Ellis County Commissioners voted this morning to waive the county’s portion of the Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds and the Recovery Zone Facility Bonds.

During Monday’s regular meeting, the Court took no action on the question, choosing instead to set a special meeting for this morning at 10 a.m. Staff members and members of the Court contacted each municipality within the county to give them the opportunity to request a portion of the reallocation.

“The only request we had was an e-mail from Fort Bend County,” said County Auditor Mike Navarro. “Other than that, I don’t think any of our local communities are going to be able to make use of this.”

A tight deadline – requiring all paperwork to be submitted to the State by close of business today – was at least partially responsible for cities’ inability to take advantage of the funds.

Navarro explained that the short deadline was due to the fact that until the Attorney General issued an opinion early in October, agencies were not aware that they could reallocate their allotted portion of the funding.

Commissioners meet again on Monday for an unrelated workshop with no action to be taken.