Hood County court orders IT RFP, forms temporary oversight committee after heated public questioning

Hood County Commissioners on Tuesday voted 3–2 to direct purchasing to issue RFP 2025-11 for county IT contract services and to establish a temporary IT oversight committee to develop recommendations for a permanent body.

The decision followed more than an hour of public testimony and technical discussion. Sam Goldsmith, representing an IT managed-services firm, told the court his company supports a dozen Texas counties and urged the panel to adopt guardrails for CJIS access and to include commissioners in any IT committee so elected officials understand costs and trade-offs. "If the commissioner's court is not engaged, then when it gets to commissioner's court, they don't feel like they're buying and they don't understand the complexities and cost," Goldsmith said during his remarks.

Commissioner Samuelson framed the RFP and committee as a response to recent departures in the county IT department and a third‑party audit (SLG Technologies) that, she said, found Hood County had more IT staff than industry benchmarks. She moved to issue the RFP and, later in the meeting, to form a temporary committee composed of county officials and volunteers to set priorities and develop guardrails; both motions passed 3–2. The motion to issue the RFP was seconded by Commissioner Andrews; the court designated Chris Morrison as the county point person to coordinate vendor tours and answer RFP questions.

Members debated committee composition and CJIS requirements. Goldsmith and other witnesses emphasized that volunteers or outside committee members who will view sensitive systems should meet CJIS-related background and training requirements. Goldsmith advised limiting public disclosure of security vulnerabilities and suggested an executive-session process for detailed vulnerability discussions. Commissioners asked for a prioritization matrix so urgent functions such as public safety and payroll are triaged ahead of lower‑priority requests.

Next steps: purchasing will issue RFP 2025-11 and the temporary oversight committee—named on the record and including the county clerk and county auditor among others—will meet to develop a recommended charter and guardrails for commissioner's court approval. The court also directed HR to post the IT director position and approved that recruitment unanimously earlier in the meeting.

The vote to issue the RFP was 3 in favor, 2 opposed; the motion to establish the temporary oversight committee passed by the same margin.