the yellow. Wow, I can hear that pretty good. All right, we live here. Okay, good morning everyone. Welcome to the Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025 Tarant County Commissioners Court Meeting. I will now call the meeting to order.
Tim O'Hare, County Judge, present. Rodri Miles, Junior, Commissioner Precinct One. Alisa Simmons, commissioner precinct 2 here. Matt Krauss, commissioner precinct three here. Manny Ramirez, commissioner precinct four here. Constitution for Thank you very much. Today's invocation
will be led by Juan Contrus, spiritual growth and development pastor for Met Church in Fort Worth. Please rise for the invocation and pledges. Hello. Thank you. Let's pray. Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth. You have
filled the heavens with your majesty. And today I'll speak of your splendor, your glorious majesty, and of your wondrous works. Father, we thank you for all the employees and the leaders, the officials, Father God, who make Tarant County great. Father, we pray a special
blessing over them, protection, Father, over uh Judge O'Hare, Father. Lord, that you would bless them and keep them. Make your face shine upon them and be gracious to them. lift up your countenance, turn your face, and let your approval be upon them. And every step that they take, Father, I pray,
Lord, that they would always experience your sweet peace, Father. We pray that every business that's conducted here today, Father, that Lord, that it would glorify your name, that would make much of who Jesus is, Father. And we pray, Lord, uh that you would give them
wisdom, Father God, to oversee the people, Father, to shepherd the people that you have called them to serve, Father. And so Lord, we love you and we thank you for Jesus, the birth, life, death, and resurrection. And one day, and one day soon, he is coming back. And
we can claim out as the Apostle Paul tells us in Corinthians, "Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. It's in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen."
Thank you, Pastor Juan. All right, please join me in the pledge of allegiance to our flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And now the flag to Texas and indivisible. Thank you. You may be seated. So, um, as probably just about everybody
in this room knows, we are operating under a new system today. There have been much improvements made to the sound, the video, the audio, and everything else, including the screens we see up here. So, please be patient with us as we work through this
new system for the first time. There's one change that will happen differently than it normally happens. And that is normally on our consent agenda, if an item is pulled,
that will then find its way, the pulled item into its regular section of the what we would call the regular agenda. Based on the new system, we will literally take the items pulled from consent after the amended consent agenda is voted on. We will take those items in
order. So with that, Mr. Merritt. Good morning, judge and commissioners. A couple of announcements this morning. Uh starting off, we have several items which have been pulled uh from the consent agenda. I'll list those out now. Uh the first item is D1 under the
auditor section, J1 under elections, K3 under facilities, L1 under HIV administration, M1 under the housing assistance office,
R2 under public health. Under purchasing, we have three items S6, S12, and S14 under the tax assessor collector section
T2. And finally, court members, uh, item V1 under precinct. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Do we have any commissioner's court announcements? I would like to invite you all to join
me on Wednesday, September, I turned it on. Wednesday, September 10th for a town hall meeting at 8:00 a.m. from 8:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Arlington sub
courthouse. The topic is the enhanced premium tax credits. So, if Congress lets these um enhanced premium tax credits expire, small business owners, workers, and families uh right here in
Tarant County will fill it in their wallet. So, higher premiums, tougher choices. Some folks may even lose coverage altogether. Um Taran County is already uh already has a seat at the table. Now, it's time we speak up on
matters that hit our health and bottom line. So, that's my uh premium tax credit town hall, Wednesday, September 10th from 8:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Arlington subcour.
Also got another town hall planned for September that I would like to invite the community to attend. It's uh from a.m. to noon on September 20th at the Arlington Sub
Courthouse. The focus is on mental health and criminalization. My office is hosting this discussion as part of our ongoing effort to tackle how we address mental health in Tarant County and how
our systems impact our residents. So, I encourage everybody to attend. We'll have an expert panel. bring your questions and be part of shaping solutions that better serve our community. That's all I've got.
All right. Any other commissioners with announcements? Judge, I'll I'll make one. Uh seemed very far away when we first started talking about empowering seniors, but now we're less than a month away. So, October 2nd, uh, at the convention center, uh, or the Will Rogers, uh, center in Fort Worth, we're going to
have our annual Empowering Seniors event at Gary Fickus, who we'll be talking about a little later on, uh, was so instrumental in establishing. Uh, should be a great program this year. We'd love to have you there. If you want to sign up, empoweringceniors.com. We're still looking for sponsors as well. So, if you want to do that, but
would love to see everybody uh all of our uh more mature citizens in Tarant County at Empowering Seniors on October 2nd. We want to would love to have a big turnout that day. So, please come on by. All right. Anyone else? All right. Seeing none, we will move to
the proclamations, resolutions, and presentation section. The first one we have is employee recognition. So, uh it seems like it's been a while since we've done this one. I'm going to read uh the names of our five-year employees. I will ask you to stand uh as
a group so we can recognize you after all names are read if you are in attendance. First up is Carrie Beckton. Then Tanya Dominguez, Eric Gyos, Stephen Hill.
Y'all are like popping up like the whack-a-ole. Go ahead and stay up here. Um, Matthew Jackson, Milin Wyn, Christopher Ramirez, and Anna Tinsley Williams. Well, hello
there. Thank you all very much for five years. I appreciate you. All right. Now for our tenure employees. Sharon Brush, Kimberly Buchanan, Nicole Davis,
James Desmeris, Theodore Ebie III, Robert Gallardo, Rachel Ganius, Bria Griffin,
Ronald Hall, Gerald Hoffy, Lelania Neil, Tama Nelson, Michelle Pulver,
Crystal Ramirez, Andrea Reed, Matthew Rivers, Sally Rodriguez, Jorge Rosas, Anc Santin,
and Christopher Wells. Thank you all for 10 years with Ter County. We appreciate you. Now for our 15year employees. Short short number here. Um Eric Black, Raone Compost, Michael Diggs,
and Sandra Gonzalez. There's always one. All right. Thank uh thank all of you for your 15 years. We appreciate you very much. All right. Now for our 20-year employees, two decades with Tarant County. Michelle Cummings,
Grayen Curry Robertson, Lynette Gilbert, Sheila Harvey, Roxanne Martin, Karina Rodriguez, Jessica
Schllock Schllo, and Netti Talbert. 20 years. That's a long time. Thank you all very much. All right. Now, for our 25 year employees, if these are in order,
some have filled out some forms, some have not. Uh Sean Sears with it. Is Shawn here with us? Uh Shawn has been with us for 25 years. Sean, wherever you are, thank you for your 25 years of dedicated service to Taran County. Let's give him a round of applause.
[Applause] Jason Hwitt has also been with us 25 years. He's in facilities management. He is on vacation today and said he will be on vacation hopefully enjoying his first cruise. He appreciates the recognition and his time with the county for the last 25 years has been one of the most
enjoyable times of his life and he has made lifelong friends and many he considers family now. So let's give a round of applause to Jason here. All right, Rose Toni. Rose Tunch. Okay, Rose is with CSC also 25 years.
Thank you, Rose, for your 25 years in a difficult job. We appreciate you. All right. Is Mike Spence with us? Mike did not make it. Mike did fill out a form. 25 years with us. He's a court intake probation officer. Born in Fort Worth, went to high school at Western
Hills, college at UTA. Uh has one grown child. Uh something no one knows about him, he did a second tour of duty at juvenile uh what he likes to do for fun, water skiing, traveling, and cooking. Other job titles he's had with the county,
detention, court officer, detention intake, FPP intake, FPP reach, and FPP SNDP. Uh what he likes the most, his co-workers. He's had the opportunity to work with many talented and good people that he considers family. Mike, thank
you for your 25 years. We appreciate you. All right. Next, we have Anna May Valencia. Is she here? Well, there we are. Don't be shy. Uh, all right. 25 years. General office
4. I don't know what that what is general office 4. General office. Okay. I guess it's one step up from General Office 3, probably. Um, born in Fort Worth, went to Trimbletech High School. Uh, four daughters. Wow. I need
some tips. Yeah. Uh, three grandchildren, two granddogs, two grandkitties. Uh, she loves to cook and entertain family and friends. Um, she is the one in charge when it comes to cooking for holiday meals. She prefers to cook alone
and keep people out of my kitchen. Um, you're not yelling get off my lawn at the same time, are you? Um, so, uh, yes. Uh she loves to spend time with family and friends, loves to dance, and always has her boots ready for a weekend
getaway on the dance floor. Um she has always worked for the Wick program, and she's very grateful for serving her community. Her most memorable moment was when her daughter uh told her that she had been hired to work for the USA Olympic swim team, and she travels
throughout the United States. Very cool. Um, what she likes the most is just enjoying a nice cup of coffee in the morning, sitting on the porch and just relaxing, thanking God for everything he has blessed me with. And you have blessed us with your 25 years. So, thank you very much. We appreciate you.
All right, we do not have the next one is Shirley Franklin from housing 25 years. She is not attending, but Shirley, thank you for your 25 years of service. That's a long time and we appreciate your service. Let's give Shirley a round of applause. All right. Now, we come to a 30-year
employee from public health, Stan Geeseler. Stan, are you here with us? No, Stan's not here. Okay. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Went to AEL High School, College at TCU. Has three kids. In fact, no one knows about him. He's an introvert. We may have discovered that
today. Um, so what he likes to do for fun, fish, golf, and swim. Other jobs he's had with the county, customer service coordinator. Most memorable moment, all the happenings associated with COVID. What he likes most, being helpful and
productive, sits back, does his job quietly. Thank you, Stan. For three decades of service to Taran County. All right. Now we have uh Pamela Cole in the criminal courts. I don't think she's here today, but she has been with Tarant County for 35 years. So, Miss Cole,
thank you for 35 years of service. We appreciate you. And last but not least with the CDA's office, 35 years, Stephen Condr. Stephen, are you with us? Hello there. Assistant criminal district attorney chief in the postconviction unit born in
Okinawa, Japan. Does that mean uh father in air force? Yes. Yeah. Wow. Uh Parkway South High School in Manchester. Ar. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Uh Parkway South High School, Manchester, Missouri. Uh
college, Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. majors political science and accounting and then law school at Baylor. Uh one child, a son, a fact no one knows about him was many people don't know that he spent a
significant portion of his formative years living abroad in Europe and Asia. What he likes to do for fun, puzzles, geneal genealogy and reading. Uh other job titles he's had with the county, chief convention, conviction integrity unit and chief postconviction rits and
DNA unit. Um not sure if he has a single most memorable moment, but he thinks most of his colleagues would say being wounded in the courthouse shooting. You were shot. Yes, sir. Wow. Well, we are so glad you're with us and
you stayed with us, which is amazing. Um, so what he likes the most, the two things he enjoys the most are the work and the people. Every appellet case is like a problem to solve with the facts and law set. It is the job of the lawyer there to make the pieces fit together.
And he likes being a mentor of younger attorneys and he feels immense pride when he sees them flourish and going from brand new attorneys into accomplished litigators. Uh, we are glad you're still with us and thank you for 35 years. We appreciate you. All right, we have a speaker on this
item. Uh, Rojo Moerero. Is he present? Okay. Is there a spillover? There's no overflow. Okay. All right. Uh, all right. With that, uh, I will entertain I'll make a motion that we, u, whatever we do with
this, approve it, uh, acknowledge it. What's it called? I forgot. Receive and file. That's it. I'll make a motion to receive and file this. We have a second. Any discussion? Uh, all right. Now, I made the motion. All right. So, let's see. They don't see. Yeah, they see
that, too. Motion. All right. We're starting the vote. So, any discussion before we vote? No. Start the vote. Okay. There you go. Everybody has their own screen to vote. And we're all in. So, passes unanimously.
There you go. Okay. Um, for our employees again, we appreciate all of you. And there is a reception on the fourth floor, is there not? Yes. Okay. On fourth floor, you are obviously welcome to stay. You are also welcome to
excuse yourselves now if you would like to go to the reception. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's a good idea. I didn't think of that. Otherwise, you got to press it every single time.
But that's employees. Employees. All right. The next item on the agenda is a memorial resolution honoring Commissioner Gary Ficus, who we obviously lost here um a month, I guess
probably two months ago now. Commissioner Krauss, thank you, Judge O'Hare. Uh this would be a special one for all of us, I think. uh as the man who occupied this seat uh this little one for 18 years, uh we wanted to make sure that we recognized and celebrated the life of of a truly
great man and uh make sure we did that in this court where he spent so much time. So, I'm going to read this resolution uh proclamation that we have for him and then I know everybody's going to want to say a few words. So, um, in honor of the life and legacy of Commissioner Gary Ficus, whereas
Commissioner Gary Ficus devoted more than three decades of his life to public service, including 18 years as Tarant County Commissioner for Precinct 3, where he provided steadfast leadership and unwavering dedication to the people of Taran County. And whereas Commissioner Ficus was a tireless
advocate for his constituents, continually striving to improve their quality of life and ensure that the needs of people across Tarant County were addressed with integrity and purpose. And whereas prior to serving on the commissioner's court, Commissioner Fis served as the mayor of the city of
South Lake from 1989 to 1996, where his visionary leadership led to the creation of South Lake Town Square and the resulting economic transformation of the area. And whereas Commissioner Ficus exemplified regional cooperation through his work with multiple municipalities in
precinct 3, most notably his leadership on the DFW connector project, a landmark infrastructure initiative that improved connectivity across seven major highways and was at the time the highest funded transportation project in the United States. And whereas his passion for
infrastructure and regional development led him to establish the Tarant transportation summit, the largest transportation related related event North Texas, fostering dialogue, education, and collaboration among public officials, business leaders, and community members. And whereas
understanding the importance of supporting older adults, Commissioner Ficus launched the Empowering Seniors Expo, a lifestyle and wellness event that has served thousands of seniors and caregivers with essential resources and information. And whereas throughout his
distinguished career, Commissioner Ficus held numerous leadership roles, including founder of the South Lake Historical Society, chairman of the Tarant Regional Transportation Coalition, chairman of the Regional Transportation Council, chairman of the Public Employee Benefits Cooperative, a
member of the Niko Large Urban County Caucus, vice chairman of the Niko Transportation Steering Committee, and member of the Lions Club, a Rotarian, and a servant leader on various boards and commissions, And whereas the lifelong service of Commissioner Gary Ficus left an indelible mark on Tarant
County and beyond through his vision, leadership, humility, and heart for people. And whereas Commissioner Gary Ficus was loved deeply by his wife Kathy, their children, and grandchildren, leaving behind a legacy rooted in service, humility, and an enduring impact on the community he
faithfully served. Now therefore, be it resolved that we, the Tarant County Commissioner's Court, do hereby recognize and honor the life, leadership, and legacy of Commissioner Gary Ficus, and express our deepest appreciation for his decades of faithful service and the countless lives he
touched. Is that a motion to approve? Motion to approve. All right, we have a motion from Commissioner Krauss, second from Commissioner Simmons. Any discussion here? Uh, is Corey with us? Corey Ficus and
Kathy Ficus are here uh to uh accept the the resolution today. And and I will say um being in the spot that Commissioner Ficus was in for 18 years, I learned something almost new every day or every week that he did that that nobody knew about. And uh Pastor Miles, as I was
thinking about this, the scripture ke coming back to me, we look at the transportation summit and the empowering seniors. Those are big things, but Jesus said, "If you're faithful in the little things, you'll be faithful in the big things." And uh Gary Ficus was faithful in all the little things. And so that's
one thing I've come to appreciate even more about him. Um he did the big things well, but he did the little things so much better that people will never know about. And so it's an honor uh to fill uh precinct 3 shoes. his shoes will never be uh completely filled but uh he
was a great man as he said rooted in service a life of uh character integrity and service and I can't think of a higher praise to give somebody who spent their life in public service so it's an honor for us to recognize him celebrate his life and his legacy and his memory today
indeed all right any other comments before our votes yes I would I defer to the lady I'm a gentleman um So, hey Kathy. Hey Corey. Um, I miss your dad. I missed him. I miss your
husband. Missed him when he left the court. Um, trying to think of the first our first uh encounter. So, I got elected and I said, "Oh, let me call this guy. This guy hadn't called me, so I guess I'm supposed to call
him." And so I called and no return call and texted him and probably a week and a half later he called and I was at the car dealership waiting for my car and we talked almost
two hours. He was so full of advice and um he said just have fun. You're going to have fun with it. I want you to have fun. and he said this has been a great
um service path for for him. Um so I remembered that. Then we went to our first I went to my first conference and no legislative. We had dinner
and we came out. We sat next to each other and talk talk laugh. And uh no offense to anybody else who what I'm about to say. He said, "You know what? You're way more fun than that
last gal." And I said I said, "Thank you." I think so. He was he, you know, he was always available to me. He was um supportive. Um and when he couldn't be supportive, he he told me
why. But um I I miss him and um I'm sure you do too. He's a great man. Thank you. Um when I think of Commissioner Fus,
the first thing that comes to my mind is that southern draw. Hey buddy. That's the way he always greeted me every time uh I was in his presence. I did not have the privilege of serving
with him on this court, but I did have the privilege of watching him and my former boss serve the residents of Taran County. And the relationship that they had was something to behold. It was
really genuine and it was a beautiful relationship. Now, they didn't agree on everything, but one of the the lessons that I learned from them is just because you don't agree on everything doesn't mean that you have to be disagreeable.
You can still work and have a civil and a a good relationship beyond the disagreements that you have on this dis. They were friends. They hung out. Um, they joked with one another. He would always come by the office to just check
on Roy. How you doing, man? And I I miss him often. I think about um some ventures that I was considering uh looking at and I was recommended to go talk to
Commissioner Fus. He's a man of many talents. And I didn't know all of the things that he had done throughout his professional life. Yeah. And I called him and I asked him if I could just come and sit down with him and talk to him. Sure, Rodri. Come on.
And I went to uh his subcourthouse and that's where I learned his his love of hunting and stuffing animals. [Laughter] I walked in his office and I was like,
"What in the world is going on? You got all these animals stuffed and I was like, "Okay, it's going to be an interesting lunch." But I tell you, he was just a wealth of information and he was not hesit
hesitant to share everything that he knew. That's right. and to give me advice and to give me guidance and tell me how to maneuver in that particular space. And I'll never ever forget that. And when I ran for office, he would come by and
just stop by and say, "How's it going? Everything going all right?" And I said, "Yes, sir. We're working hard." He said, "Keep working. Keep working. I sure hope you get it." And um I I miss that. And another funny
story, we were uh at a Niko conference. This is how I met Kathy. She was we went to dinner and I don't know what it was, but I didn't know she was his wife. So I just greeted her and
hugged her and she was like, "Oh." And I was like, I don't know remember what I said, but it was something crazy. Forgive me. And she was like, "Uh, I'm Mrs. Fus." I was like, "Oh, sorry." But that from that moment to this
moment, we've been good friends and she's been such a phenomenal supporter of mine and I love her dearly. And my family loves Corey because Corey introduced us to all kinds of restaurants that my kids had never
experienced before. And so my kids I I blame Corey for my kids being foodie uh bougie food snobs, right? Because they would say, "Well, where we going to eat?" And they would be like, "That ain't what Corey would pick." or when we would when
we would go when I would take them with me to the NACO conferences that the first question they would ask not where we're going none of that is Corey coming and is he picking the restaurants so I have so many wonderful memories of
commission and the thing that sticks out in my mind as I wrap up my comments is the things that you do in secret that people remember and he did so many things in secret to
help people and for that I am forever grateful and I'm continuing to keep you and your family in my prayers. Thank you. You know, whenever you talk about life and legacy that that's what the uh the resolution said. It's honoring the life
and legacy of your father and your husband uh Gary. I'll I'll make this point. Uh Gary has left an incredible legacy not just in North Texas but in the entire country uh for his work in transportation for his work in community
building. Um I know that that that's one of the most important jobs of a county commissioner of a public official uh is mobility transportation and making sure that the the ingredients are right for communities to thrive. Uh your father got that. Um there are many road
projects across Tarant County that have unofficial names like the Ficus Loop. Uh things like that that nobody hears. That's right. But all behind the scenes he was pulling strings to make things happen for his community. Um you know I learned very early on uh in my tenure here on the
court uh that that is one of the central focuses that we have to have and keep in mind as commissioners. Uh and so I'm I'm I'm proud to have learned under his toutelage. Uh and I'll say this that left that legacy here in Tarant County that that's our focus. That's going to continue to be our focus because that's
the secret ingredient as to why we're so successful. Y'all know that and I know that. So, thank you for sharing him with us for so long. Yeah. So, you know, a guy like Gary will literally be remembered around here forever for the way that he got along with people and all the work he did on
transportation. Um, there's two things I can think of. You know, his last few years, he was not the world's best driver. I think y'all know that. And so we drove down, me, him, and Chandler had to drive down to Austin, deal with an issue. And uh there were three or four
times where I literally didn't think I was coming back. And uh you'll be doing your memorial resolution. And so when we were leaving uh the building and he he wanted to drive, so we we took his car. We were leaving the building, he just walked up
to me, smiled, and handed me his keys. So we all breathed the sigh of relief. So uh but he he knew and he was and uh the other thing I'll tell you is he was just a uh
I I be honest probably more than I should confess sitting from this podium. He is such an evenkilled man that I wish I was more even killed. He he's like my wife. They're just there there's not big ups and downs and I
watched how he did things and thought, "Okay, I want to be more like that." I've probably fallen fall far short, but he is he he is my one I look at to say, "This is how you're supposed to do." Uh, okay. With that, we have uh all voted in
this system here. So, anybody have anything else before I hit end vote? Okay, it passes unanimously. And if I could invite uh Kathy Ficus, his wife who he dearly loved, and Corey Ficus, his son, who he was incredibly proud of, to come down. We're going to present
this memorial resolution. I would also ask Maria Hogue and Ariana Reigns from Precinct 3, who worked with Commissioner Pickis for a long time, uh loved him and respected him, if they would come down too to be a part of this. All right, we're going to go down.
long for a very long time. Right. This [Laughter] So, commissioners, judge, just wanted to
say thank you so much. Uh, obviously I I adored Gary. He was an amazing man and um just just the nicest guy, the even kill. I mean, you know, he he was amazing and we were so blessed to have found each other and been together. I
wish we' had a lot longer, but he loved serving on this court. I I just absolutely loved it. He loved taking care of his constituents, every single one of them. It didn't matter, you know, he would listen to them, he would try to help him out, and he just absolutely loved it. That meant so very much to
him. He was bored to death when he retired. He was still struggling with trying to find something to do to occupy his time. he, you know, he had illness issues and things, but um didn't really want to like come back to the court, but
he he missed every everybody and everything around it. So, I just want to thank you all very much. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you, Kathy. I just want to echo a little bit of what Kathy said. Um, this was a job that he really valued. He loved the court. He
loved his relationship with the court members. Um, I remember hearing all sorts of fun stories, the dinner in DC and how much fun he had with you, Commissioner Simmons. Um, Commissioner Miles left off the crickets. Um, and then I told Judge O'Hare when we
stepped up, he was actually a bad driver when I was a kid. There was So, but also to the the newer commissioners on the court, he he he's known y'all for a long time. He's had a lot of affection for y'all. So, this was very important to him. also his team,
the team that worked in the precinct. He was very passionate about the work he could do for Northeast Taran County. I know there's a lot of talk about the bigger things, but like you mentioned, Commissioner Krauss, the small things about impacting citizens that needed help and feeling like he was making a difference was really important. Um, he taught us all a lot and been greatly
missed. Um, I'm grateful for all the time we had with him and thankful for all that y'all done. I think I've said this to a few of you. when he was alive and a commissioner, people would always say nice things about him and you just kind of assume, well, yeah, because you've got something on the agenda next week or whatever. Uh they're still saying nice things. And
so it's it sort of confirms that maybe a lot of that was more sincere and real. And so it's really been a lasting memory for us, especially the family, uh to just constantly be overwhelmed with the shower of love and affection. So, thank you all for this today and thank you for everything you've done. We appreciate it. Thanks.
