thank you, thank you, yes, sir, and thank you, our district attorney, Brett
Lugan, for taking the lead on that.
All right, let's move forward.
National crime victim rights.
We need to vote on that.
Oh, all in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
All right.
Right.
Brad, if you'd come up as we talk about National Crime Victims' Rights Week.
I can do two good things.
First off, it is the National Crime Victims' Rights Week, but unexpectedly, I would like
the community to recognize the VAX, the Victim Assistance Coordinators.
We have them from the District Attorney's Office here today.
Ladies, if you would, please stand up.
I've got two new friends at the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.
It's Zach and Bethany.
Y'all stand up.
They're the VACs for the SO and
to my favorite former employees from the
county attorney's office Danielle and Mark Danielle is the VAC for the county
attorney as well so if they would stand up so
These people are making sure that victims are served within our community. It's only a
week of formal recognition for us. This is our lifestyle. This is what we do. The Children's
Safe Harbor. I know Dr. Constance is here, and probably some of her staff as well. Where
is Victoria? Thank you. Okay. Ladies, if you would, Children's Safe Harbor.
This morning,
Dr. Constance and her crew, several people from precinct three from the DA's office
put 2,303 pinwheels down at Precinct 3, and that represents every child at
Children's Safe Harbor provided services to this year. It's a tremendous number in
the sense that it's the amount of resources that Montgomery County has.
On the other hand, it's a scary number, right? I'd like to have zero pinwheels
around for the rest of Montgomery County. Unfortunately, it's just not a
number that's going to happen. So gentlemen, if you don't mind, I will
read the proclamation. There is a call upon communities to amplify the voice of survivors
and create environments where survivors have the confidence they will be heard, believed,
and supported. Whereas crime victims' rights acts past here in Texas and at the federal
level guarantee victims the right to meaningfully participate in the criminal justice process,
including the elevating the voices of survivors, make certain they are heard and seen,
and creates a path to forging and sustaining community trust. Whereas survivors' lived
experience can serve as a catalyst for implementing innovative programs, shifting existing programs
in new directions, and changing policies or practices that prevent survivors from accessing
services or pursuing justice, and whereas national crime victims' rights weeks provides an
opportunity to recommit to listening to crime survivors in every space where decisions
are made that could impact them, and I would ask the court for its indulgence
to inter-lineate here. It says it's the district attorney's office that's hereby
dedicated. I'd like the court to recognize that Montgomery County, the county as a
whole, is dedicated helping crime survivors find their justice by
enforcing victims' rights, expanding access to services, and ensuring equity
and inclusion for all. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that so much for all of you who are here with us today. We have
Motion to approve this national crime victim rights.
Second.
We have a motion to second.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
All right.
Proclamation, D.
Do it real quick.
I would get in trouble by some of my staff
if I didn't point out that that was passed by Congressman
Ted Poe in 2010.
And one of my staff came.
She worked for the congressman.
So I have been hearing about this.
And she is so excited about this coming forward.
So thank you, Brett, on that.
Yes, sir.
Thank you Commissioner. Appreciate it. All right. It's also we have a
proclamation for 2023 soil and water stewardship week and April 30th 23 to
May 7th 2023. Do we have a motion to approve? Is there a second? Second. All in
favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. The court will consider discuss
and in its discretion take action on the following items concerning under
Item number 10 is County Judge and the first is Consider and Improve Resolution Order regarding
signature authority for approved agenda items. Currently in our consent agenda we have a resolution
in order that has me being the one unless there's a signature or be the one who signs
all the information. When we go to an open agenda what we do is we always will name
a person who's going to sign. This is cleanup allowing me to go ahead and be the
one whose signed continue to sign unless there is a signature word that is
mentioned. Move. Sir, a motion. We have a second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye.
Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Second, consider and improve
adoption of an order with respect to waste management, an ink project
and authorize the county judge to execute certificates of proving the
order in a public hearing. This is the landfill project over
we're increasing for refinancing through the sale of taxable bonds.
We have a motion to approve.
We have motions or a second?
I'll second.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
All right, let's move on in our discussion here.
Consider an approved user agreement between Montgomery County and
the big guy LLC authorizing County Judge Mark Keough to execute the agreement.
What this is, is there is a local film company that's making a documentary, and they wanted
to use our county jail.
They asked the sheriff of which he said, yeah, I would love to, but I can't.
That would violate our statutes.
We can't do that.
And so we said, hey, what if we could do it over at the jail that is above, over
in the...
Courthouse?
Over in the courthouse.
And this is a film production company.
It's a documentary.
I'm not even sure it's about jails in Texas y'all know who this is with Dinesh de Sousa
We've agreed to do something if we will you guys will approve it sure the big guy. That's him
big guy
Biden is it no no no no
Sheriff why don't you come can you tell us a little bit about this? I know you don't want to be involved in this
But I need your help here
Because he approached you
Well, I think he's the big guy on some of this stuff we're talking about.
Well, our big guy is not that guy.
It's a local film producer in the Woodlands who's done a lot of documentaries,
and he's reached out.
It's mostly a quiet project.
The county attorney is familiar with the project,
so I don't really want to talk too much about it.
But it's, like the judge said, he wanted to use the real jail,
and that just wasn't going to work.
So the district attorney and I and the county attorney we cut it up and came up with an idea where we could use the old jail
And it's actually an ideal location
For filming it's not used at all. There's really no purpose for it other than historical commission giving tours there
So we're able to to use it without any disruption of a facility
It's a used contract so they will be paying a daily rate the county attorney has come up with a daily rate for usage
Shouldn't interfere with operations at all so
That's great when I was
When I read this, I had no idea who the big guy was,
as Commissioner Riley mentioned, and then exactly what
they were looking to do with the county and county's office.
We didn't come up with a rate, by the way.
We worked with purchasing to figure out a rate
just so that if you guys are so inclined,
you can approve this use agreement for them
to do this filming.
And what is the rate?
They're going to pay $500.
$500.
$500 to rent the facility.
Per day, it's the old jail.
Do they have, do we have some sort of a hold harmless agreement or something signed by them?
Yes.
So it is a full use agreement just like you would have any other county property use?
Good.
Yeah.
The insurance, W-9, everything's on file, county attorney's office has made sure we're
all in the good.
Good to go.
Sounds good.
All right.
We have a motion to approve.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Listen, I'd like to go back, if I may, in the agenda back to the county clerk.
I skipped over 9a by accident consider approved commissioners court minutes from regular session April 11 2023 to have a motion to approve
Sir a second all in favor?
Opposed motion carries. Thank you
All right budget
Good morning judge commissioners. I have several items for discussion this morning
First one. I'll go through my regular agenda items 11 a memorialized previous action
on Commissioner Court actions taken on changes to the fiscal year 2023 budget for the following
departments, Constable Precinct 4, Sheriff's Office, Animal Services, Justice Court Technology,
Capital Projects, Commissioners, and DA4 featured.
These are just routine items that we do after you guys have voted on an item.
We bring back a BMF, a budget modification form for Commissioner's Court approval.
Move.
Second.
Any discussion?
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
motion carries. Next item. 11b consider approve and authorize transfers and
adjustments for the fiscal year 2023 budget according to budget policy. These
are just everyday changes that we we bring to you guys. These normally are
going to be departments that have that are moving money within outside of
their own departments or it's commissioner or sheriff's office budgets
where they're moving between like parks and community centers or parks and
commissioner's offices. Most of these are related to commissioner Charlie
So, this is according to the 23 budget, but the action that we're going to take later
on the budget policy will be for the fiscal year 24.
That's correct.
Okay.
Yep.
All right.
We have a motion to approve.
Second.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Item number three.
11c, consider approve and authorize transfers, adjustments and amendments for special revenue
departments and general fund departments for fiscal year 2023.
Most of these are going to be revenue recognition meaning that we're recognizing the revenue
that the departments have accrued and then authorizing an expenditure budget related
to those.
We have a motion.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Item D.
