Remarks by Walt Smith
279 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 12
- Play at 48:41
“I just want to make sure this what you read is that what's in the backup? I think it's different because I had a couple of a Challenges I had a couple of changes to the one that was in backup or just some typos and such No, don't reread it what part did you want to go over the last paragraph the last two paragraphs It's the same it's the same okay the paragraph just before that And also it If nobody has a problem with it, our CERT teams have done an amazing job the last two years in helping our elections department. I just want to be sure and say thank you for the help and assistance that was…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 49:55
“I just think this is important. They've shown up at almost every polling location.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:00:03
“I would just say much to what my colleagues said relative to you never need a fireman until your house is on fire. You never need a police officer until you get robbed. But you don't realize that they're protecting you every day from those issues. You all do the same thing. Our every employee in our county whether it's our transportation department doing or whether it's our IT or Elections Department during election to functionally operate it takes y'all and I don't think they're y'all get that that pat on the back on a regular basis So I'm glad that we're doing something to recognize that…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:09:08
“Matthew, I see that fire burning. You ready for next year?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:16:37
“And what else? That's the only one I made a note on as well because I know we bought walk-in freezers for less than that.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:21:15
“This is just an update. The original AFA adopted in May lacked a couple of things in it. And so this is an update of that, bringing in the specific items that TxDOT has requested. There's no change in cost and no change in scope.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:21:32
“Sure. Actually, it's in the backup. Let me pull it up.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:21:36
“Sure. Let me pull it up real quick. On May 12th, the Commissioner's Court considered the AFA for an updated Amendment 1 for 150 and 12 project and associated resolution. Following a partial execution of Amendment 1, TxDOT identified that the amendment template that was provided did not include project-specific language that has since been provided in a revised amendment for execution. Approval of the AFA Amendment 1 is requested to incorporate the required language to ensure consistency with updated TxDOT requirements.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:27:44
“In typically or in a real logistic sense, the problem that we have is that we still have to, no matter whether or not we're updating our tax software or not, we still have to hit that 30-day shot clock. And we can do that internally. We just can't file the final plat with the clerk's office until we have assured that they paid those taxes. Please call the roll.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:49:44
“Well, I know we've had this conversation multiple times and we've actually voted on the adoption of option two. So at this point, unless there is a drafted amendment to not go with option two, it's pursuant to us to go ahead and adopt that and move forward with our budget. The budget as amended right now is 1.26 cents over our current tax rate. And we can adjust that today during our budget workshop at any time. However, we have to have, you know, I would just clarify to my colleagues that we are not amending the budget that was given to us a month and a half ago. In order to amend the budget…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:57:20
“Commissioner Smith. Yeah, I just, one of the things, and this is just, in the wayback machine back in 2022, 2023.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:57:29
“When we looked at the salary survey, the MAG study that was done, one of the things that Commissioner Schell and I looked at were actually taking our departments, department by department, and instead of doing an overall salary survey every four years, really putting our departments on a rotation, where we are looking at those departments maybe on a three-year schedule, but we don't get hit with these $4.5 to $6 million every four years that we have to come up with and gradually look at the number of employees we have on the civilian side. We have that rotation. When we look at the SO, we…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:00:14
“I would move for full adoption given the original salary survey information.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:05:29
“I don't think this is cooked enough to be able to vote on it, but I've been preaching to the abyss so whatever I Would I would also say I appreciate your comments however It's our employees job to follow the direction that we provide and in this scenario I We are choosing to look at our HR director and the expertise that he has there and not how, you know, at the end of the day, from a personal standpoint, I appreciate Marisol's comments, but I also know that at the end of the day, from her position as auditor, she's going to audit and make sure that everything that we do in the salary survey…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:18:36
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:21:34
“I would like to consider these separately possible.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:23:24
“I'd like to move to adopt the elected official salaries with the two amendments adopted in court today.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:35:39
“Just as a reminder, as we've done in the past, if we make any adjustments to the budget as we currently have adopted, before we can go and make that final adoption, generally, Scott will run out, make those changes, get printouts for us, bring it back, and then we'll have our finalized motion.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:38:08
“So given the ones that we haven't adopted or looked at yet, the two would be the New World ERP Cloud and the civilian bilingual pay. I'm going to wait for the judge to get back up here. No, it's okay. I would move for adoption of the new world ERP cloud. And I say that, I want to discuss that specific item. I know that as we move forward, Marisol, how long have we been waiting on a software upgrade there? On the new world ERP?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:39:19
“I can tell you that I've also discussed, and I don't know how many of our commissioners are using the dashboard that we have for the individual project-based dashboards to follow and track our finances on those projects. But at this point, I know that we have not given them outside access to view those accounts and those kind of things. Even if we wanted to, our current system is so old that it won't allow us to do that. So we're not getting real-time data on what the cost of those projects are. This would help enhance that, I know, if we were able to do that. But I'll let Chris talk as well.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:41:14
“IF NOT, JUDGE, I'D MOVE TO INCLUDE IN THIS BUDGET THE NEW WORLD ERP CLOUD UPDATE.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:41:30
“Well, no, it would be covered in our current 1.26. It's just one of the three items that we have not had a vote on. You got a second?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:42:22
“All right. The next one is civilian bilingual pay.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:46:40
“I also have some questions. I've spoken to at least one of our elected officials who has translation equipment sitting on the front desk of his office. And for the cost of that translation equipment, and to this point, and this is not by any means a far-reaching research or anything else, but he said that he hasn't had a single issue. His employees, they have done phenomenal with that translation equipment just sitting on the front desk of his JP office. And so I would hope if we do look at this, I agree with Commissioner Cohen, we probably need to just hold off and look at, do a real…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:07:09
“Well, the other thing I would say is this is also one of the items that we had a department come forward and pay for out of their own budgeted allocation. And so if we didn't do that, I would hope that we would give those those correction officers that would pay for that back to the sheriff's department that they were willing to give up. I would all day support giving back to corrections officers. The other thing that I would say is that, you know, and I said this before, I worked in Washington, D.C. in 98 and 99 when the ACLU and others were pushing for body-worn cameras wholesale. The early…”
Commissioners Court · Sep 15, 2026