Commissioner's Court - Regular Meeting

Yes, you do, Jerry.

The 59.

I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

Jim Woods County Commissioner's Court, today, August 31st, 2021. Agenda item number four, previous minutes, 4.1, discuss, consider, and take action to approve minutes from previous meetings.

Motion to approve items presented, gents.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Agenda item number five, consent agenda items will be voted upon in one vote and will not be discussed separately unless requested by the county judge, commissioner, or citizen. 5.1.

Judge, commissioners, I've reviewed all the budget amendments and they are allowable with y'all's approval.

Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All those people say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Mayor's office.

Agenda item number six emergency management Lance brown 6.1 discuss consider and take action on immediate immediately adopting an order prohibiting outdoor burning. in unincorporated areas of Jim Walls County for the period of 90 days due to current drought conditions and elevated Keech Bryant Drought Index KBDI levels pursuant to Texas Local Government Code 352.081 and authorize the county judge to execute the order.

Lance Brown, Jim Rose County Emergency Management. As we spoke two weeks ago, I told you that it would probably be coming. We were at 489 two weeks ago. As of 8-29-26, two days ago, we were at 614. So we're in extreme drought-like conditions. As of right now, I mean, it's pretty cut and dry. You know, we need to go into a burn ban for the next 90 days. And then, of course, you know, judge has permission to lift it if we catch a substantial amount of rain and our KBDIs get below 500.

Motion to approve the burn ban.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Opposed? Motion carries. This is the order, Ms. Glantz? Yes.

Yes, we got it this morning.

And i'm 6.2 discuss consider and take action on authorizing the county jim was county fair. was all a new wash rack at the goat and pig barn area.

Lance brown jim was county emergency management. Commissioners judge what they want to do is right there were a few years ago, I think it was in 23 Commissioner Gonzales and and you judge y'all put in a covert right there on the north side of the pig barn and. What they're doing now that the goats are with the pigs, there's just not enough room for them to share it at the same time. And it's a real steep ramp for the pigs on the old wash rack. So what they want to do is, if you're looking right here where they come in, right here to your left, going towards the old wash rack, there's already a concrete slab there, but they're going to break that out because it's real broken crack and stuff. So they're going to go seven feet out by 20 foot long and put a new concrete slab in. And then they're going to put portable panels up, the portable pig panels, put those up. So that way, and it's going to have a little lip on it as well. And then they're going to have the drain on the front left corner. It's 22 feet to tie into the existing, I don't know, Yeah, the manhole, the sewer line, the septic line. So it should be very economical. It shouldn't be very tough. And it's not costing the county anything. The Fair Association is going to be paying for it. So we just wanted, Judge wanted to bring it to court and Mr. Gonzalez and everybody wanted to bring everybody up to be in this county property that we're going to do everything by TCQ guidelines to add four water spigots in there. So that way the pigs will have their own and then the goat will have their own as well.

Motion to approve item is presented.

I have a motion in the second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Agenda item number seven, Nancy Siren Tower. 7.1, discuss, consider, take action on relocating the county emergency warnings siren tower, currently located at 6175 US Highway 281, to county-owned property located across the street from Bembold High School, and authorize all actions necessary or related thereto.

Lance Brown, Jim West County Emergency Management. Dave Kuntz, Judge commissioners I sent an email and I tagged judge and Commissioner Gonzales we've talked about this in previous court on 824 at 909am along with Mrs about I asked for three more bids for this right here, because he came in at 9500, and this is a. This will get us for the next 30 years. The siren belongs to the county, but it's their siren, so to say. It's not like we could go out there and do it ourselves because you have to calibrate this to the National Weather Center. So there's some technical issues that come along with it. As Mr. Gonzalez had said earlier that he had some people that could remove it and install it. So that was one thing that I want to know. So this bid that we have right here, This is taking it down from its current location off of 281, moving it to the bim bolt county property, putting in a brand new pole, calibrating it and putting it on solar panel. So, you know, in the event that the power goes out, the sirens are still going to work. That was their recommendations. I spoke to Mr. Andy this morning. and told him that I would need it. The other quotes, he said he's been busy out in the field. So we've been communicating and this is what he said. The first quote is for the 9500. That's the one that I just explained. If we were to hook it up to power, it would be the same price, the 9500. The county, city will be responsible for any permits, inspections, and bringing the power to the pole. That's if we do electrical, right? The third quote, installing a new pole and you taking the equipment off and then installing it on the new pole with the solar panel would be $8,500. So we would save $1,000 if we put the pole over there and, you know, did that ourselves, buy the pole. So it's almost not really worth it, right? And then the second one should, the fourth one was the county installed the pole and you taking it off and installing it to power. it's still 8,500 so it's 9,500 2 times and 8,500 if we try to do it ourselves. So, you know, if you looked at a price of telephone pole, I'm sure that's probably a couple hundred bucks and then labor and all that, you know, it's probably gonna end up costing us more than that. So Mr. Gonzalez and I and judge been in communications. We're technically underneath the $10,000 threshold, but we decided to go ahead and bring it to Commissioner's Court for y'all's decision on what y'all wanna do one way or another.

Lance, this 9500 is gonna, side seal and deliver it over there.

That's right, this is turnkey. Yeah, this is, yes, this is turnkey. I think whenever I was speaking, me and Mr. Gonzalez were talking to him on a conference call and Patrick Thomas, I think that they said the turnaround was gonna be four to six weeks Um, because we told him that, um, I think our drop dead date was in November, right?

For, um, for at least he's fired. Okay.

October 34. Okay. I couldn't like me and Mr. Gonzalez were talking about it. So I will, I will get them and notify them. And he said that in November, I told him it might be the end of November. He said that he could have it done before the end of November, but I can probably put a rush on it and have it done before October 31st. with y'all's approval, but time is of the essence.

I have a question for you, Mr. Brown. So you're saying it's $9,500 if they move it, and it's $8,500 if we move it and they calibrate it?

Basically, we save $1,000. Yeah. I have it in text message. I can forward it, take a screenshot and forward it to you guys, or y'all can take a look at it right here. That's all. That's what he had to, that's what he just said. He was going to email it to me. And I told him just to text it to me because that could be important. It's got 9,500 two times and then 8,500 for the other. And one of the 8,500s was electricity though. then we'd have to be have electricity bill.

So how so we've had it there for 25 years, 30 years plus. I think I can't remember what the date was, but it's been up there since Judge Saenz was here. We haven't had solar panels. We've had it on electricity.

It's on direct power. It has a battery backup. Yes.

But we're just saying. Which goes directly to the main line, not.

