Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone here today for our regular Commissioner's Court meeting, July the 21st. The year's going by really, really quick. We're going to begin, as usual, with our invocation and our pledges. If you'd join me in standing, please.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for this day. We thank you for all of the love that you show us. And, Lord, we just pray that today as we make decisions, that we make decisions based on what you'd have us to do. Lord, we thank you for our employees. We thank you for our first responders, our military serving abroad. Lord, be with them in this time that the world is in chaos. Lord, we just thank you again for your love and your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Thank you.

Anyone have any routine correspondence this morning?

If not, we move on to the consent agenda. We have four items. You all have time to look at those. Any comments, questions, corrections? Now I need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. Got a motion by Commissioner Lane. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crow makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay, Ms. Kerry Sharp and Ms. Sarah, they're going to present the Texas AgriLife Quarterly Combined Report for May, June, May, April, June.

Good morning, gentlemen. How are we all doing today?

Good.

Good morning. Can we have a little bit cooler weather outside? I mean, you control everything, so. No.

No.

Anyways, I'd like to bring up the report for April, May, and June. So we had a busy finish of the year for the school programs. The last three months of the year we reached out to 6,720 students in all six school districts. We're really happy to bring them all back online. So this year, the biggest programs that we do are the water conservation stream trailer that teaches them about water erosion and also about just how the water cycle rolls. The hatching of the classroom is a very big program. This year, we changed over to a different producer for chicks, and so we had an 80% hatch. So if you can imagine 56 classrooms hatching out, almost 10 chicks a classroom. We had a lot of chicks. But it's really good on that part of it. The Farm Bureau Ag Commodities trailer went back out again, teaching the kids about where their food comes from. And then, of course, we have a lot of help with the garden programs now because we have a wonderful person that has plants actually grow with her around. With me, not so much. I didn't get that genetic tendency. So, but the millworm project is on a grow because that teaches life cycles. We actually continue, Tara Bailey, one of our program assistants, she actually has a breeding program to keep the millworms growing so we don't have to buy them every year. I told her I didn't really want to know much about it,

Just do it.

Tell me how much oatmeal you need, and I'll get it to you. The workshops that we did with the 4-H program leaders and also kids, we hosted a really good clothing and textile project. We have a leader that's bringing in, used to do the military quilts. We're now moving on to try to build up a team that's called Duds for Dazzle, where they actually go into a competition like the Food Challenge, but it's only about making a product for them to market. We had an agent come down from Cook County, Phyllis Griffin. She's probably one of the best in the state. She actually came up with the program, Dazzle Dazzle. So our leaders had a really good time with the trash and fashion that we did that day. The leaders went through an extension program. We're trying to restart the livestock programs. It's already going, but we have a bunch of brand-new families coming online. So trying to teach them about where and how to buy their projects and how to maintain them, especially during the summer months. was one of our biggest programs that we were doing that day. So on the whole, we reached out to more than, in the last three months, we reached out to more than 2,600 Coffman County youth and residents. We had 310 youth and adults that were validated through the validation projects. So this year, for validation, we validated 56 new heifers. 34 steers, our steer projects are down across 4-H and FFA, but we did do 182 sheep and goats. So our sheep projects and our goat projects are on a grow. And so that's something really good to see going across the county for the FFA programs coming in. Also with that, we had multiple partnerships going on. I really, really appreciate the support of the Texas Farm Bureau, and I'm super excited about working with the emergency management teams. We're going to be trying to push forward a program called MyPi, which is a program for youth, senior-level youth, 14 to 18, to basically start getting their certifications for emergency management. So we'll be presenting that. We're super excited about trying to get that ready to go. We're also trying to help out with the... We'll be presenting some of the programs during your county disaster preparedness day. And so we're bringing in some projects with that. I'm still trying to work with the state to bring in the rollover convincer that they've been trying to get for the past two years to teach people about the importance of their seatbelts. And so... What else do you have?

