On Thursday, May 1, the Judge Porter and the Gray County commissioners held their first meeting of the month, breezing through the first items on the agenda that included approving the minutes of the previous meeting, paying the bills as presented by the County Auditor, and considering any line-item transfer and budget amendments; all were approved.
Next item was to open, discuss and take any necessary action concerning the Gray County Bank Depository Contract, which included two bids by Happy State Bank, who the County is currently with, and First Bank Southwest.
After extensive discussion on which entity to go with, the court ultimately decided to stick with Happy State Bank and renew their contract with them.
Next was to discuss and consider tax assessment and collection contracts, as well as discuss and consider invoice amounts billed to the entities.
Gray County Tax Accessor Christie Johnson addressed the court and gave a summary of what changes she would like to consider and make regarding the two items.
“One of the things I’ve been working on since I’ve taken over the office and have been trying to get things straightened out is this court and myself have a collection contract for all of the entities that we collect for. That is our gaurantee to them about what we’re here to do for them and what we promise to do. There were three major things in the contract that needed to be updated. First was the tax accessor’s name, the second was a lot of the wording in the Texas Property Tax Code has changed, so I wanted to bring the contract to where it matched exactly what the Tax Code says, and the third is just some of our office policies have changed because it’s been 17 years since the last contract was signed.”
“With the help of Purdue, we went through those contracts and we made those three changes and I have them all printed and ready to go. I actually don’t need y’all to vote on that today, I want to contact all of the entities because I want their approval first and then once they’ve done that, I’ll ask to get this back on the agenda and I’ll come in for you and myself to sign all of these contracts.”
“I just want to make sure they don’t have any questions or they don’t ask for anything to be changed on their behalf. I can’t imagine they would because nothing has changed with the way we handle their money, but I just want to bring everything up to speed and matches what we do.”
In regard to the invoice amounts, Christie advised the court that the budget the county covers hasn’t been updated in the last 17 years despite fluctuations in the economy throughout the years, so she, along with Carla Carter, the County Auditor, have worked with the numbers and made the necessary updates that coincide with the current economy.
“I just want your blessing that this looks good to you and if you have any questions, I can tinker with it and see where we need to be. But again, I’m just making you aware and I’ll be contacting all of the entities because their boards will have to pass these amounts before I come back before I give y’all some final numbers.”
Both items were postponed for a later date to give Christie enough time to make any necessary adjustments and to reach out to everyone involved in the potential changes.
Next was to discuss and consider the service agreement between Gray County and Sylogist as per the request from the Office of the Texas Attorney General for the Texas Statewide Automated Victim Notification Service Program, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider the proposed amendment by IMS to the Gray County Health Benefit Plan, but due to inconsistent wording in the plan and the lack of response by IMS, the court postponed the item to a later date.
Next was to discuss and consider an addition to the Gray County Subdivision Rules requiring underground burial of residential power lines, but after conducting his own research, Judge Porter discovered that the county cannot require something to be done in any subdivisions in Gray County as per the City code.
“In between me writing this agenda item and today, I stumbled across Randall County’s Subdivision Rules and Requirements,” Judge Porter said. “And it is much more comprehensive than what we have. First of all, I don’t think we have the authority to regulate a utility requirement to bury electrical lines.”
“Near as I can tell, when you look at the Public Utilities Regulation Act of 2023, under section 11.0318, it defines a regulatory agency as a municipality,” County Attorney Josh Seabourn said. “Under 38.002, it states that a regulating agency may require electrial lines be buried. So my takeaway from that is a county can’t require that, but a municipality can.”
The court decided to have further discussion with representatives of the City of Pampa to come to a solid agreement about the extent of what the county can and cannot do in regard to subdivisions, so the motion to consider the addition to the rules died at the table and no one agreed to move forward with the item.
The last item on the agenda was to recognize County Judge Chris Porter as a 4 Year Fellow of the Texas Judicial Academy with certification to be recorded in the minutes of the court, which was approved and without further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
