May 31, 2022 - The Shelby County Commissioners approved the acceptance of a bulletproof vest donated by the city of Timpson to Josh Tipson, Constable Precinct 5, and further discussed and approved a reserve officer for the Precinct 5 Constable office during their meeting held May 18, 2022.
The city purchased the vest March 9, 2022, in the amount of $970.42 from Teeco Safety out of Shreveport, Louisiana.
"I did speak to the mayor [Debra Pate Smith], and she apologized because she was not aware that any donation that the city makes to county needs to be run through court, and she said that will not happen again," said Judge Allison Harbison.
According to Judge Harbison, Smith assured her any future donations from the city to the constable would be communicated better. She also said the city is willing to help the constable out.
Judge Harbison relayed Mayor Smith stated the city could probably contribute $5,000 from the current time through the rest of the fiscal year and then include that amount in their future budget to go toward the constable budget.
Josh Tipton, Constable Precinct 5, was seeking to have Billy Lusk, Timpson ISD PD officer, as his reserve constable. Judge Harbison said she has not yet spoken with the Superintendent of Timpson ISD; however if Tipton is appointing Lusk, it would then be his responsibility to make arrangements with the school.
Commissioner Bellmyer asked Constable Tipton for clarification on what Lusk's duties would be and if he has a vehicle to drive, and there is no vehicle available at this time. So, Tipton suggested Lusk would just need to be in the vehicle with him for the time being.
"As generous as the people have been up in my precinct about helping out, I don't think it's going to be no problem at all to get him some kind of vehicle," said Tipton.
Tipton wanted to clarify some issues related to concerns of Clint Porterfield, County Auditor. Tipton stated Lusk has not responded to any calls in his personal vehicle and the times he has called him for assistance, Tipton said his has met him with his constable vehicle and Lusk has ridden with him to a calls. Tipton said, as peace officers they have the right to summon citizens, if willing, to assist them in a situation.
"The one time that he has flown the drone was what I would consider exigent circumstances, " said Tipton. "We had a 10-year-old child come up missing, mom and dad was freaking out, of course we didn't have any idea and they lived in close proximity of Highway 59, the child was a little bit autistic. Of course that raised concerns, not only with me but with other law enforcement officials."
Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, said he would prefer Tipton request assistance from a law enforcement officer, but when he has the right and ability to summons a citizen, why does he need a reserve?
"At that point, the county assumes the liability of that, because he summons them and put them in that position. So why do we need a reserve anyway? Why do we need that can of worms open for a constant liability," said McSwain. "Just like the incident Josh was talking about he got expunged from, he did, but that still cost this county $18,700 to pay an attorney to get him expunged from it."
McSwain said it was nothing against Tipton, but any constable being subject to potential liability, and even if they do everything appropriately there is the potential to get sued.
"He says the county's backwards, that's not true, this county's moved way farther. We've supported that Sheriff's Department and that's why I said if there's a problem in Timpson that they're not getting the service they need, we need to put pressure on the Sheriff's Department," said McSwain. "That's the reason we hired them another deputy and they assured us when the mayor was here to help donate the car and stuff like that, that they would pick up and step up and do more and they're not doing it."
McSwain reiterated a need to take the issue directly to the Sheriff's Department, and not pursue other avenues.
"If we're not getting a bang for the buck, we need to get a better understanding," said McSwain.
Tipton commented Shelby County is a poor and small county and it takes everyone to make the wheel turn easier.
Constable Tipton explained the main obligation of the constable is the service of papers and if the Sheriff's Department has two or three deputies on a shift, he feels it would be a disservice to his constituents if constables only served papers and did nothing on the days they had no papers to serve.
"What good does that do my contituents and the citizens of Shelby County, what good does that do them to pay me 40-something-thousand dollars a year to serve two or three papers a month," said Tipton. "That's why we as a small county and smaller agencies we try to do our part to pitch in and help out investigations, traffic, and so on."
He said 75% of the calls in Precinct 5 come through his office.
"I've got the biggest municipality in Shelby County, other than Center and I do not have a police department," said Tipton.
The Timpson City Council decided March 1, 2021, to dissolve their police department.
Tipton said it isn't that the Sheriff's Department isn't doing anything, he sees them.
"Especially at night time, there's two deputies per shift, that's what their budget calls for and I listen to the radio. It just seems like once you get south [part] of Shelby County it's just 'no-man's land' and it's a lot of time spent down there,' said Tipton. "I'm not saying nobody's camping out or it's just there's a lot of calls that are generated down that way."
Jimmy Lout, Commissioner Precinct 2, remarked if they allow a reserve for the Constable 5 office, they would likely see other constables at court wanting the same thing. Constable Tipton posed the question, "why not, when you have people willing to give back to your community?"
Tipton questioned what differentiates his office from that of the Sheriff's Department, or any other elected official in running their office as they see fit, when the Sheriff's Department is practiced at having reserve officers.
With the large case load Constable Tipton says he has, Commissioner Bellmyer asked if there would be any way an investigator from the Sheriff's Department would be able to take on some of those cases.