And this one's considered approve and authorized transfers, adjustments and amendments for
grant departments for fiscal year 2023.
These ones are mostly going to be related to ARPA.
Move.
second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Let's move forward. Okay next one I
have I'm gonna go ahead and kick off the FY 2024 budget. I'm gonna have something
to pass out real quick.
All right we're here at my favorite time of the year the
budget time where we get to go through and take you know departments request and
put them all together and present you guys an overall great budget that
benefits, not only our taxpayers, but pretty much everyone that does business in
the county and anyone that pays taxes as well. So for the FY 2024 kickoff, this is
the first beat, this is the beginning. We do expect to go full force. We'll have
a budget adoption scheduled for August 31st, August 30th, sorry August 30th.
I'm going to start with the budget office staff. This is us, the budget
team. There's four of us that make up this team. Me as the budget officer,
Sarah is my senior analyst, Wendy as my personnel analyst, and Christopher as my operations analyst.
We could be reached by our individual email addresses, but if anybody in the county wants
to reach out to us, they can also use the budget employees at MCTX.org, and that gets all four
of us at the same time.
So any budget questions that departments have, they can always reach out to us.
So the key responsibilities of the budget office, our mission is to manage resources
efficiently, effectively, and equitably.
We like to communicate the court's vision to other departments and elected officials.
research and compile data from other entities including citizen participation and any requirements by statute.
We also assist departments in their financial reporting for their departments.
Okay, for the state of the county, this is kind of where I like to give an overall briefing of, you know, where we are at right now in the county.
Currently for FY23, we've collected 97.7% of our FY 2023 general fund tax revenues with six months being left of the fiscal year.
So we still have a little ways to go, but we're very close to having a full 100% collected.
Where are we normally at at this time?
Yes, last year we were at 96.8, so we're pretty close to where we were, actually a little bit above where we were last year.
Tammy didn't take off last week.
For population in Montgomery County, of course, we're seeing huge growth numbers here.
The U.S. census estimates from July 1st, 2021 to July 2022 that our population increased
4.3 percent.
That's very significant.
And since I've been here, that's kind of been the trend.
We've continued to see some considerable growth.
Of 13.6 percent of our population is over 65 years of age versus the national average
of 16.5.
I think that's pretty important why we did some of the over 65 things that we've
done within the county hitting that population. I think this is a great
number personally. This is the labor force. Just from February 2022 to February
2023, we also saw our labor force grow from 300,000 to 309,000. That's workers
that are hitting our local economies, which I think, you know, ultimately makes
a growing community even better when you have those people that are, you
know, giving back to the community as well. Inflation, this is a pretty big
number. So we, if you remember last year when I presented these numbers,
the inflation numbers were off the charts. They were just so incredibly high. We're still
seeing high inflation numbers, but just to kind of give you guys an idea. When I got here in 2018,
we had a budget of $246.1 million in the general fund. That budget, the same budget today,
without any changes in services, without any changes in population growth,
none of that would now be $294 million. That's the buying power of our dollar today versus
versus what it was in 2018.
So again, the buying power for $100 back then
is now worth $119.57 today.
So everything is costing more and we really know that.
The biggest increase that we see on the inflation side
of course doesn't affect the county as much
but it does affect our employees is that food.
The food CPI increased 11.1%.
And most of that being contributed
by fruits and vegetables, kind of ironic.
Energy decreased 6.7.
If you guys remember at this point last year, we had seen fuel prices that were extremely high.
Since February 2022, we have seen a decrease in fuel from 4.3%.
Overall, all of the energy, especially our electric, has decreased a little bit.
So we may see some savings in some of our non-departmental.
All other items besides food and energy, we should have increased 5.4%.
Again, that's according to...
The housing market. I thought this was a good idea, a good indicator where we are. And
the median listing price for a house in Montgomery County in March of 2021 was $338,000. If you
remember the peak last year in March of 2022, that median house price was $401,000. And then
now we're back down to about $359,000, meaning that I believe the economy is starting to
level off a little bit on that housing, on the housing side.
You might want to send that to MCAT because they're still stuck in 2022.
Yes.
Yeah, good point.
There's something else about that this time last year.
I just did this for the state of the county address that the house would sell within 22 days.
Yes.
Now it is selling in 60 days.
And actually, George, when we looked at the, when we looked at the, Fred is one of the indicators we use.
We saw that last in fact last year some of it the point to sell actually was even sometimes in the negative because they were
Being sold even before they went on the market
And so now we're not we're not seeing that as much anymore either houses staying on the market a little bit longer
So I just think that this is also something to consider in the future. I think with you know anything
Specifically with Rebecca's department a lot of these people that maybe got their mortgages in 2022 when the housing market was pretty high
It might be something that we need to have to consider down the road five or six years
if there is a marketing crisis, a market crisis where, especially in the housing market.
The next type is the budgeting types that we do.
Most of our departments, of course, are going to do the department entry based off of
their FY 2022 and 2023 budgets.
But the Sheriff's Office, the airport, non-departmental, all of our Sally and
all of our benefits, those are all zero-budgeted, zero-based budgeted, including our capital
If you guys recall, every year, since I've been here, I ask the departments to take two
or three or four accounts and zero-base those accounts, meaning start from scratch, build
those budgets up.
This year we've picked IT software, IT hardware, mobile phone and data, and by mobile phone
and data, because that line includes both phones and hotspots, just asking departments
to break that up so we know those differences, and then janitorial supplies.
So those will be the FY2024 zero-based accounts that we're asking departments to do and we'll
show them again how to use that and how to do that in the software.
The other accounts, their department, Entryd, and like I said, they're trend analyzed.
All right, you guys pretty much know the budget process.
You guys are going to vote on the calendar today.
We'll do our training the next couple of weeks and we'll have some departmental
deadlines.
So this just gives a graph and we send this budget PowerPoint also to all of our departments
that they know.
You have a copy of the slide but it basically tells you in a timeline basis what our process
is.
All right.
The key dates for our budget calendar, again I passed out the budget calendar, it's going
to look like this.
And I have some extras here if any departments are here that would like a hard copy.
Basically the budget packets will be available in the Oracle budgeting software for operational
request, capital request, personnel changes and new position requests. We are asking that the PDQs,
every position request have a PDQ associated with it. Those PDQs sent directly to Dodie's office,
Dodie and Kathy. Not in Oracle. Not in Oracle. Nope. We're going to have those straight sent to
HR that way. It's a better efficiency in their office as well. The training classes, we're
going to have the first week of May 2023. And then we'll have the live packets available
by May 1st 2023 we're working on those just getting with our consultants to
finish up some some stuff so we'll have all of this information out there to
everybody. Departmental meetings as you guys know I do one-on-one meetings with
any department that wants to meet with me to go over their 2023-2024
budgets for this year we're doing those meetings May 2nd to May 31st so
basically the whole month of May if departments aren't available in that
they can let me know we can coordinate something outside of those
times as well. The Oracle budget sheets and Excel sheets are due to the
budget office June 22nd, 2023.
Again, for departments, budgets due to our office
June 22nd, 2023, which is a little bit later
than we've all ever had.
We're seeing some efficiencies in the Oracle software,
so we think it's gonna work out pretty good.
Amanda, the court after June 22nd,
will you bring us a list of every department
and elected official that did not turn their packet
to you on time?
Yes.
Make sure that we note that.
Departmental preliminary budgets are sent out
July 14th, 2023, and July 17th, 2023, we always like to try to get those bigger budgets
out first and then the smaller ones out later. The preliminary budgets will be distributed
to Commissioners Court July 21st, 2023. That's the Friday of a court packet. So you
guys will get that as part of your court packet. And then I will do your first presentation
of the preliminary budget on that Commissioners Court meeting on July 25th. Our budget workshop
now is not going to be that same week. We've pushed it back a couple of weeks.
So August 8th through August 11th we will have our budget workshop starting with of course the IP workshop
It is a regular scheduled commissioners court on August 8th. So we'll start probably directly after commissioners court
We'll have the proposed budget filed with the county with the commissioners court the county auditor in the county clerk
August 21st 2023, and then we will have our public hearing on the budget and tax rate August 30th
And then after the public hearings, that's what we normally vote on the adoption of the budget
We are asking if there's any citizens that have any inputs. There's a couple of
opportunities for those inputs. They can always email me and give me some of their
feedback if they have any. In-person meetings on July 25th, August 30th, and
of any departments are having Citizens Academy. Again, I'll invite me to those
and I'll come and represent the budget office and answer any questions. And of
course they can call our budget line and answer, we can answer any questions
that way. This is really important to me. I take this really seriously if
any citizen wants to meet with me, whether it's for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever,
I will meet with any citizen, okay, and that's make sure that you tell your constituents that
anybody that wants to meet with me regarding the budget, I'm interested in doing that.
Do you guys have any questions specifically on my presentation?
You know, in getting that information out to the public, one of the questions that
was asked in the last election cycle was, how come nobody knows about the budget?
to which I responded well you know we announced it we have it on our website
we've got our the hearings where people can come and talk about it but they
still don't get it how do what is the process for putting that out there it's
in the newspaper it's in a number yeah we put it on the web page we put it on
the newspapers we I mean it's filed with the county clerk so I need the
budget is open for public inspection of physical copy not just an
an electronic copy. Sorry about the mic. But also, we have thought about doing a little
snapshot videos. Tammy is part of her, when she sends out tax statements, also sends a
budget highlights page out. Again, if you guys want, we can provide any information to help
with videos or whatever that you guys might want to put out, press release, anything
like that.
All right. Thank you.
Okay, so the next thing I have is the budget policy, which I did make some
Minor significant changes. I don't know. They're they're they're significant in my piece
But for the regular departments not not necessarily so did everyone get a copy of the budget policy
I put as part of the backup if you don't have one I have a copy here for you guys
But just some things that we're gonna just some some basics
Does anybody first have any questions regarding the any changes that I made on the policy?
What are what are the most significant ones that you've made changes on? Okay?
So most significant changes we made were the first one saying that we did designate that
fund balance requirement into the policy, stating that the fund balance requirement is 19%.
So that is inside the policy itself.
Policy is a living document, meaning that it doesn't have an expiration date anymore.
Having it continue to go until you guys want to make any changes or want to add anything
to it or deletions, whatever it is.
We do have that all departments the maximum for them to transfer out of their budgets
to another department is $3,000 with the exception of IT and building maintenance of their specific
projects related to that.
What is their limit?
There is no limit for those.
I don't think they have that come to court.
I don't think any of the departments should be transferring money between themselves without
court approval.
Period.
Well okay, so you have Adobe licenses, that's the number one thing that we do
all the time.
It's a $93 license that and we're transferring those. I think we're doing on weekly. I mean, maybe you can have some but in general
I don't want animal shelter. No picking on them
They came to mind because they start with an A you know moving $3,000 to the airport for example
We don't have that
Then why have a policy that allows? I mean because this policy still limits that right and you also have the limitations of
The fact that they can't do that. Where's it currently now?
3,000. There's no change on that. The change was in the Road and Bridge Fund where we moved
it up to 10,000.
Yes. All right. Okay. Approach sheet.
But I mean, Commissioner, like, it's, you're voting on the policy today. We can, we can
make any changes.
I'm just saying I don't know that the departments should be moving money between themselves.
Lucky officials kind of different, but, you know, the departments themselves, that's
what the purpose of the court is for. We set their budget. We determine how their
money's spent.
So we had a situation over right before the new court, a new judge took office that 25%
role limited that department and they needed to pay a bill that they had and so they reached
out to one of their other, you know, judges and they were able to transfer that money
out of their budget to cover that.
That's the most recent.
It wasn't even close to $3,000.
I think it was even maybe $250.
But elected officials a little bit different than a department head.
I just think the department heads we should limit to court action and elected officials not.
We're going to be voting on all changes in Adobe policies and all that.
I mean, we've been doing commissioners with all due respect.
We've been doing it.
The business has been working.
It's not abused.
We bring them back.
Every single change that we do that is moving money from out of the department's budget
into another department, we memorialize that effect.
And on the other side of that, you can always reverse it, commissioner.
So if we posted it and you don't like it, you could always say, hey, actually, I don't
like this.
You know, we bring them to Commissioner's Court anyways for memorialization, and you
can say, you know what, I want to reverse this, and we can do that.
How much we raise in the commissioners?
To $10,000.
From?
$3,000.
And that's to cover because most of you guys have operations deputies, and that
just helps us keep those costs where we don't have, we're not having to come
to Commissioner's Court every single time, if we have a change on those.
Okay. Proceed. Okay.
The next one that I have is that TECO reports are required for any re-hire or
new hire law enforcement officer. We do have to have a copy of that TECO report come with a PCR
that just helps us effectuate the step plan. Again, we don't really care who you're hiring,
where they come from or whatever, but for us it helps us effectuate the step plan. We had
some issues with this arise where they didn't where the departments didn't originally send
as a TECO report, then we had to make an adjustment later.
So we really would like to avoid that,
so we're trying to get all the departments.
When we've talked to the Sheriff's Office about this,
they're okay with providing those as well.
So without the TECO, they can't participate
in a step plan?
That's right.
Okay, I got you.
Cool.
All right.
The next change is specifically regarding vacancy savings.
As you guys know, most of the law enforcement departments
have the ability to use their vacancy savings in 2023.
The Sheriff's budget's getting super tight with that,
So we're not there's not really as much vacancy savings as we've seen in the past
So we're asking the court, you know from from here on out that if a department has something that they're wanting to pave vacancy
Say we use vacancy savings out of they come to commissioners court for approval on that that it's just not automatically granted
I mean that's just going to you know really help us like trend that a little bit better
We have a lot of step increases and with the bilingual pay and all of these other pays that come in
Forecasting just takes a little bit more than just saying yeah, we you have this vacancy not money
you can use it so it's kind of stopping departments from using that vacancy
savings in the future and that's new correct that's new yeah it's updating it
yeah the next one is going to be the capital improvement vehicle and
equipment replacement fund that's setting those requirements on what
projects exist that are in that the kind of the factors that it takes for
us to for the vehicle and equipment replacement fund we have so we started
of that in last year's budget, maybe the year before.
And so this is just kind of setting out,
don't, for example, vehicles that are donated,
those aren't eligible for replacement.
Vehicles that are bought on grants,
those aren't just deemed eligible for replacement.
So any of those outside of our normal vehicle
equipment replacement policy will come to you guys
for a needed funding source for you guys to okay,
or just for you guys to okay the funding source.
What about the idea you and Gilbert were gonna come back
with a vehicle policy replacement plan
and when you get a new vehicle, you have to turn in an old vehicle.
That's in here.
Is it all codified now?
Yeah, that's all in this policy here.
If you get a replacement vehicle, by the time it's what we call, I think it's,
for each vehicle that is replaced, the old vehicle equipment should be sent to the purchasing agent
for disposition within 45 days of putting the replacement asset into service.
And that's really keeping the where, yeah, we're replacing vehicles,
but we're getting the originals back so that we can put those into the auction, get a little
bit of money to offset those expenditures. So yeah, we are asking for the department,
we're requiring departments, once they get a replacement vehicle within 45 days of putting
that vehicle into service, they have to bring the other one back to, you know, for asset
disposal, normally done through an A-Bates auction. And again, this is just general
fund departments. What you guys do in the Road and Bridge funds, I know you sometimes
that that equipment isn't a little bit different so but but this is specific for
general fund departments you know we're getting we're getting a lot more money
trading in vehicles than we are putting them in the auction yeah and we talked
we talked about that gobert and I did he's not here today but what we did talk
about that is right right now we we're able to do that a little bit easier
because of the threshold that Abbott gave us with not having to have things
procured with that going out of place we are gonna have to go back into that
anything over 25,000, anything's going to have to come back to you guys.
And so if there's a trade-in that involves that,
you guys would have the opportunity to say, hey, look, we're planning on doing this trade-in.
