County Commission Agendas - Regular Meeting

like to welcome everybody here. We have several items on the agenda tonight. Uh within the visit and in the work session uh but we will also before we get to those we do have a couple that we so at this time I'd like to ask Mr. Henry to call our county administrator please call ro Mr. present. Mr. Kenned Mr. Mr. Buckner present.

But everyone please stand. I'll ask Mr. County to offer invocation and commissioner K to lead our little father in heaven. We we are so thankful for the blessings you give each and every one of us individually and as a community. And we just thank you for looking down on us and taking care of us. And thank you God for all the good things that are occurring in our communities and the people that are caring for other people. We're thankful for those men and women who serve us in a public way that give of their time, give of good talents to better the community. So God, we're thankful for them. We pray you'll continue to watch over us, guide us, and be with us all. Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. The flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Your package is the agenda for tonight's meeting. I'll give you all of that in new measures. We do have five items. We've discussed them previously in session. And we have several items of importance that we need to discuss tonight in our in our work session. So with that, do I have a motion to approve the January 28, 2026 agenda?

I'll make that motion. Motion have a second. I have a second. Any questions or discussion? If not, all in favor say I.

I motion carries. Thank you very much. We do have uh uh as we said the three uh presentations to make tonight. So get the commissioners to please join me. uh and share if you would. We have the opportunity to recognize the great service of three of our members of our our sheriff's office and our general staff. Uh couple of folks who have been here five years, 10 years, I think. And so we want to make sure that we we recognize each of them for the great service that they do for us. Uh, first if I could get patrol deputy Cody Wilson.

They always give me these notes so that I make sure that I do things the right way. Cody has been with us now five years. Yes, sir.

And has been patrol deputy the whole whole time. And so we all know that that is a tremendously important job that that we have for the safety and welfare of the people of our county. And so Cody, we just want to say thank you for what you're doing, the job you've taken on for us. And so we want to offer you this certificate of recognition that is in appreciation for your five years of service to the people of Jackson County and and to our sheriff's office and to the commission. And so thank you very very much for everything. Thank you.

Sheriff, you want to say anything? No. You know, Cody does a great job. He's been with us five years and does a wonderful job out there. Baby's here and we're just proud to have that part of our family. Bailey, she's she's always been like family. So glad y'all could make it. Anthony Lamb. Uh Anthony been with us as a patrol deputy doing the same job about the same time I gather came on board been here for five years and stuff.

Anthony we want to say thank you for all that you're doing for the people of our county. the importance of what you do. And so this is a certificate. Let me take this off again. I thought a certificate of recognition that it's awarded to Anthony for appreciation for your five years of dedicated service to the people of Jackson County and to commission the sheriff's office.

Thank you very much, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Lando is another one that does gets out every day and does his job and we never get complaints about him either and that makes our life a lot lot easier. But I also serve in the military so that service is very appreciated too and the job you do it's much appreciated by all of us. Thank you guys. Daryl has been with us now 10 years or so. She's had a number of jobs. Started off as a dispatcher. Uh did that for several months I guess

um a little less than two months and then Miss Angie named a female at the jail.

And so then I got moved to the jail corrections deputy and did that for about four years. and uh since uh 2019 has been the office manager uh at the jail and I'll tell you she does a great job for all you folks because she's in every budget meeting we had she can make sure we're getting it right. So, Don, I want to say thank you for the great great work that you're doing and uh taking care of everybody and and so we want to present you with a certificate of recognition, appreciation for the 10 years of service that you've given to people of our county and the commission of the jail sheriff's office. And so, I'd like to present this certificate before you Obviously, Don can't keep a job. No, seriously. She's been great everywhere she's been. Uh, she really helps over there at the jail. She runs a little bit of everything. Finances, ordering things. Uh, does a little bit of corrections deputy stuff, too, and gets in fights like everybody else, just like the rest of the corrections folks. So, thank you for the work you did for us. Thank you. Yes. I don't think we have any public comments tonight. So, we will move down to the new business portion of our meeting. First item in new business is uh the adoption of the minutes from the January 1226 meeting and work session. The minutes are in your packet

