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COMANCHE -- The County Commissioners held
a relatively short meeting and considered largely non-controversial
matters at their regular fourth Monday meeting on March 24.
County Judge James Arthur conducted the
meeting with all four Commissioners -- Garry Steele-Precinct 1,
Kenneth Feist-Precinct 2, Bobby Schuman-Precinct 3, and Jimmy Dale
Johnson-Precinct 4 -- present and participating.
Other county officials and employees
present at the meeting included County Clerk Ruby Lesley, County
Auditor Joey Boswell, County Sheriff Jeff Lambert, County Attorney
Craig Willingham, County Treasurer Billy Ruth Rust, Dispatch
Supervisor Tammy Poteet, County Emergency Services Coordinator Ray
Helberg and his assistant, Trish Grimshaw.
Commissioner candidates Corky Underwood,
Sherman Sides and David Rogers were also present in the audience.
The meeting opened with Judge Arthur's
invocation, followed by Ruby Lesley's reading and the Commissioners'
unanimous approvals of the minutes of Commissioner meetings on March
10 and March 14.
Request to Grade Private Road
The first order of business considered
was a letter of request for a resumption of county maintenance on a
private road signed by Feije Terpstra of the Terpstra Dairy and Ben
Carroll, Principal of Sidney High School.
The letter noted that several children
who attended Sidney schools lived on the dairy property and that the
Sidney school bus was having difficulty traversing the ungraded dirt
roadway.
Garry Steele is the County Commissioner
for the Sidney area and he spoke on the request, noting that the
subject road had not been adopted for public use and county
maintenance. He added that the road is primarily used by the dairy,
although there are some school children who live on the dairy.
Steele told the Commissioners that he had
referred the letter of request to the County Attorney for research,
and then asked Craig Willingham to address the Commissioners on his
findings.
Willingham responded that the county had
been sued in the past for an incident that occurred while working on
a private road and that he understood Steele's reluctance to comply
with the request on that basis alone.
However, Willingham added that he had
legal reservations on using any public equipment, employees or fuel
for work on any private property. "The only people this is going to
benefit is the dairy, and his hands that are on it," Willingham
stated.
Joey Boswell added that the law was very
specific in prohibiting public resources being used for private
purposes, and that there were additional Attorney General opinions
reinforcing the legal prohibition.
Willingham agreed and said that he didn't
know if there still was any use of public equipment and employees
grading private roads in Comanche County, but if there was, it
should be discontinued.
Willingham said that the only way
Terpstra's request could be fulfilled would be for him to offer to
deed the roadway over to the county and for the county to accept it
for public maintenance. But, neither Terpstra nor anyone else could
force the county to accept a roadway for public maintenance if it
didn't want to for whatever reason.
A question was posed if it was legal for
the school district to be running a bus on private property to pick
up school children. Neither Willingham nor anyone else seemed to
know for certain the answer.
Another question was posed by a candidate
regarding whether it was legal for county equipment to be parked on
private property overnight and what legal risks that might entail.
Again, there was no clear answer other than if an accident happens,
wherever the county equipment is parked or operating, a lawsuit is
always a possibility.
Garry Steele observed that the discussion
had drifted from the agenda subject and then pointed out that under
the procedures and legal changes put into effect by HB 1117, the
Terpstra dairy road was not an adopted road, and that the only way
for it now to be publicly maintained would be for it to be surveyed,
deeded to the county and accepted by the county for public
maintenance.
Craig Willingham affirmed Steele's
summation of the situation.
Judge Arthur added his opinion that it
was the parents' responsibility to get the children to a public road
school bus pickup point, and that door-to-door service was not
required.
Garry Steele said he didn't know about
the school's responsibilities, but asked if he should send a copy of
Willingham's letter to Terpstra. Willingham said it was okay with
him, and added that he had not sent a copy to Terpstra when the
letter was prepared.
Bobby Schuman noted that he was having to
turn down requests to drag private roadways.
Garry Steele agreed, adding that it was a
touchy situation in the legal sense. He stated, "I've always said
that if we catch flak for not keeping the public roads like the
general public wants, why should we be grading somebody's personal
roads if we don't have time to do the others?"
Jimmy Dale Johnson added, "Our plates are
full right now."
No formal action was taken on the
request.
Interlocal Agreements for Election
Services
Ruby Lesley presented proposed agreements
with the cities of Comanche and Gustine, the Comanche Independent
School District and the Comanche County Consolidated Hospital
District to the Commissioners for their approval.
She described the agreements as basically
the same as in the preceding year, other than the new agreements
would continue in effect, not requiring continuing approvals,
subject to a 90 day cancellation right by either party. She added
that the County Attorney had reviewed the agreements and said they
looked fine.
Garry Steele questioned Lesley regarding
whether the county was obtaining sufficient revenues from the
electronic voting machines to replace them when worn out.
Both Lesley and Judge Arthur responded
that there was no specific provision in the daily rental rates for
replacement costs.
"Can it be?" Jimmy Dale Johnson asked.
Considerable discussion ensued.
Lesley commented that state law set a
limit on the amounts that could be recovered, but that she doubted
that the daily rental rates was sufficient to create a fund
sufficient to replace the voting machines when worn out.
