Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to welcome everyone to our regular Commissioner's Court meeting. It is the 1st of September. We're going to annex as usual. We're going to begin with the invocations and our pledges. If you'd join me and stand, please.

Let us pray. Lord, we just thank you for this day, and we just thank you for the love that you show us each and every day. Lord, we pray for wisdom today as we make decisions for the county to be with us. Lord, we ask you to be with our employees as well. Lord, they're working hard in the heat and in the offices. Lord, we just thank you for all of our employees. And, Lord, we also this morning want to just do a special, just keep Yolanda and her family in our prayers this morning with our employees. We thank you again for all your love and the blessings that you show us each and every day. In Jesus' name, amen.

He was in a hurry. Okay. Does anyone have any routine correspondence this morning? Any cleanups coming this month? Another one? Okay.

Yeah, I think we do have a cleanup.

Let me see.

There should be one. Yeah, we should be for August 1st. It's going to be September the 5th, and it's going to be at the City of Kauffman. It's going to be in Precinct 1 this time. So remember, electronics could have a fee, but there's some restrictions on that kind of stuff, but we like praying.

Okay. We'll move on to the consent agenda then. We just have one item, discuss, consider, and accept. The commissioner's short and regular meeting minutes for August the 25th of 2026. Any corrections? Any changes? I'll make a motion for you. I have a motion. Commissioner Phillips, do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crowell makes second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Ms. Brenda. Yes, sir. Discuss, consider, and approve their authorization of additional services for the road bond program management support task order number 36 and 37. between Coffman County and Tignall-Perkins in the amount of $1,236,850. Morning, Brenda.

Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. TNP and I visited with Commissioner Phillips about a month ago about some improvements that he wanted on University Drive and then also a signal warrant study at Valley View and Ranch Road. We were in the process of putting together a packet with TNP, a task work order to get those services provided when Commissioner Phillips called us and said that the first day of school there was a considerable backup at that intersection. So we've separated those tasks out into two. The first task, task 36, is to do a signal warrant to see if a signal warrant is needed at the intersection there to help with the backup and traffic. TMP is going to accelerate that, and we should have the results in that about four weeks. So we'll know whether or not a signal. By October? Yes. Okay. Once we find out if the signal is warranted there, then there would be some design that needed to be done of the signal, and then putting together a bid packet and actually bidding it. But this is the first step. This is the first thing that we need to do. The second task, task 37, is for improvements along University Drive. The cost for that, the $1,223,450, is to go all the way from the beginning to the end. We're talking about any environmental permitting that needs to be done, any plans that need to be done, looking at the right-of-way, any right-of-way acquisition documentation that needs to be done, title commitment policies. TMP will then come in and put together design plans in a bid packet. Then they will also be there to monitor construction and do the construction testing. So this is an A to Z. No county force is needed to take care of the project, and they're ready to start on that as soon as we get them a notice to proceed.

It's confusing to me. Do another environmental on the road that's already existing? Is that just required? Is it necessary? Does that just delay things?

There are three permits that are sometimes needed for county roads on roads that are already existing, especially if, in this case, we're looking at going from a two-lane to a two-lane with a center turn lane, so there may be some right-of-way needed. One is coordination with the Texas Historical Commission just to make sure that there's no historical properties out there that we need to be concerned about. And then the second one is if we're in waterways, we might need to have a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit to go with that. Those are included in this cost, but if we don't need them, then we won't pay for them. Okay, good.

It just seemed like a lot of extra stuff was already existing.

Yes.

That's why we would need that.

Yes, sir.

Okay. All right. Any questions? Mr. Keith, this is in your precinct. I'll make a motion. We have a motion from Commissioner Phillips. Do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Crowell makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Brenda, thank you very much. Thank you. You all have a good day. Okay. Okay, next up, Ms. Teresa. She wants to present and for us to accept the Kauffman County Assessments and Collection Contract for Fairfields Mud Number 1B. Good morning. Good morning, Teresa.

Okay, so yes, we have somebody else wants us to collect their taxes for them, and of course we are contracting with them if it's okay with you. And this will make us 69 jurisdictions we're collecting for.

Sixty-nine, goodness. Yeah. And where is this exactly?

I would be lying if I said I knew that one. Okay. We went back and forth all year on emails, but I don't know. Okay.

All right. Well, this is a common thing we do. It's the same rates.

Same rates, same everything, yeah.

Mind if I need anybody to have any questions for Teresa? No. Need a motion to approve then?

