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[0:29] We always add an important fact in there, in spite of ourselves.
[0:34] Yes.
[0:36] You never forget that. You do that. That's good.
[0:46] All right. Well, good morning. It's a regular session of the Tom Green County Commissioner's
[0:51] Court. It is Tuesday, January the 21st, 8.30 a.m., Fresno Commissioner Hulsher, Farmer,
[0:58] Bacon, and Nanny. We do have a forum.
[1:03] This time, if you would, join me in invocation
[1:13] Father, we come to you today and we humble ourselves to you, Father, you're a merciful
[1:19] and great God.
[1:21] Father, we thank you for this nation and the fact that we can have its musicianship, leadership
[1:27] in a peaceful manner every four years or every eight years.
[1:34] Father, we pray for a leadership that is taking place now, the new leadership that
[1:38] has just been sworn in.
[1:39] Father, those in the cabinet that
[1:41] are going to be participating in this,
[1:43] Father, we just pray that you continue
[1:45] to watch over all of them with President Trump
[1:50] and House President Vance.
[1:51] Father, we just pray for all of our leaders throughout.
[1:57] Father, we want to thank you for this country.
[2:00] We thank you for the fact that we
[2:02] have the freedoms that we have like no other else
[2:05] and no other place in the world. Father, you've given that to us and you've given us responsibility,
[2:11] and mainly it's because of trusting you. Father, we pray that this country will turn
[2:18] and return back to honoring you as a supreme ruler and leader of what we do, of our individual
[2:26] lives as well as those lives that take care of the rest of the business of this nation.
[2:33] We pray, Father, for this court and the decisions that will be made today.
[2:37] We ask for discernment and guidance.
[2:40] We ask, Father, that you forgive us where we have failed you.
[2:44] We thank you for the fact that you love us in spite of ourselves.
[2:48] Father, we do humbly approach you and we do ask for your mercy, guidance and leadership
[2:53] this morning.
[2:55] And I ask all these things in Christ's name, amen.
[2:57] Amen.
[2:58] I
[3:02] pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[3:15] On honor of the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God, one.
[3:25] Thank you.
[3:26] remind
[3:32] everyone please if you haven't please silence your cell phones and also
[3:35] that if you wish to approach on anything that was on the agenda you can
[3:42] certainly feel out of form and let us know that you want to speak to something
[3:46] our
[3:50] consent agenda item A is consider approval of the minister of the
[3:53] previous meeting B is consider traitors claim register and bills to be paid
[3:59] report claims
[4:09] register is four million four hundred seventy-one thousand six
[4:13] hundred seven dollars and twenty-one cents bills
[4:25] to be paid zero
[4:34] is that right
[4:36] okay item
[4:59] C is purchase orders in the amount of four million one hundred eight
[5:05] thousand four hundred dollars and forty-six cents item
[5:13] D is consider
[5:14] acceptance of tundra and counter personnel actions as presented.
[5:22] E is considered a county
[5:23] court month report for December 2024, connects from that 126,132.49. Item F, approve the bonds
[5:34] for the new elected officials as a matter of record. G is considered trapper's report from
[5:39] October 1, 2024 through November 30, 2024 as a matter of record.
[5:47] Any additions? Corrections?
[5:48] have
[5:55] a motion in a second. All in favor say aye. Motion carries.
[6:04] Item 5 is considered line item transfers and budget amendments.
[6:17] We have information technology,
[6:20] building repair, decrease of $1,000, $75 to annex capital building improvements needed
[6:27] for the additional electrical outlets.
[6:41] Contingent C, $8,500 to building repair for GHC, cost cover,
[6:47] and prospects invoice from fiscal year 24,
[6:52] little for the ad for the rest of the year.
[7:07] And juvenile detention, $8,420, capital building improvements
[7:14] into building repair for classifying the carpet replacement
[7:18] in the building.
[7:27] Have you heard of the line I'm transferred to Bush minutes?
[7:32] I moved to approve line item transfers
[7:34] and budget amendments presented.
[7:37] Second.
[7:37] I have a motion and a second.
[7:39] Any other questions or concerns?
[7:41] Well, in favor say aye.
[7:42] Aye.
[7:43] Motion carries.
[7:45] Countywide burn ban.
[7:48] We're getting there, but maybe
[7:50] let's give it another week.
[7:52] Good.
[7:57] No action on countywide burn ban.
[8:02] Item 7 is considered the Treasurer's Month Report in Singleton.
[8:10] I just wanted to bring your attention to the last page as we have increased our control
[8:15] to cover the influx coming in the beginning of the year.
[8:18] Once that slows, we will reduce it again.
[8:24] Other than that, I don't have anything.
[8:27] All in favor of the Treasurer's Month Report for December 2024?
