Thank you. given by Commissioner Bobby Mitchell and our pledges be led by Commissioner Hugh Cummings. Will you please stand? Christus Father, we thank you for this day and we give you glory and honor and praise this Lord because you're worthy to be praised. Lord, we lift you up and we magnify your name because there's none like you Lord. Thank you Lord for the opportunity together together this morning Lord to make decisions on behalf of your people, Lord. Give us the wisdom and knowledge as we go in and among your people, Lord. Thank you for all that you do, for us, Lord. Thank you for bringing us through the cold weather, Lord. As we understand, we're about to get another batch of it, Lord. We ask if you watch over in Curfews, Lord. Watch over our families, Lord. Watch over this nation, Lord. We thank you for all you do. Thank you for being a good kind and loving God. For looking beyond our faults and seeing our needs, Lord. We lift you up and magnify your name this morning, Lord. There is none like you, Lord. One day is cold. Lord Jesus would snow. The next day is sunshine, Lord. Who says that there is not a God, Lord You are our God Lord and we give you glory. We give you honor and praise this Lord. We ask if you bless this commissioners code. Let them make decisions, Lord Jesus, according to your will, Lord. Not our will, Lord, but let your will be done and didn't count in Lord. Touch each and every citizen Lord. You know what they need and how they need it, Lord. Bless them Lord and Lord's are territories Lord. Touch our business, Lord Jesus. Let them continue to do the business that they need to do, Lord Jesus, to make a way for themselves and our citizens Lord. We thank you for all this Lord. We thank you for being a good kind loving God. We ask if you would stay the snow Lord and the eyes in the rain and let us all make it home safely today. We ask these blessings in your Son Jesus name. Amen. I'm going to have to say one thing. It's probably the same. Trying to rush is there a little bit. Well, good morning, everyone. Hard to believe. Here we go with another weather event. Item one is for public input for items not listed on the agenda. If there's any member of the public that would like to address Commissioner's Court, we ask that you please complete a public comment form. They're available on the side table. Would remind everyone to please turn off your cell phones and pages. I have two public comment forms this morning. I want to make sure that you all realize this is not a post agenda item. So, Commissioner's Court by law may not respond. But we are certainly going to give you your opportunity to address Commissioner's Court. The first one that I have is Mr. Josh Graves. Mr. Josh Graves has asked to speak to us and good morning Mr. Graves and you are limited to three minutes. Thank you. Good morning Commissioner's Court. Thank you for having me and thank you for coming out in this cold weather. You have a lovely courtroom. Thank you. I come today to represent the families of Denton County who have to visit their loved ones by video now. And we had a little gathering last night at the jail. Our main concern, and most of the family's concern, is not being able to see their loved ones through the glass in person anymore. I have a family that drives 45 minutes to the jail and when asked whether they would want to visit their loved one through the video screen in the Mary Horn building, they said no, we want to see them in person. And I think it is important for them, county to note that family connections are vital and important for public safety. And when you don't have those vital connections, I, being able to see your loved one in person, you have a huge problem and I think you're really asking for trouble. The other part of this, obviously the very human side is no one in this room wants to see their loved one through video. Everyone here would rather see their grandchild, their child, their spouse in person. And while I understand obviously the other person on the other side is in jail the families are not and it is vitally important that they are able to see their loved ones. One single visit reduces recidivism which is recommitting an offense by 13%. Reduces technical violations of which in Dyn County they're quite a few by 25% and I think the money that you make, which is not much initially of this contract, doesn't even come close to outweighing the expense and the human cost. I just, in Dallas County, we were able to maintain in-person visitation while having video options as a side, as a supplement, which most studies agree that when you use video visitation as a supplement, you have a stronger, better chance of a person reintegrating into society. And the question is, what kind of folks do you want coming out of your gel? Because everyone that goes to gel comes home at some point, 95% of folks do. And the question is, do you want someone that is well connected in the community that has had strong family ties, which reduces recidivism? Or do you want folks that have been visiting via a poorer than quality Skype video? Was able to look at the facility and meet with lots of folks yesterday and there wasn't a single person that said they liked video visitation better. The only improvement was that they didn't have to wait