Good morning. Good morning. So I hosted two diabetic interns for about, I would say, three weeks. And they really, really, really helped me out. So in April, my highlight is I did the homeschool group for Tri-County Library in Maybank. They were amazing. We had 32 kids. And we did MyPlate Relay Race. We learned about different fruits and vegetables, different food groups. And then we did a little fruit kebab and they got to cut it. They got to design it and everything else. And then we did some just hands-on activities where they got to learn about, again, fruits and vegetables. That was excellent. And then in May, we hosted the Walk Across Texas celebration event at the Justice Center. We had 67 employees join that, but over the eight-week program, we had 165 participants that walked over a little over 36,000 miles. So that was excellent. We were a little bit down, about 500 from last year, but hopefully we can get that up next year. Speaking of that, we will be doing a family one for the employees in the fall, which is really, really great. I think families should be involved in that activity, and so we're going to be able to do that. For the 4-H side of things, I started hosting nutrition programs for the kitchen, learning about cooking, learning about safety, learning about cutting, all of those great things. We did that on May 30th. We did that on June 11th. And then we did that on June 17th. There was a lot going on. And then based off of that, we ended up getting 10 new 4-H kids that wanted to join the Food and Nutrition Project. We have our first food challenge team of a group of four. And then we have three kids that want to join a food show project. for 2027. This is 2027. So I'm kind of gearing them up. They're getting their supplies together. I'm really, really excited about that. And so we'll be going to competitions next year. Also, I did a sizzle into summer. I'm still doing that program. It's once a month on Saturday, about half a day. And we're learning, again, a little bit more in depth about the food and nutrition projects. I'm kind of going down. We're doing appetizers. We're doing side dish. We're doing main dish. And then we're doing desserts. So each session is based off of that. And they're able to do it all by time. They're all doing it by help. And they're meeting new kids. And that's a really great thing to have. And so we did that on June 13th. And we learned about grilling. That's what we did, yes. Okay, and then I did a kids foodie camp at Tri-County Library again with 20 kids. Oh, it was great. We did a little bit of STEM. We did a little bit of science with food, and it was great. I did four different activities, and it lasted about three hours. What else did I do? Oh, and then lastly, I did preserving the harvest. This was my third session of preserving the harvest on Saturday, June 27th. We had 22 adults and it was fun. Oh, we had so much fun. And we did peach salsa and peach barbecue sauce and the barbecue sauce was way better than peach salsa. It was so amazing. I could have tested that. It was really good.

We wouldn't know about it. She would have, sir, but it kind of got devoured at the office.

I'm sure.

Yeah, it was really hot.

Also, I started a seed library at the office, which we've already had about 25 people come to the Extension office to look at the seeds, donate seeds, and just take some if they needed some for their either summer garden or their fall garden. It's really awesome. I did some other things for the Extension world, and then also me and Carrie worked with Sharing the love and 40 and we did this kids summer camp on June June 15th all that week So that was a really great program to do Thanks to the 4-h assistance for really helping out and then for outreach from April to June I have reached over a hundred thousand people and

You know, y'all are very, very busy, and it's important, especially for our children, to learn these things. And you are going to the State Fair again this year for the Food Challenge?

The email just came out yesterday, so I'll be forwarding it to you all if you would like to be one of the judges for the Food Challenge. Sure. We just got that date and the invitation for you all. I've already signed up.

That's a great thing. I enjoy doing that, watching the kids. So you put me down again. Okay. All right.

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you all very much.

Oh, now we are still without an agent.

Yes, sir. So with that being said, the agency right now, we are still within keeping it in-house. We haven't put it externally yet. How extension works with that, it's usually three times a year. They push them out really hard. So the next full time that we will possibly really start getting agents to look at that is this July and August because when the budget year finishes up, That's when they usually start looking at trying to move to a different county. So due to a wonderful technology, I responded to an email for the screw worm programs that we held on June 7th. I thought I was just replying back to the state head of it. I replied to everybody in the entire state of Texas for our extension agents. I let them know that we didn't have an ag agent here, so I needed all the help. So there are 254 counties, and they all know that Coffman County is looking for an ag agent.

There you go.

And every regional program and state program I go to, I have my little flyer ready to go, and I pick out my agents that I think will be great for Coffman County. I have gotten in trouble with a couple of DEAs because I am trying to steal their agents, but I'm okay with that.

That's all right. There's been some speed through their county.

Huh? Yeah, no, I don't do that.

Any questions or comments? Thank y'all very much. Y'all are really busy. Thank you very, very much. Okay, number four, Friesen-Nichols. Present the Kaufman County Drainage Study from Friesen-Nichols and following FM 740 in Crandall, East Alamo Street, North Virginia Street, and other locations. Good morning.

