Mrs. William, please stand. Let's bow. Our father, we come to you again on this Tuesday morning and we thank you for this gift of another day. We thank you for the sunshine, we thank you for the blessings that you bestow on us that we take for granted, father. Father, I thank you for this court and the service they provide. Father, I thank you for my colleagues in the county that provide services to the residents, our friends, neighbors, our families. Father, I thank you for the gift of service. And I just ask that we all remember that service for others, Father, is service to you. Thank you for these relationships. I ask that you help us be wise and be strong in our service to others and that we do the right thing and that that leadership is exhibited here today. And Father, we thank you for the sacrifice of your Son and His example to which we follow. It's through His name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Jesus we pray. Amen. Please join me and set pledge to the plant. Of the United States of America. You're a public for which it stands one nation and the God of indivisible. The people who trust this law are not the Texas fire. I believe the critics once they have gone through the pandemic. Well, thank you very much. Item one is for public input for items not listed on the agenda. There's any member of the public that would like to address Commissioner's Court. We ask that you please leave a public comment formed or available on the side table. I want to remind everyone to please turn off your cell phones and pages. All right. My first public comment form is from Mr. Willie Hadsmith. Mr. Hadsmith. Good morning. I'm here to talk about the Confederate monument. Notice that we still have not been, the item has not been put on the agenda. And the only person I've heard from is the judge. And I just assumed that the judge speaks for the rest of you because I haven't heard from you. And so then I guess you then also agree that the people that I've had to come up and talk about the fact that they drank, and they didn't drink from the fountain, but they were on, you also agree with that. And then it would follow that the National NAACP should follow through with what they are plan to do and what I plan to do in regards to that. Here's the issue. Racism in its just natural or just a simple definition is, when you use race as a way to determine something about an individual. Not knowing the individual, you just use the race, and then you determine what you're going to do or not do in regards to them. So I assume that the commissioners and the judge have said that statute, which is a racist statute, should stay where it is and it should be elevated high and say to all of the citizens of Ditton County and the world, really, we think that racism and separatist actions are appropriate. Here's where I get that from. The monument was erected and supposedly to honor these people who died. It did do that. Or I'd attempted it, that was one of the purposes. But when you wouldn't allow a certain race or you would allow only one race to dream from those fountain It becomes a monument or a representation of racism you determine that certain races could not drink from that fountain now the other issue that I'm having to deal with is Why won't you believe these people well? This is all of you because you haven't said anything in the judges' meeting for you Why would you recognize these people that I have coming up here to tell you that water was on and after water was on On one race could bring from it. It's racist Now I have next You I've heard that I want to bring back people up here to drink. I mean to talk about it Well, I've got some right people coming next How many someone one of you on that your, who's the one that speaks for you, oh, I don't know why that's the case. You elected. You should speak. But you won't put a thing on agenda and you only have one spokesperson. I want to know how many people do I have to come up here, who are live, and can tell you the water was on before you believe it. And then after establishing that, came with the energy that you are supporting racism. Certain races could ring from the fountain. You are on any net fountain. That's my opinion. The second public comment I have is from Dr. Adam. Is that ringcl ring? Good morning. Three minutes. Thank you. Three minutes is really not enough time to present one side of this argument. Let alone discuss it. And so that's why this should be an agenda item. Mr. Hudspith has been coming up here for I think like 15 years. I actually watched some videos this morning from quite a few years ago. And I was frustrated because Ms. Horn in the newspaper you said repeatedly that you have this discussion that Mr. Hudspith has agreed with you that everything has been resolved. If you watch those old videos he says things like you're not listening and I feel like I'm talking to myself. I think this needs a little more attention. You have the president of the County NAACP's been coming here for quite a few years. Maybe this needs to be looked at a little closer. And there's a lot to discuss. Me and Mr. Hutzwood have some, maybe some disagreements. Some of those people that support him, I disagree with. I don't think the statue is racist. I don't think the people that put it up were racist. Denton County was largely a northern sympathizing region in the Civil War. Subsequently, especially after the Spanish-American War and racial tensions in the United States decreased during World War I is when that monument was put up. There were a lot of African American veterans who distinguished themselves in the war. But after the war, racial tensions increased once again. A good example is a jazz music was largely inspired by these veterans. These African American veterans, some of whom were later murdered. And Quaker Town, you know, I've heard people say, well, they put up this monument and they moved Quaker Town. Therefore, Dintlin's racist, but there's a gap of several years between when the monuments put up and Quaker Town being relocated, I think, during the Civil War Quaker Town is actually a vibrant community. And I think, honestly, I think part of the reason it was moved is it wasn't because these young girls from TWU were getting, you know, accosted as they walked to the square. I think probably more realistically the problem was that, you know, these girls were going to Quaker town and maybe enjoying themselves there and that offended people. Regardless, racial tensions increased after that monument was put up. So I don't think the monument itself, I don't think the intention of the people that put it up was racist. But honestly the monument does belong in a museum. There's something actually kind of unique about the monument in comparison to other Confederate war memorials in that, especially if you read the poem on it, that's actually an anti-war memorial, which is a little unusual. The poem is about the English Civil War, and it was written by somebody who experienced the Crimean War and see of this community that didn't support the Civil War and was written by somebody who experienced the Crimean War and see of this community that didn't support the Civil War, that fought in the war, putting up this monument. But all that's really irrelevant. It doesn't really matter at this point whether the statues racist or not. The problem is that the issue is not even being allowed to have a serious discussion. Racism is not just animosity towards one race. It's also in difference towards a legitimate genuine racial issue. And I think the question of how slaves in Denton County are represented today is probably about as much of a racial issue as you could imagine. There were about 250 slaves in the county. That's like the equivalent of a small German concentration camp. And the Germans in Europe, after the war, they went to great lengths to acknowledge this happen and discuss it, that when you're downstairs, you don't see any mention of that. I need you to wrap up, sir. Well, I mean, I'll wrap up. You know, if you read the Bible, you guys started with this veneer of Christianity. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, if somebody asked you to walk a mile with them, you'd better walk two miles. Willie is asking you to walk a mile with them, you'd better walk two miles. Willie is asking you to have a discussion with him. I think you need to have it. And real quick, on another issue, Denton County needs to allow in-person visits at Jails. It's basically a human rights issue. You have people that are mentally ill, that have a right to speak with someone directly. You know, you said in the newspaper, Ms. Horn, that you can't afford to have guards to make sure that it's safe for people to meet in person, you know, frankly, $110,000 a year, you could hire somebody to do that and you'd still be wealthy. Your time is well-passed. Yeah. Well, there's plenty more to do. The last public comment firm that I have, and I'm assuming it's on the same issue, is Mr. John Goodman. Good morning, you have three minutes, sir. All right. I mainly wanted to go over some history from the Civil War. I think a lot of people are misinformed as to why a monument to the Confederacy you are endorsing, your Confederacy would be such a large issue. So from the cornerstone speech by the Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stevens, it clearly says our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man. That slavery, subordination to superior race, is his natural and normal condition. A pause. This is our new government. This is the first in the history of the world based from the great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. From our own Texas Declaration of Causes, this great truth, the Negro is lesser than the White Man is also echoed. It says she was received as a Commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as Negro's slavery. The servitude of the African to the White Race, the then our limits, a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future times. I think it's pretty clear from the cornerstone speech, the Texas Declaration of Causes and the rest of the Sesson Papers, I encourage everyone here to read them themselves that the Confederacy was based out of racism. There was more than one issue at play, but essentially it can be boiled down to that. The Confederate monument that we have is basically a Confederate soldier exalted above the city's gate. It's an endorsement of the Confederacy. It's an endorsement that the Negro is lesser than the white man. That's why it is removed indoors in the museum and the proper context where all the history surrounding it can be taught and not misinterpreted. That's all. Okay. Members, we're going to first go to item 3B on the agenda. 3B is approval of a resolution recognizing Maggie Joffers retirement. Maggie, with us this morning with her brother. Thank you all for being here. Be careful there. You bring your brother on up to the podium with you if you find help her up there. We don't want no accidents on the way to the podium please. Good morning. This is a resolution honoring Megge Joe Ferb PhD for 10 years of service to Denton County Dent, County Commissioners Court Dent, County Texas during the regular session. On the 25th of August 2015, considered the following resolution. Whereas Dr. Maggie Jopher extension agent was hired on February 1, 2005, and where we'll try our August 31st, 2015, after 10 years of service with Denton County. Whereas Maggie worked for several government agencies prior to coming to Denton County and dedicated the total of 34 years To her career as a family-consumer science agent to helping others in the community And whereas Maggie provided excellent educational programs and nutritional health safety Financial management family well-being parenting and aging issues and whereas Maggie was always willing to share her great love of quilting with four each youth and teaching younger generations sewing skills. And whereas Maggie plans to reduce her fabric inventory by making more quilts and retirement along with traveling and spending time with friends and family. Whereas Maggie's dedication to Dan McKinney has been appreciated and respected by all and to be greatly missed. Now, therefore, be it resolved, Dent McKinney commissioners, Court, Dent McKinney, Texas. This hereby extend to Maggie, Jofer, our sincere and grateful appreciation for her dedicated service to Dent McKinney. We congratulate Maggie on her well earned retirement, extend our best wishes to her for continued success, happiness and good health in the years to come. Then an open court, then this 25th day of August, 2015, I so move. Seconded by Commissioner Ease on favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed, sitting. Motionless, carry unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a true pleasure this last 10 and a half years. Actually, I've started my FCS career here in Denton County as a senior at TWA when I've visited Jenny Duncan down in the basement. And so it's sitting down in my career here in Denton County. And I'd also appreciate you Commissioner Eads and Judge Horn for helping us with the end of trig dedication, historical marker, which will be dedicated next spring and expect to see all of you there. Thank you very much. Thank you. And to my colleagues over here. Yeah, they're also eager to help me retire. So thank you very much for coming. I don't know if I'd say it quite that way. I think we wish you well, Maggie. Thank you very much. All right. If you'll wait just a few minutes, we'll have a nice framed copy of the resolution for you to take with you. I'm going to pass that down. And we're also going to, at this time, take up and Andy, if you would handle item 3D on the agenda, this is a probe of approximation honoring the chartering of the newly formed cross timbers rotary club. I don't know if you have anybody here from cross timbers. Okay, this is a probe Proclamation honoring the cross timbers rotary club whereas the cross timbers rotary club is the service organization and South Gitton County serving serving flower mound Highland Village, Lewisville, Copper Canyon, South Gettin County serving Flower Mound, Highland Village, Lewisville, Copper Canyon, Deborah Low, Atlanta, Bartonville, and Argo. And whereas the Cross-Tembers Rotary Club meets on Friday, mornings at 8 a.m., and held its first official meeting on May 29th, 2015. And whereas the Cross-Tembers Rotary Club was started by a initial group of eight who currently make up a portion of its board of directors. And whereas the Cross-Termus Rotary Club has 62 charter members. Whereas the Cross-Termus Rotary Club is the eighth club in area 11 of Rotary District 5790 and is chartering as its second largest. And whereas Rotary International is a 1.2 million member organization that started with the vision of one man, Paul P. Harris, who formed one of the world's first service organizations. The Rotary Club of Chicago on February 23rd, 1905, as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong relationships. And whereas Rotary's name came from the group's early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member. And whereas the Rotary guiding principles have been developed over the years to provide Rotarians with a strong, common purpose and direction in service of foundation for relationships with each other and the action they take in the world. And whereas the object of Rot rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise. Whereas the rotary, for-way test is a non-partisan, non-sectarian, ethical guide for oterians to use for their personal and professional relationships. Whereas the principle of motto, the principle motto of rotary is service above self, illustrating its desire to serve both locally and abroad. Now therefore, in honor of the chartering of the new Cross Timbers Rotary Club in South Ditton County, the Ditton County Commissioner's Court does hear about proclaim August 28, 2015 as Cross Timbers Rotary Club day in Ditton County, done an open court this 25th day of August upon a motion by myself. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Eid, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, Cine? Motion does carry. You know, India, Ken Ingraham always tells me that Kiwanis is Indian for our wish it was a Rotarian. He would, he would. That sounds like him. That's good. Members, our budget hearing is on the agenda for 10 o'clock and I know we have about three people here to speak on that item but we can't start before the post of time. And we also have somebody here to speak to us concerning our executive session item so So that's on the clock, by the way, our clock. That's right. I think it every real quick. We don't want to break into it. Yeah. So I want to take a break and go to executive session item 15 a's a close meeting for soon into Texas government code 551.711 a consultation with attorney and close meeting in the governmental body. CC advice of attorney about pending litigation This is styled Derek Matthew Rice at all versus Denton County at all currently pending in the 431st judicial court Denton County, Texas and 15b's closed meeting percentage of Texas government code 551.07118 Consultation of the attorney in the closed meeting in the governmental body CC advice. It is attorney regarding mitigation pending. This is filed Hunt Construction Group and Corporative versus Dent County pending in the 367th Judicial District Court. With that we're in executive session. I think we can handle this pretty quick. you you I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. you you As far as reconvene from executive session under I'm going to go back to item two, which is the consent agenda. Members are there any questions or comments concerning consent agenda? Do we have a motion for approval? Move for approval. Thank you. We have a motion for approval by Commissioner Coleman. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. I want to favor please say aye. Hello. Aye. Opposed? Say nay. Motion does carry. Consent agenda today consists of two A, which is approval of the order making appointments. We have a new, three new hires in the county jail, a new hire and sheriff communications division. Promotion and sheriff's office, a demotion and sheriff's office, a rehire in the sheriff's office, in a promotion of juvenile probation. 2B is approval of the Intra Department of Transfries to C is approval payroll, 2D is approval, to declare miscellaneous computers and printers of surplus, advertised and placed in online surplus auction 08152317 to be held September 25th. 2E is approval of report on proceeds from surplus online auction 07152310 held in July 2015 2F is approval budget amount of quest 101 660 for utilities repairs and maintenance for various buildings budgets in the amount of 13,476 dollars to G is approval budget amount of quest 101 670 for operating equipment for constable Crescent one in the amount of $3,835 to H is approval budget and request 101 680 for office supplies for public health Disgle year 2015 cities readiness initiative grant in the amount of 9,556 dollars to I is approval budget and request 101 690 for supplies for public health preparedness band in the amount of 17,703 dollars to J is approval budget man request 101 7000 for various operating line items for criminal district attorney in the amount of $12,000 to K is approval budgeted request 101 7 750 for various line-in is for road bridge tracing for you know at $22,429 and two Ls approval building use request from Bryce Olson cross timber community church to use the Cortes County Square community commissioners court running lawn on Monday, September 21, 2015 for the purpose of harmony time the praise worship and prayer to unify church in Denver County. I'm sorry, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. 3 a is approval resolution naming the month of September 2014 as childhood cancer awareness month. And I read the resolution. This is where the American Cancer Fund for Children and Kids Cancer Connection in the report cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among newest children between infancy and age 15. This tragic disease is detected in more than 15,000 of our country's young people each and every year. And whereas one in five of our nation's children loses his or her battle with cancer, many infants children and teens will suffer from long-term effects from comprehensive treatment including secondary cancers. And whereas founded over 20 years ago by Stephen Hirstein, a member of the fellow traffic Max Factor family, the American Cancer Fund for Children Inc. Kids Cancer Connection Inc. dedicated to helping these children and their families. Where's the American Cancer Fund for Children and Kids Cancer Connection provided a variety of vital, patient psychological services to children undergoing cancer treatment at Medical City Children's Hospital, Children's Medical Center Dallas, as well as participating hospitals throughout the country. They're by enhancing the quality of life for these children in their families. And where's the American Cancer Fund for Children and Kids Cancer Connection? Also sponsors courageous recognition award ceremonies. Community get well cards in hospital celebrations in honor of a child's determination and bravery to fight the battle against childhood cancer. Now therefore, it'd be resolved and kind of commissioners court that's hereby for playing the month of September as childhood cancer awareness month. The chair will so move. Seconded by Commissioner Eve on favor, please say aye. Aye. Vice-Senator Aynne, motion does carry. Wester Hertz. 3C is a presentation regarding the results and analysis of the employee engagement survey conducted by the Department of Human Resources will call in any further. Thank you, Judge and members of the Court. I wanted to follow up today on the earlier presentation that I did on employee engagement. And I think Bobby A. Monathes is going to help me get it up on yours. There we go. There we go. Thank you, Bobby. You may remember some time ago, we talked about doing an engagement survey and you may remember that we did do such survey. We received a lot of data from that survey. Some of it in data with bar graphs, some of it with pygraphs and you're going to see a lot of that today. We'll go through it pretty quickly because it is data. We received a lot of statistical data in addition to that and some answers to open questions that we'll talk a little bit about. That was kind of interesting because there were only two open questions, but we received a lot of feedback on those that helped us to shed a little insight on the data that we received, so that was kind of helpful. Just to remind anybody that hasn't thought about employee engagement recently, we said the definition that we were using was the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs are committed to the organization and put discretionary effort into their work. That's a little different than employee satisfaction. The key is really the discretionary effort that goes into their work. And we talked about how much is lost if employees are only doing what they're required to do and not engaged in putting in discretionary effort. This is just a reminder from the last presentation of what our process is. You remember when I was here before, I said we were in the planning stages. We completed the survey. The analysis is complete and today we're going to talk about the results of that analysis and proposed some possible actions to follow up the survey results. Through all of this, we've been communicating with you in the planning stage, the survey stage, the analysis, you know, there wasn't much to communicate while we were doing that, but now we're communicating and before we take any action at all. So who are we? Who responded to this survey? And you can see the demographics, that the sample of employees that responded to the survey is very, very similar to the peer group. You can see that as it's broken down by gender and age, there's almost no difference. That was really interesting. Look at the years with the organization. Exactly the same almost. And jobs within public safety. You can see that we had a lot more responders from public safety than our peer group. And that would make sense because this is a public sector peer group, but there are also a lot of cities and state agencies involved. And especially the cities are not going to have the size of a public safety organization as we have here at the county. So that might have an impact on the results that we got back. So that's who responded, but are we engaged? And this was really interesting. I didn't have any idea what we would see here. But you can see that more Denton County employees so they were, they strongly agreed that they were fully engaged in their jobs than their peer group. So that was good news. And you know, that might partially account for the reason that we're able to get so much done with this few employees as we have, because they are so engaged. We know that our employee ratio to constituent is better than most. How are we similar to the benchmark? Well, an overall satisfaction, we are about the same. Which is obviously a little different than engagement. As far as what's important to our employees, pretty much the same. obviously a little different than engagement. As far as what's important to our employees, pretty much the same. You see very few differences. Everybody values their health and medical benefits more than anything else. Time off is important so that people have flexibility in their job, flexible work environment. All those things were important to us just like they were important to the peer group that we were measured against. Denton County employees also were similar in the relationships that they have with their supervisors, very, very similar to the benchmark group. There were differences but not so much in these things, managers and supervisor relationships. So let's talk about how we're different. Denton County employees are much more likely to say that they're fully engaged in their jobs and have proper work-life balance. We saw a lot of that, a lot of strong work-life balance and flexibility. Employees, our employees are more likely to say that they're proud to work for the county, which is a key driver of employee engagement. It's troubling that they were less likely to say that they feel safe in their workplace. In the context of our workplace with the safety audits that we do, the attention on safety and the safety awardsits that we do, the attention on safety and the safety awards that we're getting. I wonder if that has to do with a high number of public safety employees that we have comparing their job and the work that they do where they know that they are vulnerable. More than it has to do with a lot of hazards laying around on the floor waiting for them to trip. There was no mention of unsafe work conditions in the open-ended question responses. So I don't think that workplace hazards are really a key issue for our employees. I could be wrong, but there was no evidence that it was in the open-ended questions. Denton County employees are much more likely to report that their department effectively uses its resources for problem solving, has opportunities for career and professional development, and properly distributes the workload and has adequate staff to get work done. When they're engaged, they get it done. And I think that speaks very highly for our employees and our managers. You know, career opportunities for professional development. We have built some career paths into a lot of our departments, the larger departments. And law enforcement certainly is a place where that naturally occurs, especially in the size of the organization that we have. So I think those are all good things that our employees are saying. Denton employees are much more likely to report that they're organists and we already talked about that. They said performance management, compensation management, they didn't rate very high. Lee, workforce and succession planning was not rated highly and so those were things that we rated lower than the peer group. Performance management we rated higher and I assume that has to do with the performance appraisal process. Job training, look how much higher we are in job training in the perceptions of our employees then in other organizations that they were measured against. I think that's really a good thing that the county can say that. Online learning management system, we don't have a full-fledged online learning management system, but we do have some modules online for employees that I believe technology services has put out there and we have a lot more information online than a lot of organizations do and I wonder if that's what's reflected there. I didn't see anything about that in the verbal responses so I can't really say. In communications, this was a really interesting area. You can see that Denton County rated communications in their department a lot higher overall than their peer group did in several different categories and they didn't rate it lower in any category. And yet when we read the verbal responses, there was quite a bit of concern about things not being communicated fully. And that appeared to come from larger departments. And that's understandable. It's more difficult to communicate everything on down through a very large organization. So that's something that probably would need to be addressed. Likelihood to recommend the workplace, our employees, 44% of them were very likely and 40% were somewhat likely. So I think 84% of our employees would recommend that in County as a workplace kind of similar to the peer group. Much more likely to say they definitely would not leave their job next year if working conditions did not improve. That surprised me a little bit because nationwide with the improvements in the economy, we are seeing more movement among employees and more people looking for jobs. And sometimes we hear more from people who are dissatisfied than satisfied, but our employees were much more likely to say that they definitely would not leave in their job next year. Denton County employees are much less likely to have worked on a special task force or a special project is the way I think that question was really asked. I don't really know why that is. Denton County employees were significantly less likely to report that someone talked with them about their progress. If that is reflective of the organization, that could be a problem going forward because we know that the millennials that we're going to need to hire and retain are going to require a lot more feedback and immediate feedback. So that's something that we might need to work with departments on as well. Denton County employees are much less likely to say that they have good benefit packages, get the opportunity to participate in important special projects, and are adequately compensated. Okay, what did they say in their verbal responses? The first open and ended question they were asked is what causes you to be dissatisfied at work? And the thing that we heard the most about was they felt they were insufficiently paid for their work. We also heard about a lack of communication and you might remember that earlier we saw communication rated really highly. So some departments were doing an excellent job and we can't pinpoint for the most part because it wasn't sorted by department but we can see from some of the things that people say about their job what work place they're in. We don't know who they are, we don't want to know who they are but we can tell if it's a larger department and sometimes if it's a law enforcement department or medical environment or administrative environment. A lack of opportunity for training. You might remember that our employees felt we had really good job training here at the county. But it's not really surprising that some of them are feeling like they don't get enough opportunity, especially shift workers in large departments. I would think especially detention employees, whether they're juvenile or adult detention, it's difficult for them to get to some of the training. And there was some concern in some departments about favoritism. Also on the question about best practices, what best practices have you seen that enhanced satisfaction? The number one thing that we saw over and over again from our employees was flexibility. They felt like they had flexible schedules or flexible workplaces and that people were understanding when they needed to take time off to take care of a family member and that kind of thing. That was the number one thing that our employees said was really important to them that they have observed in their department. Certainly some departments can be more flexible than others. The communication, again, a lot of our employees thought there was great communication within their department. A lot of them felt like there was sufficient recognition and that they were thanked and made to feel valued. And a lot of them said that they had really appreciated the efforts to raise employees pay. So you see on the one hand with the first question employees saying they're concerned that their pay isn't high enough. And then on the other question, you see them recognizing that there have been efforts to raise their pay. And also, they talked about being well trained. And I think that speaks for a highly to our departments and our organization and to the court for supporting that training in the departments. Denton employees were more likely to say that they had clearly defined goals and objectives and are proud to work for the county I think probably a lot of them in their Performance appraisals talk about the goals for the next year. I would guess that's what's reflected here I yeah, that's a guess. I can't really say for sure Denny County employees, you know one of the strengths that you see overall is that our employees are more engaged in their peers. And they reported being significantly more engaged in their peer group. Denton County employees are less likely to say that they would leave for other employment than their peers. Those are two real positive things from our workforce. So those are two real positive things from our workforce. There are some challenges here and one challenge is the perception that pay and benefits are low. We plan to do a big survey in spring 2016. I think the time is good to do that in the last couple of years. We have had pay raises that were geared toward raising our employees pay. And I think we need to look at where we are now. We've also had a lot of reclassifications of jobs, especially this year. So I think we need to look at those ranges and look at actual pay and see, and what difference those things have made. And we expect to get, or we are going to be implementing a new human resources management system that should help us to communicate total rewards. And I know that's something that Commissioner Eads, especially I think all of you are interested in that. I know Commissioner Eads especially asked for that. And we thought we'd have our new HRMS up and running by now, but that didn't work. So I want you to know that we're still focused on that. And we feel like the new system will have some things in it. Maybe not as bright and shiny as we would have liked, but they say they'll be able to help us with that. Another challenge and a proposed action that we're proposing is communication is clearly difficult in the larger departments. We would certainly offer more training and communicating on down to employees remembering that they need to know at all levels what's going on. It's empowering to know what's going on and work with departments to determine how to address that. We'd be willing to do either one of those things or both whatever the departments feel like would be most effective for them. Another challenge is that training is valued. Employees think it's important and they think there's good training out there but it's not always accessible and we'd be willing to work with the 24-hour facilities or other departments that feel like they are challenged to provide training opportunities and see if we can't make more of that happen. And I think this is the final challenge that I put on here because we picked out the major things that we heard in the open- questions and some of the data, then some of the employees don't always feel valued and we could work with the departments to improve and increase feedback and recognition. That's going to be increasingly important going forward as we have more baby boomers retire and we have the generation X people in there to fill their slots, but they're not enough of them to replace all the people who are going to be retiring and we're going to be hiring more and more millennials who really value that feedback and recognition according to all the data. So those would be the proposed actions that we would propose and we certainly want to hear from the court about your ideas and we would recommend following up with another survey in another year and a half or so to see what progress has been made towards increasing engagement. So open to your ideas, suggestions, criticisms, whatever. I'm going to answer questions from members of court. It is good information for not only the commission to have but staff members have and supervisors to go back and reinforce what they are already doing. I mean, can you email that to us or we share? I can do that. The hard copyers and thank you. I think it's good to know. Thank you for doing that Any other questions are coming not right now anyway Okay, it's past 10 o'clock so we're gonna go to item 4a on the agenda This is a public hearing and the proposed in County tax rate of 0.2620 per one hundred dollar evaluation for tax year 2015 Which would increase total tax revenues from properties on the tax roll of the proceeding year by 2.397, 349% above the effective rate and schedule public meeting to adopt the tax rate to Tuesday, September 1, 2015, at 1015. At the court, it's on the Square of the Commission's courtroom 110 with Tickley's second floor, then Texas. We have a few public comment forms here. My question is, do you want to speak for the presentation? Okay. I'm not really sure what order these came in, but the first one I've got on top here is Mr. Taylor, or Tyler. I'm sorry, Nicholson. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. I'm here today to talk to you about the upcoming 2016 fiscal budget year. In the last several years, this county has been very fortunate enough to experience tremendous growth in the forms of population development and an overall tax base. This kind of growth is not only beneficial to every department in the county, but also helps maintain a growing county infrastructure. Over the last several years this county has done well in maintaining a balanced budget and being fiscally responsible to its taxpayers and the state of Texas. As an elected official, you have the responsibility to the citizens of Ditton County who ultimately fund the county and keep you in the chair that you sit in this morning. You also have a responsibility to the employees who every day, day and night, 24-7, keep your county running with or without you. In the last several years, for various reasons, the insurance rates at which your county pays has become an issue. It has come to my attention that since 2012 the insurance rates have been rising steadily. In the modern day and age of Obamacare we have experienced these raises as families, individuals and as accounting. I understand that the vendor sets the rates in which you adopt this upcoming year. U.S. the Commissioner's Court are in charge of the governing body of Denton County, have a say, in other words, a bargaining chip, and what the rates will be since you, since you in fact govern, excuse me, every department under your leadership. While I'm not a huge proponent of raising taxes or big government, lowering taxes isn't a bad thing either. I want to express my concern for the employees in which you govern every day. If you are offering your employees a 5% raise for the 2016 budget year, that makes a lot of them perk up and really look forward to that no doubt. Myself included. However, how far does a 5% raise go when you allow the vendor to raise the rates of their insurance? That's not a pay raise commissioners, that's called a net loss. As you all are aware, you guys run the county, you know what a net loss is. The employees affected most of the ones at the bottom who make your job look glorious and put it down. They are the ones with families who pay the most for the same coverage, some even working two jobs, just to make sure their children and spouses have a decent life. While this county offers other small ways to make them feel better and help motivate them, I feel you can do a better job of making sure that your employees are taking care of while being fiscally responsible to your taxpayers and voters. I have no doubt in my mind that your budget office is one of the best in the great state of Texas. However, I want you to know that you should keep in mind that the people that keep your county running every day are not just yourselves and the people who keep you in the chair that she's sitting. Commissioner Coleman, you once said that if you give them, if you give the employees a raise, then follow that with a raise in the insurance rates, it leaves bitter feelings of both ends. That was two years ago, Commissioner. Commissioner Mitchell, you once said two years ago that you cared about all the employees of Denton County. If this is true, then how about taking the bull by the horns and fighting for your employees and not just satisfying the votes? After all, the employees control fighting for your employees and not just satisfying the votes. After all, the employees control some of your votes too. Thank you for your time today, commissioners. Judge Warren. Thank you. The second public comment far more ahead is from Pity Campbell. Good morning, Judge and commissioners. I too am here to speak about the recent decision of this court to yet again raise insurance premiums for county employees. Yet again, you have approved a small raise only to take it back by raising our premiums by 20 to 25%. By your own studies and research, you know that Denton County employees are paid 10 to 20% lower than other cities and counties in this area. Now you have taken the last benefit keeping employees from quitting and going elsewhere. Mr. Coleman, didn't you say approximately two weeks ago employees stay here for the benefits? If you truly believe that, then why did you vote for the higher premiums for county employees when there was money in the budget for the lower premium insurance? Here's another question. What will now motivate the best and brightest employees from leaving a mass, you have taken the last incentive to work here? For the average employee to have their family on their own insurance and your new plan, it would cost anywhere from one third to almost half of their take home pay. Last week, Judge Horn, you read an email that you would send out to employees talking about the fact that this is the best raise since 2001. By your own words, you have just illustrated how long county employees have been to work without fair compensation. You also spoke about having a health savings plan and wellness reward points. I'm sorry, but this is just not feasible for most employees. After working 8 to 10 hours, most employees do not want to go listen to the health lecture for an hour to earn points towards their health cost. Meanwhile, they're paying a babysitter time and a half to watch their kids while they are there. Most employees can't leave their workstations when these classes are offered. Employees working deep night shouldn't have to get up in the middle of their night to jump through hoops for adequate health coverage. They were getting before your last vote. I've been a dedicated loyal employee for almost 13 years here at this county and I have worked two jobs that whole time. I am truly dissatisfied with your dedication to Denton County employees and I'm truly saddened I have to have to come and speak out about something you have let go for so long. Thank you. The last public comment I have on this is from Mr. Charlie Smith. Good morning, Judge and commissioners. I'm sure you didn't plan on seeing me again so soon and probably dread seeing me again after those last comments. But I too am here to speak out of the crisis that faces Denton County. I think it's fantastic that you did this survey and spent a lot of time and put in that presentation you just gave to the fact that we most Denton County employees love their job. They love serving the people of Denton County. That goes without saying. But the one key thing that you mentioned was we don't feel valued, we don't feel listened to it. And our pay and benefits are so low. The crisis of the un-petitive low pay for all county employees is the crisis has been compounded by your inability or apathy to act. For years now, debton County employees have been paid well below market average. Year by year, the gap in competitive pay widens. Every few years you approve a 2-4% raise, which does nothing when you raise your insurance premiums. Not only is the gap widened each year, but are benefits shrink year after year. The Sheriff's Office alone suffers a 30% turnover with people leaving for higher paying jobs. This turns Denton County into a training school for all other municipalities. People work here long enough to gain experience, free training and certifications. They build up their resume on the tax fairs-time and then leave for a higher paying job in another city. These cities welcome them and even recruit them, knowing they do not have to foot the bill for their job training. The surrounding cities win because they are getting fully trained and experienced workers without shelling out thousands of dollars for training. The workers win having higher pay and benefits for their family. Who does it win is the Denton County taxpayer. Because of the high turnover rates, thousands more are spent on vetting and training a new employee for the job. Meanwhile, the other employees must increase their workload to cover the loss of manpower. Everyone wins but us. I am tired of losing. This is a cycle that has gone on for years in every department in Denton County. Each year hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars are wasted on training employees that have left for other municipalities. In the past, over and over, you as our elected leaders have been asked to fix the problem. Over and over the answer is we can't afford it. My question to you is how can you afford not to? The county isn't a crisis and yet again you stick your heads in the sand. I beg you not to just brush this off but realize that there is a problem and it can be solved? You, as the commissioners, must lead as the voters have elected you to do. As a resident, a taxpayer, an employee, and a voter, I expect you to make Denton competitive again. Compensate your employees fairly and they will stop leaving. You will say taxpayers' money and regain the respect that you have not had for quite a while. Now, I think it's great that you do these surveys and you check to see how the employees are feeling, but you've had employees coming for years upon years, more than a decade, coming to speak face to face with you, telling you how they feel, telling you that they're in benefits of their importance in them and you cut the benefits. They tell you over and over to increase their pay and you don't. You can do all the surveys you want, but if you're not listening, it doesn't matter. Thank you for your time. Okay, members, I failed to ask for opening of the public hearing. So if we'd have a motion in a second, please. Also moved. Opening the public hearing. Thank you. I have a motion by Commissioner Clawman, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye, pose, aye. Motion to thisperia. Those of only three public comment forms that I had if there's anyone else. Anyone else that would like to address Commissioner's Court concerning this item, please complete a public comment form available on the side table, either in favor of or opposed to the proposed budget discussion. Before Donna makes her presentation, I've got something I'd like to go over. Judge Hornot also like to address some comments. OK. So if you don't want to go first, you go ahead. As stated previously, I think if you all look in the record, I actually talked about insurance premium six years ago and four years ago and two years ago. It is hard. I've been experiencing a entry level employee working for the county. I've been a higher level employee working for the county. I've had children while employed for the county. I think I have a perspective that not many people have, probably Bobby Mitchell's shared that a little bit with me. I think I have thought hard to get our employees adequate compensation and employees benefits. But one of the things you can't do, and I don't think some of the employees understand, is that when you advocate and you get a compromise, it may not be everything you want, but you can't get a compromise and then vote against the compromise you brokerage. So I think it's unfair to criticize that. I have asked for additional funds to be placed in the Health Sav savings account. An original proposal that was made was we only make a one-time contribution and then then not make any additional contributions. If you all have noticed we have made a contribution every year. We will probably not be allowed to do that when a bomb of care comes into final. When it comes into final, whatever, when it's adopted finally. I could get my colleagues to keep doing that and then vote against the compromise I get them to do. Generally, they won't want to agree with you in the future or accept any compromise. It is not as euro-sum game. It's not my way or the highway. As one of five, you have to be able to find ways to work with your colleagues and advocate for what you want. I will tell you that having worked at the DA's office and with law enforcement and non-law enforcement employees, we need to consider the county as a whole. When I came here to work with Sheriff Lucas, there were people who were in the jail who were making welfare type wages and he did everything he could to bring up their salaries. And he did. And a lot of the leadership and law enforcement should come from the sheriff. Because he's the number one advocate to get you all additional money. And we have a paradigm that allows for people to get additional compensation. And that's during the budget process, not during the middle of the year. If you have a sheriff who comes during the middle of the year to ask for increases, like everybody else, we're not going to tell them that. As the county road rage supervisor for precinct one, along with the NDE's a couple of years ago, we realized that there was some inequities and we were losing employees. So we asked HR to consider that and got a raise for our employees. I think one of the things you all need to do is talk to the sheriff. are to consider that and got a raise for our employees. I think one of the things you all need to do is talk to the sheriff and have him come and advocate during the budget process. But I will tell you, I have advocated for the employees and I have struck compromises which I think are best for everybody concerned. And I'm proud of my records. Let me just say one thing, Commissioner Coleman. I think the sheriff has advocated for the employees. I think every department advocates for their employees. And as I said, and somebody mentioned that we do all care for employees, but we still have a responsibility to not only you, but the taxpayers also in handing out raises. And to me, a 5% raise is a pretty good raise. In fact, I think it's an excellent raise when I go out and talk in the community to people there shocked that we've given you 5% rates. And as far as minimum wage jobs, I don't think any of us started out making $20 an hour. As for myself, I started out making a $1.70 an hour when I was first started out. Also, I started out working two jobs to make ends meet. That's not to say that you have to do that, but I believe that then County try to pay their employees a comparable salary to every city and every county. We're not going to be paid high as Dallas and Fort Worth. We don't have as many employees as Dallas and Fort Worth would have, but I believe that we try our best to make sure that I employees are taken care of. We're a word that, yes, they train and go somewhere else, but also we have other places that train and they come to Den County. I appreciate every one of you, but just like you have a job to do, I also have a job to do. I cannot just sit up and think about one department. I have to think about the county as a whole when I make decisions on budget issues. And I try to do that while taking the, taking it personally, like how would I feel when I give a raise? Do I think the insurance rates are too high? Absolutely. I think every one of us do. But that is life. It's going to happen. And we have to live with it. It's judge point of said in the letter. We've tried to do some things to make that a little bit more palatable to you. I know you may not like it but I don't believe you you can say that we're not concerned about the employees because I believe every one of us sit here are concerned about employees but just because the same race you get some years I may or may not get it there have been years that we didn't get it but it's not to say that we don't care about employees. And I for one have a problem with anybody to think that I don't do the best job I can to take care of my employees. Always have, always will. So you need to know that. You may not always give what you want and guess what? I don't get what I want either. But that's life. Hey, I'd like to. Thank you, Lord. Did you want to send it? I'm trying to. There's not much left to be said. I agree with most of the comments both of them made. But I think it, I think one way to characterize this is about balance. And we, we have to balance the percentage that the county, the employer absorbs as far as a lot of the things that we've done. We've done a lot of things that we've done. We've done a lot of things that we've done. We've done a lot of things that we've done. We've done a lot of things that we've done. We've done a lot of things that we've done. We've done a lot of things that we've I think we've done a very good job of being mindful in trying to do the best we can, especially in light of the financial turbulence we've had over the past few years with the economy. And what people are trying to rebound. And I think the court has done a good job of trying to keep the county competitive. And we could pay 100% of all the health care costs but then where would we be on the pay scale. And so we want to try to nudge the pay scales up and it keeps those competitive but also how do we strike a good balance and I think we have been mindful of that. And I know that no one is getting rich working for Ditton County. And I believe we have stability here. I believe that we do have other benefits that are important as Amy outlined. That's not any statements. Today she was repeating the statements and values that our employees expressed. And I appreciate y'all coming. I think it's important that y'all listen to everything in the full context of what we're trying to do. And I appreciate every one of your concerns. And I know that you speak listen to everything in the full context of what we're trying to do. And I appreciate every one of your concerns. And I know that you speak for other employees, you don't speak just for yourself. And I do take that into consideration in Commissioner Coleman's right. We have over the years tried to pay close attention to our employees. And we've talked about compromise. I think that is a fair way to characterize it in one regard. But also we all have a commonality here and that we do value the employees. You may not feel that and I'm sorry that you don't, but we do value the employees and we're very proud of the asset that you are to not let the county government to our residents. Okay, once again I want to share the email that I put out to all county employees. So good afternoon, the budget that Commissioner Curtis proposed for 2016 to full of good things for the county employees. First and foremost, the proposed budget includes 2% market increase and the 3% cost of living increase. I need to get back to work. 3% cost of living increase for all employees with at least 6 months of service and a performance of praise of score of at least 2.8. That is the largest paying increased commissioners card has been able to approve since 2001. Notice I said, been able to approve since 2001. Notice I said in able to approve since 2001. Not that we haven't wanted to do it before but it's the first time we've been able to do since 2001. The pay raise proposed for October 1 represents a big commitment to employees of behalf of commissioners court. In addition, the budget includes increased funds for wellness rewards. In the 2016 wellness plan near employees who enrolled their spouses in the counties insurance plan, will also be able to enroll their spouses in the PBC wellness plan. If both employees, I'm sorry, employee and the enrolled spouse earn 300 points each. The employee will get $600 to put into a flexible spending account, a health savings account towards out-of-pocket expenses or to spend, however they choose. Also, Commissioner Cored has approved providing employer-seed money to employees enrolled in high deductible health plan paired with health savings account. Recognizing that out-of-pocket expenses has an impact on employees and their health plan at the first of the year. The 2016 budget again includes a one time deposit of $500 for employee only, or $1,000 for employee and family in order to build cash value to pay for qualified medical, dental, and vision expenses. In addition to the usual number of job reclassifications and new positions approved annually, the 2016 budget also includes a large number of job reclassifications and new positions approved annually, the 2016 budget also includes a large number of adjustments for many of the lowest paid employees in Denton County, the administrative assistance and deputy clerks. Those adjustments came about because those employees pay levels were dramatically below market. The 2016 proposed budget includes $22 million for employee health insurance program. Although premiums still have to increase, this is a huge investment in Denton County employee benefits. Court members will hope two public hearings on the budget taxpayers will learn that the tax rate will go down in the 2016 year. We expect that all the above commitments to employees will remain in the budget when it is adopted after the public hearings. Now I want to take just a minute and share a few responses that I receive from employees after that email went out. The first one here says, on behalf of juvenile probation, I want to thank you and members of the court for your hard work and leadership in the budget. It certainly means very much to each member of our staff to be able to be reasonably compensated and even appreciated by commissioners court while working at the Denton County juvenile probation department. I have another one that just said thank you for sending the email out. Then I have another one that says I think you all did an amazing job this year. Thank you for sending the email out. Then I have another one that says, I think you all did an amazing job this year. Thank you. I have another one that says, great job. I'm excited for the adjustments for the Deputy Clearson Administrative Assistance. And I really like the new wellness program through the United Health Care also. Here's one that says, thank you Judge. This means a great deal to my family great job And lastly there was one that says I've worked a few places over the past 40 years And I must say that Dan Coney has been the best the employee support is outstanding And I hope that the members of commissioners court know that your efforts are recognizing appreciated Thank you very much. So obviously not everyone agrees with our speaker. That's a great thing about a public hearing. Everybody can express their opinion that doesn't make them right or wrong. I found some of their comments ironic. I wouldn't say so least. That's right. All of us. That goes on this side too, believe me. I mean. I just said I thought some of the comments were particularly ironic. Yep. Okay, Donna, you are on. Thank you, Judge and commissioners. As you know, this is our second public hearing on the proposed tax rate for tax year 2015. We had our first public hearing last Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Just to let everyone know how the process works, the Ditton Central appraisal district is the body that was established in 1981 and they're responsible for appraising property for ablorn tax purposes for each taxing jurisdiction. Each jurisdiction has no control over the specific appraisal of that individual's property value. So there's contact information here on the screen if you need to speak with the chief appraisal at the Ditton Central appraisal district. We're going to be talking a lot today about the effective tax rate. So I wanted to give a brief description of that. This is the rate that provides the taxing unit with approximately the same dollars it had in the year before on properties taxed in by the years. So you'll see there's an exhibit there from Truth and Taxation that shows you how that process works. So generally if values increase, the effective rate goes down and if values decrease, the effective rate goes up. So this specific year, there were increased in values, so that's why we're seeing a lower tax rate that's being proposed. There are four principles of truth and taxation. Property owners received notices of their praised value in estimated taxes that could result from that new value. Each taxing unit must publish the effective and rollback tax rates before adopting an actual rate. Notices must be published by the taxing entity and we must hold two public hearings before we can adopt a tax rate. That is if the rate exceeds the lower of the rollback rate or the effective rate. If a taxing unit adopts that rate, a rate that exceeds the rollback rate, voters may petition for an election to limit the rate to a rollback rate. There are some important property tax dates, I think, wanna cover quickly. April 1st is when the chief of prazer at the prazel district sends notices to single family residences of their proposed praises. May 1st, they send notices to any other properties requiring notice. Everyone has a deadline to meet May 31st if they want to protest the appraisal with the district. The July 25th is the deadline if the chief appraisal certifies the appraisal role to each tax injuristic. August, which is where we are now, the cities and counties are proposing their tax rates and publishing notices. And when we pick up the paper, you see all those entities are publishing those important notices. August and September, the units adopt their budgets and tax rates, and then the tax assistance or collector prepares and mails out tax statements hopefully in the month of October. There are public hearing notices required on the proposed rate, and that is triggered if there is any increase over the effective tax rate. At the conclusion of the final budget workshop on August 4, the Court unanimously voted to propose a tax rate of 0.2620, and schedule these two public hearings. The notice of proposed rate was advertised and posted according to the statute, which is located in the local government code. There was a quarter-page notice that appeared in the Dittmerrick Chronicle on Monday, August 10. Same notice was posted on the Ditton County website and remains posted through today. And we also provided that same notice to charter communication. That's our local free access cable station who have been running that notice for 60 second periods five times a day between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. and that will run through today as well. The next screen just shows what actually did appear in the newspaper and on our website and on charter communications. When we adopt a rate, next week we'll be talking about the maintenance and operation rate, which is what the rate that will impose the amount of taxes needed to fund basically all of our operating expenses. Everything with the exception of the debt rate. And that is the rate of taxes that needed to fund debt service. And this is for our long-term debt service payments for the following year. The rollback rate is the rate, if we were to adopt that rate, we would be subject to a rollback rate is the rate if we were to adopt that rate, we would be subject to a rollback election. We are just under opinion away from the rollback rate, so we are not even close to that. The proposed tax rate breakdown based on what we just talked about. The maintenance and operation rate is 0.192148. The debt rate is 0.069852, bringing our total proposed rate this year to 0.2620. The next just gives a breakdown comparing our current rate was reduced to 0.255866. The rate we're proposing in this public hearing and for adoption next week is 0.262Z Road. That is a variance of over a penny less than the current rate or just over a half set above the affected tax rate. The rollback rate is 0.270-034, which is actually lower than our current tax rate. The rate that we're proposing is about a 2.4% increase above the affected tax rate. New property value generates new revenue for taxing units. increase of the effective tax rate. New property value generates new revenue for taxing units. This helps offset when values are lost from new exemptions, or special appraisals are granted for the first time in the current year. The taxing unit deducts new property value from the appraised values in the effective tax rate calculation. So in essence we receive a one-time increase in property values and this year that amount is $7,050,000 and $33. This is new money we'll be receiving to help fund our operating budget which is an increase compared to last year of 2.1 million dollars. The tax rate increase above the calculated rate would be a hundred and seventy nine Million 468,987 dollars The levy that we're proposing to fund our budget this year is a hundred and eighty three million Seven hundred seventy one thousand four hundred and eighty five dollars That's an increase of about four4.3 million of the effective rate. This next chart just shows you a comparison of different home values in the county. If you own the average home in Denton County, that value is now $253,066. The effective rate you'll see taxes would the county taxes would be $647.51 showing our current tax rate compared to the proposed rate. So bottom line on that same house, we'll be looking at a monthly variance of the savings of $2.15. These charts assumed that there were no change in valuation. Of course, it depends on each individual's property appraisal as to how it will affect them. So last year's average home value was 234,162. The proposed, as we've mentioned, the taxable now is 253.066, the impact of 18904. The next line shows the tax rate comparison and it shows that a lower opinion decrease and the property tax levy last year versus this year on the tax rate that's been proposed. So monthly estimated increase is $2.14. This actually shows the average homeowner's home again, based on last year's tax rate. You'll see taxes for school district were 62%. City of Denton was 27% while Denton County was 11%. Using that same analysis on the this year's rate, you'll see the school district tax is 62%. City of Denton increased from 27 to 28% and Denton County's portion decreased by 1%. Again, these are showing the proposed rates for these entities as they have not been adopted yet. You go back one on the slide. It's one. $500 more in taxes here. Overall, overall count and most of that can be attributed to your school and city taxes. Need to move out in the country I guess. Okay this next slide shows the average home value in monthly taxes and you'll see based on that same same house we've been talking about you pay $55 in county taxes for a month, $325 per month in school taxes and $147 in city of debt in Texas. The next chart shows a 10 year history of our tax rate here in Ditton County. You'll see just from this chart that the proposed rate is actually lower than it was in 2010. And you'll see that in 2010 through 13, we had a little bit of a decline in the economy. And you can see that the last two years the economy has improved, therefore, effective rate has gone down. This chart compares Denton County to the most populated counties in the state, the top 10 Texas counties, Denton County ranks high as number nine. You'll see that Denton counties, and let me clarify that the rate shown on this chart and the next one to follow is not just these entities County rate, but it includes any other countywide tax rate that's levied in each county. It does not include city of school or any other districts that levied within each county. You'll see that Denton counties proposed rate is 0.262 compared to all the other counties that one closest to us is calling county at 0.31690. Several of these have other rates including hospital district or community college rates. The next is a tax bill comparison. So if you live in Denton County, you pay $663 in taxes, levy, county wide. Again, not just your county tax, but any other special county wide hospital rate. Tarant county, you pay $1674. That's because it also includes the hospital district community college and a water district rate. In Dallas County, you'd pay $1680 because they have a hospital district and a community college as well. And in calling county 802 would be your tax bill because they have a community college rate. This next chart compares Denton County to all 254 counties in the state. There are only nine counties in the state that have a lower county tax rate than we are proposing. And there's a list there for you of those counties that are lower than us. All county rates range from anywhere from 0.12289 compared to our proposed rate of 0.2620. We received all this information from the Texas State Comptroller's website. The top 15 counties comparing populations. You'll see that Denton County is noted there with employees for capital at 2.21. And there's only one county lower than us and that would be calling county at two. Here's this same information reflected in a chart, tenure history chart for Denton County. And you'll see that the employee for capital rate has continued to decline to the rate of, we mentioned before, 2.21. Of course, what drives the tax rate is the budget that's being proposed. So just a quick summary of the budget process that starts early for us in February where the commissioners court establishes goals and actually kicks off the budget process. March and April departments prepare their budget request and in the months of May and June, the budget office prepares a recommended budget that was presented to this court on July the 14th. July 28th through August 4th we held open meeting budget workshops and then we're holding the last of the public hearings on the tax rate today and we are scheduled to adopt a budget and tax right next week. This is just a quick summary of our revenues by function. You'll see that out of our $254.9 million proposed budget, 71% of our budget is spended through property taxes and the others are made up of these fines, auto registration, et cetera. The expense summary by function is shown here. You'll see that 30% of our budget funds public safety, the judicial or legal system comprises about a total of 15% and then all the other services are listed as well. The next sheet provides you with a quick breakdown of what falls in each of those categories to help you better understand what we're recording. There was, I wanted to just summarize the major changes that are included in the budget. As we talked about earlier, there's a 2% market adjustment and 3% merit increase. This is being done in an effort to get all of our employees closer to the market. And then the 3% merit increase will be for eligible employees that receive an acceptable performance evaluation and the hard before April 1st. The court also approves some 229 reclassifications of physicians during this budget process. So the increase related to that is about $3.6 million. We have new building expenses that are included in the capital replacement fund. This will help pay for capital projects in lieu of issuing long term debt. So that total is about $3.6 million. We also have increased debt service payments for a total of $2.8 million. And I'll have a slide here in a minute that breaks that down for a little further. We have increased repairs and maintenance. This is primarily for building maintenance, software maintenance and ADA repairs. A total of almost 1.8 million dollars. We have new hires included in the budget about 1.1 million dollars. I have a slide that will break that down for us here in just a little bit as well. There's funding in the budget for a significant number of radios operating equipment and video equipment. This includes audio video system that's been requested for all the various courtrooms. There are 72 in car video systems and over 90 radio replacements that will be phased in over the next few years. The impact of that's about $843,000. Increased computer