[8:33] I have a motion and a second.
[8:34] Any other questions?
[8:36] All in favor say aye.
[8:37] I'm just going to carry this.
[8:45] Item 8 is consider adopting a resolution in support of utilizing electronic poll books
[8:50] and ballot marking devices.
[8:58] There is proposed legislation to eliminate use of poll books, electronic poll books, and
[9:06] electronic ballot marking devices, which would affect us in several ways.
[9:12] we would have to go back to paper and mark, paper ballots and hand-down and paper ballots
[9:20] and the old rolls where we would have to look them up and check them in and so forth.
[9:25] We would have them effective delaying us being able to produce lists of who voted because
[9:31] we would have to be doing manual entry and so forth on the poll books that we received
[9:38] And it would also lead into us no longer being able to use county-wide polling places because
[9:45] you wouldn't be able to ascertain how many ballots to send out to each of the locations,
[9:50] nor would you be able to verify if someone was checked in at vote center one when they
[9:55] went to vote center five and so forth.
[9:57] So there's a great concern that we don't want to have these eliminated, so we're
[10:02] asking you to approve this resolution.
[10:05] I appreciate the fact that you stay current and stay out in front of these potential future
[10:12] problems.
[10:13] I move to adopt the resolution in support of utilizing electronic full books about it
[10:19] marking the license.
[10:21] Second.
[10:24] Okay.
[10:24] Have a motion and a second.
[10:26] Any other comments?
[10:27] I will say that I think it's extremely important that we continue to maintain that.
[10:33] You know, I think that the last few elections that we've had are very indicative of the fact
[10:39] that it is a safe and very accurate way to do that, and we have an election where you
[10:49] have two hand counts that verify that the electronic voting took place was accurate,
[10:56] and there was actually no discrepancy to that, it speaks highly of that.
[11:02] And so certainly very much in support of us continuing to be able to do that.
[11:06] Well, we have state mandated laws that we do test and do a partial manual count after
[11:13] your election to verify that what we've done has been accurate and so forth.
[11:17] People really don't know what you guys go through at an election and after.
[11:21] Before the election, as well as after the election to verify everything.
[11:25] Yes, sir.
[11:25] That's true.
[11:26] It's very involved.
[11:27] And we appreciate what you and your staff do on that.
[11:30] Every election comes.
[11:31] Thank you.
[11:32] Thanks pretty much.
[11:33] Well, we have a motion and a second.
[11:34] Any other questions or comments?
[11:36] All in favor, say aye.
[11:37] Aye.
[11:38] Motion carries.
[11:44] Item nine is a continuation of the previous one.
[11:49] Consider adopting a resolution in support of countywide holy places and such.
[11:54] Again, this is a bill that's been filed and it was filed in the last legislative session
[11:59] and I appreciate your comment.
[12:01] but I am serving on the Legislative Committee for the Texas Association of Election and County
[12:05] Officials and we are watching this very closely and this is part of an effort for us to try
[12:10] to get in front of that legislation because it would be detrimental to a lot of counties
[12:16] in the state.
[12:17] I think we process the biggest amount of voters in the state with county-wide polling
[12:21] places.
[12:22] I reached out to entities that do have three letters of support, one is from
[12:26] City of San Angelo, San Angelo and the School District and Water Valley ISD and they are
[12:33] all very much on board. Even though Water Valley, you know, they're kind of out there
[12:37] in their own and they could have a polling place in their precinct that would serve the
[12:43] voters there. But we overwhelmingly have a percentage of voters that have voted outside
[12:48] of their precinct. In fact, I went back and looked at November and it's not unusual.
[12:53] We have a voting place in Christoval,
[12:56] right to the wall, and very best.
[12:59] And it's not unusual for those voters
[13:01] to vote mostly in precinct,
[13:03] because it's more convenient for that community.
[13:05] But in November, we had 67% of the voters
[13:08] that voted outside of their home precinct.
[13:11] And in great week, we actually had 63%
[13:14] that were from outside of their precinct,
[13:16] of 647 voters.
[13:19] In Christoval, they had a total of 439 voters,
[13:22] and 21% of those were from outside of the precinct.
[13:26] In very best, there were 252 voters
[13:28] and 40% of those were outside of the precinct.
[13:32] And then lastly, in law, they had 350
[13:34] and 20% of those were outside of the precinct.
[13:37] So that just goes to show
[13:38] that voters are being able to take advantage of that.
