Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to our regular Commissioner's Court meeting. And we're at the next as usual. And we're going to begin with the invocation and our pledges. If you'd join me in standing.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for this day. Lord, we just thank you for your blessings that you give us each and every day. Lord, we ask you for wisdom today as we make decisions for the county. Lord, we thank you for our employees. We thank you for our first responders and our military abroad. Lord, we ask for wisdom as always, and we thank you for your love, and we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I 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.

Meeting for August the 11th of this year Discuss and accept the star transit ridership report for July of 26 and Discuss and accept development service for the report for April 26 through June of 26 any comments corrections Need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve Mr. Lane makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crow makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay, number three. Ms. Donnie Green with North Central Texas Cog is going to present services provided by those folks. Good morning.

Thank you, Judge Allen and commissioners, for giving me the opportunity to be here today. I had hoped to be with you during the budget hearing, but I was scheduled for surgery. So I am much less achy and healthier. That's great. That is good. Let me see if I can pull up the presentation. And do you all know what I need to do to sync the presentation to the... I think I can do that. Okay. Let me go back to the beginning here. And... My purpose in being here today is to share information about services that are available through the Council of Government's Aging Program for Kauffman County residents to thank the county for its longtime support. of our programs and the county has been very generous in providing matching funds. So I want to share with you how those funds are utilized and then to encourage you to contact us if you or a constituent, friend, family member is looking for a service to support an older adult or a family caregiver. Okay, looks like I'm queued up and ready to go. Excellent. So I'm going to be talking about two major programs in my brief presentation. The first major program is our Area Agency on Aging. Second program is our Aging and Disability Resource Center. So, again, the larger program is the North Central Texas Area Agency on Aging, or as I sometimes refer to myself, the other AAA. And most of our funding is federal in nature. It comes through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Administration for Community Living. It's passed through the state of Texas, through the Health and Human Services Commission. It's required to contribute some matching funds to And then the funds flow through the North Central Texas Council of Governments. We provide some services directly. Other funds we pass through to local subrecipients, contractors. We also apply for various grants. Again, very grateful to Kauffman and the other 13 counties in our service area for providing matching funds. The funding request for the upcoming fiscal year is $19,218. If you'd like me to, I can explain how we come up with that funky number. And those funds are really important because they do support the provision of both the direct and pass-through services that I'll be talking about. So in terms of eligibility for the Council of Governments aging programs, at the most basic level, people have to be old enough to qualify. So when I started with the Council of Governments, I didn't qualify. I've been eligible for a few years now. So people have to be at least 60 years of age to qualify for most of our programs. And then we also have some caregiver programs. Those caregiver programs are open to people of all ages who support older adults, those who support people with dementia, those who are at least 55 years old and have primary custody of minor grandchildren, and those who are at least 55 years of age and live with and care for an adult with severe disabilities. So those are the eligibility criteria for our caregiver services. Unlike the Medicaid program, eligibility for our programs is on the basis of age. rather than income and resources. So our services are not means tested. If somebody calls us and needs some services, we're not going to turn them away because their income, heaven forbid, is a dollar over some arbitrary limit. But the Older Americans Act, which created our programs, requires that we target people who are experiencing greatest economic need And what you'll see if you look at demographics of those who receive ongoing services for our agency, about 40% are living in poverty compared to an elder poverty rate of about 7% or 8%. Similarly, about 40% of those who receive ongoing services live alone, which is much higher than the norm. So, in general, we target those who are experiencing greatest economic need, greatest social need, and disability. All of the services that we provide or all of the services that we support through our local partners must be provided at no charge to those who qualify, but we and our partners can accept voluntary contributions encouraged voluntary contributions. And all of those funds go right back to the services under which the donations are made. So the direct services that we offer include information and referral. We help people identify federal, state, local programs that meet their needs for nutrition, transportation, affordable housing. We also have a benefits