The Hockley County Commissioners’ Court met Monday for a budget meeting, where they discussed the financial situations and needs of a number of county offices Prior to getting fully into the agenda, the meeting was briefly interrupted by a group of women raising complaints over the Hockley County Library’s Pride Month display. Judge Sharla Baldridge explained that items not on the agenda couldn’t be discussed lawfully, and that the women would need to request that these items be added to the next meeting's agenda. The women left shortly after.
The court proceeded to discuss a potential need for an increased tax rate, while noting that Hockley County does have one of the lowest tax rates in the area.
The court emphasized that many county offices would have to be understanding of the city's financial situation, with preliminary totals being labeled “disappointing”. These totals demonstrate an 11% decrease in mineral values, most notably.
The court was sidetracked from the agenda temporarily to discuss their fears that local elected governments were becoming tokens due to the city’s and county's inability to properly fill offices, allowing state and national governments to step in and take over.
Back on the agenda, the court discussed the district attorney’s request for a $15,000 budget increase to add to an Assistant District Attorney’s (ADA) salary. The commissioners suggested not fulfilling the request unless it was necessary to keep the current ADA from giving up the position, in which case funds might be transferred from the County Sheriff’s Office.
The court also noted their displeasure in the fact that Cochran County benefitted from the use of Hockley’s ADA, without contributing to that salary outside of an SB 22 Bill money, which is given to Hockley and Cochran collectively, specifically to pay their ADAs.
Commissioners commented that Cochran County is presently maxed out on their budget, and therefore unable to contribute, leading to the suggestion that the new ADA work primarily in Hockley to keep it from subsidizing Cochran without return.
There was a request from the Justice of the Peace that the office’s auto allowance revert to the previous one, as an attempt to decrease the budget by preventing the necessity for travel wasn’t effective. The Commissioners suggested leaving the system as it was for budgetary reasons.
Several county offices were asking for money which the court felt was unwarranted, as their offices had excess funds in certain departments that could be moved around to fill needs, instead of using county funds, including tax assessor’s office, Child Protection Services, and the Hockley County Memorial Library.
Judge Baldridge suggested that in their next preliminary budget report, county offices be informed not to ask for increased funds if there was a possibility in moving money around internally, which would save the Commissioner’s Court the trouble of going through excess requests. The judge also stated that, because the budget is going to be tight, the first thing she’d consider cutting is “conference budgets before salaries or positions.” This statement was mainly in regard to the tax assessor’s office and Agriculture Extension office.
The last major item discussed was regarding a request from District 4 to hire someone with no Commercial Driver’s License to drive heavy equipment. Multiple commissioners stated that they had hired people to drive heavy equipment who did not have CDL if they were not authorized to drive certain vehicles and it haden’t been a problem.
The commissioners suggested an alteration in the current policy which states only those with CDL’s can be hired, as well as a change in policy to clarify that they would no longer pay for CDL training for those wishing to earn their licenses.
Those were the primary requests and issues addressed during the meeting, all of which will be readdressed during the court’s next meeting on June 22.