On Thursday, October 1, the Gray County Commissioners held their first meeting of the month, beginning with members of the Gray County 4-H Council addressing the commission about the importance of 4-H and the impact it has made in their own lives.
“I would like to introduce to you our 4-H Council,” Joan Gray-Soria, County Extension Agent - Family and Community Health said. “This is a great group of young leaders. For some of them, this is their first time to serve in office on the council and some of them are returning. I’d like for them to introduce themselves and highlight what they do.”
Gavin Greer
“I’m this year’s Council Chairman and this is my eighth year in 4-H. The projects I do are swine, shotgun, and meat judging. One thing that 4-H has taught me is how to be a leader and how to speak in front of people.”
Landon Greer
“I’m the chair’s delegate at large and I’ve been in 4-H for five years. One thing that 4-H has taught me is lots of responsibility, time management and leadership skills. I’m in swine and livestock judging.”
McKinlee Clark
“I’m the first vice chairman of the Gray County 4-H Council and I’ve been in 4-H for five years. I do livestock judging, archery, sewing, photography, food nutrition, public speaking, and consumer education. 4-H has taught me to be more confident whenever I’m speaking in front of people.”
Hope Thasher
“I am second vice chairman and this is my third year in 4-H. What 4-H has taught me is a lot of responsibility and how to shoot a shotgun. I am in shotgun and archery.”
Rebekah Wilson
“I am this year’s delegate at large for the Gray County 4-H Council. I am in horse judging, shotgun, and I show lambs. One thing that 4-H has taught me is that having friends who make sure you’re accountable and make sure that they push you to do your best is very important.”
Logan Thasher
“I’m the reporter for the Council and I’ve been in 4-H for three years. I do archery and shotgun. One thing that 4-H has taught me is how to gain courage to talk better in front of people.”
After the introductions, Joan addressed the commission on the accomplishments and awards received by the members during the Tri-State Fair competitions.
“I just want to brag a little bit because some of these kids went to the Tri-State Fair and represented Gray County. Gavin served as a junior fair board director this year and in that position, he gave back 27 hours of work to the fair helping with the different contests, setting up, breaking down, and that type of thing. We’re really proud of Gavin for doing that part. And Rebekah competed in two contests over there this last week with horse judging as well as public speaking. We had a great turnout this year with more than 20 kids participating. We brought home some championships-Braun Lashmet got the junior best overall public speaking award, and then Braun and Harper brought home the sheep championship awards. Raylee Knox got the best overall photo for the junior division, Nicole Price won best in show with her cooking, Stephanie Price got the best in show with her quilt, and there were other blue ribbons won in the livestock show. The kids have done an outstanding job and have worked really hard, and we can thank their hard work as well as their parents’ and the leaders we have in Gray County.”
With no further comment or discussion, Judge Porter and the commmissioners moved to declare October 4 through October 10 as National 4-H Week.
The next items on the agenda were to consider the minutes of the previous meeting, pay the bills as presented by the County Auditor, and consider any line-item transfers and budget amendments if any; all were approved.
Next was to discuss and consider an engagement letter from Doshier, Pickens, & Francis LLC for the fiscal year 2026-2027 audit for Gray County, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider a negotiated offer for a five-year contract with the USDA at the Annex Building, beginning January 1, 2028.
“They are paying us $13 a square foot, and I have negotiated that up to $19 a square foot,” Judge Porter said. “I don’t think we’re done negotiating, but for some reason he is just chomping at the bit. I don’t know if it’s a budgetary constraint for the federal government or what. He tried to set a deadline for yesterday and I told him no. If y’all are okay with the $19 as a floor and if I can negotiate it up anymore, would you give me the authority to agree to what the final would be?”
“Does the five-year contract still stay the same?” Commissioner Jeff Haley asked.
“Yes, it all stays the same except for the price. It took us some time to get up to the $19, but I really think we can get a little more out of him.”
With no further discussion, the commission approved allowing Judge Porter to continue negotiations, making the $19 the floor price.
Next was to discuss and consider minimum financial reporting requirements for county-wide volunteer fire departments to be eligible to receive a budgeted contribution, with County Auditor Carla Carter addressing the commission.
“I did get the information I requested from the McLean Volunteer Fire Department, the young lady there was very helpful in trying to send me everything they have to not have an audit. I get monthly statements from the Lefors Volunteer Fire Department and they’ve been doing a great job. The only information that I have received from Hoover is the list of their fire runs. I’ve been in talks with Bill Campbell telling him exactly what I needed, but so far I haven’t received anything from them except their list of fire runs. He is telling the fire chief there what I’m requesting, but it seems like he doesn’t want to give me that information.”
“So obviously in the past, it was required to have more scrupulous review of expenses because it’s $45,000 the county has offered,” Judge Porter said. “Lefors gives you a monthly Quickbooks, right?”
“Yes, bank statements, bank reconciliations, profit and loss, expense statements, everything.”
“I don’t think anybody wants to divulge who their donations come from because they don’t want somebody else yanking donations out from under them. Are the donors listed on those?”
“No.”
“It’s just a number?”
“Yes.”
“I talked to Julie Sims, she is handling the finances for Lefors Volunteer Fire Department, and I asked her if they would have a problem with us sending a copy to both fire departments and saying this is what we would like to have. But I think there needs to be action on this from the Commissioners Court as this would require them to get the yearly stipend. We need to have a formal set of requirements of what we are going to accept, so how do you want to do this? I say that what Lefors provides with Quickbooks should be provided by the other departments. McLean is not set up on Quickbooks, right?”
“Not yet, but she’s trying.”
“But Hoover is, right?”
“I don’t know.”
“So do we require a Quickbooks summary once a month, or do we require it once a quarter? How do you want go about doing this?”
“I think we need verification of where money is being spent,” Jeff said. “It’s in the public interest. Talking to Carla before we started, we can require a lot of information, but if we’re not careful, we’re just having the County Auditor conduct all the business and doing all the work to verify everything. Perhaps an audit could be the best thing, but those are expensive. We can request that, but we can also request some other sources of information that the auditor can maybe look at without having to comb through all of their stuff.”
“The consistency helps on a monthly basis,” Carla said. “I know exactly what to look for. It would be easier for my office if we did get them monthly.”
“We talked about bank statements, but the problem with those is for a debit card, there’s no detail on the charges,” Jeff said. “It just says ‘Walmart’, but you don’t know if someone went into Walmart and bought tires for their personal vehicle. I guess it would be helpful, but you’re still having to go through the bank statements and that’s county time.”
“It is, but for example McLean writes checks for their utilities and uses the debit card for other things, and so does Lefors. Most of it is going to be done through a debit card,” Carla said. “Not everybody has to use Quickbooks. If they could just write a list of what they spent and where they spent it.”
“I think we need to be able to have a menu of things that could suffice the verification process to allow the departments on what their capabilities are to afford,” Jeff said.
“That and if they’re keeping track of it,” Carla said. “I asked one of the departments how they keep track of how much money they have, and they said that they look at the bank.”
“My understanding in talking to Carla is one of the departments said they were going to be out of money by the end of the month,” Jeff said. “But they can’t or won’t furnish their expenditures. My question is how do you know when you’re going to run out of money if you don’t keep track of what you’re spending? How does that work?”
“I think it’s the confusion of what we want information-wise,” Judge Porter said. “Do want bank statements? Do you want Quickbooks? Do you want an audit? And that’s where we’re at. We need to be able to get this down to-you can’t just put a profit and loss statement up every year because we’ve already seen how that works and what can come from that. We’re looking at Lefors because Lefors is the pinnacle of what we want for our other fire departments. I think the Quickbooks are an equivalent of monthly bank statements.”
“Of all accounts-CDs and any other investments, and bank reconciliations,” Carla said. “And then a list of their number and time of runs.”
EMS Director Jacob Clifton was asked about reporting practices for his department.
“Does your department make reports to Carson County?” Jeff asked.
“So we’re a little bit different. We make an annual report to the County Commissioners Court and to the judge of what we do. We have an emergency services district that we monthly have to provide various depth reports to. With the ESD, we do monthly P&L balance sheets and bank statements, and we also have to break down our runs.”
“Do you furnish financial documents also?” Commissioner John Mark Baggerman asked.
“We recently had this exact conversation about a forensic audit, and the quote we got was about $12,000 per department. So they decided to back off that and push everything to monthly reports.”
David Sims from the Lefors Volunteer Fire Department was also in attendance and was addressed by the commission.
“Are we sticking our nose too far into your department’s business for what we’re asking?” John asked.
“It is my opinion that we are accountable to every citizen of Gray County. So if you want to know what our financial records look like, just ask. If anybody on the street wants to know what our financial records looks like, just ask. We’d be happy to show you.”
After a little more discussion with Carla on her recommendation, the commission approved to set the minimum financial requirements for county-wide volunteer fire departments to be eligible to receive budgeted contribution contigent upon providing monthly bank statements, bank reconciliations, profit and loss balance sheet, run report, or any other documentation approved by the County Auditor.
Next was to discuss and consider an interlocal agreement with the Texas Department of Public Safety Drivers License Division for a new Texas Conviction Reporting Interface Agreement, which was approved.
Next was to discuss and consider a new copier contract for the County Clerk’s office, which was approved.
Next was to consider approving the following tax bids for delinquent properties: FM749 with $8,358 in taxes due and approved for the bid amount of $401, 937 S. Faulkner with $6,601 taxes due and approved for the bid amount of $800, 1304 E. Francis with $5,587 taxes due and approved for the bid amount of $350, 1125 Varnon with $4,004 taxes and approved for the bid amount of $351, 1137 Varnon with $2,605 and approved for the bid amount of $351, 1109 Neel with $2,438 taxes due and approved for the bid amount of $350, and 408 Graham with $4,360 in taxes due and approved for the bid amount of $400.
Last on the agenda was to approve the request for replacement of an employee in Precinct 3, which was approved and the meeting was adjourned.