Thank you both. And um I I also have a driving story. I'll save it. I'm just He was driving my car. And we're going into the garage park, hotel parking, and I went, "Oh my god,
I'm not going to have a side meal." He made it. He made it though. He always made it. All right. Next up on the agenda, resolution honoring Roger Fiser. Commissioner Krauss. Thank you, Judge. Yes. Uh my last uh resolution for today is one of our
appointments to the JPS board. And as you all know as commissioners, those uh citizens who serve on these boards and commissions and give up their time and volunteer to do that uh play a huge role and function in our county. And so Roger did it for a long time and did it very well and uh we were honored to have him
in precinct 3. So I want to read this. He stepped off the board now, but uh we wanted to make sure his service was noted and recognized. So I'm going to read this uh for Roger as well. Whereas Roger Fischer has served the J uh John Peter Smith JPS Health Network
with outstanding dedication, professionalism, and an unwavering commitment to excellence since his appointment to the JPS Health Network Board of Managers in 2015. And whereas Roger Fiser was appointed chairman of the JPS board of managers in 2024 and served in that role with distinction
until the conclusion of his tenure in July 2025. And whereas during his time as chairman, Roger Fischer provided exceptional leadership and strategic vision, helping to guide the organization through growth, innovation, and ongoing efforts to improve patient care and expand services across Taran
County. And whereas Mr. Fischer has consistently demonstrated integrity, collaborative spirit, and a steadfast commitment to ensuring that highquality, compassionate care remains accessible to all individuals regardless of background or financial means. And whereas his leadership has contributed significantly
to advancing JPS's mission to improve health outcomes. And he has earned the respect and admiration of colleagues, community partners, and residents alike for his tireless service and advocacy. And whereas Roger Fischer's legacy at JPS will be marked by his visionary approach to public health, deep
compassion for people, and belief in the power of public service to positive positively transform lives. And whereas it is both fitting and proper that we recognize and honor Roger Fischer for his invaluable contribution to the JPS Health Network and the
broader Tarant County community. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Tarant County Commissioner's Court do hereby extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to Roger Fiser for his distinguished service, impactful leadership, and legacy. I move for adoption. Second. All we have a motion from
Commissioner Krauss, second from Commissioner Ramirez. Uh, any discussion on this? All right, seeing none, please cast your votes. All right, passes unanimously. And we do have Roger Fischer here today. If you'll
come on down, would love to present this to you. Thank you, Commissioner Krauss and and Court. I appreciate that honor. Um, I I have a I I've told people many times that I don't know what I did to make Gary Ficus so mad for him to make me in
a lifetime appointment to JPS, but uh Kathy Corey, thank you. Uh Gary was a a very good friend and a and a mentor to me and I'm grateful that he gave me the opportunity to serve on the JPS board. I had no idea what I was doing when I did it, but here we are. Commissioner
Krauss, thank you. um we spoke shortly before your election and and post your election and I had asked for the opportunity to get some stability for the organization and you granted that. So I very much appreciate you and since I've met you gosh a long time ago uh
2012 I think you've always been steadfast to your word. So I appreciate that very much. Commissioner Ramirez, I want to thank you especially um uh the thoughtfulness of your appointments to JPS and your insistence
that the politics remain in this courtroom and not in our boardroom u is very much appreciated and um I I've always admired that about you, Mr. Miles. I'm so proud of you and and and
your service and and I think um I'm just excited to see what you can do for Taran County to you all. Thank you for the the opportunity to serve. I very much appreciate it and and for what we have at JPS um and what it could be what it could
be. Um I know you're going to have a presentation from them today, Dr. Duncan and her leadership. Uh what an asset we have in Taran County. John Pearson with OS very much. Thank you all very much for the honor. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we have the consent
agenda as amended. Move approval. Second. We have a motion from Commissioner Ramirez to approve the amended consent agenda and second from Commissioner Miles. Any discussion?
All right. Please cast your votes. Are you not voting? I'm hitting it again. It's not. It's not. Yeah, I did hit it. She's hit it. Yay. All right. So, well, that's fine. I will call it. And it is passes.
There it is. It passes five to zero. Uh now as I discussed at the beginning of this thing, we will go in order each item that has been pulled from consent. The first item is D1
from the auditor's section. It's to receive and file the Tarant County financial statements for the 10 months ended July 31st, 2025. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. my screen up here.
It's not moving to that item. So, how would I know there was a speaker if it's not sitting there in front of us? Okay. Well, that was the We have a motion
speaker. Good morning. I looked at this agenda item and I read over the report. It was laughable. There's so much that goes on in this county that this report doesn't even begin to touch on. Was August 5th
meeting of extremely long proclamations actually people that are being forced into retirement or unemployment? You people are reading proclamation like these people are willy-nilly moving to green pasturions when in reality they're being forced out.
Why can't it hire outside of state when HR can? Who is CC in North Carolina? Why can't we find local talent to do the same jobs? Who prepares all of these out of town payrolls? I'm being told that
our system can't do out of town payroll. Whoever prepares the checks probably like the checks that went to West Virginia would be a good place to start. I was told that Miss Roxy wasn't forthcoming when I asked questions about out of town individuals that work uh for
the county. I was told that JJ is not a contractor but a part-time employee. How can someone make 159K and you guys don't even know it? How many contractors are in our system that do not get paid by
us? Who handles who handles their payroll? You guys, you people, the commissioners and judge or the fidiciary managers of our county, you don't have a clue about most of this. Budgeting has to know, the
auditor has to know, I'm being told. Based on August 5th's agenda, JJ submitted three agenda items for approval. Miss Roxy approved one. She submitted and approved the other two. Do we give contractors that much access to
our information system? Does this mean that they can see all of Taran County's employees information? You people are the fidiciary managers of our funds. We would greatly appreciate it if you could get a handle over all of
these things that needs to come to this court to get approved. when uh payroll is telling me people are being paid to do a job before we even have commissioner's court.
All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right, everybody's in it. Jon regarding election alternate judges consideration of
corrective appointment number 14. Thank you. 431. All right. Do we have a motion on this item? Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second.
Any discussion from the court? Yes. Um, I'm I just want to thank um I'm glad this item was uh brought back to us today. Um, I have to be honest when it was presented at the last court.
I was quite concerned about the wording just like um the speaker pointed out. Um, so the document felt vague and it left me and I'm sure others with more questions and answers about what we were
actually approving. So it shouldn't feel like a puzzle for us to figure out the details of uh commissioner's court order. Especially one as critical as appointing the people who will run our elections. So I'm glad to see that the elections office has clarified the
situation. It's essential that our processes are transparent and frankly above reproach. There should be no doubt in the public's mind that we are following the law and doing everything correctly. Um, this correction ensures
that we are in full compliance with the tech selection code and that we have a single accurate list to move forward with. All right. Once I press vote,
I lose the ability to see speakers. Can I get that back? Well, we got to have the speakers first. Okay. So, we have three speakers. Um, I guess we can randomly pull out of a hat. Who's going to speak on it? Who are Can you read the names?
I don't think it's there either. Who are the who has access to the three speakers? Read them. I have a Roilio Maxero. All right. Is Roilio present? And we
have no spillover room. We do not. Okay. Who's the next one? Carol Raburn. Is Carol Raburn here? Yes. All right. I won't uh press the start vote until I see all that. Now, good morning. I'm Carol Rurn. I'm from
Arlington, Texas. I've worked the elections many years. My opinion about this is you should wait until we have all of the previous election locations added back to the list and then appoint the judges at that time because those
election places that you have taken away directly affect a lot of the voters here especially inside the loop 820. Some of those locations I have worked in the past. Poly subcourthouse for one. There's a large number of people that
vote early at poly subcourthouse. So I want to be sure we do something. Go back and look at the list. UTA is another location that got taken off the list I believe because of being able to lock things up. I'd like to really see you pursue that again because a lot of
us vote at UTA to support the students and it's kind of fun to be back on campus. Okay. So that's my opinion is that I would ask you to wait. Thank you. Thank you. Was there one more? There is judge Vera Annne Roberts. Is Miss Roberts present? Is that the only other
speaker? That is the only other speaker. There's two comments that were submitted non-speakers. Looks like she's here. Who? Roberts is in the back. Sorry, I uh hit that voicemail. I'm going to clear the thing off. Med
did it. Did it. Do it again. Weird. Good morning. Morning. I am Roberts, the volunteer election judge liaison for Tarant County Democratic Party. On August 19th, election day polling centers dropped
down to 216 to cut down on low voting turnout, compliance with Secretary of State guidelines, and to save the county money. There wasn't any opposition because dropping 20 early voting centers took most of the time allotted for
elections. I spent many years locating individuals to work elections as Democratic residing or alternate judges. My team and I worked extremely hard this year to ensure that we had enough judges to work in November. These people have been reaching out to me over the last
two months to find the status of their appointments. A lot of them have to rearrange their schedules. in some cases let their employers know in advance that they want to take off on election day. My response was, "We are waiting on the commission's court's approval. Let us
won't go out from Taran County elections until appointments are approved." This impacted 99 Democrats to work as presiding alternate judges and a host of Republicans who were to staff these sites. Most importantly, voters who no longer drive, those who live where there
is inadequate bus transportation, making them leave their jobs to vote at a location nearby is out. Or are those who simply want to vote at a loc location where they don't feel intimidated. Let me tread lightly because I don't
want you to have me removed. No voter, advocate, or elected official in this county should be disrespected. Respect goes both ways. You have to show it to receive it. I believe my time and
every citizen in Taran County is just as important as the members of this court and our testimony should be reviewed and not dismissed as if not a word has been spoken. When I watch Taran County Commissioners court meetings either online snippets on TV or in person, I
feel like I'm watching an episode of Alice in Wonderland where the Queen of Hearts yells, "Off with her head. off with his head simply because they dare to disagree, raise their voice, or call a spade a spade. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
All right, that's all of the speakers, correct? Okay, we have a motion and a second on this item. Any discussion before voting? Questions? this item that we're voting on. If memory serves me correct, LA our last meeting, we were supposed to receive an
updated list of um the party the election judges and alternate judges from each party chair. I believe both parties have confirmed this is the list they met, right? when we passed the wrong lists
back in not last meeting obviously but a couple of meetings before that. Uh this motion and this item gets rid of rescends that order and puts the both parties lists in place and this is the new list that they that
both parties have approved. I don't know that I would describe it as the new list. I would describe it as the list they meant for us to approve the entire time. Okay. So, this is the accurate list. Yes. Okay. Okay. All right.
All right. Any other questions on this item? But to um uh her point, do we need to what was it that you said? We need to make sure the voting location.
I see the voting locations and this have nothing to do with each other. So this is not a list of people per voting location. This is a list of both parties entire lists for how for two years I
believe for however many election judges they may need. That's what this list is. Has nothing to do with how many locations in November of 25 or anything else. All right. Any other questions? Okay,
the vote is up. All right, passes unanimously. Now we go to item K3 and K3 if it will pop up on my screen. is consideration of a building renovation of the voting center training
room at the election center at Premier Street. Do we have a motion on this item? Move approval. Second. All right, we have a motion from Commissioner Simmons, a second from Commissioner Miles.
Uh, any discussion before speaker? Our only speaker is Michael Colin. My statement on this is uh with this issue here is we should be prepared to to uh have paper ballots as well.
This training room should be should be geared towards uh the administration of of paper ballots. Paper ballots have been proven to be cheaper than electronic ballots and we
all know that that we're having problems with electronic ballots, you know, for one reason or another, right? paper ballots have worked in the past and uh I I wish that that we could
gear this towards training and set it up so so we're ready for that once we get to that point if we get to that point. I I wish that we would move forward in that direction and
have in for the sake of secure elections. That's what I have to say on the issue. All right. Thank you. Okay. Questions or comments from the court members? Uh yeah. So to my colleagues, I I have
to say I find uh this item on our consent agenda a bit rich um if you will. We have a number of precincts across this county, often in underserved communities, that lose their polling places because
the location doesn't meet the requirements for space or security. So, the elections administration tells us these places are no longer suitable and we're left to find new options, often to the great inconvenience of voters. And
yet, here we are being asked to spend taxpayer money to bring our own election center, the very heart of our voting operations, into compliance with the very same requirements they've used to
eliminate other locations. So, we're having to build a secure wall and relocate equipment to meet the very standard sweet demand of others. Don't get me wrong. I support making sure the election center is secure. I
made the motion. Uh it's absolutely vital. But there's an undeniable irony here. The highlights this highlights the need for us to be more proactive in our planning and in our support for all
polling sites, not just the central one. And we must ensure that the standards we apply to our communities are the ones we are already meeting ourselves. All right. Any other comments or questions from commissioners.
Okay. All the votes are in. Passes five to zero. That brings us to item L1. L1 is consideration of fiscal year 2526 Texas Department of State Health Services HIV Services subreient contract
renewal with AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Um I'll move to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is Mr. Collins speaking on this item also or is my thing not up? Yes, you are. I take it. Okay.
Okay. My issue is this. Why is the taxpayer paying for this? Why is the taxpayer paying for for bad behavior? Right? You know, normal in a normal society,
you know, you grow up, you find a significant other, you get married, and you create a family, right? You don't have these issues that that cause this that caused this problem, right? And
then put it on the back of the taxpayer, right? Why are we paying for this? That's my question. All right. Thank you. Uh we have a motion and a second on this item. Any
further discussion from the court? Are you voting? Uh, okay. With that passes unanimously and our next item will be M1. We are going to now take a 7 minute break and
be back in here at approximately 11:12. We are in recess. M1. It's got to go to M1. It's got to go to M1. It's still on the last one we voted on. That would be
Okay. All right. We live. All right, we're back from recess. We're now on to item M1. Continuing in the line of items removed from consent. M1 is consideration for approval of housing
assistance payments contracts and or contract amendments between landlords and Tarant County. Do we have a motion on this item? Approval. We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? We have a second. Any discussion before
speaker? All right, Mr. Colin. Again, uh this is uh this is dealing with taxes again. Why am I paying these taxes?
Now, I've been around section 8 and uh I've had normal normal neighborhoods with with a section 8 in the middle of it. Somebody wants to invest in their property or whatnot.
Had good experiences, but mostly are bad experiences and bad actors that are in section 8. I don't agree with with uh housing people that can't pull their own bootstraps up. When I was 17, I had to figure out how
to house my house myself. When I was 19, I had to figure out how to move on in life and become a productive citizen. Right. One section 8 I had to deal with, they were running drugs out of it. Now, I
know that not every section 8 is is like that, but section 8 is an industry. Before I get into my story and whatnot, I want to go over what who's profiting off of off of this industry, off of our
tax dollars. Now, there's a whole list of all these people that are profiting off of our tax dollars. And here's some of the names. Here's what really gets me here.
Trey Lee Ray Cedar Point LLC. Oh, it's some type of business. Uh then then you have what I can't understand is somewhere in in this list I noticed uh like a energy company
had had a house that they were they were sectionating out. Uh some of the names uh this guy could be a naturalized citizen. I don't know. Cover Bogal Ammani Maurice.
Oh, here it is. Think energy. This is an industry and it's on the taxpayers's backs, right? Why? I had to figure it out. People need to figure it out.
Now, I'm not against charity, but this has become an industry and the government is is is is running it. And I'm not for that because it's on my back. It's on everybody's back here.
These are this is the whole list. The whole list here. This is just a couple of months. All these entities. Ruiz Property Connection LLC. the Eagle Energy LP. All right. Energy companies.
Thank you, sir. All right. We have a motion and a second on this item. Any discussion from the court members? Uh the the only thing I will add to it is I understand your concerns.
Several of these things are federally mandated. uh some some of the we've even looked at some of the grants that you can't even reject if you wanted to. They they are coming to the county to administer. It's
kind of interesting. U all so we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. Cast your vote. All right. That one passes unanimously. Now we go to item R2
which is public health consideration to submit a notice of termination of the fiscal year 2025 refugee medical screening base contract between Tarant County and the US committee for refugees and immigrants. I will move to approve. Second.
We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Yes. So, hey Dr. Bird, um, what
are the terms of this contract because it's not attached here? I don't think we didn't see this yesterday, but what were the terms of this contract? Thank you, Commissioner. In terms of the
terms, are you asking about start date and end date or if you don't mind, give me a Yeah, start date, end date, amount, um, all of that. Yes, ma'am. I do have that information. The start date of this uh, contract was October 1, 2024.
Uh, and the amount of this contract uh, was $2.82 million. And so we're currently under contract, right? Uh as of this moment, yes, ma'am.
And so today we would vote to sever the contract or end. Did Did it Did it have an end date? What's the end date? September 30th. Okay. All right. So what I am learning in real
time uh concerns me. Um did did we limit the terms in his current contract in order to phase out the program? That might be a better question for a
lawyer. Uh what I can tell you is that uh we followed the county's federal funding suspension plan when those federal dollars appropriations uh were no longer appropriated for us. Okay.
Because I am um talking to the state agency. Can you say that it's US [Music] CRI? Yes, ma'am. All right. All right. And so I'm I'm concerned that
we phased out the program, laid off people during what was a brief funding pause. So, and did did we do this back in February? I think
uh the exact date was March. Give me one second. the the clinic closed on March 14th. March 14th. So, I'm told the funding um
uh sessation was was brief. Um did did we decide to turn down um funds? Uh good question. I'm not aware that we turned down any funds. Um there were no further dispersements of funds uh within
this grant uh to us. All right. Um who would who would have the answer to that question? because it it seems what's being reported to me directly from the agency is that we have
essentially turned down any funds and the opportunity to administer the program. So, um I would I think we all should see a
contract or the con the contract the terms uh maybe they know something I don't know but if there was a brief funding pause has it been reinstituted
um so can we continue to receive those funds and offer offer the services and immunizations to the refugee community. Um, who who has all the details on this?
Um, I'm not aware that there have been any funds offered for us to receive on this grant. Who would have that information? I'm happy to defer to our budget
director or our county administrator on that, but I'm not aware of it. Okay. We received an email stating that the funds would no longer be available and that it the program was not going to be supported. Okay. Well, that's that's different from
what they're telling me right this I do not have all the information at my fingertips right now, but we will find the information that has been sent to us and make sure that you have it by the end of the court today. Okay, good. Thank you. Um, so I would I would ask we
table this until a little later so she can get some information. Well, there's a motion on the floor and a second. So I believe she can make a motion to table which supersedes that
motion. That is correct. Accurate. If there is a motion to table after there's already a motion on the floor. It takes precedent over the main motion. That's correct. Do you wish to make that motion? Yes. I move to table. Second. We have a motion to second to table. Now
we have speakers. Anybody else have anything before I bring up the speakers? Yeah, I do have a a a question for Dr. Bird. Thank you, sir. um who will be providing the screenings for refugee refugees
when this program goes away or if this program it's gone pretty much. Yes, Commissioner, that's an excellent question. So, we are continuing to see folks with refugee status at our vaccine clinics uh around the county and we have
been in conversation with our friends at JPS and let them that these folks may be coming their direction if they need chronic care management. Okay. It's it's just important to me that there's no extended disruption in service. In my precinct, I have a large
refugee population and it's important for those people to get what they need. And so I don't want them to lose those services even though these federal funds are no longer available. And I, like Commissioner Simmons, would like to see a plan of
action on how we're going to continue to provide these types of services to the refugee population before we vote on this item. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the federal government sent
us notification they're no longer going to fund the program. Okay. And we are You want to delay the vote for what reason? uh to to see uh that documentation. Uh and I wanted
to take a look at the contract and the terms of the contract. Um it wasn't included in the attachments, just just a letter to end the All right. Any other questions or comments from the court members before we bring up our speakers? Uh to to
Commissioner Miles's point or question, you're saying that this this clinic closed in March or in April. That is correct. So for five months, we've been administering the ordinary process without federal grants, which means refugees come in to seek immunization or
whatever. Um we provide service or advice to to seek service at JPS. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. All right. And I just want to make sure if the funding was paused that and then
restarted. If that was the case, I'm asking um are we turning down money? We are not turning down money. Uh we initially we were told during the pause that it was being the funds were being paused and then we received an email,
but I've got everybody looking for all of the information uh so that we can get that to you. Thanks. But it was definitely terminated for us. We did not terminate it. Thank you, Helen. Okay, we have two speakers signed up for this. Gerald and Jackie Cox. You can now
come forward. Is she present? Is Miss Cox here? No. And Michael Colin. Before I lose my train of thought, what you said, Mr. Miles, you're you're my rep, by the way, as all of you are. U
with these refugees coming in, right? These are my sentiments. My father was a refugee. My grandmother was a refugee, right? When they came here, they had to pull their bootstraps up. There was no
money handed out to them. They could barely make it. You know, there's a little bit of a stigma there, right? You know, people don't want to hire people that uh, you know, they're at war with, right? Even if they disagree with what
the issue was, right? Or they're or they're or my uncles went over there and fought fought against what they fled from, right? They didn't get a hand out,
nothing. My father had to be separated and his twin brother had to be separated from my grandmother because because uh couldn't make it, couldn't feed them. You know, if they were lucky, they were getting water in their cereal,
right? Dad went to went out there and worked on a farm with a bunch of other kids like some some kind of orphanage farm, right? He said he loved it. got plenty of plenty to eat. Good hard work. Right
now, these refugees coming in now, some of them are good people, I'm sure. Right? Why do you want to put the onus on the taxpayer in this issue now? Why do you
want to do that? Right? I know it's important that, you know, people are healthy and they don't be dragging their their their medical conditions into our schools, right? And uh
we we need to uh you know, make sure that they're healthy and whatnot. The government, I'm sure, is already giving them money. They could go to CVS and get the vaccination. I get mail. I get mail from CVS with vaccination. I don't want
Why do you want to put it on the tax dollar? Why do you want to delay this? All right. Thank you, sir. Um Helen, you there's not any doubt in your mind that you got something from the federal government saying they're no longer funding the program. We are looking at the current website
that says USCRI is still facing a funding freeze. Okay. Okay. Well, that's not what I asked. What I asked is, "Are you positive?" You got something from the federal government saying, "We're not funding this." I did not uh I believe public health, I believe it went to Carmen Garcia. I'm
asking her to, but she forwarded it to me. I did not receive it directly. Have you seen it? Yes. I'm looking for all of it right now. It's been several years ago. I'm not trying to trick you. Are you Did you read something that says they're not going to fund the program? That is correct. And you're Are you positive that you
read that? I am positive I read that. Okay. All right. We have a motion and a second to table this item. Any further discussion from the court members? Judge, prior to voting, can I just ask that the record be clear as to whether
the motion to table is for a future meeting or later in this meeting? Later in this meeting. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second to move this to later in the meeting. Cast
your votes. All right. It fails two to three. So, the motion before us now is motion to approve the notice of termination and we have a second. Any discussion before voting on the item?
Yes. So, the agency does not require a letter of termination. Um, I I just
and the letter certainly should not state that it's due to lack of of federal appropriation. Um, I just wish we would do our due diligence on these things. Uh there's
absolutely no need um to rush to do this. We have a meeting September uh 16th and a letter is not required. Um hearing straight from the agency. Um
so I can see how the vote's going to go. I can count to three. Uh but I want people to understand that you you need to have an expectation of your elected officials
that we are interested and concerned about getting all of the information to make informed decisions. Um shuttering uh this program.
