About eight months ago, Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis told the Ector County Commissioners’ Court that he believed the jail can make a million dollars from selling e-cigarettes to inmates.
Griffis is scheduled to speak to the Court about that very topic during Tuesday’s meeting.
The agenda item of “consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve the sale of e-cigarettes to inmates at no cost to the county or taxpayers; all proceeds collected will be used at the Ector County Detention Center” will be heard along with others at 10 a.m. in the commissioners courtroom at the Ector County Administration Annex, Room 120, 1010 East Eighth St.
“We are not only looking at this as a behavioral tool, but a financial tool to help offset some of the taxpayer-funded items that we have to provide inmates in the jail,” Griffis said. “We hope to implement it within the next few weeks.”
Griffis explained to the Odessa American the cost of the e-cigarette will be $3.85 each that come in a 50-count package.
The jail plans to have an initial order of 1,000. The cost to the inmates will be $14 that includes $1.07 in sales tax. Griffis said there will be stipulations for inmates to purchase an e-cigarette with their commissary funds.
Griffis said inmates can only purchase and have one e-cigarette at a time. Griffis said before the inmate can purchase another e-cigarette they have to return their initial e-cigarette purchase. Griffis also explained that if the e-cigarette has been tampered with that inmate won’t be able to purchase anymore e-cigarettes.
“If it’s abused, that inmate will not be eligible to get another one,” Griffis said.
Griffis also will discuss with the Court the sale of pizza for inmates at no cost to the county or taxpayers.
Though the plans and figures to allow inmates to vape is more concrete, Griffis said the pizza proposal is still in the works.
“We are hoping at some point we can do that as a fundraising mechanism, but we haven’t got the particulars worked out on that deal yet,” he said.
The Court will also discuss the retirement of Justice of the Peace for Precinct No. 1 Terry Lange. Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett said the Court received Lange’s resignation letter and his last day will be April 30.
After the Court discusses the retirement of Lange, the Court will discuss approving the job posting/acceptance of resumes and interview process for the Justice of the Peace for Precinct No. 1. Fawcett said this position will be up for re-election in 2024 and again in 2026 to get back on the same election cycle as the three other Justice of the Peace offices.
“The challenge is that office is the largest of our four Justice of the Peace offices with the heaviest case load,” Fawcett said. “What we are going to be asking of this new JP — Judge Lange has been there well over 20 years — is going to be quite a bit. We are going to be certainly wanting somebody who is sharp. Somebody who understands with some level of degree of what it takes to run a Justice of the Peace office.”
The Court is set to discuss the evaluation, ranking engineer’s responses, to the Request for Qualifications for Engineering Services for the building of the Gardendale Water Distribution Project. This is part of the $4.5 million of ARPA Funds that were granted in 2022.
Fawcett said this is the first of many steps into the water project in Gardendale.
“The first is getting the engineering, the next is going out to find all the builders and everybody else to actually install all of this and then we will be seeing the project breaking ground,” he said.
The Court will also:
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to amend the Commissioners’ Court schedule for Ector County for the 2022-2023 term in regard to changing the meeting of April 25 at 10 a.m. to April 20 at 10 a.m.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve Downtown Odessa to use the Ector County Courthouse lawn and parking lot on Saturday, July 1st, 2023, for the Firecracker Fandango 2023 event.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve a Resolution in support of HJR 111 by Representative Landgraf for the creation of the Texas STRONG Defense Fund, and authorize the County Judge, County Commissioners, and County Clerk to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to authorize the Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, Houston, Texas, and the Institute of Geological Sciences Polish Academy of Sciences, researcher/research team, Dr. Ann Losiak, to conduct fieldwork/site evaluation at the Odessa Meteor Crater, located in Ector County, Texas.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action regarding postponing the bid for the West 42nd Street from FM 1936 to Knox Avenue Improvements (Bid #23-04-12-01). The bid specifications for West 42nd Street Improvements (Bid #23-04-12-01) were developed by the Highways & Streets Department, the Purchasing Department, and Landgraf, Crutcher, & Associates. Additional testing of the current base is necessary and adjustments must be done to the specifications. It was decided that it is in the best interest of the County and of prospective bidders to cancel this solicitation and provide updated specifications.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve the agreement between Permitium, LLC and Ector County in order to issue vital records through online requests at no cost to Ector County, and authorize the County Judge to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve the proposed agent agreement from Rapid Financial Solutions, for services related to paying jurors for jury duty via Jury Card Payment Program of CourtFunds, powered by Rapid Financial Solutions, and authorize the County Judge to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action regarding the proposal from Kofile Technologies, Inc., for the 2023 Project for the Archival Imaging and Preservation of District Clerk Records, with Kofile’s TXMAS Contract No. TXMAS-18-3602, and authorize the County Judge to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve a line item transfer to Law Library Fund, Other Insurance, 003-700-5275 from Subscriptions, 003-700-5207 for $71, and authorize the County Judge and County Clerk to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve a budget amendment to General Fund, Library, Library Supplies, 001-690-5185 for $4,053, to New Books, 001-690-5201 for $758, to Subscriptions, 001-690-5207 for $189 and to Donated Revenues, 001-4171 for $5,000, and authorize the County Judge and County Clerk to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve a budget amendment to appropriate funds for the 42nd Street project to Sales Tax Fund, Public Works, Improvements and Construction, 005-810-5509, from Unreserved Fund Balance, 005-3310, for $4,000,000.00, and authorize the County Judge and County Clerk to sign all documents associated with this agenda item.
- Consider, discuss, and take any necessary action to approve the Accounts Payable Fund Requirements Report for April 11th, 2023, and review County financial statements and reports.
