Commissioners approve 2 new election precincts

The Hays County Commissioners Court approved the creation of two new election precincts during its regular meeting Tuesday.

The commissioners court is required to review county election precinct boundaries to keep them in compliance, according to the Texas Election Code, which allows a maximum number of registered voters per precinct of 5,000. 

The elections administration office found two precincts between Driftwood and Wimberley to be approaching that maximum. 

Precinct 333 which had approximately 4,111 registered voters and Precinct 449 which had around 4,755, not including voters in suspense, have now been split into Precincts 320 with 1,760 registered voters, Precinct 333 with 2,440 registered voters, and Precinct 449 with 2,770 and Precinct 450 with 2,090. Voter registration changes daily so numbers reported will fluctuate daily. 

“The only thing they will notice as different is that they'll be issued a new voter registration card and it’ll have a different precinct,” Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson said. 

Congressional lines and their jurisdictional lines don’t change through this process.

“What it may do is add a vote center, because we have to be in balance of our precincts so it could add a vote center when we get to that point,” Anderson said.

From an executive session item, it became clear that Alex Villalobos has resigned from his position as County Chief of Staff and remains in a voluntary role as the Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC), according to Commissioner Walt Smith and Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra’s statements. 

Commissioner Lon Shell described a difficult situation in which Villalobos had not returned his county laptop and cell phone which was allocated for the Chief of Staff position. Becerra requested the equipment be transferred to the Emergency Management Office, to remedy the problem, allowing Villalobos to continue his work processing and managing active State of Texas Assistance Requests (STAR) for municipalities, ISDs and the county. 

“I had merely suggested that the Emergency Management Coordinator laptop be assigned to the Office of Emergency Management,” Becerra said. “That was my simple suggestion, so that we could know where this laptop is, or know where it's been assigned out.”

Becerra did not protest in the end to get the equipment back and explained he made the suggestion as the path of least resistance to allow Villlobos to continue his EMC work without creating extra work for the county.

There were no assets like a laptop already assigned for the EMC position because it is a designation rather than a staff position, staff explained.

“My concern is the court has a position, the individual no longer holds the position, yet we’re being told ‘well I’m not giving this stuff back,’” Shell said. “That’s my largest concern. We bring in our equipment and then if the court decides to reissue the equipment for a different created volunteer role, then the court does that and it's cleared for the auditor’s office and everybody else.”

After discussion, an motion was passed to direct HR to make sure the county gets all equipment associated with the vacant Chief of Staff position by Wednesday.

In the weekly COVID-19 update, Emergency Services Director Mike Jones reported 15,000 Hays County residents have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 30,000 have received a first dose. 

They continue to vaccinate 1,600 each day their clinics are in operation, distributing the 4,680 doses they receive each week. 

County partner First Med Response has been working to vaccinate all senior living centers and will begin second doses next week, Jones said. 

The county expects to be receiving some of the Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccines very soon. Their goal is to shift distribution more to partners like pharmacies to reduce Hays County staff hours on the operation and to make the vaccine more accessible for residents. 

“I’m confident we could vaccinate the entire county if we had enough vaccines for everybody,” said Jones. “We have a good process and we've got great partners.” 

Elections Office volunteers will be manning phones this week. Residents can call in and register themselves for vaccines if they are in 1A and 1B categories on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12-4 p.m.