She's saying one thing, the agency's telling me another thing. Um, you decide where the credibility lies, I guess. But we shouldn't have to decide that today. We should postpone this, get the
information um about the contract, whether we even need this letter. I mean, it's it's going to be good for, you know, campaign purposes or whatever
to say, you know, I I got rid of a another DEI program. But we have to be concerned about the people who are served by this program. Um, and like the gentleman said, um, you
know, your grandkids go to school, your children go to school, and, uh, will sit next to these folks. Why Why wouldn't you want them to be, uh, properly taken care of and have the health care that they need? Uh, no rush to to do this
today. So, all right. Anybody have anything else? Okay, the votes are in. passes 3 to two. Move to item S6 from purchasing consent.
This is an annual contract for cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans. Countywide various vendors exercise first option for renewal. Same firm fixed prices, discount from list price, and markup for parts. Do we have a motion on this item? Move
approval. Second. We have a motion. from Commissioner Ramirez, a second from Commissioner Miles. We have one speaker and it we have Joe. Joe from Sanguinet Court.
Is that you? Okay. Is there a reason his last name is not on this? Okay. I may not have put it. Thank you. I don't want to take a lot of time. Um, the reason I'm bringing this up is to
save the county some money. Um, when I was in college, I sold cars to put myself through college. I was also worked in logistics and so I'm familiar with medium light duty vehicles. Um, I would recommend not buying any Dodge products. I I believe that you buy uh
Dodge Durango. Dodge is great company. Uh, Ford's good company. Ford makes good products, but unfortunately in the police interceptor market uh in specific applications that the county needs, they do not offer a superior product to the uh Chevrolet Tahoe. The reason for that,
one of the reasons for that is the Tahoe is a full-frame construction. So, it's easier to rebuild repair after u an accident or contact. And we know from the agenda elsewhere that they're we're making contact with other vehicles out there from time to time.
So, uh, I I do not expect you to like be moved completely by my comments, but I would ask you to talk to people in your fleet maintenance. Um, I've had conversations with fleet maintenance directors for taxing entities elsewhere in the state, and they agree. The only
issue with the Taho is the active fuel management or the what's called the displacement on demand. Uh, it will fail. That's the only flaw in those vehicles. that's that could make it uh that would need to be overcome and that can be deactivated. It's a mechanical
system that's electronically controlled. All you have to disable is the electronic system. Leave the mechanical in place and I believe that the Taho will uh save us money over time. Thank you. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Excuse me. So, this fleet services and
purchasing says they are pleased with the vendors and want to renew. Is that right? Yes. Are there are there any Dodges on this? Well, we are, but we don't have many in our like a bunch of Fords and Chevys. Majority majority of what we purchase
our Chevy. What's Grapevine DCJ, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep? Ah, there it is. Okay. And then that would be Southwest also. Okay. All right. We have a motion and a second on this item. Any further discussion from
the court members? I I will say I think that the majority of what we're purchasing nowadays are the Taho and from what I understand uh with with legislative changes at the federal level, the active fuel management system is no longer going to be required in
years going forward. Um that that's what we've heard. Same thing is like diesels aren't going to have to have dev systems, etc., etc. So that there's a lot of changes there, but I think industry standard and in especially public safety work, the Tahoe is probably the most preferred uh vehicle
right now. All right, vote is up. All right, passes unanimously. Now we move to item S12 from purchasing which is Consideration
of cooperative for law enforcement body cameras supplies and equipment Ax Axon Enterprises per discount from list price. Do we have a motion there? Move for approval. Second. Second. We have a motion from Commissioner Ramirez, second from Commissioner
Krauss. Any discussion on this issue before speaker? All right. Bishop Kirkland after Bishop Kirkland Nan Terry. I am absolutely biddingly
opposed to spending taxpayer dollars on any camcorders, videos, any recording devices. Why are we spending our money when we
don't get to see the product? But you people and the last time I was here, I said I believe that all of you guys have seen the tape of Anthony Marine Anthony Johnson Jr. being murdered. And by the
looks on all your faces, because I'm a judge of discernment, I can see your faces said you guys have seen the tape. Many people around this das have seen those tapes, have seen that video. We
got Chassity Bonner who was murdered. Chassity has three whole minutes missing from her video presentation. Why do you people continue to take our I
say you fund it. You make great money. We pay you guys great salaries. You're the only one to have access to the material. Why are we paying for something where our money that we can't ever see? Why does every other major metropolitan city in the entire United
States as an act of goodwill and transparency released those tapes? Even the forward PD, our former chief, Chief Krauss, it was ugly. It didn't look good. It showed the city in a bad light. But they released
the tape. Don't hear this excuse. Don't hear this excuse. There's ongoing litigation. The city of Fort Worth did it. They released them. So if we cannot see the product of all this equipment
that we are purchasing, then why are we buying? We're taxpayers. Why can't we see that? and his his his his mom has already said his father Anthony Johnson senior has already said
that she's okay with it being released. I I I want to release because I want us to see what that killing field that we call the jail really looks like and our responses to crisis
what that really looks like. So don't spend no more of my money. If you're going to take me on a date and buy me a steak and you eat the steak, you've done nothing for me. I know you're going to do what you want to. You always do, but
it's just my job. Miss Terry, you're next. Good morning. This item is for law enforcement. Does law enforcement include sheriff deputies or does it only include constables or detention officers? I asked because of the
statement regarding funding. Expenses for the last 12 months were $628,247.40. The departments have included funding in the 26 budget. But when Christopher Lyo died after being shot during the service of the mental health warrant this past February, there were no body cameras
because sheriff deputies didn't have body cameras. So I asked the question, does law enforcement include the sheriff deputies or does it only include constables? If the sheriff deputies will now receive body cameras, thank you. If not, why not? When? What's the estimated
cost? This protects everyone, including our deputies. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second on this item. Any further discussion? Question. Will the sheriff's deputy will the sheriff's officers be having these body
cameras as well? I'm sorry. The sheriff's officers, will they have these body cameras as well? U so right now um I believe the constables and also the sheriff patrol
um have have body cameras. So this this purchase of the 600 I believe it was 628,000 um were a lot of accessories that were purchased and most recently we purchased
um some tasers um just last month um for training um and some other kits, other accessories. So it it's not the
it's not the ones inside the jail. We'll be bringing that back um at a later date. Okay. So that will be coming back. Yes. Coming back as a separate purpose. Commissioner Miles, I believe they're undergoing a comprehensive bidding process to get essentially every single
sheriff's office employee who's eligible outfitted with a body camera. But that's that's a completely separate process from my understanding. That's correct. The court approved a permission to take bid on on an entire body camera system uh for the sheriff's office for law enforcement I should say.
And just I don't believe at this point patrol does have body cameras. I believe that's included in this uh RFP that we're doing. Is this the first purchase of body cams? No, the constable's office. Some of those currently have body cameras.
I believe this would be the first purchase for the sheriff's office. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion before voting? All right. Votes are in. Passes unanimously. Now we go to item S14, purchasing,
consideration of Tarant County purchasing policies and procedures, manual revisions, amendments of sections 26,7, and 22. Do we have a motion to approve? Motion. Second. Move to approve. Commissioner Krauss, second of Commissioner Ramirez.
Any discussion before speakers? I'll speak after speakers. Uh, Miss Terry. Purchasing manuals are not only for employees, but they can only they can also be used by vendors and the public. Several years ago, I went to India and
on a government building in Bangalore is a sign that says government's work is God's work. Although I'm not sure I agree and I'm not asking you to agree. My point is local government work is important. I acknowledge government policies need to protect the institution
but should not should not hinder the workings of the government or the county in this case. Perhaps the rationale is in your binders. But why does purchasing need an additional two weeks at a minimum to now possibly needing 21 weeks for purchasing to do their magic?
taking the time from old statement 12 to 18 weeks to then now new proposed 14 weeks to 21 weeks 14 weeks even by my math is over three months why does this have to do with the once a month meetings
one other item I've read I've read a few purchasing manuals and I never heard the term rogue spending because I can I asked the deputy chief learning officer for procurement with the national association of state procurement government officials if he had heard of
this term. I did not mention Taran County. His response in my personal experience with various state manuals, rogue spending isn't a term I've seen. He referred me to the NI NGIP nigp dictionary of procure procurement terms
which is the comprehensive reference for public purchasing terms and concepts. This term is not listed. I acknowledge if you Google rogue spending, you will find examples of private businesses, but I did not see examples of use in government agencies. How many instances has Sharon County had by what is defined
by the proposed changes to the purchasing manual as rogue? Can we use more commonly used terms like unauthorized spending? Remember, county employees do important work and I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we have a motion
and a second on this item. discussion. Yes. So, two two things worth noting about these changes um or lack thereof. The the court number one, the court recently voted to reduce our court meeting
frequency to once a month except for August and September. Um the this new frequency has an approval time like Miss Terry suggested
or said uh at 14 to 21 weeks for purchases over $50,000. Insane. Bureaucratic. um everything you don't want
your um government to be. So, it'll now take almost a year and a half to process purchases and most purchases in this county exceed $50,000.
Um, if you look at a single SUV or a county pickup truck, um, those cost about 50,000 or probably in excess. The extended time is a
byproduct of our once a month meeting schedule. Now, number two, new state legislation now allows Taran County to increase the purchasing threshold to $100,000,
which would allow purchases of up to uh $99,999 um and take two to three weeks using approved vendors. So, this would go a long way to reducing those potential delays that our new meeting frequency
and chosen lower dollar threshold are creating. It would be beneficial to the county to adopt a state allowable amount or something close to the $100,000 to avoid delays is my opinion.
All right. Any other comments or questions? All right. Please cast your vote. What are you pressing? There you go. Keep pressing it. Just so we'll go. Uh, okay. So, the vote is
in. We'll say it passes four to one. Okay, there it is. All right. gives us to takes us to uh T2, consideration of tax office deputizations. Um I'll move to approve.
Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this item? Uh Mr. Palmer. Thank you. tax assessor, collector or his representative administered these
deputizations listed on the attachment. Some of the deputies are authorized to issue motor vehicle registration receipts and prepare or accept applications for title transfers. Um, we need more staff in the tax offices.
The most recent time I had to register a vehicle, I went to one location and there were two people at the windows. The rest of the windows were empty and there were several people waiting. There were people out in the hallway waiting. Uh disabled people, elderly people. I
don't claim to know what this is uh this agenda item. But if you're going to deputize, if you're going to focus on making the process streamlined, streamline it for everybody. Don't streamline it for a private company that I'm not going to name that's listed in the agenda. Great for them if they were
given this gift to be able to register and assess values to their own vehicles. I don't get to assess values to my own vehicle. I used to up until ' 09, but then the state tells me what my vehicle is worth when I go in to pay taxes on it. Doesn't take into account condition,
whether transmission's blown out or not. So, uh, I would like an explanation of this. I would like this talked about and I I highly appreciate discussion. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the court members?
All right, seeing none, are you all going to vote? All right, passes unanimously. brings us to the last item removed from consent which is item V or I guess that's five
these days 51 commissioner precinct 2 consideration of a professional services agreement with core performance 3816 for the provision of staff development and community engagement services benefiting the residents of Tarant County and finding a direct public purpose.
All right. So, what is this exactly? Uh, this is a contract. Um, it's just a um a six-w weekek engagement to strengthen constituent services in precinct 2. Um, with staff
reductions, I'm going to be forced to take um I'm going to have to cut my staff um because of uh decisions you guys have made. Um this project will assist me
with realignment and ensures that my office can still provide the services to my constituents. um and the services they elected me to deliver. I have inherited through
redistricting five additional cities and my staff of eight is being cut by three. Um, and so I've got to streamline uh my processes
and um I'll be doing things like uh engaging volunteers more and so uh to get those volunteers trained to get my staff up to speed. I am uh using my budgeted funds
for professional services to bring in this um vendor. So it's $25,000 for six weeks. That's roughly the equivalent of
$4200 a week. Um over the course of a year, that's over $200,000. What exactly is morale uh what did you call that? Morale pulse assessment. What is morale pulse assessment?
So I'm glad you read through the contract. It's detailed and um you can see it right there. I'm asking you though, what is morale pulse assessment? Well, I'm telling you you have it there. Um, so I've again explained that this
will help maintain constituent services despite my uh reduced staff, my um increased uh number of cities, road miles, all of that. Um we're going to
improve efficiencies. We've got to be more efficient with less people. Um and so so that's that's it. I'm glad you've read through the What is training and storytelling? Training.
I know you know what training is. I know you know what training is. So, I'm not going to even um attempt to answer that question. Um just tell me what your concerns are. Uh and I'll try to answer those. But this is again
my concern is I don't know what morale pulse assessment is and I don't know what storytelling training is. So in that multi-page contract are those the only two things you don't know? No, I just you said tell me what I'm concerned about. Those are two things
I'm concerned about. Okay. All right. It's a multi-page contract. So it's good to know that you look through it and that's all you come up with. Again, this is um I'm going to have to do additional training. Um
this is training without travel. Um again, it's budgeted funds and I think we may go be able to go longer than uh six weeks. We've checked with um uh budget and audit
um just so the work gets started. This uh agenda has been or this proposal was on last month's agenda and so it is it got pulled and here it is today.
Anybody else have any questions or is there a motion? I'm approval. I'm sorry. Yes, I have a comment. Um, each one of us is elected to effectively govern and support the
residents of our precincts. I don't think it's the job of this court to micromanage how a duly elected representative uses
the funds that were budgeted for them to serve their constituents. I think each elected official should be able to use their budgeted aotment of money to govern and work with their
community the way it best suits them and the needs of the people they represent. It's not our job to do that for them. It's not our job to tell them how they can spend their money. They were elected to represent that
particular community. They know better than we do what those residents need and what that community needs. I think it's presumptuous of us to be able to dictate or tell people how they can use the money to support the people that they
represent. Those individuals elected them to represent them. So, we need to give them all of the tools at their disposal to be able to do that. So, I stand in agreement with Commissioner Simmons on her request because it's her money. it was budgeted for her to be
able to run her office and to support her community. And I'm not going to get in the way of any elected official being able to do that. And I want to add that this is um a professional services contract um exempt
from bidding under Texas Local Government Code 262.02484. Um, and just with any other county contract, we sent this to the DA. We talked to purchasing.
Um, there's nothing wrong with the contract. Um, and here is I'll I'll read exactly what the DA's attorneys um wrote wrote back uh to the auditor.
Um, says, "We have reviewed the proposed contract for professional services between uh, precinct 2 and uh, Christy Harrison who owns the company. We understand that you have
concerns that she was uh, previously employed by the county. We find nothing in the law that prohibits a former employee from contracting with the county.
nor do we find where the employee leaving would prevent a proposed contract from moving forward to the commissioner's court for consideration. Uh, further the 1295 states no conflict
and I do not believe there is any public or readily available information to contradict this because we find no illegalities with this proposed contract. The remaining decision is a discretionary one resting with the
commissioner's court. So um purchasing um Uh the DA's staff found nothing wrong with the contract. H how long did the CEO of this company serve as your chief of staff?
Um probably I'm not sure year and a half. Not sure. And does she now have a team or is it just her that's doing this training? She has a team that I've met.
So Uh since since you um brought that up um Miss Harrison bec her her her expertise was evident while here. When I got here I thought
the county had an electronic constituent management programs. When folks call when we get emails we can put it into a system and uh keep track and follow up and that type of thing. We did not uh I was looking for something off the shelf
at conferences and uh Mrs. Harrison met with our IT department and in precinct 2 we have a constituent management system that was developed
by IT under the leadership of Miss Harrison. So she knows how important that is to me. We get a call, it goes into the system. I don't I don't know if they've shared that with you all's uh precincts, but it is very helpful on our
weekly staff meetings to see where we are and even you can just log in and and check out what's going I can check out what's going on with this constituent. So, um her experience here um
speaks for itself. So, uh, Commissioner Miles, I disagree with a couple of the things you said, but one in particular, you said it was her money. This is taxpayer money. And
this court is tasked with the assignment of approving or disapproving expenditures. Uh, that is by law what this court does. And I didn't get an answer to either question I asked, but I do recall
approximately a year and a half ago, I lost a staff member and I wanted to bring someone in who could handle letters and communication and you voted against it. I can also remember when Commissioner Ramirez wanted to do
something similar and I believe you voted against it. So um for a multitude of reasons I don't support this and don't agree with it but you have made your motion. I do you wish to second it? Yes. Okay. So there is a motion there is
a second further discussion before voting. Yes. The only reason I voted against those two uh was because we would be utilizing taxpayer money for a partisan
firm. Um and so I don't think we use taxpayer money to pay for Democratic firms to come in and work with our offices or Republican consultants to come in and work with your offices. That's the That's the only reason you go get any other firm you want to. I'm all
for it. Um like Commissioner Miles said, uh we are responsible elected um officials um with um you know a stellar uh record of
responsibility. And so the funds were budgeted, they were approved, and everybody knows it's taxpayer dollars, not our dollars, but they were approved for our budget uh for
use by the commissioner. We you already approved the funds. Any other comments? I I guess I'll just say, Commissioner Miles, I actually probably agree with you a little bit more uh in your comments on that. And I think us getting to the office budgets that we're getting
to where you have a set amount of money and you can use that how kind of however you want to. I actually think that's good. Have that flexibility so people can do stuff different. For what what gives me heartburn here is the is the close nexus with the former precinct administrator and the time that hasn't
gone by for a long time. I know it's been talked about in Austin, other places. Maybe there's like a two-year gap between the time somebody leaves your office and you employ them or give them any kind of contract. that might be good or something worth looking into. I know there's nothing illegal about it, but to avoid the appearance of
impropriy. Not saying there is any here, but but you just want to stay away from that. So, I guess that's what gives me the most heartburn. It's not about not being able to use the money the way you want to, but giving a contract to a very recent former employee, I think, could raise some questions. And so, that's
what gives me the most heartburn with it. So I could read the the how the lawyers app. We find nothing in the law that prohibits a former employee from contracting with the county. Nor do we find where the
employee leaving would prevent a proposed contract uh contract from moving forward to the county commissioners for consideration. The further the 1295 states no conflict no conflict and I do not believe there
is any public or readily available information to contradict this. So um it's I I agree it's not illegal. I'm there with you. I just don't know if it's the most beneficial force and and I would be consistent on that with whatever precinct was bringing that
before. So but but I I get your point. You're right. There's nothing illegal um about that. I'd completely agree with you on that. All right. All right. Anything else before we vote? All right. Please cast your votes.
I'll put you down as a yes. This the motion fails two to three. All right. Now, tell you what, we'll go through these. Good night. We'll go through these five public hearings before the next recess.
Uh, first item on the regular agenda, public hearing to consider sufficiency of petition requesting creation of Tarant County Freshwater Supply District number three. So, this is a public hearing. It's not the approval of
creating a public hearing. This is the public hearing. I don't have anyone signed up to speak to this item. Is there anyone who wants to speak to this item? All right. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So move. Second. Have a motion. Commissioner I don't I
lost it. Two of you can have it. Made a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Any discussion before closing the public hearing? Actually, I don't think I made it, but I don't think it matters.
Um, I I'm happy to have made it. Can we The way you have this here, somebody down here made a motion. Somebody down here made a second. I don't think for purposes of casting votes, it matters what's on this screen. What matters is the official record. Legally, can we go correct the official
record? Who made the motion? We can always make an adjustment to that. Who made the motion? Commissioner Ramirez made the motion. Who made the second? Commissioner Miles made the second. All right, it's fixed. There. It's fixed. Okay, good. Uh, all right. We're closing the public hearing unless there's no further discussion.
Cast your vote. I'm not using my nails. At our next break, can we try to switch that out or do something different? Okay. Gentle. that. See if that works. Hit something
else. You can use it if you want. Um, okay. So, that passes unanimously. Next public hearing is to consider authorizing the installation or replacement of various stop signs precinct 2.
This is a public hearing. It is now open. Is no one is signed up to speak to this? Is there anyone who wishes to? All right, seeing none, I will move to close the public hearing. Second. I made the motion. Commissioner Miles
second. Any discussion before voting. That work. No, still doesn't. I have to do it. All right. Passes unanimously. Item three is a public hearing to consider
authorizing multiple stop signs within the Newark Ranch subdivision precinct 4. It's a public hearing. Uh, no one signed up to speak. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this item? All right. Seeing none, I'll move to close the public hearing.
Second. We have a second from Commissioner Ramirez. Any discussion before voting? All right. Please cast your votes. All right, we're going to do five yays. There it is. All right, passes
unanimously. Number four, public hearing to consider establishing two school zones within the Crowley Independent School District precinct 2. Um the public hearing is now open. There's no one signed up to speak. Is there anyone who wishes to speak on this item?
All right, seeing none, I'll move to close the public hearing. Second. We have a second from Commissioner Miles to close the public hearing. Any discussion before voting? Okay, cast your votes. There we go. 5-0 passes unanimously.
brings us to item five, which is a public hearing to consider the draft Tarant County program year 2024 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report community development. Um, it's a public hearing. The public hearing is now open. There's no one
signed to speak to this. Anyone who would like to speak to this? All right. Seeing none, I'll move to close the public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. Commissioner Miles, close public hearing. Any discussion?
All right, please cast your vote. All right, passes unanimously. All right, that's it for the public hearings and we will now take a it is 12 I'm going to say 14. We will now take a 10 minute recess until 12:20. We'll just
make it even 12:25. We're in recess. So question is that specific we can swap but not not now you can we can make it happen. Okay.
All right. Okay. Okay, we are back from recess and the first item is action concerning the
submission of Tarant county's no new revenue and voter approval tax rates for year 2025. Discussion of a proposed tax rate for year 2025 and take a record vote on the proposed tax rate. So
the the budget presented had a tax rate of 1862. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. So I'll make a motion second to adopt the rate at 1862. So do you have a second? Sorry.
Motion O'Hare. Second, Krauss. All right, we do have some speakers discussion. There's a couple of more votes we need to take. Yes. So, there's there's actually with that tax rate that was just proposed. There's actually three
items we need to take. Okay. First one is to receive and file the proposed no new revenue and voter approval tax rate which are listed in the background on the court communication. Okay. Then we just did a proposal of a tax rate of 1862 and subsequently because of that proposal of that rate
item four we need to approve posting of a notice of meeting to vote on the tax rate. Okay. So I will amend my motion to receive and file the proposed no new to include receiving and filing the proposed no new revenue voter approval
tax rates for Tarant County. I've already proposed the rate and then item D. Item four, approve posting of a note. What is item four? Item, if you look under commissioner's court action requested, number four is
if the proposed tax rate does not exceed the no new revenue rate, approve a posting of a notice of meeting. Okay. And I'll include that in my motion. Yes, sir. All right. So, I've amended my motion. We don't have to take a vote on the amendment, do we? Judge, if you can, if there is unanimous
consent from the body, then there's no need for uh that. Um, so you can just ask if there's any objections to that. If there if there is a need for a record vote on that. Any objection to me amending my motion versus withdrawing it and making it again? No. Okay. Anybody? Okay. Uh, we have a motion and a second.
Any discussion before speakers? Yes. I have some comments that I want to make regarding the proposed countywide tax rate. Uh let me just start off by saying I wasn't here for the budget meeting uh
for personal reasons, but once I got the information and I've had time to think about it and be careful in my um consideration as to my position and stance with this, I am not in favor of this budget. And here's my the tax rate.