So that is something I talked to Gilbert about.
He didn't want me to put that in the policy specifically about trade-in.
He was afraid that it might go against the purchasing requirements that he has set.
So if we bring, and if we order a new truck or a vehicle and we need an extra vehicle for
our, you know, as far as us commissioners, do we still have to, if they were driving a
truck, we can't just pass it down or do we turn that one in also?
Are you talking about for year to for year?
For my, yes.
for you're not in the general fund you're the road and bridge fund so you
can really do I mean because for me the equipment that you have I'm not an
expert in that I'm really trying to and I'm not an expert in cars by any means
but cars are a little bit easier to replace because we they're kind of suspect
kind of all the same for the constables in the Sheriff's office but for years
I wouldn't even try to sometimes we give them to the airport or somebody
else you know back and forth yeah I do want to I just want to bring that
Because I did talk to Commissioner Gray about this and his staff about this, like that can
be a problem though.
I just want to make sure that commissioners know.
Giving, you know, transferring assets to another department, I agree that most of the departments,
they have some vehicle that, you know, probably needs to be replaced.
But when you transfer an asset into that and you fill out a form with purchasing,
they don't actually let, there's nothing that involves us to let them know that
we need to include vehicle maintenance and fuel the next year for that, for that
vehicle.
Okay.
So keep that in mind.
these departments could have overages related to their budgets because of fuel
and vehicle maintenance related to any vehicles that got transferred without us
kind of knowing about it. So if you are going to do that just make sure that we
get a copy of those asset forms, those asset transfer forms. And also the
funding source for that a lot of times is Road and Bridge and you have to be
careful about which departments you're transferring it to to make sure
that it's an appropriate use of those funds because you took money out of
needs to be somewhat related to the road and bridge function.
Well, in my case, we had a tractor that
had a arm on it that mows, and we replaced it.
But the airport could use it occasionally,
and it was still a good tractor.
And so we transferred it to them instead of turning it back
in, I guess.
And the equipment's a little bit different as well.
But this this policy is specific to the departments not to the red and red fund correct
I've got a question has it always been like that or this is new so with the VIRF
Just worries or anything I'm missing if it's a donated or granted vehicle to law enforcement
That doesn't fall under replacement right see where that can be a slippery slope
So I just don't want to
Leave someone shorthanded or overextend the county.
Right.
So on grant vehicles specifically and seizure vehicles as well, you can chime in on this
if you have any information, but on the seizure vehicles, if you later get rid of that seizure
vehicle, that money has to go back into the Chapter 59 account, it has to go back
into the seizure account.
We can't just pull that money into the general fund, so we are watching anything
that's seizure donations, grants, because normally those funds have to go back to
original funding sources required by normally the language in either in the
grant or for this case chapter 59 statute says that. Same thing with donations. A
lot of times the donations for a specific purpose and we accept it with
those conditions that it be used for the animal shelter for example and one of
the ones you picked on earlier. So if we take a donation for something for
the animal shelter if it ceases to be used for the animal shelter then we
to return that. Yeah. So in my opinion it's just not good policy to fund those
vehicles and those equipments out of your vehicle equipment replacement fund
because A, you want to check the funding source, C, where it originally came from
and then it's really up to the court's direct discretion it adds to do they
want to replace that donation vehicle because it's different when someone's
donating something to you but then turns around for example Constable
3 or Constable 4 if we replace the three donated vehicles he has right
right now that's almost $130,000 on the county budget that we weren't anticipating, right,
because we got the vehicles through donation. So it's just a way to look at it. I think we
should bring my personally opinion, personal opinion is we bring those back to Commissioner
Square. You guys vote on whether or not you want to replace those vehicles.
I was a separate item. Just the donated vehicles is what you're talking about.
Yeah.
There been a problem so far?
I think it's going to be a problem.
I'd like to hear from and maybe today's not the day but from we've got two
consoles in the house and the sheriff maybe hear from them if we bring it back
or if we're gonna keep it on today to get some other input yeah yeah I agree
with you so the other thing about this policy is the policy is like Amanda said
a living document subject to change amendments and you can always have an
exception on a situational basis. Generally what we've been doing for years and years and years has
worked and we've addressed one-off situations with individual agenda items for your approval.
I think that's how you leave it. I mean just bring it back and then let's hear from the people that
are directly affected by it. Do you have anything to say? Yeah. Well I think especially on the
law enforcement if they get a new Tahoe sometimes you can't get all the equipment in 45 days.
Oh, yeah, so I mean we're talking so I think this one reads after placed in
service so it would have to be actually with the proper equipment before it's
required to be returned it says after it's ready so we know we're not leaving
them without a vehicle and just for your information Commissioner Riley like
this year we with the vehicles that were allocated out we also
authorized them you can go ahead and order equipment so even though the
vehicles aren't in yet you know what how many towels you're getting or
cars you're getting. Now you can order whatever equipment is associated with that. We do give
them a, you know, there is a specific number we use for those replacement for the equipment,
but really it's up to the individual constable or the sheriff on how they spec that out.
I'm not going to tell them you need, you know, what kind of partitions you need and
all that. But we give them a set amount of money and they, for example, they can
order. We expect the vehicles right now to be ready in June. And I know at least
one department is already ordered equipment for their vehicles.
On the issue regarding vacancy savings, one of the things that I know that the sheriff
utilizes those dollars for is to pay down count time so we're not accumulating it, I think
he still needs to be able to have access and ability to do that.
He could still do that.
So explain and talk through how that works.
Yeah, sure.
So right now, the formula that we use is budgeted salary minus contract pay.
So if they have, you know, for example, some departments use contract labor minus any payout
that they might have related to comp paydowns, vacation payouts, not personal time, vacation
or comp time payouts, difference in compensation between a new hire incumbent that they know
that they're not going to give that person a raise and any over time associated with
the vacancy.
So we take the budget salary minus all of those things and that's what we consider vacancy
savings.
So it will not stop the sheriff or any of the constables or any law.
We encourage departments to pay down that comp time.
Everybody that knows me and that's met with me know that that's a huge, that's
the number one budget item I have, how much comp time do you have on the books?
Because I try to bring those numbers down.
I don't like liabilities that are going to cost us more in the future.
So, yes, any department head or elected official that has a budget available, they could definitely
pay down those comp time numbers within the policy that is drafted in front of you guys
today.
Yep.
Perfect.
That's good.
Thanks.
All right.
Anything else, Amanda?
I think that's the highlights.
Move.
I have a motion.
Is there a second?
Second.
Any more discussion?
Well, proceed.
do we need to make a motion to take this ver off line as a separate item is that
what we said I thought that's what we said talk about the vehicle yes to
vehicles that are donated yes it's not part of this I thought that's what we
said and we're talking but we were talking we didn't I didn't know we
came to conclusion it was going to be a part of the motion doing that wait
before law enforcement come in and give us their opinion on it if we can strike
this and move on the rest of the policy I don't know what the do we have to prove
this today I see do we have to approve this today I just setting a budget
policy helps departments budget better in my opinion the calendar is a question
Amy you'd mentioned that we've done it this way and as these items come up we
bring it in as a separate item in the court and decide at that time so that's
you have a couple of options today you can approve it as it is and you can
approve it with removing the vehicle and equipment replacement fund or what
you can do is also say approve it with a modification that we bring this vehicle
and equipment replacement fund back on the next agenda item and have people
here who would like to comment on it let's just share from a console we've
got two consoles on the sheriff let's hear does anybody having you'll have
opinion on it. Somebody come forward.
We can close it out. Let's close it out.
There you go.