Right. Yeah. So so it's got main power that goes to the siren and then it's got a battery just like what we have. uh in the dispatch you know if we have a major hurricane and we're down for two weeks it's not going to work after probably eight hours you know and that's and they come in they're servicing those uh now quarterly uh for us patrick and i got them on a schedule um so they're coming and testing and function testing them every quarter as we do with all of our generators as well um so yeah it's um the problem that i have is that why is it so expensive to just I don't know.

They're going to set it up. They're going to put it back in there.

That's a technical question. I mean, you and I can't do this because you have to get it allocated and it has to talk with the National Weather Center because they have the keys to it as well where it sends a message. If there's a tornado that pops up and in 30 seconds they see it, they can sound the alarms faster than what Patrick and I could do.

On a different note, you said it'll have power and then it'll have solar panels to charge the batteries.

So one quote is for it to have power with the solar panels. That's the quote that you're looking at right now. That's turnkey. It'll have a battery bank in there. It'll have solar powers. and we won't have to worry about it for the next 30 years. If we do it, the other 9,500 is we can do it off of electricity, but we'd have to bring the electricity from there to there, and then they would hook it up. So basically, in a sense, we'd have to get a meter loop tied in there. We'd have to have a transformer and then a meter loop.

There's already a transformer there.

Oh, there is a chance. Okay. So then all we'd have to do is just tie in and have a meter loop and a breaker system. Now, but still, that's still going to be probably an extra $500, you know, or more for that breaker box.

Did we go up for bids, you said?

So I was talking to Judge on this. It's proprietary. This is their equipment. I mean... You just said it was ours. So it's ours, but it's kind of like AT&T and Verizon, right? They're only going to... Gooder Enterprise is going to work on that equipment. And that's what we have throughout the entire county. So I mean, we could go out for pids, I guess, and get one siren. But it's going to be probably $15,000 or better to replace it, to put it brand new. Maybe $20,000. I don't know. I haven't looked. I don't know. I was just tasked with getting this moved. Or it could stay there, and y'all could keep paying for it. That's why we wanted to bring it to court. In the long run, if we move it to governor property, in the long run, it's going to save us.

The bid that we had gotten was based on safety and security, right? Correct. Make a motion to approve.

Second.

Motion to second. Can we clarify? What are you approving? We're going to go out for bids? No. To approve this bid, we usually don't bring anything under $10,000 to court. This is something that we don't usually do. So I guess, Weecher, you wanted to bring it to court, right?

Yes. I guess it was, come on, $9,500. The threshold is $10,000. The bid that I got was $5,500 to move it. Where's that bid? I thought we were going to go out for bids.

But that's $5,500 to move it. That's not installing it. The people that take it down, it would probably cost them another $5,000 or better for them to calibrate it. As well, I mean this is calibration turnkey talking to communications absolutely we do a nothing and on solar at the at the 9500. Because do on your bid, Mr Gonzalez did they say that they could calibrated and they could do everything like that as well.

Oh sure that was just moving it so it's six to one this way or half a dozen understand how it's so expensive to calibrate you're talking about thousand dollar difference between calibrated installing.

I'm not a technical guy. I have no idea what it takes.

You can't say no to it.

But I mean, it's also 50 feet up in the air, too. And it's in a better logistical area as well on the county property, I think. And Patrick and other people think as well.

I'll just say these people take care of those mass notification systems. They're the experts. Something goes wrong with the other party, it doesn't work properly.

They're bonded and insured, and this is what they do for a living. You know, we don't want to have four other sirens work, and if this one doesn't work for whatever reason, we take the responsibility off of us, right? Trying to save a dollar doesn't cost that much more money to be fancy. Thank you.

I just want to add one thing. I got to stress, October 31st, that lease expires. You've got two months to get it out of there. It doesn't have to be, I mean, I guess there could be, there's going to be some downtime where we're not going to be protected while you're transitioning, but it's got to be out of that property by October 31st. It doesn't necessarily have to be up in a new location, but otherwise we're going to have trouble with the lessor.

Lance, how long was the transition?

He told me that whenever I talked to him on the 24th, he said, depending on what we say, he thinks he could probably get it done in two to four, six, two, I mean, four to six weeks lead time because he said that they're super busy. They're based out of Oklahoma is where they're based out of, according to the address right there. Oklahoma City. So as soon as we get done, I'm going to call them and get them on the phone and say, yeah, it was approved by commissioners. And I'll tell them that it has to be done before October 31. And just I got to take a chainsaw myself.

Yeah, let's just make sure that we push to get it completed before the expiration date.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign.

Aye. And I'm going to guess, except I feel that we should have put this item up for bids. Simple as that.

And item number eight, county auditor, Cindy Garcia, 8.1 certification of funds by county auditor and state grants into general fund number 12 in the amount of $25,000.

Yes, commissioners court pursuing to local government code 1110108. I hereby certify that Jim Wells County has received $25,000 from state grants deposited into general fund. These funds are designated for expenditures to be incurred by the general fund and are available for appropriate use. The certification authorizes the inclusion of these funds in the 2026 budget as an amendment. Since these expenditures will be funded and paid by a general fund, I respectfully request the following amendments to the 2026 Jemele County budget. On the revenue side, it would be grants received at $25,000, and expenditures on the equipment side at $25,000. Motion to approve items .

Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say sign. Motion carries. Item number nine, Grant Administrator Norma Salas, 9.1, discuss, consider, and take action to open the request for qualifications received on August 19, 2026 for Jim Wells County GEL Evaluation Project. number 2026CJ001. The RFQs will be open and forwarded to the Evaluation Committee for review and recommendation.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners and everyone. My name is Norma Salas. I'm the grant administrator. These are the bid packages that we received for the RFQs for the GEL evaluation.

First one is RFQ is the Broadus Company. Broadus Company is out of 1100 East Jasmine Avenue, McAllen, Texas. The next one is BSN, BSW, Brinkley, Sargent, and Winton, architects. 4851 LBJ Freeway, Suite 800, Dallas, Texas. Butler and Cohen. 1200 Southwest Freeway Suite, 1575 Houston, Texas. This next one is Turner and Ramirez Architects. 13300 Old Blanco Road, number 175, San Antonio, Texas. Next one is submitted by Ice Engineering. 261 Saratoga Boulevard, Corpus Christi, Texas. So we had a total of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Lance, pull me out to Turner and Ramirez.

Oh, did it?

Okay, it was mailed out from here. Okay, they have two addresses. 3751 South Alameda Street, Corpus Christi, Texas. And they're in association with DRG Architects from 13300 Old Blanco Road, number 175, San Antonio, Texas. OK, so we have a total of five. Can I entertain a motion? Motion to approve item as presented, Judge. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I think the evaluation committee will meet tomorrow. And we're going to put it on the agenda for Friday the 4th to approve an award and get this project going. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Thank you. The next.

9.2 discuss consider and take action regarding the proposal the proposed resolution of jim wells county home program potential conflict of interest involving jesus alvaro coronado homeowner applicant and county employee

Yes, sir. Mr. Coronado is in the process of doing his application for the home grant program. And this is needed through our home grant program requirements that we have to have a resolution stating that he has, we have no conflict, that he's doing all what he needs to do as every other applicant is doing for that program. So they're at the they're asking that we need to approve this resolution.

Okay. This is a resolution to 20, 26, 0, 8, 31 on 01, a resolution acknowledging and making the exception to a potential conflict of interest regarding a home program applicant or as Jim Walls County acknowledges the potential conflict of interest regarding Jesus Alvaro. Coronado, a home program applicant and employee of Jim Wells County and whereas the Commissioner's Court acknowledges and makes an exception to the potential conflict of interest to allow Mr. Coronado to apply for and receive assistance provided he meets all applicable home program requirements and whereas no applicants will be denied assistance as a result of providing assistance to Jesus Alvaro Coronado. Now therefore be it resolved that the Jim Wells County Commissioner's Court hereby acknowledges and approves the exception to the potential conflict of interest regarding Mr. Coronado's home program application. I want to make sure that there's no conflict of interest, and we want to make sure that Mr. Coronado doesn't get denied any access to any benefits as his being a resident of Jim Walls County as any other residents would be.

Yes, sir.

Motion to approve item number 9.2 as presented, Judge.

I'll second the motion.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed same sign. Motion carries. Just item 9.3, discuss, consider, and take action to authorize County Judge Pedro P. Trevino Jr. to issue a request for proposals, RFP, or administrative and construction management services related to the home investment partnerships program, the home program, homeowner reconstruction program by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Yes, sir, this right here is our RSP agreement for the prior one that we've had is going to expire in October, so we need to go out and. get our our piece out to get a grant administrator to help the county to apply. for the future one. And so being that whatever we have right now that we're working on, on the home program right now, GrantWorks will continue helping the county for that, but this is for the future, for the next. And the RSPs are good for three years. So the one that we have prior, You know, even though we.

The one we're working on right now, that's a done deal. Yes, sir. This is for the next round of applications and awards and all that.

So.

I'll make a motion that we approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Agenda item 9.4, discuss, consider, and take action to approve a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, TDHCA, to participate in the Texas Home Investment Partnership Program, Home Owners Reconstruction Assistance Program.

Okay, so here we're asking the court to give us permission, the judge and the county, to go in and submit to get the application going. Once we get the grant administrator that will be helping us to fill out the application, we already have this intact, so we will proceed. There will be no delay, so we'll be in the flow of getting our application submitted and all. So I do have grant administrator, grant works Beatrice Chato here. Being that they've been helping us on our prior RSP, if we have any questions, she would be able to help us on any questions that you all have on the resolution. And then I do have Stephanie, Jennifer, and Shauna THAT DO WORK ON THE HOME GRANT PROGRAM FOR GRANT WORKS FOR US. THAT'S WHO I'VE BEEN WORKING WITH, WITH ALL THE OTHER GRANT APPLICANTS THAT WE HAVE HAD ON OUR CURRENT RSP. SO ON THE RESOLUTION, YOU ALL MIGHT HAVE SOME QUESTIONS. I HAVE IT RIGHT HERE, SIR.

COME JOIN ME. I get good morning, everybody. My name is Beatrice Chatham with GrantWorks, the client service director for for the county. It's a pleasure to be here. And again, we have our team on the call who who work on the home program as well.

OK, the resolution is twenty twenty six dash zero three one zero two. Whereas the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, TDHCA, has notified the public of funding availability to benefit low-income residents of the state of Texas communities through the Texas Home Investment Partnership Program. And whereas the County of Jim Wells has identified significant housing needs participating for the reconstruction of owner-occupied housing. And whereas the county of Jim Wells wishes to assist low income homeowners with safe, decent, sanitary and affordable housing at the time, enhance the health, economic and aesthetic quality of the community. Now, therefore, Be it resolved that one, the county of Jim wells acknowledged and approved that an applicant be completed and submitted to the TD hca to participate in the home investment partnership program homeowners reconstruction assistant program. The county of Jim Wells utilize general funds up to the amount of 100,000 as a cash reserve to utilize during their agreement term for eligible program costs before reimbursements are received from the state of Texas home program. Three, in accordance with 10 TAC 23, the home program match contribution requirement for the county of Jim Wells is 25%. Four, the county designates Pedro Trevino Jr., county judge, as the person authorized to request the county of Jim Wells County in all matters, I'm sorry, represent the county of Jim wells in all matters related to the home program and also with signature authority to sign all forms and documents related to the administration of the home program, including loan documents grant agreements and reservation system participation agreement and or or contracts. On that 25% I did a little bit of research that the team has helped me and miss Beatrice that right there is. Through the state, there's a tier on population. So they went back and they researched it and they notified me that when we applied, the last time we had zero match because we did not incorporate the whole county. This one is stating that we'll incorporate the whole county and that's why it's a 25 match based on the population. and on the formula that the state uses. They did inform me that we could change that, on the wording on that, and we would just have to bring it back. So, and we won't incorporate the whole population. Including the cities? Yes, the cities. I know, I spoke to Stephanie about that. Are you able to?

Yes, Stephanie's on the call. She might be able to explain it, or Jennifer also on there.

Stephanie. Yes, I think they're both on there.

Good morning. My name is Stephanie. Can you hear me? OK. I wasn't sure if it unmuted me. Yes, I'm with GrantWorks, part of the current administrator. I am the home program manager currently. And when we're talking about this match percentage, so it is written as if your whole county would be in this new RRSP agreement, while your current RRSP agreement is the unincorporated areas. So the larger cities are not included. Hence, you did not have a match requirement on your prior RSP. It is based on population. So you guys, I would recommend looking into who you want to include or not include. And if you do the whole county, it would be the 25%. But if you follow along with what you did previously, it would be based on the current population. And it's anything above 20,000 or more that that percentage starts building on. So while it says 25%, that's the maximum, that is not exactly what your match would be. It would be based on how much population above the 25% for any total accumulated population for cities that you are using in your new RSP agreement. Any questions?

So on the last application, we didn't include the whole county, right? We included just the population that'll allow for no match money?

That is correct. On your current RSP, it's the unincorporated areas in Jim Wells County. So it excludes the cities of Alice, Orange Grove, Premont, and a portion of the city of San Diego that is in Duval County.

