Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

All right, I'd like to welcome everyone to our regular Commissioner's Court meeting. It is the 28th of July, and we're in the annex as usual. We're going to begin with an invocation and our pledges. If you'd join me and stand, please.

Lord, thank you for such a beautiful day. We pray for some more rain. Lord, over all our county commissioners, our judge, our employees, first responders, and Lord, help us today in court and in budget workshop to do in your name. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

All right. Does anyone have any routine correspondence this morning? If not, we move on to the consent agenda. We have three items. Discuss, consider, and accept the Commissioner's Court regular meeting for July the 21st of this year. B, discuss, accept the deputation of Paige Mims in the Tax Assessor Collector's Office. And C, discuss, accept the Coffman County Library's third quarter report for April to June of this year. Any comments or questions?

I'll make a motion.

I have a motion. Mr. Phelps, do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crowe makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay, Mr. Tommy Riggs up next. Discuss, present the plans for the benefit open enrollment. Morning, Tommy. Morning, Tommy.

Good morning, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. Hope you're all having a good day today. We are approaching the time for open enrollment or benefit open enrollment. Our new plan year will start in October. So I wanted to give you a little bit of an update in terms of what our plans are and what we've been working on. Over the past several months, we've had several conversations with different brokers and service providers, and we've evaluated a number of options, hopefully trying to get the best value and benefits for our employees and the county as a whole. National enrollment partners, I may refer to them as NEP for short, has served the county for a number of years, and they continue to be the top choice from our evaluation for continued services. We're in the process of updating our current agreement with them. We have kind of an ongoing agreement with them, and we're in the process of updating that. Partially because of some new things that we're doing that we feel like are going to be a benefit for the county and employees, and so I'm going to start going through those quickly for you. We're going to offer some new options for the actual enrollment process. One of those is going to be a passive enrollment process. For those employees that have been looking at their benefits and they know what benefits they want and they're comfortable with those, they are not going to have to go through a face-to-face meeting. They can just simply let things continue on as they are and they don't have to dedicate time out of their schedule to come in and make decisions and meet with an enroller. So we'll refer to that as a passive enrollment process. If someone doesn't do anything, then their benefits pretty much stay the same. We'll have some communications about that. There's a few caveats on that that I'll go through with you and certainly we'll have with communications with employees. Another option will be just a virtual or online enrollment process. Rather than having to come and meet with an enroller, the software is being adjusted to where employees, if they want to do this at home while they're with their spouse and look at benefits and make those decisions, they're going to have more flexibility to do that rather than being forced to make those decisions in a meeting here at a county facility during the day. Towards the end of open enrollment, we'll probably also open up a small window of time for a call center where someone could schedule a phone appointment to take care of open enrollment as well if they weren't able to get it taken care of prior to that. We'll still be offering the face-to-face enrolling meetings with an enroller. If employees want to do that, our office has probably already been in contact with your offices some to set up some tentative times to do that. But we anticipate that that's going to take less time than it has in the past. We do plan and want to offer a new benefit for our employees as well. This will be referred to as flexible spending accounts. You may be familiar with these. They can be done for either medical expenses or dependent care expenses. If someone's paying child care, after school programs. even elderly care may qualify in some cases. The way a flexible spending account works or an FSA works is employees set aside a regular deduction from their paychecks and then they will either use a card that will be issued or they will file reimbursement claims if they've got a medical expense that doesn't take a card. Most things will take a card but there is an option there to file a claim if they need to and that's the way they'll access those set aside funds. The real benefit comes because the IRS allows for these funds to be set aside pre-tax, and so employees can increase their after-tax income by using those. Realistically, I think most employees could see, based on the amount that they have deducted, about a 19% to 28% savings on that amount. In other words, if someone dedicated $1,000 to be taken out of their checks over the course of a year, they're going to see about a $190 to $280 increase in their after-tax net income for the year. So it's not making anyone wealthy, but, again, that's $1,000. And the bottom line is if someone – has a number of regular medical expenses and also has a lot for dependent care it's possible with the IRS limits that they could set aside close to $11,000 with the current limits and so you look at that and If they can create an increase on that amount of $11,000 of 19% to 28%, you're talking about $2,000 to $3,000 a year in terms of what that's done. Now, that's not going to be a ton of employees, but it may be some that have regular medical expenses set up to do that.