I'm sorry. Tax rate. the tax rate. I'm sorry. Forgive me. And here's my rationale. The preamble of the Constitution reminds us why government exists. To establish justice, to ensure this
domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. And this is the part that speaks to me. Promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty. When we continue to reduce the county's tax rate below what is needed to meet the
essential needs of our residents, I believe we're violating that promise. A budget is a statement of priorities. A tax rate that produces a budget built on shortfalls and reductions does not promote the general welfare. It
undermines it. What is being proposed is not, in my opinion, fiscal responsibility. is fiscal harm. Cutting the tax rate to a level that forces layoffs, service reductions, and
dis and divestment in infrastructure is not protecting taxpayers. It's abandoning them. Taran County is growing. It's not shrinking. Our needs are in increasing. They're not decreasing.
A responsible government, in my opinion, adjusts to meet those needs. It does not retreat from them. The proposed budget shaped by this tax rate would result in real cuts to the
people who keep this county running, public health workers, road crews, criminal justice staff, and emergency response professionals. These are not abstract positions, folks. These are real people who have families
and they work and the work they do affects every resident in every zip code. When we cut their resources, we are cutting services. That means longer response times, delayed repairs, reduced access to care,
and slower support for families in crisis. The commissioner's court has a duty to ensure fiscal responsibility, but I believe that duty must be balanced with a commitment to the people that we
are elected to serve. In my opinion, it's an overreach for this court to ex impose extreme cuts that handcuff our ability to respond to today's challenges. Government should be adaptive and
responsive, not punitive. The court should not be driving ide ideological reductions that disconnect government from the needs of the community. Families in Taran County are facing inflation,
economic uncertainty, rising housing costs, and in some cases unemployment. Now is not the time for government to pull back. It's the time for us to lean in. Our residents need stability and
support, not instability and indifference. The services that the county provides, from food safety inspections to mental health outreach to emergency preparedness, are not luxuries.
They are necessities. People need these. And I think that we need to be really thinking about how the decisions we are making are impacting people. And we have to move from outside of our
political bubbles or our personal bubbles and the environments we grew up in to think about how the decisions we are making are going to affect everyday people. Budgeting should not be about doing less
with less. It should be about investing in what works. This tax tax rate does not reflect, in my opinion, the needs of a growing, diverse, and dynamic county. It reflects a short-term political narrative
disconnected from the real world. As stewards of this county, we must be honest with our residents. You cannot cut your way to prosperity. You cannot starve your way to a county and expect it to thrive. They just don't
meet. Every member of this court must ask the question of themselves. Will my vote today move Taran County forward or set it back for all residents regardless of race, culture, creed, or political
affiliation? Does it move us forward or take us back? I was always taught in my time in county government that county government is the local safety net. We're the the last line of defense, if
you will. We catch people at their most vulnerable. And what's being proposed now is cutting bigger and bigger holes in the safety net that was created to protect people and to promote the general welfare.
Promote the general welfare. Ask yourselves a question. Is what we prop we what we are proposing promoting the general welfare of all of the county's members of all residents or just a select few.
We will be remembered as leaders who rose to the moment or as officials who watch services fail and staff burn out because we refuse to provide the necessary resources. This tax rate does not reflect, in my
opinion, who we are and the best of who we are. Nor should it. It's time to stop hiding behind the word cut and acknowledge the truth that this, my friends, is harm,
plain and simple. Thank you. All right. Anybody else have anything? All right, seeing none, we will go to the speakers. First speaker, first speaker is Brianna B. Following Miss Ball, we have Linda Henry.
Hello. Hello. All right, so let's start off with some stats. The demographics per the Fort Worth website, whites account for 37%, Hispanics account for 35%, blacks account for 19%. So collectively, the minority counts for
54%. By golly, that's more than half percent. So let's say the US citizens, 89.5% is the total amount that we have here in Fort Worth. In May, only 4.9% voted
early. In the total Taran County, we have 1.28 million registered voters in the county. Let me paint a quick picture for you guys. Rosemont Park, great park, 30 acres, but there's still trash all over the place. Do we get rid of the
trash cans? Do we move the trash cans? Do you hire more help? Maybe shimmy some of the people that aren't doing much at the library down to go pick up some trash. So, let's talk about the polling sites. Originally 331, you guys proposing 216.
A good old quote. I would venture to guess 99% of the public cannot name a single thing of the 2025 ballot per judge O'Hare. I would agree. I'm still reviewing the 800 laws that just passed on Monday. So, what's $1 million saved
versus the $840 million bond program that's on the table? Lack of voting is honestly just a lack of city efforts. Does Commissioner Mr. Miles or Commissioner Miss Simmons speak Spanish? I appreciate their efforts, but it's
clearly it's a language barrier. What demographic is actually building the city? I'm not talking about funding. We're a growing city that just surpassed 1 million. Growth mindset is key. And honestly, I'd rather line up for tacos than Jason's Deli. What's the last time someone actually
lined up for some good white food? Does anybody know a group of white people that have built a home? Not talking about funding. City built on the back and browns. Their vote matters. Manny, please be sure to translate that
over to your constituents. 1.008 008 million today. 331 voting sites clearly isn't enough. And while I'm here, Southside would like community pool. I think it'd be nice. Uh the maps don't lie. Do what you got to do.
Thank you, Miss Henry. I thank uh Commissioner Miles for his his thoughts. As a Taran County taxpayer, I'm not eager to pay more county taxes. However, I am concerned that if the tax rate is too low, which apparently it is, there may be
insufficient funds to maintain current services. My concerns revolve around three expense challenges, reduced federal funding, redistricting costs, and jail death attorney and settlement costs. Federal funding is being cut
significantly, especially for health and housing. witnessed a cancellation in the current agenda of the $2.8 million contract to provide immigrant health screenings. Staffing at the CDC and other federal health agencies has been reduced
dramatically, which could impact local responses to health emergencies. Already, COVID booster shots appear to be unavailable, at least at my pharmacy. Although Texas has a high rate of current infections, the public requires an update on anticipated shortfalls in
federal funding and its impact on county services prior to approval of the tax rate and budget. We need to know what services and programs will be lost and their impact on other budget items and the overall health and welfare of county residents. The new redistricting is
going to be expensive both to reorganize county government and to fund the two court cases associated with the red redistricting. We understand that the court fight in Galveston County costs for a million dollars. Legal costs for Tarant County cases will likely be
significantly higher since all costs are up and our county is much larger. And finally, the deaths at the jail and in particular the murder of Anthony Johnson. Commissioner's Court has already allocated over $700,000
for outside counsel for this case and the settlement when it finally occurs will likely be in the millions. Deaths continue to happen at the jail, including two last month. We are unsure whether either of those early cases uh
uh cases or earlier cases such as Mason Yansies will result in large settlements, but it is certainly possible. It is wonderful to keep taxes low, but not at the expense of gutting county services. As my late mother could would have said, this is being pennywise
and pound foolish. Please show us how you are going to overcome these challenges and maintain county services that we rely upon. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Mr. Palmer. Thank you. I I appreciate the proposed
rate. It's below the no new revenue rate. I appreciate your words very much. I would like to add to that from the Texas Constitution. Inherent political power, this is section two. All political power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority and
instituted for their benefit. I don't believe it benefits the people. And I'm talking globally in Tarant County. all of the taxing entities. I personally believe that Tarant County needs to adopt as low of a tax rate as possible to offset what the cities and the school districts have been doing to us and are
going to continue to be doing to us. Yes. I you said that families are subject to inflation. They're subject to rising health care costs. They they can't afford a home. I saw something very alarming. the average age of the first-time home buyer has risen from 31 in the 50s the boomers were starting to
buy homes to something like 50s something years old first-time home buyer um what contributes to that is uh government I'm going to say parasites parasitic government and it's it's done with the best intentions people run for
office they get in office and it ends up bleeding us dry look at some of these protests look at the number of protests people, not so much this year because they've frozen the appraisals, but people are fighting for their lives. The family is the last line of defense, not any local government entity. Governments
are fix Governments are man-made. Families are God made the individual. We need to allow people to be able to survive. I would say that the time to uh save and the time to ask these questions about what the government should be doing for people is on each of these
items all year long. when they ask you to approve these things, why is it a h 100red grand? Can it be 80? Okay. Uh the other point I would like to make is you could easily take some of your salary. I don't think that anybody up there is worth I don't think that your job is
worth what you are paid. I think that you could take a pay cut and put it toward whatever in the budget you want to put it toward. And I appreciate you fighting your life out on body cams and things like that. I'll fight alongside with you. But we need a rate that is below the no new revenue rate. We need a
rate that's below the proposed rate. And the reason I say that mainly is because there is money. The new growth, the new construction is exempted from the no new revenue rate calculation. There's no poverty here for the for the taxing entities. There is growth. And I know
you don't get any sales tax. I don't believe you get any sales tax, but uh adopt a rate that is below the no new revenue rate. not only to offset the other taxing entities what they're doing to us but for and this is for Republicans for Republicans who are in Harris County and other counties in the
state they need some foothold to be able to say to their elected officials Tarant County did this if they can do it then you can come down to the no new revenue rate so hold the line thank you thank you all right that's all the speakers we have we have a motion and a
second on the floor any further discussion All right, seeing none, please cast your vote. All right, it passes three to two. Uh now instead of
going straight into A2, we are going to move the briefing item up from JPS which you will find in item 101. We're going to move that up now.
Dr. Duncan, why don't you introduce the new CFO to everyone? I will be glad to do that. Um, thank you, Judge O'Hare, Commissioner Miles, Commissioner Simmons, Commissioner Krauss, and Commissioner RmIrez for
allowing JPS, our new CFO, Kim Hodge Hodkinson, uh, to come and present the fiscal year 2026 budget. Um, I do want to start off by thanking all of you for the support that you provide to JPS for the work that we
do. Um we have had opportunity to meet with each one of you over the past week and so thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to gain to meet Kim and to gain some insight into how we set our budget uh for fiscal year 26. I
would also like to thank the community that reminds us of how valuable we are um to the community and the work that we do. We just completed our first community report and uh it's hot off the press and we brought you each a copy. We
will post it on our website for the community um to share in all the work that is going on at JPS. And finally, I'd like to thank the team members uh over 7,000 team members that come to work every day uh in um providing health
care, but more importantly to improving the health outcomes of the communities um that we serve. Um so with that, I have the clicker here. I know you have new technology. I do have a funny um Commissioner Fus story u that I I would
like to share as you guys were talking about it. But um much like you, Commissioner Miles, he would just show up in my office. Um usually it was around the time that we were having the senior synergy event and he would not leave until I made a sponsorship. U but
I learned more about goats. Good to know. Good to know. I learn more about the behavior of goats than I uh really want to know. And when I share that with my family, they just
looked at me like, "Oh, it's time to commit." But anyhow, um I did enjoy our conversations. Um am I where am I pointing this? Or if I can get someone to move it to It's the clicker. Okay. Okay. Let me go back.
Okay. Um just uh briefly before Kim steps in uh I want to remind everyone that all the work that we do at JPS is grounded in mission and in strategy and it is based on strategic priorities and
that includes our budget. Uh we had a great fiscal year 2025. Our strategic priorities included workforce access and financial stability. those same priorities will go into the budget for fiscal year 26. I just going to brag a
little bit on JPS. Um JPS is one of the top 10 employers here in Taran County. As mentioned, we have over 7200 team members, many if not most that live in Taran County that come from your
precincts um each day. and they h come to work each day uh again missiondriven highly engaged and have been recognized for the last two years recognized globally uh for being a workplace for workplace excellent and thank you
commissioner Krauss for coming joining in our ceremony and giving words of thanks and recognition to our staff. That's great. Uh we continue to be uh one of the largest training sites for future healthcare workers. We have the largest
family medicine residency program and I'm proud to say this is the second year that our family medicine residency program was ranked to number one in the nation and so great work that's being done regarding access. Uh we provided
additional access over this past year with the opening of the medical home southwest, the Roy Brooks Medical Home Southwest in the southwest corner of Taran County. And more recently, we had ribbon cutting um for additional access
in the Las Vegas Trail area um through a public private partnership. And thank you, Commissioner Ramirez, for all of the collaborative efforts that you've done over the years that culminated in the opening of the uh Las Vegas Trail
Clinic. Uh we underwent vigorous uh reacreditation and certification that speaks to the high quality care that's provided at JPS. We underwent an intense fiveday what's called joint commission survey.
Uh we also were re um certified or accredited as a level one trauma center, a level four maternal levels of care and a stroke designated site. All done uh and the staff was commended for the great quality work that they provide.
Last I would say that we invested last year and we'll continue to invest in technology. We understand that access is not always brick and mortar. Uh we um hope by first quarter of next year to move all of our patient information into the cloud. Yes, we have moved into the
21st century. um that will um allow for enhanced security but also will allow us to optimize our teleaalth our virtual and digital platform and to also bring on AI in improving uh and enhancing
efficiencies in the organization financial stab stability or sustainability um I will leave to Kim she will give you some insight as to the complexity of a safety that hospital financing structure. I will say that we
remain financially strong uh and um that we continue to work uh to improve efficiencies but more so on some revenue diversification. Uh one of the um uh activities that we
took on last year was uh bringing up a new service line on specialty pharmacy. those pharmacy provides a lot of our cancer drugs or autoimmune disease uh treatments. Um but we were able to build
that um service line at JPS and to bring in additional revenue um to cover some of the cost of the uncompensated care that we provide the community. So with that I am going to turn it over to Kim who I think is probably standing
patiently behind me. Um, she has only been with JPS for three months, but I think all of you have been impressed with how she has really come in and helped set what we feel to be a good budget, a budget that will not cut services next year to JPS that will
allow us to continue to be able to provide additional access through some of our new construction that is going on. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kim to introduce herself and present the fiscal year 2026 JPS budget.
Thank you. Hello everyone. Thank you judge and commissioners for the warm Texas welcome. So it's been great. So it's not the first time I see you up here. U I will have to say I had a great welcome from some of the county staff, Chandler, your chiefs of staff and Helen in particular. She's been very helpful. So,
I want to thank the county staff for welcoming me here also. And then my team at JPS. They've been awesome. Having a new CFO come in is is kind of like a, you know, doomsday. It's like, oh my gosh, can she ask one more question? So, um, I just appreciate it. So, thank you
so much. Um, we will when we start the budget, Dr. Duncan talked about our strategic plan and we balance the strategic plan with all the external forces that we have and you guys know what's going on. We have state, federal,
local, environmental factors that are always influencing where we're going. And the biggest ones right now, of course, the one big beautiful bill. There's some activity going on with 340B, which is the pharmacy discount program that we are able to access in
order to help care for more patients in our community. And there's some things going on at the state level around our Medicaid supplemental payments. And so we continue to battle those and want to balance our budget around that. How do we deliver the care, provide an engaged
workforce to take care of our patients because we are a people business, both employment and taking care of them. We want to stay true to our mission and we want to make sure this budget is foundational as we move forward. In the middle of all of this is how we put our
budget together. This triangle represents the bottomup approach that we do take. We look at the services and the volumes that we're going to take care of and we need to take care of. Even today, we are maxed out in our emergency room today. We are at what's called a surge level for today. And we are busy. We do
not close our doors. We don't divert patients away because we're busy. We see everyone in the community. And so we start with the volumes and then we say what resources do we need to create the revenue these volumes will produce the
expenses or the resources we need to take care of them. Then we'll look at initiatives that we need and then the capital investment and there's two pieces to our capital investment. One is the master facility plan which the taxpayers have supported moving down which is the building of the new hospital, the medical office building,
the central utility plant which all are breaking ground in the next year. We're excited with the um psychiatric emergency center um next week, I believe. Yes, next week. We're having the ribbon cutting for that. So, a lot going on in our master facility plan, but we also have routine daytoday making
sure the elevators are repaired, making sure we have equipment that works, the IT is where it needs to be. So, we build it all up starting with what we're taking care of. We as we look at the initiatives that we have in place in the
four categories you'll see workforce financial sustainability access fundamentally being taken care of with technology as we move forward not all of it but we are looking at workforce investment whether it's retraining our workforce as we bring AI in to do
certain things and it's really trying to find those skill sets and help elevate those people student training programs having that um top level residency program in the country to attract physicians to come and work in Tarant County access. The
very first one says create capacity for services. We are at full occupancy in the hospital right now. And so we have an average length of stay of about 5.7 days for a patient. We'll be looking to bring that down, but we cannot discharge
patients without a place for them to go or they end up back in the hospital. So we want to make sure that they have a safe place to go, they have the right care where they're going. And so we'll be looking at how we create capacity there, but also in the ambulatory environments that's out in the community
at the clinics, the medical homes that we've created, the urgent care, and how do we make sure that patients can be seen there and we have the providers there for them. From a financial sustainability, we want to look at revenue diversification. Dr. Duncan
talked about the specialty pharmacy we added. it's really contributing well to our financial performance. We'll be looking at also how do we make sure we're getting paid appropriately from the payers, the insurance companies, and we'll be working on negotiating with them over the next year. And then
technology, we're all hearing it. Technology is foundation. Epic, which is our electronic medical record, will go to the cloud in the early part of the calendar year. And our second core business system which was HR, finance and supply chain is going through a major upgrade to the cloud in June.
We're already in process on that. That's an 18-month journey. Both of those are our core systems. We have many other systems, but those are the two core systems to take care of our business. And so getting those enabled to be able to take different um components and
really use them to innovate and provide better care. When we talk about being a people business, so this very first one is the workforce. We are looking at workforce optimization. And what that means is is we're looking at how do we use our
people in a better way, more efficient way. How do we bring in technology to support them? How do we help upskill them? And so we will be looking at reducing our workforce next year through attrition. But we're also know that our workforce is going to shift around a little bit into different skill sets.
And so we'll be working through that. You'll see the reduction from 25 bud projected to 25 budget will go down to just about 7,500 FTEES and that will be our target with continued workforce optimization into the future. Part of
this is also an annual wage increase. We are proposing in our budget a 2.5% annual wage increase. And then we're looking at also some market alignment, moving our minimum wage um increasing that this during this next year. We also did some benefit design changes to keep
the increases or the employee share of the benefit down for next year. So we tier them up so the um employees at the lower pay scales do not pay the full burden of the increased benefit designs and we're all feeling increase in health care costs across the country actually.
So for workforce, we're looking at how do we optimize? How do we engage? How do we keep our turnover low? It costs us $70,000 every time a nurse turns over to recruit a nurse, get them in, get them trained, get them up to speed for working in our care environment. And
this isn't unique to JPS. This is pretty much the the dollar across the country. When we look at and I mentioned being a people business, this is kind of a boring chart, but 60% of our expenses continue to be people and this is people
and the benefits. Then we have purchase services in the green. The next biggest category is supplies and pharmaceuticals. That is one area that we're really looking at. We could see that go up next year depending on what happens with the initiatives at the federal government. Right now there's a lot of efforts.
We're very actively involved in giving comments to HERSA about this, but this could be an area that we see an increase next year, but we have not budgeted that because we truly feel believe that we will be able to keep the 340B program intact.
Operating expenses, I thought this would be very helpful. For every dollar we receive, this breaks down how it's spent. So 56 cents goes to people, supplies and pharmaceuticals, 19. You'll see the rest of the categories. Debt service, which is our debt we have, is
about 2 cents. That leaves us 5 cents to reinvest, put into capital, and into the future fund. The future fund is the savings account basically set aside for our master facility plan that we're building, the new hospital, medical office building. So that's what the future fund is.
So when we look at revenue, so now we put all the expenses together, but we look at revenue and going from the bottom up, you go from fiscal 22 up to fiscal 26 budget. The solid blue line is a percent of our revenue that comes from patient revenue. That means billing
insurance companies. We've gone from 38% to 46% of our revenue. So almost half is now coming from billing insurance companies. The pink on the right side is the adalorum revenue as a percent. We've gone from 34% to just over 25% of our
revenue is now coming from taxpayer dollars. So we are growing the business. The middle sections I'm going to tell you the light blue you're seeing that get smaller. That is our state or medicaid supplemental payments and that
is getting smaller. It is going down. We had a reduction this year in what's called disproportionate share. We get compensated for our high level of uncompensated care, but that little piece is going down for us. And so that is one of those influences. We know it's
going down. Sometimes we get little surprises. So this past fiscal year, we're performing very well. We got almost $40 million in recruitments and audit adjustments of these those blue light blue section payments. So those
happen from time to time and that's good, but they also happen in the negative direction and we got one of those this year also. So it's that light blue section is really volatile, hard to project, very state dependent, but state dependent on federal programs. So I just
kind of want to throw that in there. But this gives you how our mix of revenue has changed over the past few years. Our adora, I know this is a little busy. This looks at 22 to the 26 budget assumption. Our budget is based on an assumption because the tax rate is not
set. The solid blue um light blue are the dollars that go to maintenance and operations of the business from the tax revenue. The dark is what goes towards paying our interest in syncing or it's our debt payment for
the debt we went out for um relative to the bond that was issued in 2018. What are the green numbers? The green numbers are the total of those two numbers. So for example, in 2022 is $512 million was the advalorum tax
revenue. The line is the tax rate and you'll see our current tax rate is 1825. Our net no new revenue is 17792 and our budget was built on slightly
under no new revenue at 17417 or 1742 if you want to round it up. So this is what our budget was built on for the tax revenue slightly under no new revenue. When we look at capital projects we have
four categories that we look at when we budget. We have patient care which is the equipment whether it's in surgery it could be wheelchairs it could be anything to take care of a patient facilities is the light green that's the maintenance of the facility and then the teal color is it continually investing
particularly in security and upgrading our technology and we have a small pool of funds for strategic and contingency that we we have for the next fiscal year. This all summarized together. Bringing it all together is our income statement.
Operating revenues at the top. Then operating expenses for an operating income loss. This shows a loss because when we account for it with the auditors, the adalorum goes under the operating income loss. So we are
budgeting a $433 million loss next year. Then the advalorum at 506 million. And you might say that's different than the 518 we just saw. It's because we paid an assumption in for appeals into our budget. We have interest expense for our
debt. We have investment income that takes us to a net income of 150 million or an operating margin including adalorum of 2.9% for the budget for next year. This shows it to you graphically. The
green line is our operating margin. These gray are how we're funding the future fund. And the future fund, as a reminder, is the fund to pay for the master facility plan, building the hospital, the MOB, and the structures that are going up. Relative to that, we
expect to invest or to put away another 135 million next year. Most of that comes from investment income, but we put it away for next year and we'll continue to grow that fund till 2030 as long as we continue to perform at at least a
2.9% operating margin for the organization. So with that, I would like to conclude and see if the court has any questions. I I do on that investment income. So that's that's according or that's
consistent with the cash that we have on hand that we have that's subject to investment. But as we spend that future fund down um I mean you're budgeting 20 $92 million in investment income next year. But as we spend that fund down
that's going to continue to shrink. You are correct. It will. So So how do we I mean we're not anticipating that in four or five years there's a cliff to drop off and and you'll ask to raise taxes. Um, do you think that spending that fund down in the corresponding net incomes that we
have that we're going to be fine with a budget like this for fiscal 26? I believe we'll be fine with this budget. I think as we roll out and refresh our strategic plan this fall and we put together a new five-year plan, we'll have a better vision of
where that looks like in the five years. My expectation is is for the current master facility plan as we spend down the investment income will go down but we will have it mostly funded before it starts to go down. Now we can't say what the market's going to do. We could have
another 2008 and it just tanks. I I will say I appreciate how you put that slide together or how you put that articulation together. I know for the first couple of years that I was here um I asked why is there so much cash on hand? Why is there close to$2 billion dollars? Um but but knowing that there's
a plan for each of those dollars to to go towards the construction of the new hospital. Um I don't know why back in 18 the bond amount that was asked for was only 800 million if they eventually anticipated maybe they didn't anticipate spending $2.5 billion on a new hospital.
Um but that's all coming from cash on hand. Correct. Well, I I appreciate it and welcome to JPS. Um I have an affinity for JPS. I was born there. Uh, and I think that they're one of the best hospitals in the world. Um, and I'm I'm proud of your
staff, Dr. Duncan, your staff, uh, and everybody in your department for working long and hard hours to to produce a budget, uh, under the no new revenue. I mean, I think that that that's a market achievement, and it's only been a reality for our hospital system over the last three years. Prior to that, they'd
never had a budget under the no new revenue rate. And now, this is going to be three years in a row. So, I I certainly appreciate all of the effort that y'all make and the effort that you're going to make in the future to to continue to perform this way. So, thank you. Thank you.
All right. Any other questions for them from JPS because we do have something from budget, our budget. No, no questions, just a comment. Kim, welcome to Taran County. I think you've done a great job getting up to speed in a very short amount of time and appreciated the time over at the office.
So, thank you. Thank you. And I too would like to welcome you, Kim, to JPS in Taran County. And I would like to commend you and Dr. Duncan and your team for all of the work that you did to come up with this budget under the no new revenue
rate. You ought to be uh commended and I thank you. You know what? I do have one question and that question is interest income last year. Can you tell me what you earned? Our interest income was about 3.4% last year.
Okay. No, just a sec. Let me get the numbers right. Last year we were above four. This year we're at about 3.4% and we're budgeting 3.8. Do you have access while you're here to tell us? I wrote it down. To tell us what you earned last year
exactly? Yes. And while you're looking, Kim, is she over there? I can't see her. Can you tell me what Tarant County earned last year percentage-wise? Um, I can tell you what we're earning
right now. Okay. An average of 4.37. Okay. So, I know you just got here. What's your What's your number? So, in 24 we were at 4.9%. 4.9. And this year right now, my most recent numbers I have is two months old are at
3.3 with a budget of 3.8. I will say that I'm in the middle of an RFP process in reviewing our investment strategy. So, I just want to put that out on the table. Good. I think uh I would encourage you get with these folks.
The rates we have through text pool, which I know y'all are in some in text pool, but like the favorable rates we have with Chase Bank on what they pay us, I don't think y'all are getting the same rates from the bank that you bank with. And so there's an opportunity
there for I mean I just did some quick math in my head this morning. If you increased it 1% on a billion in cash um that alone right there is $10 million and I think we and I know you just got here. I think JPS is leaving some money
on the table through the banking relationship. So, we can leverage our relationship with our bank to make sure y'all are getting the same kind of deal if you use our if they use the same bank. If you don't, it might be
it's something probably worth switching if your bank won't deal with that. Great. Thank you. All right. Anything else for them? Yes. So the hospital district's uh FY26 budget has assumed a tax rate of 1742.
Yes. 417, right? Yeah. 17417. Yeah. Okay. Uh which is below the no new revenue rate. Um correct. I think you said 1779. And the current JPS tax rate is
1825. 1825. And you've lowered you've gone below the no new revenue rate for two years and this would be the third.
How much longer can you do that without affecting the services we provide our constituents? That's a very good question, Commissioner. And I think with all the headwinds that we're facing right now,
this next 12 months is going to yield a lot more to answer that question about what happens at the federal level for the monies that we get. that 46% of revenue that comes from insurance companies which includes Medicare and Medicaid. We have to see what happens
happening to these programs and what changes in the worst case scenario. We would not be able to go down more. I would hate to bring it down and in two years come back and need to raise taxes again. Right.
Okay. I would hate that too. So, um, prior to lowering it below none revenue, you had not increased your tax rate in how many years?
I can't answer that question. It's a couple years. Yes. Okay. I think the tax rate went up from 22 to 23 by about three pennies. Yeah.
So once all right thank you on the uh no new revenue rate and and you know I think the encouraging part there you know we think about that think about the headwinds but the encouraging part is that chart that you showed where your percentage of total revenues coming
from the advalorum has shrunk from 35% to now 27 28 that's very encouraging Dr. Dr. Duncan and I spoke about this several years ago. Uh, and I think with increased capacity and the new hospitals, I think JPS is is going to
market itself as one of the um top options for private payers to come in. I mean, the more hips and knees and shoulders you do um the less revenue comes from those who aren't paying uh private pay um just just in the aggregate. So, I mean, I I don't think
that it's all due capital investment. I would say if we don't have a 5 billion hospital build on the horizon. Uh perhaps there there would be some concern in my mind. Uh but I think knowing that you're planning with the dollars we have in hand to construct
those facilities uh and then also at the same time um the the efficiencies that we're finding to be able to to change that ratio. Um I I think that all signs are pointing to good. So I'm I'm very encouraged by uh what I see. Uh and I
think I I don't think Dr. Duncan uh would propose a tax rate below no new revenue if she didn't think it was responsible for the hospital. Um, that's just in our conversation. She's always been very direct and frank with me. So, yes. So, we build the facilities, but we
will always have M. Um, so we have to have you have staff, you have maintenance and operations. I mean, they have to have the revenue. Um, we I promise you this
won't be the last year that we'll be asking you or expecting you to come under no new revenue. And so, we have to be realistic here.
How often can you do that? and not affect services uh and people um the staff, the patients. Um and we we have to ask ourselves that question. We
can't we can't keep doing this. And y'all need to tell us we can't keep doing this. You know, uh quit saying we'll make it work. Um because I don't think that's fair to
those who are considered the least of these and need the services there. All right. Anything else for JPS folks? All right. So, budget. Uh, I've asked Matt to go to take a look
at their budget and look at it over the course of several years and to make just give us a general overview and show us numbers from multiple years. Are you saying look at JPS's budget?
Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes. So, what I did first budget to do it. I don't Yes. Yeah. I got tasked. So, good afternoon everyone. Um I would like to present what we worked with or going through the historical information from JPS. I was comparing their budgeted
figures to their actuals. And first I want to recognize the JPS does not budget the way the county budgets. The the county budgets with a balanced budget. They're doing a uh a balancing budget where the triangle that she mentioned before. So whenever we look at
their figures, we're looking at different indicators than what we would look for at the county. We're looking at revenues, expenses, and they operate on a margin, which is their net income. And so I compared what JPS has been budgeting for versus what they actually
received for a few fiscal years. And on this first slide, I want to point out a couple of key information on that top row. Under fiscal year 25, JPS underbudgeted their revenue by 78 million or 6%. They underbudgeted their
expenses by 167 million or approximately 1% and overall their net income that very bottom line they underbudgeted their net income which is their margin by almost 100 million or 72%.
Excuse me. So after looking at fiscal year 24 and fiscal year 25 I decided to do a little bit of a deeper dive and go back to fiscal year 21. on fiscal year 21 just looking at revenue expenses and nets income. They underbudgeted again uh
on revenue by almost 17% underbudgeted on expenses by almost 2% and their net income they had an additional 327 million in net income for fiscal fiscal year 21 which was 302%. Now, I do recognize fiscal year 21 was
coming out out of COVID. A lot of interesting things going on, a lot of additional money being received from the federal government. And so, we went into fiscal year 22. And the through the through line you will see here as we go through this is historically we underbudget. JPS underbudgets on revenue
and they underbudget on net income. Their expenses are pretty static. They they hit that on the the head most times between a variance of two to 4%. But on uh fiscal year 22, just looking at net income, they underbudgeted by 112 million or 71%.
Fiscal year 23 again underbudgeted net income by 251 million or 222%. And so on in 24 36 and 25 was that number I mentioned earlier, the 238 million in additional to get to an
overall difference here. I'm just looking at net income here over those one, two, three, four, five fiscal years. And fiscal year 25, I will remind a projected amount, not finals. That's what JPS projects to be. They have underbudgeted in total 793 million or
167%. If you just take out fisc 21 as an outlier, that's still 140% or 50 547 million in additional net income that they did not budget for in their when they presented their budgets to
commissioner's court. Uh this last side is kind of just bullet points of what we went through just now. Uh the last one I want to mention is on the very bottom, which is that JPS historically has stated a goal of 1% operating margin. So uh throughout all of the different different hospital
districts their operating margin is considered very healthy at 1 to 2% extremely healthy at 3%. Their operating this year uh their projected for 25 is 6.9%. Uh and I think budgeted throughout the years it's their next year's anticipated
amount is 2.9%. So overall through the numbers, the through line is the historically underbudget revenue and under budget for net income. And I'd be happy to take any questions. Looking at these, we're this goes back
to fiscal year 21. Yes sir. Which is voted on in 2020. Yes, sir. So 21 22 23 24 25. We would be voting on the budget for 26. So you're now you've had the ability to look at six different
budgets and actuals on five of them. Yes. I guess actuals on four of them project actuals which were less than a month left so it should be pretty close. Yes sir. What is your overall take on what you're seeing? Uh overall take based on the numbers
like we like I stated before they are in a very healthy position. I think they're we don't have enough information to justify the amount of net income they're receiving and that could be going to the future fund. It could be going to their capital improvement. Um but I don't know
from a cash flow statement why they have to have that amount of net income. Okay. Um anybody else have any questions for Matt? And just to clarify, net income is everything. I mean, all the services,
all the surgeries, everything they're doing. If if they had five extra dollars net income, they would have been able to provide all the services and do everything they need to. Net income is just the surplus over any budgetary needs for that year because I I know Commissioner Miles and others were
talking about uh not wanting to reduce services or make sure we don't do that. And I I don't want to do that either. Um so but that 151 or 150 Yeah. 151 million is just surplus revenue. Yes. So it's the it's revenues less
expenses and revenues includes operational and taxes. Now what they what they intend to do with the excess revenue is future fund. Sure. Yes. But yes. Okay. All right. Anything else for Matt? No sir. Matt, you've got you you have these
slides? I do. Yes. Did you just come up with this? Uh, yesterday I did. Yes. At the request of the judge, we prepared the slides. Okay. Just yesterday's. Okay. Could you forward them to me? Absolutely. They're they're in your packet, too. Um,
they should be in your red packet. In your red folder. Okay. If you could email. Anything else for Matt? I'll opine. It's not really for you, Matt. Um, but I think the looking through their numbers, I mean, where they've historically overperformed was in net patient
revenue. I think that's as I was talking earlier about all of the private payer. I know over at least the last several years, they've been able to perform better there. And I think at the end of the day, budgeting for net income is one thing. Actually, achieving net income on
a flat balanced budget is another. uh but achieving net income over your budgeted net income uh is always something to be applauded because their ad valorum net income or their adalorum revenues are not going up. I mean they're they're going to receive what their budgeting as far as adorum revenue
goes. Uh but that just means they're performing very well. Uh remember they're they're a hybrid system where they do have private payers and they do have private operations and so I think that's to be applauded. They're to be applauded for that. Um now I think that the question or the philosophical
question is on the net income the expenditures on capital futures fund the new hospitals and all that. I mean I think that that's the topic of discussion or um you know asking them to produce a balanced budget
year-over-year. Um and I think a balanced budget produced could possibly still produce 150 million in net revenue. just explicitly state that that's going towards the future fund. You're budgeting for that capital in future years. I think that that's the better
way to understand it in my mind anyways. No, absolutely. And I agree. And I think what really gave me I guess why I needed more information is because of the variance between what they budgeted for net income versus what they received. Um because there is a through line and I do recognize that is a volatile income
stream, right? That that operational side is very volatile. But just going back five years, you can pretty consistently see that it is underbudgeted for that revenue. And so that's those wide swings are what gave me pause. All of these numbers that you have given
us today put in the slides put up here. Where do they come from? Uh they came from presentations from JPS to this court and their actual audited financial statements. So, I had put together the last two years something sort of similar, not as thorough or as
good as this, but you used you got your own numbers from JPS budgets and actuals. Yes. Yes, sir. All right. He did it in a day. He did. Yeah. Well, don't we wish we could all be Matt? So, all right. So to me this are you are we saying I mean
this comes across as if JPS purposefully um underbudgeted and no ma'am I'm I'm not giving any indication on what JPS is doing just what the numbers represent and so uh Kim talked about um
uncertain the uncertain revenue sources So did you you're just presenting numbers I I guess is going to be your response. Yes ma'am. Any more in-depth answer would have to come from Miss Hodson from from Kim.
Okay. Did you all want to come back up and speak to this Kim or Dr. Duncan? So healthc care as Matt even noted is tough to budget. You pick your volumes. You project where you think your volumes
are going to go. You also have to project your payer mix. What types of patients am I going to see? What is Medicare going to do to my payment rates? What is the state going to do to my payment rates? Then you put your budget together based on the resources you need. You also don't know when
they're going to give you gifts or take things away. So this past year, Matt showed you that we are projected to make about 250 million 58 million from net income versus a budget of about 138. It's about hund00 million swing. Well, our volumes went through the roof this
year and they continue to stay there. We're at capacity. That's 50 million of that hundred million variance. We also got about 46 million of one times that we couldn't budget for because we didn't know they were happening. So, we got another 46 million in. We will not get
that again next year. We got a $16 million favorable adjustment in our pension expense because the interest rate at our measuring period allowed that adjustment. So, that shows up. We did get a negative. We had a $60 million hit to our disproportionate
share payment for the year. We also managed to bring down our cost of non- labor and we brought our contract labor down. So it brought our labor costs down as well as our non- labor costs down. All those things were the efforts of the colleagues of JPS.
Some of them were the efforts of things we don't control. So I can just speak to 25. Um that budget was the best budget put together at the time they put a budget together because that's the best you get. The net income. I do want to
comment on that. Net income is what we use to fund the future fund for the future build because it's all coming from operations except for the 800 million authorized by the taxpayers. It's also our routine capital needs that we need for the organization and it's also the debt payment that we make at
$30 million a year. And so that net income is what creates and sustains us from the non-income statement items. So the capital investments, the longer term investments, we keep our days cash on hand at 180 days, which is below the benchmark for a Moody's AA rated
organization. It's always something that can be discussed later, but right now that is the policy for JPS and that is really what's needed, particularly when we come into situations like COVID. We didn't know the pandemic was going to happen.
And so that just gives you a little color on 25. There's similar stories for the prior years. CO had a lot of FEMA and CAR's act money. So to Matt's point, he was just reporting on numbers. I think getting the stories that goes behind the numbers is very important. So I hope giving you some color on 25 was
helpful. Thank you. So So if we have net income of 151 million this next year, you'll feel very comfortable with all those extra the capital improvements, future funds, uh and all that.
Okay. So if you simply put 150 million we have I say 50 million for capital it's 46 50 million we have 30 million for debt so that's 80 million of that and the rest for the future fund as long as we can keep the returns coming through on investments.
So based off the numbers of what's happened the last five or six years where it seems like we always come in above for for various reasons and and I'm not saying JPS ever is doing anything wrong. It's just that's the way it ends up. I'm trying to think of being good steward of the taxpayer dollars. Is it
right for me to think, okay, if we're trying to get to 151 and we know every year we get at least 50, 60, 70, $80 million more than we had budgeted for in net income, can we lower that tax rate a little bit more so that we're basing it
off a tax rate to where you the net income might be 120 115 million knowing we're going to make up all that money because we've seen it what six or seven years in a row. And as long as we hit that 151 million number, we should be good. Is that flawed thinking anyhow or
is that am I not approaching it the right way? You're sort of approaching it correct, but unfortunately that side of the revenue for us is not linear. So you can't say 1 plus 1 is two. It might be minus one. So for example, we've been getting these recruitments and these
audit adjustments which have been favorable and these positives. This year we got a $60 million negative. Fortunately, we had volume to offset it. So the question would be if we were to bring those numbers down, would it be right in two years and we go
back to the taxpayers because we can't project those numbers? We can't. I mean, we've agreed. And so we would have to ask for an increase in the tax rate if we wanted to continue to fund the future fund from operations. Okay. Um so this next five years is pretty volatile and moving forward to fund the
new facilities. Do do you know what a a penny uh turns into in terms of revenue? 29 million. 29 million. So I'm I'm just saying. So if we went a penny below 17 what whatever it is now 41.
So again I was looking at it like 151 million. If we go a penny below that's almost 30 million less. So that's still going to give you a net income of 120 million. Also thinking that you're probably going to recoup that anyway. I I I guess I'm just kind of thinking out loud, doing the numbers in my head, but
um I don't know, 120 million net income sounds really good to me for a public hospital. Um and we had this discussion all the time down in Austin. I think we even talked about this, the rainy day fund, right? At what point does the rainy day fund get too full, right? And you need to return some of that money
back to the taxpayers. So that's just kind of the thought process that I'm doing. But I I appreciate that. You know, my my thought on the the equating the futures fund to the rainy day fund is we know with certainty that the futures fund is going to be drawn down. That's my concern on net revenue or on
on interest revenues is that what they're making interest on today will not be what they're making interest on in four to five years. And so it's not a rainy day fund where you know it's just for for you know things that may be unexpected. they they're budgeting, you
know, over two billion dollar billion and a half dollars to build a new hospital. And so I I I am very apprehensive uh to to to do anything that would cause them to come back in a couple of years because
something's gone ary and or I mean the government uh federal government system has changed or something's happened. Um and and I I do think in the future and I and we'll have this discussion probably together, but in the future it may be worthwhile to have a working session
with your board and our board um prior to this. I do not like asking you to come up here and defend your budget. You've been on the job three months and and I just I I don't know. I think that this is a conversation that could happen in a working session or something to to work out these kinks on the the scent,
but this is the first time I've heard apprehension about this. I applaud you for getting below owner revenue. Yeah. And and I do too. And I hope none of my questions come ac I'm just starting to see this this packet with all this overages and I'm thinking if we always go over by a substantial amount.
Could we bring that tax rate down a little bit in order to because I think you're right. I see what you're saying about the rainy day fund and the difference on that. The rainy day fund you're just socking it away. this one, you know, so if we're targeting to 151 million for this year, couldn't we lower
that rate a little bit knowing that we always get excess revenue based on this chart from 2021 onward? Let me chime in here. We're going to hit that in the next segment. So, okay. Uh, thank you.
Now, we're going to move to that so we can discuss it. Um, and that is item 9 A2, action concerning the submission of the Tarant County Hospital District's no new revenue and voter approval tax
rates for tax year 2025, discussion of a proposed tax rate for tax year 2025 and take a record vote on the proposed tax rate and if necessary, call public hearings and or post notices regarding the tax rate. So there's a couple of things that I want to mention and what I
would ask everyone on the court to do respectfully is just listen and not start finding ways to argue against the things that come out of my mouth because I think it's gets to a point where it makes sense for everyone. So
when we voted in 2023 to reduce the tax rate below no new revenue, no services of any kind were cut. None. zero. When we voted to cut the rate below no new revenue in 2024 for this budget,
no services of any kind were cut. The proposed budget that they have a rate below no new revenue is no is no cuts to services. No vital services are interrupted in any way, shape, or form. So, what we're really talking about here
when setting a tax rate is we're talking about how much profit that they that the hospital district gets to make to apply towards future capital projects, the tower, the
remaining parts of the of the of the project. So the if you just said based on historic the last six years of what they have budgeted and then what actually happened
you literally could take that tax rate down from 17.417 to something like 13 cents and they would still come out with their 150 million in profit.
And what they what they have what they're budgeting is 150 million 151 million in profit. So in 21 the and and they it's called net they call it net income profit whatever you want to say. In 21 the net income
budget was 81.3 million. Um they missed it by 246 million. Okay. 22 they budgeted a net income of 65 million 65.5
and they missed that guess by 47 million in addition no profit 2023 they budgeted net income at 78 million their actual realized was 252 million this time the
profit was 163 million more than budgeted 2024 their net income budgeted was 109 million. Actual 336 million. They missed that one
by 225 million. Fiscal year 25, two of you weren't on the court. We had set a ceiling at 18.75 and then two weeks later we voted to lower it to 18.25. It was a 4 to1 vote.
You may remember constrnation from board members and I don't want to say consternation out of JPS other than the board. That might not be a fair statement, but consternation over, oh, look what you've done. You've cut about $14 million out
of our profit. Well, what happened? The budget 138 million. I think we made a change at the last minute that knocked that down $14 million. And what are they actually projecting? 238 million 100
million more than the original budget. So I think we've seen enough years to say okay we see that they are underbudgeting the profit by sign by literally hundreds
and hundreds of millions of dollars. So before anybody goes the direction of if you cut the rate to X pickaxe whatever it is that's going to take money out of the hands of the poor out of the hands
that people need it. That's just not accurate or honest. It just isn't. It's either a lack of understanding of the numbers or it's just political rhetoric. And so, Commissioner Miles, with all due respect to you, when we're talking about
the cost of housing going up, well, one of those key factors in the cost of housing going up is property taxes. And last I checked, Republicans, Democrats, and aolitical people pay the property taxes. So, I remember this
discussion, maybe it wasn't last year, maybe it was two years before, there was kind of this you're either for JPS or you're for the taxpayer. And I don't believe the two are mutually exclusive in the slightest. I believe that based
on the numbers we've seen and based on their proposed budget, I believe you can be pro taxpayer and pro-JPS, which is what I think prior to you two arriving, I think that's what this court was for the last two years.
So, I say that I think really the the last couple of things I'll add is we talked about the interest income. I think they can do better. I have no doubt they will pick up the phone, call our people, work with them, and try to figure out a way to do that. I don't know why on earth they
wouldn't. But then there's another piece of the capital plan that I would tell you that is just left sitting there, and we're not voting on this today, but I want you all to know it in case you're unaware or you haven't thought of it. So, in the capital plan, which is
basically no more than the blue ribbon committee report from eight years ago with very no adjustments to the actual document um itself, there's been financial adjustments along the way and projections. But when you look at that, they have $35
million in that plan to tear the old building down. And then when I asked, well, have you looked at selling it or renting it or leasing it? The answer was no. Um, we I've come to find out from
the former program manager that when that idea was broached to whoever it was broached to inside JPS executive management that when that idea was given, this is a way for significant cost savings. I've come to learn, if
what I'm being told is accurate, is that was poo pooed by JPS executives because they didn't want to look at an old ugly tower. And I I wasn't there for that conversation. So, I don't know if that's what was said. I'm just telling you
what's been told to me and I don't know why they would have a reason to lie to me. So there is just on the interest alone and that $35 million um that can be potentially sold to
another hospital, another medical group. It can be used for future expansion. Uh there may be a scenario not too far down the road where our hospital um becomes full again. And now, does anyone know
from JPS, not that they've shared with us, does anyone know what it would cost to keep that thing up if they couldn't rent it out or couldn't sell it? So, I I think of things like the Astrodome. Personally, I don't think the Astrodome was a good thing to keep open the way
they've done it. Um, it's falling apart, but they keep maintaining it. But then you look at Chalkaws Stadium in Arlington. they've actually been able to use that to make money and still provide services and do some good stuff. So, it
hasn't been explored enough. It needs to be explored and it's quite possible that it's so beyond repair nobody would want to spend a dime. Nobody would want to take it on, but they don't know yet. And that's leaving a gargantuan amount of
money on the table. So now that I have said all of that, so the last thing I'll say and then I'm going to make a motion and the last thing I'll say is this. Um, I think it is bad government,
whoever is doing it or proposing it, to we don't want to lower the tax rate when we know we can because we might have to raise it in two years or three years or four years. Um, I don't think that's a good way to
manage money. That's not how you manage your own money. That's not how businesses manage their money. And the idea and so I can see it in the audience. Oh, here it is. It's you're taking stuff out of JPS. No, you're not. You're treating the exact same number of
people. You're putting in the same exact tower, same exact hospital. You're just saying, "Hey, you are you are we know what's going to happen with this budget." And I will be the first person to stand up and say, and this is just the six years we know of. Uh I can't
wait for fact this will be a project for you all to do. go back and look at the 10 years before that. I can't wait to see what that shows. But at the end of the day, um, if there's $28 million or $14
million or $36 million le less of their profit, it does not negatively impact services in any way, shape, or form. And if you have an opportunity to reduce it now, you should. That's my view. So, this is
my motion. I'm going to make my motion. My motion is that we adopt a tax rate for JPS of 16.5 cents. Jesus. Which is less than one penny below
the one that was in their budget. And instead of them having a profit in their budget of $151 million, that would take them down to a profit in their budget of approximately
124 million and change. So that that is my motion. I'll second that based off the fact of the last six or seven years that whenever whatever we budget for, we take in substantially more money. Um, so I
think we will hit that 151 that they're targeting even with a rate of 165. Is this setting the ceiling or is this voting on the established tax rate? This is setting the ceiling. The v the adoption of the tax rate will
be at the September 16th meeting of the commissioner's court. So your sorry is your motion to set the ceiling at 16.5 correct? Yes. Um so we don't know the story behind the
numbers that you talked about outside the 2025 numbers presented here today plus the numbers post 2020 um are convoluted by co funds uh in
infusion from the federal government. I, you know, we're sitting here penalizing good leadership. If if her budget was trash,
um, and a deficit budget, uh, we we'd be all over. Um, but our budget's fine. She's bringing in money. We're building these new towers. materials cost will increase so on and so forth. Then you have to operate the
thing. Um th this is insanity and then to attempt to drop it um that drastically is it's it's poor it's poor leadership.
