001They should have been here. >> They did not. So, let's get >> Well, I call this meeting of the Dville Independent School District Board of Trustees, but the record show that a form of board members are present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that a notice of this meeting has posted Texas Meeting Act, Texas Governance Code Chapter 551. Please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and will be available for public. Lord, thank you for this evening. Uh we ask for your guidance and the decisions that need to be made tonight. Protection over the people in this room and the students that attend to where we ask that all we do we remember to for you. >> See, we have nobody signed up. We're gonna jump right into it. Uh we have
002a a donations tab. We don't have any donations. So, we have discuss and take possible action to approve repay the Newton County over judge. I believe um we have you on here to tell us a little bit about it. >> Yes. Now it's as far as repaying Newton County, you'll be paying Newton County tax assessor. You know, basically the county and the tax assessor and the controller, not appraisal is like separate entities. So school district is contracted with the tax assessor process to collect taxes. So, and basically they do the same thing for the county. So, in January they collected 1,552 $9154. All right. uh in February the for the January tax payments they paid out 1 million620,33427 and it was a mistake on the the tax collection office if you look I have I
003don't know if yall have these right Um, you come down to it's on the tax collection. >> So, I guess what I'm curious and I don't know if you can answer this, so if you can, it'd be great. So, they paid us 1.6 million. >> Yes. >> Here you go. Do we have a free day? >> Yes. >> And then collections come through and they went, "Oh, shoot. You only got 1.5." I am not a mathematician by any means. I just I'm just and don't take this the wrong way because I've heard there's some challenges out there. I'm just feeling a little uncomfortable. >> Well, basically >> just saying, "Hey, here's your $68,000 based off of the assessor who got it wrong in the first place saying it was wrong." So, I'm guessing we've done
004our due diligence on the back end to confirm >> and you look as well. You confirm it's the same thing. We come in back in this the exact same thing. We've done our due diligence. >> We're not just basing this on our tax assessment on oops, I made a mistake. Pay me. So, I don't want to wake up next week and her owe me 75 pound. >> Correct. >> If you look at the check, u it's dated 131 2025 and it's prepared by MJB and signed by Melissa Bryce is Dville collections for 120 January 20 January 26 and it's $11,710.95. [Music] All right. Um the next page we have Disc M collection is 120 through 131. And what happened? And the lady that pays the little bill district, she was out. When the tax assessor
005paid 120 through 126, but when the lady that does the payments for due bill, when she came back, she went through the collection days of 120 and 131. So, she actually overpaid for on the difference on six days. The six days that had already been paid for, she paid it, right? And there's a couple of separate checks on this one right here. It was a check of $635,41242. Now, everybody thought, well, if the checks match, why didn't why didn't somebody fix it? But the checks didn't match. You know, there three different checks, one for $11,000, one for 59, and then this one here that paid for it at 635,412. So, >> Different dates. And then now don't they how often should you balance? Is there somebody that does a balance check here? I mean again
006I'm not an accountant but I've played one on TV. >> Well seen it before. I had to balance every day. >> Yes. At the time there was some serious she was in and out. I mean there's no excuse for some things. I know this isn't too quick. But my concern >> here is I I get that somebody's sick. >> When Mark's sick, when I'm sick, we we still have work that has to be done. And this is pretty. >> So just because she's sick again, this is >> this is where the mistake come in, but she overpaid for what the the lady that come back overpaid for what the tax assessor paid for 120 through 126 and now the aud's office has put in place to where you know they balance daily and they're paying
007out weekly now. So there's >> Has it always been the case? >> Uh not to my knowledge. >> They don't balance daily or weekly or monthly or at least six months. >> They do monthly. They balance the situation. >> But now we're >> No, no, I got you. But so they balance monthly. This happened in December, right? >> It happened in January. >> January. So, we're in the 10th month. It took nine months to find out where I found >> Well, they found it in a while to find the explain what happened. >> So, one day she she got she was sick. She come back. Let's say she come back from being sick. All right. So now she's balancing and she looked at it. She Oh shoot, I missed this thing because I've been out
008for five months. >> And she's trying to write this wrong. >> Yes. >> Still struggling. >> She was in and out for two or three weeks in January, but she had some health issues. Yeah, I struggle with it as a as a board member because >> we we got $68,000. We're not a rich school baby me. That's that's a somebody's going to go without some >> over this thing and I I know there's no oh heads need to roll over. I'm not going there. Something needs to be adjusted. This is big money for us. This is a huge grand that's a salary, right? that we assume we based off the dollars that we've received we're going to go do XYZ and now all of a sudden I got to cut back 68% >> and I'm
009okay with it saying we're going to balance daily but >> before that we were balancing monthly and it still took us five months to find out for her to find out. >> Yes, we weren't aware of it until July June. That's when they she went to the district attorney's office and told him she had a problem >> and we had been requesting the reports for six months. >> Ma'am, >> I'm the auditor and we have been requesting them the reports from the county tax assessor office for six months. >> That's a big enough flag for me. That's the frustration. again, not just as a board member who who had to figure out where to figure out $68,000 and who we're going to cut out, but as a taxpayer, that's I live in Dweyville. I live
