The Commissioners Court of Lamb County held their regular meeting on Monday, Jan. 13th at the Lamb County Courthouse to discuss a 10-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m. by Lamb County Judge James DeLoach, and the Invocation was given by Lamb County District Attorney Rickie Redman.
There was nobody present for the public comment portion of the meeting.
Consent Agenda Items: a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); Judge DeLoach stated there were two sets 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 $844,766.09. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Jerry Yarbrough requested that the commissioners approve payroll for Lamb County ending on Dec. 27, 2024, in the amount of $165,320.07. She also requested that the commissioners approve payroll for LHC ending on Dec. 28, 2024 in the amount of $226,470.45. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; packets. f) Consider and take appropriate action on Donations; Jones said that the Lamb County Library had monetary donations in the amount of $240, as well as a donation of a 75” TV.
The motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented was made by Commissioner Cory DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Lee Logan. The motion carried.
Item number four was to consider and take appropriate action on Racial Profiling.
Lamb County Sheriff Gary Maddox presented the annual Racial Profiling Report to the Commissioners Court, stating, “I do it this way, so you guys can see exactly what we have to track when we make a traffic stop. It has a copy of our video policy, a copy of our racial profiling policy, it has a copy of Craig’s audit, which certifies that he has gone through and tested samples of the video on traffic stops and found no racial profiling. It says we will keep up with training as required by law.”
He added, “It also goes into the racial profiling full report that has to be filed with TCOLE and certified through you all. It goes through the findings, and this year, as with prior years, we have had no complaints about racial profiling from any citizen. It also states the percentages, and are in line with the demographics of Lamb County. There isn’t any one group that is being targeted.”
Sheriff Maddox also explained, “This other page is new. This is through the state giving the authority to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and are things that I will have to certify all are being done by next September, when it actually takes effect. Some of the things in here are, no deputy or person who is law enforcement certified will be allowed to wear a vest that is outdated. We have to certify every year that the vests they’re wearing are within the time period and not expired. They also can’t wear a vest after it has been shot. We have to furnish a vehicle and a gun for each deputy, and another thing they are pushing is that every officer is going to have to have a cell phone or a cell phone allowance, as well as we will have to provide a less than lethal weapon that they have access to at all times.”
The motion to approve the racial profiling report was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Danny Short. The motion carried.
Item five on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on the burn ban.
After some discussion, the motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry to keep the Burn Ban in effect for Lamb County. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on sealed bids for a vehicle for Agri-Life Extension.
Judge DeLoach explained, “We did get one bid it is from Premier Chevrolet, GMC and Buick in Littlefield with two quotes. One is for a 2025 Tahoe, two-wheel drive, and it does say that we would have to order it with an order time frame of 180 days. The price of this unit is $60,067.25. The other quote is for a 2024 Tahoe, that is in stock, four-wheel drive. The price of this unit is $57,924.25. That does not include the trade-in. The last offer I received from them was $10,000.”
Commissioner Logan made a motion to approve the bid for the 2024 Tahoe and it was seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action to setup Account with Walmart Business/Omnia.
Jones spoke on this item, saying, “Walmart called me and told me they are changing how they do their tax-exempt stuff. Before we had to go in and stand in line with our little card that we have to get our stuff tax exempt. Now, with what they’re offering, we can order online and get it tax exempt and get stuff shipped. With setting up that account there can only be five users, but there is a Co-op that they use in order to have more users.”
She added, “Hopefully one person per office will be able to have access to this.”
The motion was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Logan to approve setting up an account with Walmart business/Omnia. The motion carried.
Item eight on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on trading a Motor Grader in Precinct 1 and approve financing.
Commissioner DeBerry talked about this item, saying, “I want to trade a Cat for a John Deere. I’ve had problems with the Cat ever since I got it.”
The motion to approve this item was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis. The motion carried.
Future agenda items were discussed.
Mike McNutt gave an update on LHC.
“We’ve been busy, December we had 26 admissions to the ER and are up to about a dozen already in January,” he stated. “Sleep lab is still busy and had a big run to in December and are booked several weeks out as usual. Dr. Gagnon is running a shift for us at the end of this month, beginning of February, which will give our doctors some much needed relief.”
He added, “We have a decent sized IGT coming in in 10-14 days that we were able to fund ourselves, which was exciting.”
With no further business to discuss, a motion was made to adjourn by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The meeting was adjourned at 10:56 a.m.