Commissioners address outstanding attorney fees

Mar. 15—The Cherokee County Commissioners Court authorized payment to attorneys for their work regarding mental health evaluations, as part of a change in the payment system they approved last month.

Tuesday, Commissioners authorized payment of outstanding attorney fees and master's fees, accumulated from 2020 through 2024, with the understanding that the county would request reimbursement from the counties for whom the work was performed.

Previously, attorneys would have to wait until the other counties had paid Cherokee County, which would then pay the attorneys for their work. This led to a delay of nearly a year before some payments were made, if at all.

"I appreciate the work everybody has put into this to try to get all this straightened out," County Judge Chris Davis said. "I think this is the only way out of this, so we can keep hiring attorneys that do the work."

Commissioners consulted with the county auditor and grant administrator for the county's ARPA funds to ensure proper use of the federal dollars. All four county commissioners have chip seal projects they wish to conduct and needed to ascertain whether materials, purchased for a vendor who would be conducting the actual road work, could be billed directly to the county and still qualify under the ARPA rules.

Both the county auditor and the grant administrator, confirmed invoices for material — even if the road work is conducted by a contractor — can be paid using ARPA funds. This was assuming the vendor was on an approved ARPA vendor list.

After receiving these assurances, commissioners authorized Davis to sign contracts with Missouri Petroleum for the chip seal projects, not including the cost of rock which the commissioners would purchase directly.

Other items approved by commissioners were:

—requests for proposals for contract documents and specifications for an automated weather observation system installation project at the Cherokee County Airport;

—the sheriff's monthly report;

—the sheriff's annual racial profiling report;

—and the consent agenda, which consisted of staff reports, utility line installations in the right of ways on County Roads 3806 and 3879 for Centerpoint Energy, and a road bore for the city of Reklaw for a gas line; as well as the payment of bills, payroll and the transfer of funds.

County commissioners meet at 9 a.m. the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month in the County Courtroom of the County Courthouse on the downtown square in Rusk.