Commissioners' Court - Regular Meeting

Today is Monday, September the 14th, 2026. It's 9 o'clock and I call the Potter County Commissioner's Court to order. Today we have Ty Jackson from First Christian who will do our invocation. So if you'll please stand for that and remain standing for the pledges.

Thank you, Judge. Please join me in prayer. Dear Lord, we come before you this morning in need of your presence. We pray that your will will be done throughout the entirety of this meeting. This morning, we lift up our local leaders. We pray for the leaders citywide, including the mayor and city council commissioners, police chiefs, sheriff judges, and all who serve our local community. Strengthen them with wisdom and grace for their heavy burdens that they carry. May they manage their teams and their projects with love. Keep their hearts pure and their eyes turns towards your face as they work in the best interest of the people they're called to serve. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

All right. Next thing on the agenda is the recognition of minutes to recognize the minutes from the August 24th, 2026 commissioners court meeting. Are there any changes to that? if not so recognized. Number four, budget amendments. To authorize a county auditor to prepare a budget amendment effective 9-30-26 to make any necessary transfers for year end. Transfers will be made within departments whenever possible and contingency or countywide funds may be transferred if necessary. Brandon.

Yes, Judge. This is just the annual budget amendment we do at the end of every year for the end of year sweeps.

Okay. Anybody have any questions for Brandon? Okay. I need a motion.

Move to approve as presented.

I need a second.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Same sign. That passes 4-0. Number five, vouchers to consider.

Judge, we still need to do the four.

I knew that there was something else. Consider an act upon a budget amendment for fiscal year 25-26.

So, Judge, there are four budget amendments to consider this morning. The first one, it says request by district clerk. This is to... cover copier lease expenses that were greater than anticipated for them. They had money in their training line and so they're just asking to move money from the training line to the equipment operation line. The second budget amendment is for the tax assessor. They have some upcoming training Their training budget would not have enough money. They need an extra $175 to go to training at the end of the month. And so they're asking to move some from their general operating costs to cover that. Okay. The third budget amendment is on the second sheet. This is... request from the Sheriff's Department and this is tied to agenda item number 7 H which is titled replacement vehicle and so what what they are looking for is they had a damaged vehicle and they they need to replace that vehicle The total that needs to be transferred for the line item is $38,563. They did receive $11,195 in insurance proceeds. And so the net effect of what we will end up receiving from insurance and what we have to pay out will be $27,000. uh... three sixty seven ninety one and then finally uh... the last request is uh... out of the cad this has to do also with another agenda item which is agenda item seven e gun range firm improvements uh... The sheriff can probably explain that, but essentially the gun range, they've done some work to increase the berms around the shooting range. And this is a project that will prevent soil erosion. I believe it's by planting seeds and allowing the grass to grow. and to preserve the work from that, um, earlier project that they did it in. The funding will actually come from road and bridges, um, cat account. They had additional funds in the are not road project that went unspent. And so this budget amendment would transfer the money from, um, road and bridges are not road project over to the, um, to a line item for the sheriff to, uh, Do the repairs necessary or the maintenance necessary for this project? In terms of the fund balance, though, in the cab, just to be clear, even though we are transferring the money from. Um, the unspent are not road project. To the, uh, to the, um. maintenance account for the sheriff to use to do this project. It still would come out of the actual spent money for this would still come out of the sheriff department's share of fund balance in CAD.

All right. Any questions for Brandon on this? All right.

I'll make a motion to approve the transfers as presented.

I have a motion and a second. Colin Thaler, raise your hand. All right. Vouchers to consider and act upon the approval of the vouchers is processed by the County Archer's Office. Check number is 223681-3223932. And wire transfer is 2541-32549. In the amount of $4,000,000, $512,498.29. I need a motion and a second to discuss.

Make a motion for as presented. Second.

All right. Any discussion? Any questions?

None.

Cool. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. And that passes 4-0. Thank you. Number six, insurance, human resource. Judy is out sick today, so we will skip this one today. Number seven, agenda items, High Plains Food Bank to recognize September the 26th as Hunger Action Month in Potter County. Is anybody here from Food Bank? Nobody here. Okay. So recognized.

That is much needed. I'm glad we have it.

Number 7B, Amarillo-Potter Event Venue District Board to receive a report regarding the FY26-27 budget approved by the Amarillo-Potter Event Venue District Board and take any action necessary pursuant to discussion. Good morning.

Good morning.

Say your last name. Ogunremi. That's what I was going to say.

