On session this morning invocation to be given by Beth Fleming, our director of purchasing and our pledges will be led by Tom Reese at Bartley manager in the tax office. We please stand. Please pray with me. Our Heavenly Father, as we gather here this morning, we thank you for the freedom that we have to come together and share and discuss ideas. We ask that you be with this commissioners court and give them the wisdom to make decisions that are in the best interest of all of those who put their trust and confidence in their leadership. This morning we ask that you bless this county and this country and all of those who serve. And especially we ask for you to guard and protect our military, both here and abroad. And all of those first responders who sacrifice for us every day. And we also remember their families who also go through lots of sacrifice. Dear Lord, in all things, we ask that you grant us the humility to seek your will and all that we do in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Join me in the pledge to the Texas and the United States flag. Pledge of Regents to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under and indivisible. Okay, thank you very much. Item one on the agendas or public input for items not posted on the agenda. If there's any member of the public that would like to address Commissioner's Court, we ask that you please complete a public comment form available on the side table. Once we're in mind, everyone, please turn to all cell phones, pages, any electronic device that might be disruptive. One public comment form this morning from Paxton Swisher. Paxton, good morning. You have three minutes, sir. Good morning, Quishers. Paxton Swisher here, I live at 200 South Bonnigway. Just here again on the advocating for the Confederate monument on the square to either remove it into the museum, possibly the museum that's within this courthouse or other cultures to be represented. You know, just thinking about a pledge of allegiance, we've gotten, you know, we're liberty for all people, but it still feels kind of like not very just to have a statute with no kind of recognition that this is a monument of the past and we kind of need to put it in a place where we can give it a historical context. Thank you. Members, item two is a consent agenda or are there items on the consent agenda you need some discussion on or do we have a motion? Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Marchin. I'll in favor, please say aye. Aye, Opposed, Aye. Motion is carried. Consent agenda today consists of approval or order making appointments to a. We have one new hire in the county clerk's office. Seven new hires in the county jail. One rehire in Sheriff Communications Division and one promotion in Road and Ridge East. 2B is approval of the intro departmental transfers. 2C is approval of payroll. 2D is approval of budget amendment request. 101 610 for wireless services for vehicle maintenance in the amount of $150. 2E is approval of budget amount request 101 630 for genitorial paper products for facilities management in the amount of $10,000. Two F is approval budget amount request 101 640 to transfer funds from precinct for government center to county lease buildings office rentals for a council of precinct for at $9,365. And justice to the piece precinct for $6,461, for a total of minimum of $15,826. 2G is approval budget amount request 101-660 to transfer funds from geographic information systems, professional services to records management computer software in the amount of $46,434. records management computer software in the amount of $46,434. I'm sorry, 4A is a public hearing. This is to discuss, approve the Denton County Clerk's Record Archive Plan 2 to approve of a continued collection of $10 preservation and restoration fee by the county clerk. First we need the motion to go under our public hearing. Motion by Commissioner Eid Seconded by Commissioner Marchand. My only favorite please say aye. Aye. I pose a knee. Motion does carry. There she is. Good morning. Warning. How's the project going? It's going very well and honestly I can honestly say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As you know, this was an unfunded mandate and the legislature in their wisdom allowed us to click originally a $5 fee and then the $10 fee. And we have taken a very aggressive approach to this project and I can say, like I said, that we are, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So at this time, I am asking the court to approve a continued collection of a $10 fee. Okay, well, there's two points to the agenda place. So one is approval of the County Clerk's Records Archive Plan and the other is the continuation of the $10 fee. Is there anyone in attendance who would like to address commissioners court on this issue or do any court members have any questions? Move to close public here. Thank you. We have a motion to close the public hearing by Commissioner Marchand, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor please say aye. Aye, post the name. Motion does carry. Now we need a motion to I, Poe, Cine, motionless carry. Now we need a motion to thank you. We have a motion for approval of a posting by Commissioner Eid, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. I, I, Poe, Cine, motionless carry. Thank you very much for being here this morning. Hold on to this one, second, Tara. In consideration of our guests' time, I'd like to jump over to item 13A on the agenda of 13A is a proof of accepting the gifts of the U.S. and Texas flag purchased by Lakeside Republican Women for the Stephen E. Copeland Government Center. You have a couple guests with us this morning. Surely nobody has a problem with this, where I'd just like to take the opportunity to say thank you very much. It's nice of you to do this. I know you've been meeting at that facility, and it's good to have a flag there, so you can do your pledges just like we did here this morning. Any questions or members recorded? Do we have a motion for approval? Motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. I put a say nay. Motion does carry. Thank you very much. We appreciate the donation. Okay. Let's go back to item 5A on the agenda, which is approval of the bill report. Payments from CSCD, Community Corrections, TIP, Shares, Training Shares, Forfeiture, VIP, Interest, and DA, Forfeiture Funds are presented for recording purposes only. We also have the auditors monthly financial report for the month of June that is presented for recording purposes only. Good morning, James Wells. that is presented for recording purposes only. Good morning, James Wells. I'm going to judge and commissioners. I'd ask approval as the bill of the bills has presented with noting the three deletions to the general fund. I actually wanted from a public probation been requested to redo those by the apartments or just we need to correct the processing on those. That's all corrections I have. Do we have any questions? Do we have a motion? Assembly. Motion by Commissioner Marchin. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye, post a name. Motion does carry. 5B is approved of the report on the results of the sale of Denton County's 2017 permanent improvement refunding bonds Begin with calling James Lowe's Commissioners When we bring you official results of our sale because Only official action. Ladies have to be done official action court takes is to prove Moving forward and we approved an order setting parameters on the maximum amount of bonds that would be considered or actually issued in the refund bonds of the issued and exactly the maximum interest rate you would pay on those and the minimum amount of savings the county would accept and that was back on earlier in June, when they did this, that's actually this refunding and been looked at for many years, for a couple of years, since our last one, but it never actually made economic sense. And then at the first of the summer, it just kind of, the market changed and it did so what it so you all now You would not get any official results on these someone put this on the agenda so The approval was given on June 27th We set a maximum of 85 million dollars and you bonds to issue to refinance up to 82 million 755,000 existing bonds. And we said in parameter of at least 3% net present value savings. The sale took place on July 6. In between then we did all the documents and legal documents and notifications that had to take place with, that was with the help of bond attorneys, Norton Rose Fulbright and financial advisor Seal Top Securities. We had the bonds rated. Both agencies kept our triple A rating intact, which of course was expected. An underwriting team of Cit bank, Raymond James and the associates, RBC capital markets was chosen to actually hit market these bonds. Market went bad the day before. So we still could do the old look that we'd loose some savings but actually came back very strong on the day of the deal. Look how we lose some savings, but actually came back very strong on the day of the sale. So the results were we issued again about 80 the actual results where we ended up issuing $76 million, $530,000 in new bonds to refund the $82 million. We received a large premium, almost $15 million in premium on those. And our net interest rate on the bonds was 2.84%. These were about eight-year bonds before they can be called and refunded. And our counties total savings were 9,240,000. 9,240,000. That is net of all expenses. There's no out-of-pocket expense. We had considerable issuance cost of nearly $300,000 to the bond attorneys, our financial advisors, rating agencies, don't do things for free, the AG doesn't approve them for free, both the bottom and so basic and so and this will be realized over the next years of the bonds. Really there are there's like 13 years of savings. Every front 400,000, two as much as 650,000 per year that we you know county will not have to budget for expense on bonds that we had already approved and we were very happy with. So again, the taxpayers are 9.2 million, 9.3 million dollars better off today and they have that much cheaper debt left off. So we thought it was a very successful sale. What was the interest rate originally? I mean, I know it went to 2.84, but what was it before? The original bonds, that's on page 96, and actually in this lighting, I'm going to confess, I can't really see that too well. Actually, I see that refunded debt, the refunded item. How are you going to help me? Really? Actually, the refunded debt averaged 4.97% almost 5% so we saved over over 2% which is you know I mean it's like oh well that's a nice little tip but 2% on 80 million for the next 13 years it does add up into almost real money. So this deal will close August 3rd, and we've never had a problem with closing. Barnes are marketed, so we will not see very much actual cash. This will be of one of those virtual transactions. We contract with people that US bank is our paying agent. They actually take, you know, then the funds are escrowed for years until the bonds are called. So, investors in county bonds will not, it will be, they will not feel an impact other than when the bonds can be called and there are various dates for them. They will be called, but the investors have, I think, assumed that for the whole life of the bonds since the, again, they're nearly 5% bonds in a right when we can, you know, current markets, obviously 2.84%. So, very successful transaction, very helpful for the taxpayers, helpful, and also helpful for the county budget for the next foreseeable future. So, you have any questions on anything? and also helpful for the county budget for the next foreseeable future. So that's great. You have any questions on anything? Nine million dollars. That's a pretty good day. You should probably take the rest of the year. I've gone weeks without making nine million dollars. Yeah, yeah. Don't we all? Weeks of the time without the... Very successful. And again, we... And you put in a perspective, you know, there's some things the county does very well. We have a very strong bond rating. The market likes the management of the county. They like the administration of the county. You'll see that we have, they cite things like strong financial policies, strong financial leaders, strong budgeting. We have, and in our finances themselves, and a strong tax base. Then there's times you just have good timing. The 2008, 2008, Trippo 8 bond election that gave us nearly half a million dollars in bonds to market originally was approved right before the recession. And that was approved anywhere 5% was more than norm if 5% and 6%. So really since the last eight years we've been issuing debt in a very low interest rate market and the way that their market did then these again these probably were never expected we'd be able to refund these. I think the expectation was in 2012 these were issued the rates would be much higher by now. It's been the expectation since since the rates were greater than 2009 that they would get back to 8 and 5 and 6 percent but it just never has so from this aspect our timing couldn't all have been better you know it's given us a chance to issue the bonds at a very attractive rates and then refund them even better rates so that's just timing you know that it's fortunate to be doing for a long time I mean there's everything in there thank Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm gonna move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Any questions or further comments? Here none, no in favor, please say aye. Aye. I close the name. Questionless Kerry, thank you, James. I want to go over to 7-H. 7-H is acceptance of submission of the appraisal role for dental county attacks here at 2017 from the tax successor collector. We have our tax successor, Michelle French, with us this morning. Good morning, Michelle. Good morning, Judge. Good morning, commissioners our Texas Senator Michelle Finch with us this morning with the morning mission. Good morning, Judge and good morning commissioners. It is that time again. I guess it is. So, hangye. What I'm going to do, first of all, is I will go ahead and submit the appraiser role. And then I think the next item up to that is the effective rollback tax rate. So here we go for the 2016, so we're going to talk about last year first. For the 2016 year, the total of praise value was $85 billion, $547 million, $119,619. Last year's total net taxable value was $76 billion, $605 million, $242,903. The total new improvement for 2016 last year was $2,881,622,727. We do have a collection rate of 100% and the property under protest last year was $1,540,057,426. So that was last year. Now coming into this year for the 2017 year, the total appraise value is 96 billion, 617 million, 974,393. This year's total assessed value is 95 billion, 522 million, 111,719. 522 million 111,719. This year's total net taxable value is 86 billion 528 million 852,634. Our new improvement for the 2017 year is 3 billion 647 million 82,104, we continue with 100% collection rate. And this year's property under protest is 1,730,214,626. So as you can see, the total of praise value has increased over last year. The assessed the net taxable value has increased over last year. And certainly the new improvement value has increased over last year, the assess the net taxable value has increased over last year, and certainly the new improvement value has increased over last year. Okay. We need a motion to formally accept the appraisal room. Motion by Commissioner Eads. Second. Second by Commissioner Marchand. All in favor, please say aye. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. Second. a prison role must be certified. And we were very grateful that the appraisal district was able to get the information to this last Friday. And so it gave us a chance to work on the values and the rate calculations Friday and Saturday so that we could actually have these here for you today. Appreciate it, Ben. So, in looking at last year, last year's operating taxes were 145,239,277. Last year's debt taxes were 52,541,334, which gave a total for last year's taxes at 177,780,611, last year's tax base was $79,618,939,385, and last year's tax rate was subtracting taxes on lost property was $195,770,689 and the adjusted tax base after subtracting new value was $83,614,116,217. This year's effective rate is 0.234135, that's the 2017 effective rate. The, this year's adjusted tax base is 83 billion, 614 million, 116,217, which gives this year's maximum maintenance and operation rate at .171246. I'm sorry, let me say that again. This year's effective operating rate is 0.171246. This year's maximum M&O rate is 0.184945. This year's debt rate is 0.064026, which gives us a rollback rate of 0.248971. seven one. Our road back rate is just fairly more than our present text rate. That is correct. We're finding that and just about, we're finding that in just about every case because the values have increased and the new value and the new improvement has increased that whole, that whole fall-crumb of if your values increase, your rate decreases, if your values decrease, your rate decreases, if your values increase, your rate increases. And so because of significant increased values and a lot of that comes from new improvement, we're finding pretty much across the board that the rollback rates are right at about the same as what the adopted rate or effective rate was for last year. For the current year, then interesting. Okay, any questions and members of court? Chair is going to move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Hearing no questions on favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, post, any motion is carried. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And the proposal district for getting all that absolutely so quickly. Early, so we can. And also thank you to Donna and James for being able to get the information we needed so quickly so that we could go ahead and complete these calculations for you. Obviously, the income controllers office got the real room. We got it out. We got the real room room stock about three days before I think it was last Tuesday, as a matter of fact. At first I thought it was just a hey for your, this is just a heads up. We'll certify later but we think this is what it's going to be. And it was actually certified. So we were thrilled about that. I mean we used to wait weeks for that. Indeed, indeed. And our females. All right, thank you all very much. Thank you. Appreciate it, Michelle. All right, trying to be considered a people's time here. Let's go back and get on crack. All right, seven A. Seven A is approval. Budget of man request, one, one, six, two, zero for visiting judge and psychiatric services, including the transfer of funds from non-departmental and appropriated. Court ordered contingency at $80,000 for court appointed attorneys at $60,000. Record appointed attorneys family for 16th district court in a total of $142,700. I'm there for a call. Motion by Commissioner Coleman. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Hearing no questions on favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, post, in aid. Motion carries. 7b is approval of budget amount of cost, 101, 650. To increase revenues and advocate expenditures for professional services, for office of history and culture in the amount of $4,000. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. Hearing the questions, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Nane. Motion carries. Seventy is approval of budget, my request, 101, 670. Can you please read any of these now, allocate expenditures from the insurance refund to vehicle repairs at $45,635. Increased revenues and expenditures from the sale of surplus property to purchase new road maintenance equipment, $59,810. Increased revenues by $3,267. And transfer our funds totally in $2,600. To purchase two solar powered speed limit signs and reallocation of funds for soil stabilization at $3938 a rodent bridge precinct for a total of limit of $115,296. Motion by Commissioner Eid, seconded by Commissioner Coleman. Here are no questions. Questions on favor please say aye. Aye, pose aye. Motion carries. 7D is approval of budget amount of cost, 1-1-680. For visiting judge expensive statements of facts, including the transfer of funds from non-departmental and appropriate and court order contingency, at $100,000 for court appointed attorney, and $60,000 for court appointed attorney family for 158 district court, and the total budget amendment amount of 162,000 38 dollars. I move for approval motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Eads. I'll in favor please say aye. Aye, post in name. Motion carries. Savonese approval budget of the may have crossed 11690 for due's and subscriptions for psychiatric services, including the transfer of $100,000 in non-departmental and unappropriated court order contingency. The 211th District Court in the amount of to $101,755. I'm going to approve. Motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye, post the name. Motion carries, 7F is approval of budget amount of cost, 1-1-7-0-0 for psychiatric services. Including the transfer of funds from non-departmental and unappropriated court order contingency. It's $65,000 for court appointed attorneys and $50,000 for a court appointed attorney's family for 431th district court in the total amount of $1,17,600. Motion by Commissioner Cohen. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. On in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, Opposed, aye. Motion does carried. 7G is approval of budget amendment of course, 1-1-710 to get revenues in the allocated expenditures for salary assistance benefits for public health to Berky-Loses. Prevention grant in the amount of $77,241. Motion by Commissioner Ead, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Hearing no questions, all in favor, please say aye. Aye, post a name. Motion carries. We've done 7-8 and aye, I will come back to 7-J. 10-A is approval of a request to hold a public hearing on August 29, 2017 at 9-E-M for the re-plata of Dorothy McDaniel. In addition, this is lots one R1 and one R2 block A5.896 acres. This is Commissioner Pritzney IV. Motion by Commissioner Eads, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye, post and aye. Motion does carry. Let's take 10 B and C together. 10 B is approval of a minor plat for Simon's Edition, lot one block A. This is three acres in Commissioner 1. And 10 C is approval of the preliminary plan for arrow broke phase 3 a 3 b. This is also on Commissioner Prussington. I move for approval. Motion by Commissioner Coleman seconded by Commissioner. Marchant on favor please say aye. Aye. Posting a motion carries. Ten D is approval of change order number 8 for the Denton County Southwest Courthouse. This is $0 amount but it's for our time extension requesting 30 calendar days. Motion by Commissioner Eads. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Hearing no questions, all in favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed, aye. Motion does carry. 10E. They have a a discussion on? I'm going to ask that we actually, I don't think we need a formal motion on this, but I want to have some discussion. One, all court members to know that I ask Kate to communicate with Texas Historical Commission, because I remember when we went through the restoration in this building, we were closely with Texas Historical Commission to make sure that we applied for and got all the necessary permits, what they call it, antiquities permit application at least what it's called. And I wanted to make sure that we crossed our teeth and dotted our eyes before we took any formal action. At this point in time, no contract has been let to do any work out there. I wanted to do the work. I will tell you in discussions with Texas Historical Commission, they've always worked well with Denton County, or maybe I should say it the other way around. They've always been very grateful for us before we did anything to check with them to make sure that we are within all the requirements of Texas Historical Commission. So they're not worried about us like they are some counties they had to work with. We'll put it that way. And so in talking to, and I'll give you his name, James J. I'll try to pronounce this. The last name is M-A-L-A-N-A-P-H-Y. He's project reviewer, architecture division, Texas Historical, Courthouse Preservation Program of the Texas Historical Commission, long title. And anyway, bottom line in discussion with him, he said that they would prefer that the county keep as much of the original concrete of the sidewalks as possible, particularly anything with the WPA stands. So while we certainly want to pay attention to restoring and refurbishing areas that are unsafe, we want to pay particular attention to saving those WPA markings in the concrete and that is their primary concern. So what they're asking is that, let's see, he put in our guy email, he says James knows that the county will attempt to perform the work within the historical guidelines so it does not anticipate any problems with having the architect submit the paperwork to THC along with the drawings at the time the county approves the work to be done as designed by the architect. And that is no one needs to submit the Texas Historical Commission application prior to the county deciding the scope of work and approving the architect to design the work. Just wanted to make sure we were all straight with the Texas Historical Commission before we proceed it. And it looks like we are. So, discussions today for me, the centers around instructing staff to go forward with awarding the bid for the design and that will come back to court for approval the parallel process. Matthew, to speak to that. Because of the expected amount of this architect contract, we have proceeded with the policy approved by commissioners court under 50,000. The staff selected Tignol and Perkins as the most qualified and we have already received a quote that we will negotiate. We were careful to make sure this component of the Texas Historical Commission is in that proposal. And we are waiting on final approval of the scope of the actual, you know, just refurbishing what needs to be before we move forward with finalizing that contract. So the contract will not actually come back to court. We'll be able to do that through a purchase order and their contract will begin at that time. Then we'll go out to bed once the design is complete and that will definitely come back to the air. You seen you anticipating this to cost less than 50,000? The architect contract. The architect contract. If not the whole scope of work. Now, y'all certainly chime in here with your thinking, but I'm thinking, you know, do that once, do it right. I, what I, in result, I would like to see as much as possible without disturbing any of the WPA markings and being sensitive to that but as much as possible. What I would like to see is the four outer sides being repaired or replaced whatever the case may be, whatever the engineer tells us is the right thing to do. But then the walkways up to the building and then the inner circle. I'm thinking that that is going to cost more than what we budgeted for the project for this year, Danny? Any ideas? We had a one or I think it was 103 that we had budget. Sorry about that. For the whole project. And I think it's going to leave us around 66,000 to do all the work. And I believe they gave us an estimate between 80 and 130,000. We're going to be short. We're going to be short. We could roll over contingencies into the, like we do on an annual basis, into the fiscal year we could roll over into our capital improvement, Donna, correct? Yes, sir. We actually also have this on the agenda today in our budget workshop to talk about the potential overage and how to fund it. So we should be able to address that today. But Danny, what do you recommend we do? Do you recommend we do the whole sidewalk or just partial? I would recommend that we do what THC has requested is that we, we took, it was a survey of the sidewalks, the perimeter, and this is what I guess you'd call the wagon wheel. And determine what sections need to be replaced, and that's what we do. I don't really think at this time, there's a lot of replacement on the, if you, you know, if you wanna call it a wagon wheel, there's maybe three locations that we need to fix. Other than that, I think it's in pretty good shape. And then I think at one time we looked at what 80% of the perimeter sidewalk would probably need to be replaced. The thing when I talked to him yesterday, the thing that he was most concerned about from the THC was those stamps. He wanted us to try to leave those stamps. And I even suggested that we do a replica and say it's a replica. He didn't like that. I did. They want that soon. He wasn't real crazy about that. And we just break up the stuff and then we'll put those stamps somewhere else They can like put them around the grave John be dead. We possibly could and and I can talk to him about that I he just wanted to leave those up here You know and and if there's it because there's gonna be some of those that have the stamps that are not gonna be It's gonna have to come up. And we might be able to cut those out and use those, you know, as a marker in on the square. But regardless if we save them or not, the end result, I think I think it's an important thing, which is what we want. I think we've got to balance out the desires of the THC and the safety of the public. That's our number one thing, is the desires of the THC and the safety of the public. That's our number one thing, it's the safety of the public, how we balance their wishes. I think we are going to maintain our desire that if anything's left or not, that everything ties together and it's safe. In product, that's what we're going through, the design process. The in product is safe meets codes. And if we can save things we will. I think that's where we're at. I think that's our direction. You know, I mean, my number one goal is the safety of the public. Correct. And I think that's what THC, that's their goal too, but they also wanted us to keep in mind that those markers are kind of important to them. I know. Go ahead. I just don't know if we need to do any of the interior stuff. I mean, so we just do the outside one and leave the interior stuff. I mean, I'm living Denton. I'm up here all the time except for some little spots on the outside. I don't think any of them on the other side. There are a couple of spots on the east side. That whole center section has dropped about four inches. That one has to be a direct. You know, I think we can just kind of fix that. I know there's haven't done a couple of slip and fall lawsuits. You can have so much of that. I mean, the differentiation of the sidewall. We've looked at it and you can grind it down, but then the problem you have with that once you grind it you break off that top cap then you have real bad deterrence. You just can't replace that panel. We can replace that section and I think that's one of the things that we need to look at is I'm not looking to replace all the sidewall now that we're looking at doing the perimeter, I'm looking at replacing within the wagon wheel what we absolutely have to replace. I just think if we went and did the whole kit in the middle it would take so long to get all that done and bid and contract it and you know I just get the fix done get it over with you know not let it be convoluted. We beat this horse. I was trying to do it once, do it right. Another issue that we're skipping over but we're not skipping over is that once you meet a certain dollar amount that triggers ADA. So we will probably have to request a variance from ADA because the sidewalks don't have any. They don't meet ADA. You know, anything over 50,000 triggers the ADA. But I believe when we renovated the courthouse the second time we did get a variance for those sidewalks. So I don't believe that'll be a problem. Fred this is your memo. What do you think? I'll talk to the guy who wrote the memo. Dan and I are from the same page. The less disturbance we do than the sidewalks, the less likely over time we're going to have vertical displacements. Not to the microphone. I'm going to have a sidewalk that then goes to the problem. Even or subsidence of the sidewalks as Danny just described that four inch vertical drop due to how the excessive droughts over the United. So you're not really y'all aren't really recommended doing the whole thing. Because of the trying to match the same aging of the sidewalks, it's usually a good idea to match that with the pigmentation of the concrete and tying into existing sidewalks. If you do that structurally well enough, you won't have that vertical displacement up or down and not induce a potential new tripping hazard with new concrete trying to tie it to old concrete and probably limit the amount of panels popped out and probably ascertain more savings to the counting versus more expenditure as dandy thinks maybe a larger percentage more than 50 percent of the out of perimeter may be repaired but the city did their own survey and it didn't look like it was that extensive. Okay, so I'm not asking for any motion today, but I wanted to have this open discussion with everybody, make sure everybody's on the same page. And to instruct staff to come forward and to let everybody know that they talked to historical commission and I think we're okay in that regard. I think Judge May I ask staff a question. Sure. This is a Beth and Fred. Can we talk time frame? But I think that that's important that we talk time frame the public needs to know what our time frame would be as far as design, the bidding, construction. Can we walk through that? as far as design, the bidding, construction. Can we walk through that? Yes, we actually met on this last week before design was posted trying to clarify the scope of work. And we looked at the time it would take for the actual design, which we think will be fairly quick. Tignol and Parkinson's already done some work for the city on these sidewalks and design, but survey information. The unknown is how long it will take to go through the Texas Historical Commission. The county's already been in touch with them as well as Tignol and Perkins, so we hope that will be fairly quick. But then going out to bed will take a month and maybe six weeks to get a contract afforded because it will just be a bed. And then construction is unknown. We're not sure, but because you'll have to be phased, just go get access to all the areas. Thank you, Ben. Okay. All right, so there'll be no vote on this issue. But I appreciate everybody's input. And I thought it was important to have an open discussion here and make sure we're all thinking the same thing. So we'll move on to item 14A on the agenda. 14A is approval of one notice of termination letter terminating the building news request for across Oak Home Owners Association to use the Steven E. Copeland government center on August 1, 2017, September 5, 2017, October 3, November 7, and December 7, 2017. Refund the rental fees in the amount to 250 dollars and three pay $80 to the deputy constable for security from their held deposit. the deputy possible for security from their held deposit. Wait some anything. I was gonna tell you I did speak to the attorney for the HOA and he understands what's going on. Okay. Is that a motion? No, for approval unless you all have any other questions. Right. They have a motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Marchen. Here no further questions or discussion. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Motion is carried. Thank you for being here. 14b is approval of amendment number one to the interlocal cooperation agreement between Dent and County Texas in the city of Cornth, Texas for the Lake Sharon Extension Project located in the city of Cornth, Texas. And Dent and Commissioner are precinct one of the county agreeing to contribute in an increased amount, which will not exceed $3,450,000. The funds to be transferred in the amount of $1 million from FM720 North wideening, 2012, Triple-8 PI bond funds, Auditor line 96673959035 to Lake Sharon Extension Project Funds Auditor line item 6674979035. And one million 150,000 dollars from the FM720 North widening. 2014 triple eight PI bond funds auditor line item 8173959030 to Lake Sharon Extension Project Fundszel ordered her line item 8174 9-030. Yeah, this is I think is the longest project ever. I think it started when you were a tax assessor. I think you're right. I think you're right. Jeff Krueger was the county commissioner. Yeah. But they're finally going to get it done supposedly. Yep. I would move for approval. And I'll second. And Yes, this is done on for a long, long time. All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Any motion is carried. 14C is approval of agreement for construction of Denk County Security System Upgrade, Charlie Cole building bid number 1216-295 between Denk County, Texas and Denk County Construction Specialist 899-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-797-7 on March 8, 2016, court order 16-01-14. I'm in for approval. We have a motion by Commissioner Eads, a second by Commissioner Coleman. Are there any questions? Here none. No, my favorite please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Motion is carried. 14D is approval of agreement for architectural services between Devin County, Texas and Helmuth, Obata, Casabam, LP for the Denver County Emergency Services renovation project. This is RQ, RQ, 031, 724, 090, in the amount of $139,800 with reimburseable expenses and that to exceed $13,000, funded to come from 2015 tax notes uttered in line at number 727529, the number of members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the council members of the Motion by Commissioner Marchand. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. I hear no questions. On the favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. No. Motion is carried. In the interest of time, I'm not going to read all these citidies and pits that are listed on here. But 14 E F G H and I are all interlocal cooperation agreements for tax collection of property taxes or special assessments. In the various jurisdictions are listed. I'm going to move for approval of all five agenda items 14 E F G H and I. Seconded by Commissioner March and other questions. Your none on favor, please say aye. Aye. Posting any motion is carried. Okay, we have no executive session today. We can what time do we need to leave for that lunch? 11. Donna, we can at least get started on 7J. Approval of a appropriate action related to the fiscal year 2018 debt kind of budget. We've got quite a stack of papers here to be putting in our book but I feel think we can be the one minute. Okay let's have a one minute recess here. We're kind of getting set up for. Okay. Commissioner's Court is reconvened and we'll get started on this budget process. Donna, you're on. Thank you, Judge. Our first time. Today is the Department of Public Works. They're here to appeal a new hire that was requested and not included in the recommended budget. It's a new construction coordinator position with associated supplies, equipment, et cetera, the cost is $94,250. So our director of public works, Fred Ailer, is here to address the court. There's information starting on page A8 that's behind your appeals tab. And then if you want to refer to the changes sheet, it's on page three. Hey, I think it should be stated. I think we're going to hear all of these appeals and the normal process is to hear them all and then make a determination. Unless, unless there's some savings, that's a pretty easy decision. But that sounds pretty good. Okay, thank you Fred. Go ahead. Good morning, commissioners and judge horn. My construction manager, Mr. Julian Schneider, he's been doing a great job of getting buildings constructed in the county. We had Southwest Courthouse just opened up with a nice ribbon cutting just a few weeks ago, as well as the first go office. And we've got a lot of that work done with just two construction coordinators. However, in the near future, we are currently working on administrative phase complex three, which is quite a bit of design work that needs to still remain, but the design, as I understand, is going to try to be wrapped up near Christmas, New Year's holiday, maybe a little bit of the 2018. But as we do the design, it's always beneficial to have your construction coordinators take a look at the design, to have an extra pair of eyes to see if something could be done better. Because the guys in the field, they know what type of construction problems they seem to have. And we may have had some issues in the past with other contractors, but if you have more people on the ground, you have a better chance of catching things before they get built. And so we can reduce the number of change orders that's going to be needed due to construction errors. And so I'm just going to give you some numbers. About last two years, about $50 million worth of construction was done with a staff of three plus one administrative assistant. And now we're fixing to have $98 million worth of work done. That's a substantial increase in construction in the next couple of years. If we assume, as industry standard, of 1.25 of that $90 million worth of work, then we're going to be running into a little over $1 million if we were to pay outside consultants for this work. Clearly we can do a lot more cost effective way in-house, and so that's why I'm appealing for another construction inspector to supplement the two that we currently have as well as assist, Dwayne Schneider, and making sure that we get buildings built on time within budget and in a cost effective matter. Thank you for your time. making sure that we get buildings built on time within budget and in a cost effective matter. Thank you for your time. I have a question. Thank you. There are questions and members of Quirk. Yes ma'am. What are Jack and Byron's job titles? They are construction coordinators. Construction coordinators, okay. Thank you. Do you mind going? So what kind of project are we... Tell me, and we've got the big project going in on the loop, right? Yes, that is administration complex phase three. That's over it. That's a $30 million project more or less? Yes, that's correct. And what other projects do we have coming up? Right now we're kicking off Lee Walker in Bobby Mitchell's present. And that's Byron Bruner's the Inspector for that project. Got it. Okay. Well, I think that much like what we originally hired, the architect to work on stuff that having these inspectors is a little money well spent and given the amount of money that we have spending on these capital projects and you know the stuff with the hunt and our other items over there. I just really think it's a good idea that we have these construction coordinators. Dwayne, I thought, did a fantastic job on the building from Frisco. Jack did a great job and I think it was just incredible. It was very good for the county to have those extra eyes and they knew what I wanted to do. They knew what they were doing. They were very good at keeping the contractors and everybody's feet to the fire. So I'd be in favor of this, but kind of one of the things I'd like to do, and I don't know what Y'all would propose, is maybe having our own construction coordinator or some sort of department where those fellows are in their own department as opposed to being under Fred in public works. To trade their own department for them or to vision for them as opposed to that. I really, that was just kind of an idea I had that we might want to do it in that manner. I don't know which y'all think, but they would, I think we're growing. We have a lot of construction. I think it would be helpful to have that, but they're able to set their own budget, set their priorities and create an apartment of the construction coordinators or construction management department. So he's talking about creating another manager for that construction department. I just think what we would do is just we not have it under public work. Great. We give them a lot of public work and they just all be. No. Yeah. I mean, not have them under public works and. And they report to us. So what you're saying? Okay. I just want to make it. You know, part of the problem is we've always kind of, you know, swapped people between public works and facilities back and forth, back and forth, and the construction stuff really just doesn't fit either one with more or less. You know, Danny does a really good job of maintaining the facilities and I think putting a lot of the new construction under him is extremely stressful and it's kind of unfair for us to assign those responsibilities to him. Fred and those fellows do a really good job with the engineering and they're very good resource for us. You know, I talked to them, you know, at least once a week regarding our road and bridge stuff, but then we're also asking them to kind of stretch their engineering knowledge to help us with the construction. So I think we're getting that big that we probably would want to hire somebody and then y'all figure out who you want to put into our new department or division. That's my idea. I see your point but like, you know, as much as they work together, I don't know if that would complicate the issue for you. Well, I think we need to, number one, I think we need disposition. I think because it may not be a permanent position. Forever, I think we're in a growth phase. Well, we're in a growth phase as far as these buildings. I think it is money will spend to make sure that they're built appropriately according to plan. I think if there's cost savings there and I think the position would pay for itself. And I do think we need to have a maybe it's not this morning, it's this afternoon or through this budget process. I think we do need to have a conversation about construction management and what's the best fit for that, whether it's in public works, stand alone, or a division of facilities. I do think we need to have that conversation. I agree. And that's something we need to look about. To me, we could put it under Danny, but Danny's got a lot under his belt right now. I mean, just maintaining the buildings is a huge job. And you know, that's kind of why we've swapped this sort of stuff back and forth between departments. And to me, I think particularly with the buildings, it would be much better to kind of get rid of that additional layer and just have the construction management to be its own department and report to the commissioners. I think that would really help with communication. I don't know what do you think, Ralph? Well, I mean, the only problem that I see is that if you have three construction managers or four construction managers that are all at the same level of responsibility and when they start divvying up the projects, who's going to be the one giving at the project where they do it among themselves who would hold them accountable for doing their work on that. If it's Mr. Marching, can I add something? Dwayne Schneider is the project manager of that division of public works. So he currently runs up the department. I'm sorry I didn, no, that was a good question. I thought you... I thought the same would be, Ron. So we... So Dwayne's the lead, basically, right? That's exactly. So there's their manager there in place, already. And basically, since Dwayne came on board with the departure of the former public works director, he basically took the bull by the horns along with Mist. Choke, and they basically running almost autonomously of public works for the last year, and with just some input from my end of it. I'm fortunate that have both a bridge and building background, and that's how I can work both ways, but I can work with them either way, if they're with facilities as an independent unit like it is or still underneath the umbrella public works. So there is a resource work. So Danny, you want more responsibility with the same amount of pay? Sure. Well that's not why I came up here. What I came up here for was to also remind Cmuk Court that we do a lot of projects within the facilities department that are $80,000 to $250,000, which we have asked construction management to have one of their guys manage those projects also. So it's not just new construction. It's remodeling also that they do a lot of. So what do you think about them having been their own department? You think they would be good, bad, and different? I mean, to me, I