Summary
At a budget workshop Aug. 7, Van Zandt County officials discussed restoring indigent legal defense funding to $300,000, adding a $50,000 IT contingency for maintenance and software, and adjusting dispatch staffing pay; several equipment requests were deferred for later review.
Van Zandt County commissioners and staff reviewed adjustments to the proposed fiscal-year budget during an Aug. 7 workshop, restoring a requested indigent legal defense line to $300,000, creating a $50,000 contingency for information-technology software and maintenance, and discussing pay changes and a new position in the sheriff’s dispatch group. The discussion covered equipment requests including cameras and passport-photo printers, tasers for constables, and a not-yet-funded in-car camera system for hospital police.
County Judge (name not provided) said he would restore the county’s indigent legal defense allocation to $300,000 after a request from the court’s legal representatives; staff described that as roughly a $50,000 increase from the draft budget. The clerk’s office reported postage use and asked that the postage line be restored to $1,400 based on recent purchasing and price increases.
IT staff reported a new approach to budgeting recurring software and maintenance contracts: instead of leaving those costs in contingency, the county will move $50,000 into the IT budget as a specific contingency line for software and maintenance. The judge said departments would still be able to move funds from contingency as needed, and that the county would try to give the county judge freedom to sign certain contracts once funds are appropriated.
Sheriff’s office requests included adding a corporal-level dispatcher to act as a backup supervisor. The exact dollar figure discussed for that dispatcher increase was unclear in the transcript and was described as needing more precise calculation before formal adoption. Commissioners asked for clarification before committing to new recurring salary lines.
Equipment requests discussed during the workshop included a $12,000 estimate for a hospital-specific in-car camera setup (staff said the hospitals would likely need their own system, separate from the county’s Motorola/WatchGuard installation), and passport-photo camera/printer purchases for a county office. Constables asked for $1,500 each to buy tasers; commissioners asked staff to seek grant funding as well.
On staffing, the court discussed several department salary changes and support positions; the judge and commissioners cautioned that the total increase in salaries, health-insurance premiums and new positions had increased the draft budget by more than $1 million compared with last year and asked department heads to refine requests so the court could prioritize.
No final votes were taken in the workshop; commissioners directed staff to prepare revised budget documents and follow-up agenda items for future court consideration.
The county will return to the budget at subsequent meetings to finalize line items and any contract authority changes.
