The Commissioners Court of Lamb County met in regular session on Monday, Sept. 28th at the Lamb County Courthouse to discuss a 21item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 10:01 a.m. by Lamb County Judge, James DeLoach and the invocation was given by Rickie Redman. There was nobody present to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Prior to the consent agenda, the Commissioners jumped ahead to item four which was consider and take appropriate action on an IGT for Lamb Healthcare Center.
“This is a dish IGT, it will fund at the end of October,” Mike McNutt LHC CEO said. “This IGT is $406,266.74.”
The motion to approve the IGT for Lamb Healthcare Center was made by Commissioner Danny Short and seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis. The motion carried unanimously.
Consent Agenda: a) Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); there were no minutes presented for approval. b) Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/ or line-item transfers; there were none. c) Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor; Lamb County Auditor, Gina Jones requested that the Commissioners approve bills totaling $1,312,705.00. d) Consider and take appropriate action on payroll; Lamb County Treasurer Jerry Yarbrough asked the Commissioners to approve payroll for Lamb County ending on Sept. 18th in the amount of $169,005.03 and for LHC ending on Sept. 19th in the amount of $296,076.48. e) Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports; packets. f) Consider and take appropriate action Donations; there were none.
The motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented was made by Commissioner Lee Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried unanimously.
Item five on the agenda was consider and take appropriate action regarding HR Department staffing levels, strategic planning for FY 2026-2027 and associated budget adjustments.
After some discussion, there was no action taken on this item.
The next order of business was a Public Hearing for 2026-2027 Fiscal Year Budget.
“Where we’re ending with the general fund, we’re funding $255,733 out of fund balance,” Jones said. “This is the best budget that we’ve had since I’ve been here. It’s been a tough year, but I’m excited about where we’re headed.”
Judge DeLoach added, “We’re normally at least twice that much and a couple of years in the past there has been $1,000,000 that we’ve funded out of fund balance. So, this year’s amount is the least we’ve funded out of fund balance at the proposed rate.”
Judge DeLoach talked some about the budget, stating, “In this budget, there is a one-time payment for employees only, not elected officials. It is for employees who were working for the County on October 1st of this year. Full time employees will get $1,500 and part-time employees will get $750, and it will more than likely on the first payroll in December. This is not a raise, it is a onetime payment.”
Item seven on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on adoption of the 2026-2027 Fiscal Year Budget.
The motion to approve the adoption of the 2026-2027 budget as presented was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried unanimously.
The next order of business was a Public Hearing for the 2026 Tax Rate.
The public hearing was opened at 10:18 a.m. and closed at 10:20 p.m.
“The proposed tax rate that we proposed is .79, the current tax rate is .76, and I’m not in favor of increasing the tax rate, but we have a lot of unknowns in front of us: out of county housing for the jail, fuel prices and the legislature,” Judge DeLoach explained. “We had to put it out there because we needed a little pad, but when we come out next year, I’m going to be pushing hard to lower it back down.”
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on adoption of the 2026 Tax Rate.
Commissioner Short read the motion, stating, “I move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of the tax rate of .79, which is effectively a 5.81-percent increase in the tax rate.”
It was seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried unanimously.
Item 10 was to consider and take appropriate action to ratify property tax increase reflected in the FY 2026-2027 budget.
“It is approximately $697,325 in additional revenue,” Jones stated.
The motion to approve ratifying the property tax increase reflected in the FY 2026-2027 budget was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried unanimously. The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on Contract with Warren Computers.
Ben Warren gave the commissioners an update on changes that have been made to better their services.
The motion to approve the contract with Warren computers was made by Commissioner Cory DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried unanimously.
Item 12 was to consider and take appropriate action on the renewal of workers compensation with Texas Association of Counties Risk Management Pool.
“It’s just renewals, there are no changes,” Yarbrough said. “It’s a policy we’ve had, they’ve done ours for years.”
The motion to approve the renewal of workers compensation with Texas Association of Counties Risk Management Pool was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried unanimously. The next order of business was in regards to some water line crossings in Precinct 1 and 2.
A motion to approve work on these water lines was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried unanimously.
Item 14 was to consider and take appropriate action on Fire and EMS agreements.
“There are no changes to the Fire Agreement,” Judge DeLoach stated. “The EMS agreement, due to the HB 3000 Grant, Earth has given up there $40,250 to be divided up between Olton, Sudan and Amherst. It’s $53,666 for Olton Sudan and Amherst. The ambulance should be delivered in the next nine months, and we already have the money for that ambulance. Earth will receive that ambulance, agreeing to give up their yearly subsidy for three years.”
The motion to approve these agreements was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried unanimously. The next item on the agenda was a resolution designating location of Lamb County Foreclosure sales.
“This is not our tax sales, this is if a bank forecloses on a piece of property and they say they’re going to sell it at the court house, where do they do that? Cynthia got a request for this to be put on the website. This is a resolution stating that these will be held at the north door of the courthouse, in the event of inclement weather, it may be moved into the lobby.”
A motion to approve the location for Lamb County Foreclosure sales was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried unanimously Item 16 on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on ES&S Express Poll Tablets Sales Order Agreement.
“We’ll be getting 15 new ones, and the total for that $23,625, and they should be coming in next week,” Rene Trevino County Clerk said.
The motion to approve the agreement was made by Commissioner Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried unanimously.
Items 18 and 19 were to consider and take appropriate action on Joint Election Services Agreement between the Sudan and Olton ISD’s and Lamb County. The motion to approve the agreement with Sudan ISD was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Danny Short. The motion carried unanimously.
The motion to approve the agreement with Olton ISD was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried unanimously.
The next order of business was to consider and take appropriate action on trading weapons for the Sheriff’s Department.
“The last couple of years with SB22 money, we’ve been replacing shotguns, riffles and pistols,” Sheriff Gary Maddox said. “With what we have left from SB22 money, we’re in the process of ordering shields, helmets, scopes and different things for the guns we already have.”
He added, “They had asked if we would be interested in trading our current weapons that we have and are not going to be using in. This is to get authority from the Commissioners Court to do that.”
The motion to approve trading weapons for the Sheriff’s Department was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried unanimously. Future agenda items were discussed.
With no further business to discuss a motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 11:05 a.m.