counseling program that helps people understand Medicare, Medicaid, helps people apply for Medicare savings programs, low income subsidies. We have a couple of programs that provide short-term help in the home. And they do things like build wheelchair ramps. They widen bathroom doorways, install grab bars. We pay for agencies to go out and provide temporary help with housekeeping, meal preparation, chores, as well as personal care if people need some hands-on care as they're recovering from an illness or an injury. We also pay for medical equipment and supplies that are not covered by insurance. We can also pay for window air conditioning units, which come in handy on days like today as we're looking at 108. And then we also administer the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, advocates for people in nursing and assisted living facilities. We have programs that provide counseling for those who are experiencing depression. We have a program that helps people leave nursing facilities and return to community living. We help them find housing. We help them get transition grants. And then we also administer the Veteran Directed Care Program for those veterans who qualify medically for nursing home care. It allows them to receive care in their home from providers of their choice, including friends and family members. We also have gotten two competitive federal grants and a state grant to expand our supports with dementia. And this is kind of a passion of mine. Both my mother and my father, both of whom have passed, lived with dementia for several years. My dad, highly educated man who, as the disease progressed, he would eat dishwashing pods and accuse us of feeding him poison mints. I thought you loved me. Yes, dad, we do. And what we see among those who support family members with dementia, about 60% deal with depression. There's something uniquely hard about dementia because it goes on for years and years and years. And it not only changes a person's physical abilities, but it changes personality and the very essence of who the person is. So particularly for those family members who live with their family member who's living with dementia, that can be very, very difficult. So through all of these grants, we've been able to systematically compile resources. There are a lot of free programs for people living with dementia, family members. We have three dedicated dementia resource specialists who can problem solve around whatever the issue might be. With my dad, you know, he was a gun enthusiast and His wife would change the sheets and there'd be a revolver under his pillow, loaded, pointed right at her. And he got to the point where he'd look in the mirror, he didn't recognize himself, and he was convinced that there were strangers in his house. Who's that old man in my house? Dad, that's you. so over time we learned you know take down the mirrors so we also do a lot of education both one-on-one and in groups and we're also doing a lot of education for first responders so that they can more effectively identify if somebody who's wandering may be living with dementia and The response varies a little bit depending on whether it's somebody who's dealing with a substance misuse issue or mental illness or dementia. All three of those are distinct. Some strategies are a little similar, but through our training for police cadets and licensed law enforcement officers, we've been able to provide tips and resources. So in addition to those direct services, we are proud to support Senior Connect. During the most recent closed budget year, 2025, we passed through a little under $700,000 to Senior Connect. And that funding supported 707 Kauffman County clients of its meal programs. And that included 467 people who attended senior centers and received congregate meals, a little over 55,000 congregate meals, 240 who participated in the home delivered meal program and received a little over 35,000 meals, And then through Star Transit, they also served 823 older Kauffman County residents who received 113,600 one-way trips. And it's important to note that our funding amount of only $52,000 is just a drop in the bucket. So when you look at 113,000 trips, we're not claiming credit for those. We just provided a little bit of seed money. And Star Transit was able to leverage those other funding sources. So here's the contact information for our Area Agency on Aging. Our Aging and Disability Resource Center, much smaller program. I'm only going to take a couple of minutes. But through that program, we provide information and referral. We also have a program that helps people who are getting ready to leave hospitals, rehab facilities, and nursing facilities, help them connect with community-based services. And then we have a very small respite program that gives family caregivers a break if they can't afford to pay privately for care. So that program is available to those who care for older adults, children with special needs, young adults with all types of disabilities, physical, mental, intellectual, developmental. And here's the contact information for our Aging and Disability Resource Center. I did share with you an impact statement just summarizing the major programs and the number of persons served, the number of units of service during fiscal year 2025. But again, I just wanted to express my deepest gratitude for all of the support that the county has provided and just let you know that that, you know, we are available to you and your constituents and eager to help when we can. So that concludes my remarks. I'd be happy to respond to any questions that you all might have.