think there's, in my opinion, I think that construction management could be its own department. I don't have a problem with it being under me but I also don't have a problem with the fact that y'all create a separate division because of Duane and I works are close together. I don't think that Duane has to be under me for Dwayne and I to work together. We're a team. And our goal is to provide the best product for the county. I've always thought through the years that you've done a good job and we've you know unfairly heaped stuff on you and you've been super, super nice to take it on. But how many buildings are you now managing? I think there's 64 total now they may not be better. There's not that many budgets, but there's that many buildings That's why I'm kind of hesitant to throw this at you as well, right and I and I you know and I One hand yeah, I mean I think it would be good for construction management to be under us, but I also think Construction management would be good for construction management to be under us, but I also think construction management would be, we're in a same building together. I think Duane and I see each other four or five times a day if we don't there's something wrong. Either he's sick or I'm sick, one or the two. You know, we're always communicating. I'm always asking him for advice, he's always asking me. So we have a very good working relationship So however, it's it's the court's pleasure Well, I think what I'm hearing is This kind of general support for the position we need to think about the organization That it yeah Which will do as we move on here. Thank you for your time, everybody. We previously had a separate division in the budget. So there's already a placeholder for that. Is a line of- If you want, we can ask the department to go ahead and provide a breakdown. We'll be that much further ahead, perhaps, if you want to see how the expenses need to be split out so that we could talk about that either this afternoon or next week's meeting. That would be helpful. Okay. Okay. Our next item, Judge Robison is here to address a request that she submitted to her office actually after the initial request was submitted, but it's a solution that she's come up with to help with the mental health court docket. So she's asking the court to consider some court-appointed contract attorneys to help with that at a cost of about $50,000. So there's information in your packet on page A15 or on page three of your changes sheet. You'll see that listed. Good morning. Good morning commissioners and thank you for giving us the opportunity to make this request. We amended this in our budget after the legislation did not pass to move the mental health to the county courts at law, this would just be a temporary solution. I don't know that it's a long-term fix. I believe it's efficient in that this 50,000, we would try to contract independently with two court appointed or hired by contract associate mental health judges and that there's a provision in the code that allows for that would give them the authority to hear mental health cases. The $50,000 and $175 hourly rate would provide six hours a week for about 46 weeks a year. And we would only use it as needed. Our mental health cases do fluctuate. We don't know some days it's 15. I'd say hello right now it's probably about 7 but particularly on when we know the heavy days and our days are heavy every day it seems this would give a judge Jan and I six hours more of docket time or would relieve us from six hours of docket time where we could hear other contested matters. They would be an independent contractor that would not be any additional expenses with the hire. I'd have to work with misflemming like we did with the court psychiatrist. As we would want a good contract that we would also want attorneys with some significant years of experience because they do need to be able to have the depth and maturity and the legal knowledge to do the job right. I know you've heard from me before about how our Pro-Bake docket is very heavy. It is extremely heavy with all the least restrictive mandates that we are under. If we're in Pro-Bake Court, we're on a contested matter. So our filing numbers are increasing in line with the county's growth, but our caseload is also increasing in its level of difficulty because of the uncontested nature of all of our filings these days. I'm happy to try to answer any questions you have. So this is going to be contract, Clayton. Could it not be put in the contract, like, on a line item? Does it have to be in the pro-rate? I mean, I'm asking, I don't know. We would put that, it's approved. We would place a separate line item in your budget that would be court-appointed contract attorneys for the hiring of the two positions she's talking about. So this would be added to her budget as a specific line item and it wouldn't be buried in the regular court appointed attorney line item. Okay. And been used as needed. So if it wasn't used, was it needed? Wouldn't be used. That's right. And as you know, court-ordered line items are restricted. They can only be used for other court-ordered line items. So any request to use that differently would require a budget amendment that comes to commissioners' court. Okay. But I think it's basically the creation of a part-time judicial office. That's what he? It's, I think, to kind of be more succinct, it's the creation of a part-time, additional part-time probate, a judicial office. So we would have another magistrate, but it would be a part-time magistrate. It's strictly under, after 5.74, the mental health code, it's, they seventy four, the mental health code. It's, they could only do for mental health cases. And the code provides for that. Are there any other questions? Go ahead. Commissioner Ease, did you have a question? I can out loud. I'm thinking out loud. Okay. a question? Thank you, not loud. Thank you, not loud. Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. For your consideration. Okay. Our next item. We're a little ahead of schedule, but C. Judge Blancet is here on item number three on the agenda. You will see a request on page A73 of your packet as well as on page four of the changes sheet. The total impact of this request for JP certification pay would be $10,860. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you very much. Honorable Judge, commissioners, thank you very much for the opportunity to allow me on behalf of the other JPs as well to make this presentation. In fact, here in the next few minutes, I expect certainly one or more of the other just to join me here as well. So understand that this appeal that we're making today is in fact an appeal that all six of us JPs are supporting and are joining in with us. Our appeal to you today is that you grant incentive pay benefits to those clerks in our justice courts who present have achieved certified justice court clerk status and to those who may do so in the future. All of our courts employ a total of approximately 38 clerks that either the deputy clerk won, deputy clerk three or chief clerk levels. These are pay grades 4, 6 and 10 respectively. Currently our justice courts have a combined total of 11 clerks who have voluntarily taken the personal initiative to study for and earn the specialized justice court certification status, which is granted by the Texas Justice Court Training Center. And its education and training standards are accredited through and managed by Texas State University in San Marcos. And the certificate that is awarded upon successful completion of either the level one certification or the master certification references the Texas State University affiliation in the certification program. And I have with me in case you care to look at some of them. I have some copies of some current certificates to show you should you bear in reviewing those. and reviewing those. Judge commissioners, today our certified clerk have not been recognized for their achievement by being granted incentive pay benefits. And this is despite the fact that we believe that their certification achievement falls squarely within the guidelines of our county incentive pay policy. For instance, the policy specifically states that the very outset and the policy I've also enclosed, I know you know it as well, but it's included in your packet as well. Stakes, Ditton County, encourages and endorses professional training and certification programs for its regular full-time employees, employees who meet the respective certification requirements shall be entitled to certification pay under its guidelines approved by the commissioners court. And then in sections EF and H respectively, it's stated that to qualify for the incentive pay program certificates or degrees must be obtained from a state accredited college or university, a state certification or licensing agency, and or a recognized professional association performing a similar certification or licensing function for personnel in the applicable profession and must be maintained in active status. Secondly, an F certificates or licenses must be directly related to an employee's present position and current job duties, profession or occupation. And an H to qualify for an incentive pay program, a certificate, license or degree, must not be a job requirement for the employees' position. All of those areas of those specific matters fall squarely within what the issue is with respect to the certification process for the Justice Court clerks. As you have had the opportunity to examine the attachments submitted in our appeal package, I hope you noted the detail and substance that our clerks who sit for the certification exam have to be familiar with. That detail and substance were set forth in the attached copies of the 2017 exam study guides for both the level one and the master clerk certification programs. Passing these exams requires in-depth prior study and effort for weeks or even months before the exam is may be taken and they require substantial prior court clerk experience before the exams for certification may be taken. In fact, you should also know this. Applicants must be currently employed as Justice Court clerks when they sit for the exam. That is that it's not open for anyone to just go and to achieve a certification status. And then hopefully go and find a job at that point in time. Rather, they have to be actually employed as Justice Court clerks in order to qualify. Secondly applicants must have attended or be currently attending a 16-hour court personnel course offered by the training center in order to sit for the exam. Third applicants are encouraged to take a legal advice in ethics class before taking the exam. The reason for this is that our clerks are constantly bombarded to provide legal direction either in person or over the phone for those who inquire of them. The clerks must be in a position where they know what their limitations are on how to respond to those questions that's consistent with the guidelines of the Texas Judicial Commission on Ethics. They're not able to provide all the information for that's legal at all, but they have to be able to know how to point them to the areas in which the law is applicable and to know how to provide the information that it is available. And fourthly, issues of both civil and criminal procedure, law and processing are covered in these exams. I mentioned earlier that our justice courts employ 11 certified clerks at present. These 11 clerks also represent a significant tenure of employment within our justice court system. They represent a retention of service that saves the county many dollars by avoiding a revolving door of new hire in their positions and they offer significant training experience themselves for any new clerks that we do hire each year. Their willingness to exert the personal motivation to seek the certification in their jobs reflects their commitment to proficiency. Incentive pay allowance can also motivate others of our clerks in our offices to obtain the certification, helping to reduce hiring and training costs to the county. And it also results in a high caliber of enhanced service to the public that we interact with every day in our courts or in our court counters or over the phone and now addressed in correspondence both in the US mail and in online e-filing that we undergo in our courts. Even though undertaking e-filing is not yet mandated for Justice Courts at this time, the Justice Courts are taking an affirmative effort and an aggressive effort to be able to achieve that even currently, and the clerks need to be aware of how to do that. Our clerks are presently limited to only three pay grades. Four, which is the deputy clerk one position, grade six, which is the deputy clerk three position, and grade 10, which is our chief clerk. We have only one authorize grade six, and one authorize grade 10 in our courts. The remainder of our clerks are hired at the entry level of grade four, thus they are severely limited in terms of how they can advance within our courts. So incentive pay for their motivation and interest to achieve certification status is a worthy reward for their service. And it is consistent with the stated goals of the county's incentive pay policy. In fact, we've seen how our entry level clerks who have been trained in the court processes and how to utilize the Odyssey record tracking software have been hired to hire grade allotted to others in our county. And because there is such a limited grade level advancement allotted to our courts, that they become with their training that they have, that they become very easy targets for others, who are also looking for that kind of training. The sides being the right thing to do in accordance with our county incentive pay policy. Incentive pay rewards can help level the playing field for those clerks who wish to remain to serve the public in our justice courts and who have shown a proficiency for the service. But they also wish to advance in compensation obviously. The counting incentive pay policy with its specific stated goal and procedures is an ideal way to help achieve this balance. Also as mentioned in my, in the packet that you have seen before you, the Denton County Justice of the Peace request that budget allowance is made in accordance with the County's Incident Pay Policy to compensate their program certified clerks at a rate of $50 per month for the clerk certification level and $100 per month for the master clerk certification level. It is not expected that clerks who qualify for more than one certification would be compensated for more than the highest achieved certification level. And so therefore, you have before you what the budget impact is, the incentive pay allowance as it currently would stand for employees of our courts at this time, would result in about a total of $9,000 per year as it stands. And also you've seen what the budget impact is there. Judge, commissioners, thank you for your time. And would you entertain any questions? Any questions? Gustavo? In the tax office, we have various levels of clerks and they are some of them have an RTA designation, some of an RTC designation. Do they receive in Centafade? Not that I'm aware of. In your office in the HR department, do you not have extra training certification that your employees can go get? Do they receive any incentive pay? That's my knowledge. I'm guessing in other offices like the county Treasurer's Office, County Court District Court. There's different levels of certifications for those professions also. Other than the Sheriff's Department, which I believe well in Lucas Stuttard this many, many years ago, is there another department that gets additional pay for certifications? That is not other department in the county. So countywide for all the different offices, I mean yes, this is like a $10,000 impact, but countywide, if we took it into consideration for every department, and then you have to make a determination like they did as to $50 a month or $100 a month. You know, I'm going to do that countywide. I'm guesstimating that some certifications are more difficult to get than others. I'm guesstimates. Yes, that. Obviously from mirror with what goes on for an RTA and RTC designation. I don't know. obviously from mirror with what goes on for an RTA and RTC designation. I don't know, maybe this is, you know, do we want to open it up and look at it for county wide and potential budget impact county wide? I mean, if we're going to do it for one department, we probably should look at all of them. I don't think or do you want to do that? I don't think we do that this year. I think we could go back and look at all of them. Yeah, I don't think or or Dean wanted to do that I don't think we do that this year. I think we go back and look at that policy Because like you said obviously we would be It wouldn't just be 9,000 it'd be many thousand and so It would I don't think it would be fair plus to just look at the JP Even though there are the ones that came to request it. But I think we have to look at every one of the departments, people we decide that we're going to pay one group of employees. Thank you. Mr. Smith, when you say look at the policy, the policy is pretty clear on what he is explaining and he is explaining it pretty fairly exactly what the policy says and exactly could be applied not only to the clerks that are in his court but can be applied to all the other certification as you suggested that are in the tax department. But I think we have to look at the ramifications of the tax office. County Court District Court, HR is a lot of other departments that it's be applicable to you also. George, commissioners, I mentioned it to you before. This is a very hat bottom for me because I do believe in education. I do believe in helping the employees. This is a situation in which we have too many departments with too many different certifications or licenses that they kind of think. I would be very, very difficult to even manage. I look at what, back in the day, we used to have the personal committee, and I have, I think, six pages of different type of licenses and certifications that you could obtain. Each department is going to be saying, mine may be more important than yours. So, I mean, to me, it's a- Somebody's going to make that determination. It's very conflicting because I believe in education. But right now we don't have the tools to manage or to control it. And especially if we are going to do it for one I think we should do it for everybody. Right. We don't know what kind of ramifications it's going to be, especially we were like you're doing the budget and that's reason I said we need to revisit the policy and we need to thank about it on next year and see how we want to apply it. I believe initially it was well and Lucas that brought this forward and it was strictly for law enforcement. Yes, but those are the lawyers deserve recognition. And the JP's office. Okay, well, it's definitely food for thought. Thank you for being here this morning. Thank you, Joe. The other day, I also wanted to end. Well, I just want to say thank you very much for your time. And certainly we're not in a position here of trying to exert our positions over any other positions We understand it and I and I recognize and appreciate what what your what your concerns are But two things I would point out I think that certainly as we take a look at what the policy may be that you you really Examined exactly what kind of certification that kind of certification what it takes for those particular jobs, how they apply specifically to the jobs that are available there. And we're not asking for someone who says, well, I got a certification for being able to handle dog management somewhere along the way, or something like that, just present any certification. It does need to be specifically job-related. And that's what ours is. And then finally, the other point is, and I don't mean to be flippant about this, but sometimes you have not because you ask in a life. That's right. And so therein is, you know, we as judges are very concerned about making sure that our employees are taken care of and we wanted to make this effort as well to bring your attention. And thank you. Appreciate your effort. Thank you. And I concur totally with, I mean, it's very, very frustrating and all departments that have clerks at every level. And the ability for them to move forward, move upwards. I mean, we have a lot of turnover at that level. And I understand exactly where they're coming from, they're trying to build into that more incentive pay, but it also has them buy into the county even further. And I think this was a very, very creative way of trying to explain how to get that done, specifically for not only you guys, but specifically to you guys, but when we look at the policy later on, figure out a way where others made benefit from this well. Thank you. And I think that not only is it beneficial to those who are achieving these certifications, but I believe as well as I think as Commissioner Marche hasuding to, is that it has a sub-benefit of helping the county. It helps pay some back to the county as well. This is not an all-take deal. It helps give back to the county as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, Your Time. Appreciate it. Appreciate you being here. Did you want to add anything? Okay. You made the effort of being here. I did a lot of did not. I want to point out this is Judge D'Piazza who is here as well. Thank you very much. You made the effort to be here. I wanted to at least acknowledge that. Thank you. Appreciate you. Okay Donna. Okay. Next on our list is elections administration. On page A13 of your packet you'll see an email email correspondence about that. And on page 3 of your packet, you'll see an email correspondence about that. And on page three of your changes sheet. This request was not included in the initial budget request, and it's basically a timing issue with the court recently approving the new election system. But there's an additional request for computer supplies, specifically cartridges at a cost of $70,600. Good morning. Here I am again. I know I'm asking for a little bit of ink to print these ballots. As you see from my email we were requesting actually one high yield toner cartridge for each printer. We visited a little more in the last day or two internally, so I'm going to adjust my request. Realistically, we're not going to send out all 800 printers at once. And we're also, you know, we have a question ourselves of once you open a printer cartridge, what's the shelf life of it? So we don't want to be putting a scenario where we have toner going bad just sitting on the shelf. So I think we want to readjust our request downward. We're going to ask for the regular yield, which is $64 a piece, and only 500 of those, which total is $32,000 instead of $70,000. You got to go in the right direction. I think they should meet again and talk about it again. And make it happen. I don't know if we thought it'd be much like a great moment, but it's got it that far. Okay, $32,000, yes sir. I don't see that we really have a choice. And we have to be able to supply the ink for the supplies. There to have them and not need them. Yeah, are you ready to go forward with this request? Anybody? I'm going to make motion for approval. They have a second by Commissioner Eads, questions or comments? All in favor, please say aye. I pose a name, motion carries. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. If we could, I think Kevin Carr is here, we might jump out of order just a little bit. It will give us some more time this afternoon to cover other items. But I think his appeal is going to be really quick on page A6 of your packet. You'll see the backup data in page two of your changes sheet. We did recommend a new position for the software administrator. This request is for a different pay grade. The impact was $12,186. They have offered some offsetting reductions. And then there's also request for some remote access allowances that were overlooked. That he's offsetting as well at a cost of $2,324. Hello. Good morning. I want to confess we did a very poor job writing the JET for the software administrator position. When I didn't actually write it myself, but when I read it, I read it with my understanding of what the position would do. So when I read it that way, I read it the way I thought it was supposed to be and totally understand why HR understood it the way I thought it was supposed to be and totally understand why HR and understood it the way they did. So all of them asking for the opportunity to work with HR and have them reevaluate it. I'm pretty confident that once they understand the scope, technical expertise required and the other requirements of the position that they'll rank it the way I think it's supposed to be. So I'm just simply asking for the opportunity to work with HR to re-evaluate that. Can we get that done during this budget process? Yeah, we can work this week and try to come up with an answer for next week. But I'd like to hear back from you on that. Once you had a chance to go through the process. Okay. Hey, we need to re-evaluate things. But I think that opens the door for everybody that says, let me re-evaluate what you set my J.A.T. for. And we're all in the middle of it, but I'm not saying you should do it. But we are in the middle of budget. So what if someone else comes back and say, okay, Gustavo, mine, I don't think mine is right. Evis, let's go back and reevaluate this one and this one and this one. this one. This was saying where do we start? Right. I understand. This was my first opportunity to bring it up. I think we probably both have the same or all of us have the same role of trying to make sure that it's right. Right. And I think it only serves the county if it's if it's fair and equitable. Yes. You know, I understand that. I want you to do that. But I'm just not sure that we opened the door for everybody that didn't like the JAT to keep it coming back in the middle of the budget. If I could just add, I just somewhat defend Kevin, the information we submitted to him in the packet showed what was originally requested for the position, not what HR ranked it at. So in his defense based on an error on our report, it's my opinion that he never saw what the true ranking from HR came to until now. So I just wanted to clarify that for the record. So I don't like to make a habit of everybody going, well, I don't like what HR did. So I want HR to go back and review this again. And you're right, Bobby. I don't want to start that revolving door. But I would like to make an exception this time. So we're going to. we'll do it all right. We want it to be right. And then you may come back, HR, those, oh, Tyke, Evan, you're the same place. Right. But I'd like to know that. Okay. Sounds great. We can repose that for next week. If he wants to go ahead and address the remote access allowance, let's do that. There were four positions. And he's offsetting that with some computer software reductions in the GIS department. On page two of your changes sheet, you'll see that information shown. This was the further remote access the land one section and then the offsetting reoffsetting reduction is right below that for in the GIS department. It was a wash. It's a wash. Okay. So we're going to make a motion for approval. I can. I'm begging to make a commissioner Mitchell questions. It's just a wash down at the bottom. Sure, you just don't want to not grant it and take the money he offered. That's happened before. Don't joke about it, please. I don't think that's funny here. We have a motion. the first place. Yeah. The remote access so you know there's a 2324 dollar Farge in the same equal amount of reduction so it's a wash. So we have a motion. Second on favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed to see me. Motion is carried. Are you good, Donna? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Would you know that a couple of you need to leave by 11? Is that correct? Three of us do at 11 o'clock. So somewhere. I'll go. Okay. I have an update for y'all. Well, we're doing pretty good here. Staying on track. Uh, Donna, let's take up the business of. You want to. I think Julie Lucas here. Do we want to do the County Board administrator? That's not her appeal. That'll be Judge Garcia. We'll be here this afternoon. That will be Judge Garcia. We'll be here this afternoon. Do you want to talk about salary increase for eligible employees and officials so you can get? Actually, we are asking for the Court to consider action on that day, so that we can get our letters out to the officials with regard to their specific proposed salary. So sometime today we'd like to seek work, consider taking action on raises for employees. You want to, I'm prepared to do it right now. And just to work on it. Overlaunch. And just to clarify what the motion would be, be a agenda item number 17, a sour increase for eligible employees and officials. So our proposal, both budget and HR are proposing that the court slide the various pay scales by 5% for all employees and officials, as well as the non-classified positions. That even means that our employees on probation will receive that same increase, as well as our maxed out employees. So that's all included in the recommended budget. I think the sooner we get action, the sooner we can notify those officials, as well as we can finalize the payroll data for the and going about to address the mixed out employee. Yes, it will, the maximums of the ranges will slide as well. Okay, so we won't have that problem again this year every and that's something we need to really consider every year until we get this pay scale back in line to where it should be. Yeah. Is continue to do that so that it will help with our market problem. Or we need a motion for approval. I have some. We have motion for approval by Commissioner March and the chair will second the motion. Is there further discussion or there are questions? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opp please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. tax office yesterday, James, and I met along with others from my department to go over this and make sure we are using all the right data. So the first box you see on this handout that's got R54 on it, which you'll want to place in your binder when we're finished, shows what we were estimating the tax rate to be, which was 0.234. And if you skip down to that second box, you'll see the actual effective rate is 0.234135. So we were really close on that estimate. I'm going to do that. You too are good at that. Well, and we also had the help of the tax office by giving us preliminary information. So it helped us have a better handle on that. And so that has helped us tremendously over the last couple years with their assistance. So the estimated tax rate, to fund the recommended budget was 0.239132. And with that change, we're looking at a rate of 0.237833. So we're looking at less of an effective rate or a less of an effect, a little bit of an increase in the effective rate and a little bit less as far as the actual rate it would take to approve the budget as it was presented to you without any actions that you may be taken here over the next week or two. So we had estimated new property to be about $9 million to the county. Unfortunately, it came in about $8 million, $675,000. But the good news is, we estimated a levy on the rate to be about $203 million. And it's actually going to be $204 million. So that's why you're seeing a lower rate of the .237833 as we are today. Because it could be different things. It's not necessarily the new property, but it could be first time exemptions on the roll were less than we usually anticipate. It could be just a multitude of different things. But the good news is we didn't miss it to the negative. We're actually able to, it changed by $1 million, $110,000 in additional funds based on the budget that we prepared. So that allows us to lower that rate from 0.239132 to 0.237833 as of today. So we wanted to give you the good news as well so that we have updated information? Oh, yeah, and let's not forget that that's over a penny decrease in our rate and that That's that's pretty sweet Okay members, and legislatures with Mrs. Okay, that's awesome. Do we want to cover any? Do you want to? Do y'all want to talk about the health insurance? Or we could talk about there are a few things on this agenda that are items that we missed in our office that need to be addressed. And that's items 12, 13 and 14. Constable, as you may or may not know, our office was contemplating deleting a position from Constable precinct 4. At the last minute, I kind of changed our recommendation to include that position to stay in that budget and put them on notice that we would hopefully see them leave a vacant position open if it presented itself. So we were, we had already taken some items out of their budget. Unfortunately, we didn't add them back when I made that change. The same thing, a couple of other little mistakes for Constable precinct three. They had, I know this says uniforms. On number 12, it really is computer equipment. It's $4,800 for a laptop computer. On Constable Precinct 4, we would be adding back $400 for uniforms. $1,015 for body armor. $337 for training and education. $256 for wireless service. That we would be adding that back. So for Constable 4, the total would be $3,08. We would be adding that. I would move. And can I add one more, just Constable 3,6. The operating equipment at $1,000 and vehicle equipment at $762. Those were all things that should have been tied either to the new hire or we're taking out of that one department and not add it back properly. I would move that we have. I think that- I think- 3, 4 and 6 for constipals. Well, that's item on the changes sheet of item 12, 13, 14. All in compost. Okay. That's a motion for approval by Commissioner Eads. Second, I'll second the motion. Other questions or comments on these? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Posting, aye. Motion carries. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, seen in? Motion carries. On the constable forward, does he have he gotten back to you about whether or not he agrees to not fill in that spot? I sent another email to him yesterday asking for a response, and I have not received a response. Well, I wanted to I want that position to stay on the agenda until we get a response form. Or we get a formal response or he shows up and tells us what his plans are. Yes. I wanted on record. Okay, so. So if he doesn't want to participate, you know, it's my intention to eliminate that position. Well, what we can do is we'll provide a budget impact statement to you next week. Thank you. That would show what that reduction would be just in case you need it. Mark this time, and he and I agree. There is one minor change on item number 11 for the criminal district attorney. They have a line item in their budget and a contract for victim notification services. That contract actually is increasing this year by $831 and so is the expense. So it's a wash. We're increasing revenues by 831 and adding 831 to their victim notification line. So we're asking for approval of that today. I'll also move. Seconded by Commissioner Marchandt. Other questions? What was it? This is item number 11. Here again, it's a wash. Okay. So we have a motion in the second. Any other questions? Hearing none on favor, please say aye. Aye. Post and e. Motion carries. Item number 15. Healthcare Relief Fund. This year we, I think the judge received an memo from the Children's Advocacy Center where they had asked for their funding to be considered separate from the Social Service Agency funding. And so we put that on the agenda for your review and consideration. It is currently funded out of the Healthcare Relief Fund. So if you approve that change, you'd be adding their request to the General Fund budget. We don't have it right now. And then we're going to get the same request from everybody else that's funded through the tobacco funding also. So let me ask for clarification. Did not the letter point to a portion of the code that basically says that certain monies that are collected? Vehicle registration fees. It's an additional $6 fee. Yeah. That actually when I was tax assessor, I brought that to commissioners court and they initiated it years ago. Yeah. And those funds go to, uh, yeah, it's not that I'm crossing guards. Uh, if they're not going to be used or what we're using it for, then we could give it to the well, we give it to the schools and there they have to spend it for child safety reasons. I think I'm just a palatable. Actually, by the way, for us to make a change they have to agree to it as the way the laws written. That's not I don't agree that that's allowed at all. The turn general has a pond on that. I don't agree that that's allowed at all. The Attorney General has a pined on that on what they're asking to be done. We have statutes are very clear on the optional child safety fee. Now, it goes for school crossing guards. Statutes very clearly say that we have to distribute it on a pro-adabasis based on population to the municipalities in the county. The county retains a portion of it for people living outside incorporated areas and we give them a 10% of it as a as a admin fee. But there is no there is no allowance to give it to a private organization nor is there any allowance to allow us to retain more although other counties have tried it, specifically Potter County was retaining all of it until the AGAPI that they couldn't. So I just want to say the city of the city. We checked into the possibilities of making any changes on that and what we learned is that they're only way to make a change as if every municipality agreed that we could make the change and that's not going to happen. There may not also quote part of the criminal code of criminal procedure and it's specifically referencing municipality and not county. So I think they're looking at the wrong section. We were right to bring it up. We researched it. It's not going to work. The money we give to the cities, are they allowed to then turn, or disperse that to agency? I believe they could. They have a laundry list of ways they spend the funds. And school crossing guards is number one. Okay. And I think you'll find in most cities, most in his counties, the cities play for school crossing guards, not the school districts itself, but I'm not, I don't know that for sure. If they don't do that, then there was a short list of things they can do it. And it just depends what if the, this is the advocacy center. If the services they offer fit into one of those categories, they can certainly subcontract with them. But the further not to move it out into the general fund is purely a question for the commissioners court. But to use those funds per say, that was their motive. That was their motive. That's where they thought they could. That's not an unusual misunderstanding, but the outpernging was clear on it. I'm not. I think we're not. Yeah. Well, we're going to have to take a break here and we're coming back. What time are we coming? We need to go. We have our next appointments at 1.30. I don't think we're going to make it. I don't think we're going to make one 30. Well I'll make I'll make Judge Garcia aware that it's a little bit like you. Okay. All right we're in recess to what 145? We'll try and make 145. It might be two at-clock. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay Judge Garcia was scheduled at 130 but because the court said it'd be 145, he's rescheduled for next week. He had court so it was going to be difficult for him to get back. So our next time to item is appeal from the Sheriff's Department. There's information on page A 153 behind your appeals tab and also on page 7 of the changes sheet. There's the appeal today is for three reclassification requests. One is for a lieutenant to a captain, or actually two or a cost of $9,577 each and then a reclass request for the chief administrator to be a director of administration at 12,434. So, Sheriff Marfree's here to make a presentation to. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, how are you all today? I just wanted to commend Donna and Gustavo for helping guide me through my first budget process and always being available. Their offices have always been available to us when we needed them and gave us guidance. And when we disagreed, we did so cordially and have developed relationships with these folks that we're doing good work together. And I think that's very important. And I just want to thank them for, first of all, for other help. Because this is a new process to me. And they've been extremely helpful. Having said that, on the most, 99% of everything that has gone through and they've recommended that then we've talked it out and saw each other's differences of opinion, we've been able to agree. I'd like to use this process to appeal their three reclasses that weren't recommended. That I would just like to talk to you about and give you some reasons why I'd like to have those reclassed. First of all, as you know, when you see me up here before, I've been here less than seven months, but we're undergoing a very stringent process of structuring the sheriff's office in a way where I believe it works more efficiently. It works better and it does what a sheriff's office should do. So things have been neglected for quite so time, I think that we've addressed. During the restructure process, there have been some changes to what these three individuals I'm going to talk to you about actually do. The first moment I'll talk to you about is the Chief of Administration, Sherry Cocker. We asked for a reclass from a 13 to a 17 and they recommended up to a 14. Her position is, first of all, it's vital and extremely important to the Sheriff's Office. And what I have her doing now is a little bit different than what has been done in the past. She supervises around 10 admin employees. She supervises, and there's a couple of different buildings that she supervises these employees. She supervises my admin staff. So they have a direct supervisor who understands what they do and exactly how they do it. She's also implemented a cross training program, which, you know, at the Sheriff's Office, you know, we have just so much travel. We have so much purchasing. We have so much, we have our own personnel office. And in the past, they've had one individual that knew exactly what those jobs were. And if they're on vacation, if they decide to go somewhere else, retire, we're just a creek without a paddle on figuring things out. So she's implemented this program where these different admins will know each one of these jobs in case something like that happens. She's responsible for 17 different budgets of a total of over $50 million. As you know, it's the largest office in the county with the biggest employer of the county. She has to bring all those 17 budgets together, combine those. She does a great job at it, but she is the budget director for the sheriff's office. She, much like Y'all look at Donna and ask her what's going on. I look at her, I'm saying what's going on here, and she's very good at that. I think her job better compares with the chief admin at the district attorney's office. She was at a 17 and who supervises fewer people has fewer budgets. And I think that the Sherry is the, the, the, the work that she does is just, it's a more massive amount of work that is put on her to do that. And as you know, Sherry, she's over 20 something years with the county. I brought her back and thank God. And I brought her back because we would really be in a mess right now if it, if it weren't for her. So that is my first reasoning is that she is given a lot more responsibility. She does the evaluation. She's in charge of that admin staff. She decides vacation. She decides where they go and how they do it. So she is truly supervising these folks. During the restructure of the Sheriff's Office, when we got here, there was not an internal affairs division in the Sheriff's Office. And it was a disaster. There are two. That is one of the major problems that people, you know there's a problem with law enforcement, has their issues right now? They're struggling. They're being attacked nationwide. And I think one of the main things we can do is police ourselves. And what that means is having a dedicated internal affairs division who answered directly to the chief deputy. There's no other people in their chain of command. And I've put two people in there. One is Captain Michael Tutte, and one is Lieutenant Ron Petigrew, who I'm asking to be reclassified from a lieutenant to a captain. And there's a couple of reasons for that. As in the journal First Division, they may be called upon to investigate all the way up through chiefs or assistant chiefs in the sheriff's office. Much like the military, in law enforcement rank means a lot and in the respect to do that rank means a lot. We've already, as I would tell you, I think they've had more civil service hearings in the six months we've been here than they've had the whole previous administration, because we're holding people accountable. When something comes up, we look into it. It's just as important, don't get me wrong, to exonerate these folks who have been wrongfully accused as it is to make sure that the ones who aren't doing the job they should be doing or doing it wrong really legally should be held accountable and that's what we're doing. I brought in Ron Pettigrew who has 20 something years with DPS. Six years of that was a supervisor of Lieutenant running an narcotics unit and the other part of that is being a Texas Ranger. Ron has also been given an added responsibility. Once again, when we came in here, the policies and procedures at the sheriff's office were archaic. They had bought a new young, a new computer system a while back that helps with the pilot. It's a great system, but it wasn't used correctly. When we got ahold of Lexipol, they could not legally support us on 48% of that manual, because for some reason, a lot of the state and federal law stuff had just been simply deleted out of it. Our policies have to follow the law. We have to make sure that we're correct. Sheriff's Office holds more liability than any office in this county. And it's important that we do things the right way. And what the Internal Affairs Division does is make sure that our employees are not only following law, but they're following policies and procedures. And if they're not, they don't work here anymore. And it's as simple as that. And that's why it's important that this internal affairs division be able to work independently and do the job that they're supposed to do. Reasoning for two, we have Captain Tutt, Captain Tutt, has spent his career in detention. Detention is a whole other animal, as you know. And there's different laws and policies and procedures that he knows. And the majority of my employees are over in detention. Ron comes from more of the operation side where he's worked in patrol, he's worked in investigations. So I've got two guys in, first of all the workload is there because their accusations from citizens all the time, there's things that come in that have to be looked at whether they're true or not. And so they stay plenty busy. Lieutenant Petagru knows the operation side. That's why he's in charge of the manual. That's why he's in charge of doing things. He also consults with Captain Sut on things that affect attention. So it's important that we have those two guys in there with a unique knowledge of both the sides of the spectrum that we work on in detention and operations. It's important because the public is looking at us. It's important because we are policing our own. It's important because we're not sweeping things under the rug. We're holding people accountable because the ultimate person over there to be held accountable is standing before you. And I'm going to make sure that if I'm held accountable, the people below me will be held accountable also. And I just think it's important that, you know, that job description of what it came from is he doesn't supervise people. He what he does is more important than supervising people. We've also gone in and looked at some old investigations and exonerated some people who we believe poor investigations were done on in the past whose careers were affected. We've gone in and looked and re-investigated these things. And to me that's the most important part of it. To make sure these young men and women were given a fair investigation and that's what that division is about. It's important for the public perception. My last appeal is for Lieutenant Hino Hosa to go to the captain. Once again, we found the community relations part of the sheriff's office severely lacking when we came in. I've established a community relations division because that is the second factor that I believe has caused a rift between the public and law enforcement is a lack of communication between law enforcement and the public. A lack of involvement in the community. When I grew up, my baseball coaches were state troopers and my neighbors were police officers and these days there's a rift between the public and the community. So Lieutenant Hanna Hosa supervises, I believe five other people and their sole purpose is community relations. And when I say community relations I'm not talking about just dressing up and I'll go off the crime dog suit and go into parades and things of that nature. We are currently developing a citizens police academy kind of modeled after the Denton Police Department. We're citizens around the county, be able to come in, take these classes, see what we do. So they'll be better equipped to understand police officers and procedures. I've also directed him and they're working on that. We're starting an explorer program for young people because to me it's important that young people get a positive view of law enforcement. Those who want to be involved in law enforcement are able to be a part of it. These things, you know, as an exempt employee, he's not going to get paid overtime, but most of these things will take place after regular business hours. They'll meet at night, do different things, and I picked the right man for the job to do that. He, as we call him it's very well known and Denton he's well known throughout the county he's passionate about this and is doing a fantastic job. He also holds the role of my public information officer which is extremely important to to get a message out to the public whenever we're dealing with whatever circumstances we're dealing with. One thing that he's doing that the previous PIO did not do is we are offering our services for public information to some of these other agencies who don't have one. He handled the public information stuff from the horrible tragedy in Little Lowne. He was able to go over there and help them. Recently, Sanger had a double homicide suicide. Sanger's not equipped to start dealing with the media request and things. He was on the scene, he did that. We've offered our services to these other departments because that's what a sheriff's office should do, is to go out and assist these folks. And once again, on his part, like the military and law enforcement, rank means something. He's going to be the spokesman of my office. He's going to be the one out in public. If he's going to be doing the PIO for other agencies, I think it's important that first of all that his responsibilities are greatly increased from what that previous spot held. And second of all, if he's a public relations officer, which is basically what he is, not only from our office, but for the entire county, that that rank means something. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you have if I know the answer. Those admin employees that chair his supervise and what great level of APU, you know, right off hand. I believe, yes, but I can look real quick. I believe there are fives. The admin too, right? Is that a five? Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. We recommended our chief administrative, the 15 on last year. And I know human resources recommended cherry, the 14. And I would like to recommend her to a 15 same level as ours Anybody have problem with that This travel is a JAT done on all three of these positions This one we did we got the three of them and We have a conversation with the sheriff and we went over we got the three of them. And we have a conversation with the sheriff, and we went over the JATs, and I guess we agreed to this, I agree. That is why he is doing the after-ring. I just wanna make sure JAT was done, I'm all three of them. The process was completely... And Harris came up to the 14. Questions or comments from other members of court. Everybody scratch in the head. I would think Miss Carcreen should at least be at 15. You know, I'm open to reviewing this and looking at the other ones, but I think at a I think the 13's too low and I'm glad you came forward and definitely the 14. I think you should at least be a 15 or a bus. but I mean, I'm willing to compromise and, you know, some rays are better than no ray. I don't like to see what the D position in the, yeah, I'd like to see the tool you'll used and then the job description of the one of the DA's office he referenced that was a 17. I'd like to have you send those to us and we take a look at that. It's in here. The back here. The back up. We got today. OK. The only thing I would say is to. OK, I see it. I haven't. Right. We just got it today. OK. We did bring our chief administrators up to a grade 15. What I think is a little bit different in this case is that our administrators, the only ones they manage is us. They ought to be hard on that. Good luck with that. So I'm for sure at the 15 if not higher than that because of the amount of people that she does manage. One jivity that she has had with the county. I have a problem putting longevity in there and I don't need to take anything away from Sherry. She's been an employee for a long time. I think we've done a nice job and more than one department. But a job is worth what a job is worth. It's ranked, worth ranked because of the analysis of the JET. That's true. I agree with you. I mean, to take anything away from sharing. No, and I believe that's a decision. I know so to the person deserves that that raised for what they do. Why would you go through the process of the JAT and right? And there's some things I disagree with on the JAT. Right. I had my issues with it all the year. I know. I don't think we're ready to make any decisions. If you have any questions, absolutely. You've got a full day. A dollar amount with all of them and then we have to understand if you have any questions feel free call me anytime the only question I would have is that so you're saying that the position that you plan to make into an internal affairs position are you playing on doing that whether your appeal is granted or not? Yes, it's done. That's what he does. I have one captain and one lieutenant. And what I'm asking for is for that lieutenant to be bumped up to captain for the reasons that I gave. But yes, he was hired specifically for that purpose because we didn't, there wasn't one there. And it's necessary to have one. And I'm open to those other two. If request. and I'm open to those other two. If request. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item on our agenda is discussion of the Department of Public Safety County Budget. There have been some questions that have come up in the past about DPS. And why we fund DPS. So we have representatives here. We'll start with Sergeant Sigmund. He is the sergeant over the Denton Office. The page is at home. And it's going to be at the mega center, I guess, when it opens up. It's on page R one of your packet is the slideshow going to we're going to load it up here real quick and hold on a minute let's do this yeah we got our one, that's just. These are just right there. I'm going to open the pipe. Sure, this is right before the A's under reference. Oh. I made them that. Under reference. But I don't see all one. I got a 48. I just thought it was a month. Okay. Sure does. Donna, you said all one. Yes. Yes. I'll put mine in the wrong place. This is our rather wrong presentation. So we're going to go ahead and skip over to slide 15. And I think the sergeant has a few things he wants to discuss before we proceed with the slide show. Good afternoon, Judge. Good afternoon. Mr. Harris, how are you? Good. Good. We're giving the opportunity to come let you kind of fill in on what the DPS and the county employees that we have as soon as the administrative assistance, how that process works together. I did send over a presentation a few weeks ago that goes over all the job descriptions of the administrative manager and the administrative assistant that are assigned there. We also have a crime analyst that currently is at the DPS office. So crime analyst answers to our CID division, so I'm going to let them discuss that position with you a little bit more in detail. I won't go over all of their job descriptions or things they do. We've been over that both with human resources and you've got a copy of that in your packet. But, just kind of bringing up the speed on that there's since 1978 I guess Denton County has provided administrative assistant to DPS for Secretary all-time duties there at the DPS office Over the years the counties grown DPS is grown we currently have 28 full-time Commission troopers in Denton County and we have three admins that Assist those troopers and their supervisors on a daily basis. The two other positions were created in 1986 and 1989 so they've all been there in close to 30 years those positions have all been part of DPS. In today's DPS, how those folks take into account would be assessing with case reports, crash reports, and the day-to-day operations of the way DPS does business. On average, it takes about two hours and 45 minutes for our secretaries to review, make sure that everything is ready for the district attorneys of some case reports, and upload those cases and videos to the DA's of states about two hours and 45 minutes. So per case we average about 10 to 15 cases a week that they're doing. So that's a tremendous ask for 41 or two persons to take care of. Certainly, if troopers were doing it by themselves, not being as computer savvy or used to that stuff, it would be a real concern to me. Crash reports also were done through the CRIS system, which is a statewide system for crashes that is run by text dot, but you've got to do everything from, you know, everything into a box to drawing a diagram of the crash and what happened on a crash. Those, those are unfortunate enough to have been in a crash crash kind of may have an idea what those look like but admins both help out with that type of stuff as well. On average we work 10 to 15 crashes a week as well so overall that's about 40 or 50 hours a week of just those two duties in itself that that men take care of. So in addition to entering the phone and helping with paperwork and routing time sheets and reports and everything else through channels. It's a pretty significant task for them. So right now we do have two administrative decisions in Highway Patrol. We're opening a new mega center in Carrollton, Texas, coming up here in August. So we're looking to transition one of those admins down there to Carrollton the other one stays in Denton so of those 28 troopers I think 23 of them are signed either myself or Sergeant Wyndham out of Denton So we'll kind of split those in half and then each have an admin for the troopers and ourselves to assist with On a daily basis. So that's kind of how that's set up to work. And then CID, like I said, they have a crime analyst slash administrative assistant that's assigned back there. And I'll whenever you're ready, I could let you let him talk to you about what they do. But this year, for instance, we've pulled the stats from this year and years past and they're all pretty similar. This year we've made already over 8,000 traffic stops in Dinton County. For this year we've rested over 65 and tussicated drivers, 300 criminal arrests for drugs or Pugitive arrests or whatever those may be Helped over 100 training motorists on our interstates and highways Investigated over 200 traffic crashes and Done over 100 commercial motor vehicle inspections on big trucks trucks that are up and down the roadways. So that's, you know, that's pretty typical for probably the last three years in the amount of activity we've done six months through the year. Annually, last year, DPS generated $1.1 million in revenue for the county. With over 80% of the JP fine revenues coming from DPS, traffic citations. So that obviously is significant to their functions they do on a daily basis. On average we run a budget of about $203,630 per year. That includes the admins salaries and benefits and stuff as well as our operating budget. Now our operating budget is actually going to decrease by $6,600 this next year because with the addition of the Carrollton office, being a state facility, we're able to remove the troopers from the Sanger building and save the rent off of that facility up there. And just we've relocated those troopers to the offices we do have. So they're back in a state building, I guess. So I've got $203,000. We're going to lower that by about $6,600 for the next year. So that's a good thing. Our operating budget from the counties always been helpful but nothing that we've ever asked to increase or change on that I think we'll keep on keeping on with with what you'll give us for our operating budget. We use ad for tone urgent printer cartridges and stuff like that that will use on a day-to-day basis there at the office. And I said overall, I guess minus our expenses, we've exceeded $896,370 for the county. So it's close to $900,000 in revenue for the county by the way things are set up now and and how those things are working. That's going to increase I think pretty significantly over the next couple of years. Our assignment to the border is starting to lessen. At one point we're sending hundreds of troopers a week from all over the state to the border to help with security We've hired and really recruited hard and hired lots of folks to help fill those positions and I think this September 1st The funding that supported that border project is is exhausted and not expected to continue so we're going to have a lot more troopers doing all their work around the county their assigned to so that's going to you know at any one time I could have two troopers a week gone to the border you know one coming one going that type of deal. So that's going to, that's going to be very beneficial for the county as well. And then this new office in Kierleton is going to be located in kind of a high traffic area of the county. So good thing, all the construction on 35E tends to keep folks off of 35E because there's no place to pull people over or places to do much enforcement. But when you move the offices down there over the years troopers tend to buy residences in those communities and like to patrol around where home is and around where the office is. So I think we're going to see a significant number of troopers down there in the southern end of the county. And that's going to make a big difference too on stuff. And then that's pretty much an overview of what the administrative assistance do that are provided to us by the county. You know, very, very valuable to us. I think without them, you would be very difficult to keep troopers out on the road and not in the office trying to process their own case reports and doing diagrams and typing a crash report. I say they're still troopers on the side of the road filled stuff out in pin on their crash report and draw a picture and turn it in and that's that's pretty much their understanding of the Chris system but what takes someone that does it every day and hour or two depending on the severity of the crash may take a road troop a good amount of time to learn and fumble through and try to, you know, for every hour or two he spends in the office that's an hour or two that nobody's out on the road watching over traffic and being readily available to investigate crashes and stop and bad folks. So with that, I'll let Lieutenant Stapleton, I guess further explain what the crime analyst administrative assistant he's assigned does for DPS. Thank you. We shaped your time, sir. The administrative assistant he's assigned does for GPS. Thank you. We shaped your time, sir. Low. How are you all? Good. Thank you for being here. Yes, ma'am. First, I'd like to introduce myself, Lieutenant Carl on Stiple Nym with the Criminal Investigations Division here in Denton. I've been here approximately five years and what it's looking on anticipated. I'm finishing my career here in Denton County. Like Paul touched on earlier, we've had a long standing relationship between Denton County and DPS for a long number of years and coming here five years ago, I just kind of slid right in and that relationship continued Just making sure you all do know that Ditten County DPSC ID has a full squad assigned to Ditten County That consists of the admin assistant slash criminal analyst the lieutenant which is myself and then six agents Also in the office here, which I believe may be moved as a Texas Ranger. Our mission we investigate all crimes in the state of Texas but we're where assigned, we're gonna investigate crimes here in Denton County and the surrounding areas. And that fact we're gonna take those crimes and we're gonna forward those crimes up as far as we can get those or until we dismantle our organization, which that's what we specialize in, criminal organizations and enterprise investigations. I will tell you that I tried to liven this up a little bit because it can get boring on slide shows, but there's some pictures. Each and every one of these photos that I put up here comes back to Denton County in a case. And sometimes there are individuals that don't know that DPS even has a plain closed unit. So we'd like to share that with you too. Okay, and just real quick, I threw this in here and then I'll tie it in on where the admin assistant comes in as we, this current last year worked on Operation TravTorces. That investigation started actually in Denton County in Flower Mound. We ended up working that into a stolen vehicle ring, which turned out to end up working us into a cocaine trafficking. And that investigation ended up arresting a numerous amount of defendants, a numerous amount of defendants, numerous amount of assets were seized, worked all the way from McAllen, Texas, and to Mexico all the way to Chicago and South Carolina, North Carolina, Atlanta, and all the drug trafficking areas. Because that originated here in Denton County we felt fair to share those assets with the county and the surrounding counties so we ended up giving Okay. You can keep going. Yeah, keep going. This vehicle here was awarded Denton County and then we'll continue going forward. Okay. These are our stats from 2015. The next slides are our stats from 2015. The next slides are our stats from 2016. We do believe in sharing these assets number one with Denton County, but more importantly, the service we provide for not only Denton County, but the surrounding areas is paramount in the fact that we have seasoned investigators. We've got one of the most senior duty stations in the state forage criminal investigations. We've assisted Aubrey PD, Crown PD, a little MPD, Denton PD, Denton County on numerous different investigations. numerous different investigations. Like we had talked about, Ms. Cushion is currently our administrative assistant slash crime analyst. Amazing, does an amazing work and amazing job. A long list of job duties in that and why we come back to the investigations is because we're working these crimes here in Denton County, everything from Beth and Fetamine to the Motor Vehicle Thaft to Sex Offender Compliance checks twice a year at times that the Edmund Assistance, she completes all the paperwork for us. There's impress funds. We utilize impress funds for the purchase of narcotics or purchase of contraband to work criminal cases. Monthly budget sheets, seizure documents, entrusted property, also death documents. We just changed over to a new reporting system, which is called Spurs, which is pretty complex system. And she assists once the agent completes the case report because with every arrest or ever seizure or every interview, there has to be a report behind that and it has to be documented for the court. So she reviews all those, make sure that that's all in the reporting system. And you all have the record of everything she does. Now, Miss Kushman is also cross-trained as a criminal analyst. I also added a list of all the databases utilized by Miss Kushman. Now, as my knowledge that we may be losing her and a possibility, but that's I wanted to let you know the reasons why an admin assistant one are above is important to us and we're at the back in call for all other agencies when they need assistance on criminal investigations here in Denton County and in surrounding Denton County along with the smaller PDs that my new assistance We have a question Yes, thank you for the partnership that you've had all these years with Ditton County We certainly appreciate the revenue you bring me but my question is Have we asked the state with state that with dollars being taken away from the county? Prezel Kats put on the county, it's for tax rates. We certainly have to be looking out for county employees. So my question is, is there ever a request from DPS to the state of Texas asking for funding to do all the things that you're doing? Because yes, you are doing it for the Den County, but you're stating for it. And so I want to make sure that you're asking the state of Texas for dollars also, not just in county. I know you're doing your offices or in-din county and you're working in din county, but you work the whole state of Texas or you're area. Yes, ma'am. I want to ask, I want to know if you're asking the state of Texas for additional dollars to fund some of these offices. Well, I can tell you from the knowledge for myself, what would happen without this administrative assistant here is we would probably more than likely utilize the headquarters administrative assistants piling on double work on top of them causing or guys to be in there pretty much doing the secretary's job, taking them out of the streets when we're busing the meth heads out here at Walmart. So that's where it kind of rolls off downhill I guess I would say is is we would kind of rely on the headquarters administrative staff to do a lot of that. But before they can do that we have to have them in the office and the same thing with the troopers and they're typing up their own investigations to send over to headquarters. And I understand that but has a budget request been made to Austin, state of Texas, asking for more dollars so you can have more people. For as administrative assistance. Yes, administrative assistance. Not it from my knowledge, no, ma'am. Commissioner, no. It's a county of our size and in order, it normally administrative decisions are provided by the county in almost 90 to 100% of the counties of dint and size. So that's a I've seen that but I For one think the state of Texas should be putting more money in the park If you're not asking for it Mr. Mitchell I agree with you. I mean, I think it's unfair to ask these fellows But I agree with you they would be this this appeal is more likely they should be in Austin talking to Dan Patrick and asking him for administrative assistance not to us because Dan Patrick is the one who's trying to cut our budgets and tie our hands to be able to do local control and their state employees. They should be asking the state for administrative and you know two things or really three things and that I think that concerned me during the presentation was representing the north part of the county that they're going to take law enforcement out of Sanger and the north part that in my opinion greatly needs it relocated to the south part of the county near Dallas where there's already a tremendous amount of law enforcement we We need help in the rural area. I agree. That there's an implicit threat that if we don't give them these administrative assistance, that there will be less law enforcement. To me, a good deal is a deal that's good for everybody. And we are all friends, but we don't come and say, if you don't give us what we want, you're going to get less. And the society is going to have less enforcement and three is that We have been stuck with unfunded mandates repeatedly and I get lectured to by citizens about how the county is spinning out of control But what are we going