Good morning. I'm just going to hook up my monitor real quick. Thank you for having us this morning. My name is George Glosa. I work with Frisa Nichols, and I'm here also with Jeremy from the county's office. So today we're going to talk about the Kauffman County countywide drainage study. This is specifically phase two of the study. So we've been working in Kauffman County for a while, just doing a lot of drainage analysis, funded partially through the Texas Water Development Board and also in the past also through the county as well. But I'm going to talk about our latest efforts. So just a quick project overview, some updates of what we've been doing recently this summer, and some selected project sites that we're going to proceed with going forward and looking in for any questions or any collaboration with you guys. So what is Kauffman County's drainage study we're calling the Phase 2? So it's approximately 1,000 square miles of flood modeling across the entire county. It includes the county itself within the limits, but also some neighboring watersheds of some contributing areas around the outskirts. It's fully funded currently through the Texas Water Development Board continuation of our phase one efforts. And our real goal from this project is not necessarily to come up with any new regulatory floodplains. We're not making new FEMA maps or anything like that. Our goal is to identify known or unknown flood risk throughout the county, well beyond the limits of just a FEMA flood map. But the goal is to come up with project locations throughout the county to be able to take through design and eventually to construction with state funding. That's the goal in mind. So what we've done up until now is what we call our screening assessment. Screening assessment basically involves a lot of hydraulic modeling work. COMPUTER SIMULATION FOR THE MOMENT. AND WE'VE IDENTIFIED DIFFERENT LOCATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTY, CURRENTLY UP TO 16 DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. WE KNOW OF SOME HISTORIC FLOODING LOCATIONS, AND THEN WE COMPARE THOSE WITH THE RESULTS THAT WE'RE GETTING FROM OUR HEC-RAS MODELS, OUR HYDRAULIC MODELS, AND WE'RE ABLE TO DETERMINE A LITTLE BIT MORE PRECISELY LIKE WHAT ESTIMATED DEPTHS, WATER SURFACE ELEVATIONS WE MAY SEE AT THOSE LOCATIONS. THAT HELPS US INFORM, YOU KNOW, WHAT PROJECT LIMITS MAY BE POSSIBLE. And we kind of need to come up with, you know, a real benefit for these communities. So it's a little bit still in a little bit of a quantitative or qualitative, I mean, state. So we're kind of still it's not entirely finished yet. But our goal is to provide the most benefit through these projects. So our projects have to have a little bit more of a regional focus, not necessarily just like a single culvert crossing or a single low water crossing. But we're trying to benefit like more of a community in that sense. So up until now, we've combed through several areas. We've selected four to present to you today. So here's the four that we have so far. First one is Linda Circle, which is south of Forney. It's between Linda Circle and Grayson Drive. It's a community just south of Forney. It is in county jurisdiction just outside the city limits. Next one is downtown Kauffman. and I'll go over the specifics on each slide, and then next to Kemp and Maybank. So as you can see on the map, most of these areas are in Precincts 1 and 4 with a little bit. I guess we touched Precinct 2, but we did not identify any ones lately in Precinct 3. There are some in Terrell, but City of Terrell has their own master plan that they have several areas that already made it through to regional funding. Okay. So the first one is Linda Circle, South Forney. Essentially this is a residential neighborhood with drainages provided by lots of side ditches and culverts, which the terrain appears to be very, very flat. So the depths of flooding that we're getting are not substantial, they're not like much greater than a foot per se, but it is real. It's a real flooding location. There's no historic flooding there. And so the solution is to basically try to channelize, try to intercept as much flow as possible and take it to the outfalls and at the same time mitigate any impacts downstream. Because as we channelize all this flow, where eventually it's going to outfall, we're going to need to offset those impacts somehow. So I'm not saying that we would propose a detention pond, but we're considering it. But it's something to evaluate in our analysis. So the next one is downtown Kauffman. So this is next to the elementary school, J.R. Phillips, and the surrounding areas. This includes the streets of Phillips Circle, 6th Street, Royal Drive, and South Dallas Street. So a lot of what we believe to be undersized storm drain systems in some of those roads and intersections. So we don't have a full picture of this. This is just an estimate right now. So we don't have a full picture. We need more information about the storm drain system. Uh, we're going to go out in the field as well and verify some things, but, uh, we can tell that there's probably like some undersized just storm drain and channel system as it goes, uh, under, um, highway 34 right there. So, okay. And then the next one is Kemp, which is, uh, well, just to the, to the east of Kemp. This is the crossing with, uh, Arcadia road and, uh, the affected houses on are on South Pearl street. So, um, We believe there's an undersized stormwater crossing there, culvert crossing, just maybe a simple solution to just upgrading the roadway, maybe some channel grading, but it could provide a real benefit to a section of the neighborhood. And the last one is Maybank. So this is just north of Maybank. Main Street is North 3rd Street is crossing there on the west side, so everything to the east of North 3rd Street and This is all north of U.S. Highway 175. So it's a system of channels and culverts that I think starts at the culvert at 3rd Street is the main outfall, and everything upstream is what we're planning to analyze further. So what you're seeing right now, these are not final results. These are simply just the initial high-level. It's a gridded system, so it doesn't have all the information. It's just basically running the rainwater on the terrain. And from there, we're just going to refine it further, get more information, a little bit of survey points. And then we'll be able to tell them more, like confirm, you know, if these results are accurate or not, and then what kind of proposed solutions we can go from there. Okay. So where we are now is we have several tasks given to us by the Texas Water Development Board, but we've completed most of the data collection. We're still doing some field work. We've done most of the high-level H&H hydraulic analysis. Right now is the identification of problem areas. Where we're going next is alternative, so trying to figure out solutions for these four locations. And our plan is to submit a 50% draft of flood mitigation projects or proposed solutions by September 5th. We have to have a concept, at least, of what kind of solution we want by September 5th. Okay. Any questions?

