Commissioners approve new financial software package
The Grimes County Commissioners Court held a Regular Meeting Wednesday, June 26, and on a 3-1 vote with Commissioner Phillip Cox voting nay, commissioners approved the purchase of Financial Intelligence Software (FI) for the auditor, Treasurer and Human Resource departments. The assets and employees of current vendor Hill Country Software were acquired in 2016 by FI and Auditor Mary Nichols requested purchase approval to move ahead with the pre-installation, scheduled for July 8.
Cox said, “It’s not that I’m opposed to this in anyway, per se, but this is a 2020 budget request. I think taking a vote today and cherry-picking individual items out of the budgets to approve before we’ve had the opportunity to sit down and discuss the 2020 budget is probably premature.”
FI president Robert Baird advised that FI will not charge the county until Oct. 1 but work needs to begin now to “get ahead of the curve.”
He said, “If the court chooses not to fund us as a line item in the next budget, this is null, and void and I’ve wasted two months. But you have to have software and Hill Country is going away. So, I would hope it’s a line item but it’s a risk I’m taking that if you don’t fund it, then you don’t fund it.”
Judge Joe Fauth confirmed that the preliminary budget contains funding for Hill Country. Addressing price difference, Baird said Hill Country charged an upfront lump sum payment and the current payment of $4,000 is for annual maintenance. Instead of an upfront charge, FI will charge $2,980 per month.
Code of Conduct policy
Carried over from the June 12 court was Human Resource Director Lucy Pope’s request to add a Code of Conduct Policy to all county employees’ personnel paperwork. At present, each elected official and department head sets the standards of conduct for their departments but there is no written policy for all county employees. Pope’s request was generated by difficulties fighting unemployment claims resulting from termination for policy violations.
Commissioner Barbara Walker asked, “So in other words if this policy is not in our personnel policy folder, it doesn’t matter if the Sheriff’s Department has theirs, or the district attorney has a policy in their department, it needs to be in the overall county’s policy?”
Pope was advised at recent Human Resources training that the personnel policy approved by the judge and commissioners “overrules anyone else’s policy. It doesn’t mean elected officials can’t have their own policies in their offices, but ours supersedes their policies.”
County Attorney Jon C. Fultz said, “I think it’s beneficial to have that in place and it’s helpful when we’re dealing with Workforce Commission, but we know that you can’t force an elected official to follow your policy. The way you do that is with the leverage of the purse.”
He continued, “How far do we have to go to include things that seem to make common sense… you can’t sleep at work, you shouldn’t take paper clips home...If it helps supports our claims and puts us in a better position not to pay out improper claims, maybe you just have to bite the bullet and put it in the file.”
The policy was reviewed by elected officials and the Texas Association of Counties (TAC). Pope said TAC “thought it was a good policy to put in our personnel manual.”
District Attorney Andria Bender concurred with Fultz’s opinion that the Workforce Commission’s is not “interpreting the law correctly.”
Describing the policy as a tool, Bender said, “it’s also to protect the taxpayer from paying unwarranted unemployment claims and that’s ultimately who we all answer to…There’s no discretion taken away from elected officials.”
The item was rescheduled to July 10 to include a TAC representative.
Other court action:
*Approved consent agenda items that included the Treasurer’s list of claims and bills, payroll, the Monthly Report for May and authorize advertisement of affidavit of same and budget amendments and/or line item transfers.
*Justice of the Peace Pct. 3, Mark Laughlin, reported his efforts to provide a more secure mail delivery system at the Pct. 3 annex.
*Approved the 2019-2020 medical renewal with the Texas Association of Counties Health and Employee Benefits Pool with an increase to the county of 1% for medical and 3.6% for dental.
*Approved the Inter-local Agreement with the BVCOG regarding the use of the 9-1-1 Database by Hyper-Reach Emergency Notification Services.
*Approved the final plat for Phase I of the Anderson Ridge Subdivision.
*Tabled approval of an agreement with the Dispute Resolution Center in Bryan pending budget meetings.
*Tabled County Court at Law request for pay adjustment for law clerk position and to increase the part-time position to fulltime pending budget meetings.
*Approved the first renewal of Apache Corporation Special Road Use Permit for CR 126.
*Approved the third renewal of the Special Road Use Agreement with Magellan/Strike on the 21 Grimes County roads.
*Approved an Inter-local Agreement with the towns of Bedias, Iola and Todd Mission related to General Land Office-Community Development Block Grant (GLO-CDBG) Hurricane Harvey grant program.
*Received a Road and Bridge Report from Harry Walker that included removal of downed trees, replacing culverts and adding base to numerous county roads as well as ditch work and meetings related to FEMA and Hurricane Harvey grant projects.
*Strategic Plan Update/Justice Center: Commissioner Chad Mallett advise consultation still in progress between PGAL and Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
Burn ban
The burn ban was not reinstated.
Public comments:
*Received from Mary Jarvis regarding issues with her road.