to do when they, we're spending out of control on administrative assistance for state obligation? Now I think it's unfair to address these concerns to these guys because they're trying to do a really good job and protect us in our community, and that's more of a state policy question. So I don't think it's fair to give you guys our time about it. I want them to be asking the state. But you're exactly right. The state should be funding their administrative assistance. How many counties have DPS offices? HR did a survey just recently. So I'm like, I've noticed how many of those counties help fund those DPS offices. Okay. We have one good county. Speak into your microphone please. Good county funds one administrative staff for DPS. They also pay for the reign of the building. And they also receive all the revenue. Fort Bain, Parking County, Fort Bend has two administrative assistance. Parked County has one. Claring County doesn't have anybody. Calling County doesn't have anybody. Wise County funds one administrative assistance. That is funded by the county. Does mine have any or we doing? Three, three, three. And I know it's a tough deal for you all because you all want to be on the street, right? But what I got to do is get on the internet and see that you're the people who you report to are using us as their punching bag. Well, I'll just share this with you. I think it all comes back to the partnership because What what didn't County is doing they're supplying three admin staff That's getting those guys Out of the office onto the road right and take its Working search warrants doing all these things when they're not having to and I don't know if you heard the number from The how we've chosen you're up looking over to million dollars. If you kept those same troopers in the office doing their own crash reports, which I've been there, could take hours. You're looking at a lot of the money going into the pockets of Denton County that may not be there any longer because he's stuck in here doing a report when he could be out there, satin violations, having to work other crashes. That's another thing that they may have brought up, but didn't count how a trail office also investigates, which are trained certified investigators, every traffic crash in the rural area didn't count. So I guess I can, does that make a little sense? I'm not getting on Yoss case, but to me, you know, as representing it's saying, we need more law enforcement out there. I'm just talking as a little man down. I know that that's where you see it all. I'm not taking a shot of the job that you do. I find it ironic that Yoller State officers and you're asking us for money That's where you see it all. I'm not taking a shot of the job that you do. No, I'm not going to die of it. It's not funny. Irony, that y'all are state officers and you're asking us for money, right? When we're told we should be spending less by the guys that you all work for. I completely understand. And I'm asking you, have you made the appeal to the state office for more money? For more money. And if the answer is no, and you know, we have to do what we have to do. I mean, and I understand that. Those processes are about. I know, yeah, exactly. And you know, I just don't want y'all to leave, saying, I mean, I want y'all to have some people up there. I know there's some other representatives here as well that are higher level positions. What is your mechanism for asking the state for staffing? I got the major here with me. That's a better place. There you go. Hi, me. Hi, me. You have the same. Somehow I was hoping to style it. Dox, VTEC, Pan, Patrick, for it. I'll identify them. You need help. Yes, OS. My need help? Yes. My name is Jeff Williams, work for Texas DPS. I'm the Region One CID major, criminal investigation division major. You're in Region One. I supervise about 42 counties here in the North Texas area and have about 150 CID agents. This problem that we're talking about is not exclusive to Denton today. I'm sure. And we all recognize that there's a kind of attention, especially given some of the recent things that have occurred in the legislature where the funding has been cut for services that were normally being provided. And we recognize that. and we recognize that. What, as I'm sitting in the back listening, you're right to touch on the relationship that exists there. And I think it's what we do not benefit from in my view is getting into, you know, if we do this, then you get this in return and you spend this and we get that in return. And that, because that never equals out. If we were to truly start measuring, I mean, how much does helicopter fuel cost? How much does, you know, all of the things that we could then say, well, what a look at this? And look at that. That is not, as you said, beneficial for either party. That's certainly not beneficial for both parties. So what's more important to us, and the director, frankly, I was on a video teleconference with him on Monday this week. At on a video teleconference on Monday this week. At the risk of sounding corning, justice doesn't have a price to it. We're gonna figure it out. So we will figure out however we need to make it work. To your point, man, about have there been requests? Yes is the answer. The state is under hiring for you right now. We were subject to a 4% reduction, as you probably are aware aware from all state agencies. We've had, you know, obviously some unexpected expenses over the last several years at the border that have caused us to be gone from the county. So I don't even think that those numbers actually reflect what we would be generating if we were here. I don't even think that's an accurate depiction. But this whole, you know, if we give you that, this number should be in return. I don't think that's a good conversation for us to have because at the end of it, nobody's going to win. To your point, yes, we have made requests. The answer so far has been that we're under a hiring freeze. We have administrative assistance around the state that are being questioned right now. And if I had a different answer today I certainly pull it out and get it to you but the truth of matter is whatever decided here today I want you to know that the relationship between the Denton County CID folks and the Highway Patrol folks that are stationed here and the County is not going to be affected our productivity we will be productive moving forward what that looks like I don't know it might change kind of the visibility of that, but we will absolutely be productive here and patrol the areas like Sanger and places that need it. Because you're right. Having come from a duty station where there were no local police department in the whole county, I recognize the need for the local areas, the rural areas to need that and that's what we're here for. And I'm sure you all have heard the complaints. I'm so happy that the thing is coming to Carrollton, because a lot of our constituents think we have something to do with driver's license because we sell car tags. You got to tell me I'm nothing to do with it, and I'm sorry your child can't get a driver's license for five months, but I know we the hour away. You come down to the move, go out often. We're going to go to the room. Yes. We're up around the floor. Before it opens. You know, to be fair, that's the reason we came up with these mega centers is to try to get that moving. And it has been effective in places like Garland. There are places where we're demonstrating effective and SNET, that's why we're opening one here because of the population growth and so on. Yeah, thank you. I want you there too. I just don't want you to leave our sangre area at the same time. I think what it boils down to is our frustration doesn't apply with you nor the services department. The department. Nor do we want to equate money does not abide with you nor the services department. The department. Yeah. Nor do we want to equate money to what you provide for us. I think that's a wrong path to go down. But we're sitting back here and we're trying to send a message that perhaps we should be sending to not you guys, but to our elected officials, our state legislators, those elected officials like Dan Patrick, the governor. And we need to find the best way to force our opinion upon them. I don't think the best way, members, I don't think the best way for us to force something on them is to take something away from the service that we so dearly need and a partnership that we've had for so long. I think that we need to involve our elected state officials and let them apply the pressure that they have because we don't have the same pressures they do. You're absolutely right. It's unfair to, you know, we don't want to burn the bridges. But to your point about that, I'm glad you brought that up. I mean, you guys are aware that the Department of Public Safety doesn't have the key to the vault. We don't get to say how much money we have or don't have it in ours We like you have to you know Have to we have to go to our version of the county commissioners It's down in Austin, but it's and much larger, but we have to do that same thing and so There's a Seems to be this Belief somehow around the state right now that DPS is the one that's doing this. DPS is not, we're not doing that. And we're gonna continue to provide the service. We don't want there to be somehow a perception that there's gonna be an interruption that, we'll figure that out. Well, you know, whatever that looks like, we'll figure it out. Because the partnership is way more important to us than even, you know, numbers on a PowerPoint. And I just wanted to make sure that the appeal has been made. It has been, I make it frequently. Okay. And do you need us? I'll go with a lot of other appeals I make. Not a lot of enthusiastic support for those appeals sometimes, but we do ask for sure. Okay. Well, it sounds like Ditton County is not unique in our partnership with DPS. We had it for 39 years. It looks like according to the presentation. And so I think we need to continue to have a partnership. And we're not taking it out on you, but it is we as policymakers have difficulties with our. Counter part, it's on the state level because of their. Targeted efforts on counties. And so- I appreciate your consideration. Not affecting the partnership, I do appreciate that. Thank you. Any other questions? I can- Every legislative session since 2003, we'll actually even before that, as in the tax office, I've made multiple trips to Austin, blowing over and over and over, the problems with appraisal caps, revenue caps, and it seems to be getting worse instead of better. And certainly this last regular session was the exception, but it's on the agenda for the special session too. And the legislature, or I should say the Senate, took up bills today concerning razble caps, there's a couple different ones that are damaging in my view. And, you know, if those come to pass, which we don't know if they'll get through the house or not, and I'll do everything I can to see that they don't. But anyway, if they do, whether we want to or not, we may become back to you next year and say, sorry, I'm not going to happen. Not at all. We can't afford it. First to go. First to go. I don't mean to be putting you on notice, but I think I have to. I appreciate you doing it. I appreciate the position you're in. Yeah, at the end of it, it's not a fun position to be. I don't think that's a good government to be awesome to be telling the locals how the cities or counties, you know, how we should be running our business. So anyway, it's been a long fight for me and certainly for others too. Donna, in your recommended budget? Yes, let me clarify what's included. As I mentioned in the presentation last week, we did recommend that the crime and less position move to the sheriff's department to be more central located. And this person would be available to DPS as well as all the other agencies to use. But in that, part of- So would not be a DPS employee, it would be a sheriff department. Yes, we would transfer that person in that position over, but we actually did recommend we replace that position with an administrative specialist one. It's a lower level position. So there are still three positions in the recommended budget for DPS. The total budget is about $182,000, I believe, with the three staff members and the small operating budget. So it's almost a game for them that they're still able to utilize the crime analyst, right? We felt like it was just be centrally located and the sheriff's control. And he's agreed. I think the sheriff's here to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to be in the city. I think they're going to placed with a clerical position. Okay. What do y'all think? I mean, you still want to cancel the office and sign there? We agreed to fund the office and sign there. Would you still keep somebody up there? And now let me clarify on that for you to make sure there's, we've still got the same number of troopers staff for this canning. What we're going to do is breathe a line that we truly have a north and a south office now. Where's now we're all based here out of Denton. So you're not going to see a decrease in the covers this area. We've got half of the troopers that work for us live in and around the singer, including other sergeants. So they're going to steal patrol around their around saying around their home place. So those are going to be the guys on the north end of the county. So we're going to realign that so everybody in the county has good coverage. But we're traditionally if you look at the revenue generated that the south end of the county has always been the lesser, you know, number of South-H because it's more difficult to work. So maybe in this argument over the south end of the county, you know, our guys will do that. We'll work together with both areas for crash coverage and stuff, but you're not going to see any any real difference in their services for the people of Sanger or anybody on the north end. So to me it's not really the revenue. I just like that presence. Right. A very season's trooper. That's what I'm saying. Five you slowed in. Sure. Sure. We need that in ponder. We need that on 380. We need I don't think you're five or six. I don't think the five or six troopers that live up around Sanger of planning to move. So there's still going to be there still working and doing what they do. Thank you very much. We appreciate your time, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item on our agenda is to discuss facilities management. On page A145 of your packet, you'll see some information along with page 6 of your changes sheet. There are several projects that were approved in the current year budget that are not going to be able to be completed this year. So we are requesting that those funds roll over from the 17th budget to the 18th budget. Some of that we can lower estimates and for this year and offset that by rolling those funds. Some of them we will not be able to. So if you want to look at. I want to look at the A146. Yes, A145 is where it begins. But if you want to look at the changes, a sheet page six of nine, you'll see there's the potential of rolling over funds from the 17 budget to the 18 budget for repairs and maintenance and remodeling. Some of that actually involves some of the sidewalk repairs we talked about earlier, as well as some of the repairs to inside this building, and mill work, et cetera. inside this building, and mill work, et cetera. Some of the delays in these projects have been because we didn't have an architect on board. That process has been recently established where we have someone we can use for those projects. Danies here, bets here, anybody can jump in and help if I'm not addressing some of these things. In a nutshell, we'll be able to roll 854,061 dollars. We'll be able to revise the estimates that were included in the 17 budget downward and offset that with a little bit of money coming from our fund balance. About $124,288 would come from fund balance to help balance that out. There is the one project as far as the sidewalks we talked about earlier today where there's just insufficient funding in the budget, in this current year's budget to fund that. So that 101,450 is what would need to be added to the budget. Thank you. Danny, what are you doing to the elevators? Sports building. Well, if you look to out there's elevators and all of our buildings we have to upgrade the system. Thank you. Explain it to me one more time. Okay. There are in the packet starting on page A146. You'll see there's a list of several projects for the courthouse on the square. These projects, we didn't have an architect on board, we've just recently hired so there's no possible way these projects will be ready to award a bid this fiscal year. So we're going to roll those funds over from this fiscal year to the next, but by doing that, we also have to adjust the estimates that the auditor said we would spend out of those budgets. So we're able to fund most of them by doing that with a small exception and we would propose that we lower fund balance by that amount just to offset. So these projects can continue. So they're all in your packet starting on A146. Shows the Fort House on the square. There's some Mary and Jim Horn. All of them need the architect. Yes, all those are spelled out there. So we're just trying to make sure that we don't lose those projects. And that they're carried forward in next year's budget. Unfortunately, it will be a little bit of an impact to the bottom line of the 18,000. Right. So we would lower general fund any balance by 124,288. But then we would also be adding some funding to the budget for the courthouse on the square project we were talking about. But Donna, all the way through page 152. All of these are being moved forward. Correct. Is that what you're saying? I'm not all of them. Can you all? Funding allocated, funding for 17. It's what it looks like these all. This is a couple. All these are less than 50,000. For now on page, like 150, this is a grand total under 50,000. Those are being moved. Sorry, I lost my papers and I can't find them. All right. All right. All right. A-150, all of those will be done in this year's budget. Yeah. 150 of this year. A-150. You're just getting three quotes. Okay. That that page will be completed this year. Okay. Okay. All right. Can we go ahead and vote on that? Get that out of the way. It's really really. Yeah, I don't never see one go ahead and vote on that. Okay. Yeah, let's do it. I'm just talking about what she just laid out to us. From Harding with Page A 145 all the way through. 348. If you look at page A 149 those projects are being paid from the capital replacement fund in 2018 and All the rest of them are being funded another way so it's really those first three pages 46 through 148 through 148 Okay, so I'll second it. Okay, so run march that made a motion to approve and Andy made the motion to Seconded it for the discussion or questions on this You're none all in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed say me Motion carries. Okay. There is just just so you know as well There is no funding included for a project that we may need to add to the budget. Where is the public health kitchen? There's not one, so that's the plan would be to turn one of their areas into them. We're going to put in the kitchen. Well, what? But Matt addressed it. He didn't want to do that. It's not that bad. It's not that bad. Whatever we started this, whenever he asked us to look at this project, we looked at it as, convert it into a small kitchen. But, and then we turned it in, but then later on we found out that, because it's a public facility in which we found out in your building that there's a lot more to it than just putting a veneer hood and a stove and refrigerator. We've got to put a far suppression system in, we've got a lot of other stuff to do. What we're asking to do is take that money that we have. I think there's 23, 25,000. I don't remember what the number is, but it's 20 something thousand dollars. And use that now for an architect to design matter kitchen. Where in that building do you want to put it? Where in the building do you want to put it? So Judge of Commissioners, I don't know if you recall, but this was actually approved in the last year's budget. So this was brought before you. You approved the project. It was the conversion of a break room into, we're going to call it a kitchen, but what we requested was double ovens, a stove, and some new cabinets, and a dishwasher. One of the reasons for that is we have two grants, our distripped grant that is the diabetes case management and education. One of our grant deliverables is diabetes education and nutrition. And so we actually have catered people to come in and demonstrate some of the food preparation. We wanted to be able to do that ourselves because that's a grant deliverable. And then WIC also has a nutrition component where they do healthy eating classes for the WIC mothers. We've never had that. So we've kind of given demonstrations what are out actually demonstrating the food for years and years. So we put before the court last year and you approved it in the budget. We put before you that we wanted to convert the break room, tear out some cabinets, put in a dishwasher, put in some ovens. And that's what you approved. And so this year when I think there may have been some changes, I've asked my staff, this today was the first time I've heard of changes. So we asked my staff, today was the first time I've heard of changes. So we kind of expected that to be happening this fiscal year. So we're just asking now, since you approved it, to go ahead and earmark a project for us in the next fiscal year, this coming up so that we can go ahead and get that finished. That's our request. Is that right, Beth, or Donna? I mean, is that act on? We just don't have a cost estimate at this point, but if we could get something preliminary, we could bring that back next week. We're always free to change our mind. So the money that was actually allocated in the budget last year, we don't know that that's going to be enough money for everything that you want to do. Am I reading that right? But is it in CIP? No, we don't know what it's going to cost until we get an architect involved. I mean, that's the bottom line. Because I don't know what the city's requirements are. We're basically doing a kind of doing away with the break room. The city may require us to put another break room. I don't know the answers to those. What we're trying to do is accomplish what Matt's needing and the only way I can see to do that is get an architect involved, letting you work with the city. Where's the money that we budgeted last year that we're going to carry forward? Well, it was the money that was budgeted this year. I mean, for this year. So it's in the facilities budget, your remodel budget, okay. So what I was going to do was take that money and move it over to the architect, whatever that line I have for the... How much money was it, Donna? 