I'll make the motion.

Commissioner Moore makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Teresa, very much. Thank you. to fill a vacant patrol contract position in Department 193. Morning, Jason.

Morning, Judge. Morning, Commissioners. Yes, sir, that's correct. Mr. Rankin applied with our office, and he's actually coming from Sunnyvale Police Department. After careful background, the oral board really liked Mr. Rankin and think that he'd be tremendous for the department.

Okay. Any questions?

No. I'll make a motion anyway.

I have a motion. Commissioner Phillips, do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Stroll makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Number six. Once again, Constable Johnson. Discuss, consider, and approve Deputy Taylor J. Rankin to fill a vacant patrol contract position number 44040356 in Department 193, Devonshire, with the Coffman County Precinct 2 Constable's Office.

Yes, sir, that's correct. This position was already created, accepted, and approved, so he would be going into an open spot that is currently available and ready to fill.

Same person, same way. That's right. Commissioner Phillips makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Crowell makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Constable Johnson, once again, discussed, considered, and approved the deputation of Miguel A. Del Toro, as the Deputy Constable with Coffman County Precinct No. 2 Constable's Office, Defendant Beckett Patrol Contract, Position Department 192. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Mr. Del Toro actually comes from the Texas Health Department Law Enforcement Agency. He's been over there for three years now. After doing a background with Mr. Del Toro, the Coral Board really liked him and said that he'd be tremendous. So I'd like to add him in the spot.

Any questions? No. I'll make a motion. Commissioner Phillips makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Crowell makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Once again, Constable Johnson discussed, considered, and approved Deputy Miguel A. Del Toro to fill a vacant patrol contract position in Department 192, that's Mud 5, Travis Ranch, with Coffman County Precinct 2 Constable's Office. Yes, sir.

Again, this position was already created and is currently vacant, and Mr. Del Toro will be going into that position that's currently open.

Okay, and I'll make a motion. Mr. Phillips makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Cole makes a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Ms. Shannon, she wants to discuss, consider, and hopefully approve the final plot Is that Benalis Addition located on US 175, I mean Highway 180 in Precinct 3?

Good morning.

Good morning.

So this is a five-acre piece of property, and the owner's splitting that into two lots. We have a 1.4-acre lot and a 3.6-acre lot. It's been through all the reviews and met the requirements set forth in our subdivision regulations, and we just need the court's approval today.

Okay. I'll make a motion. Commissioner Lane makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Moore makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Ms. Lorena. Discuss, consider, and approve two Mack dump trucks with 16-foot dump beds from Bruckner Truck Sales utilizing HGAC by contract HT07-26A. Good morning.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. So this is two dump trucks with a purchase price tag of $187,777 each for a grand total of $375,554. This is for Precinct 1, and again, this is being purchased outright. It meets all purchasing requirements.

That's good. I'm paying cash. That's good.

Yes.

Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion. I'll second. Okay. Mr. Crow makes a motion. Mr. Phelps makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Lorena. Thank you. Okay, number 11, we're going to go to a workshop to discuss updating and amending our current Coffman County tax abatement policy. Y'all have a copy of that. The last time we did this was back when you and I first came into office.

That's been 12 years ago.

And the stewards here with the city, and they've kind of been mimicking what we do pretty much. And so now it's time for the first to discuss because 12 years ago, things didn't cost as much as they do today. And some counties are not giving abatements. Some are, and some have got limits where they start at a higher number than what we do. So now is the time to discuss it. Give me your thoughts and ideas. And we've got triggers in here. And if they don't do something, who's going to monitor it if we do give an abatement? So what's your thoughts?

Yeah, would y'all like me to start? Yeah, I like letting them answer. One thing I will tell you is... I'm all about the maximum time on a bank was 10 years anyway. I think that's what most people is trying to do. The only thing that I would ask that y'all would consider that I'm interested in doing is, you know, once we figure the numbers out for different types of projects, like for real estates, one, schools, you know, different things have different percentages on it, but I'd like to include a pilot program in that so that each... We can do a pilot any time. Yeah, so I think we need to start practicing the pilot more often. That's just my suggestion, but I don't know. On percentages right now, what do we skate? We're like what... What's our percentages? Do you remember when y'all did that? Can you print your list?

