Ector County Commissioners will hold the regularly scheduled meeting Monday to appoint a new county court at law judge for Ector County Court at Law No. 2 following the resignation of Judge Scott Layh.

The meeting is at 10 a.m. in the commissioners’ courtroom located in the Ector County Administration building annex, 1010 East Eighth St.

Layh formally resigned during the last Commissioners Court meeting Dec. 21, after being appointed to the post in 2014. He plans to return to his private law practice.

Following the judge’s announcement, Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Christopher Clark filed to run for Layh’s seat.

Commissioners will also officially recognize Clark’s resignation from his position as Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace during the Monday meeting.

Ector County Judge Ron Eckert previously said commissioners would consider appointing Clark to the seat, as there is no challenger for the position in the upcoming March Republican primary.

Eckert said they are unsure as of yet if they will choose to fill Clark’s JP seat during a future commissioner’s court meeting due to the large amount of candidates vying for the position. Precinct 2 Commissioner Greg Simmons previously said the decision to fill the justice of the peace vacancy would require a “much different discussion.”

Seven Republican candidates are running for Clark’s vacated justice of the peace position: Matthew Stringer, Marvin Jennings, Gary Dunda, Jet Brown, Missi Walden, Sheryl Jones and Steven Westfall.

No Democrats filed to run for the seat.

The agenda shows the commissioners court also plans to discuss legal matters, personnel matters and real estate issues during executive session.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, COMMISSIONERS

• will consider a request by Experience Works, anon-profit organization, for use of the vacant offices at the Northside Senior Center.

• will consider a request to install a four-way stop and all necessary signage associated with said installation at the intersection of West Flagstone Street and South Arrowhead Avenue.

• will consider a required resolution to apply for grant funds with the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission for a regional solid waste rants program.

• will accept the following donations to the Ector County Sheriff’s Office: $2,000 from the Fraternal Order of Police Odessa Lodge No. 1 for the ECSO Vest program, $4,000 from XTO Energy Inc., $312.50 from Hence Barrow, and will approve the purchase of a 2018 Tahoe to be used for the ECSO with Sheriff’s Office funds.

• will consider the proposed 2017 Sole Source List, a list of replacement parts required for county vehicles.

• will consider the proposed Abatement of Vehicles proposal specification.

• will consider a proposed agreement between Ector County and Bizodo Inc. doing business as SeamlessDocs, for unlimited storage and accessibility.

• will consider a MHRC-SUBIA for 0.21 acre Lot 26, Block 38, Western Hills Subdivision located at 12032 W. Barbara St.

• will consider a request by the City of Odessa to open cut for a waterline within North Dixie Boulevard from the alley south of East 57th Street to Yukon Road.

• will consider a proposed line item transfer to Courthouse Security Fund, Longevity Pay in the amount of $728 and to Cost of Living Allowance in the amount of $224 from Full Time Salaries in the amount of $952.

• will consider a proposed budget amendment from the unreserved fund balance to office supplies in the amount of $800 to purchase updated Labor Law posters for all county buildings.

• will review the Accounts Payable Fund Requirements Report for Jan. 8, 2018.

More than five weeks after city officials say they “resolved” a sexual harassment case involving the city attorney, the city refuses to say whether the legal assistant who filed a federal complaint received taxpayer money as part of the settlement.

That leaves the total costs to the public unclear ahead of City Attorney Larry Long’s departure next month.

An open records request filed by the Odessa American for records of any payments related to the sexual harassment case is pending, but the city declined to voluntarily disclose the information and plans to fight to withhold it.

City spokeswoman Andrea Goodson, citing direction from the city’s outside attorney, said she could not even confirm or deny the existence of a payment.

“I have learned a confidentiality agreement was included in the resolution of the sexual harassment complaint against Larry Long. Therefore, the only statement I can give you is ‘the matter has been resolved’.”

But open government experts say the city cannot spend public money in secret.

“They can’t write a confidentiality agreement just to write themselves out of the public information act,” said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, a nonprofit promoting open government. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Any payment of public funds is clearly public information, while other parts of a settlement may be public too, open government experts said.

“Do these officials realize these are taxpayer [dollars] — not their funds?” said Bill Aleshire, an Austin attorney who specializes in open government litigation. “The public has a right to know.”

The OA has also requested the cost of paying the city’s outside counsel, Odessa attorney Cal Hendrick, for work related to the sexual harassment case. The city has said it will release that figure after examining records (Hendrick represents the city in other matters, including the ongoing lawsuit filed by the OA in June alleging violations of Texas open meetings law).

The legal assistant filed a complaint this summer accusing Long of harassing her in ways such as touching her hair against her will and staring at her. An HR report obtained by the OA corroborated her account and pointed to behavior by Long such as sitting too close to her and calling her pet names.

Authors of the report, including HR Director Bonita Hall, who later resigned, noted it was repeated behavior from another sexual harassment case in 2007 that resulted in a month-long unpaid suspension for Long and reforms that went unheeded.

But the City Council never disciplined Long as the HR report recommended. Two City Council members who reviewed the July 24 report — District 5 Councilman Filiberto Gonzales and District 3 Councilwoman Barbara Graff — recommended against discipline for Long. The remaining three council members said they were not provided the HR report for months.

Hall later resigned. And the legal assistant filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The city anticipated a lawsuit.