24,000. And it may not cost that much, but I don't know until we get somebody else involved. It would be more than that, but I think we need to move that over with a multiple. I think your option could be once we know the cost we could do a budget amendment. We could transfer it from contingency or the capital replacement fund and address it at that time since the cost is kind of unknown but that way you'll know that that's something that would come back to you at a point. It's good to know. I'm hesitant to go forward if we get an unnamed cost. I mean I don. I'm hesitant to go forward if it's an onion cost. I mean, I don't, I'm hesitant to recommend going forward with it. If it's an onion cost, I mean, the, I guess I'm going to have to go through the budget book again and look at all our proposed remodeling for the upcoming year again. You know, I like with the Frisco building. It's brand new and already had some people tell us when you didn't make changes to it And I've told them all you know what I plan on being here for a while and we're not gonna change anything I mean we're you know it's brand new these buildings are brand new We spend a lot of money on the architects and you know it may not be You know exactly to whoever's taste, but we need to kind of live with what we got for at least a little while. So if it's $24,000, that's a reasonable amount of money for a kitchen. But if we're going to have to hire an architect, we're going to have to get all through the city permitting. I mean, if you wind up with a $75,000. $75,000. Yes, that's correct. I mean we're gonna have to have an architect for a lot of these projects I mean, I mean You can always say no to the budget amendment At least for how, at least for know what we have to have. We need, we need to know. We need, we need to know the bad news if there is bad news. Okay. I think I'm the topic of majority of people who wanted to do it. Well, I don't, all right, that's fine. Let's move on. We wanted to allow that. That's fine. Let's move on. If you would like, there's nothing in your backup other than on page 8 of 9 of your changes sheet. There are two projects currently in the capital replacement fund that also need to roll forward. One of them is the large project at the courthouse. New sports building, which is the brick pager project. So we would be wanting to roll those funds of $726,815 into the 2018 budget. Where is that? There's not a page, but if you look at page eight of nine on your changes. Eight and nine, all right. It's the brick paper project. It was approved in the CIP recommended with capital replacement funds. That project's just not going to be ready to award a bid by the end of the year. So we are currently have issued a PO for the architect services. So we'd be asking to roll those funds forward as well as the historical park fence. Nothing's happened with the fence. There's no way that it's going to be ready to award a bid. My memory is to what the brick paper project is. Around the courts building at the front, it's got all those bricks that are on. I need their uneven. Yeah, that's going to be $700,000 to replace the bricks. Apparently there's no rebar or anything underneath. So the design was faulty. Am I right? Yeah. Um, we need to just aren't barring that building down and start over. We're going to model it for a court. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but to repair that and do it right, those payvers need to come out that mud slab underneath it needs to come out. And when all that happens, that means all the landscape and gets redone it to the front of the building. And we're going back with colored concrete. Go on that with what? Color concrete. That's what we're proposing. So what you're asking is done is to move this from one budget year to the other, right? What color? That's right. QWU, Marin? Yes. In order to do that, we would lower the estimated expenses this year by $220,000, but it would lower the ending fund balance of the capital replacement fund by $674,000 to do this. But there's no impact to the tax rate or anything like that because it's funded with capital replacement funds. $700,000 for the little painting bricks. So it's actually taking them up, putting them down new ones and pulling them all in and the Okay, we'll move into money forward. Yeah, but I would like for us to have a detailed conversation about that due to that. I'm with you. That's a that's a lot of money for that. I'm going to make a motion for you. I will move to move those funds from this budget. From this year to move those. The funds from this budget year. From this year to the next. I have a motion by Commissioner Eads. Is there a second to the motion? Seconded by Commissioner Marchant. Further questions or discussion? You're none on favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, say aye. Motion carries. Okay. Item number 10 on our agenda is with regard to the vehicle maintenance facility. There was a reclassification recommendation made for a mechanical drug position. It's my understanding that the department did not want that to proceed. As you know, HR recommended reclassifications as a mechanic. Weldertot positions in right and bridge. And I think this one was inadvertently included, but I'll let this double address that. The commissioners, as you know, we are recommending the mechanic welders to be reclassed from the each one of your precincts. The intent wasn't to include the vehicle maintenance mechanic welder, but it wasn't included on the recommendation made to the court. So we are asking to be removed from that recommendation. Also, move. We have a motion by Commissioner Coleman, setting it by Commissioner Eads, further discussion or questions. Very none, long favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed to the seat. Motion carries. And with regard to the same department on today's agenda, you approved a plan that would upgrade a phone for a person at the vehicle maintenance department. So with that comes added cost for the monthly fee of $192. So the first motion you just made was a savings of $2,868. This is a request to increase their wireless phone line by $192. Gerald Simebe, taken by. By Commissioner Mitchell, questions? Any none? On the favorite, please say aye. Aye. Post and e. Motion carries. Item number 18 on our agenda is discussion of social service agency funding as recommended by the committee. That information if you go to your recommended summary tab and review page S1-11. Is that again? S1-11. S1-11 is the letter from Dr. Richardson with report based on what the committee actions were. So on page 112, S112, you'll see a breakdown of those agencies as well. For this fiscal year for social service agencies would be $335,000. Included in their recommendation was for one agency, Metroport Meals on Wheels. Didn't ask for any specific funding, but they wanted to be added to the jury donation list. Matt, did you have anything more add or? Matt, did you have anything more add or? Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, commissioners. I believe too that that meals on wheels, that's, there were two pieces. One, I wanted to remind the court that that happens through another process, right? The transportation portion of the funding. So one of those is being funded through another grant fund from the county. And in the social services agency, awards of piece of that. And there's the jury designated funds, that's correct, right, Donna? Right. Span also receives funding in our appropriations department, and that's for the veterans transportation portion of their funding, which is separate from what's included. That's what it is. Span, that's right, which is the meals on wheels. And they have the meals on wheels components. So there's there's actually two meals on wheels components. But this one is not asking for any specific funding if they did ask because I think the policy of the court is that you have to be on the list of social service agencies in order to receive availability of juror donation funds. So that's why that request was submitted. So we are only doing 262? That was the current year budget. Again, we fund them based on what we receive in tobacco settlement money, what we receive in fees or interest earnings. So we're not dipping into what we call the principal or the old money. We're just using the money that's budgeted in new revenue for the year. So sometimes it fluctuates and this year it happens to be in the increase. That's $335. The last year was $262. The B&A. That's 335. 335. Last year was 262. Got you. Yes. And if you want on page 114 of your packet is a historical look at how we funded social service agencies and you'll be able to see that in some cases some of the agencies did receive a little bit more than they even requested. So one, for example, is the Children's Advocacy Center requested 63,182. The committee's recommending $70,000. Family health care. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, friends of the family requested 25,000. The committee's in 30. PD plays, they asked for 50,000 the Committees recommending 55,000. RS, now span, $11,000 the Comm is recommended 16. Health services of North Texas requested 125. The commandment recommended 54. It's a little slight decrease in what they received last year. And then youth and family services of Losville requested 25. And the commandment recommended 30. I did skip over. requested 25 and the committee's recommended 30. I did skip over. Court appointed special advocates requested $80,000 in the committee recommended $80,000. Christian Community Action Clinic requested $40,000 in the committee did not recommend funding for them. Correct. So the committee, there were several members of this committee that had been on for a while. And so they recalled when that money was originally funded and it was funded for health services. CCA took themselves out of that service line. And they then submitted that request for homeless services. And so the committee decided not to recommend that to you. Of course, obviously you had the purview to change that, but that was their recommendation. So explain to me again why is the metro port meals on wheels back on there or on the list. So our understanding was that to be eligible for the jury designation, our understanding was that the court had to approve it under this social service agency construct. In other words, you've got to be approved by this court with a recommendation for the committee to be listed for that jury, the jury dollars. That's the way we understood that. So that was traditionally how that was handled, So I that's up to y'all. I can't matter the request for us to find the rescue. No, can't. Farrow cut. Yeah, that's right. The North Texas Guinea Pig Rescue Society. There was one of those. Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm kind of reluctant to, you know, we said that list. I'm reluctant to increase the jury. Yeah. Donation list. I think that just opens the door. That's the request. We need to be. No, they just want to be on the list of people who can donate. Right. So do about 100 others. Yeah. And they do a good. I agree. They help an underserved population. They, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, Yeah, but next year we'll have 15 requests you while you added them last year. I've always thought that this should be bigger. I think they need to be on the list. It's a qualified deal with this and I choose before I'm on the list. Right. Well, I think we should only have one party on the list and it should be the children welfare board. And we've compromised to let other people on there and we had a big suspicion about it. I don't want to go over it again. We have caught that bad one. Cause if we let somebody on, we're not gonna be it. Like, hey, we didn't know we didn't have the opportunity. We should have gotten on there. What do I want to see? I hate to open it up again. I'm with you. Negus. Hey, Y'all might have found this twice today. You and Mary have to hurt you. But I just, I mean, for this turn, you're doing, I say we just give it all to the devil. It is not. One person to donate. I don't think it's open to that. I think I do. The phone's going to start ringing and say, well, you added them. You didn't give us an opportunity to make a request and you need to go back and reconsider that. Let it them. You need to add us to. I'm not in favor of opening it up at all. Then Mr. Wells, then the default to the child welfare board. There's two that are required by law, I believe. We're going to do it. Now, welfare board and the victims of crime crime that's administered by the state attorney general are required to be on the list of organizations at the district clerk has to notify. That's the only two that are required. But the district clerk can choose to not do it at all. Oh, they have to do those two. If they're going to do it, they have to do those two. I believe they were mandated to do those two. Oh, did they change along? They're mandated to do those two? I think that's my belief, but I'm not going to let all of us track that because we tell people no all of our comments. We do not do a look at these funding. These are in the central and south eastern part of the county. We do not do a lot of funding. Social services in that part of the county and I think if to have them on the list. Is no burden of ours. Please be cautious. And. Problem is convenience. Because you can always get your jury check and descend it, endorse it and send it to her, if you want. I point exactly. I don't have to do that. I would have to check. I would like to make a approval. I would like to make another. I would like to make a motion. I'm retiring for to accept the recommendation of the committee board. But next year we don't have to put their nisk in a record. Well, I want to make one thing clear. Is there a recommendation to add metro port meals on wheels? Yes, as it stands. Okay. As it stands. So the motion is to accept the recommendation of the committee and that includes adding metro port meals on wheels. So second to the motion. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. I will not be supporting this. I do. Thank you. The cuttings CCA cut from the CCA cut from the list. We'll refer all calls to you, Bobby. It's the CCA cut from the list since they're not getting money. The committee didn't make a recommendation to remove them, so they just recommended no funding at this time. But they can still get jury donations. So they didn't make, yeah, if they're still on the the list currently they did not take a vote specific to that Any further discussion or questions All in favor in the motion Oceney Mark this down in history We can't deal with this. Someday they'll listen here. Motion carries regrettably. Three in favor, two of those. We'll refer all calls to you, Commissioner Mitchell. No, you won't. No, you won't. No, you won't. No, you won't. We'll add you to the list next year. That's what you'll say. I will say no, but we'll be on. Yeah. You could. Hey, when the calls come, send them the commission. Oh, yeah. OK. We'll do it. We'll do a little more. A little more. Don't forget me. Yeah. We couldn't. Okay. I just performed a Mitchell. Yeah. The next. We have a non-departmental here on page one of nine at the bottom, which is. That is part of the reallocation of monies for the sidewalk and the building projects. So we'll be reducing contingency. So that's all done. That's part of the deal. So make sure. What do you want to do next? Do you all want to talk about health insurance? There's in your packet on page S128. There's the various scenarios that have been prepared. And Gustavo's ready to address those with you. We're doing the, are we doing the pay equity adjustments now that are we revisiting that today? It is on my list to talk about. Okay. Thank you. Judge, commissioners, before you, you have the three options of the insurance committee is recommending to present to you for the mega decision. The three scenarios we are presenting all three include the increase on insurance premiums to the employees. This is information for discussion only. We are not making a decision today. This information, you can see what we are presenting. Scenario 2 is the one that we are recommending, and I'm going to go one by one so you know the difference between each one of them. These pages only include the premium to the employee. Does not include any of the county contributions. As hopefully in two weeks we are going to be able to bring the recommendations. You would see more information on that one. Scenario one basically keeps the same employee employer contribution as of the year 2017. By doing this on the right hand side of the page, you are going to see the difference between the premium that we are charging today compared to what will be charging in 2018. Scenario 2 basically increases 5% each one of those tiers. Remember, we have employee only, employee spouse, children and family. So we would be increasing 5% of the current premium. The scenario 3 is if the county decides that they don't want to do anything and wants the employee to absorb all the increase. We are not recommending that. But I think it's important that you see all the different options and have a time to think about what will be the best choice for the employees. Now you have any questions right now? Sorry, a three is where the county doesn't contribute anything additional and the employees absorb everything. the I know it shows on your paycheck. I saw what was ready. Okay, scenario one, the employee contribution would be basically 84% versus 16% employees. Okay, as a whole. So then we do, the county does 84% and 84% does how much? 16%. 16? Yeah. And so under scenario two, do you know what those percentages would be? Scenario two would be 85.4% county contribution versus 14.6%. So we're actually, the employees are paying a smaller share of the insurance under scenario two than they did this year. Correct. And I want to say, I obviously everybody here knows that the insurance market is just going crazy. We don't know where we're going. We are trying to control costs. Employees are doing a good job, but insurance is just going up. I like the charts when they're very demonstrative, but if you would add something on there that shows that the current scenario, the employees are doing 16% and the proposed scenario 16 16 Currently at 1684 And then the proposed recommended option is 14% of the cost are being borne by the employee And 86% is being borne by the county. Right. And then there's the other one. All parties are absorbing the increased cost, but the portion paid by the employees under the recommended scenario is less that last year. Just a point as well from attending the committee. This event scenario two, we're gonna be dipping into our reserves for the health insurance fund by about a million dollars. They keep the cost, To keep the cost down and to keep the fund balance, our reserve funds at an acceptable level. So even with these rates, we still have the potential of dipping into some of our reserves. By a million dollars. That's a good deal. And that's even though it's rates are really low. Why are we having accumulated the research? Employer is carrying a greater burden now. And that's a positive for the employees. The staff won't, when we get them to look all this, I'd like to once again have the email that goes out to all county employees. Explaining what the county does contribute. All right. We wouldn't we would say that we've done in prior years. I think that's good information for everybody to have. I know it's on the checks and the search. But I don't think anybody looks at that. Like it in email form. And Judge, I think it's important to include in there what that could have put potentially been, which is scenario three. Am I right? Well, and also the million dollars that were contributing not of reserves. But right. I mean, but look at scenario three. You look at scenario three, which is the employees Absorb the full increase If they absorb the if we would have done the same proportion we did This year this this year, right it would have been increased roughly four dollars per employee only But since we're reducing the proportion and amount or our recommending is $1.40 if we didn't do it any of that We'll look at the EPO plan for the family would go from Maybe 114 increase 37 or 380 It's huge I mean you see them talking about? That's per month. I think I mentioned last week during the presentation that we budgeted $14,500 per employee for health insurance. to help the public to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to provide the right to So you can approve all the premiums. We can't. I guess if you want to. Yeah, we need to bring three premiums and the core premiums. I'm in favor of adopting scenario to you. I think this. Pro and fully. I make the motion. I'll make that motion. It's okay. You want to do that now or do you want to do that? We can do that. I can help from the other stuff. I plan was to bring everything together at once so you can vote for everything. Well, let's go ahead and do this and then we'll have to come with the dental and stuff later. We can bring in a motor for you. We have a motion by Commissioner E, seconded by Commissioner Eads. Further discussion or questions? Hearing none, on favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, opposed, aye, aye. Motion carries. So we're going with scenario two. And then this time we'll have to come with the dental information later. information later. Oh yeah, we'll bring it to you guys in the next two weeks. I'd like to get as many things decided as we possibly can and I think it's helpful about. You want to skip, go ahead and skip over to the reclassifications on page s 41. I believe it's the memo that Gustavo submitted to the court. It's 41. You're going to be. So on that page, you'll see the memo that addresses the detention officer one positions as well as the juvenile supervision officers. There's also a survey in here, regard to assistant directors, chief deputies. Then there's also if you skip to page S-51 is where the list of actual reclassifications by slot number and department are included. Included in this starting on page S-51, we didn't list all of the detention officers and all of the JPO's, but they are in your reference section as backup for the additional slot information on that. So I'll turn it over to Gustavo and I'll ask you questions. The other commissioners, you have before you the recommendations for these years, three classes. As mentioned before, we are recommending the mechanic welders to be reclassed one pay grade from pay grade seven to pay grade eight. The main reason of this one, especially in prison number one, is they have a position open for the full year and nobody has even applied for the position. Commissioner Pitz has lost one mechanic and probably is going to be in the same situation that Commissioner Coleman is. So we are recommending them to go from 7 to 8. Because of that, we are also recommending that these mechanics Pagrade 7 to 8. I'm sorry, I was pretty wrong. Mechanic welders, we go from Pagrade 6 to 7. And because of that, the decent mechanics, we go from Pagrade 7 to Pagrade 8. Don't know anybody who is looking for a job, tell them please to apply. I don't know anybody who is looking for a job. Tell them please to apply. Also last year, the direction of the Commission's Court, one of the recommendations was to address anybody who is making less than 80% of market. I guess I missed it last year and that is why we have recommended this year the administrative managers to go from pay grade 8 to 9. They also are below 80% of market. This year we have the request of the commission scored from last year. We did another survey for the second in command for the department heads and some of the lecturers visions. You have the survey on page 44. Okay. I need to get some cheaters. Did we do that for the county clerk's office as well? On this survey, what we did, we include county clerk, county treasurer's office, purchasing department, budget department, juvenile probation, election administration, district clerk, deputy chief information officer, facilities, public health, county office, tax office and the human resources department. So the way I analyzed this table was based on, okay, actual salary was the first item that we wanted to tackle. As you see in front of you, that the human resources department, the tax office and the county auditor's office, all those three departments are below 80% of the market. The next thing that we did is we went to the minimum salary and maximum salary for these positions, which indicates that those positions are very low. The minimum and the maximum are low. Basically, we are now being competitive. In the tax office, what we are recommending is a salary adjustment of what is it? $6,616 or 8%. One of the reasons that we have recommended this is because this employee, when she got promoted, she could have been hired at 16% above minimum, but she wasn't. She was only higher than 8%. to... I have a question for the government. That's the position that you should remain. That's the position that you should remain. That's the position that you should remain. And we're... Yeah, we want... I just... But if you do on a market... And that is exactly what happened. I mean, we are looking at these employees being below 80% of the market. We are trying to follow the directive that you guys provided to me last year. So he had looked it on that chart, S-44. He only reviewed the ones based on our directive that were 80% below market. So he didn't review everybody who's 100% or 104. He did the one that are at 80 below 80% of the market. And then he would bring them up. Yeah, that would bring her. Let me see. That would be 82.78% of market with that adjustment. Then the next thing I did was review the human resources position, which is 74.1% of the market. Because of the minimum and maximum salaries for this position at 80%, that tells me that that position is also very low. So I'm recommending that that position is also very low. So I'm recommending that that position be reclassed one pay grade based on market. Which would bring that position with that 5% increase, one, he will bring her to 77.81% of market. To stay below the 80% that you guys want to have these employees, but with the 5% increase for everybody else, that employee would be at 82.78. And basically, the same situation happens with the chief assistant to the county health service. Her actual salary is 78.6%, 0.6% of market. The minimum for that position is 74% and the maximum salary for that position is 77.62%. Those are in my opinion ranked very low, and we needed to make that judgment. Again, commissioners, this is a judge. This is something that every time we do a survey, it's going to be changing. But I think that it will be run on my part, not to address these issues as they come out. Now if you have any additional questions. If you look at any other positions in the Auditor's Office to see if they were how they compared the market, I have not looked at those. The only reason we did this assistance is because, I think it was Commissioner Mitchell's who requested Lazier to have one down this year. Next year, we are hoping that we can do the big survey and probably we are going to include some of those employees. I guess my point is since we're, you know, at least in the budget department and some other stuff we need to look at some of those in our auditor and budget departments because you never know when we may lose their department head during the thing and we need to start paying people a little more so we retain people with an institute. Hoping that this is addressing part of that issue. These are going to be important. Part of the deal is we have been, the raises that we're working through to just a pay scale. I mean, that should be acknowledged by everybody. I agree. I mean, absolutely. The last three years, the Corps has been very generous to the employees. It's around 14% increases. 