Johnson asked how much a voting machine
costs and Lesley responded that a single voting machine and
associated controller ran around $5,000.
Joey Boswell later added that the
county's total electronic voting machine investment was around
$200,000, although most of that was funded by state and federal
grants. He added that the electronic voting machines would soon
start wearing out, however, and that the replacement cost would be
the county's burden to bear.
Ruby Lesley stated that in some instances
local cities and other entities in other counties have applied for
and been granted waivers from electronic voting requirements on
election day, using them instead for early voting only. She noted
this may become a trend and might be adopted by some in our county.
Bobby Schuman asked if the rules were
already laid out regarding voting machine cost reimbursement then
shouldn't the agreements be approved.
Garry Steele responded, "Well, this one
is open-ended to where it can be amended which I think we should go
ahead and approve, but (speaking to Lesley) I would like you to
check with somebody if there's a way to figure the cost of the
machines and have them amortized, or depreciated out."
Lesley noted that the machines had been
very reliable thus far with only a single unit having a problem and
it was replaced under warranty. She listed ten different entities
that use the machines in their elections -- three cities, four
school districts, the hospital district, the groundwater district
and the county. She added that she had tried to be conservative in
pricing the county's election services in order to keep down the
cost to the taxpayers.
Joey Boswell commented that it will be
paid by the taxpayers under any event, but asked whether the county
taxpayers should be asked to bear the largest part of the cost, or
whether it should be shared equally by all entities that use the
voting equipment. He added that it was the county's responsibility
to get it all started, but that it was not required that the county
provide electronic voting or other election services to the other
entities.
Lesley agreed, adding that some counties
do not conduct elections for their other entities.
She offered to make a change to the
wording of the contracts allowing for higher electronic voting
machine rentals up to the legal limits, however, was not given any
instructions to do so.
Garry Steele noted that he had only asked
a question and that the matter should be researched. Shortly
thereafter he made a motion to approve the contracts as presented.
Jimmy Dale Johnson seconded and the
contracts were unanimously approved.
Use of Records Management Funds to
Purchase Computer Equipment for County Clerk's Office
Ruby Lesley reminded the Commissioners that she had earlier
discussed the need for the purchase of new computer software for her
office.
She had run into a problem, however, when
she learned that her computer server does not have enough memory to
accommodate the software.
Lesley added that her server was five
years old and that it could have its memory upgraded to 4 gigabytes,
but that 4 gigabytes was the minimal amount of memory that could
allow the needed software to run. "It will run it, but it will be
slow," was how she described what she had been told.
Lesley said that while getting ready to
pursue that less expensive, lower performance option, the power
supply on her server went out. "We were virtually down to pen and
paper," she said.
Hometown Computing provided the temporary
loan of a power supply to get her office functioning again.
When Hometown asked if she wished to
order a replacement power supply, Lesley said she decided the better
course of action might be to use Records Management Funds to
purchase a new server.
Garry Steele asked Joey Boswell if the
new server would qualify as an appropriate expenditure for the
Records Management Fund and received an affirmative answer.
Steele then said, "I think we need to buy
a new one."
Bobby Schuman asked if there were
sufficient amounts in the fund to cover the expenditure.
Lesley responded that there was more than
$10,000 in the fund and that the requested expenditure was $6,313.
Judge Arthur asked Lesley if that was a
sufficient machine to meet her future needs and not a minimal
machine.
Lesley said that it was adequately
configured to meet her office's needs for another five years.
Bobby Schuman then offered a motion to
authorize the purchase of a new server, Garry Steele seconded, and
the vote of approval was unanimous.
Other Business
In other business, the Commissioners:
• Discussed revisions to the personnel
policy manual to reflect recent changes in jailer work hours and
overtime pay, and to require the taking of a blood sample for any
county employee involved in an accident, and for annual drug testing
for all employees driving or operating equipment. Jimmy Dale Johnson
offered a motion to authorize Billy Ruth Rust to revise the
personnel manual to reflect the matters as discussed, Bobby Schuman
seconded and the vote of approval was unanimous.
• Heard a report from Trish Grimshaw that
she was planning to request an extension on three of the 14 FEMA
flood damage road repair projects, with extensions, if approved, to
be in the 18 to 30 month range. The Commissioners were advised that
if extensions were not approved that all funds not expended on
approved or completed projects would have to be returned to FEMA.
• Heard Sheriff Jeff Lambert report that
he had nothing to report. In response to questions he stated that
the new jailer work shift arrangements were working well and that
the jail had 50 inmates that morning, 35 of whom were paying
inmates. Garry Steele, Bobby Schuman and Judge Arthur all made
remarks complimenting the Sheriff and his department on their
handling of various matters.
• Reviewed and approved officers reports.
• Noted that the legal status of the
restricted burn ban was being reviewed by the County Attorney.
• Discussed the addition of agenda items
for public comments and for general discussion of county business,
neither of which would allow for actions to be taken in response
thereto in the current meeting.
• Reviewed and approved regular and
emergency budget amendments.
• Audited accounts payable due and owing
and approved payment thereof in the sum of $126,890.67.
• Approved the payment of salaries and
related benefits for county employees coming due prior to the April
14 regular Commissioners meeting. |