They would have to apply themselves, right, Tony?

yes if they wanted their particular constituencies to participate for the home program a lot of questions about that last time yeah people asking how come they weren't included so they wouldn't have to apply so stephanie if um if the county does keep the resolution how it's written right now the cash match would be on funds or can it be on in kind in kind

And that could be based on, you can reduce that match by any contributed items that you do for like appraisal tax, surveys, which you're familiar with right now, because we're doing that currently through our current RSP agreement that you guys pay for that upfront. And those funds can be used towards your match contribution. Also something to take into consideration, if you guys have the capability to waive fees or do your own demo, and waive that cost, all that can reduce the total match amount. Match is based off of the hard costs for the construction. And that's how you calculate how much match per homeowner and match is paid when the draws are processed. So it's not paid up front, it is paid at the end during or after the completion of construction.

And this is $100,000 for each one or for just the whole grant?

It'd be per homeowner. And based off the current estimated amounts right now, it's $190,000 per homeowner. So you're looking at, well, again, it would depend on what your match percentage comes up to be. So if you did stick with the whole county at 25%. Let's see real quick.

So is there a deadline for this? Like if we just approved with the county, can the cities come, let the cities know and then they can apply?

That is correct. They can individually apply to do the home program themselves.

I think we should keep it the same way we have it.

Okay. So then, yeah.

Because at this point, we couldn't even budget because we won't know how many homes get awarded. And you could have two. That might not be a problem. But if you have six or seven, we're really, really different.

Well, if you have to do income, then you're going to have to go into the city. So people apply within the city.

So if we decide a day to keep it the same way we have it, we'd have to come back with a different resolution, correct, Mike?

No, it just says a resolution. It didn't.

But in the resolution, it says it has our number three. It has our contribution of 25%. Well, I don't see that on my agenda.

Oh, that's that resolution. But the agenda item just says to approve, authorize the submission of an application so we can rewrite it. You can still be authorized. They're authorizing you to submit a different resolution. Okay. Do we have that prepared or can you get it prepared?

I could get it prepared. Stephanie, you said that I would have to reword that part, correct?

Yeah, you could say something like up to 25%. Because again, it is all based on your RSP application that you submit and the fully signed and authorized RSP agreement issued by TDHCA, the population at that point in time, and on if you're determining unincorporated or incorporated.

We're limiting it to unincorporated, correct?

So when we make our motion, we can make the motion to approve it only including the unincorporated areas of Jim Walls County.

Correct. Because we're not tied to that particular resolution by the agenda language.

Is there any problem with that, Stephanie?

No, sir.

OK. All right. I'll make a motion that we approve with the district.

With the county? The wording on three?

make a motion that we approve it only in the unincorporated areas of Jim Walsh County.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Agenda item number 10, IT department, Robert Silva, 10.1, discuss, consider, and take action to certify the cybersecurity trading completion report 2026.

Good morning, Judge, Commissioner. My name is Robert Silva, and I'm from the IT department at Jim Welch County. I just want to bring up the reminder that this year we're required to take two awareness training. First one is cybersecurity awareness training. We've been doing that for every year. And then recently with the House bill have passed to add another course, which is artificial intelligence awareness training. So those are the two courses we have to take from this year at Theron. This is basically to fulfill the requirement of Texas Government Code 2054.5191. This law requires all county employees, elected officials, and appointed officials who have access to a local government computer system or database and use a computer to to perform at least 25% of their duty to complete an annual awareness training that has been certified by the Texas Department of Information Resource, DIR. Basically, we have to take it every year and we had to be completed by August 31st because August 31st we had to submit the complete report to the state. Right now, we're 99% compliant on both courses. But it's not too late. We still have opportunity to finish by the end of the day. So when Cindy from the office to help me make sure that those who have not taken need to complete it. So I'm going to be out there and let them know that they take it. I'll be there. If they need help, I'll be there to help them out.

Thank you. How many are there, Robert?

I'm sorry?

How many still lack the training? How many people still lack the training?

Well, I have asked, don't have actual count, but I'm roughly about 265 county employees. Because not everybody has computers they work on. There's only those who actually spend 25% of their time working on computers.

So how many still do you need? How many do you still need to get the?

Oh, there's like four more people.

Because today's the deadline, correct?

Before the business hours. I'm going to be out there and let them know. I have a report if you need one, I'll give it to you. You have a question?

Can I obtain a motion? Motion to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion needed? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. 10.2, discuss, consider, and take action to declare certain county-owned equipment and furniture as surplus and authorize its sale and auction pursuant to Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 263, Subchapter D. Yes.

This is, we have a lot of old equipment we want to get rid of. Before I throw it away or donate to a nonprofit organization, I want to make sure that I follow the rule that we have to put it out for the bid. Nobody buy it. I'll just get rid of it.

take it to recycle center or donation so i just wanted to let you know we have a lot of old keyboard mouse especially old phones that we got finally got rid of and an old computer so i want to approve take care of that okay i have a motion a second any further discussion all okay we say aye aye all opposed same sign motion carries all right thank you robert what did you just say about the throwing away what

Well, like, the reason we throw away, like, metal, like computers or mostly metals, we don't have place to throw it away. So we just dump it to the landfill.

But it's got to go to the auction first, right?

Yeah, we have to go out to the auction first. It'd be at the sale then.

Yes, sir. All right.

Number 11, Commissioner Precinct 1, George Aguilar. 11.1 discuss animal control cooperation between the city of Alice and Jim was counting financial contribution commitment. Workload and sharing animal shelter.

Good morning commissioners judge. just like to discuss animal control a little bit we need to implement a few ordinances which I need to get with Michael on that also we need to make sure that the city or the county cooperates with the city as far as the shelter because I think it belongs to the city my right which is okay so know that sometimes become an issue because we've had meetings with the city so we just need to make sure that that cooperation continues if it not then both entities need to work out together whatever problems they have also financial contributions make sure that the county pays whatever is owed to the county when they store their animals in the shelter and uh also Workload sharing. Make sure that, I think, I believe that the county is supposed to help the city in cleaning up the shelter once every, like, every weekend or at least help the county, the city maintain that in an orderly fashion. And, yes.

Hello, Commissioner, Judge. Lieutenant Garcia with the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office. So in regards to that, as far as the weekends, they're not paid any overtime. I know we looked at it, but there's not a line item for that. So it's a bunch of comp time. When they do get calls at 5, a dog bite or something, it takes time. So then they accumulate comp time. So then it comes down to our ratio of where we're at as far as hours. They can only accumulate so much. So I know we're trying to push that. Andres right now is in the Police Academy, yes, but that's going to help us out. Now he's a deputy, but also an animal control officer. So the overtime is going to be there. Dog bites, stuff like that, so we can. But the contract that we have is from 2011. There's been nothing new as far as us and the city of Alice. We did meet with the chief, and I did recommend some more of the ACOs. Let's update the contract. Let's look and see what's going on and stuff, and then try to work something out. But yes, that is back in 2011 on that one.

