Remarks by Walt Smith
279 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 12
- Play at 2:08:31
“Please call the roll. We're just voting on the rate sheet. Okay.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:08:49
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:11:18
“Okay. While we're still on this specific item, I would like to move to...”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:15:05
“Additional reason why we shouldn't do it in my opinion, but that's just the vote So if there's nothing else this motion is again, but no good clarify that When he's giving us another option of where to pay for it instead of the tax rate reserves the correct So the but the cap that we passed last week and it has enough room under the cap for this for the specific number of the nine hundred and”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:15:54
“I want to make sure we got elected. Oh, we didn't. We opened the discussion, and then we had a second on the other one. So I move for the inclusion at the three-year rate of new elections equipment.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:21:19
“Please call the roll. Judge, I would like to note this is within our road bond and within the COs. There's a portion of funding for Fitzhugh Road that we applied for additional grant funding on safety improvements. If you remember, a portion of the funding was not for design. It was for immediate safety improvements. And we were awarded this grant specifically to help us with that.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:27:53
“Well, my question is, how did it go up 21%?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:28:06
“I don't have a problem. I'm just wondering how it went up 21%.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:32:27
“Are we okay to open it? K-14, discussion and possible action to pre-qualify all respondents who scored 70 or above”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:34:22
“Just for clarification, the list and backup, was that supposed to be only firms that received the 70%, or was that all scores?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:34:42
“I appreciate that. In the past, we've only listed the firms that have met that minimum standard. That's the reason I was asking. Please call the roll.”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:35:49
“Perfect, and thank you. I do have one question related to this, and this is a question not for you necessarily, but for the Civil Division. If there were to be a hospital district created, would they assume the cost for cremation services?”
Commissioners Court · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 49:47
“Beautiful. Commissioner? Enjoy August. We all know what's coming. I can't say thank you enough. What I think a lot of people don't understand is, number one, the hours that go into a regular election, but everything that goes into the preparation and everything that comes before it. And I say that, whether that's picking up elections equipment and setting up polling locations, the days are, you know, the days before election tearing it down. I will tell you the worst is the night of a general election because you have used to we had our primary caucuses in the same location an hour later or…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:06:52
“Commissioner Smith, would you like to start this conversation? Whenever I was at A&M, I would go back to my home county and work as an election worker every single election. And I really got a view of not only how the election worked, but all the process that went into it. I can't say thank you enough. I think you're getting a unique perspective and not just showing up to vote every day, but knowing what goes into the process. And I think you are going to be very well set in life if you decide to pursue a career related to government and knowing those things, because you would you will have a…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:09:26
“Rose Brooks would be proud, wouldn't she?”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:19:31
“I couldn't agree with Commissioner Hammer more. We're each called in a different way, and I think that sometimes that connection between faith and fellowship and governance and the things that we do is sometimes overlooked or disparaged, and I think to work in organizations like yourself, there really is a place for groups of faith to work hand in hand with government and with their community in other ways that people may not think of. And so I'm always impressed to see someone who's actually stepping out and doing the work because it is a hard job to bring those two different entities…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:32:56
“I want to thank Commissioner Inglesby for co-sponsoring this with me. And I think if you polled the folks in this courtroom, everyone has been touched by someone who had an overdose in their life. The small rural community I grew up in had never really seen methamphetamines until I went to high school in the 90s. And it became an epidemic in about a year and a half. We had multiple overdoses within our community. And it really completely reshaped the place I grew up. And nothing scared me worse whenever I came into office is when we started to see the fentanyl deaths, especially in the Hays…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:41:38
“Thank you. I would agree. And I've sat through a number of these. I was at Janelle's second presentation. ever. And to say that she has progressed and what she's done, it would not do justice to what her and Anthony put together in that first presentation. But the one thing that I would draw, I know there's been several of us who've mentioned Narcan up here. You know, we had one student at, I was shocked in some of those presentations when I heard that we had students walking around with Narcan in their pocket because they just expected that there would be an overdose. And where it hit home…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:52:38
“So I just, you know, I appreciate the effort every year. I appreciate the win last year, but I have to tell you, I think there might be a lady sitting right in front of me who's going to take you down. She's wanting her trophy back. I don't know if the auditor's office has plans yet this year, but how many years in a row did the auditor's office win? Four? Yes.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:53:08
“So I think there's a friendly competition brewing there. And also, you know, it's real Texas chili. It has to be red meat, no chicken, and no beans. So I'm happy you're doing that. But in all seriousness, I can't say thank you enough for all the folks who work with us. I don't think that there's an understanding until you go through a disaster like we did in 2015, like we did in 2019, like we did in 2021, as to how many organizations we have in our county that are either based here or their personnel live here and work in our general area on disaster recovery and relief. And just response as…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 1:57:51
“Judge, the one group that we didn't mention today that I would be remiss if we didn't mention was our CERT. Our cert team citizens of emergency response team They're average citizens here in the county that have gone through training that work directly with our emergency response folks and whether it's a wildfire on the west side or an evacuation or just a house fire and we've got first responders there and”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:31:14
“I'd like to hear him finish out this and then hear from the rest of the presenters today. And then we can get down into some real numbers.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:39:07
“I have one question as well. And forgive me, but can you go back to the previous slide one more? Okay, so the two options that we looked at in the last budget workshop, the cost for this is significantly lower than either one of them. I mean, significantly lower. Does this include both civilian and, I assume this includes both civilian and elected? I'll defer to Scott on that bottom 2.5 million.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:39:57
“No, I understand that, but both of the other options last time were significantly higher than that.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 2:40:11
“Well, no. HR recommendations for civilian pay in our last budget workshop for full market alignment were $6.49 million. And for phased market alignment, it was $4.874. This is at, if we have two set aside already, This is at 2329, so that's $500,000 less, $400,000 less, or $500,000 less than either of the other two options?”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026