10% of those have been sliding the scale, which helps the departments be able to hire at the Salards, which is more attractive to the potential employees. I want to thank the Corps because that is something that you didn't have to do, but you have been doing, and I think it's going to be helping the departments in the long run. Are you looking for a motion to to approve them. Also besides those on page S-51 of your packet or several other positions, title changes, et cetera. S-51 through S-55 was the entire spreadsheet. So at the very top you'll see there are several title changes being recommended. And if you follow down the reclassification side you'll see which ones were recommended or not. Not a wooden. With the raise that's being proposed for the reclass and then what that raised would be for an additional 5%. So we would approve everything except those would be better being appealed. Just to clarify too, on page S-52, the very top position. Engineering training, this position would receive that increase once they receive their official certification. I don't think they've actually gotten the paperwork yet. So what we've done is we've included money in a payroll contingency line within their own budget. So once that person receives that paper about Department of Public Works, Stephen Belkner, Engineering Training, as it says, recommended no. We would recommend that to become an engineer. Once he actually can become an engineer, he has all the paper work done. He's just a timing issue. Look at his PE, this budget here, I think is what it is. I mean, he has done everything, but we don't want to recommend continuing or passing a test or anything. We are waiting for him to actually get the, I guess, his license. Recommended upon completion is what you're saying. But right now, it's not recommended. Well, there are no doubt that he's's gonna get it as he passed the test It's no dad that he's gonna get it, but he cannot become an engineer until he gets the license number So we can't recommend him as an engineer because he's not an engineer right now But we made solutions so that it didn't a contingency Yeah, we did it. Okay So what you're saying. Yeah, we did it. OK. OK. So what you're asking for is everything that says yes, except for those that are being appealed or be approved. So he has passed the test on thing told, and he's just whiting on the certificate. But he's not an official engineer until he gets that in his hands. You can't know the sign any of those things. But those funds are being contingency, so when you get the paperwork, it's just a minor requirement. He has to fly for the certificate. Can you get it before October 1st? And they will use it on his street. We don't know he's going to get a report of October 1st. It could be later. But it's the same result. I know he's going to report a post. It could be later. But it's the same result. Too many. They're going to get it anyway. So I don't know why we wouldn't. We're just not going to reclassify and put him in that until he is truly qualified. But if he passes it, He's already passed it. He has passed it. He's just waiting for the piece of paper. And they have to verify work history, et cetera. So that's in the works. Hopefully, it'll be before October. Before it gets sealed. Okay. And another thing that I was told is that I guess that he said, board that only meets twice a year. If he doesn't get it by October, he probably would have to wait up here in the spring. But funds are allocated, I don't know waiting. I just rather pay him the money starting October 1st. He's a valuable employee and I'd like to work hard to get his P.E. to take the easy work with. I agree with that, but at the same time, I would think that the engineers that have the license and the number in place, you won't be fair to them, not to, I mean, to pay them the same amount of money. Hopefully next all on. It's possible. You think so? I think he'll get it. Right. So, I think you should put it there on the one basket. You don't want to start it as the first knowing that you're going to get it. I'm not over. It might be a fall. That's what. The board only needs twice a year. I hope for his. That is what Fred told me. I don't know how often they made it, but he's passed all of what he needs to do, it's just mere bureaucracy. So the past he did pass, I think, that how many years or months of employment, I think that they are trying to body that information. And they may say, yes, you have it, they may say, no, you need more time. And when he gets it, he sort of gets a PE, he's a PE. All right. Okay. So the motion is to approve all of these recommendations. Basically, the ones that say yes. The exception of our engineering training we're putting that money in contingency, because who says no? Those people who are appealing. We'll be asking seven people that are appealing. We're still taking that into consideration. So that's the motion. Is there a second? I get it by Commissioner March and discussion or questions. Here none on favor please say aye aye motion carries Okay Okay. Do we want to talk about new hires included in the budget? I know. Maybe some you want to some members may want to pull for further discussion. I'd like the new hire for the district clerk's office pool for me. I'd like to discuss that. I'm sorry. S48. This work begins. Through S50. The department requested 32.25 positions and what's included in the recommended budget is 23.25. the district works office Yeah, we'll talk about it right now or I mean to me you know I've looked at different things regarding transparency and having it accessibility to the courts to me we would say a huge amount of money and time and expenses for litigants if we were allowed to have access to the court documents. To me, to insist to have to have everything physically picked up from the court when you have Pacer and other counties being able to do that, I just think it's, you know, fisting on doing it in that manner, like I've told y'all in the past. I just don't think we should give her any more employees because she's, and, and basically insisting on behaving like a buggy whip maker while she's in her term when she could be embracing new technology and allowing for us to save time and money and stream money things. And I got told y'all in the future, I just don't think it's a good idea to reward that conduct. By giving them more employees and saying I have more to do when you're really making work for yourself. But I'm opposed to giving the district clerk any additional employees. What is the bully supposed to do, Donna? This position would be to assist the judges in the courtrooms when they're actually hearing please and all to have a clerk in the courtroom handling that that time versus having to call a man. They're right there and they're keeping things up to date currently. So this was a, they had requested several positions and we sort of been phasing them in. I think we gave one maybe it was last year or year before last. They had asked for three or four positions. And I'll tell you, I know the judges know it now, but when I spoke to them about a year ago, the judges didn't know that the attorneys and the public didn't have the same type of access they did. So I disagree with you. And you do everything electronically, but then after the time is gone, and you want to get a copy or something, you physically have to go there in person or get a runner. Now, I think if you want to get something that's certified, you should show up, have it printed out in the clerk's certified, be able to access documents over the internet, be a confirmed passport or something like that, or something that everybody does. Like I said in the past, PASER, which is the federal court system, the federal government, I don't know if you like when my dad died and I had to get stuck from my mom and social security, they don't do anything right. But they've managed to be able to allow an attorney in Denton to go to a Magistrate Court in Seattle and pull documents off. If you do it less than $20 a month, it's free through PASER. And that's any person. You don't have to be a licensed attorney or any person who can sign up for that account. The one you got a credit card. Yeah, in Denton County, if you're litigating a case and somebody needs to pull an account, the attorney has to run down to the clerk's office or send a runner which you're going to then charge your client for doing that and I just think we'll find that battle later but to me it's just it's something that I know we're fixed I know I know Sherry's not running for reelection and she's basically said this is the way I'm doing it Where the new person is can do it a different way But when I asked her for specific when she was here last time she told me there was an attorney general opinion on point I asked her for it. Her and Mark Yarbrough, they couldn't produce it. Then they did produce a editorial from their association that talked about the dangers of disclosing public documents and they cited the clerk of the court. And so I have some friends who are folks at the Texas Supreme Court. So I called him and said, was this what you meant? And he said, no, the Texas Supreme Court is for giving access to all documents and lessening the speed of litigation. I said, well, that you're being bantered around as the person of the group that says we should have less access. I'm concerned about information like social security numbers, phone numbers, personal is that the concern? I can't tell you the specific date but the rules of court were it now when you have a divorce or anything like that the attorney is supposed to be back and they yes and but there are older documents that aren't redacted. You could say whatever I can't remember the specific date when the rules of court changed, but you could say that the date forward is open. And I think it was like somewhere around 2007, 2008. And I'm not sure there's court cases that are going on since 2008 that are active. So if y'all want to but I'd rather both do that. I know what you're saying. You're really employee. I feel confident you'll say the same thing she did last year. Don't you think? Yeah. I don't know if there was anybody. Mr. Yarbrough, see that in the opponent. Yeah he does. That's how he did. He does, I think he's got to get both the candidates in here. He has to. Oh fair in this Bobby. I told you last year I was going to get the right answer. I don't know if you're going to get the right answer. I don't know if you're going to get the right answer. I don't know if you're going to get the right answer. I don't know if you're going to get the right answer. I don't know if you're going to get the right answer. I don't know if you're going to get the right answer. week. You find? My point is is that if she went and allowed things to be publicly filed and accessed, she would be able to find an extra person within the staff that she has to assist the judges. Donna would it be helpful to approve everything with the exception of that or leave it alone till we have the discussion next week? I'll move to do that. Everything but the district court. We have a motion for approval of everything except the senior part for the district court position Second to the motion. Seconded by Commissioner Marchin or the discussion or questions on favorite please say aye Post any motion carries or be say aye. Aye. Aye. Post any motion carries. Okay. We were getting new. So, I believe there's one item we didn't really touch on. The building projects on page S117. If you have any questions about those, we may need to have Danny here. These are all the projects that were submitted. There were some minor revisions. I think some of that was the department reduced when we kind of negotiated what could come down and costically provided new house to them. Okay. The request for down significantly in 2018, compared to what we did in 17. But if you need time to research that more, we can also bring that back next. I'd like to look over it. I'd like to look over it. I'd like to do that. I'd like to look at it. The long list. And I'll have Danny be available so if you'll have any specifics. So for next week we would repost the public works appeal and discussion of potentially transferring funds to another department to the construction management department. Would there be any scenarios you need with regard to any reclassifications? Will there be a department head level position that needs to be reviewed? I'm not in favor of creating a separate department for it. I would be in favor of put it in under facilities at this time. We can talk about it next week, but that I, I, I, for one, I'm not in favor of separate standalone department and it, and elevating that to a separate director. So that again, Andy. Thank you. You're not in favor of a separate department. No, no, I would be in favor of it being under facilities and it's under public works now. I think it'd be under I would be in favor of being under facilities. I have a problem with that either. I just think that it'd be better to have them directly reporting to us because Danny's got a lot on his plate right now. The only problem is that is that then they got five bosses. They talk to you before they go forward, they got to talk to this one and that one. There's benefits in those hazards. I think them working close, we can talk about it next week. They work well together for maintaining the abilities that they're designing. And they are breaking out their costs that are in the public works budget. So we'll have at least that information on the spreadsheet for y'all to make a motion as to the placement. We also will have back on you, agenda discussion of the probate court unless you want that remade. That applies to any of these. If you want to remove any of them, I need to know that or I'll repost them. Just not take any action on item two. Are we okay with that? Everyone okay with that? Yeah, I think so. Okay, on the certification pay, I know the court indicated you wanted, if you did for one, you'd have to do for all. It's just something we'll take no action. I think no action this year. I think we need to have a discussion, not necessarily right now concerning the policy. Cause I'm thinking that we should perhaps make that for law enforcement in the Sheriff's Department only address that in the policy and close the door in other officers. I think it's sort of a, I think it's sort of a I think it's sort of a we can talk about that I think a certification We're talking about which is numerous ones are different than degrees that people have and so forth. I think We want to encourage Employee development Processes yeah, different college degrees. That's something different I'm not sure if it's a call to do is work that's something different. But. So we took action on elections so county court administrator will bring back next week the judge will be here. I think at 10. So 10. I am. I will put back on the sheriff reclassifications. Technology services reclassification. On the changesheet right now, the scenario is based on, for the share of appeals, is based on what he's requested. Do you want any other scenario for the sheriff's appeals is based on what he's requested. Do you want any other scenario for the cost? Thank you. Probably went to all one or scenario 14. They already recommended that, a 14. So it would need to. The scenario based on 14, 15, 16, 17. Yeah. We want all three. Whatever. Three scenarios. For the rest of the last two more scenarios. We'll put two more scenarios on there. I'll enter to go into 15, but that's it. I'm going to see the option. You used to be immersed in on meal zone wheels? I'm sorry. I said you. You used to be immersed the on meals on wheels. Any action on Department of Public Safety. Pardon me. I'm sorry. I say any action some questions for another year. Well, yeah, I'm willing to go with your recommendation in the budget, but I think I made it abundantly clear that I put them on notice for next year. We get slapped with revenue caps. And they're bad, so say it next year. I've got a weird permission. So, say it, next year. I think we as commissioners also have to alert our state leaders that by letter from the commissioners court that we're we're shown in this burden, not just them trolling the county, but they are in our buildings that we're shown in the burden. I want to. It would be advisable to have a contract. Yeah, and we need a country. Yeah, we are in the process of working out partnerships with DPS or additional contract on that. We do not need to. We have a head for years. We're working on having to expand services in the county. We can all. And we need to. We can say to the legislators what we're putting into it that should be a state expansion is not. I've had several conversations with our state reps when their issue and press releases about all the money they're putting into their any day fund. How we borrow half a billion dollars to pay for transportation, mainly for state highways, with emphasis on state highways. State highways. State highways. Yeah. Partnership is really great. We're focusing paying county roads. They should be paying for state highways, but we wound up. We chose not to be stagnant. We've been paying for their share, and then they get to do a press release about how much money they saved. Okay, so continuing down the list, from my review of everything from 10 through 19, we've taken some sort of action, or no action was expected. So we'll bring back building projects. We do need to talk about the new hires that are in contingency. As I mentioned in the presentation, there are four in contingency, two for the county clerk and two for the taxis or collector based on the new locations. We did receive an email and you'll see a budget or request, not necessarily a budget amendment, but a request next week from the county clerk's office asking to release those two positions in contingency because of the approval of passport services for flower mound as well as Frisco. So we'll probably wanna reevaluate and come back to you with a different continued to see amount and allocate those funds to the departments next week to the county clerk. We're gonna also talk about funding for Military Veterans program that Commissioner Marchin has asked to put back on. And then we would probably do that in that we could do it either way, which is whatever your preference is. Into the year. And can the funds be expended by the end of the year? Is it something they need? Well, some of the funds are roll over funds. And those will roll over again. Roll over, my plan was to have it all ready for better in stay, which will be November next year. So the funds would have to be allocated this year. Okay. We can just handle that with a budget amendment. So we'll take that off of the list. We'll also under future agenda Adams will hear from the county auditor, makeup presentation on financial trend analysis, as well as the financial forecast. Good name, next week. Yes. Are you also, do I need to talk to Mr. Any talk to you, Stavo about the Request? Yes. We have asked for information that talks about the What you mentioned to me about the retirement rate. We'll have to work up a scenario on the cost for that. Do you want to explain what you would have agreed? I wanted to look and see what it would take for us to go from a 2.2 match on the retirement to a 0.2.25 match on the retirement. I just wanted to see whether that would be possible, even though that is a non-paycheck tangible take home for the employees I was wanting to see just to consider what it would take for us budget wise To do to two and a quarter from 220 for a retirement match I just want to see what it is guys. I mean, you know, I think that's a, it's something that we can help. It's a intangible benefit for our employees to show them, luckily, you want to retain you. You have valuable knowledge. We want to encourage you because frankly, we all know that there's not much we can do about health insurance, right? Health insurance is going to go out, right? And even though we're giving very lucrative raises, you can't get, we've been lucky, we've been able to give a 5% raise, but something that we could do from employees would be to give a slight retirement match increase. In my opinion, it would help encourage people to be long-term employees. So I just wanna look at it. I'm not committing to it, but I'd like to see what it costs. Just for clarification purposes, we can look at that information. One of the choices that we get is do you want to make these to previous deposits or do you want to move from here forward. Here forward. I think it should be previous. Yeah. From here. Probably. Probably. We would have got to do that. And let a girl for a try. I bet you. I bet you. OK. So we'll work up the scenario and bring you some numbers next week. I bet you will. Okay. So we'll work up the scenario and bring you some numbers next week. All right. Thank you. One more question. You seem to obviously with the court be interested in making next week your final budget workshop. If so, I would need to post an item about the tax, proposing a tax rate. Or would you prefer that we go ahead and hold off and do that again the following week is when we have it scheduled. But there's not a lot left on our agenda. You want to leave it as it is? I'd rather get it done next week. I'd rather get it done next week. I'm just saying there's just not much on the agenda, but if you're one of white, we'll certainly wait. I'd like to do it next week. I'd like to get it done. Iter done. Iter done. No. No. Hey, we'll see if we can't wrap it up next week. Is that everything? Yeah. Okay. Well, with that, thank you everybody for your time and attention and we are adjourned have a great evening and we are adjourned have a great evening.