Remarks by Jacqueline Ott
223 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 9
- Play at 5:24:06
“Yes. Precinct 1 has a clerk that is part-time that they want to move to full-time as well. That's the JP.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:24:16
“Constable 1 has a part-time deputy funded that they want to move into full-time.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:24:31
“Okay, that might be wrong. Two full-time, one part-time. Okay. There's one part-time that is filled. There's one part-time that is not filled, and they're having trouble filling it. They want to move that into a full-time.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:24:52
“So, sorry, I had to redo that in my head. They have two full-time, one part-time, another part-time open, I believe. Can someone correct me on that if I'm wrong? And I see Nick about to text me. He's going to tell me. I got to a certain point in hours today where my brain stopped working on that. Sorry.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:25:31
“Yes. So one of those part-time is filled and funded at $30,000, and then there's that extra $30,000 that is not funded.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:25:54
“No, so they have a person that is working part-time that wants to stay part-time, but they've been unable to fill the second part-time. So there's been that $30,000 sitting there for this entire fiscal year. They cannot get someone to accept a part-time job. They've only been able to speak to people that want to work full-time.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:26:13
“That's the part I didn't understand. Yes, yeah. I'm asking that we change that line so you'd move $30,000 out and allocate that toward a full-time and then fund the rest toward a full-time so that they can use that money to have another person.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:27:15
“Because I know we were talking about JP1 with the clerk and JP4, but for the constable... JP4 and JP1 both have part-time clerks that they would like to make into full-time clerks. Those two part-time positions are filled, and they want to convert those positions into full-time for those people. And then Constable 1 has an unfilled part-time they'd like to convert into a full-time. It's not filled, and that's the reason why.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:33:43
“A little bit. Environmental health changes, are we OK with that? Did no extra money change in the?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:33:57
“Abolishing a position, moving the money. Okay, so we have, there's one. Okay, 3% COLA, right? There's two. And $2,000 in longevity. I think we're possibly at $1,000 longevity. I'm just trying to sneak it by Drew.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:35:00
“It was the conversation that Commissioner Gurman brought up about sharing tax Clark between the tax assessor and JP4, but then I think we shifted into the part-time to full-time.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:35:15
“Yes, we did talk about that. I don't know where we've, I'm not sure I've leaned a consensus on it.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:35:25
“Are we at consensus with the JP1 and JP4 part-time to full-time, though?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:35:34
“That's JP4, part-time to full-time, both, just staff, yeah. Then Constable 1, part-time to full-time, is a separate thing, but are we out of consensus with that?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:36:43
“Is that correct? Are we at a consensus on the associate judge that would magistrate an additional part-time? How about the chaplain?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:37:03
“But we still need to take action to create the position.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:37:06
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:38:01
“That is something I would support, but I think if we want to move toward that one direction or another. I think they said they were fine with it.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:38:37
“Yes. That's the one you're referring to?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:41:19
“I don't know. Y'all tell me if you want to keep working through. I'm happy to rip that band-aid right now. I don't feel comfortable voting on an increased budget unless it includes fire protection for my precinct. Commissioner Gurman, I think, made an initiative to meet in the middle at $350,000 extra. If we can get a third vote to support that, I would also stand with that. Is there a third vote that would foresee a budget where we can include that?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:43:50
“Commissioner, we don't have anybody else that primarily covers our areas. There has been so many fires in the last month where GCFR is tied up. That is who is putting out people's fires in their homes, in their pastures. That is who Precinct 104 has right now.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:48:49
“I think a court is much less likely to grant individual requests.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:49:00
“but this is a set-aside fund for this. I think just by very title that it's good. They're going to have much more difficulty. We allotted specific amounts for the six that responded to us last year, and those six used those allotted amounts.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:49:19
“put some cushion on it, and that cushion allowed us to give some money to Geronimo VFD. I still am a little confused on why we did that, because we know that those items were going to be used by GCFR. I don't know why we didn't just give it to GCFR. Whatever. It's being used to fight fires. That's great. But we put it up. They used it. we held them to a strict standard on it, and they followed through. I mean, they used almost all of it, and I think the amount that's unused was the cushion that we gave them, because we gave them, I think it was $414,000 and change that we added up between the…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 5:50:24
“I believe the highest request for an individual department was $129,000.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026