What to watch: The Midland County Commissioners Court will meet on Tuesday, Aug. 4, to finalize elected officials’ salaries for the coming budget year, consider allowing TxDOT to install license plate reader cameras along state highways, weigh an artificial-intelligence service that monitors jail phone calls, and review operations at the new justice of the peace courthouse.

Key points:

  • Elected officials’ salaries: Commissioners will revisit elected officials’ salaries after the court passed a 2% across-the-board raise on July 7. State law requires the court to formally set elected officials’ pay each year during the budget process, give each official written notice of the proposed salary, and publish notice of any raises before adoption.

The county has more than 25 elected officials. County Judge Terry Johnson previously explained that Texas law requires the court to establish elected officials’ salaries before addressing employee compensation in the budget process.

He said he has historically benchmarked elected officials’ salaries against similarly sized counties and aims to stay near or slightly above those averages to account for the cost associated with living and working in Midland. He also noted that the state partially sets the salaries of some elected officials.

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  • License plate readers: The court will consider allowing the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to install license plate reader cameras on state highway right-of-way. The cameras take still images of license plate numbers, vehicle descriptions, time, and location of passing vehicles. The agenda does not say how many cameras TxDOT plans for or where they would place them.
  • Jail phone monitoring: Commissioners will consider a program for the detention center that potentially transcribes inmate phone calls and uses artificial intelligence to flag them for investigators. A separate item would approve a personal identifiable information sharing agreement with the jail’s phone provider.
  • Sheriff’s Office spending: The court will consider replacement padding for two violent cells in the jail’s booking area and a digital evidence storage agreement with Axon. The agenda lists no dollar amounts for the purchases. Commissioners will also consider authorizing a new detention officer recruitment policy.
  • JP courthouse operations: Commissioners will take up an operational review of the justice courts’ new courthouse and related requests. The item continues the court’s work standing up the annex after its July 7 decision to assign building security to the constables rather than the sheriff’s office and its July 21 vote creating four courthouse security deputy constable positions.