On Monday, June 16, Judge Porter and the county commissioners held their bi-monthly meeting, opening with public comment from Sena Brainard.
“Last month, I realized I may have looked possibly in the wrong place for the agenda, so on Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday, I looked for the agenda and once again, it wasn’t there. I know for sure that the agenda was not published again on the website. That is required by law and I looked on the calendar where it says agendas, and you had the June 2, 2025 one, but there’s not another agenda. As I stated in the previous meeting back I believe in the first of May, the only excuse for this agenda not being made public on your website, and the footnote for it is Pampa ISD, is if your website is not working. I also understand that lots of times if you’re on the serve on the computer and you’re the one uploading it, it will appear that you have uploaded, but because you’re in that system, it might not be appearing to the public. Which under the state of Texas open meetings law, it must appear. That’s not me saying this, it’s the state of Texas concerning the open meetings laws. And it also has to do with anything that could be possibly voted on. And if this citizen doesn’t agree with it, they can file a lawsuit against the county and have y’all in violation of those meetings laws and then the county will have to reimburse that person their attorney fees and you can also face a fine by the Attorney General and everything else. No citizen should have to get up like me today and have to drive down to the courthouse. It’s easy for me-I’m lucky I only live about 10 minutes away. The people in the county down in McLean, Lefors or Grandview Hopkins, they’re not as lucky as me. They can’t jump up and drive down here really quick. There’s farmers and all sorts of people that have to work. I’m lucky I had to stop and do my payroll today and could come down here and take my three minutes. And you know, Number 7 on this agenda, a lot of people might be interested in this especially individuals owning water rights. Number Seven: deliberating regarding economic development negotiations-there’s a whole lot of people owning property in this town that might have been interested in that, but they didn’t know unless they drove down here and walked into this courthouse. I’m not for sure if the door gets locked at 1 o’clock on Friday and if they have to be here at a certain time before the office closes. I’m not ever going to sue you or report you for that $500 fine to the Attorney General, but somebody else might. Thank you so much.”
Next on the agenda was to consider the minutes of the previous agenda, and it was during this time when Commissioner Hudson asked Judge Porter if the meeting had been posted.
Judge Porter informed Commissioner Hudson that the last meeting had been posted, but the current meeting hadn’t and it was due to the system that handles the county’s website provided through TAC. He also said that he had posted the agenda within the courthouse 72 hours before the scheduled meeting, staying within the compliance required by the state.
The next items were to pay the bills as presented by the County Auditor, to consider any line-item transfers, and to consider any budget amendments; all were approved.
Next was to accept the County Treasurer’s monthly report and to accept the County Clerk’s report; all were accepted.
Next was to discuss and consider approval of a replacement member for the Gray County Sick Pool Committee, where County Treasurer Terri Kitchens gave her recommendation.
“We have one that retired so we are going to replace him. There are a certain amount of people we need and we do have to have an equal number as far as male and female on the committee and a variety of departments. So we pulled some precinct guys, we have called them all, and they’re okay if they’re chosen. I just wanted to point out to you that Ignacio Vargas was very humbled and very honored that he would even be considered, and I thought that was important. So you can pick whoever you want, but he’s a younger guy and that might be a good thing.”
The court went with Terri’s recommendation and nominated Ignacio Vargas on to the Sick Pool Committee.
The court then went into an Executive Session regarding economic development negotiations.
After about an hour and a half of deliberation, the court came back into session where Judge Porter addressed the next four items on the agenda.
“Had a hiccup on the next agenda items. Number eight is to discuss and consider approving renovation of the Tax Asseessor and Collector’s spare office space on the first floor of the courthouse for Justice of the Peace 2 & 4 offices; and then to discuss and consider approving renovation of the Sheriff’s Department meeting room for office space for Precinct 1 & 3 and Precinct 2 Constables; and then to discuss and consider the purchase of property located at 303 N. Frost for office space for Gray County Juvenile Probation offices; and then to discuss and consider the abandonment and sale of the property known as the Lovett Building at 1146 N. Hobart. There has been an issue come up with one of these properties that we have to resolve before we can take action and that kind of affects all properties. I would request that the Commissioners Court postpone Numbers 8, 9, 10 and 11 and I’ll ask for individual postponements for those items.”
Agenda items 8, 9, 10 and 11 were each postponed, and Judge Porter addressed the court again regarding those items.
“All of those items were tied to one issue with a property that was brought to my attention 30 minutes ago by our auditor and we need to get that resolved before we make any decisions concerning property, so we will have that on the next agenda.”
The last item on the agenda was to discuss and consider any action concerning the expired TLETS (Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System) and CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) certifications for the Gray County Sheriff as an individual representing Gray County as Gray County Sheriff.
“This was brought to my attention last week that the Pampa Police Department dispatchers are more than likely going to go through an audit and it is their responsibilty to make sure that everyone in TLETS and CJIS have their certification, and the sheriff does not,” Judge Porter said. “TLETS, I believe is from 2019 and expired and CJIS from September of last year has expired. Logan, correct me if I’m wrong on this, but my understanding is in order to do criminal background checks, accept criminal histories, do 27, 28, 29 checks, you have to have the certification to be able to do that?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Logan replied.
“Everyone else is in compliance except for him. So he cannot have information of a suspect or a defendant or things of that nature without this certification, correct?”
“Pretty much, yes,” Logan answered.
“Which would be a requirement for him being a licensed peace officer, correct? I know I’m putting you on the spot here.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want the Pampa Police Department’s dispatch being that we are contracted with them to be our dispatchers, to be hit with some sort of action because he is not certified. So my suggestion would be to send a letter to the office of the governor, to the DPS, and to the Texas Attorney General notifying them that he does not have the certification. Is that out of line or is there someone else I should send that to?”
“The most important people to know that are the dispatchers and the people that work with him,” Logan said. “They should know that he can’t request and they can’t share information.”
“So is the commissioner’s court in favor of notifying the DPS that he is no longer certified?”
The commissioners agreed.
“He has been notified by email, but he has not responded. Is there anyone else that you think needs to be notified?”
The commissioners had no other suggestions.
So Judge Porter made a motion to send a letter notifying DPS that the sheriff is not in compliance with TLETS and CJIS and also the Pampa Police dispatch, to which all the commissioners agreed.
With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
