June 12, 2025 - Axley & Rode, LLP presented the Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Financial report during the Shelby County Commissioners May 28, 2025, special meeting.
Eric Carver, C.P.A. with Axley & Rode, informed the commissioners that Axley & Rode has merged with another firm called Carr, Riggs & Ingram.
“Our firm has merged with Carr, Riggs and Ingram, which is a much larger firm across the whole southeast,” said Carver. “The good thing about that is it allows us to provide some new services. They have a lot of cybersecurity, a lot of IT strengths and things like that. The other side is we're not going anywhere, same people. We're going to be doing the same thing.”
Carver explained to the commissioners that everything went well with the audit and didn’t identify any problems.
“Everything went good with the audit, no problems, nothing really unusual, everything was pretty routine,” said Carver.
One risk that is pointed out annually via outside audit relates to a lack of segregation of duties in the Justice of the Peace offices.
“This is nothing new is as I talked about the decentralized cash collection and this is your letter here is there's some risk and that's all I'm saying here is there's a risk. I didn't see anything that's a more unusual concern than not,” said Carver. “In your JP offices with the lack of number of personnel to have an adequate segregation of duties, and this is not a new comment. Y’all have heard this for years. So it's just a reminder, keep an eye on those things.”
Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, moved to accept the accept the audit report and Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, seconded the motion. It carried.
(Click Here to view 2024 Audit Report)
The commissioners approved authorizing grant match funds in the amount of $2 million and the submission of a grant from the Texas Historical Courthouse Preservation Program to restore the Shelby County Historical Courthouse with the assistance of the Shelby County Historical Commission.
County Judge Allison Harbison stated that it doesn’t mean that absolutely have to spend $2 million, but that they are willing to contribute that much to funding the project toward the $10 million grant from the Texas Historical Commission.
Commissioner McSwain said that when a walk through was done through the historic courthouse, it didn’t appear that it would end up costing the full $10 million, bur closer to $5 million, which would decrease the county’s contribution.
“It's a situation that's bad, like I said last week. We can't let that deteriorate and fall down. We're\ not going to tear it down. So we got to do something. It's just hard to sell to the public,” said Commissioner McSwain. “When they call the Sheriff's Department, they say, ‘I ain't got a deputy to send right now.’ Or they call and say, ‘My damn road's all to pieces, I can't get home.’ It's hard to tell the public, ‘Well, I'm going to spend two million dollars to restore this building.’"
Commissioners McSwain and Bellmyer agreed that without taking action, “mother nature” would make the decision for them and cause the building to fully deteriorate over time.
“I love history, and I think it's important to maintain our history for future generations to see what was and what we have, and I just think it's important. I really do,” said Commissioner Bellmyer.
Commissioner McSwain moved to set aside $2 million for the purposes of going out for the grant. Commissioner Bellmyer seconded the motion and it carried.
The commissioners were received a presentation from Kologik/CopSync software system representatives and members of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department as an upgrade to replace the current software, Spillman.
Chief Mike Hanson explained the Kologik aspect of the software is for use in the jail and records management, and CopSync is an in-car software.
During discussion it was learned what the cost could potentially be and Clint Porterfield, County Auditor, clarified the initial total cost for both pieces of software, implementation, training would be $118,490 and then an annual cost of $61,640.
The item was for discussion only and no action was taken by the court.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:21am.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Pay weekly expenses. 2. Shelby County Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Financial Report by Eric Carver, C.P.A with Axley & Rode, LLP. 3. Authorize the grant match funds in the amount of $2 million and approve the submission of a grant from the Texas Historical Courthouse Preservation Program to restore the Shelby County Historical Courthouse with the assistance of the Shelby County Historical Commission. 4. Adjourn 11:21am.