So, um, the main thing that I that I look forward to is, is to be able to, um,
you know, one of my cars might have 135,000 miles on it. One of them might
have 100,000 miles on it, but that don't mean the one with the most miles
is the one that needs to be replaced. There's some that just run better
than others and stuff like that. Also with us, we just taken over in the
a couple of years with county vehicles. We need replacement vehicles, so I understand
all that coming in, but we also need vehicles that are on standby too. In case one goes
down, one gets in a wreck or something like that. Currently I only have two vehicles,
so if two of my vehicles go out for maintenance or a crash or anything like that, I'm down
to no loaner vehicles for these people. So I'd like to be able to, and there are
some specified specific vehicles like canine vehicles and stuff like that, that I'd
I'd like to be able to keep one for a,
one of the ones that come up for replacement this year
is gonna be a canine vehicle.
Well, we have three canines.
They can only use one of those canine vehicles.
So if one of their canine vehicles go out,
we're down a canine too.
So I'd like to try to roll one of those
over to a loaner vehicle.
Maybe we can set up some,
if you have this many deputies,
you need this many loaner vehicles.
I don't know how that works or anything,
but I know that every once in a while,
we get to where we have no loaner vehicles.
We have two people in a car
or instead of more cars out on the streets.
Does that need to be a part of our budget policy
or can we decide that as we go?
I think you guys, we need to discuss that budget workshop
because those are, in some of these instances,
the vehicles, yeah, it might be good to use it
for another six or nine months,
but in the end, the auction value of that vehicle,
where it stands, when it needs to be replaced,
is much better than trying to
wait until it completely dies so that's another thought you know that's another
part of the process we're getting on Tahoe's anywhere from 10 to 18 thousand
dollars on these on these older ones so consider that a new Tahoe's 34 37,000
and for an older one that has 10 plus years on it we're getting some money for
them so if you keep if you keep you know at some time extending them
where they're worth nothing then that's something to consider in the
future if we can keep the car that's worth $10,000 it already has
lights and sirens and everything inside of it. I agree with that. I think if you
bring it back and talk to us about it and we know ahead of time.
I respectfully
disagree just because they have they have a lot of pulled vehicles already
We're growing our pulled vehicle, our pulled vehicle requirements.
And as the man he only has two, I'm going to believe him.
I mean, I have two.
Where are all the pulled vehicles?
We can, I can bring you a list of showing, because I looked at it for every constable,
how many deputies they have versus how many vehicles there are.
It's definitely, the amount of vehicles they have is more than just two, plus two deputies.
I can tell you that.
Make that part of the bunch of packets and every department give us a list of every vehicle that they have find out what's going on
Well doesn't do us any good to give you deputies and not be able to put them on the street
And I don't think that's ever happened like let's be clear
We we always work very very closely that if there we would never allow a deputy to not have a vehicle commissioner
That's like, I don't think that's what they're saying.
I promise you, I'm on the same page as you.
The fact is that we just started with our county vehicles in 2019.
We don't have as many as some of the other.
I understand that.
And that's all I'm trying to say is that I come back.
I wouldn't have a new just to be able to come back and ask, hey,
I need to keep this vehicle and it's a canine vehicle.
Constable Cash.
I agree.
And so this is going to be like the other commissioner court policies,
whereas this is kind of the general.
When you have these one off, you always have the ability to come back to you to make the
exception.
And I think that's what Amanda's asking for.
We need to know the Commissioner's Court's desire on just kind of a general level.
And then when you have one who only has two vehicles and feels strongly that they need
to keep one, they always have the ability to come back and ask for you.
Yeah.
And that you have that with this policy, just like you have it with any other policy,
just like that we have it with a handbook or anything else the Commissioner Court adopts.
Honorable Cash, would you want to say something?
I'm in agreement with Chris.
You know, we do our own maintenance too.
We don't have a maintenance facility and we're at the mercy of maintenance facilities
that we have to contract with.
Sometimes they keep our vehicles for several days, weeks,
the same way with the auto ones in a fleet.
I'm 100% in agreement with them.
We have to have vehicles, spares.
They're not drove every day, but they're there when we need them.
It's critical to do our law enforcement, what we're doing for the community to have vehicles
on the road.
So can we get a subset of a working group?
So for example, they're talking mark units.
I don't even want to get into how many cool cars we have because we have municipal
agencies that ask for surveillance vehicles.
Cool, right.
Now, where do you think those surveillance vehicles come from? They usually come from the
district attorney's office. And so, because we have cool cars, because our cars are oftentimes
seized vehicles. And those vehicles have cool plates. And I don't want to speak a whole
lot more than that. But when a municipality reaches out to me, and they say, hey, can
we borrow a car for X amount of days, X amount of months, I have those cars. And we say,
all right, tell me what your operation is going on. Let me see if we can do something
and with it. Because they have patrol vehicles. So when you're talking about pooled vehicles,
as far as I'm concerned, your pool looks different than my pool because my pool is cool. And
there's our marked. So we have some operational things that go on. And of course I have county
vehicles and I have forfeited vehicles as well, which impact what they can be used
for. So maybe a subset of a working group for law enforcement vehicles.
which is where the bulk of it is is what we're talking about here so yeah
how can we can we do that I mean how do we implement that in this right now or
do we do it later I think you and Brett should get together and figure it out
and bring it back to us okay another issue oh and I think I think Commissioner
Nowak has to be on that committee if I'm gonna be on a committee he's gonna
to be on a committee too. We're going to let you guys handle that. I'd rather be on a
committee with these four. Is that possible? Yeah. And Amanda. All right. Okay, here, but
again concerning what what Commissioner Gray was talking about, Rowdy's situation, Constable
in precinct four, he has three donated vehicles that they they're absolutely dependent
on that are not part of this process that's the thing where it's going to
come up and be an issue and he's going to need to replace those but they're
donated and they're not we've never expended money from the county for them
and I think I think Commissioner that's that's what you were referring to in
terms of keeping those out of the out of this well it was it was part of it
you know and that's where I was talking about not over-standing and
getting on a slippery slope and you know someone takes 10 donated vehicles
all of a sudden they all go back at one time and then the county is on the hook for a place in
them. There's got to be a meeting. So there's a couple things. One is the
donated vehicles by outside entities are not eligible. And the second is you guys have to
accept all donations. And I think that every time we have accept donations we say you
understand that we'll be responsible for the upkeep or maintenance. And sometimes the
donating party agrees to do that and sometimes they don't and so whenever you
accept a donation to the county it comes with the obligation for maintenance
and upkeep of that vehicle. I think bigger than that is you you make that
agreement whenever you accept the donation so we need to know what we're
going to do with it when we accept it but I'll also liken it to the contract
vehicles so we have a whole bunch of those through multiple law enforcement
contracts they buy the vehicles on a reimbursement program and those
Those contracts usually dictate where that money goes.
If we were to trade it in, or if we were to auction it off, that money is usually earmarked
to go back into the purchase of a vehicle that may be by the contracting entity that
buys the rest of it, or it could be the county.
I don't think there's anything that has stopped us from doing that in the past, but-
Can we work the issue then of donations and how we process that and do that into
the policy that you all come up with in relationship to these poor vehicles?
I think Brett would probably nail that given the opportunity.
Well, I was thinking the same thing.
He was shaking his head, yes, I'll do that.
Once something's donated to the county, it becomes the county property.
Is that right?
We've been down that road.
So yes, when something is donated, provided that it's not donated with restrictions.
So sometimes, and it isn't generally law enforcement with restrictions.
Typically when they give things to law enforcement, it is for any and all purposes that law enforcement wants to do it.
on some of your other county vehicles,
for example, Animal Shelter,
they will have donated this for the purpose
of the Animal Shelter or something like that.
So it's, Amanda's policy has to be general enough
to cover all of the departments
and everybody with vehicles,
including purchasing and tax office
and anybody building maintenance.
It just seems like though,
I mean, Carly, we've been up here a long time.
I don't ever remember not providing a vehicle
for a law enforcement agency that needs one.
So I don't care if it's donated, we bought it.
If it fell from the sky, if they say they need a car,
we're going to take it up under advisement
and either agree to give them one or not.
It's ours.
Yeah.
I think we're making it way more difficult than it needs to be.
I think y'all bring back to us what you need.
We make a decision to move on.
OK, with that in mind, because I would agree,
let's move on.