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Honorable George and commissioners. I am Lola Grammy, chief financial officer at the city of Amarillo and the liaison to the Amarillo Porter event venue district board. I also have here with me today Mr. Terry Wright, who is the chair of the Amarillo Porter Event Venue District Board, and Ms. Katrina Owens, finance director at the City of Amarillo. We appreciate the opportunity to present the proposed FY2026-2027 budget for the Amarillo Porter Events Venue District and request the Porter County Commissioner's Court for consideration today. I will proceed with the budget highlights. The total revenue for FY2026-2027 sums up to $5.1 million. Major revenue sources include vehicle rental tax at $1.38 million. We also have hotel occupancy tax at $3 million. Total expenditures for FY2026-2027 sum up to $4.8 million. Major expenditure categories include the tri-state lease improvements, at $1.6 million plus 75,000 in attorney fees. We also have the tri-state management contract including the ANC property insurance at $750,000. Other expenditures include event development for ANC at $450,490. The civic center management contract at $398,000. We also have civic center improvements at $710,000, as well as debt service expenses of $785,000. This budget was approved by the venue district board on August 24th, 2026, and we're here today to present this before you for your consideration. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

No.

I don't have it.

Okay.

Thank you.

So thank you so much. Thank you. Number 7C, Veterans Treatment Court Grant to consider and act upon authorizing Judge Tanner to accept a grant award from the Texas Veterans Commission for the Veterans Treatment Court. Is Justin here today? Justin's not here.

No, but Judge, this is just a standard thing we do every time we accept a grant from...

Okay. Is there anything special we need to know about it, Brandon? Anything different?

The only thing of note is they moved the fiscal year, and so this used to be a weird grant that started in... july 1st and they have moved in line with all the rest of the state i you know i had a question why they this grant used to be from um july 1st to june 30th and i could never give a good answer but now it's in line with all of our other grants so what they moved what they moved it to uh august is that what you're saying yes okay all right any questions for brandon

I make a motion to authorize Judge Tanner to accept the grant awarded from the Texas Veterans Commission for the Veteran Treatment Center Program.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. That passes 4-0. Number 7D, the TIDC grant. to consider and act upon accepting the improvement grant for fiscal year, 2027 awarded to the panhandle area, regional public defender's office by the Texas energy defense commission and to authorize judge Tanner to execute the grant acceptance and agreement. Hi Jason.

Good morning. So at the last, uh, commissioner's court meeting, I let y'all know that I would be putting this particular item on the agenda. Um, TIDC had money two years ago that I sought out, but it was only a year-to-year basis. And so this is a temporary assistance for rural programs grant. What it does is it helps to offset the county contributions and this year we were able to secure three hundred forty one thousand eight hundred and four dollars for the overall program and that will be divided up amongst the counties by the same percentage that each county contributes to our budget so Potter counties is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of over a hundred and thirty thousand dollars but since Potter County does run our entire office we need the total grant approval and so I would ask that y'all do that today Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, that passes 4-0. Thank you, Jason. Number 7E, gun range berm improvements to consider and act upon a request for gun range berm improvements using H&K Construction LLC. Chief Giles. Chief Giles.

Good morning.

Good morning.

As Brandon explained a while ago, we raised the height of the berms a couple of months ago. Just did a bunch of dirt work and that was something that really needed to be done. And we are now seeking to add some erosion control to those berms. which are just exposed to the wind and the rain and over time they erode down. And so to delay that process and to make the berms last longer, we want to add a matting material to the tops of those berms It'll come down about half, maybe two thirds of the way down the berm. This is something similar to what you see on the side of the highways when they build new highways. And we'll also infuse that matting with Bermuda grass seed so that some vegetation at least will take root and grow hopefully to also help prevent erosion. So that's what we're seeking to do. And as Brandon said, this would be funded through CAD funds that were originally designated towards road and bridge in a specific project. This money is essentially left over. And so we seek to use it for this project instead.

Do you always use H&K to do this?

H&K Construction is the vendor that we have selected for this, yes.

Any questions for Scott?

I move to approve the government firm improvements in the amount of $24,500.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Thank you.

Judge, if I may. Judge, over here. Oh, sorry. Could we go back to item 7B? I believe they actually need a motion and vote on that budget for the venue district.

Oh, okay. Okay. Item 7B, to receive a report regarding the fiscal year 26-27.

I'll move to approve the proposed budget for the venue district, as presented.

Seconded. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. And that passes 4-0. Thank you.

Scott, do we need to accept the 7C that they grant? Do we need to accept that or just recognize it? Recognize it. I wasn't sure about that.

All right. So moving on to S. a 7F district clerk records archive plan to consider and act upon adopting the district clerk's records archive plan for the 2026-27 annual budget. Stephanie.

Good morning. This is just my annual. I'm required to put in a records management archive plan, and this is just for your approval.

Anything big different about it, usual stuff? No, nothing. Any questions for Stephanie?

You talked about in here, Steph, that depending on funds, I can't find adequate funding to do this. Yes. Are you just going to put it in your budget?

It just stays in my budget until I can find enough money or get enough money to do it. Right now I have about $92,000 in there, and it takes a little bit more than that to fund a big project. So as I get the funds in there, I will try to use them I want to digitize my family records and my civil records. I've not done all of those yet. So I want to work towards that.