010in county. >> Well, I live in Dutton County. >> Yes. And and as far as the I didn't know the reports were not coming in, you know, they send the reports to the auditor's office. >> Who does the who does she answer? Who does that ro answer to? >> Who is a tax I can address. >> Yes. Would you? >> This is our uh this is By She's our >> It's very nice to meet you and I'm on the school board and so I feel I feel the tax assessor collector is her own elected official. Um she is not supervised by anybody but or she isn't nobody oversees her except uh she doesn't answer to anybody but her constituents. That's how any elected official is. Now, she her responsibility aside from state uh taxes that
011she takes in for uh vehicle registration and stuff like that is to collect property tax on behalf of the county. Then in addition, she can contract with other entities to collect their taxes. So, is contracted with doing the last to collect their taxes. So the relationship is >> Do we pay her to do that? >> Is that something we pay for or is that just kind of a >> Yeah, I have no idea. I haven't seen the contract. Um so the relationship is between and um the relationship isn't between county. So I just want to make that it's just how the the system is set up. >> Um when she collects taxes on behalf of Newton County on behalf of duty on behalf of each emergency service district she's personally liable for that money because
012she's the only one. She puts it in a tax account. It's at her discretion. Um she is personally responsible for that money until she disperses it to each entity. Um so the situation that we're in is that she dispersed money to dod in error and now she doesn't and at one at some point she discovered that she didn't have enough money to cover the dispersements. Uh and What happened was that she had enough money in the next month that had already been collected and that she was that's how she was paying >> Yet so and and eventually it did catch up. She came to me. She told me, "Hey, there's not enough money in the tax account. I don't know what happened. I don't know what's wrong." And I said, "Well, I'm not an accountant
013either, and there's no way I can look out and find out. We need have somebody who can figure it out. I suggested she go to our auditor's office and that's when the investigation began and the auditor's office was ultimately the one uh the people that found exactly where that missing money was. >> Does the auditor's office work with her regularly, regularly? Is there a requirement that they take a peek at her stuff on a regular basis or just she ask for help? So, so the auditor's office is responsible for um looking out for the best interest of Newton County. So, they're so their um duty is to New Moon County and they monitor her reports. They monitor her as a county office, you know, her expenditures and things like that. As far as the tax
014collection, they monitor the tax collection for county. >> Does that make sense? >> So, no, they don't they don't have to necessarily it's not a requirement that they >> think an organization if she's part of all of it. >> Absolutely. >> Sounds as though Uh, as an elected official, there's only certain amount you can do until the next election. >> I have an answer to your question. Jes, >> ma'am, >> 300,000. >> That's what Jana said. She's on her way, but she had your birthday, so she's looking for more. >> We pay her 300,000. >> That is what I said. Do we pay the tax assessor for services at all? She said yes. Can you just take that out of what we owe her? >> I know it sounds funny, but we take that. >>
015I think it's a tax appraisal. >> No, I think two, but I I seem like I remember once upon a time was having a similar conversation. We do pay her something or that entity something. I don't know that it goes in her pocket per se. I think it's more the broader board. >> No, we just don't have something. So that goes to the appraisal disc. >> I don't know that we kind of check for it, but I think when we square up, isn't it like a fee? We paid >> paid what was our portion 600 district 700,000 between the school district and the ESC. So they all pay a portion of you know it even listed school district school district city of Newton. So there was all these different entities that paid their >> so
016and new bills was 356 So I do remember >> I don't know I guess we have a lot other conversation to have around do we stay status quo and the situation we're in with something we talked to probably you know we probably all or maybe you guys need to have that conversation if we are we is this a direction we need to continue and then how do we not end up here again have a lot of confidence that avoid it if she's unchecked on a regular. I'm not pointing that out. If that office is is pretty much doing what it's going to do on a regular basis and it's going unchecked, I don't know how in the structure we have today make sure that we don't end up here again. >> Well, from this point
017going forward, the auditor's office on a daily basis and the payments, you know, on a weekly basis. So, you know, God forbid this ever happens again, you know, so I don't know. >> Yes. And and that's what I want to say, too. Our office does monitor her reports on a monthly basis. We we had been on the tax assessor, the tax assessor's office were to back reports whenever she went to Misty that day. I mean, we had been asking her, send emails saying, "We need your reports. We need your reports." Because in our books they're called agency funds because she has her own checking accounts. Any kind of county accounts we monitor like daily but on those we monitor monthly. Now we I have Dawn in my office and she is monitoring daily every inout