I do have a question for you. On the Meals on Wheels, I know we have several people on the waiting list because lack of funding.

Yeah.

Is there a way we can increase the funding we get from your organization, or how do we go about that? If it's possible, what's the step?

Yeah, yeah. That's a great question, and Kauffman County is not unique in having wait lists. Oddly enough, the best time in my history with the organization, and I'm coming up on my 30th anniversary in a few weeks, was during the pandemic period. So we were fortunate to receive an infusion of additional funds, several million dollars, and over half of those supplemental funds went to support the meal program. Unfortunately, when the pandemic ended, all of those funds were ended as well, and so we're back to just base Older Americans Act funds. So there was a significant reduction from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025. That's when we really saw the reduction of those funds. So really the best way to grow the pot would be to increase the allocation for the Older Americans Act. And we don't know yet what funding will be for the new fiscal year, but I think the best we'll do is flat funding. So a lot of programs are being cut. I'm grateful that we're not looking at cuts. But if you look at the demographics and the increase in the population of north central Texas of Kauffman County, and you also look at the increasing cost of services, flat is no victory. So this year I got really creative. We had some additional funding for our direct services that I did not expect to spend. I went to our state unit and made a proposal, and I said, this may be brilliant, this may be illegal. You tell me which it is. And after a few months, they said, yeah, that'll fly. So for the current fiscal year, 2026, which will end September 30th, we will have an additional million dollars that we will be able to allocate to our subrecipients who have exceeded the terms of their performance-based agreements. Most of our subrecipients have. Now, that's not the solution because Senior Connect, SPAN, and Denton County, other subrecipients, they had to scale back. They didn't know that they would be receiving these additional funds. So, but the good news is if they're able to ramp up during the last couple of months, we will have those supplemental funds to support it. We also have more than sufficient funds to pay for all of the meals that are served at senior centers. So we actually get a whole lot more money for those congregate meals than we do for home-delivered meals. And Senior Connect has done exceptionally well in getting people to the senior centers. So I wish I had a better solution, again, for the fiscal year that will be ending shortly. We will have some supplemental funds, but that's one time only. And I think beyond that, we need to advocate for increases in federal funding. We need to, I know for me as a program manager, I'm always looking for other funding sources that will support the mission. Older Americans Act funds were never really intended to be the sole source of support for these programs. But at the same time, I'm mindful that it's hard work running a Meals on Wheels organization. You've got to understand grant management and fundraising and volunteer and aging issues. And fundraising can be a full-time job on its own. But that's why that wait list was started. That's a partial solution for this year. And I think the path forward would would include advocacy and looking for supplemental funding.

Okay. Anyone else? We appreciate all that you do in the organization because it's definitely needed. We'll all be there someday. We might need these services.

I am there.

This is me.

I have the privilege of sitting on the board at the COG. And if any of you have residents that call you with questions, just send them my way and I'll make sure to get to Donnie.

And super grateful for Pam.

We do a lot of that through our resource connection.

Right. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you again. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Number four. Patrick and Dave's Ranch Terrell LP discuss consider a request for the Commissioner's Court review the determination under Section 6.04 of the Kauffman County Subdivision and Land Development Regulations that the February 2023 construction release expired the determination that the project must restart under the current subdivision regulations. and related determinations affecting the project's ability to proceed under previous approved plans and applicable regulations. Good morning. If you'll state your name, please, and where you live.

Good morning. My name is Patrick Nanga. I live at 4531 Kipling Avenue, Salina, Texas, 75009. Okay. I'm here for Dave's Ranch Terra LP project, as you mentioned.

Okay.

It's located here in Terror, Texas, Coffman County.

Okay. 9347 County Road 310.

