The most recent Fisher County Commissioners Court proceedings were less heated than those of prior weeks, as a more than six-hour meeting on Monday conclude weeks of discussion and debate over the county’s roughly $5.4 million budget.
Fisher County Judge Ken Holt warned officials and those in attendance that a number of potential hot-button topics were on the day’s agenda and that he would tolerate no outbursts. The court is prone to frequent and often heated disputes amongst not only the commissioners but also other department heads and elected officials.
Debates during April's budget workshop escalated to the point Holt threatened officials with contempt of court and ultimately led to an early adjournment. In his opening statements to the court on Monday, Holt said for the remainder of the meeting and for any day moving forward, disruptions would result in a warning, and continued disruptions would result in a contempt of court charge and subsequent fine.
“I want everyone here to realize, this is a recognized court, and I expect everyone to treat it as such,” said Holt.
Since early discussions in June, there have been few but significant changes to the county's proposed budget. With a combination of designated funds assigned to the office and a $15,000 county contribution, the Fisher County Clerks Office will add an employee this year. The Fisher County Sheriff's Department was also approved to add a deputy.
With requests from other offices still pending, and the always controversial debate over salary increases remaining unresolved, the commissioners opened the proceedings with a roughly $111,000 surplus. Despite increased values and more than $100,000 of additional windfarm payments, the county had less revenue at its disposal because of debt accumulation.
Largely due to the commissioners’ big-ticket purchases for heavy equipment and new vehicles last year, the county racked up roughly $175,000 in additional long-term debt, the repayment of which is paid from the top of the county's maintenance and operations budget. Holt explained that the M&O revenues would be less this year because the county has not carried this much debt in some time.
During the meeting, commissioners heard from department heads and elected officials, pleading cases for various budget increases. District Attorney Ricky Thompson formally requested the court increase the contribution to his budget by $9000 to hire an additional assistant to help with an enormous backlog of cases due to the suspension of court proceedings during the pandemic.
The court also approved budgeting $14,000 in payments towards a West Texas Council of Governments (COG) Homeland Security Project Grant. The county received just under $60,000 for a project last year, but a second grant approved cost-prohibitive at the time.
After attending a recent cog meeting, Holt explained how funds remaining at the end of the grant cycle, once pooled together, allowed Fisher County to qualify for additional funding. He said it was essentially $129,000 in total grant funding for a $14,000 match.
Including the district officials’ requests, the grant match, budgeting for a vehicle to outfit the additional sheriff’s deputy, and the approval of a few lesser expensive requests, number-crunching revealed the commissioners had exceeded the surplus by roughly $50,000.
Officials pulled out calculators and combed through the budget page-by-page until well into the afternoon hours, making cuts to various line items while also approving a $1-per-hour increase to the courthouse administrative assistants. The court adjourned with only minor adjustments needed to balance the figures.
“We’re going to be right at it, but it will not be a deficit budget,” said Holt. The court is expected to meet again fir a public hearing to approve the budget on Monday and will adopt it and the FY 2022 Tax Rate in September.