So will this be like what the county clerk's office did, send them out to?

Yes, absolutely. Same thing.

Move to approve as presented.

Thank you.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. And that passes 4-0. Number 7G school resource officer to consider and act upon approving the interlocal agreement with River Road ISD for conducting school resource officer program and to authorize a county judge to execute such agreement. Sheriff.

This is nothing new. This is something that they need to have in their records and so they've sent this over to us. Same as it has been in the past.

How many officers do you have there?

We have four and then they pay half of the supervisor.

Sure, for this change, because I see it says the county will pay 62.5% when Bushland pulled out. Is that why that changed? Mm-hmm. We still have one in Bushland, just one, but they don't have a supervisor over there?

No, well, he still watches over, yes.

But they don't pay any of it? Move to approve as presented. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand.

And that passes 4-0.

Number 7H, replacement vehicle to consider and act upon a request to purchase a replacement vehicle for a totaled vehicle. Funds to come from settlement and balance from contingency. Mr. Giles, what happened to the car?

It got hailed on 2019 Impala. And it was total. And so I think Brandon already went over the numbers there. But we have we have found a 2023. I say we purchasing, I believe. shopped this 2023 Ford Explorer in good shape. It's got plenty of life left in it. And so if that vehicle is still available, that's the plan is to replace that Impala with that vehicle. I believe this vehicle is assigned to the Civil Department.

Okay. Any questions?

I was looking for the miles and I couldn't find it.

You know, as I recall, several of the vehicles that we've looked at, you know, in this age range and price range were really high mileage. know 70 80 000 miles and of course that's half the vehicle's life give or take so we were trying to find a vehicle down in the you know 25 000 mile range 30 000 mile range and and so um maybe a bit higher than we would have liked but um i guess that is a used car market presently

So you're replacing an Impala with an Explorer. Right. Can we not get another Impala for that, a little cheaper?

What's the reason for the Explorer? We wanted to go with four-wheel drive. I think that was one of the, um, desires, uh, even in the civil department, there are times when four wheel drive is necessary to get around. Um, that would be the only, uh, reason for a change in the, uh, vehicle model.

Any other questions?

Make a motion to approve the purchase and replacement of the vehicle for the Sheriff's Department.

Thank you.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. That passes 4-0. Number seven on cybersecurity training to recognize compliance with Texas government code section 2054.5191 and 2063.103 regarding employee cybersecurity training and AI training for 2026 as reported to the Texas Department of Information Resources on August the 31st, 2026. David.

um that's something melinda actually reports for the county but i can tell you the county received 100 compliance that's awesome yes ma'am so this is just to recognize only yes ma'am i believe so okay thank you any any questions for david all right so recognized

Number 7J, TAC-SERA agreement to consider and act upon authorizing Judge Tanner to execute the service agreement in a website service change form with a TAC-SERA website. The agreement reflects the amount approved during budget hearings on August the 24th, 2026. Julie?

This is just to reflect the budget amendment that we did on the August 24th meeting, so we just need the official agreement signed, please.

Did I say, is it Sarah?

Is that how you say it? Yeah, County Information Resource something. I'll do that. Yeah, I'll do that. Okay.

Any questions for Julie?

Move to authorize Judge Tander to execute the service agreement as presented.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand.

All opposed, that passes 4-0.

Number 7K, law library subscriptions to consider and act upon the renewal of the law library LexisNexis subscription for the two computers located at the downtown branch of the library per the interlocal for law library services issued in 2015. The cost is $1,758 a month. The committed term from 10-1-26 to 9-30-27. Funds are budgeted from the law library fund. I will send it.

It's just the annual renewal for that agreement that we have with the city to provide that software.

I do have a question. So is it two terminals or three? Because this says three terminals.

So they have two terminals there, and we have one in use in one of the offices.

At the library?

I can get that other location. Let me get that other location. There's a lot of digging on this.

Well, because one of them says we're approving two, and so are we approving two or three? And then secondly, do we need three?

I'll have them revise that for two, if it was just for two. It's just for two? Yeah, I'll have them revise that.

Okay.

Can we go ahead and vote on it today, though? You can, or we can pass it back and bring it back with the correct numbers. What would you like to do? Whenever y'all would like to do. What would you like to do?

I wonder how often it gets used. I mean, we sit over for 17, almost $1,800 a month.

So I've inquired about that, and they won't, they cannot, she said they cannot tell me how often it's logged in or who's using it. A public computer.

Yeah, I just wonder if it's even being used. I mean, super if somebody's using it. If it's not, it's a waste of money.

I wonder, I'm just saying, I wonder if people are still using it.

that you couldn't give me, like, how often to log into or anything.

And everything is on the computer now in your hand.