equipment and software. This is $782,000 increase. This year we're proposing that we purchase all of our computers. As you know in the past we've released them over a four year period, but this will be funded with our capital replacement. Well, we have miscellaneous court ordered expenses included in the budget at $660,000 increase. That's primarily for court appointing attorney bills, psychiatric services and counseling services. Utility expenses based on all of our facilities we're looking at a $433,000 increase just electricity alone is an increase of over a quarter of a million dollars. Other miscellaneous expenses that's postage supply, training, prisoner medical expense those are all included as well. We had a lot of decreases in the budget to recover that in more detail next week at our public hearing on the budget itself. So the total proposed budget increase is $15, almost $16,900. New employees that have been included. As you know, departments requested 36 and a half positions. What's being proposed in the proposed budget is 17.5. proposed in the proposed budget is 17.5. In the area of general administration, that includes two deputy clerk twos and a deputy clerk three for the county clerk. This will be for the precinct three government center. Technology services, receiving a network engineer and technical services administrator, and the department of Public Works is receiving a new construction project manager. In the area of judicial, the district clerk will be receiving two new senior court positions and the medical examiner's office will receive an increase in an investigator position from part-time to full-time status. And financial, the county auditor's receiving a new internal auditor position. In facilities, they're receiving an electronics technician position. These functions will be taken over by this department and have previously been performed by our technology services department. In public safety, County jail is receiving a deputy for transport. In jail health, they're receiving to help service specialists to help with the intake area. And the sheriff's department is receiving a laboratory manager. Also in Ag extension, they're receiving a new four-H program coordinator. And in Road and Bridge, precinct 1 is receiving a driver equipment operator 3, and Road and Bridge 4 is receiving a lead mechanic. There were a couple of deleted slots. One in Technology Services, that's the help desk manager position, and the veterans court grant program manager. Of course, this is pending grant award notification, and I just heard yesterday that we did receive that. So we'll be processing that as a budget amendment. So that position will actually be reinstated after October 1st. Increased debt service payments for our voter approved red projects, after October 1st. Increased debt service payments for our voter approved road projects are included at 10.2 million dollars in projects that are categorized under the county judge in for precinct one including county roads and triple eight roads. Total's almost $4.5 million. Triple eight roads for precinct three, total of million five and roads for precinct four. I include county roads at 10 points, almost $7 million and triple eight roads at 1.5. So we're looking at $28,329,915 in total road projects. Again, those are all voter approved road projects. We also have voter approved technology and building repair projects. and Building Repair Projects, Loop 288 Phase 3. This is for architect fees to begin the design of that facility. Sheriff's Operations Center and Crime Lab, we also have $3 million included for architect fees, and then another Million 7 for Faber Arctic Construction. So Grant Total Technology and Building Projects projects approved by the voters. The issue debt for $8.1 million. This is just a quick summary of what I just covered. So voter approved projects total $36.49. And speaking of that voter approval, just wanted to give you some update on that. The proposition that passed for Rose was for $310 million. That received 68.22% voter approval. So far, we've issued 81% of those funds, and you'll see the balances are listed there. Proposition number two was for building technology projects at $185 million that received 52.25% voter approval and we have issued some 46% of those funds today. Total projects voted on and approved by the voters were $495 million. There are some other projects that we're funding with tax notes. This is a shorter term debt that's paid back over a seven year period. These include projects for countywide network and telephone refresh, totaling $3.4 million. Various security electronic upgrades for the jail facilities at one point almost $7 million. The Lee Walker Government Center additional $3 million. Pre-trial inmate and transport remodel and additional million dollars. Jail Corps Support Renovation, $741,000. Emergency services building repairs at $460,000, as well as the pre-sleep for government center in additional $1.6 million. So we have just recently issued $11.935 million in tax notes. The proposed budget will be on file in the budget office, county clerk and county auditor's office. This coming Thursday we will also post that same document, the 700 page document, on our website, that same day as well. We will have the public hearing on the proposed budget next Tuesday, September 1st, at 10 a.m. here in this courtroom. And adoption of the budget is scheduled immediately following that public hearing, along with adoption of the tax rate at about 1015, the same data next week. At this point, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have, and if you'd like to, I know we've had some public comment, but if there's any additional public comment, we can certainly open that up for discussion as well. Okay, are there any questions or comments from members of clerk? So anyone in attendance that would like to address commissioners court on this issue that hasn't already spoken? I believe not. We have a motion to close our public hearing. Motion by Commissioner Eid, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed to say aye. Motion is carried. I think the only vote we need is to officially schedule a public meeting to adopt a tax rate for Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 1015. The Court House on the Square Commission was court room 110 was 60 seconds floor to have our public meeting. Cheryl Samu seconded by Commissioner Mitchell, with favorite, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Posting, motion is carried. Any comments, questions, anything to add? I think we did a good job on the budget. It's the best we could. Not everybody got what they wanted. I probably would have wanted more for the Hill Savings account. It's a good compromise that y'all agreed to put a little in there this year. So I think our elected officials and department heads did a good job of getting information into Donnelly in a timely manner and of course once again we owe everything to Donnelly. I agree. Well I think you should all be very proud of the budget that's been proposed. There's a lot of hard work and effort that goes into it and it takes a lot of courage to do what you do and I know we're proposing a slight tax increase but I think it's very important that we keep up with the demands that we have from the public and I think we're doing a great job at that. And I appreciate the job that you all do. Okay, thank you very much. You're having a good, pretty good this year. It's a difficult balance act. Yes. Memories item 5A on the agenda is approval of the bill report. It's a payment from CSCD committee questions to you Peace shares, train shares, forfeiture, VIT interest, DHA check fee, and DIA forfeiture funds are all presented for recording purposes only We also have the auditors monthly financial report for the month of July that is presented for recording purposes good morning James Wells that is presented for recording purposes. Good morning, James Wells. Morning, Judge and commissioners. I ask approval. The bill is as presented with the two deletions that are noted on separate page. Are there any questions? Do we have a motion? No, so moved. Motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye, post, say aye. Motion is carried. Six A is a provo of award of RFP 0 315 2298 food service management to airmark and we'll call on Beth Lane. Good morning. We are recommending approval this morning. We received two proposals and the evaluation committee did meet with each one and make sure that we were getting the best value. It is great processing that we're receiving plus the service that we've received in the past has been excellent with their mark. Okay, so this is for Rich with the Sheriff's Office. So, if this falls apart like the phone contract, right? The sheriff won't get to blame us for taking his recommendation I don't know that I'm gonna comment on that because I think the committee does their best to Negotiate the contract and to receive the proposals and determine the best valuation. I'll move for a free Thank you. Most of her approval at Commissioner Collins seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Here I know further comments all in favor please say aye aye Posting motion is carried seven days approval budget member quest one oh one six five zero for computer software Including the transfer of funds from justice and peace technology fund the unappropriated contingency in the amount of three hundred dollars Washington by Commissioner Mitchell Seconded by Commissioner Eads. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Close to an aye. Motion carries. 7v is approval. Budget member quest 101-710. To transfer criminal district attorney chapter 59, fund balance for training education for criminal district to attorney treasure purchases department in the amount of $20,000. This is for recording purposes only. Motion by Commissioner Eads. Second by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Procene. Motion carries. 7C is approval of Budget of the Mellquest 11720 for Contract Labor for Constable precinct six. You need amount of $1,398. Motion by Commissioner Eiz. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Hearing the questions all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Close and in. Motion carries 17. I'm sorry, 7D is a approval of Budget of Mental Quest 101 730 to transfer funds from technology services to facilities, management, training, and education. Any amount of $1,181. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Posting in. Motion carries. 7E is Approval of Budget Mental of quest 101 740 to increase revenues at $14,900 and allocate expenditures at $12,997 for car small trucks to replace a wrecked vehicle for road bridge pricing for in the amount of $27,905. Motion by Commissioner Eads. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. You're in the comment on favor please say aye. Aye. Posting. Motion carries. Seven F is approval. Budget Madden request 101 760. Recorded plenty of attorneys including the transfer of funds from non-department on a property corridor to contingency for county criminal court number two in the amount of $25,000. Motion by Commissioner Eads. Seconded by Commissioner Cohn. On favor please say aye. Aye. Posting. Motion carries. 7G is approval. Budget Man request 101-770 for postage and mileage reimbursement including the transfer of funds from county clerk records, preservation, and appropriated contingency in the amount of $18,000. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell, second by Commissioner Eads. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, senain. Motion is carried. 8 a.m. is approval. Part-time employees insurance premiums grandfathered and working less than 30 hours a week. Vision and co-bere premiums for a full-time part-time and retirees for plan year 2016. I'll move for approval. I have a motion by Commissioner Coleman. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell, questions or comments. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Poussiné. Motion to carry. Okay, 8B is approval of revision of personnel policy, 6.7, then kind of benefit plan to allow county part-time employees regularly scheduled to work less than 30 hours or more per week and hired enrolled by December 31st 2015 to continue to be enrolled in part-time insurance benefits. Are there questions on this issue? Everybody understand what we're doing? The compromise we came up with because of the misch sold us it was going to be very expensive. It's very perfect. I don't think I said it was about it being expensive. But we, I think what we talked about last, or a couple of weeks ago was that there were a lot of other options now. Most employees are not opting for this. And that it would facilitate administration and that we were going to grandfather the six employees who are currently enrolled. The consistent with most other organizations. Okay. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Mitchell, seconded by Commissioner Colin. Any further discussion or questions hearing none? All in favor, please say aye. Aye opposed, aye. Motion does carried. And 8C is approval of prescription drug cholesterol prior authorization administrative administrative fee of five cents per member from other questions on this issue. Motion make commissioner Mitchell, the chair was second to motion. Amy, did you wish to add anything? I just wanted to make sure everybody remember. We had talked about this some time ago that this special injectable drug was coming out was exceedingly expensive. There are a lot of other cholesterol drugs that are very effective on the market for a lot smaller costs. We're not excluding this drug. We're just saying it prior authorization is required so that it's not the first option. It's expected to cost about $13,000 for a year for this administrative fee. If one or two employees who don't need this drug, don't get this drug, it'll pay for the administrative fee, the savings, because the drug is so expensive. If they show that they need it, you know, other options haven't worked on favor, please say aye. Aye. The first is the name. Motion is carried. 9a is approval of the renewal award contract. This is 2016. I'm not going to read all that between Denton. I'm sorry, between Texas State Department of State Health Services in Denton County in the amount of $83,690. This is for fiscal year 2016 infectious Infectious disease control units, surveillance and epidemiology. We have a motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Eans. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Close to the knee. Motion carries. 9B is discussion in an update of Arbavaro and the Skeeto-Born Disease Control and Dent Coney. And unfortunately, we've got some bad news. carries 9B is discussion in the update of our viral and mosquito born disease control in Denton County and unfortunately we've got some bad news. Morning Judge and commissioners we do indeed have our first case of West Nile virus in Denton County. It was in the city of Lewisville. So that's our first human case. We do have additional positive mosquito pools in Ditten County. We had two additionally since last week which total seven in Flower Mound, seven in Highland Village, four Lewisville, four little Elm, two introphic club, and four in the city of Ditten. Regarding the human case of West Nile yesterday we did put out a press release. We also put out what we call our communicable disease, control team alert, our C-Dirt response team. We send that C-Dirt alert to hospitals, press outlets, emergency management, cities, towns, other agencies so that they know what to look for. Also with physicians offices that does go to each physician office in Denton County so that they can include West Nile virus in their differential diagnosis. When they're giving exams, if someone is symptomatic, they know to consider West Nile because we've seen our first human case. So those are the actions we took yesterday in response to this notification. There is no spraying on behalf of Denton County as a health department. Obviously municipalities in Denton County have been coordinating their own spraying. But for us in unincorporated Denton County we have not sprayed because as of today we don't have a positive mosquito pool. Spraying is to reduce mosquito numbers. Human cases, one of the reasons we don't trigger necessarily spraying with a human case is we don't know for sure where they got bitten by an infected mosquito. So sometimes people will call the health par and why haven't you sprayed with a case? Well, we're really targeting mosquitoes with the spray questions Oh, yeah, they let me south of light so I had to Charging me to go down there, but I get to come back for free All right, I believe we don't need any formal action on this. Thank you for the update Ten E is approval of the preliminary acceptance of the Elm bottom circle culvert replacement project. This is in Commissioner Prissy one Most of my commissioner Coleman seconded by Commissioner Ead's discussion Motion by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Ease discussion. Scott, do you have anything you need, Ed? I have nothing. Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Posting. Motion is carried. 12A is approval of a member end of understanding between Texas and enforced service regional incident management team members, Mark A. Wilkins, Andrew J. Ponder, Joe Scott Olgidge, and Mark J. Dodd, and Denton County Emergency Services. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. Are there questions on this issue? Jody, did you wish to add anything? Okay, all in favor of the motion. Please say aye. Aye. Fosinine motion is carried. 13 a is approved disaster declaration for the third wildfires due to dry conditions in Denton County. Good morning, Jody. Thank you, Judge and, the commissioners. It's kind of strange to be up here after the disaster declaration of flooding, now I asking for one for drought. So the severity of this condition is that last week when Judge Horn signed the executive order for the disaster declaration, we were in high drought conditions, meaning the Keith Brown drought index measures all the whip to a maximum of 800. So 100 to 800 and 800 is the max drought conditions for wildfire threat. When she cited it was about 670. Today is 704. So we're about 96 were being at the maximum that the drought measures out. So we're at what we consider extreme dry conditions for the threat of wild empire in the Indian County. And the maps that you have in your backup material will kind of indicate that as well that you can see there. So today I'm asking for you to extend the judge's executive order to make a commission's court order for outdoor burning, the elimination of outdoor burning and restrictions on outdoor hot work. All right, we have a motion. Motion by Commissioner Eads. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. On favor of please say aye. Aye. Fosene. motion is carried anybody knows a rain dance this would be the time to do it okay 14 a is approval of amendment two to voluntary and our local cooperation agreement for the operation and maintenance of traffic signals between state of Texas by and through the Texas Department of Transportation text dot the city of Holland village Texas the town of Argyle, Texas, the town of a double oak, Texas, town of Flower Mount, Texas and Dan County, Texas, relating to the operation and maintenance of certain traffic signals along the state highway system within their respective jurisdictions located in Dan County Commissioner precinct three and Dan County Commissioner precinct four. Motion by commissioner Mitchell, seconded by commissioner Ead's questions. You're in none all in favor, please say aye. Aye, post, any motion does carry 14b is approval of the 2015 their local cooperation agreements between them. Kind of Texas and the town of Flyerman for collection of special assessments levied by River Walk improvementment District number one for the Tax Year 2015 is recommended by the Dent and County Tax Assessor Collector. We're going to take with that item 14C which is approval of interlocal cooperation agreements between Dent and County Texas and each of the following entities for Tax Year 2015 have the Lerim Tax Collection is recommended by the Dent and County Tax Assessor Collector. One, the town of Providence Village 2 entities for tax year 2015 at the Lerm tax collection is recommended by the Denk County tax assessor collector. One the town of province village two Denk County fresh water supply district number 10 three town of flower mound four Canyon Falls water control improvement district number two five city of crime six kind of trophic clubs seven little amy dependence flow district eight crime I see and nine is a senior I see the chair is going to move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell hearing the questions or comments. All in favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed to name. Motion is carried. 14 days of approval, software license and professional service agreements, software licenses, maintenance and support. It related services with funds in the amount of $117,793 to come from computer software maintenance ordered aligned out of 016661, 2075. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Eads, other questions? Here none on favor, please say aye. Aye. Post and e. Motion carries. 14 E's of Probe of the least extension between Dan County, Texas and Garden Ridge and Valley Company for rental of office space used by the Dan County's juvenile probation department in Louisville, Texas. They're rent of $4,300 per month plus trash pick up and water expense with funding to come from auditor line at them 2667156040 Office rental expense. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Seconded by Commissioner Ead. So in favor, please say aye. Please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ine. Motion to carry. 14F is approval of lease extension between Demkinet, Texas and Lowell Corporation for the rental office space to be used by Demkinet, Community Supervision and Corrections Department. This is adult probation in Louisville, Texas with rent in the amount of $12,792 per month. It's funding to come from auditor line at 0167156030. I want to do that was the typo $12,000. $12,792 is a month. I don't believe so. I don't believe so. I will reject, that's why we're, are we gonna have them otherwise? Wow. That's a lot of money a month. You know, the other one is 4,000 a month and this one is 12, the guy that I like. Do you own that building? Huh? Do I own that building? Hotel Corporation. Hotel Corporation. It's Mr. Gusik. They're also the same. Both buildings. Fame, landlord, different names of business entities for both properties, but on the adult probation, that's a larger. Larger the seat. Larger. But we're gonna move out of that pretty quick, right? Yeah, I'm sorry. We hope. Well, that was the thing we did check with Mike, TBO, to get an idea of how much longer we needed to lease the space. But we're not intending to lease it any longer than this, because this should cover us until we have a new facility for adult probation. We still don't have to have somebody else probably moving that space, probably the health department while we're working on the other building. You know, I sure would like for that. I got you, is it? Yeah. I don't know much about that. I don't know. I don't know. Yes. We've had a relationship with him for quite some time. Uh-huh. And we've had it for a while. Okay. We have a motion and we don't have a motion. Okay. Chair will move for approval. We'll be left in seconds from Commissioner Eads. I understand. For the discussion, here none on favor, please say aye. Aye, post, Cine. Motion is carried. 14G is approval of amendment to maintenance and support services agreement dated November 10, 2009 between Dan Connid, Texas, and Tyler Technology incorporated. I'm gonna move approval and I'll take this one that we're gonna say to money. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell. Back in the back commissioner Eads, other questions or comments? I will be saving like $60,000 on this one. And no further discussion. All in favor, please say aye. like $60,000 on this one. And no further discussion. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Posting. Motion does carry. Okay. I think we've covered everything. And we've already taken care of executive session. Reminder that September 1 is our public hearing on the proposed budget and adoption of the tax rate for the next year. With that, we are adjourned. Everybody have a great day.