June 2, 2026 - Eric Lawrence, with Shelby County Appraisal District, spoke with the commissioners during their May 13, 2026 meeting regarding the correction of quarterly entity payments to the appraisal district.
"Timing is always a tough thing when it comes to budgets and setting tax rates," said Lawrence "When we send a preliminary entity claim out to all the entities, it's the certified value after we certified in July based on the previous year's tax rates. So that sets just an idea of how much the quarterly payments will be for all the entities."
Lawrence explained that the Shelby County Appraisal District sent the original amount to the auditor and then the amount was recalculated per the adopted tax rate following the adoption of the county budget.
"That's the purpose of this is that, there was a deficit, the county ended up, it was, the percentage was more than what was the estimated preliminary number given," said Lawrence. "And so in our audit was seen that the entity payment from the entities were not what it should be."
According to Lawrence, those other entities will in fact have a refund or credit for their future quarterly payments; however, the county future quarterly payments instead reflected a deficit totaling $40,000.
"I don't know if it's because of all of the new laws and the compressions and things that the state has put on these entities that created such a big difference this year," said Lawrence.
Teresa Hughes, County Auditor, commented that $380,000 was budgeted over the anticipated $363,000 and that the new estimate is $420,000.
Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, commented that payments of $119,104.67 for the upcoming quarters will be made to help balance out the difference.
The discussion was just informative and required no action to be taken by the court.
John Pope, Constable Precinct 5, spoke with the commissioners about computer upgrades to allow for his office to be compliant with Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) requirements through DPS.
"Basically, I got audited by the state of Texas, from Brandon Yarbrough [CJIS Technical Auditor], which is a CJIS audit," said Pope. "Basically what that is, is anybody that has access to run, like, drivers license, background checks, any of that information, is required to be audited by the state, which we failed. So we've basically been locked out of our computers for two weeks until we can get up to standards with them. I just finished the audit yesterday it has been a big major ordeal for me."
Constable Pope commented that his office will still be out of compliance for a time, with 27 interlocal agreements and policies that he will have to hand type. That was with the caveat he has three years to complete those agreements.
Pope asked the court to approve the computers to help get his office back into compliance with the state.
Constable Pope was appreciative of assistance he received from Ann Blackwell, County Treasurer; Kim Ratcliff, Sheriff's Office Administrator; and Joey Orellana.
Blackwell shared with the court that Pope wasn't asking for top of the line computer equipment, but reliable, and that a private internet connection was necessary to establish. She also elaborated the Precinct 4 constable will likely have to meet the same standards since both offices are the only constables utilizing CopSync.
Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, asked from where the $2,476 for the purchase would be funded and Blackwell recommended the funds come from the Constable 5 budget and then take care of it at the end of the year.
Commissioner Bellmyer moved to move forward with Precinct 5 on software and hardware purchase and Shannon Metcalf, Commissioner Precinct 2, seconded the motion. It carried with all in favor.
The commissioners were presented with bids for the historic jail window project and they ranged from just south of $400,000 to almost $1 million.for the windows and the frames.
Commissioner Bellmyer moved to enter into negotiations over a contract with JRJ out of Weatherford as they were the low bidder. Commissioner Stevie Smith seconded the motion and it carried.
Commissioner McSwain wanted to clarify that moving forward in no way locked the county into the project.
"I'm gonna be honest with you, it's kind of hard for me to spend $400,000 on a building for the chamber of commerce, nothing against the chamber of commerce, but with all the things we have coming before the court just like now we're going to spend $90,000 [on the current courthouse windows] and then we're going to do the project across the street [at the AgriLife property]," said McSwain.
He further commented that's a lot of money for a historic monument especially when they were first presented with the possibility of the historic jail window project costing from $80,000 to $150,000.
At the onset of the meeting Richard Lundie, VFW Post 8904 member, was asked in recognition of Memorial Month to come forward and lead the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag and then the Texas Flag.
The meeting adjourned at 10:08am.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Minutes of the April 1 Special Meeting, April 8 Regular Meeting, April 15 Special Meeting, April 22 Special Meeting and April 29 Special Meeting. 2. Pay weekly expenses. 3. Officers Report. 4. Technology quote as presented for Computer upgrades for the office of Constable Pct 5 to be compliant with CJIS Standards. 5. Enter into contract negotiations with JRJ for the Shelby County Historic Jail Window Restoration Project. (RFP #2026-01) 6. Order authorizing the sale of fireworks during the Memorial Day period beginning Wednesday, May 20 and ending at midnight Monday, May 25, 2026. 7. Adjourn, 10:08am.