Okay. Back in the day, we started at $10 million. Now, we started at $3 million. Three, five, and ten. You can't hardly buy much today for $3 million, even $10 million on new construction. This does not include any houses or apartments. This is strictly commercial. Anything tax-exempt will not be included because they're tax-exempt. You know, the pilot, you know, the payment in lieu of taxes, that's the way a lot of counties are doing it because it doesn't affect our tax rates, which is good. The 180 agreements, I don't like. Do you all still do 180 agreements?

380 agreements. 380, I mean.

Do you do 312s?

Mm-hmm. Okay.

The last conference we went to, what, last week was... Most counties are not doing the 380s at all. They're just doing 312s and pilot, which is the same thing.

380s is for a tax, I mean for a sales tax.

Yeah, we don't do those. We don't do sales tax. We don't have sales tax.

You can do a 381 for rebate.

Yeah, I know, but I'm not doing it. I'll deal with a sales tax. I think we need to get part of the city's sales taxes. I think that works. Would you agree to that? I think the city would agree to that. Talk to Jeff Jordan about that. I don't think that's going to work. Okay. Okay. So, honestly, some counties start now a minimum of $25 million. Don't even talk about a tax abatement. And, you know, we have a seven-year. We don't do 10. We just do seven. That's as far as we can go. So we need to come up with some plan to where when someone comes in here, just like we did recently, we did the seven-year with the company that was supposed to come into Crandall.

Yeah.

But that's been the last one we've done in some time.

And then one there and one over in Terrell. What did we do in Terrell? I don't remember. This year? No, last year.

Okay. We did a 10-year modified with Kauffman on the storage plant, didn't we? Did we have seven on that one? I thought we did a 10-year modified.

I thought it was 10, too.

I did, too.

Because all we can do is seven.

It should be. I mean, the reason I say seven, you know, the reason... You know, it's not made. It's more for startup. If it's in county, it's more for startup, getting them to get started. Seven years, if they haven't made it in seven years, I'm not sure they'll ever make it. Yeah, come on, Stuart. I mean, I'm sorry. You know, it's not there to support them forever. Not us.

Absolutely. Stuart McGregor, Kauffman EDC Director. On those tax abatement policies, as you said, Commissioner, you can go up to the 10 years, and I know y'all's policy does.

I know we can. I'm not saying there's not a good point because the county, we don't have any extra money. We have only, only. tax. And if you give it all away, it makes it almost impossible for us to keep up with our growth.

Right, right. And so as far as companies that are pursuing that, obviously if it's a new company moving into the county, that is an option that you can do and entertain with a company moving into the county, whether they're startup or an existing company that is wanting to locate another facility in the county but it's also good for expansions too and obviously legacy companies have been part of our community for a long time you know employing a lot of people out here there's opportunities with them to expand and be able to take a portion of that expansion and do a tax abatement with them as well. I was actually just talking to a company yesterday looking at doing a small expansion and they're actually in the county they're not in the city and so You know, one consideration you may want to make as you all discuss this and deliberate how you all want to move forward with this is some sort of opportunity for some of those existing companies out here that are expanding and looking at, you know, is there something that we need to do as far as the threshold of a smaller amount for those expanding companies that are already employing people that have already been paying taxes to the county for many, many years.

And the things we run into sometimes is who reports to whom is the number of employees. Do they actually hire who they say they're going to hire? Who's keeping track of that?

They have to file an annual report with the appraisal district on that. And you can also request that as part of their performance agreement with y'all. So when we did the agile tax abatement a couple years ago, part of that process is every year they provide to me an annual report of their employment. their investment, their taxable values, so that I can make sure that we're verifying that they've created at least the minimum jobs that they've done.

And you can do that being the city, but we don't have that authority.

Y'all have the authority to do that in the appraisal district.

I haven't gotten anything from the appraisal district as to what they're doing.

And you can request that information from the appraisal district.

I think that would need to be automatic, right?

So, Judge, what a lot of people do, if you looked at some of the abatement policies of the surrounding counties, is the abatement policy that people agree to, part of the abatement agreement, is how it will be monitored, what reports, what expectations, all those things. And I think that's what the city has in their tax abatement agreements, too.

That's something we need to update ours. That's the reason I want to do this report.

We really do.

Modern day instead of 12-year-old programs.

And we updated ours a couple years ago. We still somewhat mirror y'all's, but we also did add some additional kind of things in there that I sent you via email in case y'all want to look at that too. Yeah.

And they do divide it out into new industry expansion. There's different requirements for different things. But you can make it as, you know, one of them is 36 pages. I mean, you can make it as detailed as you want for compliance. And then, you know, some counties even have where a recall that if they don't do what they're supposed to do, you know, you can recall those taxes.

