you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Welcome to Tuesday, May 20th, 2025, Commissioner's Court. I would ask that everybody mute their cell phones and their electronic devices. And yes, unfortunately, Judge is not here today, so I've got the honor of running this show. Two things, first off, we've got the invocations handled by Commissioner Fountainer, and our pledges will be by Sheldon Gilbert with Fartner's Martial Police stand. If you will join me in prayer. Father, Father God in heaven we just, we come to you today with just thankful hearts for this beautiful day you've given us the morning after the storm and Lord we just want to lift up your holy name. Lord you're the waymaker and our Prince of Peace and our Heavenly Father and we just thank you for the opportunity to be able to come directly to you and for that privilege. Lord, we have experienced the power of your creation recently and we just, for those who have had to deal with those storms and having to make reparations and do things that those storms have created and flooding and all those things that are happening would just ask for strength for them and courage and word for those first responders and those who come later who are helping just ask for that strength for them as well. Lord, we just want to thank you for this ability to come together freely in our country that is based on your principles. And, Lord, we just want to thank you for that opportunity and for what a privilege and honor we have to be part of this wonderful country. And, Lord, we just, as we said, thank you for the opportunity to come together here and want to pray for this commissioner's court. Obviously, we want to pray for our colleagues who are out as well, and specifically, as we have been praying for commissioner Mitchell and her family. And Lord, we just want to ask for your guidance and wisdom this morning. And Lord, just thank you again for all that you do for us for its in Christ's holy and precious name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Good morning, Commissioner Scherzlitz. Pleasure to the Greatest Nation on Earth. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, and the Great State of Texas. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one in his visit. Thank you both. It was a wonderful prayer this morning. We're gonna start with public input. We don't have anybody registered for public input today. So we're gonna move on to our Consent Agenda. Members, are there any items you wish to pull or do I have a motion to approve as presented? I make a motion to move as presented. And I'll stick to it. Project, Mr. Foughtner first and second by Ms. Edbenson. All is in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Two A's going to be approval of order making appointments and any approval action. 2B is approval of payroll. 2C approval of the April 2025 road superintendent, representative of recording purposes only, and any appropriate action. We have no resolutions for today. But we do have a public hearing for a 9 a.m. public hearing on May 20th 25 for approval of the replat of Sunrise Vista Edition lots 6R1R and 6R2R 5.311 acres located in Commissioner precinct 4. Do I hire a motion to open the public hearing? I will move that. Second. Okay, move from Commissioner Edmondson. Second from Commissioner Falkter. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. We are that passes unanimously. We are now in the public hearing, open public hearing. Is there anyone that wants to speak in favor of or oppose to the replat? Anybody here wishing to speak for or against the replat? Hearing none, can I get a motion to close? I have to close the hearing. Second. Okay, close first by Commissioner, and I'm Ed Benson, second second by commissioner Foughtner and now that was unanimously and can I get a vote to approve? I move that we approve this Repet second all right. There's a motion by Commissioner Epison second by Foughtner all those in favor. Hi. Hi passes unanimously's as unanimously Five eight this place is way too quiet tonight. Yeah, I mean is everybody knows how quiet it is I mean just because the guy up here is doing it for the first time we can I don't mind a little talking the background Yeah, maybe put the attention somewhere else Five a are no yet five a we have approval of the bill report, payments for CSCD, community corrections, TAIP, sheriff's training, sheriff's forfeiture, VIT enters and DA forfeiture funds are presented for recording purposes only Mr. May. Thank you. I have no chances today. You recommend approval, it's a person, so moved. Okay. Okay, first by Commissioner Fountainer, second by Commissioner Edmondson. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Six A, approval to declare Miss Laney's office furniture, equipment and appliances as surplus, advertised and placed in online auction, 2.5-2869 to be held in May and June of 2025 at any appropriate action. Every day of proof? No second. Got to first by Commissioner Fountainer, seconder by Miss Edmondson. any discussions? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. On the opposed, motion carries unanimously. Six B's gonna be approval of purchase of cybersecurity surferesses from Motorola Solutions in Corp in the amount of $107,240.80 through the Houston, Galveston area council, H-DESGAC Cooperative Contract, RA-05-21, and any appropriate action? I'll move it. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbenson, second by Commissioner Fakner, any discussion? All those in favor? Hi. I. Motion carries unanimously. 6C approval of renewal of ITB 22-2736 FlexBase, grade 1 type A, to Denton Trucking Company in any appropriate action. First by Commissioner Foughtner, second by Commissioner Edbenson, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried unanimously. 