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COMANCHE -- A relatively light and
routine agenda awaited the attention of the Comanche County
Commissioners Court at its regular meeting on Monday, March 10.
Nevertheless, a controversy over
parking space at the courthouse annex and the Sheriff's
announcement of his plan to lay off jailers provided some
elements of interest in the meeting.
All members of the Commissioners
Court were present: Commissioners in Precinct order - Garry
Steele, Kenneth Feist, Bobby Schuman and Jimmy Dale Johnson -
with County Judge James R. Arthur, presiding.
Other county officials and employees
present included County Clerk Ruby Lesley, County Auditor Joey
Boswell, Sheriff Jeff Lambert, Chief Deputy Chris Pounds, County
Attorney Craig Willingham, County Treasurer Billy Ruth Rust,
Emergency Services Coordinator Ray Helberg and his assistant
Trish Grimshaw, Adult Probation Supervisor Regina Johnson and
Dispatch Supervisor Tammy Poteet.
Approving the Confederate Flag
Display
Following Ruby Lesley's reading and
subsequent approval with minor correction of the minutes of the
previous Commissioners meeting, the first order of business
involved Confederate History Month.
Thomas Harrison, representing the
Sons of Confederate Veterans organization, addressed the
Commissioners.
He distributed copies of Texas Senate
Resolution 526 adopted in March, 1999, which recognized April as
Confederate History and Heritage month in the State of Texas and
encouraged all schools and citizens to join in efforts to become
more knowledgeable of the role of the Confederate States of
America in the history of our country.
Harrison requested the Commissioners
Court to again fly the Confederate flag below the Texas flag at
the County Courthouse during the month of April in line with
past practice.
Garry Steele commented, "This is a
matter of history, and as far as I am concerned, I have no
objection to it."
Bobby Schuman made a motion to
approve Harrison's request. Garry Steele seconded and the vote
of approval was unanimous.
Safety Training
Garry Steele noted that the Texas
Association of Counties is able to put on a safety education and
training course for county equipment operators and drivers at no
cost. He noted that by participating in the training, the county
could save on insurance costs.
Steele said that the only thing the
TAC representative asked of the county before planning to
conduct the half day course is an indication by the various
Commissioners that they were interested in the course and would
participate. He stated, "I would suggest that we do this. I
think it would be good. We've got some new Commissioners and new
employees."
Jimmy Dale Johnson stated that he was
interested in participating.
Commissioner candidate David Rogers,
who was in the audience, asked, "What about guys like us who are
running, me and (Sherman) Sides and Corky (Underwood, both of
whom were also in the audience)?"
Steele responded that they would also be welcome to participate
and that he would let them know when the training course was
planned.
Jimmy Dale Johnson offered a motion
for the county precincts to participate in the training, Kenneth
Feist seconded and the vote of approval was unanimous.
Parking at County Annex
Garry Steele noted a disagreement has
been simmering over who gets to park where in the back, or south
side, of the courthouse annex.
The hospital has space reserved for
two ambulances. The Emergency Management Office also parks a
truck and mobile emergency management headquarters trailer and
Adult Probation parks its automobile in the area, as well as
some privately owned vehicles.
Steele expressed his frustration with
the long running problem.
Trish Grimshaw and Ray Helberg
explained why they parked their office's truck and trailer in
its present location.
Regina Johnson explained her office's
continuing use of its vehicle, why they park where they do and
problems with occasionally being blocked from egress.
After considerable discussion, which
included comments about whether or not there had been rudeness
involved, the Commissioners asked questions and discussed the
situation.
Garry Steele, who has previously been
designated as in charge of the courthouse annex facilities,
offered his opinion that the emergency management trailer should
be relocated and that parking spaces should be marked and
assigned.
Grimshaw noted that the radio
equipment in the trailer was generally checked on a daily basis
and that the trailer needed electrical service. Ray Helberg
later said that the trailer needed 220 volt electrical service.
Garry Steele responded that given the location of the electrical
service to the old hospital building on the county/hospital
boundary line, that it should not be difficult for an
electrician to provide the needed service.
Joey Boswell commented that the mobile emergency management
trailer and equipment was valued at around $100,000.
Kenneth Feist asked that the entire
court look at the situation onsite and then make a decision.
Garry Steele agreed to the suggestion, however, Bobby Schuman
expressed his desire that the matter be resolved in the current
meeting.
Jimmy Dale Johnson asked questions
about which property was owned by the county and which by the
hospital and others.
Judge Arthur drew a rough map of the
subject area which was studied by the Court.
Garry Steele noted that there was ample parking in the area and
that no one should be forced to park on the street or walk a
long ways.
Bobby Schuman offered a motion to
move the emergency management truck and trailer and to designate
parking spaces for other people who worked in the county annex.
After additional discussion, Garry
Steele seconded Schuman's motion and the vote in favor was
unanimous.
A Commissioners field trip to the
back side of the annex was planned to follow the completion of
the current meeting.
Caterpillar Equipment Financing
Presentation
Steve Evans of Warren CAT in Abilene
was requested by Kenneth Feist to make a presentation to the
entire Commissioners Court regarding equipment financing
programs that his company could offer counties.
