Commissioners Court holds regular meeting Monday
The Commissioners Court of Lamb County met in regular session on Monday, May 8th at the Lamb County Courthouse to discuss a 13-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order by Lamb County Judge James DeLoach at 10 a.m. and he gave the invocation.
There was nobody present for public comment.
Consent agenda items: (a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); There was one regular meeting and the Judge said that the minutes 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; Jones asked the commissioners to approve bills totaling $832,474.73. (d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll presented by Jerry Yarbrough; she asked the commissioners to approve payroll for Lamb County ending on April 21st in the amount of $148,099.50, and payroll for LHC ending on April 22nd in the amount of $194,753.25.
(e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; none.
(f) Consider and take appropriate action on applying for unclaimed property capital credits for Counties; “We have to request this every year,” Judge DeLoach stated. “We used to use this for scholarships, but we’ve talked about putting it into our libraries. If this is approved, we will request that, it’s not a lot of money, but it could help out with some projects.
(g) Consider and take appropriate action on Tax Deed R18796; “This is in Littlefield, it is lot 8 of the west half of lot 9 block 33 Duggan annex addition in the City of Littlefield,” Judge DeLoach said. “It is for the sum of $40,000 and the highest bidder was Allan and Vanessa Dolly. The property address is 303 E. 15th Street in Littlefield. There is a house on it and it is an improved lot and I recommend that it be approved.
The motion was made by Commissioner Cory DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Danny Short to approve the consent agenda items. The motion carried unanimously.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action to create and fund a temporary part-time position in the Tax Assessors Office.
“Basically what this is, is a summer position to help Tammy get caught up on some filing and other things,” Judge DeLoach said.
“We have a lot of filing cabinets next to my office that are plum fool of old voters cards from way back that need to be pulled and that we can eventually shred and get rid of,” Kirkland said. “We’re only supposed to keep certain things like 2 years, four years and some of the ones in those cabinets are from forever ago.”
She added, “There is never enough time. There is certain things I want this person doing and Amber and myself will be overseeing everything to make sure it is done right.”
The motion to approve creating and funding this temporary parttime position in the Tax Assessors Office was made by Commissioner Lee Logan and seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis.
Next on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on IPM Amendment to Pharmacy Benefit management Services.
“This is the prescriptions I go through with Prescription Shop for my Indigent,” Cynthia Bussey said. “ They did some rate changes, so some medicines could be a little more and some could be a little less. It’s just to renew the IPM (Integrated Pharmacy Management).
The motion to approve the IPM Amendment to Pharmacy Benefit Managment Services was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry. The motion carried unanimously.
Item seven on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on out of state travel for Juvenile Probation Office.
“This is the yearly West Texas Chiefs Conference in Ruidoso, N.M. that I’ve attended for a long time. It is coming up in June and it would be for Tony and myself,” Carrie Barden said.
“I think it’s a benefit for her and the county for Carrie to go to this conference,” Judge DeLoach said.
The motion to approve the out of state travel for Juvenile Probation Office was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Short.
The next item of business was to consider and take appropriate action on Texas Juvenile Justice Department Supplement & Emergent Regionalization Funding.
“This is some extra funding, and they actually don’t need our approval on this, but I wanted her to come and tell the Commissioners what they’re doing with this to kind of set a precedent for them to come to commissioners court and give us an update every now and then on what they’re doing,” Judge DeLoach said.
“This is money that the state has given each region,” Darden said. “Lamb County is part of the Panhandle Region; and the Panhandle Region has been given $100,000. There is a committee that we have to present a budget to of how we want to spend the money and if we need it, we have to have drained our own money or not have the money to pay for it before we can request it.”
She added, “Our Department requested to have money to update our computers at the Resource Center; I think ours were bought about 20 years ago, so they’re outdated. This would give us about six computers and we have a lot of kids who come in for after school programs and we also applied for funding to purchase a program that has different classes you can take on the computer. They deal with truancy, drug education shoplifting, social skills, etc. I’ve also requested money to upgrade our security system down at the resource center, which is not only a protection for us, but for the kids as well. A lot of the cameras are outdated, so we will be able to see who the kids are much better. It’s a total of $12,600, and the Committee approved us and the State has already given us the money, so it is a done deal, as long as everyone is OK with it.”
The Motion to approve Texas Juvenile Justice Department Supplement & Emergent Regionalization Funding was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried unanimously.
Item nine was to consider and take appropriate action on make a contribution to Amherst Senior Meals Program.
“If y’all remember when we did budget, we budgeted for an amount of money that was eligible for each community in the county,” Judge DeLoach said. “ We already approved the interlocal with Sudan; we haven’t funded it yet, but we’ve reviewed it. I used the same interlocal for Amherst; I got the request the day of our last Commissioner’s Court meeting from Amherst. Rickie is reviewing it.”
The Motion to approve Contribution to Amherst Senior Meals Program was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried unanimously.
The next item of business was to consider and take action on Resolution to participate in an Opioid Lawsuit.
“We have an opportunity to join in a lawsuit; we’ve gotten some money from the state, but I’ve talked to the Attorney General’s office because this is due now,” Yarbrough said. “When it first started there were only certain things you could do it for, but now there are a ton of things you can do it for.”
Redman explained, “There was a bunch of paperwork that we had to attach to this agreement and the agreement is a resolution that we’re asking you’ll to adopt today. The general language of it basically says, we recognize there was a problem with the way opioid medication was advertised and that also affected the citizens of Lamb County and the medical providers here. We agree that the way that the State of Texas by these private attorneys and the Attorney General’s office, the way they decided to split that money up between all of these counties, we agree with that, we agree that we need it here and we’re agreeing to accept the money so that we can offset the problem.”
The motion to approve taking part in the Opioid Lawsuit was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried unanimously.
Next Lamb Healthcare Center CEO Cindy Pope discussed what’s been going on at the hospital.
Future Agenda items were discussed and then the Commissioners went into Executive Session at 10:41 a.m. and Judge DeLoach closed the Executive session at 11:30 a.m.
With there being no further business to come before this Commissioners Court, the motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to adjourn. The motion carried unanimously.