Appreciate all the work you do. Jeremy, do you have anything to add?

I welcome any comments, questions you guys may have in regards to the selections that we have.

It's nothing that can be done quick, and Friesen Nichols has worked with the county for years, and so we trust what they do. We get good engineers on staff, and so it's very viable through the county. Some of these are in the county, some of this is in the city, so I know they work hand in hand, so that's good. Yeah, sir.

Now, is this the four you all selected, like the ones we've been talking about, like on our circle and all that? Is that included in this as well, or is it just those four were picked from the 16?

So the ones that we were or you guys did submit, of course, we evaluated, and it's based on the impacts. So these ones here we just selected as a more higher tier in regards to impacts that could be graded higher and could get approval. Okay.

Okay. Now, before we did this a couple years ago, and the sites that you guys had picked, when the feasibility study come out, they weren't willing to pay the full grant thing, and we had to can all those programs after... Spending that money because we was picking sites that did not qualify. So was that considered this time as well, correct?

Yeah, that was a so the first cycle that we did was kind of the first time the Texas Water Development Board was doing this the new FIA funding so The exact ranking system hadn't exactly been determined. In this go-around, we're definitely keeping that in mind, and they have a bit more guidance on what would rank higher. So the projects that we did previously focused mainly on county roads, low-water crossings, but simply didn't benefit enough properties or enough of a benefit to push them up in the rankings. So these projects were selected mainly keeping in mind lessons from the past and also what could qualify to push them further up in the ranking. So it did push us into looking more into the denser areas, not necessarily only city limits, but we were looking specifically at properties that could benefit. So county roads are good projects for sure, but they just didn't qualify for enough of a benefit of state funding.

All right. Anyone else? Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Next, I want to move item 13 up because Judge Gibbs needs to get back to court. And so before Courtney comes up, you don't mind staying a little bit longer, do you? I didn't think you did. So, all right. Number 13, discuss, consider approval. approve resolution to enter contract MOU with Lakes Regional to serve as Coffman County's designated local mental health authority. So we have one of the, Wayne, you can introduce yourself, please, sir.

