Smith County expands animal services, approves Road Bond Program audit bidding

Published 5:45 am Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Smith County will be receiving low-cost pet spay and neuter services by the Animal Protection League and a new Animal Control position after moves made by the county commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting. The commissioners also approved to receive sealed bids for independent auditing services for the Road Bond Program.

New animal services and positions 

The Animal Protection League (APL) will provide low-cost spay and neuter services, along with low-cost vaccinations in Smith County.

The services will be located in the parking lot behind the Smith County Animal Shelter located at 322 East Ferguson Street.

“I think it’s an excellent service to be offered for the whole community, not just in the county, because there are people that drive from outlying areas to participate,” said Holli Jones, coordinator for the Smith County Animal Shelter. “I think anything that will help us as a community cut down on the strays and get our babies spayed, neutered with less puppies is great. It’s also great for our shelter and for the community to have it here in a central location.”

The APL is set to be on site every Tuesday to fulfill the services that aim to reduce stray animals, decrease unwanted litters and improve outcomes for shelter animals.

“It would also be nice to have more people coming to see our shelter, to know that it’s there and possibly viewing our dogs and getting more adoptions,” Jones said.

Tyler resident Pamela Boyd said any idea that supports spaying and neutering pets in Smith County is a good thing.

“I have known of the Animal Protection League since 2010 and they’ve been doing a good job,” Boyd said. “I’m so glad they are expanding and I’m so grateful that they’ve chosen Smith County to come and do their services. I hope every dog that’s in that shelter will leave spayed or neutered, unlike what’s happening now.”

The commissioners also unanimously voted for a budget lag transfer from the Animal Control Officer salary to the Animal Shelter part-time fund and voted to reclassify the existing Animal Control Officer position to an Animal Control Dispatcher.

The fund will help support an additional part-time kennel technician position based on current workload and staffing needs.

The existing Animal Control Officer position has been vacant since Colten Parsell, Animal Control Supervisor, took the role because the county wanted to assess operational needs.

“They were using a zone-patrol based system in the past for animal control, but we’re complaint-driven and we’re not patrolled,” Parsell said. “I wanted to do some assessment of training programs going forward before we hired another animal control position and put another truck on the road. What I’ve seen in the time that I’ve been here is that we really need to specialize.”

Parsell said the office needs specialization in bites, strays, welfare and cruelty investigations and there is currently a major gap in phone call handling and coordination. As of last Tuesday, there have been 111 calls dispatched to the Animal Control Office with 68 calls handled by officers already in the field, pulling them away from field work.

The dispatcher role will be a fully trained Animal Control Officer that will work part-time and will not be on-call. The dispatcher will focus primarily on answering phones, resolving issues remotely, coordinates multi-officer responses and improving efficiency by identifying patterns.

“I appreciate your assessment over there,” Judge Neal Franklin said. “We needed that and y’all have done an excellent job and I’m hearing so many great comments.”

The savings on the position will be returned to the county this year with a potential future reallocation of funds to a welfare or cruelty investigator role. The net increase next year is estimated at $2,576, according to county auditor Karin Smith.

Parsell said he currently spends up to eight hours per day taking phone calls, so the reclassified position will increase efficiency, improve public guidance, cost services, vet programs and support growth in donations and help expand shelter operations.

“I like that we are being efficient on this and we’re working through problems and finding solutions and planning for the future,” Commissioner Christina Drewry said.

Road Bond Program audit out for bid 

The Commissioners Court approved the Purchasing Department to accept sealed bids from  independent audit services with three new amendments for the Road Bond Program.

The Road Bond Program involves two phases to reconstruct hundreds of miles of Smith County roads, which are funded by voter-approved bonds. Phase 1 included a $39.5 million bond passed in November 2017, with the goal of 250 miles of listed roads completed and Phase 2 includes a $45 million bond passed in November 2021, aiming for an additional 283 miles. The massive undertaking began in 2015, when the county started to develop the Road and Bridge Capital Improvement Plan by hiring Atkins Engineering to put together a five-year roadway analysis, leading to the bonds.

In December, Grassroots America came to the commissioners with a presentation claiming there were many cost discrepancies in the reporting of the roads added or taken off the original plan for Phase 1 and 2 of the Road Bond Program. The group is asking for a full financial audit analysis by a third party. County Engineer Frank Davis gave the commissioners an update on Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Road Bond Program on Jan. 29 and concluded there were some mistakes that were since fixed, but said the issues remain in reporting and not fraud.

Tom Fabry, watchdog committee chairman, and JoAnn Fleming, executive director of Grassroots America, said Grassroots is still looking over several Road Bond Program documents and has met with Davis.

“We made specific recommendations for further investigation for credential auditors,” Fabry said.

The commissioners went over and voted on four amendments on the rules for bidders.

Amendment 1, which was approved in a four to one vote, will require verification that project documentation exists and is organized and complies with standards. Amendment 2, which was approved unanimously, clarifies that many records are paper-based and require onsite review. Amendment 3, which was rejected, was to require bidders to disclose any political contributions to the county. Amendment 4, which was unanimously approved, requires bidders to disclose prior forensic and compliance audit experience.

Commissioners had conflicting views when deciding if the bidders should disclose information that does not affect their chances of earning the bid upfront or if it would deter them from putting in a bid at all.

“I think this is good that we’re talking this out honestly because I still have a problem,” said Franklin. “If I’m a company out there and I have donated to anybody and someone’s asking me that question,  I am going to feel like, ‘Hey, what do they care about that? It’s not weighted. Why is this in there? It’s my right to donate.’ Personally, I feel like you’d be infringing on my personal rights to have to tell you that if it’s not a part of the process.”

Franklin said he wants to move forward with the audit bidding process to have improvement with tracking the documentation of new and improved roads and bridges.

“I think we’re barking up the wrong tree with the roads that were in the preplan and all that,” Franklin said. “I just think that’s something that (Davis) has the freedom to do. I appreciate Ms. Fleming’s comment a while ago about improvement and that’s what I’m after as well and I want us to move forward.”

Other items 

Other agenda items also approved at Tuesday’s meeting include:

• Feb. 11, 2026 as “Hubbard Middle School AVID National Demonstration Day” in Smith County.
• Feb. 23, 2026 as “The First Literary Club of Tyler Day” in Smith County.
• The emergency support function (ESF) 7, logistics of the Smith County Emergency Operations Plan to allow the emergency management coordinator to submit to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
• The ESF 9, search and rescue of the SCEOP, to allow the emergency management coordinator to submit to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
• A facility use agreement between Smith County and the City of Whitehouse for elections occurring in 2026.
• An interlocal agreement for conducting elections between Smith County and five political subdivisions for the May 2, 2026 election.
• Smith County subdivision regulations for Oak View Park Subdivision from Benchmark Design Group.

For more information on the Road Bond Program visit, https://www.smith-county.com/258/Road-Bond-Program.

To watch any of the commissioners court meetings, visit the Commissioners Court records page at smith-county.com or Smith County’s Facebook page. The meetings are held at 9:30 a.m. each Tuesday in the commissioners’ courtroom on the first floor of the courthouse annex located at 200 E. Ferguson St. in downtown Tyler.