[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.

Commissioners’ Court Regular Meeting

Transcript