Don't most school districts do this already? Yes. Okay. My wife had asked about this before, so I'm glad to hear it. Yes.

Yeah. They do, and one of the things I will point out is just informational, I mean, Many school districts have gone away from this because they don't offer the quality insurance program that we do because they can use a high-deductible plan and qualify for an HSA rather than an FSA, and that has a little bit more freedom to it and benefit to it, but when we offer the package that we do for life insurance, an FSA is a good companion benefit to plug in with that to create an option for... increasing after-tax income. The current limits are $3,400 per employee for medical and $7,500 for dependent care. So that, again, gets close to $11,000. Nothing is free. The processing of this, the partner that NEP brought with us that they have worked with in the past, there is a charge of $3.85 per month for having an account on that. Now, my proposal will be for the employee to be charged out $2.50 per month for that. and the county to pay $1.35 per that. The county is going to see savings on this as well because the county will be paying less in terms of FICA and Social Security taxes. And so there will be savings that are generated there in the neighborhood. of 7%, close to 7%, for every dollar that employees put into that plan. And so I think we can take part of that, cover part of that cost by the county, but then let the employees that are benefiting from that also contribute to part of that. That $250 a month... amounts to $30 over the course of the year, and so my thought is that's a fair approach to let employees bear part of that expense, and then the county can contribute to part of that based on the savings that the county experiences. Again, there's some flexibility on that, and certainly we could monitor and adjust that long term. It is important to note for employees that are going to participate that expenditures are subject to audit. I've never been aware of that being audited, but the bottom line is if someone's for a personal audit or someone came in for a county and audited that, they're going to want to know that there's a process. So the group that we would be working with is going to have some audit procedures from time to time that they're going to ask employees for receipts to verify some things that can't be verified electronically. The IRS defines what is eligible, what can be done. It's not going to consider vitamins, nutrients to be medical expenses. It's not going to consider cosmetics to be that. It can be a real benefit for someone that's got a child that they're planning on having orthodontics work done, that they can know, hey, here's an estimated expense that I can do. So there's a lot of eligible expenses. We'll have a site on our website that has a reference to that as well so that people can go in there and check. Key words for employees to consider will be safe and predictable. These funds are use them or lose them to a certain extent. You don't need to just put a bunch of money in there to create tax savings because it is done within the capacity of a year. I'm recommending that we do have a fund, a rollover of what the IRS max allows to roll over to the current year rather than employees losing those funds. But, again, it is subject to a max. Now, the HSA doesn't do that. You don't lose it on HSAs. You are correct. That's one of the main benefits of the HSA is that you don't lose them for a year. But the flexible spending accounts is a key point for employees to know is they need to predict what they really think that they're going to have during the course of a year And then if they want to, they want to include the extra for what they are doing for the rollover. I don't have that number written down. I think it's 680 or 640 now is what the IRS allows for a rollover to the next year. But it allows some rollover, but it's not 100%. So you do need to plan and follow.

It's an account set up mainly for people that have an ongoing cost in medical needs, like diabetes or something, and they're taking insulin, and it's to pay for your insulin. Absolutely. You're not getting taxed.

Yeah.

It's a good deal. It's a good deal. It's just that it's not as good as it's about.

It's not as good as an HSA, but again, it provides some additional opportunity to increase tax savings. One downside of this is that individuals will have to actually go through the enrollment process, either online or with an enroller or later on during the call center, and they will have to do that annually for this because it is an annual selection. Your medical needs may differ from year to year, and so... You have to go through that process. You can meet with the enroller. You cannot do the passive enrollment and enroll in this process.

So that helps them to understand what they're getting. Absolutely. That's really good. Yeah. A question I'm going to ask is on that. Employee self-serve, I'm assuming we still have that. I know we got it a couple years ago. We was going to do the employee self-serve because like on the employee benefits where I worked before, you could log in, click one box, keep all your stuff the same, log out, and it was already done. So I didn't know if that's how you're going to do the passive side of it or it's going to be formal. No, he just said don't do anything and it'll be done. I thought we had to sign every year for that.