018everything. So I can assure you that this will not happen again as a county auditor. it will not happen again because I have someone fulltime monitoring yours all the ESDs all of them because I truly apologize that this has happened to begin with and it's not even our responsibility but it is as we on behalf of county I'm just apologizing >> I don't I don't% understand the structure I know in any other organizations that I've ever been plugged into especially when you talk about the dollars that are going through people's hand you only have a handful of folks resp respons only teams or whatever else very stringent guidelines how they manage what they do right because listen you got one person that nobody's perfect you just can't a lot um so you need help but
019I don't know about maybe we just need to take a real close look I mean it's my understanding that we're one of the last districts that are still structured or any I think a lot of the other entities are going straight through um the appraisal district right >> and we need to look to see if that's the right >> yeah I think that's some discussion >> that's what I was going to ask let's if you can if you can you can visit figure out tell us what y'all think is the smart thing >> it may be the same if you're good with the where the um auditors are and where everybody's Maybe that's okay, too. I mean, I'm I don't have I don't know enough about it to really have an opinion of now around
020that check piece. My understanding is as it's structured right now, we're not we can't receive another dime of money until we repay the >> money yesterday. Come out of the county. >> They were asking the county they can withhold the payments. >> There was $19,000 paid yesterday to the last Newton County has not been able to receive any money for the last since July's payment. But basically on their software they use the month of July not being closed out it would not let them proceed forward without authorization from commission and we legally did not have authorization to hey you don't have to pay us anybody legally we had no responsibility because they were contracting with different So basically as court we took no action if it all worked out. >> Sorry. >> No, it's just
021an odd situation structurally with regard to what the county can do. >> Yeah. Because you've got a county elected official, but there are parts of her job that are not tied to Newton County >> world according to Luke. My my thought is that there's a significant amount of money that goes to we are not doing something to overlook it >> and we can go six months before we realize we've overpaid somebody $68,000. >> That seems to be a bit much to me. And and again, it would have hurt if you'd have told us a month later probably. I'm assuming Jana would be ticked about that just as well. But six months later, five months later, I mean, we just spin it and gone on and figured out what we're going to do next. Right. >>
022When they started investigating, hey, where is this money at? And it took what, three, four weeks for you going through all the numbers? everything because like I said the reports and there >> to me if you can't get a report seems that's something you would either call a judge FBI I don't know who somebody's hiding something >> not surpris they're elected official they have pretty much our taxes they're certified letters. I mean, I'm not saying >> I mean, if you're one day late, you're getting all this interest on it. So, what about the interest? You know, I don't know. >> Yeah. >> I'm just saying if we owed her money, it' be the other way around. >> She owed us money. >> Yeah. >> We do owe her money to her. And again, that's where
023the other heartburn is. If y'all aren't sure because I don't trust anything coming down just yet until we can get the right amount of money paid for it for a few months in a row. Anyways, I'm still not requesting construction. I'm going take y'all's word at it that you guys in the audit group has kind of stepped up, right? You said you guys are going to step up kind of overlooking and I would hope there's something that in the event she'll supply you what you need or somebody to call >> to say judge or whoever call me. I'll call this ow taxpayer. >> Well, that's what it takes. >> No, we're not. >> She's not the one saying that y'all owe this money. I mean, now she is. I just want you to know she's
024not the one that found this man would still be looking for it right now. I hate to be that. >> Well, so I bounced around that piece of this for about 10 minutes with waiting for somebody to fess up to that. I heard the same thing. >> But then that was my concern. We went five months before we figured it out. >> And initially what you said was she was sick and we had some illness. But sick or not, she wasn't gonna >> this is not >> that role was not going to do it. >> And I just I had zero confidence in anything. But anyway, that's something for us to work out in. >> This is the second time. >> This is Janet. >> She is our money person. >> When was that? >>
025I can look back and see, but we caught it the first time. But the way that y'all's reports are ran, we're never going to be able to catch on. We don't look at the date. We look at we add together all the taxes that were collected and we make sure that um the deposit is what the tax collection report say that should be deposit. That's all we look at. >> We just happened this first time to look at the dates when we were inputting it into our spreadsheets. And I called her and I said, "You'll have an overlap in dates. Does that mean that's an overpayment?" and she she got off the phone with me and looked at it and it was we had to get it back. So this is the second >> that
026must be when Courtney was talking about that was before >> it was within the last two years maybe >> but it's it I don't want to oversimplify it's it's a fairly simple process. You have a debit column and you have a credit column. >> And when they don't match at the end of the day, you should do a real time. I hell, I got a computer. Can I make an Excel spreadsheet that'll do that for me? >> That was December. >> It was January. >> Some of them were No, some of them were made weekly during January. And then Melissa, I had to cut the one the two checks on the 31st. Uh Tracy came back and cut the other two in February. I think February 12th wouldn't receive agree with the dispersion on the