The OA obtained the HR report in November as the city fought its release. On Dec. 19, the state Attorney General’s office ordered the release of the report. The city complied this week, but has yet to respond to other requests for other records related to the case.

Long announced his resignation on Nov. 28. Long said his last day would be Feb. 28, telling reporters he wanted to work through his next birthday for better retirement benefits and because he has work he wanted to continue. The city attorney has denied the allegations and repeatedly declined to discuss them.

After Long resigned, the city projected about another $10,800 toward Long’s retirement benefits through the state. Long’s current salary, after the City Council awarded him a 3 percent raise in November, is about $201,500.

The legal assistant remained a city employee after filing the complaint and was moved from the City Hall office where Long works. She has not responded to questions for comment after Long’s resignation.

As a safety-net hospital, Medical Center Health System is tasked with covering the cost of indigent and uncompensated care.

Unable to cover that cost with property and sales tax dollars alone, MCHS has been utilizing funds from the 1115 Medicaid Waiver to help bridge the ever-expanding gap, but until recently, the future of continuing to receive assistance through the waiver was uncertain.

On Dec. 21 Gov. Greg Abbott announced the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reached an agreement for the approval of the 1115 Demonstration Waiver for the next five years.

Abbott stated in the news release the new 1115 Waiver ensures funding will remain available for hospitals to treat and serve people across the state in need of top-quality healthcare. There was originally a 5-year Medicaid waiver started in 2012.

The renewal came at the end of a two-year effort by Abbott and Texas HHSC Executive Commissioner Charles Smith to “solidify an agreement that was workable, efficient and beneficial to Medicaid clients and healthcare facilities in Texas while maintaining responsibility with taxpayers,” the release stated.

“I committed to the people of Texas that we would focus on preserving access to care without expanding a broken Medicaid system under Obamacare,” Abbott said in the release.

MCH’s new President and CEO Rick Napper said the impact of that extension to MCH will be a positive one.

“We at MCH carry a heavy load of the indigent population and so that uncompensated care is why the 1115 Waiver was actually created, to be able to help cover that. So for us, that’s an important part. We can continue to serve the community in ways that other people aren’t serving them,” Napper said.

MCHS’ most recent annual report from 2016 shows a “summary of obligations for district tax support” for twelve months ending Sept. 30, 2016 — the end of the 2016 fiscal year. The Ector County Hospital District collected about $40 million in tax revenue, but the cost of uncompensated and indigent care at cost totaled about $88 million, leaving a shortfall of nearly $48 million.

Year-end totals for Fiscal Year 2017 included in a November finance committee board packet show the hospital district collected about $48 million in tax revenue. The cost of uncompensated and indigent care was not listed in the financial report.

Through the 1115 Waiver, the health system received about $14 million in net in Fiscal Year 2017, MCHS Spokesperson Rhonda Lewallen said.

As far as the final impact the extension will have on MCH, Napper said they do not yet know what that will look like because there were changes made recently in how hospitals have to submit for the waiver.

“We are actually in the process of making that transition, so as far as what it’s going to impact, I don’t have answers for you other than the fact that the extension in and by itself is a positive thing,” Napper said.

With Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer John O’Hearn leaving the administration team, Napper said they are transitioning the task to others who are working with the Texas Hospital Association and some of the consultants to make sure they continue with it.

The five-year extension is, fortunately, more that what Napper expected and the THA played a significant part in lobbying on behalf of it, he said. The CEO also gave kudos to area legislators who he said were “very supportive in the process of getting the 1115 Waiver extended” and it was a “big help.”

Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, said the renewal of the waiver was certainly a good policy for the entire state, but having a safety net hospital locally, it was very important for healthcare in Odessa and throughout the Permian Basin. Many who benefit from it come from rural areas and having that access to care at Medical Center Hospital is crucial, he said.

“I was very proud to advocate for renewing the 1115 Waiver,” Landgraf said.

MCH serves as an anchor hospital, coordinating and assisting smaller area hospitals with their respective 1115 Waiver funding. The waivers help, primarily, with covering the high cost of indigent care, Napper said.

The hospital has previously used those funds to expand the MCHS campus in hopes of filtering people to clinics rather than emergency rooms. The OA previously reported projects under the waiver included a West Odessa Family Health Clinic, A MCHS Health Kids Program, and a diabetes outreach project with education and screening.

The ECHD board also approved a $10.9 million contract to build The Center for Primary Care-JBS Parkway and The Center for Primary Care-West University with the idea to shift toward preventing emergency room visits by adding more primary care locations. Former CEO Bill Webster at the time said most of the funding for the construction on the two clinics would come from the statewide Medicaid 1115 Waiver.

Napper said people who do not have insurance, Medicaid or Medicare have a tendency to use the Emergency Room as their primary care facility. The problem with that is it doesn’t provide them with the continuity that a primary clinic provides.

“So those funds allow us to help get them into a place that can give them prolonged care, not just a one-time emergency care,” he added.

The funds also help with disease management and specific chronic illnesses, he said.

“I don’t know if anybody’s brought this to the forefront or not, but diabetes is much more prevalent in the Hispanic population. So we use a lot of the 1115 Waiver funds towards diabetes management. It’s not just a primary care piece, it does do specific disease management,” Napper said.

Having been a CEO for about 20 years, Napper said when the five-year extension is up he is hopeful a solution will be reached, but he has no idea what that will look like yet.

“The thing I do know is you cannot force hospitals to fund care that they can’t afford to give. It eventually will break down,” he said.