ROCKWALL — Tuesday’s regular session of the Rockwall County Commissioners Court featured sharp disagreement between the commissioners concerning the purchase of a judicial software program and a contract with a local paper products company.

The court was prepared to approve an agreement with American Cadastre for judicial software implementation, but Precinct 3 Commissioner Dennis Bailey was informed the previous day that the Council of Urban Counties (CUC) is currently in negotiations with AMCAD to get a contract and that the county could purchase the program through CUC at a significant savings to the county.

“Money has been appropriated until January for the current provider AbleTerm, which gives us some time to allow CUC to be here in two weeks and show the county what they’re talking about,” Bailey said.

The county’s consultant Jerry Byrd advised against waiting to approve a contract with AMCAD, since CUC didn’t currently have a contract with the company and he was under the impression that the software CUC was purchasing did not include the ability to utilize it for civil cases, land deeds, etc.

County Judge Jerry Hogan was frustrated that Bailey had not contacted him about the issue before the meeting and the last-minute nature of the change.

“We’ve spent eight months evaluating the system, we’ve got input on the implementation of the system, and we say at the last minute we’re not going forward with that and we’re not going to use the experience and analysis we’ve been using,” he said. “CUC was asked at the beginning of this if they wanted to get in on it, and they said no.”

Precinct 4 Commissioner David Magness agreed with Bailey.

“Both entities chose AMCAD, and we have a chance to use a new pricing and implementation mechanism,” he said.

The court approved a motion giving the county a month to listen to and evaluate the CUC proposal. The court also approved a one-time contract of $5000 with Byrd to evaluate the CUC proposal.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Lorie Grinnan and Hogan found themselves at odds with Bailey, Magness, and Precinct 1 Commissioner Jerry Wimpee over the issue of awarding a bid to Chaney Paper for the county’s cleaning supplies and paper products. Chaney Paper is owned by the father of recently-elected Rockwall County Constable Trey Chaney. According to Assistant District Attorney Jon Thatcher, the county can legally award a contract to an elected official’s company.

“I would like to state my opposition to this,” Grinnan said. “Awarding a contract to a soon-to-be-elected official is unethical. It’s not illegal, but it’s  unethical. We need to have a policy in place that prohibits future commissioners courts from entering into situations like this. We need to put an end to the perception of a ‘good old boy’ system and raise our standards in awarding projects.”

Magness, Bailey and Wimpee disagreed with Grinnan and Hogan.

“I resent the accusation that this is good old boy politics,” Magness said. “Legal is one thing, the Texas Ethics Commission blesses this action, so I wouldn’t say that it is unethical. The light has been shined on this issue, it was a fair bid, and all aspects of it were in the public view.”

Grinnan mentioned that she had talked with various public officials and private citizens in the county, and they were surprised the court was considering the contract.

“Do the dissenting voices so far think that doing business with the Chaney Paper Company is not in the best interest of Rockwall County or not in the best interest of your political career?” Wimpee asked.

Hogan replied his political career was over after he finishes his term as county judge and that the contract had a bad connotation and set an bad example. The court approved awarding the contract to Chaney with a 3-2 vote.

The Rockwall Historical Foundation offered to step up and help run the ‘Tis Christmastime event held annually in downtown Rockwall, according to Precinct 1 Commissioner Jerry Wimpee. The county will continue to pay for the event while the foundation plans it.

“I think the historical foundation is the logical way to go forward with this,” Precinct Magness said. “There is strength in numbers.”

The court voted down a resolution that would have entered the county into an agreement with the Texas Regional Public Defender Office Program for Capital Cases. In most capital murder cases, the defendants are unable to pay for their legal defense team, so the county must bear that cost, which averages hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I was a fan of this program until [Rockwall County Auditor] Lisa [Constant] sent out numbers that revealed that attorney costs and trial costs were not close to the $1 million we were told,” Hogan said.

The court agreed to purchase a 34 foot artificial Christmas tree with LED lights and a six foot star for the outside of the courthouse. Money for the tree will come from the contingency fund, according to Hogan.

The county also renewed an interlocal agreement with Royse City for road improvements on an as needed basis by the Rockwall County Road and Bridge Department to Circle Lane/Drive, Floyd Road, Sorrells Road and Elm Grove; approved a proposal from the Rockwall County Road and Bridge Administrator for equipment and materials needed for the asphalt improvement of Circle Drive in Royse City, to be paid by Royse City at a cost of $81,852,00; approved a proposal from ThyseenKrupp for the annual state inspection of the courthouse’s elevators; approved a maintenance agreement with Davis Cable Technologies for emergency on-call crews for damaged utility lines at a cost of $3,500; approved a subscription agreement with Advent Financial Systems to provide PayMyJailer program services.