What you need to know
In a 3-2 split vote Jan. 14, county commissioners approved a resolution in support of legislation to create a new district court.
County Judge Bill Gravell, Precinct 1 Commissioner Terry Cook and Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles voted in favor of the resolution, while Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long and Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey voted against, citing space constraints and timing issues.
Depending on if and when the resolution gets approved by the Texas Legislature, the new court could be established as early as October, Long said.
The resolution’s approval comes after District Attorney Shawn Dick and 26th Judicial District Court Judge Donna King asked commissioners to consider adding a new district court at a Dec. 17 Commissioners Court workshop, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
The debate
“I think the right choice is a new district court,” Gravell said. “The cases and the complexities have changed, and the work and the people needed to be successful with those has changed as well.”
Covey said she’s seeing more of a trend upwards in civil, as opposed to criminal, cases. She suggested hiring an associate judge to help with workload in district courts and proposed adding a new court in 2027. A new district court would cost about $1.5 million, Covey said.
“I just feel that right now, we have options to be able to resolve the issues that we have,” Covey said. “Yes, the cases are more complex, but the numbers are trending to civil, and so if we can get some help there, I think that would be very helpful.”
Gravell said he was not in favor of hiring an associate judge since they cannot do bench or jury trials, only preliminary hearings.
Also on the agenda
Per Covey’s recommendation, commissioners unanimously agreed to issue a request for proposal for a consultant to evaluate the county’s case flow management practices for district and county courts.
“[The RFP] will help us with our strategic plan and going forward with what we're going to ultimately want to build,” Covey said.