It's poor governance. Well, it's exactly what we did last year, dropping at 14 million and then what they received after dropping at 14 million was an additional 114 million over what we dropped it. So,
your rhetoric just doesn't back up. It's just not backed up by the facts. My rhetoric, my my position backs up my vote last year. Um, so if to you uh if JPS comes back
um and says we need to increase our tax rate, would you ever be supportive of that if the numbers show that? Well, there that's a there would be a whole lot to learn and know to figure out what the scenario is there. As as
you obviously know, as a general rule, I'm not for increasing tax rates. Uh but what what if they brought back a budget and said, "Hey, we think we need to raise it." What are the other 50 things you could look at to not raise it? I
mean, and with a budget the size of theirs, I mean, over a billion dollars, there's always things you could do different. And they're they hired a group uh that the board approved to go in and figure out ways to deal with attrition.
uh and and not have as many people as they have. And what Dr. Duncan told me literally the first time I think I ever visited with her back in 2022 was they were too topheavy and they had too many VPs and CIS and CES and and they're
working to try to deal with that by not laying anyone off. And I I applaud their efforts. Uh I would tell you they run it well. And so this is a and when they passed their budget, the budget was very
clear. The motion was very clear. Here's the budget subject to commissioner's court tax rate. So the only thing we're talking about changing in the budget is the profit number. Nothing else. So judge, I'll ask this. So on on.165
um for for what you'd like to set the ceiling at uh they haven't gone back and they haven't set their budget to that tax rate. They've set their budget to no new revenue rate or below no new revenue rate which when we have our discussions periodically throughout the year and the
discussion is what would you um in a perfect world like to see the tax rate be my answer is always below no new revenue rate. It's not a specific number. It's not a because we don't know. We don't know if property values are coming in or not. We don't know. But my my answer is always below. No new revenue. And so they hit that mark for
me. Uh so I don't I don't feel right about wholesale saying this is the number you should peg to. But perhaps we set the ceiling at their budget number with the expectation that when we set their ultimate rate in two weeks or whenever
we do it, when we set their rate, we're expecting to go down further so that they have time in the interim to go back and craft a budget to what they believe the actual expectation might be. It may not all be from uh net net income. That net income number may not it may not be
what's only affected. They may go back and strategize and do something different. But but my point is if we give them a clear expectation on the front end so that we're not essentially asking them to spend months and months crafting a budget. You know how hard it is for Helen and team to craft a budget. Spending months and months to craft a
budget only to to ask them to reverse course and do something different in two weeks. I know from your perspective it's probably different because it's net income. We're not they're not balancing the budget like we do, but they are balancing it to what they believe they need for the future construction. So my
my my my preference is to set a tax rate ceiling at what they've prepared the budget for which is still below no new revenue and then communicate to them that there's an expectation that we will cut it when we ultimately set the rate.
So the number of 17.417 that was the placeholder that they had to put some number on it to produce the property tax revenue. assuming they don't even go, let's just say they
hit their budget for the first time in seven years on their actual revenue, which I mean, I don't know how many more times, this is a little bit, and I don't mean this intentionally, so maybe this is a bad analogy, but this is a little bit like Lucy holding the football out
for Charlie Brown, and then it keeps getting pulled. And so I don't know how many more times we're going to say, "Oh, this is probably the right revenue." Ultimately, at 151, that's still higher than they budgeted every year for their
profit of the last six years. So even if you are of the opinion that this year may be the year they only hit the 151, the profit is still significantly higher
this year than every other year. So if you if you voted no and said, "Okay, we're going to set a ceiling." Um they didn't pick the ceiling of 17.417 off of some magic thing. There's no magic number to must have 151 million in
profit. None. Um, and let's just say they hit their actual budget. Let's say they hit it the revenue was 151 million and this action is let's say it knocks it down 27 million. Okay, that's still 124 million
in profit just on the interest savings and the building potential savings alone that more than covers that. So, we can have another We can vote for 17.417, which
was pulled out of a hat. Uh, we can vote for that now. And then now we're right back here in two weeks. And I think what you're saying is, will they have a meeting of their group to decide how they're going to deal with the budget?
last year when we did this and we knocked it down um they went back and adjusted their budget after the fact. So I don't know what the two weeks is going to do. They can also during the middle of the year
they can decide after they've passed a budget to adjust what they're doing in the budget that way. So just okay let's vote on this budget in a week and a half. Let's get a meeting together. I hope we can get the whole group have it and then knowing y'all going to come in and do this. Well, they could still
change their budget mid year, one month in. I mean, there's so many different opportunities to change it and modify it. We do it almost every court meeting. Uh I just don't know what we're buying and I don't know that them coming in and say, "Okay, we've looked at it and we've decided." I mean,
I would be stunned beyond belief, but I can't imagine they're going to come in and say, "No, no, no. We got to have 151 million in our profit. So, we're going to take 27 million out of vital services. I mean, we know they're not going to do that. Uh, and nobody here wants them to. Well, that that that's my question also.
Maybe it's more of a discussion about how they're pegging net income. And so, how they're pegging the dollar amount that they believe they need. Now, now, obviously, again, all of the difference in their budget is based upon net patient revenue. So, private payers, the
increase. I mean, they overshot 12%, 7%. Um, and then in the last year, it was investment income. They budgeted 95, they hit 124, but it's because they're carrying so much cash. Again, my concern is they just approved 300 to$400 million in expenditures for those towers. That net income is going to or that
investment income is going to take a nose dive no matter what rates they're going to get. So, the economic environment, but they've adjusted for that in their budget. No, no, no. But the economic environment to hit 30% is not there. 30% over their budgeted investment income revenue is is not there any longer. But I'll say that
the question about what's appropriate to budget for net income and and I articulated I have it in my mind not as profit. It's not a a private company that's making profit. It's a business that's planning for capital expenditures. So they're they're essentially putting those in that
bucket. My question is, I certainly don't want to be the person that's responsible for saying this is the appropriate number for your capital expenditures when you're responsible for building these towers. Your board is responsible for managing y'all's budget, but we're doing it from up here when
they've already gone through that exercise. They had an entire budget review to determine that 150 was an appropriate number. Now, the the discussion about whether or not 150 is is actually what they're going to hit. They maybe somebody's got a back of the napkin where they say, "Well, we really think we're going to hit 230, but let's
budget for 150." My my point is if that's the the consideration, who are we to say you should only budget for 120 for your capital program versus 150? That That's what I'm saying. If If but we can't be certain that they're going to hit it just like we can't be certain if they're going to go under. I move to
uh amend that motion to set uh the JPS proposed rate um the ceiling at 17417. All right. So there's a motion to amend
the motion on the floor. Can you make a motion to amend a motion on a rate to a different rate? I think you can either vote for the rate or not vote for the rate and then you make a motion to do that after that fails. This becomes a question of whether it is
a proper amendment when it invalidates the underlying main motion. Yeah. And I don't think that's an amendment. It's a substitution. Yeah. It it would be a question as to whether there is anything then for the main motion to accomplish if it's amended
such that it's negated entirely though. Can you look it up? Sure. I I I am vaguely aware of the rule of improper amendment. I'll hold a number for you right now. So because then I can make a motion to amend her motion to
I don't think that's doable. So wait I'm going to talk to him while he's looking it up. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I get your point of I don't want to be the one that tells them why it should be this or that. The
number they came to is not scientific. They don't have a plan for it's 151 here and next year it's 172 and next year it's 148. If it is, they haven't sent a single thing to us to show us. We have we don't have a thing. But I would I
would go back to do you want to be the one that votes to overt tax our taxpayers when you see what has happened for six years in a row. I think we know what's going to
happen. Um and if it doesn't then we make an adjustment at that time. That's and I think basically you're you're if you vote against this you can say I think JPS needs more money whatever the case may be but you're you are looking
at a fact pattern year after year after year after year and saying this is the year that's not going to happen. So if they go if this year they do what they did last year and they make a hundred million more than they did the year before
are you going to feel good about that? And I would say based on what we know which seems more likely that they'll hit the 151 or that it'll go up. And that's why I made the whole motion to begin with. So, well, and and I would say I think you make a good point on not letting them
tell us what they need, but I feel like they've told us that with the 151. And I I've just gotten comfortable after looking at all these five six years of saying, "Oh, they're going to get way more than 27 28 million from what they're budgeted in and what the net income's going to be. If this was a
drastic reduction, I didn't think they would hit that 151." I'd be a little bit more timid, but I I feel like they'll hit it based off the last six years of performance. Yeah. I I don't necessarily disagree with your rationale on on any of this. My my my point is this is a process that
probably should not happen in one day. I mean, it's a process where if if we have concerns with this, they've pegged that rate and then we can perhaps have a workshop and discussion about this on where it goes back to. I just don't think it's fair to the staff at JPS who spend a lot of time on this just like
our budget folks do and and if they're saying I mean and like I said, we have a completely different system. We are budget neutral. It's but but their net revenue side. Every single one of those dollars is supposed to go towards something future in capital. It's just like if we want to build a new jail and
we want to plan for it, we want to budget $50 million next year towards, you know, building a new jail in five years or whatever we want to say. Um it's no different in my opinion there. So I I don't argue with the rationale and quite frankly I I agree that they
they probably will overperform if given the 150 number. I just think just like a private business where if you overperform the money goes back to the to the shareholders, your taxpayers are the shareholders. But I don't think JPS is set up to where
they're spending anything that's not to the benefit of the taxpayers. So every dollar that's in their coffers, they're not spending it on things that don't benefit the taxpayers one way or the other. And that's a question I had for that's a question I had for JPS. Do do y'all mind
coming up while he looks that up? Do you have an answer? I do. Under uh 1222, improper amendments are defined as a variety of things, but uh one of note here is uh an improper amendment would be one that merely makes the adoption of the amended question
equivalent to a rejection of the original motion. Uh so in other words, Okay. In other words, what? In other words, if it if it flips the main motion on its head so that it is
the complete reverse of what it was, that would potentially be an improper amendment. Okay. What's the motion I should make? If you are uh proposing a different tax rate, it would likely be a proper um
action to state it as as another motion to receive a second for that rather than an amendment for the main motion currently on the floor. So vote on this one and then if another motion is made after that, that's when you can take that up. The the body can have two competing motions on the floor. But in terms of
voting uh preference, it would go whichever motion received a second first and then uh if it would still be possible to vote on the second motion. Again, if they're not so in conflict that they they can't be resolved, you can go on to vote for the second motion at that point.
Okay. I want to have some questions for them or I want to hear your feedback. Um sure Kim or hey I I would like to address the arbitrary statement about where the tax rate came from and the tax rate was we
build the budget from the bottom up. We looked at all the initiatives how we take care of these patients and then we said what ad valorum do we need in order to make sure in the next five years we can fund the future fund and our routine capital needs. So it wasn't arbitrary. I
actually said, can I keep those dollars flat for the taxpayers? Do I need to rate do I need to come in at no new revenue or is it just keeping it flat from this year to next year for us? How did you come up with the 151 million?
I came up with 151 million. We have a five-year plan that was developed a couple years ago for the master facility plan. When we had the increase in dollars that you're aware of, I took that plan and did a projection and we were functioning that we needed a 2.1%
operating margin before to fund the plan. Now we need 2.9% operating margin moving forward. And when I look at 2.9% for the next five years and I look at investment income going down as we spend because we're in design development right now, that means we're going to start breaking down. So, we're going to
start breaking ground, excuse me, spending cash faster than we've been spending it. And I did a relatively short projection on it. We are updating this projection this fall with our strategic plan. But do you have a five-year revenue projection? Yes, it's pretty flat for us.
Do you have a five-year expense projection? Yes, and that will continue to go. Is there any reason you haven't shared that with our budget office or the commissioner's court? I have not shared it with them because one, I've not been asked for it and two, I want to take this fall to refine it since I'm new to the organization.
You've also been asked for a copy of the capital plan, the facilities plan. And I think what we understood from Friday is there is no actual capital plan, but there's lines inside the budget that are supposed to support the
capital plan or the capital plan is the blue ribbon committee's vote from 2017. So there are two plans I think we talked about on Friday. One is the routine capital plan which we have items for which I actually had shared. Is it a
plan or is it a budget item? Those are those are routine annual items that need to be taken care of in the next facility. But let me ask that question just to make sure we're clear. Is it a plan or is it a budget item? So for the master facility plan, we have a plan.
Okay. And we had asked on Friday for you to share that. Have you shared it? No, because I said on Friday I would not have it ready till this week because people were out of town on vacation. and I could not get to it. I
apologize. We will get it to you. All right. Do you have other questions? Yeah. Okay. I'd like I think Dr. Duncan wants to share or say something. I'd like to hear from her. I appreciate the conversation today. Um,
as Commissioner Ramirez outlined, we every month go through our financials with our board. It is our board that receives that. We also update them on our master facility plan and we also go into a full day retreat as to what's driving the budget for the following
year and what we will need in order to be able to meet the needs not only of the ne next fiscal year. We also have to consider the future needs and for us right now I think the elephant in the room is the master facility plan. I
think it would look very differently if we did not have that master facility plan. And so all excess and that is that we you use the word that we're not scientific. Um much like the county we spend a lot of time we start six months
after um you know our fiscal year begins to begin building the budget and understanding what those needs are. I think you heard today from Kim that this uh safety net hospitals struggle with really predicting the uncertainty of
where revenues are going to come from. I think this next year given some of the policy change at the federal and state level. We do not know and so we feel the risk is higher. Um we are to be commended. I had asked you Tim O'Hare,
is there anything Judge O'Hare as to whether there was anything wrong with the hard work that we do uh in order to be able to have the additional revenue to put into our master facility plan and our future
fund. Um so we do again you know it is a one time one place in time that we are looking at that changes throughout the year. Um but
we um worked very hard on this. Our board had opportunity to ask questions around it to feel comfortable with the budget that we presented today. Have you have you had internal discussions with your executive team about how it is that
y'all manage to continually underbudget revenue and net income? We budget revenue and net income based upon where we think we will be receiving those revenue sources. We have those kind of conversations,
Judge O'Hare, constantly. Do you have an explanation as to why you continually underbudget by the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars? I would say during COVID and if you look at prior to CO we you did not see the same kind of of net income. Um the FEMA
the enha enhanced payments during CO um resulted in the increase net margin that you um have seen. Um, again, Kim did outline of what contributed to it over the past year. Commissioner Ramirez
spoke about a lot of that really coming from increased volume and our ability to be able to um deal for a lot of those services. Uh, you know, changes in payer mix. We also um benefited from some of the investment income. We do have a lot
of days cash on hand that we can invest because of the monies that we are putting into the future fund. So those have accounted over the past several years for what you are seeing to be a higher uh net income. Do you see anything wrong with your past budgeting practices?
I do not. Does it bother you that each year it's underbudgeted when it comes to net income by about 167% over six years? It would be my desire that we could we could you know have a crystal ball and
be able to look at kind of how we are going to receive those monies um from the state from the federal uh probably about the only certain we have is the tax uh is the adverum tax right now. So we are not strategically sitting there
saying let's budget let's underbudget revenue uh over budget expenses. We do not have those kind of conversations. I I don't doubt that you don't try to trick people. I just don't have a lot of confidence in the way y'all go about budgeting. At some point when you have
year after year after year of massively more revenue than you anticipated and less expenses than you anticipated, I don't know how many years we get to just say, "Oh, we found stuff we didn't realize." We're not talking about finding $5,000 here and $2,000 here.
We're talking about 200 million, 280 million. I would say a lot of that is the increased volume. Tarant County is growing. Uh we are getting better at our revenue cycle and being able to collect that. I mean, that is the work that you
have asked of us um to be more efficient, to be more responsible with those tax dollars. So, I would argue that it is the hard work that the team does throughout the year and and as a result, I think y'all do a great job bringing in revenue. I just think you do a lousy job
of budgeting the revenue and I think the statistics bear it out over and over and over. You know, I I think in my perspective, in fairness, I mean, it's a $2 billion budget and so a hund00 million is 5% of that. And so I mean having a swing of 5% in in a revenue
projection I mean if it's a hundred million swing now 2003 $300 million and you start going but but I I don't I don't know if it's when I look at the the net patient revenue that they bring in like you said if they've missed it by 12% you know in 24 they budgeted 659
million they actually brought in 744 million that's the volumes they're talking about of private payers that increased in 20 I think that's difficult to budget for. Well, and and I think that's a testament to their excellence in delivering healthcare. So, I think that's a positive. I think that's really good. What I'm trying to figure out,
which is the reason I'm okay with 165, is if you need 151 and and we keep saying if we if we get 151, that's going to help with the future fund capital improvements uh in the loss of investment revenue. I I I trust you on all those numbers. I I think that's where we need to get. I think we can get
there based off the last six or seven years. what we've seen is overages. If we budget just a little bit different on the tax rate, I think you guys will hit that. So, that's kind of where I'm coming at from it. But, but I do think you guys deliver excellent care and uh have an excellent product. So, and I think we worked hard to bring it
under the no new net revenue this year. Um, we worked very hard on that and we feel that this is a good budget. Thank you. One thing that I haven't heard any uh discussion around is the impacts of the
cuts on the federal level to Medicaid and Medicare with the with the big bill and how that could potentially impact what not only JPS has to deal with but also the private hospitals. I I think they've built some of that
because we had that conversation when we had our budget meeting. They built some of that one big beautiful bill consequences, whatever into the budget, but you're right there there is still volatility. We we don't you can't say for sure what what it's going to be. That's fair.
All right. There is a motion on the floor where the motion to amend is not recognized. So take that off the screen. All right. So there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion before we have this vote on the tax rate ceiling? Because there's other things to do in
addition to that. Anybody have anything else before you vote? Okay. Uh, cast your votes. Okay. The vote passes 3 to two. So the tax
rate ceiling will be set at 16.5. Now we have a couple of other motions to make. What are those motions? So judge, first we need to receive and file the proposed no new revenue and voter approval tax rate for the Saran County Hospital District. Okay. Uh you want to take that one first or
the other? Yeah, I move move to receive and file that document. Second. All right. Any discussion there? All right. Please cast your vote. I got one. Okay.
Are you a nay? You're a nay on the accepting their document. Oh, okay. I'm talking want the document. Is is your is your vote a y is yay. Okay. All right. So that part passes unanimously. What's the other part?
Finally, judge, uh, with the, uh, proposed tax rate that was just set, we would ask that the court approved posting of a notice of meeting to vote on that tax rate. So approved. Second or so motioned, I should say. Second.
We have a second. Any discussion? All right. Please cast your vote. Jesus. Okay, that one passes unanimously. All right, now we are going to It is 217. We're going to take a break until What
do y'all think? It's 217. 2:28. What do you till 2:28? We're in recess until 2:28. Uh, you go. That's too much fun. Okay, we live. I kind of hated to interrupt that. Um, next up is
consideration to create Tarant County Freshwater Supply District number three and appointment of temporary supervisors to the board of the district. Uh, yes. Thank you, judge. Uh, so uh, as you may recall earlier this year, we formally created a freshwater supply
district number two with PMBB. That has been successful. The development agreement has been approved by the city of Fort Worth and they are working through that. this request. Um, similar to PMBB, this development is directly east of the previous freshwater supply
district. Also, um, along the Bonds Ranch corridor. So, um, the request today, as the judge stated, is to create freshwater supply district number three and appoint those temporary supervisors. I would move to create the Taran County Freshwater Supply District number three
and appoint Scott WAC, Chris Jameson, Michael Bradley, Camille Booth, and Remington Garfield as the temporary supervisors of the district. Second. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second on this item. Any discussion?
I I guess I I'll say as a point of discussion, um this is a another piece of the progress that we're making on the bond ranch corridor. I mean, this is going to be an area that has a greater population than the city of Alo uh in the next 5 or 10 years. And so, the city
of Fort Worth has been a great partner in making sure that as these pieces annex that they do it responsibly, that they limit density, and most importantly, that the infrastructure is built on these projects before the rooftops are built. So, uh, I think this has been very creative. Um, and and this
is just one more continuation of that. It's going to be a good project. Thank you. Anybody have anything else? Okay. Uh, please cast your votes. Being softer. Okay, you're in. Okay. Passes unanimously. What do you got?
Brings us to consideration of out of state travel requests. Anybody want to make a motion on that? Move approval. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion there?
All right, please cast your vote. There it is. soft, beat it, whatever it is, it doesn't none of them work. All right. Uh, passes unanimously. Next, we go to purchasing. Anybody have any questions on one
through 10? No. Move for approval. Second. Is a motion to approve 1 through 10? That's the motion. Okay. Is that your second? Okay. Motion from
Commissioner Krauss, second from Commissioner Simmons. Any discussion? All right. Please cast your vote. Is everybody in? All right. Passes unanimously. Now we go to item
11, permission to take bids, RFPs. Move approval. All right, we have a motion to approve that item. Second. All right, any discussion there? All right, we have a motion by Commissioner Miles, second by
Commissioner Ramirez. Please cast your vote. There it is. All right. Passes unanimously. Now we come to commissioner precinct 2. Number one is consideration to approve proposed early
voting polling locations for the November 4, 2025 joint special and constitutional amendment election. Move approval. What are we What are we approving? So, I'm not gonna take
I'm not going to take up a lot of your time because people who matter have already told us what we need to know. We've heard from folks, real people who have come down here and told us straight these are are not political games. To
them, this is their life. This is their right. uh constituents have come before us and expressed how valuable their vote and accessibility to the ballot are to them. We should let them lead us
in this decision. This is their access to the ballot box. This is their right to vote. And what's on the agenda today is um I want to add some early uh
voting uh vote centers. And so I move that we add from uh in precinct one. Hang on just one second. We already have some motion to approve,
right? Didn't you make a motion to approve? All right. So, are you now reading to us the things that he made a motion to approve? Yes. Okay. The uh and I'll share these with with you all. Um,
uh, the Southside Community Center in precinct one, Worth Heights Community Center in precinct one, Everman Civic Center in precinct one. In precinct
three, it makes sense to add Brookside Convention Center. And in precinct 4, it makes sense to add Halum City Senior Citizen. I'm also recommending North
Side Community Center and Diamond Hill Jarvis Library. Adding these locations that were locations in 2023 will provide necessary sites to the voters in the voting deserts created by the proposed list we
saw last court. Um, I've already had my staff clear this list with our elections administrator who agreed that these locations are in compliance with all election laws. The site owners have not said that the
facilities cannot be used. The sites are regular locations used in oddyear elections and the facilities have no issues making them unsuitable for a site. According to uh Miss Lewick, the
elections administrator, there are no issues with these locations. So, this is early voting. Yes. So, you two apparently have had this list for a while since you made a motion to vote on it and there I saw no list.