027report. >> You're talking about the report that we got. >> I don't know what you're getting. So, so if they pull a report for they range this to this date, it's going to tell them, okay, they should collect collected this much taxes. But it's never going it's always going to balance. You have to check the dates because then if you pull it from this date to this date, you should have collected this much taxes. So, it's it's always going to balance as far as the dates. >> You're just looking at the whole numbers, not But but if you are not making sure that you have already paid for those dates and your start start date here and the end date here, then that's an overlap that dates. >> Yes. >> But the report itself is
028going to be correct and the deposit itself is going to be correct according to the report. But you said from here to year it should be this much money. They all match. So that's why on our end it's almost going to never get >> because the reports are always going to match the date. us the same as what she's saying. >> So what's the solution coming in and what's coming out? Yes. >> She has some spreadsheets created. We've got an Excel spreadsheet. Don is on it. Like they send reports to her daily when all this come out. I'm like we I went to Melissa or I went to send an email saying that we need it daily. And then I told the judge from now on the tax dollars will be paid out weekly, not
029monthly. Because right now Newton County has not been paid since for July's taxes on because of all of this. All of ours is we haven't. And I'm like you. If you haven't, she hasn't paid our taxes, we should get penalties and interest paid to the county for that back taxes. I mean, I feel the same as you. >> I understand. Well, again, I don't think we're going to solve it. That's not We just wanted to hear that. >> I really wanted to understand. Yes, sir. >> But going forward today, from your standpoint, >> what would be best for you, would it be to have a daily account or when they deposit us or send us a check, do y'all say, "Okay, yeah, we got this and this for these dates and then this is for
030these." Would that help you? I think that how it's always been done is we get paid monthly until it reaches the point of um and I want to say it's coming up right around the time that the bulk of the taxes are collected and then it's >> and I usually send a letter and I say and it said I have to send a letter and request that we get weekly payments instead of taxes during those months >> and then after that like summer months and all of that it's monthly after that and I don't think I don't think that there's any way to help me. We're just going to be more cognizant of the dates, you know, because because the money balances with the report and the report balances with the money, then we don't
031really I mean, we're we're good. All of our stuff balance. I mean, we balanced all of our money. Um, but we do owe the money because it wasn't a overlap. >> You confirmed that, was it? >> I confirmed. Yes. And it it was the same principle that was done the last time. >> And then we can we can include her in our talk on what we want to do forward. >> Yeah. >> And I will say our external auditor the last time that this happened and they said absolutely pay them the money back. It's not our money. It's you know. So I mean they were okay with us saying here's here's the money back. So we just want to make sure that y'all don't satisfy your auditors. That way when our external auditors come in,
032we can satisfy, >> you know, that way everybody's got to follow the >> grant. We can pay we can make that. We couldn't make it that paycheck this month. Tell me that's >> his first month. >> He's part of the government. >> So we got it. We're we can do it and still >> understand our documentation that was sent over. >> They were. >> Yes. Okay. >> So that did help the documentation that you >> gave it. It took me a while to understand you know you know the payments were the same but then when I seen the checks >> you know and I seen the payment the day overlap one check was 59 was 11 was 600 something00 and and I could easily see how that you know totally went through. I I'm just
033bottled at such a m a nonautomated process anyway. The fact that it's pencil and paper, big G tablet look to it kind of for me a little bit. But uh I mean it is we got we've got I get it. But um >> well as your software cost a lot of money. >> Yes. And we do have a version of Harris uh and we're looking at adding to it as far as some of that >> update the software but Harris government proposals were bought out by another entity. So they're not actually updating that software. So the county does have to get another tax. >> So it wasn't harp. We've got a lot of different. >> All right. So, I'm going to go ahead and roll back up to the the motion. We'll call that was
034our pretty much our public comment. So, um we'll go back in. So, discuss and take possible action. This is an action item. discuss and take possible action to approve repayment to Newton County for tax overpayment. >> I move to discuss and take possible action to approve repayment to Newton County for tax overpayment. >> Okay. So, one last chance we have any more questions? We're good today. We can afford it. Um I' I'd really like for y'all to circle around and find out if our current structure is what we want to maintain. if we have other options. Uh the end of the day, as far as I'm concerned, whatever is best for you, whatever you however you think it makes the most sense, I'm pretty sure you'll find we're all aligned with just let us know
035what what we need to do. Try to avoid this again. So, all right. If we have no more questions, all in favor? Um, does anybody see any? No close session. >> If I leave this to our final reconven, we got one last option there. Option three. >> I make motion that we second. >> All in favor. >> Thank y'all for coming. >> Thank you. Appreciate you coming out. I didn't mean to pass. >> I'm a little frustrated with it. I know it's not and it's not pointed at anybody in here at all. >> I know. I know. It's just frustrating.