We have that already.

We do have that because we did have that instance like last year or the year before that we had to do that. And I can say that the auditor's office, we do look at the rebate ones before we cut any checks. Not necessarily the abatements, but the rebates we do.

That is one of the benefits of doing the rebate. Obviously it's not baked into your taxable values like a 312 is, but the rebate allows you to kind of step back and do some compliance. If you are doing a 312, you just need to make sure that they're providing those reports to you each year so you can let the CAD know before they apply that to the abatement.

Right. There's just a lot of things that we need to revisit.

Yeah, a couple of things. I mean, you know, like the 312 or whatever, it was a certain amount of money, so you're always paying the same thing. It wasn't something that It's a big task to try to figure out sometimes on abatements. They'll wear that department out trying to figure out what the value is and what the thing is and be able to figure it out because it changes every year.

There's pilots. There's percentages that change. Yeah.

And, you know, I think we talked about it a few years ago, and we said, you know, some of those things, 312s and things, are just so simple because it's that amount of money every year, no matter what happens, doesn't change things that, It just seems like a simpler process. But everybody's got their own opinion. One, you know, it's hard to keep. What am I going to do? Hire a person to keep up with the people? Then keep the person. Or, you know, it's not just as simple as everybody says it. It sounds simple, but it's not very simple when you're doing, you know, two thousand abatements or whatever companies and you've got all this network and next thing you know you're having to hire somebody just to keep up and find out if they added employees don't add employees do whatever the process needs to be really easy and simple so it doesn't cost us extra money just to even try to figure out to monitor it all the time i mean it it you know, maybe I'm dreaming that it should be a simple process, but I think it should be a very simple process. And I don't think it should be a long-term process. I'm sorry, I just... Your company, the average base thing is between three and five years. If you've successfully made three to five years, you're generally a viable and up-moving company and you're doing well. If you start doing more than that, then... You're just struggling, and I don't know if you'll ever survive. I mean, you go to an awful lot of different articles on different people, Wall Street journals, everything that brings in companies. So this is what it's for, is to bring you here and to get you started, not to support you for life.

You know, I mean... Well, and I think there's value in large companies bringing a large number of employees, because that helps the economy overall, not just for cities, but for counties all the way around, and we need to be mindful of that also. But you were self-employed. How long did it take you to break even? Yeah, oh, the first year. Oh, well, he's a plumber. He can charge you. You're going to pay.

I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. My success came between three and five. After my third to fourth year in my company, I had a lot of employees on a lot of trucks. I was smoking, and I never got a nickel from the city, county, or anybody. I mean, it was 100% on my own power.

One thing, though, to think about as you all work through this is also just the dynamics of companies making those site selection decisions. I mean, they may be looking at Kauffman County. They may be looking at Taylor County. They may be looking at Kendall County. And, you know, where do we put something? And it doesn't always have to be that you have to be the biggest incentive. That's kind of the cherry on the top of the sundae at the end of the day. You know, when companies are looking at, you know, am I going to invest $100 million in a manufacturing facility in one of these three counties or in this state versus Texas, you know, that's another consideration. And so having, I think, some language where you can negotiate outside of just a standard deal just gives you a little bit of cover, even though you can always say, no, we're not going to do that.

If the end result is to get a good corporation here, you have to be able to negotiate with them to make it work for both of you. Yeah. It can't be one-sided.

Just like with the Agile deal, I mean, that project is cash flowing from day one. Since they opened up and they hit the tax rolls, even with our abatement that we did for them at the city, five years, 50%, the city, I think, is netting $300,000 off that project, and they're now our number one taxpayer with the abatement in place, and their tenant is the number three taxpayer to the city. And so when used responsibly, that can be a really, really strong way to make things happen and facilitate growth. Yeah.

And we've got some examples of other counties, what they're doing. And some of them, they don't tie exact numbers to it. It's just all negotiations. And I think that's probably a pretty good thing to do.

Yeah. And one thing I'll mention to Commissioners Moore, his comment about pilots. And something just to kind of keep on the radar that I'm watching as well as this next legislative session, I think pilots are going to be something that the legislature is looking at and potentially reforming. I'm not sure what that's going to all entail, but that's come up in a lot of their interim hearings that they've had so far is on these pilot agreements and. I think pilots are a great way to facilitate economic development. I mean, the Forney Power Plant, that was a pilot between Vistra Energy and the city of Forney that's made them the number one largest taxpayer in the county. But just putting that on your radar that there could be some changes this next session regarding that.