Yes, so our request is straightforward. We are asking Commissioner's Court to reverse or modify the development services requiring a complete restart of our project. We're not asking for any special treatment. and we are not asking the county to waive any engineering, stormwater, fire marshal septic inspection, or any safety requirements. The central issue here is Section 6.04 of the ordinance, which provides construction release remains in effect for one year or for the duration of construction, provided the progress or development continues to be demonstrated. So we perform physical work, including roadway grading, geotextile installation, flex-based placement, survey staking, erosion controls, excavation, and drainage work. And I think all of you have received copies, pictures, evidence of documents referring to that matter. And now the county records support that activity. On here we have September 2025. There was an email that was sent out that work was still being performed sent out by the stormwater department. And then on April 8, 2026, Development Services itself described A.S. Ranch as an ongoing project. And that was an email sent out by Deputy Chief Deb Miller. An ongoing project with outstanding requirements is different from an abandoned project. So we do believe that we have a project that has been ongoing, recognized by the pictures, the evidence sent out, the communication back and forth with the county departments, and also communication with the utilities, College Mound, TVEC, and AT&T for our cabling. So our request today is that... So we're not asking the county to lower its standards. We're simply asking for the opportunity to complete the project as currently the current release has been. And we're meeting all the requirements. I know we have been lacking on some of the compliance issues. For instance, we didn't have the sweep, which we have provided now. and we've already submitted that, and they received the payment. They are awaiting the determination from the county here to determine whether they're going to go ahead and approve the SWEP, if we need to make any modifications, or we need to get it moving forward. So at this juncture, I'm open to take any questions. Well, we need to hear from our development services. Okay.

And then we'll ask the commissioner for any comments he might want to make.

Morning, Monique. Good morning. So a little bit of history on Dave's Ranch. It started in late 2022 by another developer. Bachata was the name of the company. They went through the platting process. They were approved. Preliminary plans were approved. Pre-construction was approved. They were released to start construction. We were notified by Mr. Adanga's representative that he was looking to purchase the development from Bachata. And so we had scheduled, I said the project would have to start over at that point. And why would it have to start over? We're hoping to purchase the development pre-approved. We just want to continue the project. We scheduled a team's meeting with the previous developer or at that time current developer and Mr. Patrick and discussed how this project would look moving forward. We made an accommodation at that time to allow him to take over from Bachata and continue the development based on what was approved and get it through the final stages. Mr. Bachata sent us a he agreed to that He signed off on that project, and then it transferred to Patrick. Over the course of the next 18 months, yes, there has been communication, e-mails, back and forth. We requested SWIP. SWIP's taken a year. I mean, it's taken, we just got it in June after I'd already said that this needed to start over. It took that long to just get a SWIP. We've had multiple... asking for documents. The project has just been very uncoordinated, and there's no process here that I can see that the development has moved forward. I stated that there was some issues. They were called in for a meeting. They had requested a meeting on April 27th. The purpose of that meeting, itemized in that meeting, was to go over SWPPP stuff, as well as all the other departments' fire requirements. engineering development to meet to figure out what is going on. I made the determination at that meeting that this would have to start over because I could not find anything that was sent to me that this had moved forward. That there was construction going on. We did have, when he stated the comment with Deb Miller, we had a complaint from someone on that road that there was a guy on a tractor digging digging a hole, whatever, and she was getting water on her property. Our standard response to that PIA was, this is an ongoing and we are working through. So taking that word out of context is a little bit, I didn't appreciate that one because that was out of context. If I take his words alone in the chronological tracking sheet, he says they're pausing and He says that they would like to avoid the construction right now. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, if there was a way to move to final plat without putting in the infrastructure. We answered, no, you have to put the infrastructure in. So it has just been a very unorganized, uncoordinated development. I gave you a copy of the preliminary plat so you can see the size of this development. And I thought it was very irresponsible for me to allow him to move forward when I see nothing moving forward. Um, at that time he had requested a meeting with commissioner lane. Um, he went and met with commissioner lane. I briefed him and gave him our tracking sheet cause we track everything that goes through the office. Um, and all the emails are usually put into the tracking sheet, the correspondence. So, um, You do have that, and you saw the tracking sheet. And it was a lot of, we still don't have your documents. We still don't have this. We're working on it. We're getting our ducks in a row. We appreciate your patience. But at some point, I've got to make the call, right? And I explained that to him, and I said, I've reached the end of my ability to allow this project to move forward. I said, you do have the option, if you disagree with me, that you may petition to the commissioner's court to... you know, state your case, and if they approve you to move forward, then they do. But I can't find anything in my regs that allows you to move forward. I reached out to the consulting engineer. Email correspondence back and forth with the county is not forward progression. So we are here now. He's asking to continue his development. I know after his meeting with Commissioner Lane, Commissioner Lane went out and said, did some drone imagery of what the property looked like on July 17th. And, Deb, if you'll hook up the laptop and if, Laura, you'll connect us to the TVs, we'll show that so you can see what the property looks like right now.