Absolutely. Uh, good morning, judge. Good morning, everyone. Um, My name is Wayne Vaughn. I'm the CEO at Lakes Regional Community Center, and I'm happy to be here today. I know this is a weighty measure and an important discussion to have today. Before I get started, I know they're off camera, but I have some important people with me today. Didi Thurman is back here. I'll trust that she's making herself known somehow back there. I won't turn around. She is the Associate CEO at Lakes Regional. And then Melanie Gann is with her. She's our Director of Child and Adolescent Services. And Tremaine Williams is our Clinic Manager right here in Terrell with our Kauffman County Mental Health Clinic. Together, those ladies represent more than 40 years of service to Lakes Regional and represent the very best of the 430 folks that work for Lakes Regional Community Center. So I'm very honored to be here today. I have been at Lakes just about a year, actually a little over a year. It came from the western part of the Metroplex. But more importantly, next week I celebrate one year as a Kauffman County resident. My wife and I have been in Forney for about a year. So during that time, we found a good church. We found some good friends. We found doctors and dentists and veterinarians and the voter registration office. And more importantly, maybe the tax office. So I'm already hooked up there. So we have no problems. Beyond Coffman County, I've really enjoyed getting to know the broader system. We are the LMHA for seven other counties that are out east of here, from Paris to Sulphur Springs to Mount Pleasant. And spending time out there has been enjoyable as well. While I'm new to Forney, our family is not entirely new to this region. My parents were both born and raised in Fannin County. We go up to Bonham frequently for different events, holidays, reunions, and the like. My father went to East Texas State, East Texas A&M, Commerce, and while he was working there, or while he was in school there, he worked in Terrell, worked for Anderson Clayton Funeral Home. Didn't know they used to dispatch ambulances out of the funeral homes, but he was an ambulance driver back in the day there in Terrell. and also worked for Nortex Lumber Company, lumber yard there in Terrell. So fortunate to have him still around. It's been nice to hear those stories that he has shared with me from his time living in Terrell. As for me, I've worked for multiple local intellectual and developmental disability authorities and local mental health authorities. In my years, I've spent nearly 30 years either studying for or working in the mental health field. I worked for two other LIDDAs prior to working for and LMHAs prior to working here at Lakes. During that time, I've been a service coordinator. I've been a case manager. I've been a therapist. I've been a youth therapist working with juveniles on probation. I've overseen clinics. I've overseen mental health programs in their entirety across multiple counties. I've overseen compliance and quality measures and programs. And I spent the last five years being the chief financial officer for a community center west of Fort Worth. So I've done just about everything in the mental health field up to this point. And now I'm honored to be in a position of stewardship with Lakes Regional. In addition to my civilian service, I retired in October of 2024 as a lieutenant colonel after 33 years of service to the Texas Air National Guard. I did the last 26 of those flying C-130s out of Fort Worth. It did nine combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan during that time. But more importantly, it was able to respond to many natural disasters here in Texas, hurricanes and winter storms and the like. So my favorite part of that job was always Texans helping Texans. And I feel the mental health part of my job, the military part of my job mesh very well together. People have a hard time saying, well, that seems like two very different things. In some ways they are. But as a C-130 navigator, we would go in, and we would land dirt, austere fields in Afghanistan, and we would pull people out that were in danger, that were at risk, and that needed help. Or we would go into Iraq, and we would bring needed supplies, needed tools, utensils, abilities that they would need to survive. And I feel like in mental health, we're doing the exact same thing. It's not going to be a C-130 full of guys in flight suits coming in. It's more likely to be a young lady in a polo shirt driving a Nissan Altima who's going to show up. But they're doing the exact same thing. They're helping people. It's often their worst times. They're providing them service, and they're pulling them out of bad situations to help make their situation better. So I love, love, love what I do and working in mental health. A little history on lakes. Lakes started in 1999 as the local IDD authority and the local mental health authority for Kauffman County. It was started by Kauffman County as one of nine counties that formed it. It has operated uninterrupted as a local IDD authority since that time. That has never changed. However, in the early 2000s, there was a pilot program in the state of Texas that pulled Kauffman County out from under lakes as a mental health authority and into a MCO-driven pilot program. That program ended, and when it did, North Texas Behavioral Health Authority took over most of those counties and today operates as the Behavioral Health Authority for Coffman County. We have never stopped providing services at Lakes Regional throughout that time. We just did it under contract, and today we operate under contract with North Texas Behavioral Health Authority. So if this change is made, it's not so much a change as it is to going back to the way it was designed originally nearly 30 years ago with Lakes Regional being the mental health authority for Coffman County. I mentioned the other counties that Lakes Regional serves as a mental health authority. I'll speak to those quickly. Just because we have expertise as a mental health authority, we've been doing it. Those counties are Camp, Delta, Franklin, Hopkins, Lamar, Morris, and Titus County. Some of the things we do in those counties, in addition to the comprehensive mental health services we provide, also include crisis response that we provide for those counties. Recently, we have secured a grant for Hopkins County that's going to place a mental health liaison within the courts and fund that position for two years. In Titus County, we've just started a program that puts a mental health professional in the jail. to help do assessments and treatment and follow-up after folks leave the jail to help make sure there's a smooth transition of services. We provide drug court in two of our counties. So we have experience with drug court, and we provide a TACUMI program, for those who may be familiar with that program, in all seven of our LMHA counties. And that stands for Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments. TACUMI is much easier to say. But that program provides specialized access to folks on adults on probation or parole to help make sure they're getting the services to reduce recidivism and see that they don't end up back in jail. So Lakes has been continuously present. I can tell you last month we served 729 adults in Terrell. We served 223 youth in Terrell. We served 16 with substance abuse programs. And we served 17 youth in a mentorship program that's brand new that Melanie has actually helped start with Judge Tarnow in Forney. So we're very happy to be engaged and involved here in Kauffman County. I'll leave you with the final number that I have. It's the most important number to me. It's 97. And recently I had to do a presentation and I asked our QM department to look and say, hey, show all the satisfaction surveys we've done up to this point in the year. Give me a little summary of those. We've done eight months worth of collecting. So we had collected 290 satisfaction surveys, and if anyone's ever done a satisfaction survey, you know people respond if they're really happy or if they're really mad. People in the middle don't respond to satisfaction surveys, right? I've never gotten the free French fries at Whataburger for filling out my receipt or letting them know. But we reviewed those 290 surveys, and 97% of the respondents said, said they would recommend lakes. And that, to me, is the most important number we can have because that's the folks we're serving. And that speaks to how they feel they're treated. It speaks to the quality of our staff. It speaks to the quality of our programs. It speaks to the dedication and the diligence with which we fulfill our mission. So I'm very, very proud of that, with that number. We will continue to provide services with NIPA and two of the other counties. And we look forward to doing that. We're thankful for the opportunity to do that. And in summary, I believe that we will have great communication. I'm a strong believer in communication and in collaboration, developing programs with all the stakeholders present that work for everybody and that everyone has a say in. And then I believe that's anchored in personal relationships. If I have to see somebody or know I may run into somebody at Buc-ee's, it changes how I do business. but I may run into one of y'all at any community event or chamber event or something like that, I'm going to be ready to answer. It's not to say Lakes is going to do everything perfect, but we will stand up and take account for things that go wrong. We will answer for that, and we will work diligently to make those things better. So I appreciate your consideration on this matter, and if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer those.

I know that I have visited with Wayne considerably, so has Mary Barden and Judge Russell. Judge Gibbs had some questions about the drug court, and they're working with them, and you do already that with two counties. We do have a member, Mary Webster, who just retired from county. She is on the board at Lakes Regional. We just reappointed her a couple of months ago. So we have someone there that definitely will be looking out for us. And so, Judge Gibbs, do you have any comments or any questions? Yes.

First of all, I would like to say that I did have the opportunity to speak with Wayne and to meet him and was very impressed. Thank you for your service. Lakes Regional have no issue with Lakes Regional. If I'm honest about it, I have had issues with NIPA. The thing that I am here. is because most of you guys, let me say this first. Thank you, Judge Allen. Thank you, commissioners. You guys are always keeping in mind the budget, and I understand the considerations of the budget. I'm accountable to the people of Kauffman as the judge of the 422nd District Court. You guys know me as the judge of the 422nd District Court. You may not know me as the presiding judge of the 422nd Drug Court. So that's why I'm here. I want you guys to know that I not only wear the judge hat in terms of criminal, civil, and family cases, in the 422nd District Court, but I also have a drug court. And NITBA, they provide resources to our court. The bottom line are the people that we serve. We have had hundreds of graduates. Our footprint is small, but our impact is huge. And there are a lot of individuals who have come through the drug court. Their families come back during graduation. and they say thank you for my son back, thank you for my daughter back, thank you for my mother back. And that's something that, even though it takes a lot of time, it's something that is very personal to me. So the conversations that have been had about replacing Nipma with Lakes Regionals, is something that affects me, something that affects the people that I serve and the people that I affect through the drug court program. So I'm here because I want you to know that when you pull the rug, potentially, out from under the drug court and the resources that we use to serve the people of Coffman County, I want to be involved in those conversations. That's the reason that I'm here, is because... I was not involved in the conversations and I took great issue with that because we have had issues where services have been interrupted or cut because we did not have a voice. And so even though you don't see me, I hate to complain. I'm not complaining, really. I just want you to know when you think about not just mental health, it also are other components that are very essential to probation, to drug court and other unintentional parties that may be affected by the decisions that are being made. So I don't know about probation, but when you think about replacing things that involve the 422nd Drug court, I want you to see my face and say, hey, how does this affect you? That's the reason I'm here. But, Wayne, I appreciate you. I appreciate all of you guys. You guys do an outstanding job in consideration of Coffman County and its budget. So thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Can I speak to that just real quick? So substance use and substance use programs are important to me. My immediate family has been saved by effective substance abuse treatment. It's not something I share with many people, but it matters a great deal to me. This transition, if it is to occur, will take some time to work out. There'll be administrative things. There'll be coordination NIPA and lakes will have to do. I'm committed to working diligently with lakes in that transition. I'm also committed to making sure services to the residents of Kauffman County are minimally impacted and hopefully not impacted at all. I am not in a hurry. to rush programming if there are good providers that are doing that. If Judge Gibbs is happy with his court and with the treatment that he's getting from his provider, I don't care who the provider is that does it. I care very much about the quality of service they're providing. And we will work with NIPA to make sure that happens and that stays and that all the individuals involved are taken care of. And I have a real commitment to that. I don't want anyone to be afraid of how that goes. I mean, some fear is normal. I'm a little afraid of how that may go, to be honest. But we're going to work it out, and I'm going to make sure that the folks in Kauffman County aren't negatively impacted, and we'll take our time to do this transition right and not rip anything out before suitable replacement isn't just already named but is named and ready to go. and ready to immediately step in and provide services so that any transition is seamless. And if there's a provider that's already doing great work, I have no qualms with keeping any providers in the region, in the county, that are doing good work.

Any questions for Wayne? We've talked around this, and I've already apologized to Judge Gibbs because initially we started all this, I was not aware that the drug court was part of what we provided. And so we had our discussion last week. And things get dropped sometimes. But once we're made aware of it, then we fix it. We don't let it drag. And so he's now happy. And so now we know. And so when we have our 47 meetings, then he'll beat all those. Anyway. Anyway.