You can just literally get everything done you need to get done without having to... You want to pass this and do a little research on it? Yeah, we can do that. Is that all right with y'all?

All right. Can we... Is there any way we can...

for next year do some kind of a counter on it and if it gets used twice a year then we don't we only want i need to look at the original agreement exactly that was before my time so i don't know how long we entered into that with the city for i think it was quite a few number of years but i can confirm that i'll get back with you on that okay we'll pass that till next time then thank you

All right. Number seven L RFB number 1249-24 indigent cremation services to consider and act upon the renewal of RFB number 1249-24 indigent cremation services with lighthouse funeral and cremation services for the first term of one year effective October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. The price will increase from 395 to 450 as per bid documents.

It was just the annual renewal. We did reach out to let everybody know this was the year that the increase was. Everybody seemed on the same page, and there was no complaints with our vendors. So if y'all would like to approve us continuing our terms with them.

Move to approve as presented. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. That passes 4-0. Number seven, M-Texas DPS crime reporting interlocal agreement to consider and act upon approving an agreement with Texas Department of Public Safety for the implementation of its crime reporting software for justice of the peace and to authorize a county judge to execute such an agreement. Anybody want to talk about this? Gary, you want to talk about this or no?

No? I had all four of us have to submit two dollars.

This is JP2 that's coming to you.

It's basically DPS went to a new software program that we report our tickets and dispositions to, and that's all. They want a new agreement for some reason, but that's what it is. It doesn't cost us any money. I hear everything.

so where is judge taylor today i'm sorry where is judge taylor today he put this on here i have no idea you're not his not his keeper okay i'm just checking sometimes you guys hang out together okay hey judge i have a question before y'all approve it back on page just so we'll have the record of whatever it's supposed to have in here

On page two of this particular agreement, it's blank. It talks about the court. So is that just going to be specific to this JP court?

He's saying all four of them have to have it.

It's all for the four. It's all four courts, right? It's for all four JP courts. Yeah.

He said they'd do another. Each one of you is going to do an agreement. So we just got one. We got three more to come.

Okay. All right. I'm just double checking so we can fill it in. Thank you.

Move to approve as presented.

Have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. Passes 4-0. Number 7N, purchasing update. To consider an act upon request to have the court advise RFP number 1284-26 towing services. There were no submittals for the towing proposal. We would like to request guidance from the court on how they would like to proceed. Not one towing company wanted to take over that little parking lot and make some money? Okay. Wow. I'll do it.

Can you put your winch on?

Put a winch? I've been called worse. Okay. That's interesting that none of them wanted to do it. So what do we do about that?

So we've got some options. We can reissue the solicitation. We can issue an informal bid, which is where we basically, and I don't really like doing this because I don't want to get in a gray area of, Well, you called so-and-so and let them know there, but not us. I really advise against that. And then I spoke with Chief Giles, and we do what we did in the past, where he stated that the SO monitor the parking lot for the all-district courts building, and he can explain further their process on that part.

So, yeah, Allison and I discussed the parking lot issue. The parking lot's been reopened now for, I guess, a couple of months. And I've talked to courthouse security deputies, Sergeant Trimble, and some others. And so far, we haven't noticed a major problem. There are occasionally vehicles that seem to be parked over near the hotel that are more than likely hotel guests. It hasn't proven to be a big problem that I know of. In talking to our courthouse security deputies, They seem to think that we can handle it on a case-by-case basis like we did before when the old building was in place and the parking lot was there. If there was a bus or a U-Haul or some such vehicle that seemed to be hogging up a bunch of spaces that very likely came from a hotel guest, they would call the hotel And more often than not, the vehicle would be moved in short order. And so there was no need to start towing vehicles or anything like that. This lot is a bit bigger. It accommodates more spots. And so on a day like today, the jury is here. If you look at the parking lot at the moment, there are still available spots. Now, if a 18-wheeler came and took up 15 spots, we might have a problem. But that seems to be the rare exception and not the rule. The other issue is I've considered this towing contract situation. It would be very difficult to determine, it's not impossible, but difficult to determine if the driver or operator of a vehicle does, you know, with any degree of certainty is not here with county business and therefore we're going to tow the vehicle. sometimes it might be obvious but more often than not there's a vehicle over there it's got out of state plates and we're taking an educated guess that this is not somebody that's here with some sort of county business and uh and if we tow that vehicle you know we're running the risk of you know, towing somebody's vehicle that does have County business. And we just, it just didn't look like a, uh, a County employee or juror, whatever. Um, and they just happen to have out of state plates or something like that. And so I think enforcement of that is really going to be difficult. Uh, and we probably ought to just undertake it on a, on a case by case basis. Um, it is important if we, if we do want to tow vehicles, that the signage be in order in accordance with the, with the statute. Um, uh, because, um, you know, that's a requirement. And so our signage I think is about, you know, 90% according to what the law says. The only difference I can see is the color supposed to be red on white or white on red and our signs probably look a lot nicer but they're brown you know they look a lot nicer than the the red and white signs that you see for towing purposes but um right now the signage only prohibits unauthorized parking between the hours of eight to five monday through friday So there's nothing prohibiting anyone, including trucks, from parking in that lot after hours or on weekends. And so I would advise the court, if the desire is to keep trucks or big vehicles out of that lot at all times, you might wanna consider adding an additional sign, that says no trucks or 18 wheelers or buses or however you want to word that because that lot of course it's mostly empty all weekend and it might be very inviting for somebody who's looking for an empty lot to pull into. That's of course up, up to the court. We wouldn't be, uh, we wouldn't be able to, uh, tow a vehicle under those circumstances, uh, with the current signage that we have. And so that's just something to think about. Um, so, um, my opinion, and I think the consensus is that people, the public ought to be able to park there. We've got the Tri-State Fair Parade coming up soon, and that lot will probably be mostly full on that Saturday morning. And so ballgames and other events, of course, usually after hours or on weekends, I think that lot should be available to the public. And so towing vehicles out of that lot I think would be – you know, kind of tricky. We would want to step very carefully and make sure we did it the right way. Probably the best thing to do is, uh, handle it on a case by case basis. And I think that the signage that we have at all three entrances is sufficient as it's written, unless you wanted to add no trucks or buses to that.

