After a more than hour-long executive session during Tuesday’s Liberty County Commissioners Court meeting, a motion to approve a request to pay legal bills incurred by Pct. 1 Commissioner Bruce Karbowski died for a lack of a second. Pct. 2 Commissioner Greg Arthur was the only one in favor of the request. Karbowski was unable to vote as it involved him personally.
The legal expenses stemmed from Karbowski being charged with nepotism in August 2020 for hiring the Arthur’s son for eight months to weld metal cabinets for the evidence room at the Liberty County Jail. Karbowski was found not guilty of the charges in October 2022.
Karbowski has always contended that before hiring Arthur’s son, he was given the green light by the Liberty County Attorneys Office. Nevertheless, defending himself against the charge by hiring legal counsel came at a significant cost to Karbowski – $35,000.
County commissioners also took no action on a request for advice from ESD 7 (Hardin Fire and Rescue) related to ESD commissioners missing meetings for more than six months. This is related to ESD 7’s former president, Klint Bush, being jailed on criminal charges and therefore unable to attend the ESD meetings.
Commissioner Arthur said that the ESD board needs to be advised to take whatever action is needed to remove ESD commissioners who miss meetings. The commissioners then all voted in favor of not taking any action on the request.
Commissioners also were given an update by the Liberty County Master Gardeners concerning their backyard teaching garden located at the Liberty County Ag Extension Office at 501 Palmer St., Liberty. The gardeners said that phase 1, which is a pipe installation of an irrigation system, is almost complete.
They also approved $12,255.27 in repairs to a radio tower used by first responders in the Moss Hill area. Liberty County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Billy Knox told commissioners that the tower’s signal has been diminished and the repairs are needed to restore the tower to its previous signal strength.
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