Ward County court approves emergency budget amendments, including hospital line-item changes

Ward County's Commissioners' Court unanimously approved emergency amendments to several 2024 county budgets during its Sept. 23 meeting in Monahans. The court described the situation as an "emergency" and a "grave public necessity," and voted to amend accounts across the General Fund, Road & Bridge Fund and several forfeiture and hospital-related funds.

The minutes list multiple hospital account entries and amounts recorded as part of the amendment, including numeric examples shown in the packet: $33,000.00, $50,000.00, $42,000.00, $25,000.00 and $16,000.00 assigned to various hospital accounts and revenue lines. The record also shows balanced line-item subtotals (e.g., 63,635.00 / -63,635.00 and 263,755.00 / -263,755.00) indicating the presented adjustments were offset in the packet the court approved.

The county also recorded department-level adjustments affecting Information Technology, courthouse maintenance, jail repairs, community centers, parks and permanent improvements, including a listed decrease to General Fund expense of $14,000.00 and a permanent improvements entry of $15,270.00. The court approved the package on a motion by Commissioner Tino Sanchez, seconded by Commissioner Larry Hanna, adopted unanimously.

The minutes present many line-item account numbers and paired debit/credit amounts; where the minutes contain ambiguous or typographic entries in the scanned record, the approved motion and totals are recorded but some per-line clarifications were not specified in the minutes. The court did not take separate action on the hospital's monthly financial review, which was presented for review only.