6D. Approval renewal of ITB24-2805 exterior lighting maintenance to C and G electrics. Incorporated in any appropriate action? I'll move approval. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbenson, second by Commissioner Fountainert, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Six E approval of award of ITB 25-28. Five to hot mix asphalt concrete to Urefa, Atlantic Coast, LLC, DBA, Sunmount, Paving Company as primary and asphalt or Austin asphalt in court as secondary and any approved, appropriate action. May the approval. First by Commissioner Foutner, second by Commissioner Edmondson, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Six F approval exemption of purchase policy 032 item C for a period of six months ending November 20th 2025 for the purpose of vehicles up to 75,000 each in the appropriate action. I'll move to approve. Okay. First on myself. Second by Commissioner Ebbenson. Any discussion? You obviously, or Scott, I think it'd be interesting just to hear a little bit why we have to have this. Sure, absolutely no problem. So this is for vehicle purchases. Unfortunately, it's not vehicles are still hard to get and what this is for some of our long-forced vehicles that we are able to find that are not that we've passed out for bid and had received no bids on because they're not available. And so this gives us the authority to go off our normal procedure to purchase these vehicles. Which is a good thing. Is this include anything to do with the tariffs at all? No, it does not. No. Fortunately, I don't think any of the tariffs have hurt us at this point in time. It's not affecting some of these vehicles that are currently available to us. Do you have something like that? We haven't seen anything on the tariffs as of yet, but everybody's prep inform and we're expecting that we're going to start seeing those in the near future. Scott, I'm not looking for exact numbers, but just we have zero bids more than just once or twice, right? On the VHG, what the policy stakes is if we go out for a bid and we get no bids, we look and see if we can change the specifications. If we can change the specifications, we go back out and bid it again. In this case, we're buying patrol vehicles. You can change the specs on them. That's right. So at least not enough to get a bid. Right. The expectation was that nobody was really willing to commit to that year and the future years because they just didn't know how valuable they would be. Right. And so what happened was last year we commissioned Williams found some on a dealer's lot that they had. This dealer was not on the corporate contract or anything. And so that this allows us to be able to purchase some of those vehicles. We were able to purchase those vehicles, getting most of those put into place immediately, while we still had some vehicles on order. When the vehicles came in, or just now coming in, they were on order, so those vehicles have already been replaced. So this will take up some of the orders that's on this year's order, and it just gives us a way to, especially if we've vehicle a vehicle that's real bad, that we can go ahead and get it off the road and not have those law enforcement officers in a bad vehicle. Good thing, appreciate you, Bill. Yeah, no, I've got a thank purchasing of done a great job. I do enjoy hunting for things, especially for vehicles for law enforcement or any other vehicles that we may need within the county that are we're having a hard time obtaining so this is one of those things where another agency had ordered five from the smaller department or the smaller dealership and they didn't have the funding available and so we do and we were able to hopefully secure these after today and then get them purchased for our use. And another good thing is just because they're not on a cooperative doesn't mean that we don't get aggressive pricing and sometimes we get actually better pricing than what we get on cooperatives due to our ability to negotiate directly and not have to be bound by some of those agreements. So at the end of the day it's's worked out really good for us. And again, I really appreciate purchasing as efforts in helping obtain these things. So it's a good thing. Yep, any other discussion? Okay, all those in favor? Hi. All right. Motion carries unanimously. On to 6G, approval of the specifications and authority to advertise for RFP25-2864 guardianship program for the Denton County statutory probate Court in appointment to evaluation committee to include Brian Brian Brown attorney administrator Monica Gomez Lopez probate investigator Denton County statutory probate courts courts. Alisa van der Stuff, apologize if I mispronounced your name. probate investigator, Ditton County statutory probate courts and Charlie Parker in any appropriate actions. I'm in for that. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbenson, second by Commissioner Falkner, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. 7a report for Miss Laney's equipment and software services presented for recording purposes only in any appropriate action. Mr. Alejandro, do you have anything to add here? No commissioner, nothing to add on this item. Okay. How about approval? Well, you don't have I don't have to. I don't have to. That's for recording purposes only. Yeah. 7B, approval of budget amendment request. 101,000 for the Sheriff's Office to transfer a total of 22,361 from non-departmental unacorporated contingencies to overtime or unappropriated. I'm sorry. Conencies to over time cash option with the Justice Management Division, Sheriff's Mental Health Unit, Sheriff's Operations and Sheriff's Communication Division to cover a short shortage in over time cash option, line item and any appropriate affix. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbenson, second by Commissioner Fountain or any discussion. All those in favor. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbinson, second by Commissioner Fountain or any discussion. All those in favor? Aye. By motion carried unanimously. Seventh C, approval of a budget amendment request 101010 for the county jail to transfer 298,000 from non-department unappropriated contingencies to overtime cash option outside of the budget amendment and human resource overtime policy as recommended by the budget office for the jail to continue to operate as mandated by the Texas Commission of Jail Standards do the shortage of detention officers and any appropriate action. I'll second. Okay. First by Commissioner Ebbenson, second by myself. Any discussion? I'll just say at least it's less than it has been which the sheriff has said we're on a good trajectory for reducing these overtime. I'm so great. Yeah, no that's great. It's going down the right direction and thank you sheriff for for that and all the new employees that have decided to come work here for the county. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. A day, human resources report from human resources regarding hiring actions of elect officials presented for reporting purposes only Mr. Hernandez. Commissioners, good morning. We have five new hires in the county cleric. One promotion in the Treasury's office, one new hire in adult provision, one promotion in juvenile provision. We have seven hiring actions in the sheriff's office, five new hires for the tension officer ones, one three hire for the tension officer one, and one new hire in communications. That's it. Excellent. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. 9A approval of the Texas Health and Human Services data use agreement security in privacy inquiry. SPI from the Denton County, WIC, and any appropriate action. On the second. Second. First firm commissioner Edmondson, second from Commissioner Foutner. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. 10A approval of the final plat of Condi Edition, lot one, block one, 15.929 acres located in Commissioner precinct four. On the approval. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbinson, second by Commissioner Foutner. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. 10B approval, preliminary road acceptance of enclave at Hickory Hill,ision located in Commissioner precinct for any appropriate action. I was just by their yesterday and I'll move approval. Okay excellent. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbinson, second by Commissioner Falkner. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. to legal 14A approval of amendment 1 to the agreement for architectural services between Dent County, Texas, the owner and the Chorium Architects in Corp. It's the architect for the human or the horn building entry door remodel RF, SQ,Q24-2807. Amendment one adds the upper level exterior faucet and, and, uh, bowler's, water bowler's, by the way. Oh, you usually say box bowler's. That was the bowler's, okay. So, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, usually, bowlers are basketball players, but go ahead. Yeah, well, the same, same concept. So usually you see a mellow, but they're there to protect something a building usually, or sometimes they're for security. OK, so I appreciate that coming from. But when you're driving through your drive-through restaurants or whatever you see there, so you don't hit the building, you damage your car with a big steel ball pole instead of that. Okay, all right, perfect. I appreciate that explanation for anybody else out there that had the same question. To the project scope at a cost of 24,500 which amount increases the total cost of services under the agreement from 92,000 with a reversible, with reimbursable expenses. NTEE 4500 to 116,500 with reimbursable expenses. NTEE 4500 with funding. with Reimbursable Expenses NTE 4,500 to 116,500 with Reimbursable Expenses NTE 4,500 with funding to come from permanent improvement, architectural fees, auto line item number 80-538-90-10. Is recommended by the Denton County purchasing director and any appropriate action. Yes, discussion. Well, yeah, before I move for an approval, I guess I have a question. Scott, if we, if we, would this be a big issue, if we table this for a week? This is it, yeah. Okay. Is that acceptable? Yes, it is. All right, we're gonna table that. Thank you, sir. 14B, approval of the first renewal of the agreement for the repository services including the existing bank depository pledge agreement between Denton County and Wells Fargo Bank in A and any appropriate action as recommended by our good friends Cindy Yates Brown Denton County Treasurer. I have approval, the first by Commissioner Fapner, second by Commissioner Evans, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. 14C, approval of the interlocal cooperation agreement between Ditton County, Texas and Sanctuary Municipality, Utility District, number two of Ditton County, Texas, for the fire protection and emergency services any appropriate action First by Commissioner Ebbenson second by Commissioner Fountain or any discussion. I Just want to say thank you. I think this is this is excellent. I'm excited to see this and I hope to see more and more of these type of things. All those in favor? Hi. Hi. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. That's a big one. 14 C. I'm sorry. 