I'm supposed to be back in Austin the 16th. We'll see what some things are going to happen.

Okay.

All right. Anything else you want to ask Stuart about while he's here? I know we're not the same as the city, but We still have to work together with all the other cities. I want you all to take our abatement policy, look at it, mark it up. In a couple of weeks, we're going to come back and revisit this again and try and tie some things down because we want to get this done before the first year for sure. We'd like to get it done next month, by the end of this month if possible, so we know where we are, what direction we're going. We've talked about TIFs and TIRs. No one here is in favor of those things, but we have so many on the books now. I don't think we need to do any more, but there might be a time when that might be. But still, we need not worry about that today.

Most definitely.

Houses have to be cut out. Well, houses. We're not giving payments to houses.

Should have never gave them. And I would like to ask you one question about like on the Do y'all do any pilots for the city? Are you allowed to do that? I guess that should be my first question.

We're allowed to do what we want to. We haven't had a huge project that would make sense to do a pilot with.

All right. Let me ask you one other question. Sorry. You're very well knowledgeable in this area. What would be the benefit of us running our own abatement with these companies? Because it seems like every time we do one of these, it's the city showing up here. Their people's looked at it. Their attorneys looked at it. And it's kind of like they come in here and ask us, and we have this throw-down abatement program. It's like just a base model, which different things from commercial properties to different types of construction should be handled differently. So... Would it be more beneficial for us to do our own abatement with these companies? The city does their own separate one, and they can come to us separately.

Yeah, y'all are separate. So typically whenever you do a 312 agreement, there's a lead taxing entity that takes the lead on that. And so like with Agile, the city was the one that took the lead on that. But y'all's abatement was a separate agreement that Karen drafted for y'all. and it also provided a different schedule. Y'all did the seven-year sliding sale schedule, and the city and the junior college district did a five-year schedule. And so I worked hand-in-hand with Karen on that deal. And one thing I will commend y'all on, I think that is a smart approach, and we also do it at the city, is y'all aren't touching your INS or road and bridge. And so when we do our abatements, we don't touch our INS either. You need that for the growth to manage that.

They don't want to do that. You don't want them. No. You've got to pay your bills.

Right. Absolutely.

That's got cities in trouble. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. We know why. But, you know, that's just what it is. And we are separate. They come to us. It's generally the reason they're in the city first. And they bring it to us because they have a development service. We don't do that. We don't hire development services.

I believe the 381 or the 312 has to be in a TERS zone, right?

It's not necessarily a TERS zone. You do have to create what's called a reinvestment zone, which kind of is confusing, but it's separate and apart from what a TERS does, yes.

Sometimes, you know, and I talk about it, it's a simple process where you're saying, hey, you're going to have this and that and we're going to pay you backwards from the face of it and say, hey, we're going to give you 10% of your tax back and whatever it is and not on a sliding scale thing. It's that amount of money for the next five years, six years, seven years, whatever you decide to do. And it's a simple payment. As long as they're in business and thriving, she's going to write out the check when they pay the taxes. In the end of the story, you don't have to always worry about...

Percentage of the cost. So two weeks, we're going to discuss this again, another workshop. Stuart, if you don't mind coming back if you want to, you're welcome. Anytime. Anytime. Oh, yeah. And we work with Karen to get the wording right and follow some of the other counties that's updated theirs recently. It's a lot easier than what we have. And get it tied down. So when someone comes, we hand it to them, here it is. We always make exceptions to the rule. So, okay. You had a good teacher. Or I was a good teacher, wasn't I? Yeah.

Anyone else?

Anything else on the abatement policy for right now? No. If not, then we'll move on to Ms. Archer. Consider line item and budget transfers.

Yes, sir. We did have just a few routine line item transfers for some cleanup and then a budget amendment to record additional revenue, and we asked for the court's approval.

Y'all got those last week. You've had time to see them. Any questions, corrections? Need a motion to approve? I'll make a motion. Commissioner Phillips makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Crowell makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Ms. Archer, claims for payment.

So this week we have accounts payable invoices, mostly made up of county road and reimbursement expenditures. We also had jury payments, and we also had a payroll, and we asked for the court's approval to pay.

Y'all seen those at the same time? Questions? Need a motion to approve? I'll make a motion. Mr. Lane makes the motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

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