And that's exactly what we're trying to do, Mr. Garcia, is have a relationship with the citizens. We're using their facilities. And we talked to the chief, and he said that he's willing to help us in any which way. If we ever need a call outside the county, just call them, and they'll pick it up.

And they've been doing it.

It's a big county, and it's hard.

We do do it. It has a call, whatever, and we talked about it. We'll give them the time to help out. But the other problem we're running into, is that there are four kennels for us, right? But there's not. It's only two kennels. Two other kennels for quarantine. You only got to have a quarantine animal in there. You only have one. You come down to the other one, what do I really have? I only have two. So at the end of the day, I only have two kennels there that I can take in a stray dog that takes one dog in. So I am doing some other stuff looking at, you know, the vets and stuff to see what we can try to figure out more kennels because the calls don't stop. I mean, they're just constant, constant, constant, right? And we're trying to, we're trying to work with them at the same time, two kennels, I can't do much. So I am actively looking to see what we can do and see the prices wise when we how many we can house their food and vaccines and all that other stuff, utilization. So we are working on that as well.

The other thing is that working through pack with that grant that we received, it requires that we make adjustments in our ordinances to be able to say that we're doing something to to kind of work the problem that we have, which we all know here that it's huge and we're not going to fix it overnight and we can't do it alone. You can't do it alone. They can't do it alone. So we've got to put, you know. Yes, most definitely together and try to see what we can do and work together to try to alleviate the problem here. So we need to sit down and reorganize whatever we need to do. We just need to come together, meet and agree on the issues that we have to do. There's going back is we have to make changes in that ordinance.

Yes.

It's been ignored for so long.

Yeah, most definitely. Yes.

And also, if you'd like, we can call in Cheryl from PAC. You know, she's got a lot of information. Yes. This is essential to animal control. And just email us or whatever, and we'll sit down together and discuss it. Sounds good. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number 12, Commissioner Precinct 2 with Dura Garcia. 12.1, discuss, consider, and take action to amend fairground policies.

And with the help of the county attorney judge, I made some changes to the fairground policies. The first change was on section 3, reservations. A RESERVATION SCHEDULING. RESERVATIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING CALENDAR YEAR SHALL OPEN ON AUGUST THE 1ST OF THE CURRENT YEAR FOR THE JUNE WALLS COUNTY DEPARTMENTS AND COUNTY AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS. RESERVATIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING CALENDAR YEAR SHALL OPEN FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC ON SEPTEMBER THE 1ST OF THE CURRENT YEAR. ALL RESERVATIONS REMAIN SUBJECT TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF SECTION AND FACILITY AVAILABILITY. For the purpose of this provision, whether an organization qualifies as a county affiliated organization shall be determined by the county. Okay, then you go down to section five, additional fees. Okay, additional fees. Loss, damage, or unreturned keys, there will be a $25 per key charge. Then you go down to section 14, cancellation policy. Okay, weather events. If a county canceled an event because weather-related damage or conditions rendered the facility unsafe or unsuitable for use, all rental fees, deposits paid for the affected rental shall be returned. If the county determines that the facility may be used and the lease is alleged to have Proceed with the event. After notice of the weather-related conditions, no full partial refund credit or reduction of the rental fee shall be due based on this condition.

I have a question there, Mr. Garcia. So who would represent the county? Commissioners? Who decides?

Well, what determines that? Well, generally, Commissioner Garcia is the one that manages this rental, correct? What this is about is if it's completely unusable, let's say you have a bad storm, it's completely unusable, then the person who reserved it would be entitled to a refund. What we're trying to avoid is We're not 100% fixed, but the people still want to use it. And then they use it, and then they come to us afterwards and say, you know what? We didn't like it, so we want a refund. We're going to tell you, it's good enough for you to go forward, but we're not at 100%. So if you go forward, you do it at your own risk. And if your guests complain that it's too muddy in the parking lot, or that the air condition wasn't cool enough, or whatever, you went forward at your own risk, and you're not going to be entitled to a refund. That's basically what we're trying to address.

Okay.

Okay. Section 16, emergency authority. Do you want to explain that one? Yes, Commissioner.

Okay. So, and this is what I was just saying. So, you see weather-relating conditions, the county, In the first paragraph you say, following any such weather event, the county shall have sole discretion to determine whether the rented facility or area may be safely and reasonably used. So it's going to be the county that makes the threshold determination of whether it's still viable to rent it out. Now, it may be good enough to be rented out, but not at 100%. And that's what we're trying to avoid, is where they come and tell us after the fact that they were not satisfied. And that's the last paragraph. If the county determines that the event may proceed, the county does not warrant that the rented facility grounds or surrounding areas have been fully restored to their condition existing before the weather event. A lessee who elects to proceed with the event after being advised of weather-related damage or conditions, accepts the facility in its then-existing condition, and shall not thereafter be entitled to a full or partial refund, rental credit, or reduction in fees based upon those disclosed weather-related conditions. So, yeah, that's what we're trying to address is the buyer's remorse kind of situation where they say, oh, yeah, yeah, we still want it, and then they go and have their event, and there was complaints, and then they come to us and want all or a part of their money back because they weren't happy.

When they schedule an event, they go over these policies. They understand what they're signing. And we don't want to be misleading them. This is why we made some of these changes. So anyway, there's a copy, and I suggest that the commissioners are, you know, they file it somewhere where they can review them. If there's any changes to be made in the future, bring them up, and we can sure look into it and change them.

On the Section 5, they've been losing keys. They don't return them.

Yeah, but sometimes they... We don't have very much of that, but sometimes they for some reason they'll lose them or whatever So what do you do you know yeah? These policies are very very important guys. You know it's you know we There's a lot of liability to the county we We created these, the first copy was created back in November, about nine months ago. And we made changes already. We can continue to make changes because we know keeping the fairgrounds safe and without liability to the county, that's what we're striving for. So anyway, those were the changes. You all have a copy. Keep them. If there's any more changes to be made, we can certainly do it. Motion to approve.

Second. Got a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Is that number thirteen commissioner precinct for which of gonzales is fourteen point one discuss consider and take action on county payment assessment program.

