Routine bill paying at Monday’s Brown County Commissioner’s Court became less than routine after one commissioner voted not to approve payment of weekly bills when the issue of renovations of the Juvenile Justice Center arose.
Commissioners approve payment of bills near the end of each week’s meeting, but one commissioner voted against paying bills Monday, going against the majority vote of the court. When one reporter asked why Commissioner Joel Kelton of Precinct 2 voted against paying the bills, Kelton stated that he was opposed to one items on the list of bills.
“I was opposed to one item included in the bills, a $44,615.62 item (to be paid to Burke Contracting) for some renovations on the Juvenile Justice building,” said Kelton.
Last Monday, commissioners took no action on an agenda item to approve renovations to Brown County Juvenile Probation offices.
County Judge Ray West stated after the meeting Monday that the renovations of the building did not have to be approved through commissioners court, explaining that he, as does any department head, has the power to authorize spending such as this remodeling according to Brown County policy.
Brown County Auditor Nina Cox said that she sought legal council before the bill was paid.
“According to my legal council, the remodeling expense was a legal bill to pay,” said Cox. “The county was legally obligated to pay this bill.”
Cox stated that the remodeling of the Juvenile Justice Center was never approved in Brown County Commissioners Court.Although the lease of the Juvenile Justice Center to G4S Youth Services, Inc. had been approved at the March 11th meeting of the court, on Monday, March 18th, commissioners took no action on the matter of “Juvenile Justice Center Lease; consideration and possible approval” which was once again on the agenda. At that time, commissioners stated that they needed to “work out some issues.” County Auditor Nina Cox stated that these issues were related to proration of electric bills between G4S and Brown County.
This Monday, West stated that the original bid from G4S mistakenly contained an amount of remodeling to be paid for by G4S; however that amount, according to West, has been omitted in the new lease agreement of the facility to reflect only what G4S will remodel, the portion of the building their services will occupy. West stated that the county is paying for the remodeling that will be done on the portion of the building that the Brown County Juvenile Justice Center will utilize. West stated that G4S will maintain the whole building after all of the remodeling of the entire building is complete.
A cover letter from G4S to Judge West attached to a copy of the unsigned lease filed in the Brown County Clerk’s office dated March 8th and attached as an exhibit to the lease on March 11th, states the following regarding the remodeling of the facility:
“To better foster the partnership with Brown County, the Company is willing to cover the costs of any material and labor already expended in that project. As you may recall, the version of the proposed lease (the “Lease”) that we included in the proposal contemplated that the Commission would be contributing $50,000 toward the improvements to be made by the Company (designated as the “Improvement Fund” in the Lease). Attached please find a version of the Lease which removes this requirement and instead contemplates that the Company will be bearing all the costs of improvements, including the costs incurred to date. We intend that, under these revisions to the Lease, we will pay all affiliated costs relating to the improvements contemplated in the Lease, including the repairs made to the generator at the Facility.
We hope that eliminating the $50,000 Improvement Fund from the Commission’s expenses will alleviate any outstanding concerns and will further demonstrate the enthusiasm the Company has for the partnership with Brown County.”
No other copy of the lease has been filed for public record as of 3:00 PM Monday, March 25, 2013, according to the county clerk’s office.
According to officials at the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, their agency is conducting a preliminary inquiry to allegations concerning the relationship of Judge West and G4S but is withholding comment pending referral to the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
G4S Youth Services is an international company operating privatized youth detention services whose corporate offices are located in Florida.
