December 10, 2025 - The Shelby County Commissioners updated the sick leave policy, shortening the employment time before an employee can participate in the sick leave pool Wednesday November 26, 2025.
The sick leave policy originally required someone be employed continuously for 12 months before being eligible for participation in the pool, and through their action the commissioners reduced that time period by nine months.
Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, described what changes he felt were necessary to the Sick Leave Pool policy.
“Our policy at this time says that you have to be employed a year prior to sign-up and that’s unfortunate for people that get hired January, February, March or something, because that same year they missed the sign-up, and they have to wait nearly two years,” said McSwain. “My proposal is to change it to, if you’re hired before October 1, you’re at 90 days and your still matched, you’ll be able to sign up instead of having to get hung in a trap of waiting nearly two years.”
Shelby County Judge Allison Harbison verbalized the change the sick pool policy “Eligibility” section to reflect at least three months instead of 12 months and the second page of the policy under “Enrollment and Contributions to the Pool” to at least three months instead of 12 months. Commissioner McSwain moved in response to Judge Harbison’s statement and Shannon Metcalf, Commissioner Precinct 2, seconded the motion and it carried.
The commissioners decided to move forward with the implementation of credit/debit card machines at Justice of the Peace offices as a preferred method of payment for those offices.
The commissioners discussed adding the credit card payment machines to the Justice of the Peace offices and the possibility of moving on to a card, check or money order only payment policy eliminating the cash payment option
Allison Harbison, Shelby County Judge, said that she has spoken to several of the Justices of the Peace and that they were in favor of making the change.
Ann Blackwell, County Treasurer, commented on her favor for the implementation of the policy.
“I think we need to put the credit card machines in the offices and give them that ability, because every one of them say that people come in with cards all the time,” said Blackwell.
Blackwell didn’t think it would be likely that cash could be eliminated; however, cutting the amount down that’s handled would be very likely
“Let’s work toward cutting down on so much cash, that’s got to help us in appearing that we’re trying to do something to move toward clearing up this audit finding that we have every year,” said Blackwell.
John Price, County Attorney, agreed with Jim Allison, general council for the Texas Association of Counties, in that there’s no clear authority on whether a county can adopt a completely cashless policy.
“To me, I would be a little uncomfortable adopting a cashless policy until we have something a little more definitive such as maybe an Attorney General’s opinion, which we can certainly request,” said Price.
Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, moved to contact a credit card vendor to set the credit card system up, meet with the JP’s and train them and set a time to go live. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Metcalf and the motion carried.
John Pope, Shelby County Constable Precinct 5, introduced the donation of two WatchGuard 4RE camera systems from Montgomery County Police Department to the commissioners and described how the donation came to pass.
“It’s the same camera system that me and the Sheriff’s Office is running,” said Constable Pope.
Constable Pope said that the law enforcement in Montgomery County had advertised in their local newspaper they had equipment to donate and Constable Pope made contact.
“He said he was looking for small departments and he got it ok’d and he ended up giving us two of them instead of one in case we needed parts or something for one,” said Pope.
Commissioner Bellmyer moved to accept the donation and Stevie Smith, Commissioner Precinct 3, seconded the motion after which carried.
When the commissioners examined the weekly expenses during the meeting, there were three charges from a local funeral home that would have been for picking up deceased individuals. Commissioner McSwain wanted clarification on what one of the charges was for, because it wasn’t immediately clear the charge indicated a pickup of an individual that was being transported for an autopsy. The county is normally charged only if someone is picked up and an autopsy is necessary for investigation purposes.
Commissioner McSwain move to approve paying the weekly expenses with the exception of invoice 237626 to allow for further study. His motion was seconded by Commissioner Metcalf, and the motion carried.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Weekly Expenses. 2. Donation of two Watch Guard 4RE camera systems from Montgomery County Police Department for Constable Pct. 5. 3. Add credit card payment ability to the JP offices and moving to a card, check or money order only payment system and eliminating cash payment option. 4. Update the Sick Leave Pool policy. 5. Adjourn 10:23am.
