Disaster declaration extended
By Melinda L. Lucas
Shackelford County commissioners met in two separate special sessions on Thursday, April 2, first extending the county judge’s week-long disaster declaration and then later in the day reluctantly agreeing to pay an almost $20,000 “migration” plan from Sam Goldsmith of Goldsmith Solutions.
They also approved a master service agreement with the county’s new IT vendor, Computer Transition Services Inc. (CTSI).
Disaster Extension
The declaration approved by the commissioners on a motion by Lanham Martin formally extends the declaration made the previous week by the county judge Robert Skelton and outlines regulations for the duration of the pandemic, as well as establishing penalties for violations.
Similar to the city ordinance that was put into effect March 19, the county document provides for a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time of as much as 180 days for violators of the declaration.
“FEMA funding will be available to us only if we have this emergency declaration in place,” said Skelton. “One of my main concerns is that we may need backup law enforcement assistance from the state if one or more of our local officers are quarantined; this puts us in a better position to make that request.”
The document signed by Skelton on March 26 would have expired on April 3 if the commissioners had not extended it.
Migration Plan
Later that day at a 3:00 p.m. session, posted by Skelton because it was too late to add the item to the morning agenda, a detailed “migration plan” from Goldsmith Solutions was presented along with a separate invoice for hardware and software not previously billed.
The services to transition the county from Goldsmith to the new IT consultant, which included “managed services” through April, IT migration services, charges for 3 fax lines, and firewall service through April, totaled $19,338.
The hardware/software invoice was $1,232.
Goldsmith was also requiring that the entire amount be paid before any work commenced, said Skelton.
After a lengthy discussion, during which commissioners expressed that they felt they were being forced into the agreement, an amendment was added that Goldsmith would have 90 days after April 30 to remove his equipment instead having no time limit.
In separate motions, they agreed to pay both invoices.
In addition, because CTSI was not made aware that the Courthouse WiFi was being operated through a Goldsmith-owned firewall, another $7,416 was added to the CTSI agreement.