Judge about this up here last year and i'm going to bring it up again and before i go any further i want to mention something that pictures make us memorable data makes us credible and with that being said i just want to say that. If we do a road assessment, the issue that I've had here before, we're doing our budget right now, fixing to go into it, and we're doing the mileage. And I question whether our mileage is legit. And not just because we've approved certain roads and we've subtracted certain roads from different commissioners, stuff like that. But the last road mileage that we did was back in 2012, 15. So I question whether It's a legitimate measurement. So I'd like to see if we could consider going out for doing the road assessment with the mileage, stuff like that, so we can all find out. And this is nothing other than getting the mileage and getting the assessment done on the roads. That's it. Okay, we're not discussing anything, how we're going to finance it or anything. I just want to get the official mileage. I think we need to upgrade the system. The mileage has not been, it was back then it was done by a vehicle, which is, I don't know how you can get that to be as accurate. There's a lot of more programs that we can consider, and I'd like to put it on the table and see if we can open it up to be able to look into companies coming in here and doing measurement and assessment of our county roads.

I think it's a great idea. You can get a company to get a certified road mileage. And not only that, but an assessment. Why an assessment? Because in the future, if not when, Not if, but when we get a hurricane, are we going to have evidence of all these roads or how they were before? And the first initial concern was make sure we get the correct mileage for your precinct. And if you have new roads every so many years, every 10 years, you have a new assessment. And keep everything up to date. It's a great idea.

I think for emergency management purposes, it could serve something. Do you have, Lance?

Yeah, Lance Brown, Jimmels County Emergency Management. So what we saw, what I saw whenever I got deployed to Uvalde, of course, they had a lot of rural county areas as well, and they had a lot of Kalichi roads, rock roads. And so one thing that really bit them was, prove that the that this was weather related because there was a bunch of washouts already there so now that we got blue and clear and sunny skies it would be hold you guys probably and supervisors to go and take pictures right now you know as they set so if we have damage on county road 440 How do we know that that there was in that state without having documentation so that is that's one of our that's in our standard operating procedures. That is actually one of the tasks for the commissioners. to have logs of proper equipment maintenance and proper road conditions, right? So that way in the event that because, you know, guys, let's be real, it's not if we're going to have a disaster, it's when and how bad, right? We're here to respond and recover. So documentation, documentation, documentation. is all that I could really preach on that. So as an emergency standpoint, you know, I don't think it's not, I really think that documentation is the key before we have a disaster for sure, right? I don't know if it's worth spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for documentations because I'm sure there's, simple computer programs where a guy can get on a computer and what would take one individual three weeks to drive around in a pickup truck, he could probably do, you know, in 15 minutes on a computer map based off a Google map. So, I mean, I think it would be good to see, but I wouldn't invest a lot of time or energy and monies into something to be prevented because we don't really have that issue like Ubaldi does. But if we don't have the documentations, WE MIGHT BE SHOOTING OURSELVES IN THE FOOT.

I THINK WE NEED A STARTING POINT, AND THIS MAY BE THE STARTING POINT THAT WE NEED, BUT THEN IT WILL BE INCUMBENT OF THE COMMISSIONERS THAT ANY WEATHER Or anything else happens to their to the road they'll have to keep like something happened on 440 intersection of 440 and 342. And there's a washout because we had a rain after we get this assessment. And they'd have to keep up with correct so saving the photos so and you validating.

what hit their threshold to get a federally declared from FEMA basically. And I don't even know if they even still hit it because the entire state was like at 50 million and they were pretty close. But the biggest driving forces were all of their crossings were wiped out. I mean, bridges that TxDOT had just built two or three years ago, demolished. I mean, I'm sure y'all have seen it on the news too. They had a patch that was going over the Leona River and like 700 feet of that brand new bridge that's two years old was completely washed out. On that so you know that's that's going to be tough to think, but that is one of our biggest driving forces, I mean luckily we don't have very many crossings, so to say, but. we get your mental amount of flood and we start getting County roads washed out. I mean, cause we did kind of see it on the, on our last weather event, you know, we took 10 inches of rain and you know, most everybody can see that your shoulders and your barriers and the sides of your roads kind of got washed out and eroded. So, you know, I think this is a, I just had a good starting point on it, but with technology, it shouldn't, shouldn't be relatively easy.

The next thing we need to consider is how much it's going to cost.

And that like, I understand what you're saying, George, and then I'm not going to say we're going to be spending any money. We're going to invest some money on these county roads for various reasons. It's just not bad weather. It's also we've had issues where we fix the road and the farmer came through and just dropped his disc and tore up about half a mile. Well, how do I put a price on that? How do I, you know, the first thing they're going to say, well, how bad was it? We're fixing to go into everybody, like we were talking about, the conference judge. These data centers are coming down here. They're going to tear up all these roads. Oil field tears up all these roads. How do you put a price on it? You know, we've had an issue before where I'm going to stop the vehicles from going through here. Well, how do I put a price on that road? Because I don't have data to show me this is the value of that road. This is how much it could owe me for it. We don't have anything. And we're trying to just upgrade, go into the... Which is a future now. It's updated to instead of vehicles go with a legitimate way of doing things. And if we're going to invest some money on an issue, we invest some money to do the whole thing, the whole measurement and conditions.

This agenda item says discuss, consider, and take action on a county payment assessment program.

The assessment that comes in with the mileage, Judge. Yeah, but should we...

Should it read something like, let's go out for a bid for it? Or do we table this one with the authorization to go out for a bid and then bring those bids back to Commissioner's Court?

Yes, you're gonna have to I mean unless we've got a proposal that is under 10,000 at this point.

Okay, I'll make a motion we table with the authorization. Mr. Gonzalez, you want to take the lead on that to go to to try to get the bring it back to the we need the table that the item and come back with the. with a call item with with a block for bids yeah well no no you can go out for bids already we don't have to bring it back just just just the authorization and and the inclination that that you've got authorization to to get three bids for us and then bring bring the three bits back once you get the three bits put it back on the agenda you know what i mean so we're not gonna it's less than 50.

Oh, we're not going to do an RFP. Okay. So you're going to get three quotes.

You're going to get three quotes. I'm pretty sure it's less than 50. So if it's less than 50, we can just get three quotes and then we'll bring it back to Commissioner's Court and present it all to the Commissioner's Court since it's already on the agenda like this. You know what I mean?

Can we approve this with a condition to get three bids and then we just bring it back? I think that's what we're saying.

That's what we're saying. No, because you said table the item. Yeah. OK. Do we table it? We're going to bring the bids back and probably get the best bid and approve it then. Because we don't know how much it's going to cost. And if it's more than 50 or in the hundreds, then you got to really think about what we got to do, right?

