The Commissioners of Lamb County held their regular meeting on Friday, Jan. 30th at the Lamb County Courthouse, where a 13-item agenda was discussed.
The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m. by Lamb County Judge James DeLoach and the invocation was give by Rickie Redman.
There was nobody present for the Public Comment portion of the meeting.
Consent Agenda: a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); Judge DeLoach stated that there was one set of minutes from the Jan. 12th meeting and they were in order. b) Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/ or line-item transfers; none. c) Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor; Jones requested that the Commissioners approve bills totaling $1,094,249.97. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Lamb County Treasurer Jerry Yarbrough requested that the Commissioners approve payroll for Lamb County ending on Jan. 9th in the amount of $173,216.77, and for LHC ending on Jan. 10th in the amount of $245,721.11. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; packets. f) Consider and take appropriate action on Donations; Lamb County Ag-Extension received $150 donation for their Bread in a Bag Program.
The motion to approve the Consent Agenda items was made by Commissioner Cory DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Lee Logan. The motion carried.
Item four on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Racial Profiling Report presented by Lamb County Sheriff Garry Maddox.
Sheriff Maddox presented the racial profiling report, stating, “This report is based off of 2025’s numbers. The number of deputy contacts with white drivers when compared to the number of white county residents, which was approximately 35%, demonstrating a number of white resident citations with deputies was 35.71%. For African Americans, the population showed to be approximately 4.9%, it shows deputies had contact with African Americans 14.29%. Asian/ Pacific Islanders make up 0.9% of the demographic and we had a 7.14% contact rate with them.”
He added, “ Native Americans make up 2.2% of the demographic with a 0% contact rate, and Hispanics make up 59.5% of the demographics, with a 42.86% contact rate. This report also has a report from Craig, who I have appointed to go through and monitor the video that these numbers are based off of to make sure that he doesn’t see anything in the traffic stops that would indicate that we have an issue.”
The motion to approve the Racial Profiling Report, was made by Commissioner Kent Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on Out-of-State Travel for the Sheriff.
I have three requests for out of state travel, one is the Summitt, which is our software group, which is in Orlando, FL.,” Sheriff Maddox said. “We’re going to look at the agenda and see what they have on it, but I’m looking at sending three or four of my employees so that they can go to that conference, so that they can go through the new changes that goes on with our software. Usually, I will send somebody from the jail, somebody from dispatch and somebody from records, so that they can go over the different things that may have changed with our system. This conference will be April 19th through the 23rd.”
He added, “The next one is the National Sheriff’s Association, which is going to be held in Nebraska on June 8th through the 11th. That is one that I attend every year. The last one is the Western State Sheriff ’s Association, which will be held in Reno, NV., Feb. 28th through March 4th. That will be paid for out of my seizure account. I’ve been a few times to this one in the past.”
A motion to approve Outof- State Travel for the Lamb County Sheriff’s Office was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on a road closure in Precinct 4.
“This is an application for a road closure,” Judge DeLoach stated. “Ronnie Rodgers has requested to close the north half mile of CR 131 in Lamb County, on the other side of Bull Lake. He owns all of the property around it except for one place that is owned by Stacy Carr, who has signed off on the application. There is no one else effected by this road except for them.”
A motion to approve a road closure in Precinct 4 was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
Item seven on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Notice of Primary Election, Polling Locations, Poll Workers, Early Voting Ballot Board, and Central Count.
“All of the polling places are the same, but we did add some new poll workers, because we had quite a few who weren’t going to be able to work,” County Clerk Rene Trevino said. “Our Ballot Board is still the same and our Central Count is still the same. The election will be held on March 3rd and early voting will begin on Feb. 17th through the 27th. The first week will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then on Saturday we will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The following week we will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting will be at the Courthouse and Election Day voting will be at the Ag Center.”
A motion to approve Notice of Primary Election, Polling Locations, Poll Workers, Early Voting Ballot Board, and Central Count Workers was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on joint resolution and statistical information for joint primary election services and contracts for republicans and democrats.
“I have from both party chairs their signed contracts that were sent to me from the Democratic Chair and the Republican Chair,” Trevino said.
A motion to approve joint resolution and statistical information for joint primary election services and contracts for republicans and democrats was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
Item nine on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on surplus items.
A motion to approve surplus items was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on dental contract for Lamb County inmates.
“This is a dental service agreement with McCasland Dental out of Levelland,” Sheriff Maddox said. “The local dentist has informed us that they will no longer see any of the inmates. Thanks to Rickie and Misty for getting that contract done, because we were just notified out of the blue that they would no longer see any of the inmates.”
Redman added, “ The agreement is drafted in a way that is speficifally defined as tooth extractions and dental infections. We did include a provision that if the inmate has requested an appointment and the dentist says oh actually you do need to get your teeth cleaned, or get this crown replaced or filling, the inmate or their family or a third party can make arrangements with the denteist to pay for those procedures. But, it is explicitly spelled out in here that we have no part in it, and if there is any issue that comes up liability-wise between the dentist and the patient, we’re not involved in it. We’re only involved in extractions and treating infections.”
A motion to approve dental contract for Lamb County Inmates was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on interlocal agreement with Earth EMS for HB 3000 Grant.
“This is the legislation that I worked on and what I did was that I brought all of the service directors in and we had a discussion,” Judge DeLoach said. “Earth recently wrecked a truck and that was the second time that truck has been wrecked, so they need a truck and everyone agreed that Earth needs a truck.”
He added, “What we decided on everyone agreed on, is that the amount of money that we give them every year, they would give that up for three years starting this next October and that will be redistributed amongst the other services.”
A motion to approve interlocal agreement with Earth EMS was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
Future agenda items were discussed.
With no further business to discuss a motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 11:09 a.m.