Evans discussed Caterpillar equipment, guaranteed trade in
values, balloon notes and monthly payments for approximately the
next half hour.
At the conclusion, Evans was thanked
for his presentation and was invited to make future sales calls
on the Commissioners.
"Around lunchtime," was Bobby
Schuman's suggestion. Evans laughed and said he could sure do
that.
Jail Staffing Cutbacks and Work
Schedule Changes
In response to a declining number of
out-of-county paying inmates being housed at the county jail,
Sheriff Lambert and his staff have been studying means of
reducing operating costs.
Lambert stated, "After having been
studying on it from the first part of the year, and the count
has stayed down, we have decided that we're going to go ahead
and start doing our layoffs. There's a total of four positions
that we're cutting. One of those positions we have already
terminated and we're not going to rehire. There'll be three
layoffs."
Lambert added that they have also
been looking at the jailer work schedule to get the county the
"best bang for the buck."
A change will be instituted from the
current eight hour shifts to 12 hour work shifts. Although the
new schedule will require long work days, it will also provide
more days off as well.
Both Lambert and Billy Ruth Rust
indicated that they had been advised that as long as the work
schedule does not exceed 86 hours in a two week pay period that
no overtime pay would be required.
Law enforcement, fire fighters and
some other public workers are subject to different overtime pay
requirements. For law enforcement, it is generally 43 hours per
week or the equivalent in a multi-week pay period.
The proposed 12 hour schedule would
call for working 48 hours one week and 36 hours in the other in
a given two week period.
Garry Steele questioned whether
overtime pay would be triggered for the four 12-hour day work
week.
Billy Ruth Rust said she had documentation in hand which
specified that 86 hours was the overtime standard for law
enforcement workers in a two week pay period. She added that it
might be advisable to make changes in the county's personnel
policy book to reflect the planned changes.
Garry Steele requested that
discussion of amendments to the county personnel policy book be
placed on the agenda for the next Commissioners meeting.
Jeff Lambert said the changes would
have the effect of eliminating one jailer shift, and that they
would still be able to house as many as 96 prisoners with
planned staffing. The jail has a capacity of 144 prisoners.
Garry Steele estimated the annual savings to be around $120,000.
Joey Boswell noted that he had been
contacted regarding the county housing some federal prisoners
and was working on that application.
Boswell is involved because federal
prisoner housing is based on a much more complex cost-based
arrangement rather than a simple daily per diem rate as used for
other Texas counties.
Bobby Schuman reported that he had
contacted State Representative Sid Miller regarding getting the
county some help on obtaining state prisoners. Miller advised
Schuman that the state's inmate counts were falling, but that he
would try to help.
Sheriff Lambert noted that laying off
jailers was not an easy decision to make, but that he believed
that he needed to try to save county taxpayer dollars.
Joey Boswell and Garry Steele both
made comments expressing their appreciation for the Sheriff in
trying to act proactively in light of declining prisoner housing
revenues.
Steele noted there was a similar time
back in the 90's when the county did react and "got caught with
our shoes off." He added that the matter had been carefully
examined and that he had no problems with the actions being
taken.
Off System Bridges
Larry Smith, the District Engineer
for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), next
addressed the Commissioners about his department's planning for
a long term program of replacing substandard (termed "off
system") bridges on county roads.
He distributed a schedule of planned
bridge replacements in Comanche County for the years 2009
through 2012, generally three bridges per year.
Smith noted that because of funding
problems TxDOT had been required to delay one bridge previously
planned for 2009 replacement until 2010. This left open the
possibility of moving up a bridge planned for replacement in
later years.
Jimmy Dale Johnson requested that the
CR 454 bridge be moved forward because of flood damage and high
traffic.
Smith initially resisted the request
because TxDOT's sufficiency rating on the bridge was higher than
some others scheduled for earlier replacement. The CR 454 bridge
had last been inspected, however, before last springs damaging
floods.
Garry Steele asked if the hourly
in-kind rates could be increased to be in line with rates
currently used in the FEMA flood damage projects.
Smith said he thought the same rates
could be used for the off system bridges in-kind work as well.
Johnson kept pressing for an early replacement of the CR 454
bridge.
Smith noted that a new, post flood
damage bridge inspection would be needed and gave Johnson
information on how to request a new inspection so that the
bridge in question might be moved forward on the schedule.
Johnson reiterated that CR 454 was a
school bus route and bore much heavier traffic than the
alternative CR 435 bridge that Smith had suggested be moved
forward.
Smith finally agreed to Johnson's
request. He added that it would take quite some time before all
of the off system bridges in Comanche County would be replaced
because it has more bad bridges than any other county in the
District.
Other business
In other business the Commissioners:
Discussed the possible placement of
equipment in an upcoming auction without taking any action.
Heard Trish Grimshaw state she had
nothing to update regarding the FEMA flood damage recovery
projects because everything was progressing as planned.
Heard Sheriff Lambert advise that
he had nothing else to report beyond the earlier discussion
regarding jailer layoffs.
Reviewed and unanimously approved
the monthly Treasurer's report for February.
Approved routine budget amendments.
Audited accounts due and owing
totaling $145,419.10.
Approved the payment of salaries
and related benefits coming due prior to the scheduled March 24
meeting. |
