The Hockley County Commissioners’ Court held a budget workshop Monday to hear and discuss the Justice of the Peace, elections office, courthouse maintenance and information technology departments proposed 2024 budgets.
Precinct five Justice of the Peace Judge Derek Lawless requested a budget increase to hire a third-part time clerk to aide all of the Justice of the Peace Judge’s with clerical work such as court filings and billing. Lawless explained that the clerks are currently assisting other Justice of the Peace Judges with payments due to their limited schedules throughout the week allowing citizens to have more time to do so.
Lawless said he has seen an increase in payments being made by offering citizens the alternative option of paying at his office. Even though there is an online payment portal, Lawless said there are still people that are unable to complete the online payment process and prefer to pay in person.
Lawless also said since his office has started filing cases for other Justice of the Peace Judges the efficiency has increased and allows the case process to be completed quicker.
Lawless also mentioned a $2,000 request that was approved during the previous budget meeting on Tuesday June 6.
Lawless had a seminar increase of $500 pending the hire of a third part-time clerk. Lawless said he sees a great need in Hockley County for a pre-trial services program. He has also seen an increase in bond conditions.
Elections Administrator Jody Rose discussed the lack of election workers with the potential increase of early voting time pending a Texas Bill waiting to be passed. Rose requested roughly $23,000 for election workers in 2024.
Rose also increased the 2024 election supplies budget due to additional elections being held and rising supplies costs. Rose decreased the office supplies budget due to the previous budget including the funds needed to purchase a filing cabinet.
Rose then discussed his budget for seminars and training. County Judge Sharla Baldridge felt the budget was high but Rose explained gas expenses for elections was also included in this portion of the budget. Rose was also notified of an upcoming security update required by the state that will increase his budget. Rose requested roughly $33,000 total and informed the court he did not attend the Texas Association of Counties conference this year due to not having enough money in the budget.
The Court questioned why he was not able to go after seeing roughly $3,000 in the seminar and training portion; Rose said he was saving the money for a legal update meeting from the Secretary of State in August.
Rose is not anticipating any unexpected expenses but did mention potential election bills coming up in a special session.
Randy Ferguson with the courthouse maintenance department discussed the 2024 budget. Ferguson first informed the Court about the courthouse, law enforcement and DHS parking lots needing preventative parking lot maintenance with seal coating. Ferguson used the price based off of the 2017 expense for crack filling, sealing and striping but the Court anticipates the cost to be higher.
Ferguson discussed an HVAC unit replacement at the Hockley County Adult Probation building cost at approximately $15,000 and courthouse lawn tree trimming for $12,000. The county barn also needs a heater replacement. The court discussed using the permanent improvement line item to address this issue.
Ferguson informed the Court that an individual wanted a new line item added to the budget for jail expenditures to reflect where it was going. Ferguson explained it has been coming out of the new equipment portion of his budget.
Ferguson then brought up the issue of appliance wear and tear in the jail. He explained the walk-in-cooler from previous discussion was never pursued. Baldridge suggested some of the requests being made should be taken out of the $60,000 repairs and replacement line item.
When asked, Ferguson explained the jail appliances often need replacement due to negligence and abuse and not because they are broken or old.
Cole Kirkland Emergency Management coordinator submitted a revised budget from the previous budget meeting held Tuesday, June 6.
The court then briefly discussed the large amount requested from the mineral services department due to the budget not increasing for the last 10 years. The court addressed the cost increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how they believe the county should be cognitive on how the taxpayers money is being spent.
The budget meeting was concluded with CTSI IT services discussing their 2024 budget report. The budget report began with infrastructure updates to servers and support which are expected to take place in 2025. The estimated replacement cost for projects and renewals for 2024 was $78,000, including roughly $31,000 for warranty and software licensing renewal and roughly $46,000 for courthouse host replacement.
The price of services has not increased since 2019, but will increase from $10,286 to $13,378 monthly due to inflation. The CTSI team explained they did not increase each year in order to complete larger technology projects throughout the county.
The CTSI team proposed multifactor authentication and gave the Court an estimate for future use. It was explained that cybersecurity insurers may start requiring multifactor authentication, but it is not currently necessary.
The total 2024 budget for information technology services is $204,253. The CTSI team has advised that an annual increase is highly likely given the rate of inflation.