Ken, are we in a position where we can vote on this policy
right now and come back since it's a living document?
You guys come back with the data
And then we can include it as we do it.
Can we do that?
Yep.
It'll be the open button there.
Matter of fact, I'd like to entertain a motion.
Well, we think we'll do it by the way.
I still don't know whether he's got his answer.
Yeah, I mean, we can move on it.
It's a living document.
I think she did a great job on the policy.
I just, sorry, I muddled down in the black and white of it.
And it could be an issue.
So I second his motion still.
All right, we have a motion and a second
to accept the budget policy as it is.
And they'll bring back whatever they bring back since it's a living document any type
of amendment that we need to put to it.
And Brett's in charge of that?
Brett's in charge of that.
September 33rd.
Yeah, Brett's in charge of that.
All right, we have a motion to second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Gray, for us getting to the bottom of this.
And Amanda, for all your hard work.
Was there a vote on the budget calendar?
It's all the same.
It's all the same?
Okay, cool.
Thanks.
Thank you for your hard work on that policy, Amanda.
all right let's move forward information technology I move on this for
commissioner gray I think it's great yeah we're very we have a motion or a
second second all in favor posed motion carries thank you Bobby lovely thank you
Bobby treasure let's move forward move on that too all right we have emotion on
the treasure I have a question if we may but do we have a second I'll second
Okay. Discussion. Here's a question that I have.
Yes, sir.
You know, with the failing of banks...
Yes, sir.
...we have investments.
Yay, many dollars.
Yes.
Investments that do not fall under the federal guideline of $250,000.
So if we have the money in a bank and it fails, what happens?
How are we guaranteed our money isn't lost short of putting it in banks all over the place?
Well, to explain that, so we do have some investments that are insured at the $250,000 FDIC level
and those accounts are spread out over many, many banks are insured.
But anything with our depository bank with Wood Forest is covered by a letter of credit
with the Federal Home Loan Bank.
And that's actually a whole lot easier than what we used to do and this court approved
in March of 19 for us to switch to that version of collateral from what we previously did,
which was pledge collateral, where the bank would buy securities, specific bills of specific
muni bonds, and all sorts of different collateralization up to the amount that we needed 110 percent
over our balance.
We switch to the letter of credit so that we are able to quickly, if would force bank were to ever have any issues,
go to the federal home loan bank and cash that in to recover our losses.
And so it's actually a lot faster because you don't have to actually sell the pledge collateral that you would have.
Do we trust the federal home loan bank?
Oh boy.
I mean, and then you have the Securities Investment Protection Corporation sitting on top of that
they've provided.
Yeah.
I mean, what you're saying is we're a vigilante.
Yes, sir.
I have no hesitations, reservations.
We've talked with our investment committee about this and our investment advisors that
we have.
We have met with the Treasurer of Wood Forest with regards to this as well as
all of their CFO and leadership team.
I have no hesitations with what we're doing.
All right, thank you.
Other than putting it in a mattress, Judge, there you go.
Not my mattress.
We know how well that works.
All right, we have a motion and a second.
Is there any more discussion?
Nope.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
And the donation item?
Second.
Item on the agenda?
Move.
I'll second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
All right. We have a motion just as the peace precinct three.
Considering except monthly collections, we have a motion to second all in favor.
Opposed, motion carries.
Michael Howard,
risk management.
Good morning, Judge.
Commissioners, consider and approve.
Changes, additions and releases on the surety bonds.
Move.
Second.
It's ready to discussion.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed, motion carries.
Thank you.
Jason judge that's in precinct three move I'm sorry it's in precinct three I move
second all in favor opposed motion carries thank you sure move second we
have a motion to second on this as well share thank you what we appreciate your
participation willingness to participate up at the mic all right we
motion second all in favor opposed motion carries console precinct five second
Yeah, all in favor pose motion carries
Conrad North Houston regional Airport
James
All right
This one is considered to prove the first amendment to land lease agreement between Montgomery County and Conserve air ink at the Conrad North
Eastern Regional Airport. I move on it
In discussion all in favor. Hi posed motion carries. Thank you
Tax assessor collector
Ida May is my monthly collection report for March and we are right on target.
We've collected 96.21% of our total tax dollars to date.
I'll move on that.
Thank you.
I have a question.
We just heard 97.7.
That's budgeted.
That's what we've budgeted.
This is total collections.
We don't budget for 100% of our collections.
Great answer.
Yeah.
We
have a motion.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Okay.
Item B is just memorializing the action that y'all took on March 28 to increase the
over 65 exemption to 50,000 from 35,000.
Move.
Second.
We have a motion to second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries. Thank you, Tammy. Sure thing. I got a telephone call from Paul Bentoncourt.
They're attempting to raise it to 100,000. All right. Good morning, Judge.
Justice Commissioners, Item 21, A, B, and C are all testimony required reports. Item A is...
We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
Rakesh, in each of these reports, the first report is basically an over-and-under report,
revenue in-and-out expenses.
The receipts and expenditures.
And it is according to what we have decided it's plugged in.
If somebody wants to go over it, they can't go over it even if they wanted to, correct?
We don't spend any money until we have any budgets for it, so let's talk about it.
The second report, it's really a balance sheet, and how are we tracking it?
How do we look for it?
We look all right. We look good. Any any concerns at all?
Nothing to report at this one time
We're under and we're good
All right, the third report judge and commissioners is the
This is the 800 page report, right? That's the report
You know it would require to furnish that monthly and annually as well
And obviously it includes the the audited act for that we did last month as part of the
Submission of the report
It includes all the other two, but basically, and also anything that's important that's
the more, the unnecessary that we need to present to the Commission's Court, including
all the previous reports we've done, status updates on the ERP, and all that stuff.
Okay.
All right.
We had a motion on ABCD&E.
Is there a second?
ABCD&E.
Okay, ABCD&E.
Is there, we have a motion.
Is there any more discussion?
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Proceed.
Okay.
Item D, consider and approve court interpretive claims for payments.
All together we had about 12 invoice claims that we processed for about $4,627.83.
How does that relate to the big picture of where we were and where we are now?
Two courts ago it was about $16,000 which included about three weeks worth of court run.
The previous court we had about $8,000, about $4,600, so the numbers look.
So have the judges turned in all their stuff or I mean there's a reason for it
going down?
Wendy again
so yes well that's all of our vouchers they're coming in to me
daily we process them through the same day that we receive them that's nothing
outstanding other than some vouchers that are several years old that we're
still working to resolve okay so we're catching your judgment the program is
working interpreters your order come on come on I think he just pays a bill we
pay the bill as they come through make sure that whatever it's worth which is
worth something it appears that it is and it's good management thank you we're
paying the appropriate right to have a motion to accept item 21 at D
Second. All in favor. Opposed?
Opposed. Motion carries.
I think he is the regular payment of a...
All right, we have a motion. Zero second. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Motion
carries. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, let's move forward.
Purchasing. Gilbert. Oh, Gilbert
So Gilbert Gilbert you've changed
Good morning commissioners and can judge and commissioners
All right first item 22 a consider and approve the renewal a project 1908 workers compensation third-party administrators with ASNG
administration for risk management
All right. We have a motion
Can we explain that just a little bit? I mean
Sure. Absolutely.
Probably Michael Howard can come back and explain it a lot better than I can.
Just briefly, just quickly.
It's our TPA account for our property and casualty and our workers' compensation.
This is the folks AS&G who do all of our claims actual processing.
It's the Boone Chapman for our risk.
They are the Boone Chapman on the PC and the workers' compensation.
So we're renewing.
We're just renewing.
This is the fourth.
Yeah, the fourth of the four renewals.
We'll go out and post it again.
Can we have motions or a second?
Thank you.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
Continue on.
All right, the next two items are item B. We're asking to approve a discretionary exemption
for Amigos Library Service and for the Houston Area Database Consortium, and then online
computer legal research is an item that can only be obtained from one source, West
Publishing, DBA, Thompson Rooters for various departments.
We have emotional proof.
Can you explain that too?
