The Lamb County Commissioners held their regular meeting on Monday morning in the Lamb County Courthouse.
Judge James DeLoach called the meeting to order and opened the floor for public comment.
Elizabeth Kirmis was present for public comment and asked the Court regarding about HB 1359 (right to vote). Judge DeLoach asked Ms. Kirmis for time to research HB 1359 and get back to her regarding this bill.
Next on the agenda was consent agenda items, where five Consent Agenda items were considered first, in a combined vote of approval:
Minutes from the regular meeting on Jan. 25, 2021 and the special meeting on Jan. 28, 2021 were approved as presented. There were no line-item transfers made to the budget.
Gin Jones, County Auditor, presented bills; Jerry Yarbrough presented payroll and the departmental reports were given to each commissioner in a packet.
The motion was made by Commissioner Lee Logan and seconded by Commissioner Danny Short to approve the consent agenda items. The motion carried.
The next item for discussion was changes to the County Holiday Schedule.
“I want Columbus Day put back on there [the Holiday Schedule],” Commissioner Logan said. “I know we traded one for the other when we last spoke about this I think it is part of our history and our culture and I think we should keep it.”
Commissioner Logan made a motion, which was seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis to approve changes to County Holiday Schedule, by adding back in the Federal Holiday-Columbus Day. The motion carried.
Yarbrough explained to the Commissioners that they were going to have to go out for bids this year to Re-Adopt Lamb County’s Investment Policy.
“I did an extension in 2019 — we have to go out for bids every four years and then I can do an extension for two years, so this is the end of that two year extension,” she explained.
The motion to approve action to Re-Adopt Lamb County’s Investment Policy as presented was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
The next item was regarding advertising for Depository Contracts.
“We’ll have to advertise by putting it on the door, in the newspaper and or on the website,” Yarbrough said. “All of the banks in the county are the only bids we have to actually take. If anyone wants to bid they can, but typically we stay in the county.”
The motion to approve action to advertise for Depository Contracts was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Lewis. The motion carried.
Judge DeLoach explained the next item, saying, “This was requested by Judge [Felix] Klein, primarily because Grand Jury has been in place for starting their second year now because of COVID-19 and restrictions placed on us by the Supreme Court. We usually replace our Grand jury every six months, but we haven’t been able to do that.”
Yarbrough added, “Right now we are paying jurors $20 for the first day and $40 dollars every time after. They typically meet three times, because they typically do six months. They’ve already done six times, so we’re starting our second year, so Judge Klein wanted to double their pay, so it would be $80 per day. I say six months, because in that six months, typically they will meet three times, it could be twice it could be three, it’s not always exactly the same and you don’t always have all jurors, but I have to account for 14 jurors; 12 and two alternates.”
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Lewis to approve action on Temporary Jury Duty Payment, with stipulation for this current Grand Jury only. The motion carried.
Judge DeLoach discussed future agenda items and the meeting was adjourned at 10:26 a.m.