Please note: All agenda items are considered PASSED unless indicated otherwise.

OPEN SESSION:

RESOLUTION

1. Consider and take necessary action to adopt a resolution proclaiming October 2026, as “Rett Syndrome Awareness Month” in Smith County. 

COURT ORDERS

COMMISSIONERS COURT

2. Consider and take necessary action to approve the 2027 Smith County Holiday Schedule.

Comments:

We approved the official 2027 Smith County Holiday Schedule. This sets the legal holidays for county offices and employees:

• New Year’s Day (January 1)
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 18)
• President’s Day (February 15)
• Good Friday (March 26)
• Memorial Day (May 31)
• Juneteenth (observed June 18)
• Independence Day (observed July 5)
• Labor Day (September 6)
• Veterans Day (November 11)
• Thanksgiving (November 25–26)
• Christmas (observed December 24 and 27)
• One Administrative Day of choice during the calendar year

HUMAN RESOURCES

3. Consider and take necessary action to amend the Smith County Employee Handbook to include the Classification-Compensation Policy.

We tabled this item. The policy in front of us did not set clear guardrails that protect taxpayer dollars.

The budget is where every department makes its case for people and pay. Once we adopt it, those jobs and those dollars are the plan for the year. We have a duty to protect the integrity of that process. A change after the budget is set should be rare, and only for something we truly could not have seen coming.

Most of the mid-year requests we see are increases. They raise the cost this year and they raise the baseline for next year’s budget without ever going through the full budget process. The policy before us did not stop that.

It never defined what “unusual” means. It let a request come forward with just more job duties and no savings. It still allowed a brand-new job title to be created after the budget is set, and it still allowed an open position to be turned into a different, higher-paying job. Human Resources and the Auditor can look at a request, but the policy gave them no standard they could use to stop it. The test was written so loosely that almost any request could still reach this Court.

That leaves the door open. You want a narrow window for a real unforeseen case. You do not want the exception to become the normal way departments get a second chance at the budget.

We write policy so the rules are clear, written down, and the same for every department—not made up case by case. From a conservative standpoint, that is how you keep government limited, predictable, and accountable to the taxpayers. Without firm written standards, decisions drift toward whatever is asked for in the moment. That is how costs grow and the budget process loses its meaning.

Potentially Coming Up On A Future Agenda: Over the past month, three reclassification requests from the Sheriff’s Office came before Human Resources and the Auditor. All three are increases: turning an unfilled Investigator position into a CID Sergeant, reclassifying an unfilled Deputy Clerk position as an Official Public Records position, and increasing the pay scale range for the Public Information Officer. The Sheriff has also discussed them with some Commissioners and the Judge. HR reports to the Commissioners Court and does give us timely notice of pending requests.

These changes belong in the budget workshops or at final salary adoption. Open positions that sit unfilled become an easy path to higher pay and new titles after the budget is already set. Principled fiscal governance means holding the line on the adopted budget. Saying yes to mid-year increases that could have been planned earlier is how limited government quietly becomes unlimited.

Texas Local Government Code § 111.041 (250K+ pop) provides the standard:

The commissioners court may authorize an emergency expenditure as an amendment to the original budget only in a case of grave public necessity to meet an unusual and unforeseen condition that could not have been included in the original budget through the use of reasonably diligent thought and attention.

We have a duty to protect the integrity of the budget process.

4. Consider and take necessary action regarding the Smith County Health Plan, to incorporate AMPS for our repricer effective January 1, 2027.

Comments:

We approved moving forward with AMP as the new medical claims repricer for the employee health plan, with a target start of January 1.

Dawn Brinson presented the analysis. AMP has done this work since 2005. They review hospital claims line by line and reprice them as a percentage above Medicare. Their review of our actual claims showed a potential $2.8 million in savings compared with what we have been paying.

These savings sound great for the taxpayer, but how would we track that? We do not get monthly updates, and I am not allowed to attend the Insurance Committee meetings. Dawn Brinson answered my question—they will get a report to us monthly so the full Court can watch the results in real time.

This is a step toward controlling the rising cost of our employee health plan, which continues to pressure the budget. I’m encouraged by the projected savings and stronger claim review, but I’ll be watching those monthly numbers closely to make sure the promised efficiencies show up for taxpayers and employees.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE

5. Consider and take necessary action to approve the Techshare Local Government Corporation (Techshare) Service Addendum pursuant to Texas Government Code 791, and annual Maintenance and Operations Fees and Storage Cost in the amount of $130,404.00 and authorize the County Judge to sign all related documentation. 

Comments:

We approved the Techshare Prosecutor Software as a Service Addendum and the annual fees of $130,404 covering January–December 2027. That amount breaks down to the SaaS fee for 33 prosecutor users at $85,404 plus storage at $45,000.

Techshare is a nonprofit local government corporation that lets counties share costs on specialized software through an interlocal agreement with counties including Collin, Dallas, Denton, Midland, Potter, Tarrant, and Travis. The District Attorney’s office already uses this system, and the renewal is budgeted in their annual budget. This keeps the DA’s case management tools current without the county having to build or maintain a custom system.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

6. Consider and take necessary action to approve an agreement with Optimum Business for PRI Phone Services at Juvenile Services and authorize the county judge to sign all related documentation.