This is coming off County Road 314, this section.

Are we going to where the work is?

Nope. That's it? There's another spot on the other side. Oh.

Good.

Amen. I think we're good. So I did, there is a mechanism for extending construction in case you run into any type of, you know, we've had to do that one time for Snowmageddon and COVID, right? Supplies couldn't be brought in. There's a mechanism inside of our regulations on how you would apply for an extension. Mr. Patrick said that he was not aware of He needed the date in order to know when to file the extension. He had known the date was spring of 2025 in his own words in an email, which I have, and no extension was filed. Then he asked me, after I made that decision, to meet him out at the property. We went out to the property, and as you can see, we were Standing, I didn't see a lot of, I didn't see a staging yard. I mean, normal construction sites have staging yards and your construction crew equipment is there. And I just didn't see any of that. And I told him, I just, I'm not seeing what you're telling me. He did discuss that feasibly his project would take a hit financially because if he had to start over, he would then have to move to the current regs because the construction release was the 19-20-21, that time period of regs. And we are now in 26 regs. So it does have some changes to it. I did. My crew was out there with me. I did tell him that if you have to start over, there is a variance process within our regs that you can apply for. I can't guarantee it. It goes to a committee. You've got to show a hardship. And if the committee agrees, then you could apply those regs. But that's that process. I did not hear back on that. And any correspondence my office did after that meeting is because we kept getting emails back. We're not going to ignore, at some point we're going to stop, but we're not ignoring those. And we never got a decision from Mr. Naga on which route he was going. I didn't know which route he was going. He went, you know, he reached out to you, he reached out to, he did a public information request, we gave him a printer box full of emails and documents. I mean, I think we've done everything we possibly can. I just didn't have any more, I didn't have anything else that would allow me to let him to proceed. And he can come up and speak out, but...

I'll give you a... So thank you so much, Director Hunter. And I think the question at hand here is, first of all, we've had a lot of engagement, a lot of communications, and I appreciate that. The county has been very responsive. But the biggest question here is, and one of the things we've had is consistency. We have to maintain consistency. And from all the things that Director Hunter has mentioned, The ordinance that we would have applied hasn't been mentioned here because I think the only way that a county or development services can be able to be consistent from one developer to another, because we're not asking for any exception here. We're not asking for any special treatment. We're just asking for the ordinance to be followed as it is. Now, when you give somebody a construction release and they use resources to go ahead and start working in reliance of that construction release, it behooves them that the construction release stays active, as 6.04 says, as long as development, as long as progress is being demonstrated. Now, has progress been there? The answer would be yes. Because, again, by observance of, you know, county people coming and seeing it in September, stormwater came by and they saw the project and they say it's ongoing.

We went out there because of the complaint, not because of a coordinated effort on your end. I just wanted to make sure that September date was September of 2025.

Yes.

Someone was out there not at his request. As we go, I want to make sure that I'm not saying anything.

Okay. That's okay. Yes. But I think it does set the record, and that's a good thing. It does set the record that, yes, there was development ongoing, and also the rest of the communication going back and forth. And also, April 8th, when there was also another complaint, the one you mentioned from my neighbor, What we got was also a situation where they came by and we found heavy machinery there. We had dozers. We had excavators. Some of the pictures that I sent to you all, I wish we could have found a way to show them here as well. They show all the work that has been done. I don't know, Judge and Commissioners, whether you got that information. We've had, we sent over 10 pictures showing throughout the project that there has been progress. There has been development going on. And also the vast communication that has been with the county proves that if the release had ended, if the situation had arrived where the county felt that there's no progress in this project, they've had multiple chances of telling us, hey, you need to stop. You need to stop and you need to have a new restart. We need to have new regulations applied in your behalf. But there was no communication of that kind. In fact, what... ended everything, the August 8th meeting, April 8th, I keep saying August. It was actually April 27th. April 8th when they came to stop us. April 8th when they came by to the project, there were dozers, there were excavators, and we had a compactor. Pictures have shown that. Can you respond to that? Yes. So I'll let her respond to that, but let me finish this thought. But you had no permits pulled or anything at that time? Yes, yes, I do agree. There were no permits, and I think the reason why we were stopped, and rightfully so, the county was right to stop us that day because we didn't have permits. So they said, hey, you need to get your permits, and we started engaging towards getting the permits. So the 427 meeting that you're referring to, we were coming in to discuss permits, right? Because we've been stopped on April 8th. We are told, hey, Patrick, you need to get permits for your project. Okay, fine. We start working towards getting permits, which in our case, we thought when the previous construction release was issued, there were permits already. Granted, it was a previous owner, and that was on us. We should have made sure that we got the permits. But bottom line is failure to get a permit, having a compliance issue, does not mean that the project needs to be stopped as it is. And I think that's the decision that you all have to make. Based on the ordinance, and again, the ordinance is very clear, you have to show compliance. I think it says, let me read it, that 6.4 provides that a construction release remains in effect for one year for missions or duration of construction provided that progress or development of the project continues to be demonstrated. I think we have demonstrated that. And I think it's up to you to decide. But let Kerry make a statement on that. Thank you.

Good morning, gentlemen. So this situation he's bringing up that multiple counts of activity is being conducted on this site. So in September, if we want to go back to that point, when I did that site visit, it was because of a report. And then what the activity was is maybe one piece of heavy equipment, maximum two, digging a hole, doing that initial drainage grading, the maximum extent you've seen already. And we had to have a discussion because there's no active state permits online. There is... no 404 delineation permits active at that time for the disruption of the creek and the disturbance of the waters and eels. And then going back to more current, same kind of situation. The April stop work was because it was continued, once again, one dozer, one excavator, maximum, digging a pond, no permits, no reviews. We had that discussion. And prior to that also, it was a follow-up with the fire marshal, no active construction permits. So it was more of that You still have a guy on site working. It's not massive production. It's not mass grading. It's not multiple equipments. Any questions?

Just wind it up, please. Okay, I'll wind it up.

Okay, thank you so much, Kerry. And I think, again, what we're talking about is the ordinance, right? Because we have to be consistent. Have we been slow? Yes. I think I'll be the first one to admit we've been slower than we wanted to. But the question at hand is, so that there's consistency, right? How they handle one developer should be the same way they handle all developers. And the record, the ordinance states demonstrated development or progress. Now, it's up to you to decide, okay, has he demonstrated progress or continued development? And that's the issue. It has been slow. We've had equipment here and back and forth. But I think by their own admission, by the emails they send, by what they're saying here today, they found us developing. They found equipment on the ground. They found people working. To me, that meets what the ordinance requires. Thank you.

