The Commissioners of Lamb County held their regularly scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 9th, in the Lamb County Courthouse, where a 14-item agenda was discussed.
Lamb County Judge James DeLoach called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m. and gave the invocation before leading the Pledge of Allegiance.
There was nobody present to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Consent Agenda: a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); Judge DeLoach stated there was one set of minutes and they appeared to be 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; Gina Jones requested that the Commissioners approve bills totaling $670,996.95. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Jerry Yarbrough requested that the court approve payroll for Lamb County ending on August 23rd in the amount of $161,403.26 and for LHC ending on August 24th in the amount of $205,007.10. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; packet.
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 take appropriate action on Purdue and Brandon update by Adam Walker.
Walker gave a presentation to the Commissioners. No action was taken. Walker stated that they represent Lamb County in three ways; they represent the Appraisal District, they collect delinquent property taxes through the Appraisal District and then they represent the county as far as the collection of JP tickets.
Item five was a Public Hearing for the 2024 Tax Rate.
Judge DeLoach opened the Public Hearing at 10:12 a.m.
Jones stated, “The Tax Rate that was approved by the Commissioners was .76, which is what we will be adopting today. Last year, the tax rate was .742.” Judge DeLoach closed the Public Hearing at 10:13 a.m.
Item number six on the agenda as to consider and take appropriate action on the adoption of the 2024 Tax Rate.
Commissioner Logan made the motion to increase the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of the rate of .76, which respectfully is a 2.99% increase of the tax rate, and it was seconded by Commissioner Danny Short. The motion carried.
Item seven on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Ratifying Property Tax Increase Reflected in the FY 20242025 Budget.
“That tax increase is $143,842,” Jones said.
The motion was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on Sheriff’s Fee’s for 20242025.
“I spoke with Sheriff Gary Maddox on Friday and he is recommending no changes to these fees,” Judge DeLoach said. “He did say that over the next year he is going to work on this some and possibly adjust some of those fees for next year, because the state has changed some stuff and there are some fees they’re not able to collect. We may be looking at an adjustment next year” The motion to approve no fees to the Sheriff’s fees for the 20242025 was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Demolition Contract with Alex Ojeda to demo County Property.
“There are two guys who took Ken Stidam’s place with the City who have been demoing a lot of property. Alex came up to us, and Ricky has come up with a contract based on that property,” Judge DeLoach said.
Item 10 on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action to Appoint Board members to fill vacancies on the Lamb County Library Board.
“We basically had a whole new board coming on right now, we lost members for one reason or another. We only have two of our old members, which are Rene Trevino and Lori Zinn. We are requesting Isabel Bramwell, Christin Ponce, Laura Alvarez, Mallory Marquez and Espy Garcia.
“There usually remains a vacancy on the Library Board, because a lot of times there is someone who comes in to use the Library, and starts volunteering at the Library and making a big contribution to that Library,” Judge DeLoach explained. That is the reason for that.
The motion to approve the new appointments to the Library Board was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on Bids to replace Courthouse Windows. “We received one bid to finish the second floor and do the first floor and the basement windows, like the ones around the DA’s office,” he said. “The bid was for $386,716.38. He has two notes on it, one is noting the basement, first floor and the rest of the second floor is included in the bid. The other note is that there could be a potential price increase after the 1st of October. They don’t know when that price increase is going to hit, but they do know that it is coming. That will bring the total to a maximum of just over $417,000.”
The motion to approve the bid to complete replacing the windows at the Courthouse was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. the motion carried.
Item 12 on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Burn Ban.
No action was taken Future agenda items were discussed.
The next two Commissioners Court meetings will be Sept. 23rd and Oct. 11th. Also the Library Christmas Open House and Parade will be held on Dec. 6th.
With no further business to discuss, Commissioner Logan made a motion to adjourn and it was seconded by Commissioner DeBerry. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 10:57 a.m.