April 14, 2025 Hood County Special Called Meeting

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The Hood County Commissioners Court held a special called meeting on April 14, 2025, to address a network infrastructure incident and real estate matters. IT staff reported a hardware failure in a network switch that disrupted 10 to 15 office phones in the Emergency Operations Center from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and identified gaps in alerting systems and disaster recovery planning for non-911 phone systems. Following executive session, the court approved a motion to request the county attorney extend the current YMCA lease at 1475 James Road under existing terms and authorized the purchasing department to solicit proposals for sale, lease, or lease purchase of the same property.

• Call to order and opening proceedingsThe special called meeting of Hood County Commissioners Court was called to order on April 14, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. in the central jury room of the Ralph H. Walton Jr. Justice Center.
• Agenda overview and item sequencingTwo agenda items were identified: executive session on real estate and an IT department debrief on the EOCC network and phone outage.
• Emergency Operations Center phone outage incidentIT reported a hardware failure in a network switch providing power over Ethernet that knocked out 10 to 15 office phones in the EOC peripheral offices from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
• Switch failure analysis and preventative measuresIT staff determined the switch hardware failure could not be resolved through redundancy strategies within the same time frame and noted the lack of alerting systems prevented early detection.
• 911 dispatch system redundancy and disaster recoveryDiscussion revealed that 911 TAC system operates independently from county phones through a separate system, with a manual backup plan to switch to neighboring counties but no comprehensive business continuity or disaster recovery plan exists for the county's non-911 phone systems.
• Executive session and reconveningExecutive session was held at 9:16 a.m. to discuss real estate matters under government code 551.072; no action was taken during the session.
• YMCA lease extension motionCommissioner Samson moved to request the county attorney offer an extension of the current lease at 1475 James Road to the YMCA at current terms until a new contract is signed.
• RFP for property sale or lease purchaseCommissioner made motion directing the purchasing department to solicit proposals for sale, lease, or lease purchase of the 1475 James Road property in Granberry, Texas, with minimum bids set at one-third of appraised value.