During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council authorized City Manager Marshal McIntosh to sign an agreement with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office for the Brownwood-Brown County Health Department to provide Tuberculosis and STI prevention and treatment services to the Brown County Jail.

The Health Department will offer training for jail staff on Tuberculosis testing, treatment for confirmed Tuberculosis cases, and STI testing and treatment similar to services provided to Brown County residents. The services will follow the adopted fee schedules, which may be amended over time. Brown County will be responsible for transporting inmates to the Health Department and paying for the services within 30 days of receiving an invoice. The Memorandum of Understanding is effective for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024-25 and Fiscal Year 2025-26 and can be extended or terminated with 30 days notice by either party.

Council also authorized the City Manager to sign an amendment to the interlocal agreement with Tarleton State University to provide field office space for the Small Business Development Center.

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC), based out of Tarleton University, has a long history of providing small business services in Brownwood. The SBDC provides important tools for small businesses such as consulting, business plan development, workshops and training at no cost.

Because of demand for their services, in 2017 the SBDC hired a full-time employee to serve Brown County. With that hire, the City provided office space for them on the second floor of the Harvey House building. Staff changes in 2021 caused this office to become vacant and the City’s agreement with them at the time expired. The SBDC currently has a full-time person for their business analyst position and for use of this office space.

The proposed amendment to the interlocal agreement will provide the SBDC with office space in the Harvey House with use of the common areas for an additional one-year term, through August 2026.

Council on Tuesday also authorized the opt-in by the City of Brownwood in the settlement reached by the Texas Attorney General with Purdue Pharma/Sackler, and authorized the City Manager to execute all documentation necessary to participate in the settlements, including execution of the Subdivision Participation Form.

The Office of the Texas Attorney General announced a proposed settlement with Purdue Pharma/Sackler, an opioid manufacturer, that the City must take affirmative steps to opt-in before the City may receive any funds from the settlement. The settlement is with Purdue Pharma/Sackler, who is paying the sum of $286 million to Texas and its political subdivisions. Of the $286 million, the vast majority is earmarked for use by Texas and its political subdivisions to remediate and abate the impacts of the opioid crisis.

At this time, the total amount of the payment to the City of Brownwood is undetermined since it will depend on the number of political subdivisions that opt-in. The deadline to opt in to the settlement is September 30, 2025.

Council also accepted a bid from Strong Data to update current software to allow the acceptance of a credit card transaction fee at the landfill at a cost of $13,125, which may require a year end budget amendment.

Strong Data, the current Landfill software, doesn’t have the ability to process credit card transaction fees. This update will enable credit card fees to be automatically added to the transaction. The 2025/2026 proposed budget includes credit card fee revenue in the amount of $145,000 to help offset the high cost of accepting credit cards. This software upgrade is essential to allow the City to collect the revenue.