Comments:

AT&T is decommissioning the legacy PRI phone service at Juvenile Services. We approved moving that service to Optimum Business, where the rest of the county’s PRI circuits already run.

• Current AT&T cost: $2,350 per month
• New Optimum cost: $447 per month
• Annual savings: $22,836

This is a straightforward switch that keeps the phones working at the juvenile facility while cutting the monthly bill by more than 80 percent. Good work by IT on catching the decommission notice and lining up the lower-cost replacement so quickly!

SHERIFF’S OFFICE

7. Consider and take necessary action to authorize the Sheriff’s Office to apply for the Office of Court Appeals: Public Safety Report System API integration grant.

Comments:

We authorized the Sheriff’s Office to apply for a state grant from the Office of Court Administration to integrate our jail management system with the Public Safety Report System (PSRS) via API.

PSRS is the system magistrates must use when setting bail for felonies and Class A or B misdemeanors. Without the API, staff have to re-enter the same data by hand. The grant reimburses one-time integration costs (development, configuration, testing, training, and related project work). OCA and the vendor provide the system and API access at no charge. Awards will be issued by August 31, 2027, and reimbursable expenses run through June 30, 2029.

This is approval to apply only. If the grant is awarded, it will come back to Court for a separate vote to formally accept the funding. Integrating the systems should reduce duplicate data entry, improve accuracy, and free up staff time—exactly the kind of efficiency we should pursue when state money is available to help cover the cost.

RECURRING BUSINESS

COUNTY CLERK

8. Consider and take the necessary action to approve the Commissioners Court minutes for September 2026.

9. Receive Commissioners Court recordings for September 2026. 

AUDITOR’S OFFICE

10. Consider and take necessary action to approve and/or ratify payment of accounts, bills, payroll, transfer of funds, amendments, and health claims.

Comments:

We approved the regular payments, bills, payroll, and health claims, along with two budget transfers:

• $46,588 transferred to cover Fiscal Year 2026 payroll accruals across salary and wage lines. [Received Monday 10/19 at 4:54PM]
• $2,468.44 transferred from Courthouse Security – Misc. Contracts/Insurance/ Workers Comp lines to cover salary overages. [Received Tuesday 10/20 at 8:06AM]
• Health Plan payment: $99,675.25

We received the final year-end appropriations report. It shows roughly $5.8 million left over in the budget. I asked Auditor Tim Hollis for clarity. He said he will bring a more detailed report next week that shows how encumbrances are treated. These reports are one of the few real tools the Court has to see whether spending matched the budget the taxpayers were told to fund.

This is the final snapshot of the fiscal year, and it shows we over-budgeted by $5.8 million. That figure does not include all encumbrances. A large share of what remains is expected to roll into the Reserve Fund — like a “Rainy Day Fund”. Once that money is parked there, it can only be used for one-time capital expenses. It cannot be used for salaries or ongoing operations.

The Court raised the tax rate for FY27. That increase is projected to bring in about $6 million more from the taxpayers. Yet we are closing the year with millions still sitting in the budget. The reason is simple: we do not practice zero-based budgeting. Departments are not required to justify every dollar from the ground up. The habit is to take last year’s number and add a little more. If the baseline had been trimmed first, the new requests could have been absorbed without raising taxes.

We overtaxed the people.

A Republican majority sits on this Court. The numbers and the practices do not match the principles.

EXECUTIVE SESSION: For purposes permitted by Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, entitled Open Meetings, Sections 551.071, 551.072, 551.073, 551.074, 551.0745, 551.075, 551.076, and 551.0761. The Commissioners Court reserves the right to exercise its discretion and may convene in executive session as authorized by the Texas Government Code, Section 551.071, et seq., on any of the items listed on its formal or briefing agendas.
 
SECTION 551.074 PERSONNEL MATTERS

11. Deliberation and consultation regarding the appointment, employment, and duties of the Smith County Budget Officer. 

OPEN SESSION:

COURT ORDER

COMMISSIONERS COURT

12. Consider and take necessary action regarding the appointment, employment, and duties of the Smith County Budget Officer.

Comments:

After executive session discussion, we took action in open session on the Budget Officer position. This is a department head role that reports directly to the Commissioners Court. Decisions about filling it, the duties, and any related personnel matters belong in public with full Court involvement—not behind closed doors.

For those of you that are new on this journey, Kari Perkins resigned as Budget Officer on September 1, 2025. Tim Hollis was appointed Budget Officer on January 29, 2026. When County Auditor Karin Smith resigned on June 11, 2026 to return to Burnet County, Tim moved into the Auditor position effective July 1, and the Budget Officer role was advertised again. The Auditor has been covering the duties in the interim.

Restoring a dedicated Budget Officer gives the Court direct oversight of the budget process again. We interviewed two strong candidates and authorized HR to extend an offer to the most qualified one. We will bring this item back to Court next week to make the formal appointment if the offer is accepted.

In less than two years as Commissioner, I have already worked with three Auditors and two Budget Officers—and we are about to hire the third Budget Officer. That kind of turnover makes consistent budget oversight harder than it should be.

ADJOURN