[13:42] And I've had many voters tell me that
[13:44] if we did not have the countywide program,
[13:46] they would not be able to vote
[13:47] because they don't have time from when they get off work
[13:50] to be able to get to their polling places and so forth, and though it's significantly
[13:54] reduced the amount of people that we had to vote provisionally because maybe they moved
[13:59] and I thought that where they live now was where they needed to go vote, they're still
[14:02] registered in the LPC because they didn't take care of the paperwork, all we can offer
[14:06] them is a provisional and it won't count because they're voting outside their precinct
[14:11] and guess what, if you're at 15-7, you have no chance of getting to your precinct.
[14:16] So the county-wide has allowed us to be able to also vote tremendously.
[14:21] And so I think that's very important.
[14:23] Additionally, it's been a cost that's more because we will have to pack additional equipment,
[14:28] which in turn increases our license support every year.
[14:32] We only have 40 scanners and we only have 40 controllers.
[14:35] And if we go precinct based on 35 precincts and then in elections where we do early voting,
[14:41] that supply. And you can't reuse equipment from early voting to election day. So right
[14:47] there we would have to have more equipment. So poll workers is another concern. We have
[14:53] been blessed to have steady poll workers, but each election you do struggle because
[14:57] somebody gets sick or somebody can't work.
[15:00] And so it would be a challenge, and I also think our voters have been doing this since 2015.
[15:07] So our voters have gotten very much used to being able to go anywhere they want to go.
[15:12] And if we have to come back and say, oh no, you're in the wrong place now, you have to go over here,
[15:17] that would be a lot of a challenge. And also you can't consolidate precincts.
[15:22] There's another bill out there not to be able to allow us to combine precincts for voting.
[15:28] And we can't do that now when we're having the primary runoff in the November collection
[15:33] for the primary year.
[15:35] So look at maybe consolidating, but we would be going up to 453 seconds at this point.
[15:42] I very much hope you'll support this resolution.
[15:45] Well, I remember when we, back in 2014 when we went to this, and one of the things even
[15:51] back then of even going to this was the fact that we wanted it to make it more
[15:55] convenient for people to vote so that they didn't have to worry about having to
[15:59] go to a specific spot in order to vote, but they could vote at any location. And I
[16:03] think it's worked out tremendously. And I would shudder to think what it would
[16:08] be like just as you explained if we went back to that whole system of how
[16:12] we do things. And so very much the support of the fact that we do need
[16:18] to keep the county white polling on that. Some of the smaller counties that
[16:22] can understand they don't necessarily have to do that.
[16:25] When you start getting up in larger in size,
[16:29] it makes a difference.
[16:31] And to me, it's more for the voter itself.
[16:36] If we want to encourage voting, then
[16:38] let's make it as easy as possible to vote.
[16:41] And by doing that, or you can go walk into any one of those,
[16:45] regardless of where you live and do that,
[16:48] we're supporting that.
[16:50] So thank you again.
[16:51] I know it's an additional work on you guys because of all the stuff you have to do on
[16:55] that, but still I think it's worked out great and hopefully the legislature will see that.
[17:03] I know some of the testimony that they're hearing is that it's not as transparent and
[17:07] it doesn't allow us to caught it as easily, but we're able to caught it.
[17:11] We always have been.
[17:12] We always will be.
[17:12] Yeah, it's exactly.
[17:14] You're exactly right.
[17:16] Well, it's an electronic world we live in, and it's hard to get back.
[17:20] I mean, I pulled up HV to get a prescription in today, and they said,
[17:23] our computers won't give you your medicine.
[17:25] I said, can I pay cash for them?
[17:27] No.
[17:28] No.
[17:29] You could come back another time.
[17:31] Oh, my God, please.
[17:33] You know, I don't want to.
[17:36] We do still know how to do things the old way.
[17:38] We have to do that.
[17:43] Any dilution?
[17:44] I moved to Adopter Resolution in support of county-wide pool and places.
[17:50] second. I have a motion to take any other comments or questions. All in favor say aye. All right.
[17:57] Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate so.
[18:04] Item 10, consider approving the
[18:07] issue of a FY25 purchase order decision ticket invoice number 2023-2024 for FY24
[18:18] insurance consultant fee and the amount of $28,000 and approves the associate's
[18:22] line transfer. Good morning. This was an invoice that was not received or paid for
[18:31] fiscal year 24. Unfortunately it was not paid by the deadline. So we are
[18:39] asking for an additional $28,000 also in professional fees to be able to pay
[18:47] both fiscal year 24 within fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 25. Any questions?
[18:58] My understanding was kind of an oversight on both sides. I just didn't realize I hadn't sent us
[19:03] the invoice and we didn't realize that we hadn't paid it. And I have a calendar reminder. So we
[19:09] can avoid this again. Let's put something in place so we avoid these. Yes, yes.
[19:39] I
[19:42] believe the line of transfer is just covered at 24 or motion
[19:52] second
[19:53] second. All in favor say aye. Motion carries. Thank you.
[20:02] Item number 11 is
[20:04] consider city of St. Angelo short term public facility agreement,
[20:07] McNeese rental for May 1st, 2025 for the union employee appreciation luncheon.
[20:14] So moved.
[20:18] I have motion to second.
[20:22] All in favor say aye.
[20:31] Somewhere there's a signature on there.
[20:38] Item number 12.
[20:39] So, yeah, excuse me.
[20:43] Consider adopting interlocal room between Tom Green County
[20:45] and Stage Low for the provision of commercial driver's license
[20:49] training.
[20:50] This is something we've been working with on them.
[20:53] They do in-house CDL training, especially
[20:57] in our road and bridge area.
[20:58] We have difficulty because it's really difficult to obtain
[21:02] CDL driver's license.
[21:04] And so, we do happen to have a couple of individuals on our road and breeze that do not have CDLs.
[21:11] This gives them an opportunity that they can go to the class with the City of San Angelo.
[21:19] And I believe it's a lot cheaper too for what it's going to cost to get that licensed
[21:25] by going through the imps.
[21:26] So, I'll make the motion that we adopt the local agreement between Tymur and County
[21:32] this installation for CDL training. Second. I have two seconds. All in favor say aye. Motion carries.
[21:45] I'm 13. It's considered opting to interlocute between Tom Green County,
[21:48] City of Stanislaw, for provision of water during Ivy shutdown. This is another
[21:54] issue that we've come up with. Ivy lines shut down. When our road and bridge crews are
[21:59] working on roads they need to haul water. The IV line is over in precinct one
[22:04] and so when they're working on stuff over there if they need water they're
[22:08] going to have to drive all the way back over either into precinct two somewhere
[22:12] or back over to precinct three to try to find water. What this one's going to do
[22:16] is allow us to connect them to a fire hydrant helped by the Gateway Drive
[22:22] and 380 so it'll keep them from having to drive all the way back into
[22:26] town. The other part of that is this is just an emergency type contingency item. It'll be in place.
[22:35] Right now we're able to get the water from other sources, but in the event that our pump goes down
[22:42] on one of the trucks or something and they can't pump the water to pull it out where they're
[22:46] pulling it out of. We got to have something that has some pressure behind it so they can fill
[22:50] the trucks up. So I'll make the motion that we approve the interlocument between Tom Green
[22:55] County citizen float from water during the Ivy Lounge shutdown?
[23:00] Second.
[23:02] Motion in second.
[23:03] Any other questions?
[23:04] All in favor say aye.
[23:06] Aye.
[23:06] Motion carries.
[23:09] Item 14, consider applying for the U.S. Department of Transportation raise program for 1.2 million
[23:15] in support of countywide planning efforts.
[23:17] Commissioner Nanny in Miss...
[23:20] I'm here for support.
[23:21] Okay.
[23:22] Yes sir, we're growing and with two interstates on the horizon coming through our county,
[23:30] I think it's wise if you have a master plan to get the county, the city and the state
[23:36] all on the same page as far as planning.
[23:39] This is a no match grant and I think it's the right thing to do to provide
[23:46] well-thought-out routes for our residents and get them to their jobs, to health
[23:56] gear, schools, shopping, etc. And do you have anything else to add, Ms. Ferguson?
[24:04] I have the highlights of the grantor. It's $1.2 million request for planning.
[24:10] This is just the application phase of it. There's no match, so there would not
[24:15] be a cost associated to the county for the application, the payment tax and reimbursement.
[24:22] So we would have any payments we would pay up front and then ask for that money.
[24:29] I move to apply for the U.S. Department of Transportation Rays Program for $1.2 million
[24:34] to support county-wide planning efforts.
[24:42] Have a motion and a second.
[24:44] Yeah, if anybody has ever looked at the City of St. Angelo's thoroughfare plan,
[24:50] And I think that thing was done 20 or 30 years ago.
[24:54] These have changed a lot.
[24:55] And so now that we've got the possibility
[24:58] in the future with these two interstates,
[25:00] we've also got the relief route
[25:02] that's gonna be coming up on the north side
[25:04] of San Angelo that's in the works.
[25:07] And so definitely some planning
[25:09] between the county and the city.
[25:12] The base and tech spot is definitely warranted.
[25:16] So it's a good idea if we can get some money
[25:19] to help us with that planning and get everybody on board. That's great. I appreciate Sean for
[25:26] Mr. and Annie for looking into this and working this out. So, all in favor say aye.
[25:34] Motion carries. Thank y'all. Items for future agenda, go
[25:45] in twice.
[25:48] All right, any announcements?
[25:49] I hope everybody had a good nice long weekend previously.
[25:58] If not, then it is 8.55 and we will be adjourned.