Ho. Co. Commissioners Change Meeting Dates

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – As summer begins to fade away and the leaves change to their autumn shades of orange, red and yellow, the meeting dates of the Houston County Commissioners Court will also be changing.

During a Thursday morning, Oct. 5 court session, the commissioners adopted a new day of the week on which to hold their meetings. For the past several years, the commissioner’s court has convened on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.

A recent opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated all county payroll disbursements must be approved by individual county commissioners’ courts.

Because Houston County pays employees on a bi-weekly basis on Fridays, the court was forced to adopt a meeting schedule where the court will convene on the first and third Thursday of the month.

“I thought we had this the way we wanted it but it looks like we are going to have to change this to the first and third Thursday’s of the month,” County Judge Jim Lovell said. “Plus, there will be a lot of special meetings. There is no way around that.”

“This is due to an AG opinion that was requested out of Walker County. We talked about this in depth at the last meeting. We are just changing the dates. We thought that the second and fourth (Thursdays) would be the best time, but due to some scheduling conflicts, the first and third (Thursdays) seem to work better,” the county judge said.

In other matters brought before the court:

• The commissioners approved the minutes from previous meetings.
• The payment of bills and expenses incurred by the county were approved.
• Budget amendments were approved by the court.
• The Houston County Environmental and the Community Service Reports were received as information by the commissioners.
• The court approved an increase in the salary of a clerk in the Houston County Clerk’s office, along with salary increases for road hands in Precinct Three.
• A donation from Forrest Hodges Logging in the amount of $1,050 was accepted by the court for road improvements to CR 1655.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].