Okay.

I think that's what we voted on was to do was to allow the Shriners or the ballpark. We wanted that. The hours was what we talked about. But I understand that Lemon and if the courthouse guys want to do that, I'm fine with that too. And I think it would probably be a policy so everyone knows moving forward that y'all take care of that also. I think the signage was I hadn't looked at it, but you'd think that as much as we talked about that, it would have gotten right the first time we asked what we needed up there. So if there's a signage issue, would you please fix that? Yes. It's got to be red and white. Make it red and white.

And if we've got to limit the trucks.

We don't want trucks on it. The heavy-wheeled vehicles will mess that up. But I'm fine with you guys. For me, I'm fine if you guys want to handle it. Do you need a motion on that? Okay, so I moved to quash the request for an RFP. No persons or no entities responded and moved with a new signage fix by the maintenance department to allow the sheriff's department to manage and monitor that parking lot as they see fit.

I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. All opposed? That passes 4-0. All right. Number 7-0. JP3 Panic Button Monitoring Agreement. To consider and act upon entering into an agreement with Vitel Communications for security monitoring at JP number 3 to be billed monthly at $35. This term is 10-1-26 through 9-30-27. Funds budgeted from the JP building account. Yes, sir.

Yes, ma'am. This is just an agreement with Vitale for the monthly agreement for the monitoring for the panic button hardware that's going to be installed for JP3. So I believe it comes out to $420 annually, I believe.

Okay. So, Judge, if you don't ever use the panic button, do we get a refund?

No.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. All opposed? That passes 4-0.

Number 7P, road and bridge uniform agreement to consider and act upon entering into a 36 month with option to renew for road and bridge uniforms with Unifirst effective November of 2026 funds to come from uniform account.

Good morning. We're switching from our current one right now with Unifirst and that's just the uniform company we're doing now.

Okay. You didn't like the other one?

No, we've had a lot of issues with that.

You had a lot of issues. Okay. All right. Any questions for Donnie?

Move to approve as presented. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. Thank you. That passes. Thank you. Number 7Q, adoption of tax rate for fiscal year 2026-2027. Hold a public hearing on the proposed tax rate of $0. .62268 per $100 valuation. Vote to approve the maintenance and operation tax rate of 0.58590 per $100 valuation and the debt service tax rate of .03678 per $100 valuation. Take any action necessary. Brandon. Yes, Judge. This is the...

basically the continuation of all the necessary meetings to adopt the budget and adopt the tax rate. We've previously adopted the budget, and so now this morning, We're here before you to adopt the tax rate. Attached to the agenda was the order setting the tax rate. It tells you the relevant information, the effectively raised 6.1326%. The effect is about a $55.73 increase on a $100,000 home. And we've discussed the effects of the budget and the tax rate necessary to adopt that budget at the previous meetings. And so ultimately, this is just the culmination of that. And so I'm available if you all have any questions. But ultimately, what you all need to do today is to vote a record vote to adopt the maintenance rate as you indicated and the debt service rate as you indicated okay any other questions for brandon if not i need a motion we have the public anybody from the public that wants to talk about this

Does anybody here from the public would like to talk about the tax rate? Nope. Okay, I need a motion.

I move to approve as presented.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. That passes 4-0. Employment items in 8A and B, information and records management. The resignation of Sherry Broft as microfilm tech effective August the 31st, 2026. In the facilities and maintenance, the resignation of Albert Broft as electrical tech three effective August the 31st, 2026. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor raise your hand. Passes 4-0. Harder County Projects.

Yes, ma'am. Just a few updates on Lyon Avenue. We have taken possession of the property as of August the 12th, I believe. So we're getting pretty close to moving our grounds maintenance guys over there. I've got some electricians supposed to be coming in this week to replace some of the lighting in the shop area for their area for the shops and stuff. And also been working with excel to get uh service to the purchasing building that's there so all right good any questions it took a long enough time yes ma'am i'm glad it finally did yes ma'am uh one more thing also too uh pathways as i believe is going to be coming in and boring up under the um on the south entrance of the the south part of the lawn to get I'll be fiber to the building, so they'll be doing that. I don't believe they're going to be messing up any of the lawn. They're just going under it.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

All right. Okay. Anything else?

That's it.

All right.

Thank you all.

Thank you. Number 10, jail report. We have a huge jail report here today. All right. We have 639 inmates. 587 are in our facility, 83 are in the female pod, and four are in the medical total, with a total of 87. That puts 97.9% in our jail. Do you want me to continue reading this year, or do you want to do it? I'll do it. Do you want me to do it? Okay. In Haskell County, we have 42 males in Lynn County. We have five males, Lubbock County. We have one male deaf Smith County. We have 10 males and 12 females in Garza County, 15 males in Childress County, nine males for a total of 94 inmates that are housed outside of ours. 540 of those were felons. 63 are misdemeanor cases.

First of all, I just want to say thank you for the Haskell County because I don't know where I would put 42 inmates at this point. That's a lot of people and we're using a lot. We're using most of our contracted jails that we have and most of them would not be anywhere close to housing that many. So just thank you for that. Also included a jail monthly population monthly report that Chief Giles has put together last couple of months and It just kind of gives you an idea of where we are and what our population looks. It's more of a graph, and I think it's a great tool that may help you guys understand where we're at.

Yeah, okay.

What happened in Central?

I'm sorry?

There were so many people there. What happened when we got over 600 people there? Did you raid something?

Crime is high. Crime is very high.

Where were they all before? Both of them were felons.

And most of them are pretrial felons. I mean, that's where most of them are at.

This is a large figure that I've seen since I've been on the court.

It just keeps going up, unfortunately.

You will notice that the males outnumber the females by a lot, so that should tell you something.

They're catching up to us. I know. All right.

Thank you, Sheriff. Any other questions for the Sheriff? Okay, thank you for that. There is no, do you have anything on property insurance, Allison?

Yes, I'm sorry. There was one incident where it involved a fire vehicle. There was no damage to that, but they backed into a sheriff's vehicle.

Okay. Okay. There's no executive session today. Upcoming agenda items? Anything? Public comment. We have Mr. Fisher.

I was just doing some research on your library legal computer thing. And OpenAI or ChatGPT has, they have some sort of government contract. I think it's fairly cheap. And it could be something you guys could also include like your government employees to access and manage Their access to AI and kind of have it a little bit under Under your watch to make sure people are using it correctly But I think the government option for like the library there could be even a free version of that and to give you an idea of that How the legal part fits in I was paying I decided to take on a case myself I got tired of paying lawyers about $200,000 on a case that I was working on and And I decided to fire him and I was using a competitor of the Lexus Nexus. It was actually more than what you guys are paying. I paid about $3,000 a month for it. And then the Super Legal Rider became available under Chad GPT about the same time I was contemplating a renewal of the license. And I started using it and the basically free version, I'm paying like 50 bucks a month or whatever it was, it ended up being more effective than the LexisNexis competitor, the one that lawyers use in law firms. And I used it, and just the outcome was I won. And the AI program, it gave me the technicality that helped me win the case. I really just won on the technicality. So the papers you have in front of you, I'm giving you why should Potter County not participate in tiers two. Well, the first... Number one, the land is already appreciating without a zone. So if you look at the property there, it's gone up. It's gone up a lot. It's gone up 96% over since 23. It doesn't need any help is what it's saying. But some of the other things that are happening, I mean, you guys see this every week. You don't have the money. And I think tears is a chunk of that money. Why you guys aren't seeing where you don't have the money to do the things, the basic things that you guys want to do. There are two properties within that non, they're trying to expand tiers two. So they're trying to almost triple, double or triple the size of it. And there's two convenience stores, Buc-ee's and then there's another one that's mentioned here, Road Ranger. I think it's out on Pullman Road. Those two, for some weird reason, dropped at percentages. Buc-ee's dropped 7% and Road Ranger dropped 11% and it's hard to figure out why other than I'm putting on the tin hat here. It seems to me that they're dropping some of the values so then they can implement tiers and then bring the properties back up. to where they should be, and then they get to keep that extra pop. That's what it looks like to me. And if this document also explains that those two businesses uh in that sector should have gone up and they and they did city-wide all the those types of businesses that are um like convenience store related went up everywhere else except for these two it should have went up i think the number is in there like four percent but instead you went down seven percent eleven percent uh respectively eleven percent for a road ranger so really you could add 4% to that, basically, and on the other side of it. So it should have went up. Instead of 7% decline, it should have went up 4%. So now you've got an 11% difference. If you look at, like, Tootin' Totem, it's all in Potter County. There's Tiers 1 has a Tootin' Totem. They're getting, I think, 100% tax rebate. They're almost getting their store built for free if you factor in the number of years and how much money they've gotten back. Tiers 2 has a tootin' totem on Eastern that got a tax rebate. And then it also got the truck stop tootin' totem on Lakeside. They also got a tax rebate. The Lakeside tootin' totem is getting a sales tax rebate. Man, that's awesome for the owner of that place. You guys aren't getting anything. And so if you go and you put in And like you add in these other properties like Bucky's, Bucky's is getting a sales tax rebate. So now you're going to make it to where all that extra tax money is going to stay in that zone and you guys aren't going to get any of it. And the common theme of this is Potter County. Every property I've mentioned is in Potter County. I don't think there's any convenience stores in Randall County that are good. I don't think there's any convenience stores at all. I mean, let's face it, convenience stores aren't really the thing we should be stimulating growth on. I mean, they're not good for communities. They're not good. I mean, they're just not a positive thing when you come to, like, putting them in communities that don't manage their money very well. So they use those stores as grocery stores. They're just not a positive. I really think you should take a look at these documents. If you guys have any questions, did a lot of research on this. It's got a lot of good information for you guys to refer to. I think that's all I have. The truck parking across the street, I own a commercial property, and I didn't have to have a contract. I called just any given tow company. You can get those red on white signs. And I didn't sign a contract. And it's a notice to whoever parks under, it's mainly for trucks. And I think this is very relevant here because if you let 18 Willards Park out there, it's probably not rated for 18 Willards. It's going to tear up that parking lot. So I'd at least put the no truck parking signs in there to keep from tearing up the parking lot. Thank you.

Hey, Mike, the... The information you gave us is enlightened. Have you presented any of this down to PrAD?

I was up until about 3 this morning working on this particular one. And by the way, I was going to offer this. I'm a solutions guy. And I don't know if you know this. I figured out a way to get on the PrAD board. So January 1, I'm on the board. So is Claudette Smith. And so is Tom Sherlin. And we're going to make things happen. And I hope you guys see that. And if you guys wanted that same way of solving problems, I'd sit on a committee or whatever. I've offered that before. And I have solutions. I'm not just a guy up here that's complaining. I'm working with some school districts with my businesses right now. And some of the school districts I've opposed. One of them, I even had a bond blocked. I think I had everything to do with that. But that same school district I'm working with, and I worked with them at the end of last year, and I gave them about $7,000 in free Blacklight mini golf passes to my, I have a Blacklight mini golf out there at the escape rooms. And by the end of, in one month time period, their attendance went up 20% in one month. And there's two cool things there. They're still willing to work with me even though I'm busting them, you know, busting their balls every time I get a chance. But I try to be fair. I'm not trying to just say no to everything. But I think I have a lot to offer. But have I shown this to them? I plan on it. I think Randall meets tomorrow. But this really isn't Randall, the one that we're looking at here. So if I have enough time and lose enough sleep, I'll have one ready for them. Uh, for Randall to talk to them about some of this stuff, I haven't been able to dive completely into the to the tax stuff, like, for for. Properties and the different nuances that might be going on that may be hurting Potter county. I feel like everything that I find points to Potter county get short end of the stick. I'll be on the Randall county board. Technically, they always call them Pratt Potter Randall Appraisal District, but there really isn't a Pratt. It doesn't exist. It's not allowed. It's not allowed by law. And that's why by the third meeting we met, we started meeting in January and by the third or fourth meeting, they're meeting separate because I questioned whether it was legal in the first place. And there's no law that supports what they've been doing. All the budgets they've adopted, Potter's never had a say. They've never had a say. Potter does not. They vote, but it's just trivial. They get to, what was the word they said? Consult. That's what the chief appraiser said. At the very first meeting, he said, we have two boards. When we vote on something, Randall votes first. If it fails, the item fails. So do you hear that? Potter doesn't get to vote if an item fails when pot, when Randall votes. So they don't even get a vote on the record, whether they approved or disapproved. Then he further explained that if Randall passes it, Then Potter gets to consult. He didn't say they get to vote and then they get to help decide that. They get to consult. And you've been there. I don't know if you agree with what I'm saying, but I know you've been there, Mr. Blair. And I'd like for you to dispute that if that's the case, if you think it's not the case. But when they vote and when Randall votes and they pass it, Then Potter gets to quote unquote vote. So this has happened while you were there. Potter votes and says no. then Randall has to rescind their vote. So that's not a real vote. Does that make sense? Does anybody, am I explaining it to where everybody kind of understands? I know it's not on the agenda, but it has everything to do. You guys are talking about budget today. I think you can talk about it because it has everything to do with that because who dictates the money you're getting? It's Pratt. So I'm talking about Pratt has everything to do with that budget.

