Houston County Commissioners Handle HR Issues
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – The Houston Country Commissioners Court met for a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, July 11 to go over a number of housekeeping projects from health care for county employees, several raises and personnel adjustments and transfers of under-used equipment between departments.
The commissioners approved a temporary part-time clerk for the county clerk’s office to replace an employee who will be on maternity leave. The court hired two new jailers on a probationary status and promoted several Sheriff’s Department jailers to jail sergeants. Those promoted to sergeant were:
- Theresa Hayes
- Matthew Graham
- Weston Reeves
- James Hallmark
The commissioners approved a number of transfers between departments of many items in order to allocate those resources where they are most needed. The county IT department will now be mobile, receiving a 2009 Chevy Tahoe, allowing the department to move more easily around county offices to work on computer and network issues. The vehicle came from the county attorney’s office who recently received a newer model they dubbed, “the spaceship” since it has so many newer features compared to the older model.
Other items transferred included window air conditioning units, file drawers and cabinets and scanners and ink for printers. The county must notate any equipment moved from one department to another to keep track of those items in their bookkeeping.
Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) were signed between the county and the City of Lovelady and the City of Grapeland and the Grapeland Fire Department for the installation of radio repeater equipment to be installed on the water towers in each city for use by emergency responders.
Money was approved to purchase a new dishwasher for the Houston County Jail and Houston County Sheriff Randy Hargrove also requested funds to purchase items to create “trauma kits” for his department. Hargrove told the court the commercially available trauma kits tend to include items the department does not use or need and he found he could purchase the items separately and make his own kits cheaper. The kits would include items the deputies are trained on and will need, instead of wasting money for pre-made kits containing items which would never be used. Commissioner Gene Stokes told Hargrove he could help with this and the matter was tabled until the next meeting when Stokes and Hargrove could present a plan to the court.
The court then spent over an hour discussing and debating the health care programs for county officials. Commissioners asked many questions about all of the proposals, from health care, vision, dental and life insurance – to make sure these were good plans both from a financial standpoint and for the county employees themselves.
The court then went into executive session to work on negotiations for economic development.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