in line but just as you have increased staff for video visitation you could do so for in-person visitation. You have two sheriff's deputies that are at a separate location away from the jail and I think it's so vitally important that if you can increase the staff for a for-profit mechanism, you can definitely increase the staff for a benefit to the committee in increasing public safety. So I have to ask that if you would further, the action I'm asking is that at some point, this would be placed on the agenda to readdress the amended contract. I know the county has the ability to amend the contract. They also, you also have the ability to a 30 day process on, I can't remember the technical term. So I just want to make sure that this is an option that you guys are choosing and thank you so much for the time. Thank you. The second public comment that I have is from Mr. Richard Gladden. Mr. Gladden. Good morning. I have just a few things to say. As some of you all may know, I'm an attorney, although I'm primarily a criminal defense lawyer, have actually, as you probably know, practiced a little bit of civil law. I see some problems. I know that the county has signed a contract with Securist Technologies. I know that they've been in breach of that contract since they went online with this system. I also know that the State Jail Standards Commission has regulations that require this county to allow 220 minute visits a week. The county is in violation of that regulation because video visitation is not the visitation that is required by that regulation. So number one, your contract is illegal. Number two, you've got grounds to declare that contract was secure in breach due to secures as I've got from one of the tax named Paul when I talked to him during the eight attempts I made that were unsuccessful. According to Secures Tax, you had constant failures with this system since it went online at that time. It was more than six weeks prior to that. And if Secures, if you declare a breach, we'll probably give you some levers to talk to the Securus about allowing in-person visitation. I share everything that Josh just told you. I think when Dallas County and Colin County and so many other counties that have signed agreements like this are able to negotiate a condition where people can continue to visit in person. You ought to take advantage of it. I don't think Denton County should be the worst county for treatment of our inmates. Because we're talking about people in this community. Everybody has an uncle or a cousin or someone else. Maybe themselves even sometimes that find themselves and they didn't count in jail because these are misdemeanor offenses class A's you can end up holding someone for up to a year and I just I get the impression that the commissioners court didn't discuss this sufficiently didn't not reach out beyond the district attorney's office and the vendor in finding out what problems might occur we know from Securus's history and Travis County that their system works as is poorly down there as it has not worked up here at all. We had some people that spoke and drove up from Austin yesterday for our rally in the three-zing temperatures that reported that they've had the same problems we're experiencing and they've had their system for several months longer than we have. Skype is free, Skype is actually a system for several months longer than we have. Skype is free, Skype is actually a good system. The system that we have here is then it's not close to Skype. You're talking about either not being able to connect and then getting charged for it and it's been in an hour on the phone trying to get your money back every time. That's what occurred with my situation for eight times. And some of these people don't have computers. They don't have webcams. And so basically you're creating a class system. And of course now we got the sheriff saying that he has discretion on the case by case basis to decide what is and what is not a significant visit with a family. I don't think the sheriff should have discretion to make those kind of subjective decisions. I think that if people want to stand in line and want to drive them out of town or drive within town to go visit their family members or friends They are entitled to do so and of course again the contract that you some a secure is in violation of the jail standards Regulations that require two 20 minute face-to-face visits a week I would ask that the court place this item or this issue on the agenda soon so that we can actually debate whether or not there has been a breach and if so what the proper course of action would be about the commissioners court. I do recognize contracts are meaningful things and I wouldn't ask the court this will in nearly to make a decision without considering the consequences and what the legal standing is. And I know Mr. Burke is well qualified to advise you on that. Thank you very much. Okay. Members item two is a consent agenda or the items on the consent agenda that you need to have some discussion on or do we have a more preferable? Motion by Commissioner Eans. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. On favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Motion does carry unanimous. Aye. Control hand, would you please, Donna? Consented agenda today. Consistive 2A, which is approval of order-making appointments. We have a promotion in the district clerk's office to be as approval of the intro departmental transfers. 