"That's just not a standard operating procedure that we do, I mean if I take it, I take it, just they don't ask me to take nothing," said Tipton. "We might join in with each other."
Constable Tipton remarked it's never been a problem for him to ask something of the Sheriff's Department and for them to help him, and Sheriff Windham has never told him "no" about anything.
Judge Harbison asked what the cost to the county would be for a reserve deputy, and he said the number of reserves the county has is all that is reported, not even their name.
Commissioner McSwain remarked the addition of the officer doesn't cost directly, but that the chance of liability increases. He also said a car may be donated, but it will have insurance which has to be paid on it, and with the likelihood of the vehicle being an older model, it will probably need a lot of maintenance. He said he sees both positive and negative and liability in adding a reserve. His opnion was to continue with the investment in the Sheriff's Department and demand results there.
"We may need to have a sit down with the Sheriff, and we may have to hire another deputy or two, have somebody that serves their community, not goes up there once or twice a week," said McSwain.
Commissioner Bellmyer said he sees both sides of the situation and if a new deputy were hired, they still would be responsible to the whole county.
"If we have a reserve that lives in the Timpson area, that is ready to work within the constable 5 precinct, and that's the only area that that individual works, then we do help increase some visibility within the Timpson area and within the constable 5 precinct," said Bllmyer.
Bellmyer made a motion to accept Lusk as a reserve constable with the caveat of his not having an automobile and if one comes available in the form of a gift or donation that the constable will return to the court.
He suggested the possibility of the city affording the cost of the insurance for the vehicle, rather than the county having to afford that debt solely.
To continue discussion on the item, Judge Harbison seconded the motion to prevent the motion from dying, and Judge Harbison invited Robin Connell who is a business owner in Timpson and Joaquin, as well as a resident of precinct 4.
She wanted to remind everyone that Timpson is on U.S. Highway 59 and 84 and Joaquin is on U.S. Highway 84. U.S. 59 is a main thoroughfare from Houston and the traffic running on those highways is unique to other parts of the county.
"I can't tell you how many times I've called the Sheriff's Department and this is what I'm told, 'we don't have anybody on duty right now, we don't have anybody we can send, the only people we have on duty are down in Possum Trot,'" said Connell.
She says she has been told that many times and in her experience of having a convenience store that's open 24 hours a day for 22 years and another for 18 hours a day for 20 years previous to that, emergencies aren't Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm.
"That's not when you call and you're scared to death of what's going on, that's not when it happens," said Connell. "We had the luxury of having a city police department and I say that in all sincerity we had the luxury of having one, that's gone."
Connell discribed if you call the Sheriff's Department Monday morning at 9am, you'll have a whole "army" show up, but Thursday at 12:15am it would be a different situation.
"I don't know how Josh gets done what he does, I really don't, and I know he works ridiculously long hours," said Connell.
Connell said she understands McSwain's position on the reserve situation, but the city of Timpson is willing to help supplement.
"I've lived here for a long time, I've never seen the Sheriff's Department step up and have a presence in Timpson, not when you need them," said Connell. "We were fortunate we had deputies that lived in Timpson and when something would happen they could be right there," said Connell.
When the commissioners voted on the motion to approve the reserve, all voted in favor with the exception of McSwain who voted no.
"I'd rather have had a conversation with the Sheriff in closed session before these votes were ever taken. It's too late now, let's just move forward," said McSwain.
Judge Harbison continued they probably do still need to have a conversation with the Sheriff.
"I feel like when the Timpson Police Department went down, your folks thought it was a free-for-all," said Judge Harbison.
The commissioners had several bidders for work to be done on the Annex building and on the Adult Probation building. One of the bidders, Easy Way Construction, has withdrawn their bids and the commissioners were then compelled to review the other bidders in place of Easy Way Construction.
The two other bids for the Adult Probation building were Cornerstone Construction $121,000; and Hagler Construction $120,000.
Commissioner Bellmyer was designated to visit with each of the contractors as they toured the locations and he said they both covered all of the elements of the proposed projects.
Stevie Smith, Commissioner Precinct 3, asked Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, if he actually had a preference on which contractor to choose. Bellmyer remarked on a question that was submitted to Allison and Bass about bid selection and Bellmyer stated the answer on that query was the county is actually obligated to accept the lower bid.
"When you go out for competitive bidding like that, if all the bids are covering all the portions correctly, we are obligated to take the low bid," said Bellmyer.
He stated both are good contractors and do a good job.
A motion carried to accept the bid from Hagler Construction to be paid out of the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF).
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Approve and pay weekly expenses. 2. Public comments on Agenda item. 3. Discuss and possibly approve Constable Pct. 5 to add a reserve, Constable. 4. Discuss and possibly approve the donation of a bullet proof vest to Constable Pct. 5. 5. Bid from Hagler Construction in the amount for renovating the Adult Probation Building. 6. Canvass the May 7, 2022 Constitutional Amendment Election votes. 7. Adjourn.