to set those for you to review. Do I have a motion to admit for the January 12, 2026 meeting and work session? I move. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. Have a second. Any questions, discussion? Not all in favor say I. In our last meeting or take that back in a meeting that he had in early December, he asked two architecture firms to come and give us a briefing to the commission on their approach to taking on the task of doing some engineering architectural design work uh for the first floor of the courthouse and in some areas of other floors as As we uh have moved a number of folks out of the ten house, we're also looking at bringing some folks into the courthouse and some agencies into the port. Uh so we had two firms that uh that we had brief the commission. Um we asked that they submit a their contract uh offers to us and uh they have done that. We then have a subsequent meeting and we brought the stakeholders that will be involved with being in the courthouse uh once we get everybody moved in. So that included our judicial services judges, district attorney, circuit clerk, folks over at juven court and probate. Uh I'm sorry but judge probate uh also participated and

we did a review of the contract and we also had a discussions of the capabilities of the two firms that did come before the recommendation of that group is to offer the contract to build Whitaker Architecture. They are a firm out of Alabama. uh they are smaller firms but they do work all over the state and the kind of work we are asking to be done here in the courthouse. Um in the packet you have the contract. Uh the second sheet on is the standard uh documentation form for architects that's used by the state. um they have uh admitted a compliance and doing their job with the same fee structure that has been approved by the association of county commissioners of Alabama in a contract with established a group to to do this kind of work. Uh Mr. Whitaker participated personally along with a couple of his folks and what they have submitted to us is their recommendation at the first phase that they do is what they're calling an architectural and engineering services sum summary with a programming services with a fixed non to exceed fee of $45,000. And that first phase would be a review of the existing conditions of the courthouse. Uh have a meetings and surveys with all the stakeholders to understand what the stakeholder needs are and what the operational requirements and what the sides are. um didn't do a conceptual layout of the options uh for uh the design architectural design adjustments to the

courthouse first floor and other other areas and then with that based conduct a post analysis and give us a order of magnitude cost and then lay out next things they would do is lay out phasing options for us as we would apply uh construction work to the courthouse. Uh that would take a a while to do that. Uh this would be work that they would do with a normally larger contract for the courthouse, but this would allow us to review that and then make a decision or be satisfied with their approach, what the options are, what the design is, as well as whether or not uh we would be ready to proceed with a larger phase of work. Um what we're doing uh today is really approving them for all phases, but we're also approving this first not to exceed phase of the of the contract. Uh their cost for the not to exceed phase is an amount of $45,000. their uh fee for the rest of the activity that be involved in as I said is is based upon the fee structure that was negotiated by ITC. Uh give you a minute to take a look. So with that, do I have a motion to approve the architectural firm for house renovation and commission chairman to sign the contract? And that architectural firm recommendation is a quitter architecture from Aniston.

We'll make the motion. We have a motion. Have a second. Second. We have a second. Any questions or discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I.

Motion carries. Thank you. Next item that was discussed in our last commission meeting in the work session is the annual refu Alabama report that we are required by statute to submit annually. That was for in your packet. And before we get into a vote, let's have any other questions of county. No questions. Do I have a motion to approve the 2025 county rebuild Alabama annual report? We have a motion. Have a second.

I second that. We have a second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say I. Uh motion carries. Thank you.

Next item on the new business agenda is u Mr. Porter brought to our attention in the last commission meeting that there had been a determination by the state uh attorney general regarding uh all state presenters accounts. And so uh we had a discussion of that and that discussion led a few decision not a decision but the recommendation from county attorney that we resend the solid waste agreement for property owners to be responsible for renters counts. Uh and that had been previously approved by the county commission on December the 20th 2023. Uh there is in your packet the email that Mr. Porter sent to us regarding the landlord responsibility of tenant garbage bills. Do I have a motion to resend the solid waste agreement on property owners responsibility for renters's account which was approved December the 20th 2023.

I'll make that motion. We have a motion. Have a second. I second that. We have a second. Any questions? If not, all in favor say I. I.