Yeah, if we follow the procurement in regards to if they're under 50, just like any other purchase, get three bids and bring it back to four.

so you're going to make a motion to allow us allow myself to bring three bids into the commissioner's court no no i'm just gonna i'm gonna make a motion we table and and you're authorized to to to to go out for the bids and bring it back to commissioner's court okay as soon as you get those bids we'll put it back on the agenda okay i have a motion to table second i have a motion a second any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed sign motion carries Agenda item number 14, Sheriff's Department of Sheriff Guy Baker, 14.1, discuss discussion and possible action regarding FY2026 Sheriff's Office prisoner detention expenditure. Projected detention expenditures through fiscal year end adequacy of current prisoner detention appropriation, and consideration of any necessary budget amendments, transfers, and other lawful funding actions. Is the Sheriff here?

He's not here.

He's not even listed.

I haven't even discussed any of this.

They sent you this item?

Want me to call him?

We'll move forward and make contact with him and let him know that if he's ready, he can come. If he's not ready, we can put it on the next commissioner's court. If not, we'll come back to the table. Okay, Gendarmerie No. 15, Honorable Pedro P. Treviño Jr., 15.1, discuss, consider year 2026 proposed tax rate and take record vote if necessary. Set date for public hearings. I'm going to go ahead and read 15.2 and 15.3 also. We'll be discussing these interchangeably. 15.2, discuss, consider year 2027 budget. 15.3, discuss, consider approving 2027 budget process schedule. Okay, I passed out some budget information. We did file the proposed budget back on August 12th. 2026. The first page that I've given you is just a little budget, 2026-2027 budget, proposed budget comparison. The beginning balance of general fund, almost exactly the same, $10,487,199.66. In 2026, when we filed the proposed budget, we had a negative $951,573.27 budget. Here in 2027, we filed the proposed budget and we have a negative $648,997.55. We've kept. We kept the before I go into that page 2 and the proposed increases of expenditures from the proposed budget. That's in the middle section. Insurance premiums, fringe benefits, group insurance, and salary for district judge longevity. So the insurance premiums, we added $50,000. And that's just for yearly increases for our insurance premium benefits. Range benefits and group insurance, $122,500. This, I work closely with Ms. Garcia, Cindy Garcia, our auditor. This is the best number that she can give us that'll quantify what we need for 2027, correct? And then the salary for district judge, longevity. Our district judge has a longevity increase from the state of 10,500. That increased the total increase of 183,000 from the budget from last year. So that being said, we basically didn't add too much to the budget. the 2027 budget. Like I mentioned earlier, in 26, we had a $950,000 deficit. In 27, it's $648,997.55.

This was using. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. And just to clarify, if you subtract that, that we had no control over the premiums, benefits and the group insurance and the longevity pay. Subtract that from that 648. Then lower that number quite a bit.

Yes.

So just to make it for the record that it has no control over us. It thinks it went up.

Right.

Right. Good.

That's a good point. And the negative that we have, when we did the proposed budget, we completed the proposed budget, we completed it with a no new revenue tax rate. So if you go to the 2026-2027 tax rate comparison, The known unit revenue tax rate is 0.416181. And that gave us $114,795,000 more. In other words, we had more valuations and more increases in our revenues that we collected. The budget is based on that rate right there. And with that rate, we have a negative $648,997.55. Now, my goal, if you go to the next page, which is the tax rate levy comparison for general fund, you have highlighted the point seven, four, one, six, one, eight, one that that I spoke about right now, which is our no new revenue tax rate. My goal here is to keep the tax rate the same. We have kept the tax rate the same the last two years, and if you can see where we can see how it's helped us just by looking at the 2026 and 2027 proposed budgets, the negative is getting smaller. We're not at a balanced budget just yet, but it's getting better. The reason I'm going to recommend we stay with the same tax rate as 7.767802 is because we calculated all these numbers where it says difference. We calculated it using all the calculations that we use are 93%. For example, with our ad valorem tax, any time that we do any calculations with our budget, it's never at 100% collection. It's at a 93% collection rate. So that has been safe and has been a safe practice since I was judge first time. So that being said, with all the calculations that we've done with this budget. And they've been very conservative. But with the same rate that we have right now, the 0.767802, we will begin the budget hearings Wednesday and Friday. We'll begin Wednesday. With a balanced budget with a budget in the black 14,306 dollars. Okay, what we have to do today is we have to select. What tax rate we want to start off at. Okay, and it gets a little complicated because. Like I said, the goal is .767, our current tax rate for the past two years, same tax rate this year per se. We have to take into consideration, even though we're going to start off with a balanced budget and a little bit over at 14,000, we don't know what's going to come up. We have a good idea what's going to come up in our budget hearing, but we don't know for sure. So we, as a commissioner's court, have to play it safe. And we have to approve a tax rate that's higher than the one I'm recommending. Because once we approve this today and do a record vote, we cannot go below. We can just go below. Ruben Duran, Norcal PTAC, he'll hire. Ruben Duran, Norcal PTAC, Go higher we can't go higher, we will have to go lower so That being said, without us knowing what's going to happen on Wednesday and Friday, we have to select one that's a little higher. Ruben Duran, Norcal PTAC, i'm recommending to the Court that we select. The point 8, 7, 8, 7. Those numbers will give us a little bit more. In the black, which is. 448,334 dollars. That's just the starting point because we don't know what's going to happen in on Wednesday and Friday. So. That being said, if we can approve this tax rate, we can go lower, which is our goal point 767. Does anybody have any questions? And I want to comment that once we decided to keep the same tax rate these last two years and going this year also, we're making progress. We're making progress. What the main goal is to always approve a balanced budget. And we're almost there. And going into Wednesday and Friday, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough because we know that and we understand that every thing that we're doing today compared to two years ago where we started the same tax rate, more expensive things are getting more expensive and we're seeing it and we're going to see it on the next agenda item here later on when we go over our budgets. So main thing is we got to continue to be very conservative. We got to continue with the goals that we have because it's working and we need to continue the program. Anybody have any questions?

Well, I think you've explained it pretty simple, Judge, and it all makes sense.

I guess it's a good starting point. And like you said, from that point, we can go down.

And I want to reiterate that that's a starting point as a safety net. The whole goal is to keep it the same. So any other comment? That being said, I'LL GO BACK TO AGENDA ITEM 15.1, DISCUSS CONSIDER YEAR 2026 PROPOSED TAX RATE AND TAKE RECORD VOTE AND, IF NECESSARY, SET A DATE FOR PUBLIC HEARING. I'LL MAKE A MOTION THAT WE APPROVE THE PROPOSED TAX RATE AT .787. I SECOND. 0.787 oh i thought you were going to do seven six seven eight oh two okay that's the goal okay but we we have we have to approve the higher one because we can we can approve a lower one later uh without knowing what's going to happen seven eight seven is the optional the third optional one right the third optional and that's just going to give us a safety net just because we don't know what's going to happen and went on wednesday and friday gotcha

Okay, so I have a motion and I have a 2nd to approve the point 7, 8, 7.