I did have to ask the hard question. What's the budget impacts on this change? There's none on it? None.

Okay.

It's a hard question. It's not a hard question. Nobody wants to hear that. That's been taken care of.

If it were an impact, you wouldn't be here. The good news is that he's really close to me so that I can ask questions if I need to. Absolutely. We can find him real quick. Me or Amy, either one can find him.

Gentlemen, I guess we're down to the point of what's your pleasure?

Okay, this is all, like I said, I don't have no information on this. I'm assuming we're having issues with the other one now because I know that's why we're switching over. So, like I said, I've heard good things about you guys. I guess my question is are we changing just to change?

No, we're changing because last year I requested some information. And it was months before I ever got a call back for information. And when they did show up with it, it was everything included. So it couldn't depict what's us and what's them. What are we getting and what are we not getting? And so it's a lot of communication that can't get an answer. And so when I can't get an answer for what we're receiving, it's troublesome. and we need someone that's more responsive to our citizens here. It's not about the organization. It's about our people. That's right.

That's right.

And so I believe, and we talked with Wayne, and I see Margaret's in the back. And of course, Mary Barton is on the board at North Texas. And so I know kind of what's going on behind the scenes. And personally, I feel more comfortable with lakes than I do the other. And so that's my recommendation. I'll make a motion. I have a motion. Commissioner Phelps, do you have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crowe makes second. Any further discussion? No. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Wayne. Okay, Ms. Courtney, it's your turn. How are you this morning? She is going to discuss and consider and accept the collections department second quarter 26 analyst report.

Yes, sir. So for the months of April, May, and June, our department did collect a total of $427,730.50. While we do show a decrease of 3.82% from our previous quarter just coming out of tax season and into those summer months, we always kind of expect that. Our hope is always to close that gap as much as possible. But in better news, this was an increase from our same period of last year by 13.24%. So we are seeing some growth.

Any questions? We always like growth.

Yes.

Any questions for Courtney? Need a motion to approve? I'll make a motion. Commissioner Lane makes a motion. I have a second. I'll second. Mr. Moore makes second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Courtney.

Until next time, thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Mr. Chuck. Chuck is going to discuss, consider, and accept the Treasurer's Quality Investment Report for January to March of 26. You all have that? You've seen it?

Okay. Okay. This is the one that I left on my computer when I left to go to the – Treasurer's Conference and didn't realize I hadn't sent it out. So we're catching up here. But if you've seen the report, do you have any questions? How's the interest holding? Interest is holding quite well. The average earnings on the three pools, 3.78 to 3.819. That's really moving. That was in the first quarter.

Yeah. So second quarter will be a little different story. Second quarter will be a little different, yes. Okay. Y'all have all the numbers in front of you? Any questions for Chuck? No. Need a motion to accept? I'll make a motion. Mr. Crow makes a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Phillips makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Hold on, Chuck, just a second. I'm with you. And next, he's going to discuss considering to accept the Treasurer's quarterly investment report for January to March of 26. We just did that one. I'm sorry. Accept the Treasurer's monthly report for 26. I checked the wrong one.

That's okay. All right. Well, we have about 81% of our available cash invested right now during that month. We're collateralized at 118.51% at the bank, so we're in good shape there as well. And if you have any other questions... Oh, I did include in this one, since in May, we moved money from the... juvenile detention center bond money to meter investments in Texas Connect. Half of it went into their pool and half into securities. The securities part of it, I put the GAP interest income report in with this report here. So if you have any questions on that, that's in that monthly report. To increase earnings. And if you take a look at that report, although the value is not yet recognized because the securities haven't matured, you can see as of this time the value is up by 10%. That's good. And that's over basically a six-week period.

It's working out quite well. Okay. You did a great job of taking care of the county in that arena. I know the commissioners appreciate it. Any questions for Chuck on that report?

No.

I need a motion to accept.

I'll make a motion.

Mr. Phillips makes the motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Mr. Blaine makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Chuck, once again, discuss, consider, and accept the Treasurer's Quality Investment Report for April to June of 26. Okay, and you should have those numbers in front of you there as well.

You notice the front page of this report has a new section in it, the Texas Connect Investment Accounts. So that shows you how the pool part of that money is doing. And if you look at the summary page, you'll see the earnings return on the investment is yielding about 3.76% to 3.795%, with Texas Connect actually the highest one. 3.8%. That's good. Yeah.

So any other questions? Anything else? Brandy, do you have anything?

I think he's doing a great job.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. I haven't started this one. Okay. Need a motion to accept. I'll make a motion. Mr. Crow makes the motion. Do I have a second? Second.

Second.

Mr. Phillips makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Chuck, thank you very, very much. Thank you. Chief Valentine. discuss, consider, and accept a donation from the North Central Texas Council of Governments of nine extra hand reels, two extra covers, and two chopstick sets with bags totaling $1,100. You know, I thought that means you get rod reels. Well.

And that's okay. We can try, but I don't think that works. That's not what that is. But what these are, Judge and Commissioners, is stop sticks. We work with North Central Texas Council of Governments. We send our people to Police Academy there, and we assist them a lot with training, helping out with training. And so when they get extra stuff or they're moving to some new stuff, they try to provide us with things. So they called us and wanted to provide us with these stop sticks, which are helping our training when we do our many academies and stuff here. a total of $1,100 worth of equipment that is donated to us with y'all's acceptance.

I think that's great. Do we have a motion to accept? I'll make the motion. Mr. Moore makes the motion. I have a second. I'll second. Commissioner Lane makes second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. Thank you, Chief.

I did watch the video on that. I can't figure out how that thing works. They're kind of in a triangle in the... Okay, I never saw those.

You throw them out there and they...

I mean, what's inside of them?

They've just got little needles. Needles? They're like little needles, and they're like a hypodermic syringe. And so once they go into the tire, the tire deflates.

And it's hollow inside each pin, so it doesn't... You're not getting a suction on the pin?

I'm used to the chain thing. You throw out the... Yes, sir. They're bigger, but... looked like they're heavier too yep they are and video on that other but it didn't show you know what I'm saying I thought what's in there I've got a couple in my car I'm not put out there I'll show you how there's a why I'll show you how they work right behind the back Yes, but anybody can buy new ones.

Oh, my goodness. Okay. We're going off the rails here. Okay. All right. Number 10 is the DA's office discussed, considered, and approved cost of a rental vehicle for five days to use during a training conference to comply with our manual.

So we have an investigator that's going out of town, out of state for a conference, and the conference actually changed location where he will need a rental vehicle for five days. So according to the purchasing policy, we need the court to approve that. So we're asking the court to approve that today. Do you all have any questions about it?

I need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. Mr. Crowe makes a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Phillips makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you, Karen. Ms. Lorena discussed, considered, and approved the purchase of road materials from Texas Materials Group for work to be done. Precinct 3 Samuel Road and Coquit Road utilizing Dallas County Interlocal IFB 2022-046-6961 and Ellis County's RFB number 2024-010 in the amount of $590,000. $261.78.

Good morning, Judge and Commissioners. So the purchase meets specifications and procurement requirements. I recommend the purchase.

Okay.

Yeah, this is on Colquitt Samuels, which is Mon Roads. And so, yeah, everything's great.

I'll make a motion. So Commissioner Lane makes the motion. I have a second. I'll second. Mr. Moore makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you, Leroy. Number 12 is mine. Discuss, consider, and approve the adoption of the sheriff's and constable's fees, including but not limited to RITs, of garnishment, subquesturations, attachments, executions, and possessions. You know, we've been at $250 for over 10 years on this. Is that right, Chief? And so as costs go up, everything goes up. Dallas County is at $400. I mean, Henderson County is at $275. So it costs us a lot of money and extra time for constables and deputies to go out and do these things. Sometimes there's two and three deputies there, depending on the situation. So it's time for us to... When do we have to report this back? October? So it's time for us to set the fee for all of these. They ought to be the same on all of them. So my recommendation is either $350 or $350 because it's It's an expense on the county to do this. So not to exceed 400 because that's where Dallas is, but what's your pleasure? You know, talk about it. We've got to decide today. Okay.

I'll say 350.

Yeah.

Say what?

I'll say 350. Okay. I'm fine with that.

I'm fine.

Okay. I need a motion then. I'll make a motion. Mr. Crowe makes a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Moore makes a second. Set fee at $350. Motion carries. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Good having myself here. Number 14, Ms. Archer, line item, budget transfers.

So this week we do have line item transfers, and we do have budget amendments for additional revenue that the county received, and we asked for the court's approval to post those.

You all received these last week. You've had time to look at them. Any corrections or comments? Need a motion to approve. I'll make the motion. Mr. Moore makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. Okay, Ms. Archer, once again, claims for payment.

This week we have accounts payable invoices, mostly made up of county road and bridge expenditures and grant expenditures, and then we also have jury expenses, and we also have a regular payroll, and we ask for the court's approval to pay.

There again, you got these last week. You've had time to look at them. Any questions? Corrections? Do you need a motion to approve? I'll make the motion.

Commissioner Moore makes the motion. Do you have a second?

I'll second. Commissioner Lane makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Phillips makes the motion to adjourn. Do you have a second? I'll second. Commissioner Crowe makes a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.