14 D. Proof of the menor random of understanding between the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Denton County, where the Ditton County Department of Emergency Management will participate in the Texas Emergency Management Assistance Teams program in any appropriate action. May I have approval? Second. First by Commissioner Falkner, second or second by Commissioner Edminton. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. unanimously. 14E, approval of the construction agreement between Denton County, Texas and 2L construction LLC for the Rector Road Bridge, renovation, ITB25-2860, with funding in the amount of $248,350 to be funded by Auditor line item 20-522-850 and any appropriate action. Second. First by Commissioner Ebbenson, second by Commissioner Faulkner, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. We burn through that pretty quickly. we will not have any accession session, but let's go to 21A. This is approval of legislative policy statements and or resolutions and discussion or approval of other matters related to the 89th legislative session in any appropriate action. And I'm going to welcome for Ms. Brooke Hamrick. Good morning commissioners. It is always a pleasure to be before you. I just wanted to give a brief update with regards to the 89th legislature. There are 13 days remaining and we're in the final stretch. Last Thursday was a deadline in the house for the house to read on second reading bills and there are a couple other important deadlines that are coming up in the next week. Next Tuesday the House, it's the last chance to hear Senate bills on second reading and then May 28th is the last day for both chambers to take action on House or Senate bills. And so at this point there's a lot of moving parts and we're continuing to monitor legislation that impacts Ditton County. There is one bill that I wanted to bring to your attention today. It's House Bill 21 by Representative Gates and this bill addresses concerns regarding traveling housing finance corporation. This is an issue that in Texas housing finance corporations are formed by one city or county but are used to purchase properties and provide tax exemptions in other cities and counties without the consent or knowledge of these local governments. This bill actually late last week passed the Senate and is now headed to the governor's desk for his signature. But this is also an issue that's impacting Ditton County And so the ask today is I had distributed a draft letter for you to consider. And it's asking the Commissioner's Court to send a letter to the Denton Central appraisal district and requesting that they pause all exemptions involving these traveling HFCs as it impacts our tax role and more importantly our tax payers when you remove this value from the role and the revenue. Not only does it impact Ditton County, but it also furthers the losses to our municipalities and our school districts. There are several legal and legislative actions underway. There's a pending attorney general's request regarding if housing finance corporations can lawfully engage in these developments outside their jurisdictional boundaries and there are multiple lawsuits pending. And so again, the ask is just for you all to send a letter to the Denton Central Praisal District to put a pause on these exemptions until we have further clarification from either the Attorney General or the pending lawsuits. Has the Governor signed this bill? The Governor has not signed the bill yet. It was just sent to him on Friday of last week. Would it be helpful for us to encourage him to sign it? Because it sounds like it's a good thing to keep things from being taken off our tax rolls without our knowledge or consent. Absolutely. We can certainly draft a letter or express our support to the governor on this bill as well. I know you'll text him. He didn't like that. But I will tell you that I've been doing some research And so this is an issue that impacts precinct one, precinct two, and precinct three within the county. I'm glad we're looking at it. So the bill specifically is going to prohibit that those finance corporations from acting outside of their specific jurisdiction, right? Yes, it ends this misuse of the loophole and they could still, but they would have to have local city or county approval. And so that's the whole thing is to get local input and you all should be deciding what happens within Denton County and our tax role. Right. Brooke, can you give us any examples of other entities that have come in here and done this? A couple of years ago. Because of the Pending legislation, you've had several of these HFCs kind of in a rush to buy property. And so in the last few months, there have been this effort and they bought multi-family units in Lewisville, Little Am, and Dallas, Denton County. And so, like I said, there is a pending lawsuit that the City of Lewisville has filed. And this is just another way for us to help address the issue by sending this letter. So they would still own those properties, but they wouldn't necessarily get the tax breaks that they have been asking. That is correct. Now the legislation from because that will make it very clear right but that won't actually go into assuming the governor signs it. Absolutely. Now it was passed by an overwhelming minority in both the House and it would be it would be effective immediately once the governor signs it. But there are different clauses in that bill with regards to the exemptions. And so we just want, we're concerned about our tax role for 2025 and 2026. Exactly. Well, yeah, it's clearly, and this isn't the way it's supposed to work. So I'm glad that we're doing that and certainly. They're taking advantage of a loophole. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't make any sense that somewhere that doesn't have anything to do with that is. Well, and we certainly appreciate the legislature recognizing the need for local control on this issue. Right, exactly. Very good. OK, thank you. Thank you, Miss Amber. I appreciate that. Do I have a motion to approve said letter? I'll move. Second. Okay. First by commission. Yes. First by commissioner. Edison second by commissioner Foughtner. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. And let's go to committee update 17. So I'm going to go ahead and start with Commissioner Fockner. Oh, thank you so much. We have a couple of things. So there obviously we have Memorial Day coming up. And we have in Carroll we have a Memorial Day wreathling ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial. Frisco has an observance from Memorial Day at 9 a.m. at the Frisco Commons Park and then also a Memorial Day tribute at 10 a.m. in Frisco at Clydescote Park and then Lisville has a decoration Memorial Day at 10 a.m. an old hall cemetery and then before that on the 22nd which is what tomorrow or no two days, Thursday. We have Mary Head's Carter Park, it's from 5 to 8, is a Choc the Park. So lots of Choc provided for kids to come in and draw on the sidewalks and other areas in the area and it's gonna be fun. So put that on a calendar too and that's all I have. Excellent. Thank you sir. Commissioner Abanson? Well I have the privilege of reporting for Commissioner Mitchell's precinct three as well. In Flower Mound they're going to have lakeside music services on May 23rd, 730s and 930. And then concerts in the park on the 23rd from 7 to 830 at Heritage Park. Lake Dallas will have trade days in farmers market, May 24th, 8 to noon, and then they've got a B-Well, Live Well program on healthy aging that will take place on the 22nd at their library. In Lewisville, the sounds of Lewisville, this is going to be neat. 7 to 930 on the 20th will be the Chicago experience. And that's going to be at the Wayne Ferguson Plaza. In pre-Sync 4, we have a lot of Memorial Day celebration going on. And I want to make sure everyone understands the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day is exactly that. It is a memorial for people who have given their lives in the service of our country. So it's not the kind of thing you'd say happy memorial day for, because it's not a happy occasion. It's a solemn remembrance occasion. And we've got a lot of these remembrance occasions going on and precinct for. One of them will be at, let's see, at Roanoke. No, I'm sorry, it'll be a flower mound and it will be at the senior center at 9 a.m. on Memorial Day and then in trophy club, the Memorial Day ceremony at 10 a.m. and at it Robson Ranch, 9 a.m. on Memorial Day. There's something that's not related to Memorial Day that I want to make sure to let you all know about. And this is the premier Renaissance fair being put on in the Denton Civic Center. It's going to be like the Renaissance fair that you've heard about further south on 35. But this will be a family-friendly event with vendors, food,. They're also having a tater-taught trot. Say that fast, five times. A 5K in North Lake Spark and says it's a race for all ages. However, I think I can speak for Commissioner Mitchell and myself that we will probably not be participating in that one. It has that there's a blood drive. In New Fairview, they've got a battle of the badges, a blood drive. And that's a competition between, I'm sure, the various police agencies in that area. And then Roe and Oak has evenings on Oak Street, live music at the Plaza. Lots of good stuff going on, but remember, on Memorial Day, we're giving tribute to those people who have made us what we are today and the ability for us to gather here today thank you very much excellent thank you commissioner I just have a couple things I want to congratulate and also say we need to support the Denton Bronco Barbecue team the the Bronco Barbecue team is headed to the National High School Barbecue Association Championship in Kansas. And Kansas to compete in a high school barbecue contest that will compete, or they will compete June 3rd to the 6th, which we wish them luck and congratulations to earning this spot for the competition. Now, I think that we should have probably received some of the barbecue. So we could test it and test it out, which I'm all about that. That sounds really good, but good luck to them. And we didn't have anything like that in high school. I don't know about most of you, but we had nothing of that sort. We didn't have those options because I'd probably tried to be on that team at that point. I wouldn't have been any good at it, but I'd have been there to taste test. I'd have been great to eat. At local softball, congratulations to some of the regionals here. Congratulations to Gire for winning their regional title. Best of luck with the semi-final game starting on Saturday, May 24th. And then congratulations to Aubrey for winning their regional title. Best of luck heading into the semifinals. and their first game will be on Wednesday May 21st. Some of the other little county things here Memorial Day is obviously Monday May 26th. We will all the Ditton County offices will be closed from Memorial Day and then also we will not be having commissioners court on Tuesday May 27th. And the last thing I have here today is I want to say happy birthday to my gorgeous bride and thank you to her mother and father for having her because if they didn't I wouldn't have that wonderful wife. So this is an important day for me if you will. And so happy birthday beautiful. Thank you for everything you do for our family. Did we get everything? Everything's good? OK. Hearing no other action, we are adjourned. And I'm going to hit it.