Harris County Appraisal District Board of Directors met Nov. 16

Harris County Appraisal District Board of Directors met Nov. 16.

Here is the agenda provided by the board:

1. Call to Order.

2. Pledge of Allegiance and Salute to the Texas Flag.

3. Roll Call.

4. Recognition of Service Awards and Employees of the Month.

5. Comments from members of the public.

Speakers will be limited to three (3) minutes.

CONSENT AGENDA

6. “All matters listed under consent agenda are considered to be routine and may be enacted by one motion, there will not be separate discussion of these items. If discussion of an item is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately.”

a. Discussion and possible action to approve minutes of the regular meeting of October 19, 2022.

b. Discussion and possible action to review and approve contract for use of telecommunications and point to point private internet connection services with Lumen Technologies (Lumen), formerly CenturyLink. The amount for the services will be approximately $75,000, same as last year.

c. Discussion and possible action to review and approve a one-year renewal option of the contract with QuestMark Information Management, Inc. (QIM) for printing and mailing services with an estimated cost of $600,000, same as last year.

d. Discussion and possible action to review and approve the one-year renewal option of the Custom CAMA software maintenance and support contract with Manatron, Inc. under Harris Computer Systems (Harris) ownership (formerly owned by Thompson Reuters). The cost of the renewal is $440,777, a 3% increase from last year.

e. Discussion and possible action to review and approve the second one-year renewal of a three-year contract for the Cybersecurity Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services through a Texas DIR vendor InNet Technologies. The cost of the renewal is $151,084, an 11% increase over last year.

f. Discussion and possible action to review and approve a one-year renewal for the District’s firewall support, including the subscription for all related devices and endpoint protection clients, from a DIR vendor Accudata Systems, for a total cost of $136,000.

g. Discussion and possible action to review and approve the third one-year renewal of the licensing subscription and support for the District’s telephone system, Accudata Systems Inc., through the District’s interlocal agreement with Texas’ Region 14 Education Service Center’s cooperative purchasing program with National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance. The cost of the renewal is $103,000, same as last year.

h. Discussion and possible action to review and approve the sixth and final year renewal for the purchase of janitorial services with Alanton Group, Inc. The cost is $224,088 for 2023, a 51.33% decrease from 2022.

i. Discussion and possible action to declare certain furniture and equipment as surplus and approve for sale and/or disposal.

j. Discussion and possible action to review and approve the third one-year renewal of the contract with Allied Universal Security Services. The amount for the services will be approximately $118,507, a 2% increase from last year.

k. Receive the district’s monthly financial reports.

l. Discussion and possible action regarding authorization for payment of bills and payroll and transfer of funds between line items.

ACTION ITEMS

7. Discussion and possible action to review and approve the renewal of contracts with Capitol Appraisal Group, Inc., Hugh Landrum & Associates, Inc., and Pritchard & Abbott, Inc., for utilities, minerals, and industrial appraisal services. The total amount for these contracts is $1,504,114 which is an increase of 5% from 2022.

8. Discussion and possible action to review and approve contract amendment to add option for five one-year contract renewals with ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.) for the Enterprise License Agreement for Geographic Information Systems software and authorize the payment for the first year in the amount of $615,000.

9. Discussion and possible action to approve specifications for the property management and operation services contract for district’s offices at 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, Texas and authorize the invitation for bids.

10. Discussion and possible action to create a committee to review current policies relating to statutory penalties and interest payments from taxing units and development of guidelines for consideration of requests for waiver thereof.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

11. Report on 2022 flu immunization program.

12. Report from the Taxpayer Liaison Officer concerning the status of all comments, suggestions, and complaints in accordance with Sec. 6.052(c), Tax Code.

13. Report from the Appraisal Review Board.

14. Report on protests and hearings, including iFile and iSettle activities.

15. Discussion between members of the Board of Directors and the Chief Appraiser regarding matters covered by Sec. 6.15, Tax Code.

16. Executive session for the purpose of: (a) private consultation with the board’s attorney regarding (i) pending and potential litigation, (ii) settlement of pending appeals to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, (iii) settlement of pending arbitrations under Texas Tax Code Chapter 41A, and (iv) settlement of pending litigation under Texas Tax Code Chapter 42; (b) considering the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer, or employee, including the duties and appointment of the chief appraiser ; (c) considering the deployment, or specific occasions for implementation of security personnel or devices; (d) deliberating the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property if deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the governmental body in negotiations with a third person, as permitted by the Open Meetings Act, Chap. 551, Government Code.

OTHER MATTERS AND ADDITIONAL ACTION ITEMS

17. Consider and approve settlement of pending litigation, pending appeals to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, and pending arbitrations.

18. Consider authorization of appeals under Sec. 42.02, Tax Code.

19. Adjournment.

https://hcad.org/assets/uploads/pdf/resources/2022/Agenda-November-16-2022-meeting.pdf