If we choose to offer a passive enrollment program, Again, I think it's important that you do a great job of communicating with your employees of this, but if they don't do anything, then they can keep their same benefits.

That would be a lot better.

I know there are employees that have those set. They don't want to sit down and go through things with an enroller, that kind of thing. I think we will have a lot. It will go faster even in future years with the FSA. This is going to It's going to be a point where you educate people about this, have meetings about it, answer questions about it on the FSA. And so after we get this implemented and people get used to it, there will be less need for dialogue. But again, the software system should be set up to where, again, you can go down through there and work if you're doing that independently without the enroller. That's why the self-enrollment process should work. The FSA is totally voluntary. We're not forcing this on every employee. I mean, this is totally their option to pick. I'm going to switch gears here a little bit. I see heads nodding in terms of the FSA, so I think you see the benefit of offering that for employees that really feel like that could be beneficial. We are getting an enhanced vision plan with Superior, so there's going to be some changes in that. Enhancements also typically go with some increases The premium may go up anywhere from 58 cents to $1.55 per check based on whether you're employee only or employee and family. But employees and anyone that's on their plan can now qualify for frames every 12 months rather than every 24 months. So you don't have to wait two years to get a new set of frames with your allowance or to get your allowance again. You can get that every 12 months. And the overall allowance for frames and contact lenses has also been increased from $130 a year to $150 a year. So that's a $20 benefit that's being enhanced as we're doing that. They've also extended a rate lock for the next four years on that. So that rate should not go up again for another four years on the vision plan. And, again, the cost for employees is anywhere from increases from $0.58 to $1.55 per check for those in Hamlet. Passive enrollment can still be used for that. We'll just communicate to employees, hey, if you don't do anything with passive enrollment and you're in the employee only, yes, you are going to see a rate increase, but you've still got your coverage there. You don't have to get in and say, yes, I'm willing to pay an extra 58 cents per check in order to keep that. If that's significant to them and they don't want to do that, then they would need to get in and decline the vision coverage. They couldn't do the passive enrollment if they want to stop. We are having a vendor change. As part of the enhanced program that National Enrollment Partners put together, Unum will be taking over the policies that have previously been provided for Lincoln. The biggest advantage here is this should result in significant savings for our group term life rates that are paid by the county. We're estimating that that's going to come in about $25,000 a year less than what we have been paying for the group term rate. that the county has provided in the past, and this was a key factor in NEP's proposals being selected because of those savings that were made available to the county. Lincoln also has one of our vendors. It's one of our vendors for voluntary life insurance and long-term disability, and Unum will be taking over those coverages. Again, people can do the passive enrollment, and we will just notify everyone that basically if you've had Lincoln, It's going to be switched over. The rates are going to stay the same. They've actually extended the rate lock for a number of years. But that will switch over. And, again, if they don't want to go with Unum, then they would need to get in and decline that coverage because that's the way we would have it set up to work. But they can still participate in the passive enrollment. Any questions or comments on that?

Well, obviously, you've done a lot of work, and we appreciate it. It's going to work very smooth. You've got the courtroom already booked?

Right. We've got all of our rooms booked. I think there might be one area that we're still waiting for a confirmation on. We're planning on enhanced communications. We're working on probably have 90 percent done on a benefit guide that we can give to employees early that gives them more information than what they've had in the past. We've got drafts on a couple of additional web pages that people can go to for information on benefits. So we're working hard on that. That's good.

That's really good. Thank you, Tom.

You're welcome.

I want to make sure that I get with you, too, to make sure we have all the budget impacts because I'm not sure if we have that savings recorded as well. So we'll get together after this. Okay.

That's good news.

I think you will be seeing over the next couple of weeks a couple of dotting I's and crossing T's to bring to you on some agreements that are being updated from what we've had, and so be looking for those. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you all. Sorry it went so long.

Thank you, Tommy. Okay, number four, Sheriff Beavers and Chief Ballantyne. Discuss, consider, and approve the donation of one pallet of bottled water from Berkshire Grocery in the amount of $287.52. Good morning, Judge, Commissioners.

As you know, always when we get a donation by law, I've got to come and get you all to approve it. With all the shooting and the heat that it is, we reached out to our partners, and luckily we got a great partnership with the community, and Brookshire's donated a pile of water to help us as we're training all our people. So we just ask that you accept this donation for us.

I think that's a great idea. I need a motion. I'll make a motion. Commissioner Lane makes a motion. Do you have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crowe makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Number five, once again, Sheriff Beavers discussed and approved the donation of two large animal traps from Tractor Supply in the amount of $399.

Once again, we reached out to our partnerships, and Tractor Supply was willing to donate two large traps, which you all know the problem we're having. So we tear up a lot of traps, and they're willing to help us out with that. They get well used. They get well used. Yes. Once again, I'm asking for you to approve this donation for us so we can keep trapping dogs.

I need a motion to approve.

I'll make the motion.

Commissioner Moore makes the motion. I have a second.

I'll second.

Commissioner Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Sheriff. Appreciate all the work you guys do. Ms. Lorena, discuss considering to approve soliciting an advertising bid 2026-009 for the purchase of a water truck for Precinct 1, Roden Bridge. Yes, ma'am.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. So this will be a competitive bid for the water truck. This is for Precinct 1. And if approved, we will be releasing that this week on Thursday. And it will go out through August 13th.

All right. Good deal. I need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. I'll second. Commissioner Crowe makes the motion. Commissioner Wilson makes second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Number seven, Commissioner Moore discussed considering approval of entering into a road use agreement on Canyon Road 4074 with large wood development.

It's going to be one of the developers that's developing one of the roads in front of development. 4076 has been redone. So he's agreeing to stay on 4074, which is rock. And so I told him if he'd put up an escrow mount for bringing in heavy excavators and stuff to cover any rock damage or any damage to the road. So he agreed to it. So we're just going to run it through court and do the escrow. I need a motion. You make the motion. Yes, sir.

Mr. Moore makes a motion. I have a second. I'll second. Mr. Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Number eight. Discuss, consider, and approve signing a certificate to approve the bonds for Texas Health Resources for financing and refinancing the cost of hospitals and other health care and related support facilities, equipment, including Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Coffman.

Good morning. Good morning. I'd like to hear if you'd tell us who you are, please. Yes, sir. So I'm John Sivels, an attorney with Norton Hills Fulbright. We represent Texas Health Resources. And so the approval that we're asking for from the court is just because Texas Health is financing and refinancing projects at various of their campuses throughout Texas, including their facility here in Kauffman. And so in order to do so, there's a requirement under the tax code that we get an approval from the commissioner's court or the judge, that we've held a public hearing that's required under the tax code and that Texas Health can move forward with the financing. And so just one thing I'll point out with the certificate that we presented for this approval, by giving us approval, this doesn't obligate the county on any of the debt or anything of that nature, and so it'll just be the obligation of Texas Health.

Okay.

Kind of used to that.

Completion date of the one in 40?

Um... Well, I'm not sure on that, but the one that's here in Kauffman, this is just financing projects that are already refinancing. It's already done.

I thought maybe you might know about that one. No, they haven't.

That's okay.

Yeah, man. All right. Need a motion to approve. Any questions, though? Any questions?

No.

Need a motion to approve? I'll make a motion. Mr. Phillips makes the motion. I have a second. I'll second. Mr. Crow makes a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

In most cases. Thank you very much, John.

Thank you.

Okay, number nine is Ms. Archer, Lide Island budget transfers.

Yes, sir. This week we have a few budget amendments for additional revenue that we've received, and we have routine Lide Island transfers, and we ask for the court's approval.

You all got those last week. Any questions? Need a motion to accept.

I'll make a motion for you.

Commissioner Phillips makes the motion. I have a second.

I'll second.

Commissioner Moore makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. Auditor claims for payment.

So this week we have accounts payable invoices made up of county roads and equipment, and we ask for the court's approval to pay those.

There again, you got those last week. Any questions? Need a motion to approve. I'll make the motion. Commissioner Moore makes the motion. I have a second. I'll second. Commissioner Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. I'll make a motion. I have a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Phillips to have a second. I'll make a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. We're going to adjourn for about 30 minutes and we'll come back for our budget hearing.