Proposed tax rate. Um, I better be to be a junior Jim was going to judge. Well, yay. Um. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 15.2 discuss consider year to 2027 budget. So we've discussed it. I don't think there's anything to approve yet. We're going to approve that at a later date here on. Either. 21st or 25th, and I'll explain why there might be a change on it. So the way that's written, I guess we could approve it, right? We've discussed it, and the way it's written, discuss and consider year 2027 budget.

No, because you're not approving it yet.

So I'll make a motion that we table this one. I have a motion and a second to table. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Agenda item number 15.3, discuss consider approving the 2027 process schedule. Budget process schedule. Everything is good, except for you won't be here on the 18th. We have one commissioner missing on the 18th. So we can either wait till the 25th, or we can change that meeting to the 21st on Monday. I don't think there's no harm, no foul. I just wanted to get the budget and tax rate set and everything done by the 18th. So I have no real qualms about doing it on the 21st or waiting till the 25th.

21st, we have something happens, we have time. I'm fine with 21st. In case something happens, we got to come back.

I'm fine with 21st. Okay, so we'll change the Friday, September 18th to Monday, the 21st. Otherwise, everything is good. So can I entertain a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

I have a motion and second to approve changing the date from September 18th to Monday, the 21st. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you all very much.

Did you get hold of the chair?

I did. Oh, yes. He said he had a doctor's appointment today and a police table there.

We'll go back to 14.1. I had already read it out. Make a motion. We table 2nd, I have a motion a 2nd to table any further discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Same sign motion carries. 16, item number 16, auditor's monthly report. 16.1, discuss, consider, and take action to approve auditor's monthly reports.

Yes, Judge Commissioners, we can start with the, this is gonna be July sales tax report. that you're viewing right now. So you'll see the collections of general fund and each road and bridge on the sales tax for July at a collection of 57.3%, which is actually exactly where we need to be compared to what we had budgeted so we are on track on that if you go to the next page you'll kind of see a comparison between the monthly payments between last month and this month jim mills county is the first portion and we did collect um seventy thousand dollars five hundred roughly estimated more than last month so an increase of 32 percent the city of alice collected a little bit more than last month they're they're pretty much even at 0.49 and then you'll see the city of orange grove in the city of premont both did have a little bit of a decrease compared to last month um respectively with orange go with a decrease of 32 percent and Premont with a decrease of 25%. But if you go on to the right side, you'll see a comparison compared to last year for each entity. Jim Wills County, we're pretty much about the same. We are down a little bit. So 34,000, we are down compared to last year. The City of Alice is the one that has the greatest increase. When you're comparing to last year, they've collected $212,000. $51 more than last year. Where Orange Grove is a little less than last year in city, Premont is coming ahead as well, like the city of Alice, with an additional $40,000 compared to last year. So we're pretty much the same over last year, if you're talking from Jim Wallis County. And that last page is just a A comparison from last year to Jim was counting. that's all I have on the sales tax portion. The next report is the auditor's report, so this is going to start with the revenues for general fund and then the road and bridge fund so general fund is at a collection rate of 89% and each road and bridge combined and we are our collections are 87%. When you add all the other funds were at a total of 91%, so this is through July, so we are on track normally through this. time of the year, we are that's pretty much an average of where we are on collections, because we do get most of our ad valorem tax at the beginning of the year. You go on to the next page you'll see the expenditures it starts off with each general fund department. Through July. Our percentage is. 58% is where we should be. You go down the line, for the most part, most of our departments are on or pretty much on, not too many under. We did just come out of a three payroll month in July. that's kind of what's skewing several departments to being over that 58 because of the three payroll month in july so come august it'll kind of balance out for the rest of the year because that's the last three three payroll month for the year um so you will see uh can i have a question yes on the sheriff's forfeiture that unrealized 791 what does that mean on the expense side yeah

On the revenue side. On the revenue side.

On the revenue side. So that is going to be what we estimated on a revenue that the sheriff's department was going to receive versus what they actually received. So they actually received that much more than what we estimated last year at this time. So that's a good note.

That's a good thing. So he has money. He has, yes. That's my question.

Yes, he has a lot more money than we had estimated, yes.

That's what I wanted to know.

Yes, yes. Then, okay, so yeah, so you see all the general fund. So when you combine the general fund on the expense sign, all the departments are at a total of 66%. Again, higher than what we should be at this point. You go onto the road and bridges, they are total expenditure at 54%. They are coming in under budget combined. You will see, of course, the additional department, so total 65%, again, at a 58% expenditure rate at this point, so we are at a negative 6% variance on our expenditures. And you just the graphs are just going to show a comparison over last year to this year in regards to revenues and expenses. Does anybody have any questions?

Negative. 6% variance.

Yes.

So on the sheriff side, on the expense side, he's actually spent $927,000. He's over $213,000 on the expenditure.

Right. So that'll, yeah, so. They did, excuse that expense side, but you'll see it on the revenue side too. So because they did get two big loan proceeds, so that is part of the revenue side also, but it's a wash. So it increases the revenue number, but the increase you'll see on the expenditure side too. It was probably a combined of about $500,000 or so on the loan proceeds side. So that does drive up both numbers, a wash at the end though.

Okay.

six percent um i think we'll be a little over not necessarily at a six percent coming in into august and in the rest of the year i my estimates are that we will go over budget yeah we will be from the trend so far we will be over budget of course our driving force is the sheriff's department with that big expense uh that they have

Motion to approve.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Agenda item number 17, county treasurer's report and other monthly reports. 17.1, discuss, consider, and take action to approve county treasurer's report and other monthly reports.

Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Did item number 18, payroll and bills. 18.1, discuss, consider, take action on payroll and bills as submitted by the county auditor with the exception of 52, 53, and 54.

I just wanted to bring to light on this payroll cycle, bill cycle, that Jim Wells County has paid Maverick County for inmate housing 79,310 to Jim Hogg County 59,230. An inmate transport $8,210. So roughly, I rounded up number, $146,000 and change. So.

And Judge, also to note the first payment to Maverick County in regards to the old .

We're approving the first payment already.

Yes, we are.

Yeah, it's here. $250,000.

Yeah. We may have to discuss that a little further, too, because they're not doing well on their budget.

That's going to be one of our expenses for next year, right?

Contract is a contract. Yes, sir.

Motion to approve.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say sign. Motion carries. Anybody want to address the court at this time? Hearing none, can I entertain a motion?

Motion to adjourn.

Seconded. I have a motion and a second to adjourn. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries.