Much of Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Polk County Commissioners Court was spent explaining a routine budget amendment that was proposed to pay for expenses the Court has already approved. More spectators than usual attended the meeting after some in the community expressed concern that County Judge Sydney Murphy, a lame duck, was depleting the county coffers prior to her exit from office.
The item in question was to take action on a resolution authorizing a budget amendment to utilize general fund reserves in the amount of $8,285,883 for out-of-county inmate housing, sheriff’s office and jail capital projects, the district attorney office remodel, and distributions to the road and bridge precincts and the restoration projects fund.
“The county began FY 2027 with a general fund balance of approximately $20.6 million. We’re about 59% of budget general fund expenses. County financial policy requires a minimum balance of 25% of annual expenses and the Court prefers to keep at least 35%. After this amendment included for your review the balance is projected to remain above 35%,” Murphy said.
“Three of the items carry out actions the Court has already taken. The out-of-county inmate housing agreement was approved on Sept. 8, 2026 for 180 days and the $1 million three hundred appropriation covers 12 months at the approved term. The jail board control and access system and the Trueline Construction remodel of the district attorney’s office were approved on Oct. 13, 2026. The flock licensing agreement, smoke purge fan project, dispatch console upgrade to 700 800-megahertz and microwave radio link repair are funding only,” Murphy said.
“Section 2 of the resolution only provides that each agreement or proposal must still come before the Court for approval before any payment is issued and the remaining $5 million nine hundred thousand is distributed to the four road and bridge precincts and the restoration projects fund for materials, capital purchases and infrastructure,” Murphy said.
The restoration projects fund DOES NOT include the Polk County Courthouse, but does include funds for the maintenance, upkeep and needed renovations of other county-owned buildings such as the Beatty building, the annex and the 4-H building.
“First of all, the comments that there was no planning would be false. That is completely inaccurate. The planning for some of these things has been going on since 2018. We built a communications tower with ARPA funds and local partnerships. We purchased 700 800-megahertz radios and so the majority of these capital projects basically we have already approved. We are moving forward with them but they were not provided prior to the budgeting. Since we have surplus funds, in the past we have either used our surplus funds to reduce our debt and it always happens after the budget is approved because first we have to make sure that we are living within our means and that we don’t need those additional surplus funds. So the total that would go to the sheriff’s office or the jail is the $2,370,108. All of those were already obligated, so in essence, basically we’re saying how we’re going to pay our bills,” Murphy said.
“We’ve already committed to paying those bills by approving them in Court. This is the way we can pay those bills without incurring debt for the county. The district attorney’s office remodel was also approved by the Court so again, we should pay our bills. The distribution that was set up, we have always taken surplus funds and have made distributions where they were needed as long as we maintained 35% in our budget,” she said.
“The distribution I believe last year was between $350,000-400,000 to each road and bridge as I recall. Based on the long-term formula, this is the amounts that would be distributed.
“The distribution to restoration projects funds, at this point, has $71,841 in that account right now because that money is utilized by maintenance when they have a large capital outlay that would deplete their regular operating budget, such as all the air conditioners on the annex, or the roof repairs on the annex. Those are not projected. The jail purge fan issue – how was the sheriff or the jail supposed to project that? All of this has been going on for, in some cases 12 years, and in some cases, four or five. So this is all long-term planning,” Murphy said.
“This does not include any recurring cost. There are no recurring costs. This is nothing but material, capital purchases, infrastructure.
“This county is in the best financial shape that its ever been in in forever. The concept that we’re just all of a sudden spending this money is inaccurate,” Murphy said.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Cassity moved that the Court approve the resolution with the four road and bridge precincts receiving only half of their distribution at this time. The motion passed, with Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark DuBose, also a lame duck, abstaining.
A request for a capital purchase to be paid from the capital purchase fund balance and included on the fiscal year 2027 reimbursement resolution for the year-end issuance of legally authorized debt was approved, specifically an information technologies request to purchase computers that are in the annual technology rotation, not to exceed $46,400.
The Court approved moving 457B to Church Street Financial Services since they are a local representative for Nationwide.
A request from the county clerk to increase the election expense line item to $45,000 was approved.
Action regarding RV park regulations was approved.
The Court approved accepting the award resolution from the Homeland Security Grant Program in the amount of $135,406.80 with no local match required for mobile automated fingerprint identification systems devices and a small unmanned aircraft system.
An update to the 2027 holiday schedule was approved.
Cassity was appointed to the IAH Public Board to fill the vacancy that will be left when Murphy resigns from the board when she leaves office.
The Court approved moving the second court meeting in November from Nov. 24 to Nov. 20 and combining the two December court meetings into one on Dec. 15.
Two items on the agenda were tabled until the January meetings. One was discussion and consideration of any and all updates for waste haulers fees, regulations and board of review. The other was a request from Cassity to change the job description from assistant to commissioner to assistant to commissioner with foreman duties.
Although a public hearing was held to receive public comment on a request to replat Red Horse Ridge Lot 3-A as Lots 3-A and 3-B-1, there were no comments and the Court approved the request.
In personnel matters, the Court approved the personnel action form requests submitted by department heads since the last meeting.
During the portion of the meeting designated for informational reports, Jennifer Moffett, the area manager for Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP, the county’s delinquent tax collection firm, presented the firm’s annual report.
“I have an informational report. We have a temporary restraining order against the county right now that was filed in Judge Wells’ court by Mr. Larry Pfeil and evidently there were some issues that we’ve forwarded to legal so please make sure that you follow the TRO to the letter,” Murphy said.
“We also have included for your packet the shred day information. Part of what happened is at one time the county, everybody just called and had someone come do the shredding and because that was inefficient and it was wasteful, the Court decided to move forward with organizing it and originally Becky Marsh through commissioners court set it up and then it was moved to procurement who is under grants and contracts and maintenance stays with them, so the people who signed up for shredding was the aging office, the district clerk, the county clerk research department, maintenance, the auditor’s office, HR, AgriLife, emergency management, JP 4, the treasurer and the veterans service officer. So anybody that is planning on doing any shredding, please do not destroy any documents and make sure that we remain legal,” Murphy said.
The consent agenda was approved. Lindell Mitchell of Livingston Church of Christ opened the meeting with prayer.