Motion carries. Thank you. Next on the new business agenda, we have a discussion our last meeting about no longer allowing uh renters of the dock space uh to live permanently on our Jackson County Park docks. Uh we had some discussion, an agreement was was made that we needed to amend the recommended motion that uh would include that uh folks who are renting dock space could stay up to 10 days within a 30-day period, but no more uh at the dock. and that uh current folks that are tenants on our dock would have up to 90 days wish to make further arrangements and be in compliance with this this uh requirement. Um so those changes have been made that change is reflected in this motion. So with that, do I have a motion to amend the current Jackson County campground and marina rules to include the following to be effective on the first day of the next month immediately following the adoption of the motion. I will read for the purpose of those that will be watching the meeting. Uh the rental of any boat slip within the Jackson County Spark Arena shall be for recreational purpose zone and shall in no manner be utilized for residential purposes. Renters of rec recreational boat slips on any dock at the Jackson County camp

no marina shall be prohibited from maintaining their rented boat slip for residential purposes. No boat slip renter or any guest shall be allowed to live on their vessel in the marina in accordance with existing policy. Each boat sleep slip ren must maintain a permanent residential address outside of the Jackson County Park and the ramp. Living shall mean staying overnight on the vessel while mored in the marina for more than 10 nights within a 30-day period. This policy and rule shall be applicable to and shall amend all existing recreational rental agreements. Current renters who have an existing recreational rental agreement and are in full compliance with such agreements at the time of the adoption of this motion shall have 90 days from the date of the adoption of this motion to comply with the terms of this motion. To that, do I have a motion?

Motion. We have a motion. We have a second. Second.

Have a second. Any questions or discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Thank you. That's the last item on our new business portion of the meeting. We will now move into the work session. And first item up is courthouse and courthouse and expanding front buttons. And with that, let me turn it over to our IT director. So I'll start by we have a panic building system that is kind of tied in to our door system which uh works great for doors, but it hasn't been great for the panic button system. It requires a lot of the dispatchers need to know how to do a lot of different things and it's every time a computer reboots it gets left off and so therefore they're it's almost worthless. So especially when we moved everybody to the annex we looked at some different options because they also going to need a panic button and we would like like security dispatch and I think discussions have been with the city about them also having access to the panic but go pushed in the courthouse for courthouse annex that all three of those places were alerted so that the right people could be alerted to that. So I looked at some different options did some research. Rocky sent me one that he had seen at a conference as well. And uh so what you should have in your packet is a company that is my recommendation. Uh quote is for a number of I don't know the exact number but after talking each part it's how many each of them felt like they needed at each location. It's a powerable button. They can mount they can mount it somewhere or it can be wearable. one department wanted to be

able to while this girl's on lunch, pass it to the next girl so it's always available. So it also includes a monitoring station that will require no one to do anything other than that thing just be there. It'll be at our security downstairs alert table. We'll have one in dispatch about a seven eight inch screen. uh it's not they have to do nothing other than when an alert button is pushed it will pop up tell them where the alert is both those locations have access to all our cameras and at that point they can look at that camera and assess the situation and then we'll also have a third monitor station that we'll be at to dispatch a city or city police data side it's all tied together that's also since it's such a large combination and includ includes installations from that company. It it works off cellular signal. So it's it's not relying on anyone's Wi-Fi, anyone's internet. Doesn't touch our internet from the security standpoint. Uh there's different options out there, but this was my recommendation. I'm open to uh y'all have any questions about it? Okay. So,

so there's no hard wiring. It's just all remote and so automatically when you purchase it then we have it.

Yeah. So, they'll come and they'll they'll install little radios that kind of talk to each other inside their own network, but it won't be plugged into counties network and touch that whatsoever. Uh and then the one base station at each location uh will will talk to a cellular. It can talk to all three different platforms. So Verizon's down, it can talk to AT&T. AT&T's down. We can talk to whatever. And at that point can alert all three of our moniations of where the alert is pressed.

How quickly do you need the yesterday? We do that is up to you guys. We do not have judges in courthouse right now being this the only company that did something like this or why this

it is the only company I got quotes from there. There are different options that use different technologies. I I'll add that this was the only company that had that technology that didn't tie into my network that that brings some security concerns up and also is reliant that internet is 100% that the power board is providing me internet. Uh there Rocky had sent me one that he met at a conference that uses radio like their police radios. I don't know a lot about radios. That's why I kind of leaned this way because if I'm gonna have to if I'm the one over, I need to know a little bit about it. I'm open to doing more research if if there's some different options you want to look at.

Oh, it the only the only pitfall I see is the cell towers down. Is that the So, if Verizon is down, it can use a different it can use CSN, which is Verizon. It can use AT&T, which is a different cell tower, and then there's a third one as well. So, I mean, if all three were down, yes, it wouldn't work.

Well, I mean, I'm just thinking if and and I know that you guys do the radio can correct me if I'm wrong. I think the CD's on digital, countyy's still on analog. So, I just didn't know how an alert system how that would work with both those uh radio technologies is again why I went with this system. Um, it mentions uh a pay now and and pay later in in this in this quote. Um, pay now is pretty much just going to get us the hardware and then come and install it, right? And then just like any monitoring service, there's a annual fee. It's so that's

and that so that that second part is the annual fee that's based on the gravity of the the two events it's installed now to get the service you're pay that one time pay now would be a good correct

any other question 200 is that the you're talking about the beacons are actually the the radios that will be installed throughout the courthouse and throughout the annex that the button would talk to. Then that beacon would tell the home station to send the alert out. Is that amount? Is that quantity enough again after talking to the department heads and and we had them we talked about it some at that meeting the the last meeting from different engineering. It was what I gathered everyone. Yes,

the courthouse has the most. They the judges like to have them in their courtroom offices like for their secretary to have them. So that's why there's there's more that going to be here at the courthouse and then I think we quoted five or six for the courthouse annex. So that would allow at least two u for the girl behind the counter, one for our receptionist uh and two could be placed wherever in back offices. That was Jeff and Victor's help with that recommendation.

Did you mention warranty on any warranty on here? I did not mention any warranty of the veto. I can get some more research on that too. I I wouldn't I don't want to say I haven't read the exact words but with an annual fee that pretty standard of technology that that's I can't tell you the verbage that's any other comment just just for me to make we had a meeting and Scott chief of with Greg Docker. The purpose of that meeting was particularly given uh the location of the courthouse annex if there's ever a situation we would need both departments u available for response and that's why we want to make sure that we include the city police in this this system.

Okay. So, so is there other ways of getting other?

Yeah, there there's there is more than I was aware of different kind of pay systems and so the past two weeks I've a lot of researching and looking and trying to find what would fit best for us. Uh especially in a courthouse with so many levels and layers. So, some technologies would work here, some wouldn't. again that's why I stumbled upon this but again it's up to you all however you want me to proceed I can I can bring some different options different companies that do the things however you guys I think if you like this technology this is the type system that you want uh I wouldn't mind looking at this I just like to see a couple of other quotes to go along with instead of just having one to look at couple companies Okay.

And we try to get some additional quotes for any additional quotes from different companies. Yeah. So, I I don't know of any that do this that technology right there specifically using the Bluetooth uh beacons that transmit to cellular, but most of them are going to connect into our internet. And it can be done with just a couple different layers to do this. And like I said, the third option is like I told you Rocky had sent from my understanding it would be the same technology except in sending it to a cell tower. It sends it to across the radio.

Basically basically sends it to our radio system which would go send an alert out to everybody monitoring that radio that there's a problem at this location. We have to purchase radios to put into their box. It's a It's a box with a panic button on it.

But if you want in the next two weeks, I can dig deeper and and see if I can find that technology. See if there's more quotes on that. I I haven't found that yet is what I was want to say. One one comment I've made, we have had numerous problems with the current system because it runs on the internet system. When internet goes down system and so that I would say that is a that is a concern but we notice that it it happens. So I would think looking certainly at something that is not reliable on that is which is more reliable on the system would be important if your question.

So the the internet technology that would use Wi-Fi and use internet if we go that route. I would recommend that we also look at a redundant secondary connection that if the power board failed, if their internet failed to our facilities that we could redundantly connect to, whether it be an AT&T cell tower, something to keep internet going 247 that we would add offer. We may if we're going to look at options of different cost. I'd like to see that we're looking at this kind of technology rather than one lose capability which would shut down painting buttons which also shut down.

I'm not saying there's not that technology in other companies. I'm saying I haven't found it yet. I can definitely dig deeper over the next two weeks though and bring that to you guys. Thank you.

Is everybody okay? We're trying to look see if we can find another same technology and bring that back to the commission next meeting with it. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is mass notification system. We had a discussion in our last meeting our code red system. We are no longer operating with that. Uh we we do have a gas notification system that we have for a short while and uh our EMA director to explain we are looking for the new option. This is the proposal for HQ system. This is where the out integrating into our current outdoor warning system. This is same company but it's a separate proposal for integrating the mass notification system with our outdoor warning signs. everything.

Yes, sir. And that's a price difference between the two um first year cost to integrate um HP systems into proud warning siren system that come with a a $37,122.14 cost. Um, that's a roughly $13,000 more than the price quote without integrating into the science. And that is because our system is rather old and it's going to take $13,000 in hardware to get that to connect remotely. Right now, we have to physically be in the ENC to be able to set the outdoor one sirens off. So, our concern is if something happens, whether it's winter weather or We've had three tornado warnings this year with conditions that were we weren't in the office for. So remove the delay. This would allow us to set the signs off remotely without have to be in having that incident and we have automatically set those off wherever we are. number dispatch of the areas where a lot of signs are located in Central as well.

Bridgeport can set their off their systems are independent of ours. So their police departments have encoders. Uh, Hollywood Fire has their old siren, which is the one they used to notify their volunteer fire post with. They set that off on their own in our direction. We have the over here section. We're doing paper. I did not mark the page because I thought it so state without the disability to uh include the siren no completion

uh first year cost of $23,5992. Okay. The annual fee is that a basically a same year that's just it's a few thousand more the first year that the onboarding process and coming on board and then year two drops down to $20,97789 and it goes up 4% a year.

Okay. We signed that it's $37,122.14 year one and then that drops down to $21,133 on year two real quick. We do currently have alert capability. Same company as this. They are providing this product for a short duration to cover this period when we do not have codes. I just make sure they have given us access to eyeballs for free for the time being till we get this squared away allowing us to send um notifications for if we have a hazmat spill we have to do evacuations. So we are covered there.

Okay. How many residents are participating right now in the notification? 12,62. Okay.

So basically yes. So the optional for us is out notification from corporation and wish. So let me open for question how long you have a period of time you know that we're what they told me was it doesn't cost them to give us access to eyeballs. um fix setting up a vendor board website. So they give us the time.

What do we have budgeted versus what this is? This is what we've already paid for $18,33. Okay. Explain. I may be wrong.

They have not offered um recovery. When I told you guys last time told we had the tier two open still have not heard back from them several times. They've been no answer on any of those questions. But running these concurrently will allow us time to be able to set up HQE system and on board and let the public know there. There is some benefit to this as we transition. Okay. But at some point they're going to have to find another solution to to the loss of notification system in the county.

Is is covered not in violation contract? No, because we didn't sign a contract this year because they kept promising for the last three to four years that they were going to upgrade their systems and they refused to. So this time we went with paying for another year while we searched for other options. We didn't anticipate code red losing your eyeball certification through FEMA.

So basically 2036 versus 37 and you feel like they been able to access the sireings and set them off remote remotely. It's important additional 13 14,000 far as I know the city of SC well we have 18 that are currently active only one in down right now uh that was damaged and completely torn off they have no place to Someone actually has to be in the emergency operations center to set that off.

Correct. And that has to be like one of you. So I mean does someone from the dispatch come out? No one's in there. If we're not expecting how how does that work?

Uh right now um Mike Ashurn's on standby. He's just closing the city or we can get one of the sheriff dish. can tell them which two buttons to push. Uh I live five minutes away. So usually we're here, but it does concern me that we weren't here or if we were out, you know, Bridgeport Bryant, it would take a considerable amount of time that delay sheriff's office to come down plus the 45 seconds to a minute that it takes to school those sirens up would cause 3 to four minute delay in getting those notifications out. Okay. Any other questions? Um, do we want to put this on the business discussion session? I mean, we can we can discuss with it with it being up to vote. I think your business meeting.

Yes.

Do we have an option for new business or leave both options on do a quick discussion business? I think I can leave both options on and discuss it business. So we we loop it. So we'll put this on new business next meeting have a further discussion. Okay. Absolutely. And if you guys have questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach answer. Thank you guys.

Guys, I know you've been working hard to deal with the fact that you may want to explain why. I'll ask you to explain why code red is no longer fun. Code Red is using the same platform that they've used since 2012. Their technology is aging and they're not adapting at all to meet the needs. Right now, we're paying code red $18,000 potentially for portion of energy merch weather while they're also they were our vendor access for iPhones for emergency notifications. Uh HQ is currently under contract by Do Marine bases throughout the world. Their fire security is top of notch and their willingness to explore new options and integrate as a whole county solution versus just a push notification service for severe weather um is almost unmatched compared to everything else that I've found so far.

All right, Josh, thank you very much. And I know you've been looking at this hard last couple of several weeks. Uh, next item on the agenda is public works. We have two items of discussion. Road 17 payment markers and the SS4 consult commissioners shopping list I believe is first. histo property list, but it has county road 17 breakdown on there of the pavement markers. This was based on the previous request. So, um what's illustrated there is a breakdown of segments of County Road 17. So to get the entire route, it would be the addition of the cost that you see in the far right and then the at the bottom that would replace all of the pavement markers from 69 bus drivers and citizens. reach out to me quite a bit right there. 17 and multiple county roads beyond 17 usual fog make a fog problem and it can't be year round. Why I brought this to

this is to add this in addition to the earlier ones we chose for striping. That's correct. public source where I've recommended for the original. Okay. Next items. So the the large sheet working hopefully you can see on a minute there just kind of briefly on layout. I'll I'll go through just as a quick summary where we are on this and and just you know where we've been to get to this point. um later on in what I lay out as far as a request for proposal that was sent out. This this will be a section of that an evaluation of those proposals. Um so more more on the details of that coming later, but just to lay out on this a criteria for evaluation on uh each consultant. This is the three that was narrowed down based on our last discussion. There's also a uh formula for our weighted average on how we did our math and then the grading scale just as a reminder that if you see a grade of 41 to 60 that is still considered good. So the request for proposals that was sent out, this was based on our last discussion moving forward with the narrow down selection of three consultants and um the proposals were sent out with a project description of the SS4A projects including road names uh the

location of the projects, the segment ls, anticipated project elements including the clearing and grubbing that we expect and rightway utility relocations, covert extensions beyond clear zones, the two foot pave shoulder with slope edge, rumble strips, guardrail and guardrail in anchors, retroreflective favics dropping, pavement uh resurfacing and the new signage. So those were the elements that we anticipate will be incorporated into the safety projects that was all detailed in this request and uh as well as the projected project schedule. So, we wanted to lay out our milestones in meeting this. As you recall, we are under a 5-year deadline to complete this work. So, the project milestones um are a critical component of this work. That was all included in the proposal as well as the scope of service that we request from each of these consultants. that included the preliminary engineering and design services, the letting process support, um FHWA reimbursement preparation, and then as part of their project deliverables are the preliminary plans, final railway construction plans, PSN package, engineers estimate, environmental and NEA documentation, utility coordination, FA reimbursement documentation, and then the bid phase coordination with administration support. So these are all essentially tasks that they could expect within this proposal. And the summary of the sheet that you see is essentially the proposal format that we would be doing our evaluating on. and that's the layer of commitment to Jackson County, the project approach on accomplishing this work, their staff availability, um contract formats that they would present to us, and then any supplemental materials or DBE participation they

would like to include. So those were due by January 14th. And then our evaluation of those proposals are summarized on the sheet that you have front The items that we listed for evaluation are on the left hand side with a weighted average along with the three consultants that were evaluated um by Darren and myself. And you can see those scores independently with the average at the bottom. And then the very bottom are our recommendations in order how we um recommend to proceed. Okay. Any questions for me? Uh once a selection is made uh time to initiate.

So we would we would obviously want to see a contract And then um we would still the next phase would present that contract to the commission. So we would see fees obviously exact fees at that at that stage and know what to expect point as well as the contracting agreement. We've seen general format but exact shown this way. So John let me ask you given then that we are not approving a contract do we need to vote to solicit the contract recommended really nothing to vote on till you have contract these are I think have a recommendation

so at this point we're just asking him to get a contract for so so we we just want to make sure we're compliant with QBS and Brooks and and that requires a selection a selection of the consultant to then proceed with contract negotiations. Okay. Uh your recommendation. Yes.

Okay. Any questions? uh to proceed with this. Uh I would recommend we set aside the rule and uh and selection to uh allow Jonathan to start getting contract for the position. Do I have a motion to set aside the rules? I make a motion. Have a second. Second. All in favor say I. I

motion carries. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the recommended selection for the SS4A consultant as Kimberly Horn? I make that right. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you. That's the last item and I think at this point we will move for staff administrator. Um there's anything else? Let me ask you other departments any comments?

Yes. I just want to make y'all aware and I've already talked to the chairman about this. We had Monday there were two signs posted on our trees in front of the courthouse. One on this side and one on this side. They were basically anti-ICE U posters. Um, we responded along with the city. When the city officers felt like it was somebody's constitutional right to post them, I told them to tear them down. It was not a was on county property and had no authority to do so from y'all or anybody else. So, I had them removed. They're in my office if they want to claim them. Um, we know it was two females. We found them on Facebook posting them and saying that they were taken down, but they're going to put some more up. So, okay.

Just want to make y'all aware. Is there any punishment for posting such material on non county property? I can't think of anything unless they do damage from the property. It would be criminal mischief. I mean, if you're if you're driving a nail into a pole, that's Yeah, not advocating or whatever. We don't mind removing the signs and and listen, if they want to stand there and hold them on the street corner, I'll I'll defend their right to do that.

Okay. Okay. Now, comments from the commission district one commissioner like to give everybody well wishes. Okay. District two, commissioner K. I think back first part of this week there was a staff posted that the North Alabama Electric Co-op had no outages not straight me out on that but I'm amazed. So kudos to me that they went through this weather this week.

District three, Mr. Butler.

Uh yes. Uh thank you for EMA and their outstanding work to get us prepared. Um, it is a coordinated effort. Thankfully, we didn't have to do a whole lot. Uh, but I think we were ready for whatever needed to happen. Uh, and we may have some more fun this weekend. So, u rest up, bundle up. Uh, but, uh, on light of that, which which is more optable, uh, let's as citizens make sure that we take care of the people that are in most need. They've got warming centers that that are open. They need to be staffed with volunteers. They need they need equipment, materials. Uh and also anybody who is uh in danger of not having heat in their homes. Let's do the human thing and and open our own homes and then at the very minimum check on people to make sure they've got what they need. Uh this is a good time for us to be as good a humans as we can and check on the people that need to be checked on. Thank you for everybody that does that. District 4, Commissioner McBride,

want to echo what my my fellow commissioners have said. Um, thank you for all the hard work on our Jackson County employees. I had an opportunity to go by the annex building today and everything smooth and I heard nothing and that's a testament to all the hard work went. Y'all be safe going home and watch the weather. And also what AJ said about checking on the older people. I mean, a lot of the older people are proud. They're not going to ask for help. You go by there, you know, I know older people that will sit there without heat before they'll ask a neighbor for for help. So, not a bad idea to drop by and say, "Hey, just just saying hi."

Absolutely.

Well, thanks for all those comments. I want to add uh thanks for the work that was done getting ready for this cold spell that we had and and the weather that we had this past weekend. Public works crews were out in advance uh pre-treating roads, mountain roads and major minor collectors. The state was out before pre-treating their roads and uh both the state and public works were back out. I think it was Monday morning uh trying to in areas where we did have snow or ice that that they were trying to work to clear those roads. Uh so a lot of people were involved in that and I really want to say thank you for that and taking care of the people of Jackson County. Josh, thanks for the coordination on the woman center u getting that up and working and making sure I think it was Mr. going that got some information from you about other options and cost of funding that would be available. We got that out to people. So, thanks for all of that. Our next meeting date is February the 9th uh 2026 that will be here uh in this room. And so with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn the meeting?

Motion. Motion to have a second. I'll second that. Have a second. All in favor? I motioned.