Um, did you have this list? No. No. Okay. I didn't ask I didn't have this either. Okay. You're just moving to approve not knowing what was on the list. Okay. Okay. So, I think you made a motion to approve. I guess it's this
list of these one, two, three, four, five, six, seven places. And did you second? Yes. Second. I did. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion before we bring up speakers? All right.
We have I don't know how many, but it's a lot. So, what's the time limit on this? We have 14 speakers. So, if it's if it's 14, I thought it was 30 some. If there's uh some comments that were comment only and not speakers. So, because it's below 20, it is still uh
three. So, we have 14 people on this list. Is that right? Of speakers by my count. All right. First speaker, Rohilio Meguero. Next one is Bishop Kirkland. Following Bishop Kirkland is Janet Dominguez.
I'm going to be super brief. Um I'm I'm in favor of adding these voting locations. I think um I was born in Taran County. I was born right on the corner of Rosedale and stop six in route
to the hospital. I was town number eight. I have never seen my village as galvanized as they are about voting. We're excited about voting and I think we're about to have a lot of first time
voters and that's not due to you Mr. Miles. That's not due to you, Miss Simmons. That is due to you commit uh Judge O'Hare. Thank you. All right. Next up, Janet Dominguez, Ken Shimamoto.
Following Mr. Shimamoto, Nicholas Tersiaak. Good afternoon, judge, commissioners. Good afternoon. Um, the closing of polling locations under the pretext of cost savings is
really a transparent ploy to reduce or lock down voting at historic low levels. At the very moment when voter anger over the racial gerrymander of this court and
of our state's congressional delegation threatens or promises to make those numbers higher. Now, Commissioner Miles has very eloquently stated that this is not
an issue of cost. It is an issue of access. A polling place is not a branch of some store that you close down because business is slow.
Rather, the elections office is a service providing agency through which citizens exercise the right that defines us as adult Americans.
You do not have the right to usurp that or restrict it. I would personally advocate for the reopening of all the 2023 early voting locations, but as a
minimum, I think that this measure should pass. Thank you. Next is Nicholas Tziac. Following Mr. Turziac Turz, that's
close. Suzanne with no last name. Members of the court, I rise today in support of this item and the following item as well. The people of this county have no issue. They are more keenly invested in than their ability and accessibility and the right to the vote. A year ago, it was unaccept unacceptable
to close down polling locations. It is still unacceptable here today. To close 100 locations would be tantamount to voter suppression. That is simply not what this republic is supposed to be about. And uh furthermore, um with the closing of these locations, this county
more and more is becoming a tale of two counties. Uh for a student like myself who went to TCC, I was able to vote at my TCC location. I live up the block from the North Park YMCA, vote there very easily. Uh I believe uh uh the
Golden Triangle Library was open in 2023 as well, very easy. I could go to Keller. If I want to go to South Lake, I can do that. Uh what about the student who lives in Everman Ko? Uh A20 in the inner 820 loop. They don't have that political reality. They don't have the
options to go, you know, if the line at school is long. Oh, I'll just go on the way home or oh, I'll just go to the Y or I'll go to the library. They don't have that option under the maps that were approved at the last meeting. That's unacceptable. Uh this county can do better. Um I I hope the commit or the
court moves to uh approve this item today and offer more polling locations to people of this county. Thank you. Thank you. Um when somebody submits their name, do we have the ability to fill out their last name or is it the form comes in and
that's it? We don't know who they are after that. Yeah. Why don't we do that? Okay. Okay. Well, I'm Suzanne. My last name's Mave. Okay. And it was a new system and maybe I left it off. Sorry.
It's all good. But I'm here to ask you to add the Southside Community Center back as an early voting site. Um it's centrally located. Uh it's in the inner city and it's accessible to the southside and the
east side neighborhoods. The other thing, it's really close to the medical district and we've got lots and lots of people that do shift work and it makes it easier for them to vote. And I think we need more locations and not
fewer. And you shouldn't use excuses like lowering taxes and balancing the budget to suppress the vote. You should budget more money for elections. It's one of the most important things we can do as a citizen. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh Nan Terry. Okay. Brian Turk. Following Mr. Turk is Niha Vera. Thank you everyone on the commission. I rise today to voice my opposition to the elimination of many early and same
day polling places that will disproportionately disenfranchise the voters in majority minority areas within our communities in Tarant County. It was wrong during the civil rights era
and it's wrong again today. I urge this commissioner's court to vote yes on the amendment to reinstate critical polling locations for early and same day voting and locations. Um there's nothing more
important, nothing more American. We need to do more have people represented. Thank you. Thank you. Is Niha Vera here? All right. How about Libertad Heredia?
Then Robert Van, I am here in support of Commissioner Simmons um proposal to add back some of the polling locations that have been taken away from the community, but I oppose the fact that we have to come in
at 1000 a.m. on a Wednesday and spend um I guess it's been like almost five hours waiting to be able to speak on these things and get back our polling locations peace meal like this. It's uh it's disrespectful to the democratic process. It's disrespectful to the
community members of the way this was done um weeks ago. The way this was even brought up um the process in which these phone locations were taken away to begin with. Um, I think that they should all be reinstated. Really, I don't think we
should just be limiting ourselves to these. Um, I think seven and then like 37 others for early voting. Um, I think if possible, there should be a town hall held on this issue at each of your precincts so people can come at a reasonable time, people, you know, who
can't make it because of school or whatever, and discuss how they are more personally impacted by each individual location. But again, we shouldn't be doing this in a way that's so inaccessible in in a manner that so obviously aims to make voting more
difficult when low voter turnout really doesn't make sense as an excuse for limiting access to the ballot box. Uh democracy democracy is not a business and I'd like to speak to the Latino community.
important. Anyway, thank you All right, Mr. Van. Following Mr. Van is Claudie Bubby, but well, I'm just reading how it's written. Thank you. I will make this very brief.
I I agree with the previous speakers and I support this uh resolution. Thank you. All right, Claudy Busby. Is it okay? Following Mr. Busby is Michael Bell. And
is there one more below Michael Bell or am I missing something? Michael. Michael Colin is the last one. Okay. I'm here to support the amendment of seven the seven uh p early voting polling locations. Um each time you tell
me you here to save money. I did some studying how much it would cost them to run just those seven polling locations. That's $84,000. And I don't think that's going to hurt the Alaran County million dollar population whatsoever to add those polling places back in there if we don't add all the rest of continuous in
there. And that's all I want to say is that we should add those polling places back in there. And then the next thing is that I've been working the same polling place I guess for the last 14 15 years and people still come in there that location which haven't changed confused on where they supposed to go vote at and the area I'm dealing with is
not people of color. So your people having problems finding people. So you need to think that also because you haven't you impacting everybody by closing these locations. People going to be more confused on where they got to go vote and it's going to cause conflict and problems. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, Michael Bell and then Michael Colin. I'm speaking in favor speaking in favor of this proposal to reinstate these early uh voting polling places. Thank you, Commissioner Simmons, for
re for visiting this on the agenda. A couple of decades ago, a Fort Worth ISD superintendent told me he could stand before the board of trustees for two and a half hours, talk without saying a single thing worth hearing, and still
walk out with board members convinced their questions had been answered and their concerns addressed. That same empty mentality has set up residents in this commissioner's court. Concerned citizens come here. Mothers,
fathers, grandmothers, veterans, workers. Given only one to three minutes to lift up the truth. We point out the discrepancies, the injustices, the racial targeting built into too many of the wrongheaded, bigoted policies and
proposals that come out of this chamber. Yet time and time again we hear in response what we hear in response is nothing but hollow words that are full of sound and fury signifying nothing disparaging words dismissive seething
with contempt. Like that superintendent, prior to your voting, uh you your responses amount to no more than double speak, and no one with eyes to see or ears to hear leave this place believing their concerns have been addressed. Now,
here you are moving to close moving to close over 100 voting locations in this county and within the 35 mile radius of Highway 820 where so many of our seniors live, where so many working families make their homes, where the part of the
black and brown Tarant County beats, you leave only three three. Tell me, how do you expect our elders leaning on canes, pushing walkers, riding wheelchairs to cross sprawling city, cross a a
sprawling city with a suspect transportation system? How do you expect them to endure bus after bus, connection after connection just to cast a vote? You have turned a constitutional right into an obstacle course. And while
you're slamming the doors of polling places, you're shutting down basic ass access to basic human needs. This is not good governance. This is targeted suppression. This is cruelty dressed up in policy. And we see it for what it is.
What happened to each of you? I don't know what happened to each of you that you're okay with denigrating, berating, and bullying this county citizens who are courageous enough to come to this court and tell the truth. Thank you.
All right. Now we have Michael Colin. My comment on the previous speaker. That's all hogwash. Uh I am uh I am against uh add adding the polling locations back in and I am a
a proponent of of managing the the polling uh locations in a fiscal fiscally conservative way. uh saving the taxpayer dollars and and money that but
and at the same time we're providing polling locations in key areas where people can access it. Uh I've uh I don't have any I'm a I'm an elder person. I may not look it, but I'm an elder person
and I don't have no problem getting out to to a polling place and voting because every every time there's a there the vote is is is uh due, it's time to vote. I'm out there, right? I I've been at
three different locations in in my area, Mr. Miles. It's changed uh once or once or twice uh the areas that I vote at. that's changed a couple of times that had no problem getting there. Right. All
this is is Dem Democratic hoola just, you know, making a scene and and and crying and and and nashing your teeth and whailing and and uh you know, you're
a racist and yada yada yada. And it's not true. And we talk about black and brown people. Well, you missed out on this one. Black, brown, and white. We all live together, you know, and last
time I uh uh looked down my street, you know. That's uh you know, we're a complete mix. I don't think I I haven't lived in color lines since I since I left left my home when I was uh 19 years
old back in back in the the in 79. Right. I've live I've lived in mixed communities the whole time. Right. I've worked with MC in mixed uh uh uh uh company for 42 years, right? So, I don't
know what you all are talking about. You know, my next door neighbor, he may be a hard Democrat, but we we talk and and he don't have no problem going to going to the poll either. Matter of fact, I I I uh I uh I met him when when you were at
the poll when I met you the first time. We didn't really meet. I just laid eyes on you and uh you know I said, "Oh, that's that's Mr. Miles over there." But anyway, uh keep doing what you're doing, Mr.
Judge O'Hare, Mr. Krauss, Mr. Ramirez. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, that is the last speaker, right? There's the last one. Okay. All right. We have a motion and a second to propo to um approve, excuse me, these
1 2 3 4 5 six seven early voting locations addition. Uh any comments or discussion? I I do have a question. Um Chandler, I guess, or Mr. Credville, what was the
legal basis for cutting the number of sites? Was there a legal basis for cutting the sites given the requirements uh for a certain number? Since that's legal, I'm going to defer to Mark under the election code. I'm not aware of a legal basis for the
specific number of sites that were approved at the last commissioner's court meeting. uh under chapter 43 of the election code, it is the commissioner's court responsibility to approve those sites, but it doesn't specify a particular number. Okay? And please note, there are not any
precinct 2 sites on this list. Um this is uh feedback I've gotten from the community um and from reaching out to comm community members. So, uh, just
wanted to point that out. Um, all right. All right. The votes are in. Motion fails two to three. Next item. Quiet. Next item is under commissioner precinct 2 consideration to approve proposed election day polling
locations for the November 4th, 2025 joint special and constitutional amendment election. Thank you. Last court, uh, we were able to add nine more early voting locations,
but with the very size of the election day polling location list and a crunch and lack of preparation from elections, we didn't even get to touch election day. Election day itself is sacred and for a
lot of folks, it's the only day they can get to the polls. So, we need to make sure everyone has access to a polling location in their area. So, with that, I also move to add and u I've passed out
uh the list to everybody. Um the following I think there are 37 Yeah, that's my count sites back. Um, Victory Temple Worship Center, Janet
Brock Elementary, uh, Eastern Hills High, Louise Cabinet Academy of Young Scholars, Christ Cathedral Church, Glenn Harmon Elementary School, Agape Metropolitan Community Church, Carter Park
Elementary, Harland Bill Elementary, Sagamore Hill Elementary, and let's see, WM Green Elementary, Beth Eden Missionary, Baptist Church, AM Pate Elementary, Richard J. Wilson Elementary, Paul
Lawrence Dumbar High School, D. McCrae Elementary, and Hubard Heights Elementary School. All in precinct one. Precinct 2 T um Ferguson Education Center, Floyd Gun Junior High,
Central YMCA, Alpha International 7th Day Adventist Church, Arlington ISD, Dan Diaper Career and Technical Center, Elks Lodge 2114, Grace Fellowship Baptist Church, Merl
Thornon Elementary, Goodman Elementary, Blandon Elementary, U Uh that's precinct 2. Um precinct three, South Hulis Elementary, Calvary Baptist Church. And in precinct 4,
MG Ellis Elementary, Riverside Applied Learning, Rafino Mendoza, Senior Elementary School, Eglacius Palabra Palabra, de Ammoir, uh Greenway Church, Moose Lodge, 1889.
Halum City and the last one, West Birdville Elementary, also in precinct 4. So, I move to add those to our list of election day polling locations. And this list has locations that work for driveability
and public transit and had higher turnout on election day. They were all election day polling places in 2023. That was when we had the last constitutional amendment election. And
uh they will do the same thing that my early vote locations would do. They'll fill those voting deserts and make sure our people don't have to walk miles or take three buses just to cast a ballot. My staff uh again has worked with the
elections administrator on this list, too. It's been vetted and it's ready to go. Um, this is not about politics. It's about doing the right thing for the people who put us here. Um, and and you know, let me say, I've listened last
time to the argument that, you know, they were low voter turnout locations. And I I thought about some of these are were considered low voter turnout locations. I thought about that. And you think about um a fire station.
There could be a fire station that doesn't have a fire, maybe some calls for service. Um, do we shut those down because they hadn't responded to a fire in two or three days? No. So, um,
that's my motion. I move approval of this list uh for election day vote centers. We just did not spend any time on election day last meeting. Uh which goes to what I always
preach about is process, process, professionalism, data. Uh we've got to have it to make decisions. Um so that's my motion. Does having the data to make decisions?
Does that include the three of us seeing your proposed locations before we get here and you hand it to We just figured these out last night. But yes, just kind of like your uh Matt came up here with that that was thing that he did, but Okay. but there's your motion. Did you second?
I did. Okay. Um any discussion before we bring up the speakers? All right. First is Ann Zeta, then Dr. Valencia Edner. Good afternoon. I showed up to speak in opposition to the reduction in polling
places. So, I felt it was important to show up in support of this proposal to add back polling locations. And I have a couple of stories to share with you that I think are important. Going all the way back to the day I was born. It happened to be on an election day. My mother went to her doctor. Her doctor asked her if
she had voted. She had not. He told her she had time. She went to vote. Voting has been something very important to me and my family our entire lives. Voting as a family is something that we have done with our own children in our neighborhood, walking to a polling location at the end of the street. And
when I myself experienced being on a ballot, working hard to get voters out to vote and hanging out at voting locations for hours and hours on in early voting and on election day, it became very clear that there are communities around these polling
locations that gather and vote on a regular basis. and to the comments about confusion that occurs when these things are changed year to year and someone goes to a polling location and is told that that's no longer a polling location. These are all things that
reduce voter participation and it is on all of us people who have been in elected office people who are currently in elected office to encourage more voting not discourage voting. So I would ask all of you to consider this very carefully. I was for the one that you
already declined to vote in favor of. Um, we're going to continue to show up and share with you what we would like to see you do. I'm appreciative of three minutes. I wish I had more structured my comments. I was expecting the time to get cut, but I'm here again today. Many
of us are going to continue to show up and express our desire that you continue to represent all of the people and not just some of the people. Even though we know that it'll come down to a 3 to2 vote every time, we will continue to show up and explain to you why we think that you
should represent us differently and better. And I would appreciate further conversation with my new representative um after the changes to the maps where I used to be represented by Commissioner Miles. That's who I voted for. I will get a ch chance to vote again more
quickly than I anticipated as Commissioner Romeirez is my new representative. I appreciate the questions that you asked today. I was disappointed in the vote that you transpired after you asked those hard questions, but please consider adding these locations back in on on election
day so that people have all of the opportunities to vote at these locations that they have grown accustomed to having available to them. Thank you. Following Dr. Edner. We have Sarah Height. He hat. Good day. Thank you, Commissioner
Simmons, Commissioner Miles for being commissioners of the people and for reviewing this horrible cut in precincts and adding some of the needed places. I agree with this motion. See,
the lack of transparency and truth in the original election revision undermines the very foundation of democracy. The closing of precincts based on arbitrary readings of past elections dishonors citizens and forces many particular communities of color to
travel unreasonable distances to vote. This is not efficiency. This is exclusion. It is an intentional inconvenience meant to make voters feel unimportant, to silence their voices, and to manipulate outcomes through racially and
politically polarizing postures. These efforts are not about fairness or integrity. They're about nostalgia. For a time when America was only great because black and brown voices were expected to know their place and unable to vote. This is pole tax by body count.
But let's be clear, we are not naive. We are not without a fight. Every day, those who fear a truly representative democracy wake up looking for new ways to suppress. And every day, we the people rise with renewed determination,
to liberate, to organize, and to protect the sacred right to vote. Lies may shape a partisan agenda, but truth and the power of the people will always have the last word. We won't give up or back down. This is a marathon, not a sprint,
and we're here for it. Sarah Height, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, maybe not. Uh Brian Turk, Libertad Heredia, following Miss Heredia's Robert Van.
It seems that no matter how many people show up in support of our democracy, the vote turns out the same even without any discussion. whereas you guys are able to spend hours upon hours deliberating and justifying cutting services to people refugees.
And I guess there's nothing much to say except to echo what the other speakers have said. We the Latino community will be organizing and we will be showing up even at these greatly lessened polling locations to get the people responsible
out. You guys can't win fairly. So you're cheating. That's I mean it's not okay, but it's never worked. That's why you have to work so hard to try to make it happen. That's not right. That's not the way justice works. That's not the way truth works. And that's going to
always work against you. I would be embarrassed to be um maybe like the only Latino sitting up there doing this to members of my own community. Um that's something else I have to say. And one last
comment. Um I would just like to ask Judge O'Hare to be respectful to my commissioner because I have been here twice now and in both instances and other instances I've seen just emotional behavior that's been not very polite to
her and she deserves better. She does a great job and again I want to commend her and I want to support this motion like everyone else here and commend her for doing the right thing and the community stands behind her. Thank you. Following Mr. Van, we have Vera Anne
Roberts. Well, once again, I'm going to make this very short. I very much support what the previous speakers have said. I'll have a couple more comments to make in the public uh comment section, but thank you, Commissioner Simmons, and I do uh very much support your additions that
you you're trying to make here to help maybe make up a little bit of what's what's been cut. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Is Miss Roberts present? Miss Roberts. Okay. And then following Miss Roberts is Kennedy Jackson. Good afternoon.
Hi, first commissioner. Thank you so much for all you tried to do for our community. This is our community, not just some people's community. Yes. I combined my response earlier just in case I wasn't called to speak on this issue. But I'd like to say something
about what was said earlier before I came became the liaison for Taran County Democratic Party finding election judges. I was an election judge for Secretary of State. This court votes on appointing appointing judges and approving locations separately. Unlike
you, I believe polling locations and judges go hand in hand. consideration could should be given to them as a unit. I I understand the need to combine locations with historic low turnout, but the location should be in a close
proximity, not in a totally different area where voters can't get to them. Sufficient locations throughout the county should be available to all Tarant County voters, no matter their partisansship to ensure all voters have a place where they can vote and feel
safe doing so. Judges and alternate judges are needed at those locations to ensure that the voters are able to vote their conscience without being in an unfamiliar environment where they feel intimidated.
To the gentleman that spoke earlier, I'm a senior, too, and your shoes don't fit my feet, nor the feet of the people that are affected by removing these sites. Our votes matter. Congratulating members of this court to continue stomping on
the heads of voters just because they can is wrong. Blessings. Thank you. All right, it's Kennedy Jackson. There we go. Good afternoon, judge and commissioners. Hi. My name is Kennedy Jackson. Uh, and I
serve as the district director for Councilwoman Dr. Mia Hall, who represents Fort Worth 6th District. In our district, the proposed closures would affect Mary Harris Elementary, Genesis United Methodist Church, Trinity Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and Meadow Creek Elementary School.
Councilwoman Hall recognizes the financial and logistical challenges that come with maintaining polling sites, including rising costs and low turnout at some locations. However, she firmly believes that access to the ballot box must remain the priority.
Any consolidation should be strategic, transparent, and developed with input from the communities most impacted so that no resident faces new barriers to voting. I respectfully urge this court to find a balance between efficiency and
accessibility, making sure that everyone in our community has the ability to participate in our democracy. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second to approve this list. Um,
any discussion? All right, seeing none, please cast your vote. All right, motion fails two to three. Uh, brings us to I guess the second item listed under briefing since we've already done the first and I believe the
second one is operational impact of Tarant County redistricting. Is that correct? Okay. Good afternoon again, judge and commissioners. Just a couple of quick updates. Uh we're down to really two items left related to uh operational
impact of redistricting. Uh the first item uh relates to the budget. Uh we certainly have finalized recommendations coming to the court very soon. I believe there we are putting the finishing touches on that and the court will be voting on any of those changes uh related to the budget at the September 16th meeting of the commissioner's
court. uh related to the elections portal, which is kind of the big piece that we've been waiting on from elections that would have uh the new uh ability for citizens to go in and understand where their new uh voting precinct is. My understanding is that that portal is in the final stages of
testing with it. Uh and hopefully that will be released soon. That's the update I have for today. Um, so last time you mentioned, um, I keep talking about marketing and letting the public know this has
happened. Um, not the public that pays attention to Commissioner's Court, but, you know, people driving up and down the street. Uh, and you mentioned that we would be using the usual channels, website, social media for outreach. Do
y'all happen to have metrics on how many residents uh that we typically reach using those platforms? I didn't bring that information today, but I'm happy to get with communications to get the stats for you.
Okay. And then and the other piece of information, how will we reach those people that don't use those platforms? Yes, ma'am. Understood. I believe Clint has some kind of a mailing or something as well, but I need to triple check that with him. But I will get that information and we'll get it to the court. Okay. Thank you.
Any other questions or comments? All right. We have several speakers. First speaker is Bishop Kirkland, then Valencia Edner. for this. Um, one thing I want to say when I was looking at the agenda and what caught my
attention was impact and redistricting. I think what you people did with redistricing was wrong. I think what Texas just did as a state is wrong. But guess what? I think what California is doing is wrong, too. I'm not Democrat.
I'm not Republican. I think it's wrong if your agenda. And if what you're believing and what you are pushing towards the consciousness of our nation is so right, why so many games?
I heard you say, Judge O'Hara, if the Democrats were in charge, they'd be doing the same thing. Is that the proper justification? Is that why we do things in this room? If the Republicans in the big beautiful
plan or whatever he calls it is so right for our country and if red is so great for Taran County, why do you have to push it the way you're pushing it? Let people go vote.
black people decide if what the impact of what this is causing my village is insurmountable. Shame on your people. All the Bible scriptures you read in here, all the
praying you do. But there's a book that I live by that said, "What you do unto the least of these, you have done it also unto me." Thank you, Jesus. Following Dr. Edner, we have Janet Matter. Dr. Edner left. All right. Janet Matter.
Following Miss Matter is Yoki. New microphone. Hello. My name is Janet Matter. I'm the president of the League of Women Voters of Tarant County. It's been three months since the court narrowly approved redistricting
aka gerrymandering of the commissioner's precincts even though the majority of your constituents voiced opposition. Now we are asked about the impact of this rushed act.
We can't know all the impacts if your constituents have not been informed of the act itself. This change was made effective immediately. But where are the maps? Where is the
notification to the residents of Tarant County? Is it good governance to implement a major change without having performed a financial assessment first? Is it good governance to not have a
communication plan to inform voters of this change? Sending out the required new voter registration cards in January with the new precincts is not a communication plan. And that's
far too late as the deadline to file as a candidate in the primary is December 8th. I am here not just to identify these issues but also to provide a solution.
The solution to the impacts will fix the financial concerns, remedy the communication plan, and even improve public relations for this court. Please resend the June 3rd court
decision that approved the new precinct maps and go back to the prior commissioner precinct. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a Yoki here? All right. How about Michael Colin?
Mr. Colin, pass. Okay. All right. I think Okay, that looks like that's it on that one. Uh, next up is briefing on Tarant County Sheriff's Office incidents in the jail.
Good afternoon again, commissioners. Uh we did request the uh jud excuse me the judge the sheriff uh or one of his staff u be present today to provide a briefing. Uh instead this morning I received an email from the sheriff uh which I was asked to read to the court.
So this is dated September 3rd, 2025 to Tarant County Judge Tim O'Hare and honorable members of the commissioner's court. The precinct 2 commissioner continues to ask for public briefings on in custody deaths at the Tarant County Jail. We have and will continue to be very
transparent with these cases in terms of what information we are able to release. We are one of the few agencies that issues a press release on in custody deaths. The practice places us as one of a limited number of agencies to
proactively inform the public on such sensitive matters. Should any of the public, the media or elected officials, including the precinct 2 commissioner, seek further information, they are encouraged to submit a formal records request through the Freedom of Information Act. Furthermore, the
repeated lack of civility displayed by the precinct 2 commissioner towards Tarant County staff is both hostile and unprofessional. I will not subject anyone from this office to that type of inappropriate treatment. Therefore, no one from this agency will participate in briefings requested by the precinctive
commissioner before this court. We appreciate your understanding and remain available to collaborate in a respectful and constructive manner related to other issues. At your service, Bill Wburn, Sheriff. So, to the absent sheriff, hi.
So, the brief the briefings aren't for the precinct 2 commissioner. The the briefings are for the public. The briefings are because you were elected to serve everybody.
You should not choose who you update on our jail population, on video registration, on jail deaths,
anything. The public tells us, the 69 elected officials in this county, what they want, and we do our best to give it to them.
If you don't want your staff to come down here and and take questions, that's your responsibility in the first place. I didn't ask you to send staff. I ask you to bring to to come down here.
Um, and where are you? Big tall guy, big hat, guns, everything. And you can't take questions from the citizenry, your constituents.
We need to be updated on these jail deaths. Nobody's asking you for specifics. two weeks after a jail death. You give us what you got and then you keep coming and informing and updating the public
because we need to know what keeps happening in this jail. You ought to be you ought to want to be transparent. So you stay over there wherever you are hiding
hiding from your constituents and a 125 pound commissioner. You ought to be able to answer questions. I don't know which camera to look into. Um it's just ridiculous. It's
called responsibility. It's called professionalism. If you didn't do anything wrong, come say it. Um, it is the responsibility of all elected officials to report out to the people
that elected us. It's it's just real simple. It's not deep. Um, you don't have to send your staff. It's what you were elected to do. All right. Anybody have anything else? All right. Bishop Kirkland is our first
speaker. Following Bishop Kirkland is Katherine Godby. be real brief. I might start packing a lunch. Um when when you look or if you Google the most in custody deaths
nationally, Los Angeles County, which is far far larger than Taran County and Tarant County, the two are running neck andneck and in
custody deaths. When are we going to admit we have a problem? I would not be committing political suicide for someone that does not come in this chamber to
catch the heat that you guys catch. When does an elected official send a message say I ain't coming cuz I don't like Commissioner S. And that's all right with everybody in this room. The questions that you're asking
are the questions we want to ask. How are people dying? What happened to Marine Anthony Johnson Jr.? What happened to Chassity Bonnet? What happened to Mr. Roberts? The list
goes on and on, on and on, on and on. Something is terribly wrong in our jail. Quit lying to the people. I can't call everyone a liar, but quit lying to the people. There is something
you can do about an elected official. There is something that you can do as a body. You know the oracles. You you know what section of bond it in. I don't care how many awards this judge gets and we get in here and clap and he
got this award and these people find him so great. Why do we have so many problem? Because none of those people children are dying in this jail. Chastity Bonner's mom is a member of our local church. I see her cry every
Sunday. She calls me in the middle of the night because her daughter died in that jail. And this sheriff won't even come talk to her. He won't come face us.
We We just respectfully want to get some answers. We don't want to rake him across the coal of fire. Innocent have nothing to hide. Guilty means always.
Miss Godby, is she present? Nan Terry, the following. Miss Terry is, I'm assuming, Joe Palmer. The sheriff's office press release uh had a 63-year-old man died in the Taran
County jail. Um but KR reported his name as Steven Whitley. Um WFAA reported Whitley's family says he was diabetic and had called from jail worried about being housed with a
cellmate who had COVID 19. It's way too early to have autopsy reports. We won't know specifics for a while, but there's information that that we could get. Like when the sheriff's press release does say the inmate was
initially arrested by the drug enforcement agency DEA on July 11th, 2025 for manufacturing delivering of a controlled substance 4 g to 200 grams and had additional federal US Marshall probation violations related to D. But
when I read that press release, I wondered, was Mr. Whitley awaiting US Marshall to take custody? He died over a month after he was arrested in our jail. And if we were waiting for the US Marshalss to pick him
up, were the sheriff's office on the phone with the US Marshalss asking, "Can you pick him up sooner?" And if he's if we have CO in the jail, are are we instituting in COVID recommendations to reduce the spread? Do we even have
recommendations? Remember, it's just not detainees that died of COVID back in 2020. We had Tarant County detention officers who died of COVID. Um, two deaths in one month. And and if you look at the public
jail dashboard, we're up to 4,400 prisoners. We're inching up there. Um, how frequently is Texas Department of Corrections picking up his prisoners? Um, how quickly is US Marshalss or ICE picking up their prisoners or detainees?
How many vacancies in the detention officer court does Taran County Sheriff's Department have? How many hours of overtime are we averaging each week? And I didn't look, Helen, but how many hours of overtime are you budgeting in the the budget? I looked last year,
but I didn't look this year. Um, I wish somebody would tell us because this is going to get expensive. If we have to do COVID protocols like we did last year, uh, or two years ago or three years ago or five years ago, you know, it all runs together, but there are things that we
could we could ask for, the things that the commissioner's court should want to know. Um, two deaths in a month, that's more than we were doing really good and now we're two deaths in a month. Thanks, Mr.
Thank you. Joe Palmer, Republican voter. I'm really have a lot of contempt for the sheriff's remarks. I'm surprised not only is he here, not here, he didn't send anybody here from the sheriff's department. Um the man's name, Nan mentioned his name. I would think that that basic detail would be included in
the report. Uh the eighth psalm was referenced in the prayer this morning to start the meeting. First John, first chapter, fourth verse. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. I think that part of telling the truth
is disclosure of all the truth that you're aware of. Anytime somebody dies in the jail, as long as I've been paying attention, the information that comes out first is the DEA's after them, drugs, checkered past. And I hate that part of myself that I can feel looking
and searching through the news to find out what this person's stature was. What did they do such that I don't care as much about their life, right, when they the fact that they died? That is a real thing that happens. And that if it's not the real thing, then why did they put that information out there?
Didn't include his name in the report. Uh when I came at the January meeting following my friend's death in custody, Mason Yansy, I had said that on average somebody has died in the Tarant County jail custody
once every 42 days since Bill Waburn took office. Since that meeting, we've had five deaths. And if you count from that meeting, 43 deaths per day. from Mason's death. It's 47 deaths
on average. 47 a death every 47 days. Excuse me. You know, I don't like coming in here. I don't like knocking heads with these people. Um I don't know what to do. It's a weird meeting. You know, we're opposite sides
on the budget. We're on the same side on jails. Um it feels insignificant. It feels like these families are being ignored. These are the names of the people that have died since Mason died. Steven Wedley, 63 years old. Richard
Gowski, 61. August 6th, he died at JPS. You want to give them lots and lots of money, though. No answers, no money. No answers for the deaths, you don't get any money. How's that? Liza Elizabeth Gadlin, blood clot as a
result of hypertension. Charles Steven Johnson died by suicide. Do something. Thank you. All right. We now move to public comments.
And first up is Bishop Kirkland. Following Mr. Kirkland is Charles Weedmire. We on record first to let you know living next to a negro, one cannot gain the negro experience.
It's so sad when our county judge openly openly votes down a commission's request for funding based on her voting down his item in the past. Just petty. Sir, you are digging your own political grave.
Keep going in the direction that you're going and you will be relieved. We will be relieved of your presence and your pettiness. Listen, I do not know how this body feel about people coming to me and calling me
anonymously to cry out. Why don't your own people trust the leadership in this room that if they have a problem that they should be able to come to one of you? And when I ask them, they tell me because they're in fear of their jobs.
It is that same intimidation that the president of the United States use that the people of this county, the employees are saying they feel that same kind of pressure. I do ministry work,
missionary work in Nigeria, one of the richest and most populous country in Africa. But some of the poorest people, reason being greed and fiscal irresponsibility, leadership, and total disregard for the
poor, the people that need you guys to fight for them because of your partisan politics and your personal biases. You sit here arguing with one another and people are dying in our county. The
gentleman asked earlier was talking or the gentleman earlier was talking about how people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Well, maybe you haven't quite right, Chad. Because the truth of the matter is
all of us may need some help sometimes. I've never asked my government for wig, for section 8, for any of its handouts. But I paid the price as a United States Marine that if I need help, it will be
my government's time to help me. I've seen the two of you desent and disagree. I am waiting for the moment that the three of you can be independent thinkers. Most of the discussion today
was political grandstanding for a platform for reelection. Commissioners Krauss, can you please quit jocking the judge? I don't see Mr. Weedmire.
Uh, I don't see Dr. Edner. Suzanne Mabe, I'm assum assuming that's her. Oh, I I know it's not on the agenda, but one of my real serious concerns is elections. And so I'm um I wanted to
speak about the need to maintain mail and voting and the electronic uh voting machines because and I know it's not on the agenda and but the closer we get to the elections this
comes up more and more and there are people that want to get rid of mail and voting and the electronic instruments and go back to hand uh handmarked ballots And uh I've done both. I when I started working in elections, we were
doing marking uh the ballots and it it's just it's going to take forever to count those and they're not they're not as accurate as our electronic voting. And um if you do away with the mailing ballots,
it won't make it any safer. Uh it'll just make it hard for lots of people to vote. and that in turn suppresses the vote. And that that's what worries me because I think it's very very important that we all get to vote and we get to vote uh in
a timely manner. And anyway, u and in spite of the rumors and conspiracy theories, I think our elections in Tent County are safe and accurate. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Buff Kaiser is next.
Following Mr. Kaiser is Katherryn Godby. I don't see her in the audience. Then Nan Terry. Hi, I'm Buff Kaiser, a resident of Fort Worth and um we commend Tarant County's use of sequential ballot numbers for
inperson voting in the 2024 election and we look forward to the effective use of sequentially numbered ballots for mail-in voting going forward. We also commend Taran County's taking note of Denton and Colin count's use of
handmarked paper ballots and visiting with Denton County officials to learn more. Um, in 2017, Denton County approved the switch to handmarked paper ballots using ballot on demand printers. The decision followed voter concerns
about electronic voting accuracy and a problematic 2016 election with machine errors and long lines. County officials and voters have expressed strong support for the system, so they've had it since 2017, and they like it. Voters appreciated the
transparency of marking their own ballots, which can be audited and recounted if needed. Both Democratic and Republican leaders backed the move, citing trust and verifiability. Denton County also saved money by
eliminating preprinted ballots, previously having had to print thousands of extra ballots to cover every possible ballot style at every polling location. Colin County begins using handmarked paper ballots for in-person voting
starting with the November 2025 election. On June 23rd, 2025, the Colin County Commissioner's Court unanimously approved the transition, and this includes a $2.3 million investment in voting booths, printers, laptops, and
other equipment. This makes Colin one of the largest counties in Texas to adopt handmarked ballots. Judge O'Hara and commissioners, would there be anything you could share with us today about your thoughts about what
Denton and Colin counties are doing and if you think it could be a good idea uh for Taran County? That's my question to you. Yeah, it's not Q&A. So, is are you got anything else? Yes. Um
the ele the election land shape landscape is certainly changing. We've got President Trump's ele executive order 142288 and we've got um the um
district five election ruling. So, we're going to have um a bunch of changes coming up and um we expect additional presidential executive orders for federal elections. They're expected shortly um concerning
mail-in ballots and other matters. So, we thank you for your following these developments closely and taking needing actions. Thank you, sir. All right. Miss Godby is not here. Is that correct? All right. Next is Nan Terry. Following
Miss Terry is Jorge Rodriguez. Is Mr. Rodriguez present? Following Mr. Rodriguez be Ebony Turner. Go ahead. Thank you. I just want to be real short. I change is always hard and I want to thank the staff and the leaders for the
new software related to the agenda and signing up and looking at things uh being able to download it right there. And I just think it's great. And I want to thank the county employees who are responsible. Thank you. Uh, no, Mr. Rodriguez. Ebony
Turner present. All right. Following Miss Turner, we have Joe Palmer. I am so mad. I'm seething. I don't know how you do it, Commissioner Simmons. God bless you. But to have an elected official send in a letter, not show up, but send in a letter to say why he
wasn't going to show up to answer to all of us. You do represent all of us, Sheriff Wayborn. And I can understand why you probably don't want to be here. Um, probably the same, you know, to answer to the jail desk. Probably the same reason why your son never made it to the Tarant County jail when he got
arrested. And by the way, what's going on with his cases, but I'm supposed to be here to talk about uh voting machines and mail and ballots. Every time the Republican party does something to further chip away at voting rights, I think of my soror Fanny Liu Himer, who
was brutally beaten and blinded as a result of trying to register voters. I think about my other ancestors who were killed, beaten, hosed, had dogs on them, had pole taxis levied against them, had to pass literacy tests, etc., all to exercise their constitutional rights to
vote. And here we are yet again in the year of our Lord 2025 still fighting against efforts to deny us the right to vote. So contrary to popular belief in registered voter numbers, Texas is not a red state. It's a voter suppressed state. In just the last two and a half
to three years, Texas andor Tarant County has altered the requirements for for requesting mail-in ballots and what information had to be included for them to be valid. purged thousands of voters from the voting roles. Attempted to reduce the number of polling sites, redistricted the county commission
precinct level, redistricted at the congre congressional level, reduce the number of election days from 13 to 12, reduce the polling sites in Tarant County for the upcoming election. And now soon we'll probably try to get the county to get rid of mail and voting and
voting machines, which we know is at the behest of Trump who was taking cues from Putin. and you pretend it's all in the name of election integrity and fairness, but if it talks like voter suppression and walks like voter suppression, it's voter suppression. And by the way, how many voter fraud cases have been
prosecuted in this county? I know of at least two that you could have bragged about, but y'all decided to do nothing about those folks. And you're only going to try to get rid of mail and voting just because you believe more Democrats vote by mail, but Republicans vote by mail as well. So, I hope Republicans who vote by mail are
paying attention to who may be trying to take away your ability to vote. Over a million registered voters in Tarant County, and you want to go back to paper ballots and hand counts at the same time as reducing polling sites and voting days, we already have lines out the door. Have you considered this
logistical nightmare? We know you want us to be so overwhelmed and discombobulated that we won't vote. You want to intimidate intimidate us into silence, but we won't be deterred and we won't be defeated. So I urge you not to bow down to the wannabe king. Keep the voting machines. Maintain mail
and voting voting. Maintain mail and voting and restore the voting sites. All right. Following Mr. Palmer, we have Robert Van. K News. Miranda Suarez. A woman died of hunger and thirst in the Taran County Jail custody. Her daughter seeks
answers. August 6, 2025. published. Kimberly Phillips didn't like to show when she was hurting, her daughter, Miranda Mills said. But Mills could see her mother's pain when she visited her at the Taran County Jail. I could tell she was holding back her tears, Mills said. And she just looked at me and she
said, "Baby, I need to eat." Phillips kept telling her daughter how hungry she was. Mills said she was trying to eat the food the jail gave her, but she couldn't keep it down. Phillips died in custody on February 18th. her cause of death, complications of malnutrition, and dehydration. She
was 56 years old. Phillips is at least the fourth person whose death in Taran County jail custody has been linked to dehydration since 2020. She appears to be the first link to starvation, at least since 2017 when Republican Sheriff Bill Wurn took
office. And this was not the first time Philip stopped eating in the Taran County jail, according to notes from an incarceration dated 2023. a fact that medical staff noted when she was booked into jail again in January. By the time she was transferred to John Peter Smith Hospital three weeks later on February
15th, Phillips had severe hyper natriia, a sodium imbalance usually caused by dehydration and her kidneys were failing, records show. Now Mills is left wondering how this happened, leaving her without her mother and her kids without their grandmother. She was my best
friend, Mills said crying. I didn't have friends because I always felt my mom was enough. Please don't let me die. The Tarant County Jail has been under scrutiny for years for deaths and allegations of mistreatment behind bars. At least 71 Taran County prisoners have
died since Waver took office. This is an old article. Including an alleged murder by guards last year. The county has also paid more than $4.3 million in jail related lawsuits since 2022. That includes a $750,000 payout to the
family of Georgia K. Baldwin, a woman with severe mental illness who died in 2021 from hyperatriia. That's despite having a water fountain in her cell. Abdullahi Mohammad and Edgar Villator Alvarez also died of dehydration in jail
custody in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Both men also had a documented history of serious mental illness. We continue to incarcerate people with mental illness. A recent investigation in the New Yorker found dozens of starvation and dehydration deaths in jails across
the country. Often the people who died struggled with mental illness were arrested for low-level crimes and couldn't make bail. Rest in peace everybody who has died and everybody who will die in the jail in the coming year.
Mr. van. Well, it's been going on a long time. uh August of 1988, Paul Wbridge, founder of ALEC and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, among other reactionary organizations, stated that too many Christians want
everybody to vote, but that he did not want everybody to vote. He followed up with a statement that the reactionary leverage in elections goes up as the voting population goes down. That sentiment has been seconded by many
others in what some call the Republican party, including Mitch McConnell and the current denison of the White House and of course the right-wing members of the Commissioner's Court. Here in Tarant County, there have been
incessant, unsupported, and unsupportable claims of voter fraud to attempt to justify all measures of anti-democratic voter suppression. The latest being the massive racial gerrymandering of the county, the selective removal of
long-established voting locations, and all that on top of the past harassment of an honest elections administrator, Haidder Garcia, until he was forced to resign, an expensive and redundant ballot numbering system, voter harassment by a so-called voter
integrity unit, and threats of violence by the county Republican chair and his minions. eliminating mail as much as it does by now.
But your DNA office says that that's what you guys do. So as you know I really think all this on item 13A1 there's a speaker can you who is that
it's Joe Palmer I believe sir okay he just walked out the door okay That's it for public comments. Do we have any announcements or comments from commissioners? I I I went I read every single name that's on there. So, if you want to show
somebody the form, you check that. AJ So, she probably didn't. All right. You want to bring that to me? Can you bring it up here? Okay. Yeah. Go ahead.
I'm here to comment in support of vote by mail. We all know of people who need to vote by mail, whether they're elderly, disabled, or whatever. But I had an experience a few years ago that
really brought it home to me. I went to deliver something to an older man that lived not far away. He was very physically disabled, but he was sharp as attack mentally.
He was a very large man, could not walk, could not even stand and was in an oversized wheelchair. He asked, he started talking to me about voting and he said, "It's time to vote."
And I said, "Yes." And I said, "Did you remember to get your application in to get a vote by mail?" He said, "I missed it by one day." So he said, "Would you take me to vote?" Well, I knew there was no way I could
get this large man in his wheelchair in my car and drive him to the church where people were voting. But a neighbor man came by and he said, "I'll help you." And then another man came by. So, three
of us were able to get this wheelchair just right up to my front seat and raised the man up and put him right down. I pulled up in front of the church and the pastor happened to be walking in, saw us in the parking lot as I
opened the door and he could see there's no way without help we could get this man out of the car. So, the pastor came and helped. It took three of us to get him out and again in his wheelchair. I took him in. He got to vote. He was
just ecstatic that he did get to vote. This man had a very crystal clear mind, but physically he could not get himself to vote and he didn't have anybody that would help get him there. And it was
that went time when I realized how vital it is for vote by mail for people who absolutely cannot go to the polls. And believe me, there are those that can't. So I just want you to
keep that in mind. Vote by mail is important. Thank you. Thank you. All right. There's one more judge. She's providing her confirmation, I believe, uh, via her mobile device that
she signed up to speak. Okay. Who is that? Miss Williams in the back. Okay. Miss Williams. You see it? It's not bad. Not bad. Except for your screen. What's What's the deal?
We've been presented with a agenda link confirmation, okay, to speak, but we don't see it on the agenda software. So, we'll have to check with the developer office. Okay. What is her name? Estelle Williams. Okay. Miss Williams, come to the podium.
Albert Albert Good evening. In prior history, individuals were required to pay a pole tax. They had no money. In prior history, they had to walk long distances because they had no transportation. Here
it is today. There are those of us who can afford to pay a pole tax, if that's what it's called, but we're faced with so many other obstacles. Redistricting is one. We do have transportation that we can use to get to
one place or the other, but yet there are other avenues that have been placed before us. Again, redistricting is one. There are many others. Now, here we're talking about machineries. machineries that was used and added to the act of
voting. We're able to operate those mach machines. But again, when we talk about ridding the machines and using paper ballots, we got to expect the fact that that's going to require additional staff. When you do
that, you're talking about funds. And today, I have sat here and I've heard so much talk about budgets and budgets and budgets. And so again, it's going to require additional funding for us to be able to rid pay machines and use paper
ballots. So again, many efforts have been put in our way, our path. How can we be thought to believe that we should embrace voter suppression? This is nothing but another method of voter suppression. Voter suppression is that which is
requiring others to realize that you're not going to get that opportunity. However, destroying those machines will again be looked at as this is a machine that perhaps will not be manipulated, but individuals can be. And so because
of that, we have to stop and think it's not about black or brown. It's not about you or me. It's about doing what is right. doing what is right based on the fact that everybody was given the opportunity
again to look at it as justice for all. Is it justice for all? Is it justice for y'all? So I say to each of you, please allow individuals to have their constitutional right of voting and utilizing the fact that it was given to each of us. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. Do we have any uh announcements or comments from commissioners? All right. Seeing none, the court will now recess the open session and proceed to close session to discuss items exempt under sections 551071, 072, 074, 076,
087, and 0725 of the Texas Government Code. The time is 359. Executive session will begin, excuse me, executive session will begin at 4:15 p.m. sharp. If there are three people there, we are starting.
We are now in recess. Oh, knock yourself All right, we are back from executive session. There's no action to take at this time. So we are officially adjourned.