Any questions for me? No, I'm sorry, but we have met. To me, the service has been over backwards trying to help you out. This has drug out. You see the video footage. I'm sorry, but in my opinion, I make a motion to deny your request. Based on? Based on the evidence that you see right now. What ordinance are you using? What ordinance? I mean, you've already said everything. You see what they're saying. But you've seen the video footage. there's really no activity going on. It hasn't been going on. The stuff that we've seen that has happened is from the first developer that actually came in, if I'm correct.

Some of the pictures, they weren't timestamped, but some of the pictures look like one.

Yes, they do have timestamps. They have timestamps on their pictures.

I don't believe there were time stamps on the pictures. The one we sent. You itemized.

I'm sorry. Let me just say real quick. The time stamp, the pictures we sent last week.

I made my record. We've got a motion on the floor.

I'll second. I have a motion by Commissioner Lane, second by Commissioner Moore. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Patrick. Number five. Mark Dunn here. But Trinus is here. Discuss, consider, approve FY2027 contracts for detention and contract providers.

Morning. Good morning, everybody. Basically what this is, this is our yearly contracts that we do every year for all the detention centers that we contract with and all our contract providers that we have. Every year we have to renew their contracts. So the contract is going through the legal department, and they agree everything is fine. So we're asking the commissioner's court to approve the contract so we can continue to use these detention centers and contract providers.

Y'all are doing a great job.

Thank you.

And I know, of course, most of you don't know, we have a meeting every quarter. Yes, sir. With them and the district judges and the county judges and myself and everyone from his department with a full report of what's going on. And it's amazing all the things that are happening. And reports are things you have to keep up with. It's just unbelievable. Thank you. But never any complaints from the state or anyone else. No, sir. So that's good. So I make the motion. We approve. Second mr. Phelps make second all in favor say aye Thank you, thank you miss Lorena Discuss consider and approve the final renewal of bid 24 days 12 roadside mowing Good morning judge

So this is the final renewal. The vendor has agreed to renew with no price increase, so the terms and pricing would stay the same. I recommend moving forward with the renewal. Any comments on that? I'll make the motion.

Commissioner Moore makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Ms. Serena, once again, discussed, considered, and approved. Rejection of all proposals received by RFP 2026-001, the annual contract HVAC services, county buildings, RFP 2026-007, annual contract plumbing services, and RFP 2026-008, annual contract for HVAC services, justice center, annexed courthouse, and authorized re-solicited HVAC project only. Yes, ma'am.

I know that was pretty long. Yeah, it was. So I'm recommending rejection of all proposals. This is based on the available budget. All our proposals exceeded the budget, every single one. And so we are wanting to resolicit, and this would be just for HVAC, not for plumbing. Okay. And that's because plumbing, based on the current spend, we don't have the need to resolicit the plumbing.

Okay. Yeah, because all the proposals came in were extremely way over what we ever could have meant.

And you have that in front of you. It gives you a talibation of what we're currently paying and what the proposed permits came in at.

So, any comments from anyone?

No.

I'll make the motion to retain. Commissioner Moore makes the motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Commissioner Phillips makes second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Number eight. Marina. Once again, discussed, considered, and approved the award bid of

So we received five bids. Kirby Smith did rank in fourth place. However, the award criteria is based on price, availability, and delivery date. I'm recommending going forward with Kirby Smith. Kirby Smith does have the unit in stock, and it's available for immediate delivery.

Well, we know we can't wait on construction, and there's not a lot of difference in pricing here, so comments, or am I going to need a motion? I'll make a motion. Commissioner Crowe makes the motion. Do I have a second? Commissioner Phillips makes the second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Karen, you going to do that?

Yes, sir. Okay.

We're going to discuss and approve accepting the grant funds from the OJPFY 2026 Special Attorneys Program Opportunity Number OBJA-2026-172587 grant. for the time period of June 1 of 26 to May 31 of 29. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. We're asking the court, the district attorney's office applied for a grant back in the spring, and we found out quite suddenly that we actually had gotten the grant, that we've received it. And so it is for a special attorney's program. It's basically kind of a grant-funded position for a special attorney's program through the Justice Department. Excuse me. And so we are asking, and a little bit more about that is, it's a three-year grant. So that's why we have the money will be distributed throughout the three-year time period. But it is a grant that is funded for three years. And so we are asking the court to approve the Kauffman County accepting those funds for the special attorney's program.