5A is approval bill report. Payments from CSCD community corrections TAP shares, training shares, Profeature VIT, interest DEA, CHEP P and GA, Profeature funds are all presented for recording purposes only. Morning, Jay. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I be as approval of a Denton County's 2015 unreimbursed health care expenditure report. We have a motion by Commissioner Eads, seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Hearing no questions, all in favor, please say aye. Aye, pose a name. Motion does carry. 12 a is approval of the Sheriff's Office of Seminion in application for the 2016 Justice Assistance Grant Equipment Only Project Grant in the amount of $80,000 to partially fund the purchase of a Skywatch mobile observation tower and four camera all-other day night surveillance system authorized the Office of the County Judge to electronically certify the application. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell, seconded by Commissioner Eads. No questions? On favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Cinean? Motion does carry 13A's approval of accepting continuing education credit hours for 2014 in accordance with Section 81.0025 to the Texas local government code for Commissioner Hugh Coleman. Are you real smart now? Yes, I'm making it. Motion by commissioner Coleman the chair will second. All in favor please say aye. I just too much of an opportunity to do., on favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Any? Motion does carry. 14A is approval of the 2014-2015 in a local corporation agreement for ambulance services between Dyncania, Texas and the town of Flyer Mound. Let's take 14B together. This is approval of the 2014-FIT 2015 in a local corporation agreement for fire protection services between Dyncan County, Texas and the town of Flower Mound. Motion by Commissioner Mitchell, seconded by Commissioner Eads, us for both 14 a and 14 b. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Motion is carried. 14 c is approved of the inner local cooperation agreement between Denny County, Texas and the town of Crossroads, Texas for the Neillard Road Project located Texas and the town of Crossroads, Texas for the Nealer Road project located entirely within the town of Crossroads, Texas and Denton County Commissioner Prisink I. With the county agreement to contribute in a amount which shall now exceed $500,000 for the funds to be transferred from the Commissioner Prisink I discretionary funds, auditor line 9 out of 8574059070 to new Nailer Road auditor line at him 8573, I'm sorry 7439070. Yo, this is Nailer's the road that's low to Walmart in between the CBS and the Prairie House. Finally got everybody on board with this. So we're going to start the engineering and we're going to try and take it from four lanes all the way down to the bridge and due to the right-of-ath on we're going to be able to keep it four lanes because it's a cross-o-trange and a special district where we're going to try to go three lanes down to Markov and providing alternative. That's not where the school is, is it? No, no, that's and so we're going to close. Right and then we're going to close. Right. And then we're going to try and, um, that's, yeah, that's a neighbor. We're right. But, um, so we're going to try and get that done real quick before we expand 720 from the cold bridge all the way up to 380 that way. The residents will have an additional route to get up to 380. It's going to be an endeavor. So I'm going to have to come back with probably additional money, but we've only got everybody on board, so I'll move to approve. Motion by Commissioner Collin. Seconded by Commissioner Mitchell. Are there questions? Your none all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Sen. Motion is carried. 14D is approval of the State of Texas for the benefit of honorable Ron Sennis and member of the Texas House of Representative of the State of Texas. The chair also moved. I believe we've concluded our business for the day. Everybody's been watching the weather. Please be careful out there. Hopefully the ground is cold enough that the snow coming down. It's not going to present the icy conditions that it probably will later tonight tomorrow morning. So everybody be careful, stay warm. And one other thing thing and that is today is Barbara Looper's last day to be working for Denton County. Barbara, come on up to the podium just a minute. I want to present Barbara with these flowers and I want to invite everyone to a little reception that we're having upstairs. And please join us. I tell me to wipe this smile off my face. Thank you, picture. I wanted to keep them, but they're really for you. Thank you. Yeah. We're going to miss you. Don't be a stranger. I'm not happy retirement. I'm going to be back in as you know the clock doesn't stop at 11. It stops at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning because I have an appointment in Denton every Thursday morning. Hey, come. You're going to come work in World Bridge, right? Yeah. You need my son in. Oh, yeah. With that, we are adjourned. Everybody have a great day.