There you go.
Amigo's library services, that is something that the library uses as a consortium from what I believe they act as a pay-through service for the library, for digital.
I believe if the library is here, she can help me, but I don't think so.
And then the computer legal research is what all the courts use for their legal research.
courts, attorney's offices, district attorney, judges, everything that's west, our online
research.
I move.
Thank you.
Do we have a motion?
Is there a second?
I'll second.
Motion is second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Okay, next item, C, number one, change order number one to Larry Young Paving for
Project 19-49, additional rehabilitation of roads to add right-of-way prep and
backfill for various precincts.
Move.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Okay.
Next item, number two, change order number three, PO number 41430 to LJA Engineering for
Engineering Service on Call Supplemental Services.
Move.
Thank you.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Proceed.
Next item D, consider and approve the contracts for Project 2301, application for Clearinghouse Bank and Participating Bank with Wood Forest National Bank for the Treasurer, and Amigee Bank, a division of Zion's Bank Corporation for the Tax Office.
The award was previously approved to Commissioner's Court on 411.
Move.
You have a motion.
Thank you.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
E.
Move.
We have a motion.
I'll second.
All in favor?
I'm opposed motion carries F
F can go ahead. I
Judge I have a question on this. So sure the f the one we're talking about F F
Which one right at the end of shelter the animal shelter. Yeah, go ahead. So this I
As you know pretty much everybody up here taking turns running that darn place and y'all are doing a fantastic job
Thanks for so but that place has had when we were up when my office was over
there we had a thousand animals in there and you know you find a way to make it
work I think we all know it's a dilapidated useless facility for an
animal shelter I just hate to spend $65,000 to get a report that's gonna
say it's a piece of junk I think we can all agree to that and stipulate
that we need a shelter some point in the future we need a better plan but I
I don't know if spending $65,000 to get a report
that's gonna tell us what we already know is great.
Well, there's a couple of things
because that's a great question.
But first of all, let's go get the numbers right back
when you were in charge of that deal.
It was 658 animals.
No, there were days we had 1,000 animals over there.
We had 600 dogs and 300 cats.
In my research as I look back,
because you brought this up once before,
otherwise I would have not made an issue out of it.
So it's okay.
But we've got a lot of animals that you put there, and the problem was, at that time,
and the problem is now, is that you still have lousy sanitation.
The initial report that they paid for, I gave you guys each a copy of this, that PEGAL
did for us, went through these items with major considerations in animal capacity, program
capacity, sizing, configuration of housing units, the enrichment of the animals, no useful
traffic flow, inadequate areas for disease isolation, their significant infrastructure
deficiency including the dog housing units, too many animals, housing each room, building
ventilation, it's incorrect, it's not up to code, the continuous trench drains are
notoriously difficult to operate, they're difficult to clean, they cross contaminate,
they smell bad, they spread disease, they trap debris, and the list goes on.
Now, we know that it's been managed with this, and we're managing it now.
But we came up with, back in April 4th of 2019, if you recall, with PIGAL, who has done
an analysis for us for project understanding of the tax office, the county courthouse,
atrium building, quichin building, all-worth building, Sadler building, Montgomery County
Jail, and we neglected to put in here in the animal shelter.
Now, here's the deal. If we need to, if we're able to do certain things to be able to make
it more adequate so that it's safer for our employees, it spreads less disease and germs
and bacteria and are able to do something in the immediate, I have to have this additional
study from PEGAL to know what to present during budget. And without that, I really
don't have it. And so what we're asking for is, and it's a cost of $65,000. Remember,
The animal shelter paid the first 25 grand.
What more could PGAO give us right here?
What more can they do?
Well, what are you looking to get out of PGAO?
Here, Paul.
Paul's here right now.
Thank you, Judge Commissioners.
So our initial proposal was in two parts.
So the report that you have right there
is the Building Condition Assessment.
So we brought our engineers and architects and specialists
in to look at the current operation of the facility and the current situation.
And this next phase is the needs assessment.
So this will be more detailed and studying exactly what the shelter needs moving forward
and we will come up with some floor plans and square footage and a budget for you
to consider for a new facility but that's right how to fix the problems
that are already there I mean you're talking about the floor plan for a new
facility correct that's we are that's what we're doing we're talking about what
if we in a needs assessment what would it take for us because guys as
everything I can see is that you have mentioned in your report the county is
growing exponentially the amount of people that are here the problem is
not going away and it's getting worse and worse and worse judge was fighting
very hard to to to keep the steel going with this study set you up judge for me
with this study set you up to springboard into some kind of CDBG or
grant funding for a future location if that was the case I mean well if this
almost like a match or a public-private partnership or something like that to
to be able to move forward on something.
But right now, we're just shooting in the dark.
We don't know whether it would cost us 10 million,
30 million, you know.
Right, and I'll just throw this in.
I mean, we can study multiple options
with this second piece.
We can look at, can we update the current facility
in some way or add on to the current facility?
We can look at new or multiple situations.
as we had discussed is very difficult.
I mean, the office space, the hallway space.
Can we ever get the new incinerator to take care of?
I've been down there several times,
and I had spoke with them about the property
that's adjacent right beside it.
It's almost the same.
That it could maybe possibly be bought
and something built there and then revitalized.
And I don't know if that's possible.
That's the end that she talked about and tried.
I mean, it's a great idea.
My thing is, I know we need a shelter.
And you've built shelters.
you've designed shelters, it would be just as efficient for you to come in here and say,
this is a shelter we built that handles 2,000 animals or whatever, and it would be a lot
cheaper than 65,000, because it doesn't sound like you're going to bring back solutions
to the problems with the drainage and the poor ventilation.
The poor ventilation, building maintenance, we put brand new state-of-the-art equipment
in there.
When I went in there a few years ago, I know some of the ones are working.
we're hearing but it was it was we did some simple things like we put fan belts
on the fans but the biggest thing was is the odor and we put 16 oxidation we
spent $20,000 on oxidation machines that are going to be coming up to be
replaced in the near future and it still doesn't produce according to code
enough amount of turn of what it's going to take to get that that stuff in
and out of there plus the the kennels the lack of lighting the I've got
four people down there right now in an office space that is as big as from that corner to
this from that that's right there for people all working in desks it's it's it's chaos but
that being said I can't even go to somebody I can't even seek a grant I can't even go
to some type of public-private partnership or some of these organizations I don't have
a clue what it would cost or really what what it would look like so is there a way
So this 65,000 we're talking about spending is going to be a solution for him to come back
and say this is what facility we need, not what's going on there.
We already know what's going on there at that location.
So this will be a design, you'll tell us a square footage.
Correct.
Yep.
And we do have a consultant, a specialist, animal arts who we do a lot of work with
on the larger facilities across the country, they're a nationwide expert, so they will
provide all their expertise along with it and we'll come back with various options
for you and various sizes looking into the future of what you could need for a facility
and consider.
I agree with the judge.
You've got to have something to show somebody if you're going to go ask for a partnership
or go out for a grant or apply for grants.
Yeah, I'll say.
Beautiful funding source, Amanda.
Counties and cities are not required to provide animal control services.
And the fact that we do provide it, we've taken on that debit.
So it's kind of like a crazy cousin.
They're still your cousin now.
Now we got it.
So the focus would be to build a new one,
not to look at fixing the old one.
Because that's my issue with it.
The old one can't be fixed.
That place needs to be blown up.
We need a new shelter at some point and get the animals out first.
But we don't know which direction we're headed until we get that.
And we can't even have options until we get that.
I'm going to move on it.
If that's the case, then I would move.
Or second, I'll second.
All right, do we have a funding source?
Is there a funding?
Do we have it in contingency or where?
The animal shelter we did, the judge and I discussed,
is they have about $25,000 that they could contribute
to the project.
The rest would either need to come from contingency
you're another funding source. I'm trying to do it without contributing a total of
50,000 because we've already contributed 25,000 to the first study as it's and I
mean is there a way that we is the 65 do we have it in there or is there some way
we can divide it up to figure out a way to do this. Your contingency budget right
now is 231,000. Okay we have a motion animal shelter doesn't have any money
at all that could I think we have $25,000 they can contribute so we
need about forty five. We need it. Forty.