I thought the... The respective boards had gone out for maybe hiring some legal counsel to help weed through that. that agreement and maybe bring something back to us that might change that. Has that not happened?

Well, they did hire an attorney on the Potter side. Randall has not hired an attorney. And from what I've been told, I'm not privy to everything, but I will be soon. I've been told that the attorney recommended that they don't meet together, and they still did at the very last meeting they met together. And it's kind of a side note to this. And you guys, you guys meeting Potter County, I feel like I'm more of a Potter guy than I am a Randall guy, if you know what that means. But kind of a blue collar guy in a white collar job. But so I'm kind of conflicted here. But what happened at this last meeting was very interesting. At the end of the meeting, one of the Randall County guys, I'm terrible with names, who's the guy that sits in the corner, the older gentleman?

I can't remember his name off the top of my head.

What's his name? Bob Lindsey.

Lindsey, Bob Lindsey. He started to speak up and he said, who's paying for this attorney for Potter County? I'm kind of paraphrasing. And they said, the chief appraiser said, well, that comes out of the budget. And then he said, Lindsay said, can we reduce that budget amount? So in other words, he's trying to hamstring Potter County from seeking the advice they need to do the right thing for their constituents. So I'll post that today. I've got that on video. So I'll post that today if you guys want to see it on my page. Any other? Did I answer your question?

Yeah. So you know that the Potter County has two tiers boards or two tiers boards and Randall County has one. Right. You said yes.

Yes. Yes. We just went to the, um, tears three meeting, but yeah, there's the tears one downtown and I, I just brought up the two and totem downtown cause that's just another, um, I think from your standpoint, what you guys could do is suggest maybe there's a modification of that tiers. I think it might be an okay thing, but I think there's a modification. I think when things start getting really good, maybe that shouldn't be 100%. Maybe it should be a step-down approach where if that business... Report so much in sales and then why do they still get 100%? Return if they risk their money, say, to tell them risk their money downtown and they built this place. And let's say just completely tanked. Well. Then you guys gave them a benefit to lessen that risk, but if that place really blows up and does really well. then there should be a step-down approach so you can take that money that you're still giving to somebody where their business is doing really well and maybe seed another business and help them do well. I won the Enterprise Challenge about 20 years ago, I think, and I turned a $75,000 enterprise grant. I was making about $50,000 in revenue at the time, and I bet you within five years we're making more than a million. So it's My company is kind of the poster child of receiving that money and doing something really good with it. But I also think we should reconsider when you're giving money to a place that has, I don't know, two tons probably worth a lot of money, probably over $100 million, and we're giving tax abatements to a company that's doing really well. I mean, why don't we find a convenience store? Why didn't we shop that out to all the convenience stores? Did all the convenience stores have a chance I don't think we should be seeding any convenience stores, but that's my personal opinion. Or anything retail, like the Buc-ee's out there. Because anything retail is competing with anybody in this county that's vying for retail dollars also. Retail dollars means it's somebody that more than likely lives here and would shop at a lot of other convenience stores. So I think it's got to be real careful when we're giving awards to a local business that has competitors.

Well, you know we don't do that. That's the board at the...

Right, but you have a say, right? So you get to approve or disapprove tiers in itself, and then you have board members that are on the tiers board, right? You guys recommend... Are you guys have people your point? Is that correct? So you could still meet with those. You guys can have a meeting and I don't think this ever happens. I think there's another step here. Is there probably should be a regular. Meeting, whether it's every quarter, every 6 months with the person you appointed. To hold them accountable, because it seems like they get appointed and they just get turned loose and you don't. You're not keeping track of what they're doing. So I think it would be a good idea to put that on the agenda. Start managing your investment. That's y'all's investment. So get those board members in here and hold them accountable. And if that tiers board isn't going where you think it should be, then get another board member in there. Put me in there. I'll keep them accountable.

Thanks, Mike. Where are you at?

I live in Randall County. I live right at 45th and Sauncey. And this all started because of the shopping center that was built behind my home that got away with murder with the city ordinances, city code, building code, operationally. A dry cleaning plant is not allowed in General Retail. And there's one sitting 70 feet behind my house. And that's where this really all started. So 15 years later, I'm probably going harder than I ever have. And it's to help the next guy, because I'm probably not going to get my problem fixed. I mean, I did have a sign guy tell me, he said, yeah, that's the Mike Fisher rule. We don't light up signs when a business is behind residential. So I think it's effective, but I'm going to keep going until we make even a bigger difference. Thank you for your time. One of the few places that don't cut me off. Appreciate it.