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COMMISSIONERS' COURT AGENDA REQUEST
PLEASE FURNISH ONE ORIGINAL AND NINE COPIES OF THIS REQUEST AND DOCUMENTS TO BE
REVIEWED BY THE COURT.
r'r
MADE BY: Pat Tinley, OFFICE: County Jud_
MEETING DATE: October 14, 2003 TIlVIE PREFERRED:
SUBJECT: (PLEASE BE SPECIFIC)
Consider and discuss adoption of policy regarding use of Courthouse or Courthouse facilities and
Courthouse grounds
EXECUTIVE SESSION REQUESTED: (PLEASE STATE REASON)
NAME OF PERSON ADDRESSING THE COURT
ESTIMATED LENGTH OF PRESENTATION:
IF PERSONNEL MATTER -NAME OF EMPLOYEE:
County Judge
Time for submitting this request for Court to assure that the matter is posted in accordance with Title 5, Chapter
551 and 552, Government Code, is as follows:
Meeting scheduled for Mondays:
THIS REQUEST RECEIVED BY:
THIS REQUEST RECEIVED ON:
5:00 P.M. previous Tuesday.

All Agenda Requests will be screened by the County Judge's Office to determine if adequate information has been
prepared for the Court's formal consideration and action at time of Court Meetings. Your cooperation will be
appreciated and contribute towards you request being addressed at the earliest opportunity. See Agenda Request Rules
Adopted by Commissioners' Court.
^ September 15, 2003
During the past, questions have arisen concerning the use of Courthouse Facilities by
persons or groups which do not have a direct or indirect connection to the conduct of
county business.
I have inquired and have been unable to find a policy which has been placed into effect by
Commissioners Court for the use of Courthouse facilities. In order to avoid confusion and
provide guidelines for response to persons or groups inquiring about the use of courthouse
facilities, a policy established by Commissioners Court would be appropriate. It is
suggested that any policy should be non-discriminatory in nature i.e., if any political,
religious, civic or similar group is given permission to use courthouse facilities, then any
and all persons or groups of that same type should be afforded that same privilege. In
addition, I would suggest that consideration be given to individuals or groups who request
the use of courthouse facilities after normal business hours, inasmuch as that use might
raise security issues and overtime or compensatory time to county employees.
As directed by the Commissioners' Court on September 22, 2003, I have drafted certain
guidelines for Courthouse usage.
Please note, I have followed Commissioners' comments and have added comments heard
from the maintenance department and from the public as well.
Thea Sovil, Commissioners' Court Coordinator
JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move on to Item 25,
discuss and consider establishment of policy concerning use
of courthouse facilities. I put this on here, gentlemen.
As -- as you know, I'm -- I am the, quote, maintenance and
courthouse facilities liaison, and so use~of courthouse
facilities requests come to me. And Iwas -- I attempted to
find a policy. I've not been able to find one, and I would
like some sort of guidance from the Court as to what the
policy and parameters are. And I -- I made a couple of
references in there that whatever policy is adopted, I think
it needs to be nondiscriminatory; that is, if you let one
civic group use it, you got to let them all. If you let one
religious group use it, you got to let them all. You let
one political group use it, you got to let them all. And
another concern about -- about the aspect of using it after
normal business hours, where you got some additional
considerations that I think need to be taken into account,
and that is security, and whether or not you need to have
people here to lock up after them and so forth. You may
have overtime or compensatory time for County employees.
But I'm just looking for some guidance from you gentlemen.
COMNIISSIONER BALDWIN: I would balk at using
the inside of the facility, because you're dealing -- like
you said, you're dealing with the security issue. Our
cleaning people have a schedule; I wouldn't want them to
have to hang around till 10:30 at night just to lock the
doors and that kind of thing. That's bordering on
ridiculous. So, to me, that shuts offusing the inside of
the facility. To me, that's -- we don't even have to have
that conversation. But the outside of the facility is a
little different story.
COMIVIISSIONER LETZ: Or maybe, you know,
charge a fee if they don't; I mean, if we have to do it. I
think the -- I don't have a problem with letting most of the
public use our courthouse square, but if they cost the
County money, and meaning all the citizens of the county
money, I think that organization should have to pay for
whatever they do or don't do.
CONIlVIISSIONER WII.,LIAMS: I think a policy
ought to be that the courthouse itself is restricted to
county courthouse business. The grounds are open for civic
and other purposes, and set some guidelines far that.
COMI~~IISSIONER LETZ: And I think as part of
that policy, I would like to see a -- a moratorium on
anything else being added to the courthouse square.
Courthouse In an effort to be fair and non-discriminatory I have come up with the
following suggested guidelines for Courthouse and Courthouse Square usage.
Courthouse Facility (Inside the courthouse)
Because of security and personnel issues, all meetings or other gatherings will be limited
to official county government related business only. (At any time)
Courthouse Square
Moratorium on donations for items (Animal, Vegetable or Mineral) to be placed on the
Courthouse Lawn. (Donations of items may be considered for placement on other county
property)
Courthouse Square -Organizations
Written request for permission to use
(Organizations are limited to 501-c (Civic or school related)
No usage of county personnel (Using county personnel will be for guidance only)
No usage of county facilities (Space being limited at the courthouse)
No extension cords (Safety Issue)
Tents or other shelter will permitted only One day before and one day after.
Trash or other refuse will be cleared by the organization utilizing the square.
(Grounds must be cleaned or further permission will be refused)
Vendor signage for advertisement will be prohibited (Commissioners have already
prohibited vendor signage to be exhibited on the Courthouse Lawn)
Signage for Civic Organization will be limited to the corner of Main and Sidney Baker
(Far southwest corner)
For extended usage, detailed drawings will be submitted to commissioners' court along
with written request for permission and approved by said court.