Forty thousand. The only reason I'm
asking for the full amount is because anytime we do a study we don't ever
ask that department to pay for that study. The only time I remember ever doing
that was the court. On their court study on this particular one we've already
put up twenty five thousand. I'm not just green. I'll do the rest. How about
off four of us throwing 10,000.
What they want to do, but they don't, I'll do it. Move
on Commissioner Riley.
Can we, let's, let's, yeah, we need to be clear about the
motion. Let's start over. Can we do that? Yes. Again. Do we have a motion? We're
gonna make a motion. I'll second that motion. The motion needs to have the
I'm sorry?
And the motion is going to be $25,000 from Animal Shelter and $40,000 from NOAAX.
Precinct two.
Well, I'll split it with you.
I'll donate $20,000.
So we have a motion in a second.
Well, real quick, I agree with y'all.
and I'll jump in if that's the case.
The road we're going to go down, but I go back to, this isn't a requirement by the county or the city, so I think it should come out of that fund that Amanda's putting forth if the funds are there in a contingency and set out your own personal road bridge.
Like you said, we've been doing this for years. It's our baby. We can't get out of it now. It's ours.
Yeah, can we do a funding source make it contingency up to $65,000?
Boom. All right, we have a motion. Is there a second?
All in favor. Okay
Motion carries. Hey, at least it wasn't my buddy. Thank you
Gentlemen appreciate it. All right. Let's move on. All right. Next. I don't need you. He does real quick
I'm up to 757 animals on 1013 of 16. I'm gonna get you the thousand though now
Okay.
Keep it rocking.
You're only there for six weeks, though, man.
Six months.
That's all right.
Go ahead.
All right.
Item G, consider and approve the award for project 23-15 for pavement striping for various
departments to Texas Lone Star pavement.
Move.
And y'all did a great job on that.
It's not your fault if a vendor fails to reply to an e-mail that you sent them,
regardless of how long that they've been working for us.
I don't think that should have been addressed like it was.
And so it doesn't eliminate him from the future.
show. Thank you. We appreciate that. We appreciate that. All right, we have a motion? I'll second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Last item, approve
advertising for the Lone Star Parkway at Buffalo Springs Intersection. Thank you. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you everyone.
Thank you. Environmental health.
Good morning gentlemen. I'd like to consider and approve the order to release our lien to acknowledge or
receive a check payment for the lien associated
to the demolition.
Move.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
Good
morning, Judge Commissioner.
Morning.
I move.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Is this A, B, C, D, and H?
Yes, it's A, B. I move on A and B.
Me too.
Rebecca, you have a motion to second.
Thank you.
There's no any discussion.
Can I ask a question to Rebecca about what Commissioner Gray said about, is there any money,
grant money available for this, for our animal shelter?
Speak into the microphone real loud.
Jason is it on?
Sorry, it's on.
There you go.
The green light.
So for CDBG, it cannot be used for that because that goes to low income persons.
But there are grants for animal shelters out there, yes sir.
Could you say that a lot of low-income people maybe will turn their dogs in?
Yes, maybe.
Mr.
All right.
Is there any more discussion?
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Let's move forward.
County attorney.
I approve an order authorizing.
Notice of the public hearing under local government code 232.009c1 for a partial
This is going to set the public hearing at 9.30 on June the 13th of 2023.
Do I need to read the rest?
I have a motion.
I'd like a motion.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Item precinct 2.
Move.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Precinct 3.
Move.
Second.
I have a motion a second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Those and these have been turned over to the county attorney's office so they
can manage this process right forward since right and we yeah yeah and we have
really what we wanted to do is make this public and searchable so we've given
them to the county clerk and that's why you're accepting them today okay
Precinct for precinct four second on D one through eight on the on one through
eight we've all gentlemen we've all looked at the backup on precinct for
one through eight. We know what it is. Can we accept a motion to accept all at once?
Yes. Yeah. Already is there a second? Move. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank
you. All precincts. E. Approve a resolution order accepting memorialization of registration
of one trademark for the airport. I move. All in favor? All right. Opposed? Motion carries.
All right. At this time we're going to recess among Gourmet County Commissioner's
Court to convene public hearings.
Consider and approve changing the street name of Dan Circle to Dan Drive located in
Glenmont Estate Section 2 to be consistent with 9-1-1 addressing MCAT and USPS.
Is anybody here to speak about that?
All right, if there's no one to speak, let's reconvene court, take immediate action.
Do I have a motion to approve 26A1?
Move.
Second.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
county engineer precinct one these are we have it yes can we do for all in one
motion can we do yes 27 a b c and d all in one a second all right these are all
plaid say discussion all in favor post motion carries please consider the
inappropriate request from park construction to move heavy equipment
across various county reds. Permit will expire on July 22nd.
We have a motion. Is there a second?
I'll second.
Motion is second. All in favor?
All right.
Post?
Oppose.
You're opposed?
Yeah.
Okay, we have one opposition for approval.
All right, 28A1.
Commissioner is precinct one.
Commissioner Walker.
Okay, consider discussed to take appropriate action
regarding opening positions for the anticipated tax office,
NX and Willis increased full-time equivalency spots in the following positions in their
correlated position budgets.
There's four positions were opening up there and this is going to be a huge thing for the
north part of the county to have a tax office up there.
The funding options, you know, on the build out and on the lease payments, you know,
Tammy's got money to do the build out and I'm gonna pay for the
Employees until budget comes around and then we'll talk to a motion. Is there a second second a discussion
All in favor
post motion carries and then the second part of that to is considered take appropriate action on the lease of the property
I move
How's that funded?
I'm paying for that.
Second.
I already had a motion.
Who wants to second?
You want to second?
Okay. All in favor?
All right.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
Cody.
Just to confirm, I'm sorry, real quick.
The build out is going to be paid out of the tax office CIP.
Just want to note that for the record.
Yes.
The money that we're transferring out of Commissioner Walker's budget for the salary and positions
is 114,482, 114,482, and 3 cents.
All right, thank you.
All right, concern except payroll change request forms?
Jody, can you read those one by one, all 90 of them?
Start with one.
No.
Well, I move.
We have a motion.
Is there a second?
I'll second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you.
All right, let's go ahead.
Right now, we're going to go to executive session.
court recess for executive session pursuant to one or more of the following provisions
of the Texas government code to wit chapter 551 sub chapter D articles 551.071. Thank you
and we shall return. We are back from executive session. Let the record reflect that Commissioner
Noak has had to leave and is not with us, but there is no action to be taken for executive
session, we have a motion to adjourn. Oh, I forgive me. Forgive me. Thanks for not making
that motion. Is time our citizens? Yes. Thank you. Oh, it works. Okay. Michelle Knuckles.
Michelle Knuckles, yes. Gargantz-Mell. I wanted to thank you all, Judge Keough, our commissioners,
and our generous donors, County Attorney Beatty Griffin, District Attorney Brett
and Judge Keough for helping achieve this dream of placing brave books in the libraries.
Thank you, Commissioner Gray, for your support.
Yes, ma'am.
And I also would like to thank our library director, Rhea Young, for her being very courteous
and kind as we work through this, and placing the books as well.
My friend and I would like to invite each of you to our next story hour on May 25 at 10 a.m.
at the South Branch Library as our honored guests with your family's children and grandchildren.
We know that you are all extremely busy and the work that you do is important.
But if you are able to break away, we would be delighted to have you.
A local author is going to read, and we will have coloring, a game, and possibly some music.
Kids love dance parties.
And we are going to celebrate what the Lord has done.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I appreciate that comment so much.
You said 10, right?
Yes, 10 a.m.
All right.
Are there any other citizens who would like to share with us today or make a comment?
If there are none, do we have a motion to adjourn?
I move.
Second.
All in favor?
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Thank you all very much.
Appreciate you all being here today.