The Commissioners Court approved Tuesday entering into an agreement with Strategic Planning and Project Development, Inc. Scott Young representing the legal finance company which has its expertise in dealing with innovative funding for government entities presented the agreement to the Court.
Commissioner Jody Crump believes the agreement will benefit the county. Crump advised that the City of Vidor has used innovative funding with its new abatement program to stimulate residential housing construction. He commented with so many vague state laws concerning financing it will help Orange County avoid getting into unwarranted litigation and thinks it’s a great deal. Crump mentioned the agreement comes at no cost to the county unless the Commissioners Court requested the services of the financial legal firm.
The Court tabled for future consideration any action on adopting updated building codes for Orange County. Currently, the county is using 2006 codes which are updated every three years. Commissioner David Dubose suggested a workshop may be necessary to more thoroughly discuss which new codes need to be adopted.
A representative from the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) presented a two-year old program Risk Control Reimbursement in which Orange County could participate. Robert Ruiz said counties compete for reimbursement funding to pay for safety projects done by the counties. No action was taken on enrolling in the program at this time.
Orange County employees have the opportunity to sign up for a health fair to be held June 22-24 at the Expo Center. Human Resource Director Lori Ardoin said 100 county employees participated in last year’s health fair which can serve as their annual physical exam. Ardoin added that TAC recommended Catapult Health conduct the health fair for three days with each employee’s exam lasting about 30 minutes. The information from the blood tests and exams will be given to the employee’s physician if desired. If the response is not sufficient from the employees the county can cancel the health fair with 45 days notice at no cost to the county according to Ardoin.
The Commissioners Court approved Tuesday an onsite services agreement with Catapult Health to conduct the health fair. County Attorney Doug Manning did ask for one stipulation to be changed on the agreement. Manning’s concern was that some of the wording in the agreement indicated there was a clause for termination without cause with 90 days notice and another clause only allowed termination for cause. He requested both say the same thing.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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