The Lamb County Court Commissioners Court met in regular session on Monday, Feb. 13th to discuss an eight-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 10:02 a.m. by Lamb County Judge James DeLoach and he started things off with the invocation.
There was nobody present for the public comment portion of the meeting.
Consent Agenda Items: Consider and take appropriate action on minutes from previous meeting(s); there was one set of minutes and Judge DeLoach said that they were in order; Consider and take appropriate action on budget and salary amendments and/or line item transfers, which Gina Jones said there were none; Consider and take appropriate action on bills presented by the County Auditor, Gina Jones, in the amount of $887,079.78; Consider and take appropriate action on payroll presented by Jerry Yarbrough. She requested approval for Lamb County Payroll ending on Jan. 27, 2023, totaling $144,612.79 and Lamb Healthcare Center Payroll ending on Jan. 28, 2023, $189,259.90; Consider and take appropriate action on departmental reports. The motion was made by Commissioner Danny Short and seconded by Commissioner Lee Logan to approve the Consent Agenda Items. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and take appropriate action on the Racial Profiling Report, which was presented by Sheriff Gary Maddox.
“Since January 1, 2002, the Lamb County Sheriff’s Office in accordance with the Texas Racial Profiling Law has been collecting police contact data for the purpose of identifying the response and if necessary due to concern for racial profiling practices,” Sheriff Maddox said. “It is my hope that the findings provided in this report will serve as evidence that the Lamb County Sheriff’s Office continues to strive towards the goal of maintaining strong relations with the community. This period is going to cover Jan, 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022.”
Sheriff Maddox said that they made 67 traffic stops during that time period.
“The number of deputy contacts with white drivers when compared to the number of white county residents, which were approximately 48-percent, demonstrated that the number of white-resident citations was at 37-percent. When it comes to African Americans, 4.6-percent demonstrated that the number of African American residents contact with deputies was 1.49-percent.”
He added, “56.1-percent Hispanic residents demonstrated that the number of Hispanics contacted by deputies was 57.05-percent. Asian Pacific Islanders, 0.5percent demonstrated that their contact with deputies was 0.6-percent and Alaskan Native American, Indian 0.5-percent demonstrated that their contact with deputies was 2.0-percent. The findings from the summary statement state that the Lamb County Sheriff’s Office does not currently experience a problem with racial profiling practices. This is supported by the fact that they have not received any complaints from community members regarding officers misconduct associated with racial profiling practices. Continuing effort to collect police contact data will ensure an ongoing evaluation of the Lamb County Sheriff’s Office allowing the community to benefit from the professional and courteous service from the Sheriff’s Office.”
The motion was made by Commisioner Cory DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Kent Lewis. The motion carried.
Yarbrough presented the next item, which was to consider and take appropriate action on Lamb County’s renewal of TAC’s ART’s Program for 2023.
“It’s the same as always. We send them those reports every pay period and they do our 1099 B and C at no charge,” Yarbrough said.
The motion was made by Commissioner Logan and seconded by Commissioner Short to approve the renewal. The motion carried.
Jones presented the next item to the Commissioners, which was to consider and take appropriate action on Contract with Vexus for Olton Library.
“The Olton Library is going to switch over to Vexus for phone and internet service, but it won’t start until June or July,” she said.
Judge DeLoach added, “What we’re trying to do, we’ve got a couple of situations where we have places on different contracts and we’re trying to get all of those under one contract and the internet the same. So when we get the opportunity to that, that is what we are trying to do.”
The motion to approve the contract was made by Commissioner DeBerry and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried.
Future Agenda items include: Sheriff discussed current issues with purchasing new vehicles, as well as the donation of 12 loads of ash. Commissioner Logan discussed Five area installing fiber optic lines in Precinct four. Olton Cemetery plat and legal documentation was discussed and County Clerk is working on Civil Docket.
The Commissioners went into Executive Session at 10:39 and came out at 10:54 a.m.
With no further business to discuss the motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Short and seconded by Commissioner Logan. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned.