October 24, 2016 - Shelby County Commissioners held a regular meeting on Monday, October 10, 2016 in the Courthouse to tend to county business. Judge Allison Harbison welcomed everyone and opened the meeting.
Sherry Riley, Veterans Service Officer, addressed the court concerning the county going out for a grant for the Veterans Transportation Assistance Program, a $20,000 general assistance grant. "Shelby County Veterans Service office proposes to apply for a $20,000 general assistance grant through the Texas Veterans Commission. This grant would be used to provide transportation reimbursements to veterans, their surviving spouses or to volunteers who provide transportation to any qualified veteran, their surviving spouse, or volunteer that requests travel assistance to VA medical appointments. All qualified veterans and their spouses of Shelby County, San Augustine County, and Sabine County, this is going to be a three county, it's going to assist the veterans from all three counties that qualify." The grant is due the 29th of October. It benefits everyone to combine all three counties in qualifying for the funding. San Augustine received the grant in the past and Riley administered it which gives her past experience with the grant.
Judge Harbison said inter-local agreements between the three counties is included and said, "This is a very worthwhile program, a lot of our veterans are homeless, a lot of them don't have vehicles, a lot of them are unable to drive back and forth. And in the past it has been a great thing and I think anything that we can offer our veterans to help them, its a win-win for us."
Sherry Riley commended the local VFW Post members who are wonderful to volunteer their time and the expense of their gas and travel to take veterans to Shreveport, Lufkin, and Longview for appointments. She said the grant will help them to get reimbursed for their expenses. The Commissioners approved moving forward with the grant application as well as the inter-local agreements between the counties.
"We are trying to get an updated personnel policy. We called in our Texas Association of Counties (TAC) representative, Diana Cecil, and she has been helping us with this. We have not had a formal drug policy, drug testing policy on CDL drivers and she provided me with some information for employers and I feel, as an employer, we need to be in compliance with all federal and state regulations. We need to think of this as employers, not as the people that has the business, we need to think of it as the public business and that is what we are here to do, is public business. I know in the past it has not gotten passed to do this but I really think that we need to consider it," said Judge Harbison.
"The reason we wanted to have a third party to administer this is it takes the monkey off of our back, Clint [Porterfield]'s back, and anybody else's back from doing it. It will be an independent company doing it instead of the county actually doing it." The recommended company which is used by Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative, Tyson, Ricky Lout, and many more in town who contract with them to administer the program. The test site would be local and wouldn't require anyone to go out of town for testing. Judge Harbison implored the court it is necessary to get this in place before the personnel policy update can be finished.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Department has a different program in place and the policy would not affect what the Sheriff's Office does. The policy only affects county employees driving county equipment who have a CDL. Commissioner Pct 2 Jimmy Lout spoke up, "All my employees don't have CDLs but they drive a road grader or brush truck. I think we need to kind of reword that [to include all county employees driving county equipment]." Judge Harbison agreed with Commissioner Lout stating additional law, "Additionally under the Safe Roads Act 2012, that congress had provided for civil penalties actions against [persons who violate the requirements of this Act]." Reference: S.754 — 112th Congress (2011-2012)
Upon being questioned about who the law applies to, Clint Porterfield responded, "It doesn't apply to staff or equipment operators. It solely applies to vehicles on the road and those who have the license to drive them."
Following a long silence from the Commissioners, Judge Harbison spoke again, "Our insurance company has requested that we get this in place." Once again, no comments were made by the commissioners. Harbison requested, "Do I have a motion that we go forward with this or do we want to table it?"
Lout was the only commissioner to respond saying, "I think we should table it and ask Gary [Rholes, County Attorney,] what all, if everybody needs to be drug tested. We also need to put in there, I think, if you hire new employees that they be drug tested. It is more than just CDL drivers to me. I think all CDL drivers need it but there is some other people that also need it. I think we should talk to Gary before we make a decision."
Silence enveloped the court room again and Harbison said, "We have got to look at this, not as an individual, but as a business that has CDL drivers and people that are driving county vehicles. If this was a personal business, you could pick and choose whether you followed these rules and regulations, but as a public company that runs on public funds and public money, I feel like we have got to seriously consider doing this."
"I just wanted to bring it up and let's start talking about it so we can get it done. Hopefully, get the personnel policy done by the end of the year and incorporate the drug and alcohol policy in there also. There is no use in doing one without the other at this point until we make a decision. I have a motion to table this issue, speak to Gary, look into it some more. Do I have a second?" said Judge Harbison.
Silence. No second. "Well, I'm gonna second it just to see how you vote. So, I will second it." Commissioner Lout and Judge Harbison were the only ones to give a yes vote. Commissioner Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Travis Rodgers, and Commissioner Bradley Allen voted to not table the item relaying their desire to not address the issue again.
Judge Harbison finished saying about the agenda item, "Okay, so we will be non-compliant with Federal Law. Okay."
Officers' reports presented by Ann Blackwell: Fees collected for the month of September 2016 Debora Riley, Tax Assessor Collector (Property $36,092.74, Motor Vehicle $29,304.27) Total $65,397.01 Jennifer Fountain, County Clerk $32,226.57 Lori Oliver, District Clerk $14,349.57 JP1 Maxie Eaves $6,006.00 JP2 Marla Denby $1,353.73 JP3 Margie Anderson $4,333.00 JP4 Jenny Hicks $1,621.00 JP5 Mike Crouch $3,268.00 Constable 1 Zack Warr $900.00 Constable 2 Jamie Hagler $0.00 Constable 3 Billy Hearnsberger $360.00 Constable 4 Bryan Gray $170.00 Constable 5 Robert Hairgrove $270.00 Total fees collected: $130,256.88 Certificates of Deposits & Investments (Interest Earned) $529.80 for total investments of $1,784,221.66 Interest Bearing Checking Accounts earned $623.42
Agenda items approved: 1 - Minutes of the September 12, 2016 regular meeting, September 26, 2016 special meeting, and September 26, 2016 budget meeting of the SC Commissioners' Court. 2 - Payment of monthly expenses 3 - Officers' reports 4 - Financial report given by Treasurer Ann Blackwell 5 - Grant application for the Veterans' Transportation Assistance Program 6 - Accepting bids for demolition of the old Shelby General Hospital to give Commissioners' an understanding of what it will take to have it done. 8 - Record open meeting of the Adult Shelby County Community Supervision and Correction Departments. This is a non action item and it just makes their meeting minutes from October 26, 2016 as well as the split of all the equipment for adult probation services a part of the Shelby County Commissioners' Court meeting. 10 - Commissioners vote to retain Flowers and Davis Law Firm to attend to pending litigation.
