The Commissioners Court of Lamb County held their regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 24th at the Lamb County Courthouse to discuss an 11-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 Judge Scott Say.
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 three sets of minutes, Jan. 24th regular meet, Jan. 28th special meeting and Feb. 10th regular meeting, 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 $608,742.98. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Jerry Yarbrough requested that the commissioners approve payroll for Lamb County ending on Feb. 7, 2025, in the amount of $170,355.81. She also requested that the commissioners approve payroll for LHC ending on Feb. 8, 2025 in the amount of $211,418.93. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; packets.
The motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented was made by Commissioner Danny Short and seconded by Commissioner Cory DeBerry. The motion carried.
Item number four was to consider and take appropriate action to renew Liability Insurance.
Jones stated, “There is a difference this year because, in the past Cyber Security has been included in our general liability policy, but because of all the Cyber attacks, Cyber Security is its own separate policy. We can choose a $500,000 limit or a $1 Million limit. I recommend that we go with the $1 Million limit, which will costs us $7,500 with a $10,000 deductable.
The motion to approve renewing liability insurance was made by Commissioner Lee Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Item five on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on approving the Treasuer’s Quarterly Report.
Yarbrough presented the Quarterly Report, saying, “It is the first quarter of our budget, but it’s the fourth quarter of the year. The ending balance is $9,706,775.72 and then we start over on our interest, so our interest for the first quarter of this year’s budget is, $80,174.83.”
The motion to approve the Treasuers quarterly report was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Lamb County’s renewal of TAC’s ART’s Program for 2025.
“It’s the ART’s program, where they do our 1099 B’s and C’s for us and send it out. All they charge us for is the postage, nothing has changed on it,” Yarbrough said.
The motion to approve Lamb County’s renewal of TAC’s ART’s Program for 2025 was made by Commissioner Kent Lewis and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on an Inter-Local Agreement with Parmer County.
“This is a renewal of the jail contract with us and Parmer County to house overflow for us,” Sheriff Gary Maddox said. “It is still at $85 per day and we have five inmates over there right now.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner DeBerry to approve an inter-local agreement with Parmer County. The motion carried.
Item eight on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on an Inter-Local Agreement with Texas Anti-Gang Center Lubbock.
“This is a local agreement between us and TAG, which is the Texas Anti-Gang Center out of Lubbock,” Sheriff Maddox said. “What this does, is it gives them access to our inmate phone system and in turn, we will have access to their system for analysis on jail call data. It helps them to monitor gang activity in all of the jails.”
The motion to approve this item was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Item 10 on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Local Agreement with South Plains Auto task force.
“This is a local agreement with them on the cameras that we’ve started putting up,” Sheriff Maddox said. “They’re handling all of the grant side of it; the first year was free, the second year, we’re going to have to pay half of what the grant part of it did.”
The motion to approve this item was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried.
Future agenda items were discussed.
Brandon Albus gave an update on everything the Ag and 4-H kids have been doing over the last few weeks.
Mike McNutt gave an update on LHC.
“We’ve been busy, coming off of a January where we had some highs from volume to financials, so that was encouraging,” he said. “Our billing collection company was here last week and we have a good visit with them. Sleep Lab continues to perform and we’re actually looking to add two more unites, going from four units to six. That service line continues to grow and is doing some really good things.”
He added, “We’ve had to purchase a new baby warmer and then we’ve had all kinds of phone troubles for three weeks now, so we will hopefully this week be finalizing a new phone system that will cover the hospital and the clinic.”
Dylan Brown gave an update on LHC’s financials, saying, “We had a little over $700,000 at the end of January and after our bills are paid today [Monday], we should have a little over $200,000, of which a little over $103,000 will come back to the County for the IGT you all fronted. We received that payment last Friday.”
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 11:03 a.m.