I think it's very important we take advantage of these grants because it helps us all the way around. That's for sure. Okay. Anyone have any questions? No. Need a motion? I'll make a motion. There you go. Commissioner Crowe makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Phillips makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Number 10, consider reappointing Charles Taylor as the Coffman County Fire Marshal effective August 23, 2026. Fire Chief, you have anything you want to enlighten us with?

I'd just like to say this time.

I was trying to figure out who Charles was.

I don't know why I'm not. New guy. He's a new guy. My parents did that, and from the day I came home from the hospital, they called me by my middle name, Michael, and I don't know why they did that to me, but they did it. No, first, I would just like to say this two years has flown by. It's absolutely been an honor and a privilege to serve here for Coffman County. We've done quite a bit. I was kind of pulling up to really kind of look at how fast it went by. Some of the things that we looked at from where we started with, just with our permit fees and things with our budget that we brought in, close to a million dollars. Our permits, we've brought in to just right about 2,800 permits that's come through there. The inspections over the last two years have been just over 3,000. And, of course, we know we have two tiers, so that inspections part and then our fire investigation part. Our fire investigations, we've had over 3,000, actually about 3,200 fire investigations that we've worked here. And we've also done a lot to where we've really expanded our ourselves with other neighbor agencies and things. One of the things I was very proud of is that City Mesquite has used us quite a bit for when their office has left. We have backfilled their office to help them with their fire investigations as well, going through Henderson County, Van Zandt County, Hunt County, helping them with some of their more critical investigations and such that they've had with million-dollar losses. or fatality fires where they've had people that have died in those fires. And they've called us to say, Hey, can you bring in y'all's expertise to help in that? And so I've been very proud that we've, we've really expanded that reputation that people look to us for those in there to help them with that. Um, one of the other parts in there is, um, We've issued just over 400 citations. Most of those have all been through our burn bans that we've had. We know how critical those have been and everything. One of the things I'm actually kind of proud of is we really haven't had to issue many of those as far as our inspections goes. We've had 11 total for people who just would not become compliant with their certificate of occupancy. So only 11 criminal cases we've had to file with that. Other than that, we've been able to work with everybody. come up with better solutions to get them compliant. So we've been able to do those kinds of things. And then kind of wrapping up with Class B and above offenses, we've had 19 criminal cases that we've gone through with the DA's office through the last couple of years. And we've had very successful conviction rates with those. So we're very proud of that and everything else. And so I'm very much hoping today that y'all give me the opportunity to continue that and we can see if we can expand that out further. Another two years. That's right.

Any questions, comments? I'll make a motion. Mr. Lane makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crow makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Very helpful. Okay, Ms. Auditor, discuss line item transfers.

Yes, sir. We have just a few routine line item transfers and a few budget amendments, and we ask for the court's approval.

You all received those last week. You've had time to look at them. Any questions? I'll make a motion for you. Mr. Phelps makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Moore makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay, Ms. Archer, once again, claim for payment.

And before I go into that, I did want to just reiterate what you said last week. August 15th is the deadline for capital purchases to be received by September 30th. So then accounts payable, we have those invoices are mainly made up of our debt service payments, and then we also have juror payments, and we also have a payroll, and we ask for the court's approval to pay.

Before we make the motion, do we have many jurors reassign their checks to one of our charities, or do you see that very often, or do you know?

It does happen just about every time there are a handful. It's not a lot, but a handful do.

Okay. Just curious. Okay. Okay, so I need a motion. I'll make the motion. Mr. Fulton makes the motion to have a second. I'll second. Mr. Lane makes second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Mr. Fulton makes the motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crowell makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.